JOIN THE GLOBAL WOMEN'S STRIKE – 8 MARCH 2001 Let’s stop the world and change it! International Women's Day, 8 March 2001, will celebrate the second Global Women's Strike. Earlier this year, women in 64 countries on every continent took what time they could away from waged and unwaged work in the first-ever Global Strike - for a millennium which values all women's work and all women's lives. Highlights included thousands of village women in India demanding ‘wages for all work’ as well as land; the Housewives Union in Argentina calling for ‘pensions without contributions for workers without wages’. In Burkino Faso rural women struck ‘to exist’, demanding money for birth certificates and identity cards; women in Ireland stopped work for 10 minutes at 11am, and asylum seekers joined a celebration in Galway Town Hall; Spain saw a women’s stoppage at 12 noon across Catalunya, and in London sex workers launched the Strike with a march through Soho demanding justice against eviction from their homes. The Strike was first called by women in Ireland who are demanding an annual paid day off in recognition of their enormous contribution to society, most of which is unwaged. It was made global by the International Wages for Housework Campaign to protest the grotesque discrepancy between $800 billion a year spent on military budgets world-wide, while $80 billion would provide the essentials of life for everyone. From the responses this year, we’ll have an even bigger and better second GLOBAL WOMEN'S STRIKE on 8 MARCH 2001! Make your work visible by stopping for whatever time you can, at home, at your waged job, in your community, in colleges and schools. The Strike Caravan will take to the road in November – visiting cities and towns across England, bringing news and inviting local women to join in building for a bigger and better GWS. Cities hostessing the Caravan so far: Brighton, Canterbury, Liverpool and Manchester. Let us know if you are ready to welcome the Caravan in your area.
Global Women against the Global Market Strike 2001 will demand a total change of social and economic priorities for women and therefore for men:
Women in different areas and situations are invited to send us their reasons for striking. You’ll soon be seeing these Striking Statements on the website (see below). Women around the world are making plans for Strike 2001, including: Chad - a human rights group based at the offices of a disability organisation, and four sister organisations; Colombia - actresses and women authors; Ghana - women are organising translations into local languages, others are planning to perform a play about domestic workers' pay; Honduras - 500 rural women; Norway - a resource centre for Black, immigrant and refugee women. In Ireland women plan to have actions to draw attention to gap between ‘the women in power and decision making’ and every other woman. Housewives in Argentina and in Wages for Housework in England, Spain and the USA launched their Strike mobilisation in October. Strike organisers in the UK say: ‘We can send out Strike leaflets (or an original to copy from) - or it can be downloaded from our website to pass on to friends, family, work colleagues, classmates. Please invite any groups you’re a member of to take part in some way; help publicise the Strike by writing to the local press or help with fundraising to cover the expenses of organising the Strike. Send us your own Striking Statement about why you are going on Strike and your news. Remember: our Website includes the latest Strike news from around the world. The first Strike leaflet was available in 25 languages, a fantastic achievement, and this year we also urgently need translators – can you help?’ Payday men’s network is co-ordinating support from men world-wide - men are welcome to contact them to find out more. In London, the Women’s Weekly Picket in Whitehall continues to advertise the Strike, its demands, and global news in support: 1-2pm every Wednesday, opposite Downing St. Get in touch to find out more and to get involved : International Wages for Housework Campaign, |