World March of Women Declaration - International Women’s Day 2013

We, women of the world, are turning our grief into strength.

We, women of all peoples, ages, classes and sexualities, are resisting the growing criminalisation against us, our protests and our proposals. The streets and public spaces are ours! We are organised in our social movements, despite the pressure we face to remain within the domestic space; we persist in our fight for progressive laws that strengthen our formal rights, despite the repression and violence we face from governments and religious institutions. We are all women in resistance celebrating the progress we have achieved! We are all Filipina women celebrating the passage of the Reproductive Health Law!

We are saying “Enough” to the violence against us. Again and again, we are taking the lead and taking to the streets in the fight against all forms of violence and the normalisation of this violence within our societies. We are denouncing violence as structural; as a tool of control of our lives, bodies and sexualities within the capitalist, neo-colonialist, patriarchal system. We are all Indian and Bangladeshi women fighting against rape, sexual violence and the impunity face by its perpetrators! We are all Mayan women breaking the silence in the courts in our demand for justice! We are all Mozambican women in the successful struggle to pass the domestic violence law!

We, indigenous women, are fighting back. We are mobilising massively at the local and international levels. We are demanding that our governments respect our rights and those of our peoples and territories, and we are creatively using the tools of struggle available to us. We are all B’laan Filipina women and Mayan, Xinca and mestiza Guatemalan women protecting our territories – our land and our bodies – from mining and hydroelectric industries! We are all Idle No More protesters and Canadian First Nation women challenging the longstanding discrimination and injustices faced by indigenous peoples!

We, young women and girls, are resisting the patriarchal backlash against us: within our families – where the notion of what is “proper” and “correct” is used to justify the restriction of our movements –, and within society as whole – where our access to education or reproductive health services or public health services of quality is limited or denied… We continue to defy these restrictions, as we organise ourselves, debate, mobilise, strengthen our struggles and give vibrancy to our resistances. We are all Pakistani girls attending school despite the physical threats against us! We are all Chilean women students shouting “no” to our privatised education system and demanding free, quality education!

We, feminists, are still struggling for autonomy over our bodies, sexuality and fertility. We are demanding the legalisation of abortion in those countries where we are considered criminals for exercising our right not to be mothers. We are resisting the attempts to roll-back the abortion and reproductive rights we have achieved through our struggles over the last decades. We are all women of Turkey, in our thousands, standing up to governmental accusations that we are assassins! We are all young European women fighting the backlash on abortion rights across the continent! We are all Uruguayan women commemorating the legalisation of abortion in our country, while at the same time remaining alert to the potential restrictions on, and control of women choosing to exercise this right.

We, activists in our trade unions and political parties, are defying the continued sexism and misogyny manifested by our own brothers in the struggle as we continue to keep up the pressure for the inclusion of our grassroots, anti-capitalist, anti-colonialist feminism in debates, declarations and struggles. We continue to strengthen ourselves collectively, our alliances and

our feminist demands. We are all women present in the convergence spaces of social movements – for example, at the Firenzi 10+10, Italy – affirming our feminist analysis and demands!

We, all women, are becoming more and more rebellious in the face of the conservative, fundamentalist offensive and the militarisation of our communities. We are all Malian women and young women defying the Islamist oppression by riding our motorbikes, leaving our houses to continue our daily lives in public spaces, and struggling against rape, sexual violence and the impunity of aggressors! We are all European women defying our governments in the fight against austerity measures! We are all Egyptian women defying the serious threats of sexual violence we face by returning again and again to protest in Tahrir Square! We are all Tunisian women struggling for the demands of the revolution – work, freedom, dignity and citizenship –, and against the attempts to impose discrimination mechanisms against women from early childhood onwards (single sex kindergartens, the use of veils in nursery schools, and the promotion of early marriage)!

We, women of the World March of Women, are marching on this 8^th March 2013, as we did in our thousands during the 24 Hours of Feminist Action around the World on the 10^th December 2012. In a wave of action across the continents, we are turning our grief into strength!