PRESS RELEASE: Global Women's Strike Breaks Language Barrier

Invest in Caring Not Killing spells survival in every language!

Details: 020-7482 2496

As plans for the 6th annual Global Women’s Strike (5-14 March) take shape in over 60 countries, the Strike continues to break new ground in bringing women together despite many barriers, including language. The GWS website (www.globalwomenstrike.net) reflects this determination: Strike information is available in 53 languages and a wide variety of scripts – more, we are told, than the BBC World Service! All were provided by volunteer translators and activists from around the world who donated their time and skills, allowing women to raise our voices in unison.

It has only recently become possible to put together in one file so many of the world’s major languages: Chinese, English, Arabic, Spanish, Russian, Bengali, French, Japanese, Swahili, Portuguese, Tagalog, German, Hindi (see above). Previously, Microsoft divided the world into regions, so if a computer had Arabic script, it could not have Chinese or Hindi; if it had Chinese it could not have Hindi, etc. But the global movement of peoples required an end to such divisions, and finally it is possible to have languages in different scripts on one computer, and to reflect this truly Global Strike.

In International Women’s Week beginning 5 March, women in over 60 countries will gather again for all kinds of grassroots actions to demand together An End to Poverty and War – Invest in Caring Not Killing! A Living Wage for All our Work & Pay Equity in the Global Market. In the wake of the horrendous tsunami which killed almost 300,000 people, we know that daily many thousands die from starvation, disease, global warming and war – all man-made disasters caused by the rule of money and the market. Governments and their beloved multinationals talk about ending poverty but they never mention giving us the money women and our communities need.

The twin terrors of poverty and war are profitable, so it’s not in the global market’s interest to end either. Only we ourselves, beginning with women the carers who struggle every day to sustain life, working the hardest for least, can make this life-saving change.

In the UK, Strike events have already begun with the GWS Photo Exhibition circulating in Community Centres, Libraries and Universities - over 50 beautiful colour photos with captions by and about the lives of truly Striking women in nearly 20 countries, from Ghana to Guyana, India to Venezuela. Available for hire (£50) (http://www.globalwomenstrike.net/English2005/PhotoExihibition.htm)


Saturday 5 March: All African Women’s Group fundraising afternoon with delicious food, music and dance 12noon-4pm, Crossroads Women’s Centre, cnr Caversham Rd & Kentish Town Rd, London NW5.

Monday 7 March: Parliament Square, GWS and many other organizations will hold a lobby and protest as the House of Lords debates the Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill, that would end the right to protest in a zone 1km around Parliament.

Tuesday 8 March: Open House all day at Crossroads Women’s Centre. All welcome to have tea and view the exhibition, then join us at Kenya High Commission to demonstrate with women in Nairobi protesting rape by the British Army over years. Joint event with Black Women’s Rape Action Project, Women Against Rape, African Liberation Support Campaign Network and All African Women’s Revolutionary Union. 1-3pm, 45 Portland Place, London W1.

Monday 14 March: Nora Castañeda, economist and President of Venezuela’s Women’s Development Bank (Banmujer) & Angélica Alvarez, Banmujer’s Promoter-Co-ordinator, begin a European-wide speaking tour, 8pm at London School of Economics http://www.globalwomenstrike.net/English2005/NoraAngTour.htm.

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