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Newsletter - June 2000, Volume 3, Number 3
Newsletter, June 2000,
Volume 3, Number 3
Introduction
WE NEED YOUR SIGNATURES Women's words PLANET NEWS Other news National Slogans (in language of origin)
Introduction
Five years ago, the "Bread and Roses" women's march brought 15,000 women to the National Assembly in Quebec City, Canada, to demand measures to combat poverty and improve women's quality of life. It was also five years ago that Beijing hosted the fourth World Conference on Women; the Conference’s Platform for Action is to be evaluated in June. Throughout the world, women are the first to suffer from poverty, lack of access to social services, good health, water, land, housing and education. They are also the main victims of war, violence, rape, and sex trafficking.
Determined to put an end to these scourges, thousands of women across the planet have come together to form the vast movement known as the World March of Women in the Year 2000. Mobilization is underway to collect signatures in support of the demands. As you will read, women are rising up throughout the world. Everywhere, women are joining other women in an infinite chain of solidarity.
WE NEED YOUR SIGNATURES
The signature campaign is in full swing. Whether in the form of cards, petitions or on the Web site, we urge you to step up your appeal for signatures in support of the March's world demands. Remember that the World March of Women has 17 demands for the elimination of poverty and violence against women. Some participating countries have created national slogans.
If you have a Web site, create a link between your site and this address. The signatures you collect in this way will be identified as coming from your country. We also encourage you to create a link with the home page of our site.
National coordinating bodies are also coming up with diverse formats for collecting signatures that symbolize the reality of women in their country: banners, quilts, cardboard boxes, fabric, etc. All the signatures will be delivered on October 17 in New York. The goal is to collect at least 10 million signatures globally.
Newsletter, June 2000, Volume 3, Number 3
Women's words
The March theme song is slowly taking shape, with the verses sent to us by groups from across the globe. The deadline for sending us your compositions is June 15, 2000, so there is little time left. If you send us a text in a language other than French, Spanish, or English, please try to include a translation in one of these languages, accompanied by an audio cassette. The song will be performed on October 17 during the world rally in New York.
Contact: Martine David, popular education campaign organizer.
Newsletter, June 2000, Volume 3, Number 3
PLANET NEWS
MAY
May 1
Burkina Faso
The president of Burkina Faso announced the creation of a national forum so that women's delegations could meet with the government of Burkina Faso to discuss implementation of measures regarding women’s demands about poverty and violence against women.
Niger
National radio station ORTN and the private station, Tambara, covered the event closely, giving women a forum to express their point of view. Women of Niger emphasize "women's determination and commitment to successfully carrying out their actions" despite having little means at their disposal. The March Committee will continue to work on awareness-raising activities until October 17.
Central African Republic
Over 3000 signatures in support of the March have been collected already in the Central African Republic and the campaign continues in the capital and in the provinces.
Belgium
JUNE
Quebec: "Bread and Roses"—five years already
Finally, in the Quebec City region, a work of social art called the "millennium dress" will bear women's messages of hope, inscribed on fabric and integrated into the metal sculpture. On October 13, during the regional rally in Quebec City, a woman will step into the sculpture to launch the March.
Contact: Coalition nationale des femmes contre la pauvrete et la violence, a/s F.F.Q., 110, rue Sainte-Therese, bureau 309, Montreal (Quebec) H2Y 1E6
Tel: 1 (514) 876-0166; fax: 876-0162;
Canada
Switzerland: paving the way to the future
The Swiss coordinating body is mobilizing women on eight central demands concerning poverty and violence against women: lowering the age of retirement accompanied by adequate pensions; quality and affordable childcare services for children; same land, same rights: no to forced removals and the violence of unequal treatment, inclusion in social, economic, political and cultural life of all people living in Switzerland; equal pay for work of equal value; maternity benefits with no decrease in pay for paid workers and parental leave; universal and free abortion; respect and implementation of the rights of lesbians and recognition of same-sex couples, implementation of action and prevention plans to end violence against women in the couple, at work and in society.
Since the launch of the World March of Women, there have been several demonstrations: on May 1, at La Chaux-de-Fonds, women sold paving stones that will be used to pave a roads. A container made of papier mâché in the shape of a paving stone will be used to receive women's demands. It will be opened in 20 years, providing the female children and grandchildren of the marchers with an occasion to assess the gains they have made during that time.
Contact: Swiss Coordinating Committee for the World March of Women, PO Box 1093, Lausanne, 1001, Switzerland Tel: 021-351-7090; fax: 021-351-7091; @: femco@equal.ch; Web site: http://www.marche-mondiale.ch
France: a celebration of the demands
Forty regional collectives are also organizing actions. In Le Finistere (Brittany), the march took place in May. Women will be marching in June in Lille, Marseille, Lyon, and Saint-Malo. Some women will march to Paris. A group from Montlucon will walk 330 kilometres from their city to Paris, arriving there on June 17.
There is a myriad of local activities: film screenings, demonstrations, production of pamphlets, public information meetings. On June 16, in Valence, women will set up a clothes line in Place St-Jean and pin up their demands.
Finally, the week after June 17, the national coordinating body plans to meet with Prime Minister Lionel Jospin to present the demands and petitions.
Contact: Coordination française pour la Marche mondiale des femmes, 104 rue des Couronnes, Paris, France 75020; Tel: 331-44-62-12-33; fax: 331-44-62-12-34,
Haiti: on the 17th of every month
The Haitian coordinating body represents 43 feminist organizations and institutions. They expect to collect 120,000 signatures for their petition. You will recall that the Haitian petition is made of cardboard to symbolize the building material used for the construction of the shantytowns.
Contact: Comité national pour la Coordination de la Marche a/s Solidarite Fanm Ayisyen SOFA, BP 1638, Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Tel: 509 245 44 60 / 246 32 13 / 249 12 59
Beijing +5
Numerous NGOs have studied and evaluated the Platform for Action and will be present at the meeting. Workshops will be held on subjects of concern to women: social rights, violence, democracy, education, multiculturalism, etc.
Members of the March staff and several members of the International Liaison Committee and national coordinating bodies will be in New York on this occasion.
For information on the conference, check these Web sites:
Almost everywhere on the planet, International Labour Day (May Day) was an occasion for women to organize events under the banner of the World March of Women. Women organized awareness-raising activities about the demands and promoted the signature campaign in support of the March's world demands.
Roughly 10,000 women gathered on Saturday, May 6, in Boromo, located 175 kilometres from the capital, for the Women's March organized by Burkina Faso's March Coordinating Committee. Accompanied by beating drums and flourishing banners, delegations from 45 provinces joined forces to present their demands to the president and the prime minister of the Republic. Also present were the first ladies of the country and administrative, traditional and religious leaders.
The Women's National March in Niger, qualified as "more than successful," was held on May 12. The March was widely covered and the March Committee was received by the cabinet ministers during a meeting at the presidential headquarters of the Republic. The platform was read out and submitted to the president of the Republic before the entire government. Both women and men participated massively in the event, in the capital, Niamey, and in four other regions.
Central African women marched on May 19. Two thousand women gathered in the capital, chanting slogans and singing songs. The prime minister, Anicet Georges Dologuelle, met with them and affirmed his full support for the March. He stated his intention to gradually implement the proposed measures to improve women’s living conditions. Central African women are demanding: 50% representation of women in decision-making positions, the adoption of a law against sexual harassment in educational institutions and the workplace, increased access to electricity and safe water, low-cost social housing, paving roads throughout the country, the creation of structures to provide guidance, training, functional literacy for all women, in particular Muslim women, post-literacy training and income-generating activities.
On May 6, 15,000 young people of the "Worldshake" movement, whose goal is to eliminate the gap between rich and poor, marched to Mechelen, a small Flemish city, where they made the link with the World March of Women.
Five years ago, on June 4, 1995, the women's march, "Du pain et des roses" arrived in Quebec City, Canada. We all know what the impact of that March has been. To commemorate the anniversary, Quebec women are organizing activities in all regions: in the lower St. Lawrence River region, women have proposed that people display, in their windows and other visible areas, lime-green cardboard socks (the symbol and colour of their region) as a sign of support for the March. In Matane, there will be a brunch and street theatre and in Estrie and many other regions, women will sell bread and roses. Almost everywhere, there will be promotional booths and marches and in Montreal, a contingent of cyclists will participate in a 65-kilometre bicycle marathon wearing the March logo.
mobilisation@ffq.qc.ca;
Web site: http://www.ffq.qc.ca/marchequebec
Two national events will be taking place in Canada in June: the launch of a lobby campaign with the federal government to advance the Canadian demands of the March (Contact: Canadian Women's March Committee, Tel: (416) 482-4460; fax: (416) 482-1497; @: march@web.net) and a pan-Canadian conference on the World March organized by the Canadian Labour Congress (tel: (632) 521-3400;
@: lhari@clc-ctc.ca)
Web site: http://www.canada.marchofwomen.org
At 6 p.m. on Wednesday, June 14, women in every region of Switzerland will march and demonstrate. In Switzerland, June 14 is a symbolic date because it is the anniversary of the inclusion in the Swiss Constitution, on June 14, 1981, of the principle of equality of rights for women and men; ten years later, women conducted a strike to protest the non-application of this principle in everyday life, particularly in terms of salaries.
June 17, in Paris, will be women’s day. During a demonstration that begins in Chatelet and ends with a huge party at the Place de la Bastille, marchers in the World March of Women will highlight the issues on which they have chosen to focus: violence; insecurity (employment); poverty (in connection with globalization); undocumented persons, women and immigration; women's health; food and water; and sexuality.
marchfem@ras.eu.org
From now until October, women in Haiti will be holding demonstrations on the 17th of every month, each time targeting a different institution: UN, IMF, and the World Bank.
The Beijing +5 conference will take place in New York from June 2-9. It is a special session of the General Assembly called "Women 2000 Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the21st Century." The session will examine the progress made in implementing the Forward Looking Strategies adopted in Nairobi in 1985 and the Platform for Action, adopted in Beijing in 1995, during the Fourth World Conference on Women. Participants will also discuss future actions and initiatives to be implemented in 2000 and beyond.
http://www.womenaction.org
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/confer/beijing5/
Newsletter, June 2000, Volume 3, Number 3
Other news
- Logistical information on the world actions in Washington and New York will be sent to participating groups in the next newsletter.
- The film, Debout, by Carole Roussopoulos, can be obtained from the Swiss coordinating body. Produced for the March in Switzerland, it is a 14-minute documentary featuring women’s personal stories concerning poverty and violence against women. Extremely well made and moving, this film received the public’s choice award at the Creteil Festival (France).
- New countries and coordinating bodies
- Excerpts from the video of the March 8 news conference held in Montreal will soon be available on the World March of Women Web site. You will be able to see this event that united women representing all regions of the globe via satellite to launch the March. You will also be able to read the text of the support message sent for the occasion from Burma by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, winner of the Nobel peace prize.
- Changing the World: Step by Step features 50 impressive examples of women’s struggles grouped under 12 headings, from the global economy to lesbian rights. These actions will raise awareness and surely make solidarity contagious. The collection is available in French, English and Spanish. A mosaic of women’s struggles throughout the world, brimming with personal stories and practical references, it is a fabulous tool for education, training and mobilization. The suggested contribution is $10 Canadian. To see selections, please visit our Web site:
The number of participating groups has risen to over 4400 from 154 countries. Also, there are now 95 national coordinating bodies who are preparing national actions for the March. Women’s groups in Iceland, Kuwait, Laos, the Syrian Arab Republic and Sao Tomé and Principe joined the World March of Women after March 8.
http://www.marchemondiale.org/en/recueil.html
Last modified 2006-03-23 03:08 PM
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