Women say no war – Invest in
Caring Not Killing
4th Global Women’s Strike, 8 March 2003
African Voice,
Britain's African Community Newspaper
7-13 March 2003, Issue No. 74, P. 11.
Women
of Colour on every continent are joining the Global Women’s Strike, this
Saturday, 8 March International Women’s Day.
Our
rallying call, echoed by millions of women, and increasingly men, is
INVEST IN CARING NOT KILLING – money for promoting life, not
destruction. In Africa, Asia, the
Caribbean, India, Indigenous lands, South and North, together we voice our
total opposition to war.
We
Women of Colour across the globe pay the highest price for war and
military spending. Before
bombs drop,
the military steals our resources, leaving us to work endlessly to make up for
what we and our loved ones are denied by the priorities of war.
We grow most of the world’s
food – yet we and our children are the first to die of starvation,
including in the US on indigenous lands for Native Americans.
We work hardest for the least pay.
The
military props up corrupt governments so multinationals can exploit us,
killing us with overwork, starvation and pollution.
Women and children are 80% of
the casualties of war. We
have suffered endless wars, fomented and directed from the US and Europe.
These conflicts and Western-backed dictators force us to
flee home, an unbearable trauma. Most
people seek refuge in neighbouring countries, where people are already
living on the edge of starvation. Many of us spend our lives in camps,
with women carrying the burden of poverty, ill-health and violence
perpetrated by soldiers, “peace keepers” and others paid to
‘protect’ us. Our
communities are devastated not only by bombs, but by polluted land, air
and water, by climate change that deprives us of water, crops and healing
plants, or that kills in other ways.
Our
sisters from the villages of Uganda, where 75% of the budget goes to the
military, have to dig for water that is unfit to drink.
Like women everywhere, they struggle daily to survive and to change
the world: “We have
suffered all types of Wars. Innocent hungry women and children killed . .
. We do work endlessly caring for families, bearing children yet on empty
stomachs. Drought has caused a lot of suffering especially to
breastfeeding mothers, the aged, the disabled and infants, and instead
money is put on military budgets. Our survival is not an economic
priority, so our survival work is not seen.”
Kaabong
Women’s Group Strike Call, 2003.
Afro-,
Indo- and Indigenous women in Guyana are calling a three-hour Strike from
housework with the slogan EVERY PIECE OF WHAT THEY CALL “COLLATERAL
DAMAGE” IS SOME MOTHER’S DAUGHTER, SOME MOTHER’S SON.
Eritrean
women who fled war to seek asylum in the UK are joining the Strike because
"There is too much war in the world – over 40 years in
Eritrea -- . . . Eritrean and Ethiopian people have been divided from each
other by our governments promoting divisions and hatred among people. We
women suffer more than men because we see our beloved children die and
wounded in front of us. Men
often flee alone but we cannot easily leave because we often have
responsibilities caring for children, the sick and elderly in our families
and communities. We want peace and safety, food, water pipes, healthcare
particularly for people with disabilities, children damaged by landmines .
. "
STOP
PRESS: The Disabled Women’s
Group in Tanzania have just written to say: ‘Encourage Development not
War’ – war which results in more people with disabilities – if they
survive. Women in South
Africa are holding a “Women Against the War” demonstration at the US
Consulate, (Kiillarney nr
Cape Town) followed by a symposium on the effects of war on women and
children in conflicts across the world, including Iraq and Palestine.
Join
us on Saturday 8 March in London. ASSEMBLE Parliament Square 11.30am
(Westminster tube). SPEAKOUT AT US EMBASSY, Grosvenor Square 2pm
Performers
include: Songlines International
Choir + West African Women Drummers.
Men’s
support and participation welcome, contact payday@paydaynet.org
Tel: 0207 209 4751
Women
of Colour – WinWages;
Tel:
0207 482 2496 Fax: 0207 209 4761 email:womenstrike8m@server101.com
Website: http://womenstrike8m.server101.com
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