WOMEN DESERVE MORE DAYS OF PAID REST
I think that making visible women’s work is extremely important, since the conditions in which this work is done are really inhuman. For, on top of working the whole day long, women have to care for their children and also put up with their husbands and, if this were not enough, take care of the elderly and the sick in the house. And the worse thing is that nothing of this work is paid for, let alone recognized. Furthermore, when mothers’ day come or when it is the mother’s birthday, the presents are always tools for the kitchen or some other tool (washing machines, driers) to make this work "easier", instead of giving them something personal and of better taste. . . something they can use for themselves.

I support the strike, since Half the Humankind deserves to be seen as Half the Humankind, as an indissoluble part of the unity, but with all its rights and in condition of equal opportunities. I believe that women deserve this strike and more strikes and more days of paid rest. Women deserve men’s support, it is important that more men unite to these demands and that all together we succeed in having the demands of the Worldwide Women’s strike respected and realised.
Francisco Nucamendi, Radio Producer, San Cristobal las Casas, Chiapas

BORN & BRED IN A FORMER BRITISH COLONY
As a man born and bred in a former British colony, I am personally aware of the grave injustices continuing even after so called 'independence' under the ruthless heel of neo-colonialism. It is an undisputed fact that the most exploited and oppressed sector under today`s Globalisation, and by far the largest, are women living in the countries of the Southern regions and Eastern Europe.

The Global Women`s Strike unites such women (and men) across national boundaries in simultaneous action demanding an end to low wages, unwaged work and excessive work, while showing the urgent need for a caring society which ensures autonomy and equality.
Nirmal Fernando, (CURL) Sri Lanka - UK

PAY EQUITY
I have put in a lot of work fighting for pay equity, equal pay for work of equal value. It is painful to watch people do their work, get paid much less than someone else doing work of a similar value, and then be treated according to that lower level of pay, especially when it is someone close to you. And of course it is happening to all the women around me. The Global women's strike is for me an opportunity to help oppose such wage differentials and the devaluing of people that goes along with it. And having seen the success of last year, and the delight of people to oppose globalization with a global strike, all things have once again become possible.
Sam, US-UK

INJUSTICE WORRYING ME SINCE CHILDHOOD
From childhood, back in Ghana, I saw my mother and the other women overworked to keep things going in the community and families. Whilst this toil was never rewarded in monetary terms, female members of my local community, in Ghana where I grew up, were even traditionally suppressed in terms of self advancement and progress. The Global Women's Strike and its demands presented me my first ever opportunity of seeing a well articulated response to address this injustice, that has been worrying me since childhood. Explo Nani-Kofi, political prisoner who escaped from detention in Ghana and is now a political refugee in the United Kingdom.

NATURE BOY
The Strike this past March was an eye-opener - that a call by and to grassroots women to "stop the world and change it!" would receive such enthusiastic worldwide response. It's plain to me that the thing is 'going places'! And to places where I want to go. For one it has encouraged my taking on a fairer share of 'women's work' in my everyday personal and political relationships, and sharpened my awareness of the toll when I don't. For another (a very dear one to this 'nature boy' attuned more to birds and bugs and trees than to humans), the Strike demand for a world which values women's work and lives, and therefore all humankind's including mine, is likewise the basis for a world which values the work and lives of the rest of creation.
Dean, Payday/US

PERSONAL THINGS IN THE WORLD STAGE
The range and meaning of the Global Women’s Strike is so wide that at one and the same time it speaks to the personal things that I know and to the world stage.

THE STRIKE IS NEEDED IN IRELAND LIKE IT WAS NEVER NEEDED BEFORE
The Women’s Global Strike is needed here in Ireland for this year of 2001 like it was never needed before. They tell us continuously that we live in a boom economy, and should shut up with our grumblings. But in industry after industry there are strikes and the threat of strikes – most of them involving a majority of women workers – nurses, teachers, airline cabin-crews, bank clerks, law-court officials – and constantly we hear the strikers say they cannot bear to have their work unrecognised and unvalued – the very words of the Global Women’s Strike!

So let’s hear it for 2001, STOP THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT!
John Arden, Ireland, playwright.

RECOGNISING THIS FORGOTTEN WORK
My support for the Global Women’s Strike of 2001 is without reservation. So much important work is going on unrecognised. It seems that this corporate driven world is valuing only work that makes money while forgetting the work that nutures, values and supports the lives of others. Until there is a recognition of this "forgotten work", that is carried out mostly by women, the litany of damaging, senseless and inhumane acts inflicted on the "have-nots" will continue unabated. The gap between the wealthy and the poor is widening to the extent that people are being paid salaries that would feed nations whilst millions starve.

STAMPING OUT THIS INEQUALITY
Wouldn’t you get angry if you found out that you worked your whole life along someone doing exactly the same job, in exactly the same way, for exactly the same time, but they got paid much more than you? Well that’s what it’s like for most women in this world, who can work a lifetime and still end up receiving only a proportion of what they’d have had, if they’d been a man. And that makes me angry. And today women are doing the same jobs as men. And more work too, often running the house as well, So whatever I can do to help stamp out this inequality is time well spent.
Mark, UK

RISE FROM THE STARS
They march
the women of Earth
young and old alike
arms linked in destiny
taking strides of unity, dignity
and simple pride.

On 8 March 2001, women & girls will strike again to demand that society INVESTS IN THE ENRICHMENT OF EVERY LIFE rather than for the enrichment of a few.
Larry Jaffe, poet, USA

THE CENTURY OF WOMEN
Here is some guidance I received from our SGI (Buddhist) President, Daisaku Ikeda. It was sent as daily encouragement on 24 February. It reads:
We need to see more men who respect women as equals and welcome their full participation in all areas. If this does not happen, women will continue to bear an unfair burden. We need men to acknowledge and accept women's conscientiousness and directness; to be self-reliant and stop taking advantage of women's tolerant nature; and to be sensitive and considerate of women's feelings. We may speak of the century of women, but it is also a century in which men will be called on to grow and mature.
Richard, UK.

MAKING TROUBLE IN THE SIXTIES
The Global Women's Strike 2000 has taught a lesson to all men on what can be achieved by an international, serious, determined movement. And how glad I am that there's going to be a Global Women's Strike 2001, in the growing context of anti-globalisation demos, from Seattle, to Prague to the anti-Bush inauguration in Washington. I started making trouble in the Sixties, and you can smell the same climate in the air, but now men are being compelled to listen to what women have to say and begin to understand that we've got nothing to fear from their increased power. It may have taken men almost forty years, but we're getting there, and this time, uniting with women, we're going to do it right.
Giorgio, UK, immigrant from Italy.