NEWS FLASH! Margaret Prescod will be hosting Beneath the Surface on KPFK radio, 5PM, on Thursday of Friday evenings, Feb. 27 and 28. Listen in, and let the station know what you think.

KPFK will cover Strike activities all day March 8 

 A fundraising theatrical act of dissent: Lysistrata, in Santa Monica, 3rd March

In LA, join women (and men supporters) in 80 countries, from Venezuela to Nigeria on International Women’s Day in the
Global Women’s Strike
March 8, 2003
March & Rally 11am Westwood Federal Bldg 11000 Wilshire Blvd

Strike to stop war in Iraq and all wars – women and children are the majority of those killed and 80% of refugees worldwide.

March, with noisemaking stops at Occidental Oil,
Starbucks and the Veterans’ Cemetery. Rally Fed. Bldg.

We will march across the divisions of race, nation, religion and language to voice women’s total opposition to war, and for a world that prioritizes caring for people and the environment.

Speakers, street theatre, puppets, music, noisemakers, belly dancers, & more.
Reclaim the Military Budget! End No Pay,
Low Pay and Overwork!

Translation. Truck for elders and people w/ disabilities. Fully permitted.
Women’s Vigil & Hunger Fast -LA culminates on March 8 during the Strike

Women Say NO WAR– Invest in Caring Not Killing

$900+ billion annually is spent on war and weapons worldwide, over half by the US. Women are the carers for people and the planet. We and our children pay the highest price for war and weapons. Everywhere, women struggle to make up for the suffering and devastation, and for the loss of benefits and services that are cut or privatized to pay for war. For millions, beginning in the Global South, economic plunder has been enforced by military genocide. Since our survival is not a priority, our survival work is invisible. The US is spending billions to bomb Iraq, with plans to spend billions more. But they have no money for welfare, healthcare, elders, people with disabilities, immigrants, young people, or to care for the planet. When every demand we make is ruled "unaffordable", people from all walks of life ask: Why is killing women, children and men the priority for which we must all do without?

Demands of the Global Women's Strike
*Payment for all caring work – in wages, pensions, land & other resources. What is more valuable than raising children & caring for others? Invest in life & welfare, not military budgets & prisons. * Pay equity for all, women & men, in the global market. * Food Security for breastfeeding mothers; paid maternity leave, breastfeeding breaks & other benefits – stop penalizing us for being women. * Don’t pay ‘Third World Debt’. Women owe nothing, they owe us. * Accessible clean water, healthcare, housing, transportation, literacy. * Non-polluting energy & technology which shortens the hours we work. We all need cookers/stoves, fridges, washing machines, computers, & time off! * Protection & asylum from all violence & persecution, including by family members & people in positions of authority. * Freedom of movement. Capital travels freely, why not people?

LA Strike events planned by the LA Global Women’s Strike Planning Group
For info or if you want to endorse or bring a contingent, call 323-292-7405
GWS is coordinated by the International Wages for Housework Campaign.
Check out the Strike website at http://womenstrike8m.server101.com
The Global Women’s Strike is not aligned with any political party.

Endorsers to date: Alexandria House, Alliance for Democracy, A New Way of Life, CALIF, Center for the Advancement of Nonviolence, CISPES(Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador), Coalition for World Peace, Every Mother is A Working Mother, Freedom Socialist Party, Glendale Greens, Human Rights Committee/UTLA, Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace, International ANSWER Coalition Los Angeles, International Action Center, IRAPS (IHHS Recipients and Providers Sharing), JEDI for Women, Latino Coalition Against War in Iraq, LA Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness, LA County Council for the Green Party, LA Greens, LA Radical Women, Maternal and Child Health Access, Mazer Lesbian Archives, Mike Feinstein, Neighbors for Peace and Justice, Peace and Freedom Party L.A. County, Quality Homecare Coalition, Raging Grannies of Southern California, Safeplace, SCADA (Southern California Americans for Democratic Action), Welfare Warriors, WILPF of LA.

Dear sisters,

We are implementing plans for a women's anti-war march & rally to be held in Los Angeles at the Westwood Federal Building on March 8, International Women's Day, as part of this global movement. We will gather at 11:00am and then march, with brief noisemaking stops at Occidental Petroleum's international headquarters, at Starbucks and at the Veterans Cemetery. The march will end in a rally and music back at the Federal Building. Our action will include speakers, street theatre, puppets and music, noise makers, belly dancers, and more to oppose war and economic plunder.

Your help is urgently needed! Please bring your ideas including how to publicize the event in your own networks, your demands for money from the military budget in benefits and other resources, slogans, visual effects, and so on. Working groups have been formed in the following areas and you are invited to sign up: Outreach & Publicity; Arts and Action; Security & Logistics; Program.

This action will have the most impact if women from all the communities are present, Black and immigrant women, women with disabilities and elders, mothers and children, women in waged jobs, lesbian women, sex workers, supportive men, etc, etc. The more we as women come together from Venezuela to the US to Nigeria to break the divisions of race, nation, religion, language - which divide us to deprive us - the more grassroots women's needs are visible and our demands heard against the wars and the trade in arms that soak up our resources.

Come and hear about Strike plans round the world. We look forward to seeing you, and your friends, sisters, mothers, grandmothers, who would like to participate in organizing for this exciting event.

As we prepare to Strike on International Women's Day 2003 with women from many countries, we face the threat that the US government will unleash its weapons of mass destruction It has never been so urgent for women to take the lead to: Stop the World and Change It.

Power to the sisters
Los Angeles Strike Working Group

Crossroads Women's Center
PO Box 86681, LA,
CA 90086-0681, USA
Tel/Fax: +1-323-292 7405
E-mail: la@crossroadswomen.net 

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