Kilombo, Volume 2, Issue 1, September 2000

Housework Campaign, to protest the grotesque discrepancy between $800 billion a year spent on military budgets world-wide, while less than $20 billion could buy the essentials of life - clean water, health, sanitation, literacy, and even a basic income for the world's people.

In over at least 65 countries women and girls took action on the demands: wages for caring work and pay equity; paid maternity leave and breastfeeding breaks; protection and asylum from rape and all violence, in the home and outside; abolition of Third World: debt, clean water, and nonpolluting technology. ...

With this framework, women applied these demands to highlight their specific needs and ongoing campaigns: in Burkina Faso, women struck 'to exist', demanding birth certificates and identity cards, which most can't afford; Ghanaian women and children marched for recognition of 'precious mothers'; Nigerian women demanded breastfeeding allowances; rural Ugandan women demanded clean water and medical facilities, and protested abuse 'through hard, -unwaged work'.

COSATU the congress of trade unions in south Africa, issued a statement supporting the Strike's demands. Dalit and Tribal women in India women demanded 'wages for every work', while hundreds women lobbied government officials in Bhopal and Delhi. Domestic workers in Peru broadcast news of the Strike; Argentina's Housewives Union demanded 'Pensions without contributions for workers without wages' ' University cleaners in Barcelona, Spain, went on strike, as 1,500 women - immigrant, refugee, lesbian, students, and church women - met in the Barcelona's main square. In the USA janitors (cleaners, many of whom are Black and Latina women) already on strike joined in, while in London masked sex workers marched through Soho against eviction from their homes.

Refugee and immigrant women seeking protection from rape and other persecution, were active in the London Strike Committee which organised a celebration attended by over 400 women.

Yaa,.a Ghanaian participant, said: We women are often used as slaves, trapped in the home, suffering violence and abuse. When we need a safe place, the Home Office makes it very hard- right now I'm fighting for my right and my children's right to stay in Britain. Many women like me want to show the world how much work we do, that we have a right to be here and not be forced into poverty. For me the Strike is about finding out how we women can deal with our problems. We cant go back to the old days, we must go forward together.

Globally, women and girls do 2/3 of the world's work. They are the carers, providing more healthcare than all the hospitals combined, and over half the world's food - excluding breastmilk. 2/3 of the work women do is unwaged and unvalued and it is worth at least $11 trillion a year (UN figures), yet this work is often devalued and demeaned.

In Africa, women do 60-90% of the agricultural work, producing 80% of the food consumed, despite devastating international policies causing famine, war, environmental disasters and genocide. Women bear the brunt of environmental disasters - having to spend as much as 18 hours a day collecting water and fuel and preventing illness and death to those in their care. The poorer the country, the harder women and girls are forced to work. But the usual picture of debt, famine and warfare in countries of the South spread by multi-nationals, media and academics, hides women's enormous contribution to the welfare of society.

In highlighting the work of women, we also see that in Britain Black and immigrant women spearhead the defence of families and communities from injustice: poverty, violence, racist attacks, police brutality, and immigration laws which divide us, protect the worst wages and working conditions, and promote racism. At the same time women have to defend ourselves when men in our own communities take out their anger and frustration against us.

Women everywhere are owed billions: we have contributed to the world's wealth through centuries of unwaged slavery and colonialism, bonded labour and other exploited work under colonialism. Neither Anti-debt nor Development campaigns have spelled out the centrality of women to the case against 'debt' repayment. As women our country is the world - we have a right to safety and resources wherever we are. The Third World debt is what we are owed, and the Strike underlines this.

The 2nd Global Women's Strike continues to press for a total change in priorities, a world without sexism, racism, ageism or any discrimination, starting with people's needs rather than corporate greed. Women and girls everywhere are invited to take time off - for 10 minutes, an hour, a day - from housework, farm, field, office, school, hospital and factory work. Women's work is invisible until it is not done!

Last year, Strike materials were available in 27 languages. Leaflets are already out in Chinese, French, Luo, Spanish, Somali, Swahili, Yoruba and more. We urgently need help with translations translators - please contact us if you can help.

Other ways to take part: stop work for however long you can; tell friends, family, workmates and demands; ask to meet local or national politicians to present your demands; publicise the strike by contacting local and national newspapers, journals, radio and TV - ask them to report on your Strike activities. Pass a resolution in your trade union, student union or other organisation. Send us your personal statement of why you arc going on strike to put on the website. Do a collection or raise money in other ways to help cover the cost of organising costs of the Strike - it cost a

fortune last year, and we're hoping for an even bigger Strike this year.

Payday men's network is coordinating support from men worldwide, saying why they support the Strike, and asking men for financial and other support. (Contact us for copies of the Men's statement, and the Pay Equity Petition).

 
Women's Wednesdays in Whitehall

Come to the weekly picket 1-2pm every Wednesday, opposite Downing Street, to highlight the Strike demands and prepare for 2001. Although women have called the pickets, men are welcome to join in.

Visit the Strike Website, regularly updated with the latest news from all over the world. http://womenstrike8m.server1O1.com

For more information:
Black Women for Wages for Housework,
Crossroads Women's Centre,
230a Kentish Town Road,
London NW5 2 AB.
Tel 0207 482 2496.
Fax: 0207 209 4761.
e-mail: centre@crossroadswomen.net  

The ILO has also been used by Political activists as a source of information on the working conditions of the global majority, and on women in particular. For example, we know that in Africa, women do 60-90% of the agricultural work, Producing 80% of the food consumed. Globally, women do 2/3 of the world's work for 5% of its income but 2/3 of that work does not bring in any wage at all. [see the article by Black Women for Wages for Housework on the Global Women's Strike in this issue of Kilombo.