A
Call from the Global Women’s Strike to grassroots women,
young people
& men
WOMEN
SAY NO WAR
INVEST IN CARING NOT KILLING
Picket
& Open Mic
Wednesday-Thursday,
5.30-7pm
Parliament
Square
=
All
welcome
________________________________________
‘I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energy in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. So I was compelled to see war as an enemy of the poor.’ Dr Martin Luther King
Women, the first carers and the poorest of the poor everywhere, struggle to make up for the devastation, the loss of benefits, healthcare, education – cut or privatised to pay for war. We are the hidden backbone of anti-war activism. However governments justify war, women point to the suffering and the tragic loss of lives, in whatever country, of whatever race or religion. Women chant: ‘Every casualty, every collateral damage, Some mother’s daughter, some mother’s son.’ No wonder even more women than men oppose war.
Our survival, in
Iraq or in Britain, is not their economic priority,
so women’s survival work is invisible
Women do 2/3 of the world’s work, mostly unwaged caring and agricultural work. We and our children pay most for war and weapons. We are 70% of victims of armed conflict, 80% of refugees and displaced people. 500,000 children have died in Iraq as a result of sanctions. 1.5m infants die from malnutrition each year.
=
£3.5+ billion put aside by the UK for all-out war.
= $900+ billion is spent on military budgets, over half
by the US alone.
This military might threatens all of us. And we’re made to pay for it everywhere. = There’s no money to end starvation or pipe clean water = No money for breastfeeding mothers & infants = No money for single mothers, disability benefits, pensioners, students = No money for asylum seekers who flee rape & other torture imposed by Western-supported dictators = No money for decent pay for fire service workers, teachers, hospital staff . . . = Yet $80 billion would rid us all of the world's worst poverty.
WAR
is the priority for which we’re all doing without.
Women say:
NO WAR – INVEST IN CARING NOT KILLING
Men join women to say:
NO WAR – PAY US FOR CARING NOT KILLING