Mummy, what did you do in the
Global Women’s Strike?

On 8 March 2001 women in over 50 countries on every continent went on Strike for the second year running: ARGENTINA, ALGERIA, AUSTRIA, BANGLADESH, BELARUS, BOLIVIA, BURKINA FASO, CAMEROON, CANADA, CHAD, CHILE, CONGO, COSTA RICA, CZECH REPUBLIC, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, ENGLAND, FRANCE, GHANA, GERMANY, GREECE, GUATEMALA, GUYANA, HAITI, HONDURAS, INDIA, IRAN, IRELAND, ITALY, KENYA, MAURITIUS, MEXICO, NIGERIA, NORWAY, PAKISTAN, PARAGUAY, PERU, ROMANIA, RUSSIA, SENEGAL, SIERRA LEONE, SLOVENIA, SOUTH AFRICA, SPAIN, SWEDEN, SWITZERLAND, TANZANIA, THAILAND, TURKEY, UGANDA, United States, URUGUAY, YEMEN . . .This is a brief account of the countries which sent reports.

12 July 2001

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ARGENTINA the Sindicato de Amas de Casa (Housewives Union) of SANTA FE, coordinated nationally. On Strike day they launched the Multisectorial de Mujeres por la Acción (Women’s Action Coalition) which includes grassroots women, feminists, academics, journalists and women from political parties. Three hundred marched with drums through the city centre. The biggest union of state employees called on its 30,000 members to take time off. In ROSARIO the Multisectorial of trade union women supported the Strike and the Housewives Union spoke in the main square. In BUENOS AIRES the Fundación Mujeres en Igualdad subscribed to the extended lunch with a picnic in Roberto Arlt Square. The Grupo de Estudios Sociales circulated information to young women. In SAN CARLOS DE BARILOCHE Indigenous Mapuche women did a mural with the support of the local paper El Cordillerano and its women’s supplement Malén. The Direccion Municipal de la Mujer (women’s commission) of the city of Goya, CORRIENTES, endorsed the Strike. Click here for more detailed information with photos

 

CZECH REPUBLIC The Feminist Group of 8 March formed for the Strike, co-ordinated all-day event at Namesti Miru in central PRAGUE with DJs, singers, musicians. Attended by 1000 people. Press interviews. Information campaign on the Internet was a big success. Statement of the Feminist Group of 8th March

CAMAROON International Women’s Day is a public holiday. Women in different walks of life joined the Strike: housewives, traders, government workers, bankers and NGOs.

CONGO Participation of nurses’ unions, PRESSAC, the Confederation Democratique du Travail (Democratic Confederation of Labour), and the only women’s magazine in Congo.
COSTA RICA Feminists International Radio Endeavour (FIRE) and WIN (Women’s Network of World Association Community Radios-AMARC) broadcast a long interview in English and Spanish about the Strike as part of their 10-hour Internet webcast Marathon "Full Spectrum Against Racism".    Click here for more details
DOMINICAN REPUBLICSANTIAGO DE CABALLEROS The Coordinadora de Mujeres de Cibao (Cibao Women’s Coordination) organized a march as an act of unity with the Strike for a better life for all people. Well-attended by grassroots women’s groups, community organisations, NGOs, churches and local schools. Leaflet denouncing 51 cents an hour wages of women working for multinationals, eg. Nike and Gap.
England LONDON Co-ordinated by WFH. 250 women, children and some men marched to Parliament with a giant multiracial woman puppet and sound system, chanting demands for caring work and against military spending. Diverse crowd from many nationalities, pensioners, young anarchists, a contingent of sex workers, asylum seekers, single mothers . . . Banners with "Dykes on Strike" and "The name of Unity is Autonomy" after the Zapatista slogan. Women wore sandwich boards saying: caregiver and bus driver, caregiver and lesbian. In the evening 300 women attended a speak-out followed by live entertainment. SHEFFIELD Events at the Students Union. Information stall with petitions calling for the right to asylum on grounds of rape; against the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and how the use of sweatshops by multinational clothes manufacturers affects women and children. Videos of last year’s Strike and an exhibition. Woman DJ played music out on campus. England events

GHANAANUM Co-ordinated by People's Education Association. Women marched with brooms through principal streets with placards calling on men partners, government and people in authority to show appreciation for "the numerous work women do that brings about successful living". School-girls boycotted classes to join the march. Meeting to find solutions to problems of poverty, health and sanitation, malnutrition, poor access to education. Demands included co-operative programmes, "allowances and pensions for women's vital biological and caring work (Wages for Housework)", health clinics, vehicles to remove rubbish, and education for girls. Forces of Light spoke. Demands sent to Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General. 

Report with photos

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GUYANAGEORGETOWN 150 women, Afro-Guyanese, Indo-Guyanese and Indigenous Amerindian, mostly mothers, and 20 men, walked in single file down main road dressed in black and chanting "Justice for Mothers in Black", whose children have been murdered. Women came from the rural areas. Main organisations Red Thread, Women Across Differences and Guyana Association of Women Lawyers. Trades Union Congress and Guyana Workers Union sent representative.  More information available
INDIA Chhattisgarh Women's Organisation (CWO) co-ordinated, drawing on a community strike fund, which villagers contributed a little money to each week. Meeting attended by 4,000 people. Women came from far away with babies in their arms and marched through State capital RAIPUR. Speakout called for: women's unwaged work to be recognised and paid; rape, mental and physical torture to be taken seriously; harsh punishment for rapists and dowry extortionists; more women in the Panchayat where village decisions are made; food grains available for everyone and village co-op shops to be open daily; abolition of child labour; help for children with disabilities; divorced women to be able to get waged jobs; no delays in families getting state pension when someone dies; free medicines; a ban on abortion of female foetuses. Report with photos

IRAN Statement in Farsi and English distributed in TEHRAN and elsewhere. Participants included Workers Left Unity and Iranian women exiles in Sweden, Germany, US, Canada and Britain.
IRELANDGALWAY Co-ordinated by Women in Media and Entertainment. 60 women assembled outside the Town Hall Theatre to "parade the world's dirty laundry". Picnic with women's poetry and music. Women's speakout opposed the building of an incinerator which would attack people's health and the environment, and the Ilisu dam project in South East Turkey which would displace thousands of mainly Kurdish people. The Women's Action Group in the National University of Ireland held a poster-strike, "cancelling" lectures and asking women to take the day off and join the parade. Demands like provision of tampon dispensers were won. Other information

ITALY Demonstration in Rome supported by 13 organisations. Calling for "Salario Per il Lavoro Familiare" (wages for family work) and "No al Concordato" (No to the agreement which transfers State money to the church). Photos from Italy
MEXICO CHIAPAS, San Cristobal de Las Casas The women’s organisations COLEM, Chiltak A.C., Mujeres de San Felipe, CIAM and others held a meeting for the recognition of the work of women, attended by women from different communities and neighbourhoods. All the Strike demands were read and endorsed by those present. Support from the men’s collective La Puerta Negra (The Black Door) which has also helped to put together and broadcast beautiful Strike jingles. A Women’s Party followed with regional dances and songs demanding that women be respected and valued. In Plaza de la Dignidad, Indigenous women from different Nations and mixed race women shouted: "Women united shall never be defeated".
CHIHUAHUA Congresswoman Alma Gomez Caballero issued an extraordinary statement:
"For the women imprisoned, tortured disappeared . . . For women murdered in Ciudad Juarez, without justice because of the arrogance of the authorities . . . For the maquiladoras denied their rights because no trade union protects them . . . For women daily thrown onto the streets because of court decisions which protect bankers . . . For women post office workers denied their rights, holidays, proper working conditions, maternity care . . . For that young college student expelled because she is pregnant . . . For those women whose tired eyes look North where their children have gone, without hope and under the shadow of death and discrimination. For those women weighted down by the daily increases to the price of food, gas, water . . . For those women who denounce the greed of multinationals and the government’s complicity . . . For those mothers who see their children’s lives consumed by drugs and violence and get no support from the authorities . . . For those women, the roots of this country, who demand the recognition of their right to exist . . . For the women who are beaten, poor pensioners, homeless, raped, without healthcare, curably sick without attention, with AIDS, sterilised without consent, discriminated against . . . For those and many more, I protest and today I don’t work, I join the Global Women’s Strike."

Mexico City Defensoras Populares issued a Strike call. The city was tied up with the arrival of the Zapatista delegation, but at the suggestion of Mujeres Mexicanas women wore an orange ribbon as a symbol of support for the Strike. Radio and TV interviews with Colectivo: Salario al trabajo domestico, educación y crianza de hijos e hijas (Wages for Housework Children’s Education and Caring Collective).
Sornora, Hermosillo Members of the Unión de Mujeres Jefas de Familia (Union of Woman Heads of Households) couldn’t afford to strike in their low-waged jobs but did a housework strike for the full value of this work to be recognised.

More information

FTAA border protest, 21 April 2001

NIGERIA CALABAR Striking women strike again, this time with men. The second Global Women's Strike, called by the Crossroads Women's Centre, London, was held on 8th March 2001. In Calabar, the White Brazzier, (Whi-B), an NGO concerned with women's empowerment called out women to the street for a three hour protest march to support the Global Women's Strike. Surprisingly, Men Against Violence in Nigeria, MAVIN, gave the march an encouraging support and used the opportunity to denounce violence against women whom they extolled as the symbol of Peace. Reported in Umani Defender, April 2001

PARAGUAY ASUNCIÓN A number of organisations joined the Strike including Coordinación de Mujeres (Women’s Co-ordination) and Red de Mujeres Políticas (Network of Political Women). The Gender and Development Department at the University was launched on 7 March so that they could Strike on the 8th and do NOTHING but celebrate and rest from all work. The Strike was promoted with the Programme for Women’s Equality in Education with the Ministries for Women and for Education and Culture. The Colectivo de Mujeres 25 de Noviembre (25 of November Women’s Collective) used orange ribbons as a symbol of support for the demands of the women of the world and took time off.
PERÚ The Centro de Capacitación para Trabajadoras del Hogar (CCTH), Women Domestic Workers’ Centre, in LIMA co-ordinated nationally. Participation from Central General de Trabajadores del Peru – CGTP (workers general union), Coordinadora Metropolitana del Vaso de Leche (free breakfast programme for children), Sindicato Unico de Trabajadores del Hogar (domestic workers union) from CUZCO, Promocion y Proteccion de Empleadas Domesticas PROEMDO (domestic workers’ support organisation) from ILO, Juventud Obrera Cristiana (Christian Workers Youth), Federacion de Mujeres Organizadas en Centrales de Comedores Populares Autogestionarios y Afines (soup kitchens) in LIMA and CALLAO, Asociación de Servicios No Calificados in CAJAMARCA. CCTH held a press conference with the participating organisations followed by a march. Spoke from the balcony of the Confederación Campesina del Peru (the Peasant Farmers' Confederation) and later at a feminist gathering. CCTH’s leading women were honoured by the CGTP for their long-term commitment and campaigning work for Peruvian domestic workers, the Soncco Warmi outreach radio programme and their co-ordination of the Strike. CCTH said "People understand the Strike, the Strike is for workers. It’s a big victory for a domestic workers’ organisation to be co-ordinating an all-women’s Strike."  
– The Homosexual Movement of LIMA which fights discrimination against lesbian and gay communities has joined the Strike network.
Report with photos

– In PUNO on the Andes of Peru, the Centro Cultural Aymará Pacha Aru, an organisation of Indigenous Aymará and Quechua women, co-ordinated women’s and grassroots organisation and publicised the Strike on their weekly radio programme Wiñay Panqara (Always Flowering) and the programme Aymará Pride. Activities included meetings in the rural communities and celebration of mass. More information and photos available (in spanish)

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SPAIN National co-ordination by the Wages for Housework Campaign. Actions all over Spain. A national two-hour stoppage called by the Confederacion General de Trabajadores (General Confederation of Workers). 
– In BARCELONA very successful women's speakout in the main Plaza, followed by music, singing, and an evening party. Participation from the Sin Papeles – undocumented immigrant people who had sit-ins in churches throughout Spain winning their right to stay – church women, anarchist groups, squatters, young people, Zapatista support groups, students and community centres. Childcare and other resources won from the Council for their day. Local demands: an increase in all State benefits to women, and the implementation of the law to measure and value unwaged work.
– Strike actions in BADAJOZ, CÓRDOBA and ZARAGOZA and the BASQUE COUNTRY.
More on Spain

España

SWEDEN Women from Haro which campaigns for payment for caring for children, older people and sick relatives at home, joined the Strike in GOTHENBURG with other women's groups.

More on Sweden

Report of trip to Sweden

TANZANIA In SHINYANGA women and girls with disabilities from the African Salvation Church told government and community to ensure that women and girls with disabilities receive equal treatment in society, to provide opportunities for their advancement and enable them to be self-reliant and fully participate in community development programmes. They circulated the leaflet in Swahili and Sukuma.
THAILAND Labour unions and women's foundations marched to Government House to hold a labour cultural festival, workshops and meetings. Women labour representatives met the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Labour and Social Welfare to put their demands, including health and safety of women in the workplace, childcare centers for poor people in industrial areas, women's participation in labour committees.
UGANDA Kaabong Women’s Group co-ordinated "sit down" by 500 women from the urban and rural areas of LIRA, KITGUM, KATAKWI and KARAMOJA. To attend women travelled for three days with no food, carrying their babies. Gathered in a women’s garden in Kotido for a "quiet strike" till 7pm. They marched back home with firewood on their heads. Demands for clean water, free reproductive health services, agriculture, community development, education, land and property rights, and against rape. Circulated questionnaires for women to answer about their daily lives and did a play about the Strike. Men supporters met the women under a 150-year-old neem tree and offered homebrew as a donation. With the Strike, Kaabong Women’s Group won a big national victory: the president of Uganda announced on national radio that people will not have to pay to get hospital treatment! More information available with photos

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UNITED STATES – LOS ANGELES Co-ordinated by WFH. Actions started with early morning unfurling of banner: "Caring work counts! End Low Pay and No Pay" in Spanish and English. Followed by breakfast at Homecare Workers’ Union. Event with banners and puppets in front of federal building attended by 300 people: janitors who won their strike for better wages and condition, Asian people, young people, anti-globalisation protesters, women wheelchair users, Latina garment workers. Message from Native American grandmothers of Big Mountain. Good media coverage. Evening event with speakout, Black women rappers, poets and many kids in childcare.

More information available

 

MILWAUKEE Welfare Warriors organised an Open House with meals and drinks. 20 women and a man attended show of Strike video followed by discussion on how the government considers disasters like war and oil tanker spills "productive" work but ignores women’s caring work. Strikers signed letters to Bush demanding the inclusion of unwaged work in the Gross National Product, and calling for two welfare agencies to be prosecuted for fraud as they spent public money on luxuries while single mothers, children, people with disabilities, survivors of domestic violence and other claimants were denied survival money. More information available
NEW YORK 40 people from eight organisations, including anti-globalisation, Black, Latino, anti US imperialist, peace and justice groups attended a rally in the garment district with musicians and a Mexican woman singer. Spanish and English language media covered the event. In the evening a Strike organiser spoke at meeting of the 100 Black Women Coalition. More information available
PHILADELPHIA Co-ordinated by WFH. Strike events started on 7 March with a free swim for women at the YWCA. On 8 March a multiracial group of 30 Strike organisers and trade union groups presented a proclamation at the City Council about pay equity, lack of recognition for caring and other work, such as the work of dealing with racism and homophobia. Followed by a Two-Hour Lunch Break for Women Against No Pay and Low Pay and for Pay Equity attended by 150 people, held by WFH, the Coalition of Labor Union Women and the National Organisation of Women (Philadelphia). Entertainers and speakers from women mushroom workers, Farmworkers Support Committee, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Payday, a network of men, Black Farmers Organisation, anti-globalisation organisations, women with disabilities, lesbian women, and an unemployment project. March to the Federal Building where there was a speakout. More information available
SAN FRANCISCO 60 people including Black and Latino women, women with disabilities, homeless women, and a lesbian grandmother on stilts came to speakout in front of the Civic Centre with Food Not Bombs serving vegetarian food. Gay Supervisor Ammiano spoke. Raging Grannies sang, followed by a speakout. Evening video show and dinner in Lutheran church followed by another speakout and entertainment. Women raised the energy crisis which is hitting San Francisco as deregulated gas and electric companies put up their bills. More information available

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