Quote of the Week
"Did
you hear? For older people: In 1974 the Brazilian government
introduced the 'Lifelong Monthly Income' - a pension scheme for older
people, whether or not they paid contributions. Our research has
found that nearly 75% of older people in Recife actually support their
whole families on this pension, because the young people are
unemployed.
From a message from University of East London Student Union Women's Officer, sent 7 March, 2001 "University of East London Student's Union (UELSU) has decided to officially support the Global Women's Strike and has agreed to pay any female staff member who chooses to go on strike. In light of this, it's worth noting that UELSU has a proud history of fighting for women's liberation. It is one of only a handful of Student Union's left in the country with a full-time women's officer post; many other SU's have scrapped similar posts in recent years. This is reflective of the general trend towards commercialisation and depoliticisation within the student movement as a whole. UELSU will not follow suit!"
From a
message from All Africa Student's Union (AASU), Accra, Ghana, "Dear Comrade, From a message from Hungary, sent 1 March 2001 "Dear global
strike sisters,
From a message from women in Brazil "Amigas,
"We are very happy
for your letter.
From an email from a teacher in Mexico City, received 7 February 2001: "With great joy I just found the information about the women strike for 2001 because since long ago I read with enormous enthusiasm the book of Selma James who was something very very important in my life and I've been working with this item since long with women, in the radio and television programs and also at the university. I have a group in Mexico called: Collectivo: Salario al trabajo domestico, educación y crianza de hijos e hijas in english would be Group or Colective: Salary for housework, education and grown up children, or something like that. I also do my master thesis about this problem and the way advertisements help in making the role of women a housewives all the time. I'm sorry about my English but right now I prefer to get in touch with you. I am a teacher at the National Universtiy in Mexico city and I can do some actions to let people now about the strike you are talking about. I think it is extremely important to talk about salaries for house work and everything that has to do with helping capitalism to be richer and not paying for the work women and girls do. I would love to be in touch with you and also give me information." (In support of the
Zapatista demands for Indigenous people's right to autonomy and self-determination in
Mexico, the Wages for Housework Campaign is hosting
From a letter from Kimilili Integrated Development Education Programe, Kenya, received 12 Sep 2000 "This is a
Community based Organisation focused on women's empowerment; we work with rural women and
peasants. 75% of labour in agriculture is done by women, and yet women still own very
little . . . Some of your objectives are in line with KIDEP and hence the need to
collaborate or network with your centre. . . we are limited in resources . . . The
materials you send us are going to assist us deepen women's understanding on exploitation
and how we can overcome the same . . . We assure you of our solidarity and the year 2000
we shall join you in the Global Women's Strike."
From a woman in France, received 1 Dec 2000 "I have exiled from Israel to France, because my art projects for peace were banned from art establishment. Therefore the strike for me and my non-profit organisation will deal on the issue of women artist's rights."
From a woman in Minsk, Belarus, received 14 Nov 2000 "A group of girls and me have an anarchofeministic initiative: we are going to create our own magazine (it will be called "WARGASME") and publish there articles which describe the real situation of women's life in our country. The main problem is that we don't have there a feminist movement: awful economic situation causes indifferent attitudes to the discrimination . . . Woman is treated there like a machine for producing children . . . And where there is sexism there is homophobia and different prejudices connected with the sexual life. It is innormally there to have sex with a person of the same sex (oxymoron). Because of our stupid laws it is necessary to be married for giving birth to a child (although it is a discrimination, but the child was born without marriage has less rights). So future plans is to create a kind of organization or network, which main aims will be to engage and unite women, to educate and share information. And, of course, to fight with sexism and discrimination in human relationship."
Letter to Strike 2001, 31 Aug 2000, from Forces of Light, Tema, Ghana "The title of our drama for the 2001 march is 'The Househelp must also go to school'. This is because the few educated women in the cities go to the rural areas to collect young women/girls whose fathers cannot send these girls to school to come to the cities with empty promises to help them in the cities. Normally these girls come down to cities, help housewives, send their children to school and they themselves return to the house to be doing housework until schools close and they go to bring the children to the house. These methods keep majority of these girls marginalised. Forces of Light has already petitioned the Speaker of the Ghanaian Parliament. If any househelp is too old to start formal education, then their master and madam have to arrange for her evening vocational training so that after some few years she can also be in business self-employed and independent. As at now because this arrangement is not in place, these older househelps are ejected from their homes for minor offences and these are the core sexworkers/prostitutes and become dependent on immorality for a living. As from December this year, NO WAY to this. Forces of Light will see to it that every househelp enters into proper agreement with full compensation for the work done. We are aware that this is not an easy work. However, with your support we shall change the system in Ghana first and the whole of the so-called 'Third World'. Precious mothers are all precious mothers educated or uneducated." All Africa Students Union Joins Strike! |
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