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Los Angeles Global Women's Strike Update & Request Global Women’s Strike December 2004 Dear Friends, We would like to update you on some of our work and to ask you to consider making a donation to the Global Women’s Strike (GWS). Women and children pay the highest price for war and occupation, and the resulting economic and environmental devastation. But grassroots women are much more than victims; we are using every resource to which we have access, to ensure that the voices of grassroots women are heard, that our situation and our struggles against the atrocities imposed on us no longer remain hidden, sidelined or ignored. From Iraq, to Haiti, to Venezuela to Palestine, to inner cities and Indigenous lands, we know more than ever that we are all in the fight of our lives, for our lives. We launched the GWS in 1999, bringing in the new millennium with a call for a total change of priorities, one that values the caring of people and the environment over war and profit and that values all women’s work and all women’s lives. Little did we know then that the US would invade Iraq, to kill 100,000 Iraqi civilians and maim at least twice that many -- mainly women and children; that thousands of US soldiers would be dead or disabled; that the US would overthrow the democratically elected government of Haiti and oversee a brutal occupation in Haiti, and three times try to overthrow the democratically elected government of Venezuela; that US elections would twice be stolen by disenfranchising Black voters first of all; or of the many other atrocities around the world. But we also did not know that the idea for a Global Women's Strike would catch on like wildfire, particularly in the Global South. We have spent five years building a grassroots network of women in over 60 countries, with a Network of Women of Color in the GWS. We have grown to take action together not only every March 8 but throughout the year, pressing for the $1 trillion military budget to go to the care of people and the planet, not to death and destruction. Joined by Payday, a network of men working with the GWS, we are pressing for societies everywhere to “Invest in Caring, Not Killing”, a demand now embraced by many in peace and justice movements. Nor did we know, in 1999, that a revolution was taking place in Venezuela, led by women mainly of African and Indigenous descent, which was “investing in caring, not killing” -- and winning! -- giving direction and hope to an unprecedented global anti-war and anti-globalization movement. Some of our activities in 2004
As a grassroots, all-volunteer network, we rely on contributions for most of our funding. Groups like ours, that work locally and globally for social and economic justice, rarely get grants from foundations, so we must appeal for support to those who value our work and recognize the need for it especially now when the stakes are so high. The Global Women’s Strike brings together women across the divides of race, nationality, age, income, occupation, disability, sexual preference, those who are criminalized . . . to challenge what more and more people recognize as an uncaring and brutal global market. Your donation will help support this work and the message of Invest in Caring, Not Killing. Your donation will also support the Crossroads Women’s Center in South Los Angeles, where GWS is based, a resource for information, referrals, support and action. Our plans for 2005 include:
Please give what you can. Many thanks and best wishes for the New Year! Margaret Prescod and Susan Andres
Amount: (
) $1000 ( )
$500 ( )
$250 ( )
$100 ( )
$50 ( ) $25 Name Address City State Zip Checks payable to “Wages for Housework’’, PO Box 86681, Los Angeles CA 90086. (Wages for Housework coordinates the GWS. If you would like your donation to
be tax-deductible, make your check payable to “Women in Dialogue” & it will
be used for exclusively educational and charitable purposes, as defined by
the IRS). Or you can donate online through Paypal here: |