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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
Click
on images to see full size photos
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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

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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
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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.
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CONGO
Participation of nurses’ unions,
PRESSAC, the Confederation Democratique du Travail (Democratic
Confederation of Labour), and the only women’s magazine in Congo.
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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
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DOMINICAN
REPUBLIC – SANTIAGO 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.
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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

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GHANA – ANUM
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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GUYANA – GEORGETOWN
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
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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
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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.
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IRELAND – GALWAY
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.
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Other
information

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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).
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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."
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– 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.
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More
information
FTAA
border protest, 21 April 2001
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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.
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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

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– 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.
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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.
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More
on Spain

España |
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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.
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More
on Sweden
Report
of trip to Sweden
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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.
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More
information available

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| – 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 |
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– 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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