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article
for Eastern Eye,
UK weekly Asian tabloid newspaper
Women
say no war – Invest in Caring Not Killing
Join the Global Women’s Strike, 8 March
Delvinder Rathour says: “The Global Women's
Strike is about investing in caring not killing, promoting life not death.
We are asking the government to stop and think. The resources that they
will be squandering on military action could be used to improve rather
than destroy lives. As an Asian woman of Sikh faith, it is crucial we
participate on Saturday and let our voices be heard. Women are the main
carers and as carers we cannot afford for our sons, husbands, nephews,
etc. to go to war. We cannot afford to console and protect our children
from the racism this imminent military action will whip up. It is
estimated that Asian's women's average wage per week is £34.00.
Why isn't the government addressing this imbalance and redirecting
the 3.5 billion they have earmarked on military action to provide better
employment, healthcare, housing, benefits, etc.
My family and I will be
travelling to London on Saturday 8 March to unite with women from over 70
countries. This is an important opportunity for us to integrate with women
from all over the world particularly women of African decent since
historically this relationship seems to have been difficult to cement.
As an Asian women I have a different perspective from many of the
women I'll meet on Saturday given my cultural background. However my
needs, wants, desires are no different from any other women. The Global
Women's Strike will provide a platform for women from a diverse section of
the globe to come together and strengthen and address our divides so we
are able to stand as one.”
Women
say no war – Invest in Caring Not Killing
Join the Global Women’s Strike, 8 March
We
invite all Women of Colour to join the Global Women’s Strike on
International Women’s Day, 8 March 2003.
This year’s Strike
call, echoed by millions of women, and increasingly men, is INVEST IN
CARING NOT KILLING – money for promoting life, not death and
destruction. In Africa, Asia, the
Caribbean, China, Europe, India, Indigenous lands, New Zealand, Pakistan,
the Phillipines, North and South America –
together we voice our total opposition to war.
Women of colour across
the globe pay the highest price for war. Even
before bombs drop,
military budgets steal our
resources, forcing us to work endlessly to make up for what we’re
all denied. Women grow most of the world’s food – women in India do
60-80% of agricultural work --
yet women and children are the first to die of starvation, including on
US ‘reservations’
for Native Americans. We
work the hardest for the least pay.
Asian women’s
average earnings in the UK are £34 a week less than white women’s, and
all women only get two-thirds of men’s wages!
Women
and children are 80% of the casualties of wars, directed from the US and
Europe. We are majority of refugees worldwide, and 80% of refugee
women and girls have suffered rape, often by police, soldiers, and others
meant to protect us. While
the US spends $1 billion a day on the military (before Iraq) and the UK
earmarks £3.5 billion to slaughter people in Iraq, women seeking asylum
from rape, other torture and devastation, are left destitute, detained and
even deported The military and corrupt governments enable multinationals
to kill us with overwork, starvation and pollution. Many of us are forced
to leave our homelands as economic refugees.
Resources from the Global South – including through bonded labour
and slavery -- have been drained to build the empires of the Global North.
Sisters from 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 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 which would have made
our life easier is put on military budget. Our survival is not an economic
priority, so our survival work is not seen.”
Kaabong Women’s Group Strike Call, 2003
In
India last year,
Chhattisgarh Women’s
Organisation called
a 5,000-strong gathering
of women with men’s support demanding pay equity, land rights, safe
drinking water, an end to “untouchability”, and against globalisation.
They will take part again this year and in Raipur the
Forum for Fact Finding
Documentation and Advocacy is holding a workshop on the status of women
doing unwaged work where Tribal women leaders will speak.
The
General Secretary CWWC-INTUC, writes: “We do support each other to
make the world understand that we are the creators of the world and not
the destructors. Stop the wars for whatever reason, invest those entire
resources for nourishing and caring for human beings. Let us join
together!” In London the Global Women’s Strike have been invited to
speak at Asian Women Unite’s International Women’s Day Conference, 7-9
March.
Afro-, Indo- and
Indigenous women in Guyana have called a three-hour housework Strike with
the slogan EVERY PIECE OF WHAT THEY CALL “COLLATERAL DAMAGE” IS
SOME MOTHER’S DAUGHTER, SOME MOTHER’S SON.
Women in Trinidad & Tobago are organising a speak-out.
Saturday
8 March: ASSEMBLE Parliament Square 11.30am. March and Speakout US
EMBASSY, Grosvenor Square 2PM. With Songlines
International Choir + African Women Drummers.
Men’s
support/participation welcome: payday@paydaynet.org
(020) 7209 4751
For
more information: Women of Colour –
WinWages;
(020) 7482 2496 Fax: 0207 209 4761
email:womenstrike8m@server101.com http://womenstrike8m.server101.com
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