Global Women’s Strike 8 March 2004 – Grassroots women take action globally against war and poverty Since the launch of the Strike in 2000, women in over 70 countries have taken action together on and around 8 March to demand that the world INVEST IN CARING NOT KILLING. The Strike demands a change in priorities so that the money currently squandered on war goes back to the community, and first of all to women the primary carers. What better way to create a caring society and to oppose the cuts in benefits and services, privatisation and charges, that are devastating people’s lives and communities? On every continent, women and men use the Strike to strengthen their local demands by coming together internationally. The Strike demands pay equity for all in the global market, where women’s labour – often caring work – is persistently undervalued like our unwaged caring work at home, and where companies switch continents to exploit the huge wage gaps between workers in the North and in the South. It demands food security for breastfeeding mothers; non-payment of so-called 'Third World debt'; accessible clean water, healthcare, housing, transport, literacy; protection & asylum from all violence & persecution; freedom of movement. It asks, “capital travels freely, why not people?” The first UK Strike 2004 event was a Shanty Town erected on 30 January outside the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. Women asylum seekers and supporters demanded an end to the park-bench destitution imposed on them by a government which has already imposed poverty, rape and war on their home countries. Asylum seekers, they said, are paying the price for Blair’s wars. In the Karamoja region of Uganda, which suffers constant warfare and famines, where women must walk miles to dig for water, 75% of Uganda’s budget goes to the military. For the Strike, Kaabong Women’s Organisation brought together an unprecedented assembly of 1500 people from every sector of society demanding change. They write: “We have suffered all types of wars. Innocent hungry women and children killed . . . while money which would have made our life easier is put on the military budget. Our survival is not an economic priority, so our survival work is not seen.” Since the bombing of Afghanistan and then Iraq, the GWS, and the men who are committed to it, have maintained an open microphone at a regular Community Picket in Parliament Square, working with the two-year 24-hour peace camp there. Constantly harassed by the police and a few hostile MPs who complain that they can hear us in their offices, the picket gives a voice to the unrepresented, for example the Iraqi Women’s League: “We fear the threat of fundamentalist religious movements which an occupying army inspires . . .The Iraqi people have not been liberated. . . ’Reconstruction of Iraq’ is now a euphemism for the daylight robbery of our resources.” Meanwhile in the US, the Strike has organised a hugely successful speaking tour for Nora Castaneda, President of the Venezuela’s Women’s Development Bank, sharing with thousands the news – and a woman’s views -- of their unique Bolivarian revolution . From marches, speak-outs, street stalls, letters to the press and politicians, claiming time off waged jobs, getting men to organise childcare and food, to trade union resolutions and provision of resources, women everywhere have found ways to join the Strike. Please see the website for events near you, a model resolution, the Invest in Caring Not Killing petition, or contact us for copies of the new Strike journal. Men’s participation is welcome – contact Payday@paydaynet.org, or see their website: www.refusingtokill.net. Website: www.globalwomenstrike.net Global Women’s Strike, Crossroads Women’s Centre, 230a Kentish Town Road, London, NW5 2AB. Tel (minicom/voice) 020 7482 2496 Email: womenstrike8m@server101.com