CALL FOR ACTION IN SUPPORT OF OUR SISTERS IN CAMEROON AND VENEZUELA ON 31 JULY 2003

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

The 31st of July is Pan African Women's Day. In Cameroon, the Groupement des Femmes Employees des Collectivites Publiques Locales du Wouri (GFECOP), a women's organisation, found out about the Global Women's Strike this past 8 March, and proposes to have a Strike event on Pan African Women's Day, which we think is a great idea. Their event will be in solidarity with and in support of women in the Venezuelan revolution. Their theme is: NO TO WAR - YES TO PEACE AND SECURITY. INVEST IN CARING AND DEVELOPMENT, NOT KILLING.

GFECOP is part of a network with members in Congo Central Africa, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Congo, Sao Tome and Tchad. They are hoping that their whole network will be involved.

We are writing to invite everyone in the Global Women's Strike to hold support actions for Pan African Women's Day in your country. The Kaabong Women's Organisation of Uganda has co-ordinated Strike activities in that country since the first Strike Day in 2000, is a member of WinWages, the network that co-ordinates the Strike globally, and has held a splendid event again this year (see enclosed report) . We are hoping that KWO will take part, along with other women's groups on that continent which have been part of the Strike.

We only hear of Africa as a troubled continent decimated by tribal wars and AIDS. We hear nothing of the struggles of women, often across tribes and national borders, for clean accessible water, food security, breastfeeding, healthcare (other than HIV/AIDS), literacy, protection of the environment, sustainable development, and against war, rape and domestic violence. Yet we know that:

• our sisters in Uganda are involved in purifying water and doing other life-sustaining work; and hold great Strike events every year, in spite of having to walk without food for days in order to gather together;

• women in Nigeria have organised across tribal divisions to occupy oil installations and demand that Shell Oil provide electricity, schools and other community needs;

• women in Kenya have risked long prison sentences to destroy cash crops and replace them with their own subsistence agriculture on which the survival of their communities depend;

• women in South Africa are at the forefront of the movement against privatization of water, electricity, etc.

We also don't hear about the Western interests -- in oil and other natural resources and in the arms trade -- which promote and fund the wars in Africa, or the ways AIDS is being used to recolonise this continent, experiment on people (including with dangerous drugs and vaccines) and cut budgets previously dedicated to tackling povery (including by protecting breastfeeding and promoting water and food programmes).

This is an opportunity to learn of the struggles and demands of women - the primary carers, who feed that continent by their agricultural work, and who sustain and protect life. African women can tell us what is really happening in Africa and how we, women and men, can use the Global Women's Strike to work together, support each other and strengthen and expand our movement for life and development.

In London, England, there will be a joint speakout with the Strike and the African Liberation Support Campaign at the weekly Anti-war Community Picket in Parliament Square. We will prioritise African speakers, women as well as men. We will also give news of the Venezuelan revolution in which women, mainly of African and Indigenous descent, have been so prominent, and which has been an inspiration to the women in Cameroon and to us all.

We hope you will be able to join us and the women of Cameroon by holding your own event to strengthen our global unity, beginning this time with women in Africa. We look forward to hearing from you.

Selma James and Nina Lopez-Jones