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Newsletter - August 2000, Special Issue
Newsletter, August 2000,
Special Issue
The Women of the planet are on the move!
Actions by the myriad In September and October, roads and streets will echo with your footsteps! October 17, 2000 Pressure, pressure everywhere A chain of signatures Please note...
Newsletter, August 2000, Special Issue
The Women of the planet are on the move!
The World March of Women in the Year 2000 has begun. Already many countries have organized important actions. Others are getting ready to mobilize and take their national demands to their respective governments. The signature campaign is proceeding apace and the United Nations is bound to receive millions of support cards!
To date, women’s groups in 157 countries and territories are participating in the World March of Women against poverty and violence against women. So far, 101 countries have national coordinating bodies and are organizing large-scale actions. The media speak of the March as an unprecedented event in the worldwide women’s movement. We, the women of the planet, have every reason to be proud of ourselves.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Kofi Annan, will receive our 200-strong delegation on October 17 in New York.
The World Bank's President, Mr. James Wolfensohn, and the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Mr. Horst Köhler, will receive us on October 16 in Washington.
The women’s movement is increasingly becoming a factor to be reckoned with in the world political arena thanks to the struggles of all those who went before us and thanks to the actions we are organizing in our communities, regions, countries or territories, and in our international networks.
Most likely you have had news of the UN special session on women, commonly referred to as Beijing+5. During the session, held from June 5 to 10 in New York, women saw to what extent governments resist recognizing true equality for women. Many governments oppose concrete measures to fight violence and poverty. Nonetheless, thanks to pressure brought to bear by
feminists, timid gains were made, for example, the denunciation of "crimes of honour" and forced marriages. Still, the road to equality is a long one and the World March of Women is more necessary than ever!
We encourage you to take part in the March using any means available to you. We plan to deliver to the United Nations millions of signatures in support of the March’s world demands (support cards, petitions, etc.). All your efforts to collect signatures are essential. Local, regional or national actions are planned for September and October in many countries. We know you will be there! On October 15 an international delegation will join the U.S. national march, which will pass by the offices of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. On October 17 thousands of women from participating countries will rally in the streets of New York to participate in the grand finale of this extraordinary undertaking called the World March.
Of course we urge you to go to New York and Washington if you can. We realize, though, that taking such a trip will be impossible for the vast majority of women due to the cost. That is why we are urging women everywhere to show their solidarity on October 17, not only with the women who will be in New York but with women the world over, by making a gesture of support. The gesture should be accessible to all women in your country and visible to the population. For example, we could make noise everywhere at the same time, we could wear a distinctive piece of clothing or a ribbon, we could stop work for an hour, etc.
Don’t forget to tell us about all the actions you undertake. This is very useful when informing the media about the broad scope of the World March and when we take stock of the event after October 17. A first meeting about the outcome of the March has already been planned: the International Liaison Committee and one representative per country will get together on October 18 in New York. Then the World March of Women Coordinating Committee will collect reports from participating countries and will organize a meeting of the International Liaison Committee in 2001. This meeting will complete the period of reporting back and will discuss follow-up to the March. Indeed, more and more women are demanding that there be follow-up for this broad movement; they want to continue participating in the huge network of solidarity we have all been building together for three years now.
Good luck organizing all your activities! Together let us build a world based on equality, the sharing of wealth, social solidarity, justice, freedom and peace. Women are at the heart of this new world.
Françoise David, President
Since the World March of Women was launched on March 8, 2000, it has given rise to many instances of mobilization and education. In cities and countryside, in 157 countries and territories throughout the planet, women are coming together in an act of solidarity to change the world!
One March, many launchings
In more than 50 countries, March 8, International Women’s Day, was chosen to start off the activities for the World March of Women in the Year 2000. From Sierra Leone to Argentina, via Turkey, Pakistan, the United States and Lebanon, everything was set in motion to mark the start of this extraordinary adventure in solidarity.
Many countries held news conferences to inform the media and the population about the goals and actions of the March. This happened in Senegal, Haiti, Belgium, France, Italy, Mozambique, South Korea and Jordan, among others. In Mexico, conferences were held in 27 states. At the launch in Montreal (Québec, Canada), women committed to the March in Zambia, Peru, Korea, France, Romania, Jordan, Canada and Mozambique spoke, thereby demonstrating the worldwide character of the March and the diversity of the demands being made.
Elsewhere women organized marches! In Ghana, a march was held under the banner "Women united for peace and against HIV-AIDS." In Chile, women paraded alongside floats illustrating the themes of poverty, violence and citizenship. In all the big cities of India, tens of thousands of women marched under the banner of the World March of Women. Marches to kick off the event were also held in Peru, Turkey, Nepal, Bangladesh, El Salvador and Colombia. In Geneva (Switzerland), representatives of 20 European countries were present for the European launch of the March. In the Philippines, 800 women dressed in black marched to protest the death by violence of thousands of Philippine women. On March 12, in Rabat, Morocco, hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated, their slogan being: "We share the land, let us share its bounty."
Other symbolic actions and rallies served as the jump-off point for the World March of Women. In Congo Brazzaville, Nigeria and Nicaragua, national demands were brought to governments. In Brazil, women took part in a demonstration organized by rural women (in Porto Alegre) while others demonstrated outside the stock exchange in São Paulo. Women banged on pots and pans to denounce poverty, violence and inequality. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, women proclaimed March 8 as the "day without women." They stayed home to grieve their loved ones killed in the wars and to grieve their rights as women, which are trampled on.
They marched!
Since the March was launched, the solidarity networks created as a result have been strengthened. Actions continue in different countries around the world to make women’s voices heard. The media cover the events and so the March becomes better known all the time.
National marches were held in Niger (May 12) and in the Central African Republic (May 19), where the prime minister stated his full support for the World March of Women. For his part, the president of Burkina Faso announced to an assembly of 10,000 women (May 6) that a national forum would be set up to discuss the means to meet the women’s demands. Following the appearance of a so-called humorous article in April in the Romanian edition of Playboy magazine, groups of women expressed their anger in the name of the World March. They obtained a public retraction from the editor, who pledged to raise his readers’ awareness of violence against women in his magazine.
On June 4, the fifth anniversary of the Bread and Roses March was commemorated everywhere in Quebec. On June 14, demonstrations were held in all regions of Switzerland. On June 17, 10,000 people marched in Paris (France), the demonstration ending with a huge show. In Colombia, a delegation of 700 women took part in negotiations between the government and the guerrilla forces to restore peace in the country.
In Japan, a national action is planned in Kanagawa in late July, during the G8 Summit. On July 31, to mark Pan-African Women’s Day, marches will be held in Cameroon, Mali and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In August, women will demonstrate in Brasília (Brazil) at the Marcha das Margaridas, organized by rural women workers. A rally will be held in Colombia, in Florencia, where the peace talks took place. Marches are also planned in August in Benin and Guinea.
Everywhere on the planet, the next few months will be full of action. In September, women will make their voices heard in many countries. In Honduras, the women of Central America will mobilize to confront the Central American bank for economic integration. A national march will be staged in Cotonou, Benin, in September. Also in September, in India and Japan, women will deliver their national demands to various regional officials. The same will be done in Nepal. The women of Croatia will ask their government to make September 22 a day against violence, in commemoration of the massacre of three women in a courtroom. In a number of countries in the Arab world, marches will be held on September 24. On September 29, delegations of women from several regions in Haiti will gather in Port-au-Prince. On the 30th, Italian women will take to the streets of Rome.
In October the agenda is even more eventful. During the first ten days demonstrations will be held in Mozambique, Senegal, El Salvador, Ecuador and Bolivia. In Australia, on October 7, women's song and dance festivals will be put on. The women of Galicia (Spain) are turning October 10 into a strike day as far as work and domestic chores are concerned. Women in Pakistan will hold a national conference on violence against women and on poverty. On October 11 and 12, Laotian women will organize a seminar on gender issues in Laotian society.
The Europeans will get started in early October, heading for Brussels (Belgium), where a European march will be held on October 14. In the week before October 17, women will march in all regions of Quebec and will organize a large rally in Montreal. Mexican women are organizing relay marches starting in Chiapas and elsewhere in the country and going to Dallas, in the United States, and then on to New York. For many women from all over, Sunday, October 15 will be a day of both reunions and protest. While women from the United States and from the world over are staging their rally, in Burundi a march will take place to mark Rural Women’s Day. Women will also march on October 15 in Hong Kong, Peru and Canada.
Many countries have chosen October 17 as the crowning point of their activities. In Ivory Coast, Congo Brazzaville, Rwanda, Brazil, Martinique and Rodrigues Island, there will be marches not only in the capital city but also in many towns and villages in the interior. The women of Bangladesh will form a human chain outside the offices of the UNDP and the World Bank in Dhaka to protest against violence.
Clearly, the means are many: workshops, meetings, discussions, demonstrations, articles in the local press, interventions in debates. Contests for songs, poster designs, poems and drawings serve to raise women’s awareness of the World March of Women demands. It is because of the diversity and multiplication of all these activities and actions that the March moves forward!
October 17, the day that women who can will gather in New York and also the day that the international political delegation will meet with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the whole world will resonate with the voices of women involved in the World March of Women. Those travelling to New York and Washington will actually be very few compared with all those mobilized around the planet, in 157 countries and territories, and who, although from a distance, will together make a gesture of feminist solidarity with one another. Wherever you are, no matter how many you are, no matter what your circumstances (at home or away from home, at work, resting, going about your daily business), you too can participate in the March in you own particular way. No matter what means or action you choose, on October 17, devote an hour to the World March of Women!
On October 17, the members of the World March’s international political delegation will be your spokespersons in New York. In keeping with the consensus reached by the International Liaison Committee in November 1999, this delegation will include the members of the International Liaison Committee; members of the March Coordinating Committee; one representative per participating country (157 at present), chosen by the country’s national coordinating body for the March; and representatives of women from countries in particularly acute conflict.
Join us!
For those who can attend the world rally in New York on October 17—and you are all invited, of course!—go at 11:00 a.m. to Dag Hammarskjöld Park (47th Street and 1st Avenue). For those planning to go to Washington as well, on October 15, the meeting place is at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 13th Street North West at 11:00 a.m. This U.S. women’s march will stop outside the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, where the international participants will take a special place. A set of travel notes is available for women going to the United States.
What We Want
The World March of Women has a world platform composed of 17 demand and is demanding from the UN and its member States concrete measures to:
We also want to:
Values underlying the World March
In addition to the world demands of the March, national platforms of demands have been drawn up in a number of participating countries, based on women’s specific situations and concerns there.
Some countries have opted to apply political pressure to have March demands adopted or to further them. In many places, national demands have been or will be submitted to the country’s legislature. Elsewhere lobby groups have launched campaigns to pressure decision makers and governments. Other groups have aimed their national and regional demands at international institutions such as the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the UN’s regional offices or the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Action sheets
The World March of Women’s Strategy Committee wrote action sheets on some of the world demands thought likely to result in concrete, short-term gains. Serving to complement the Advocacy Guide, the action sheets are a tool for use in popular education and action. They seek to link our world demands with national strategies and to strengthen ties of solidarity so that all of us, together with allied networks, act to achieve concrete progress in both the short and long term.
The action sheets are available for participating groups at the following address on the March Web site: http://www.marchemondiale.org/en/revendications.html
The sheets focus on the demands for the elimination of poverty concerned with:
The sheets on the demands related to violence against women indicate the international instruments that countries have ratified, namely:
World demands V-10 and V-11 on sexual orientation were supported by the majority of women present at the International Preparatory Meeting in October 1998, as long as these demands were adopted on a country-by-country basis. Some delegates were not in a position to commit themselves to defend these demands publicly in their country. The demands continue to be an integral part of the World March of Women undertaking. As of July 18, national coordinating bodies in 18 countries had expressed to us their support for these demands. Moreover, women’s groups from 37 countries indicated to us that they supported the demands.
According to our estimates as of mid-July we had already collected almost one million signatures! These are only some of the signatures we have to gather and that will be delivered to the UN in New York on October 17. The campaign is well under way!
You can express your "2000 good reasons to march" by signing the card to support the world demands of the World March of Women. Sign and have others sign! You are asked first to sign the card, petition or other form the support takes in your country. If you have e-mail, you could also start a chain of signatures on the Web. Write a short message to your friends and include the address of the electronic page where they can sign on-line. Ask them to send the message to their friends in turn, and so on and on and on. You are familiar with the principle. A rapid, effective chain can be started this way. Note that the signatures we record through the Web site will be shown as coming from your country.
We have started the countdown—and time is running short! To be able to include the signatures in time for October 17, you should send them, as soon as possible, to your national coordinating body, which will send them on to New York. For participating groups in countries with no coordinating body, please send your signatures, counted and labelled with your country’s name, no later than October 2, 2000, directly to New York (Riverdale Station, PO BOX 1206, Bronx, New York 10471, USA). Don’t forget that our goal is to gather at least ten million signatures from the four corners of the Earth! Every signature is a voice that, joined with millions more from all over the world, serves as an undeniable instrument of political pressure.
Mosaic in Tribute to Women Worldwide
Changing the World Step by Step, published by the World March of Women, is a collection documenting the problems women experience every day and their struggles to make a better world. It is divided into 12 themes—from the global economy to women workers’ rights in the informal sector, from different forms of violence against women to struggles for citizenship. Published in French, English and Spanish, it is a wonderful teaching, training and mobilizing tool. Suggested contribution: $10 Canadian. To read excerpts, please visit our Web site:
Many lyrics for a single musical theme
In the spring of 2000, we invited women from the participating groups to write their own verses using the World March musical theme. We received over 40 songs from 23 countries. Some groups even sent us a recording of their song. It was so inspiring to hear the different rhythms and sounds!
Karen Young, one of the composers of the musical theme, used the verses written by the women of the world to put together the international song for the March. The song is in 20 languages. At least one phrase from each country that answered the invitation was included.
Karen Young, Janet Lumb and a chorus will sing the international song on stage in New York on October 17. At the rally, we will also play recordings that participating groups have sent us. There is still time for you to send us tapes or CDs of your country’s World March song.
Unfortunately, due to lack of time and financial means, we will not be able to record the international song and distribute the disc to participating groups. We will, however, put it on the World March Web site soon. You will then be able to tell the media in your region where to find it. We will make sure it is as easy as possible to download. We will also post the words to the song and a translation into English, French and Spanish.
An active Web site
The World March of Women Web site (www.ffq.qc.ca/marche2000) is an important tool for women who have access to the Internet, and it is constantly being updated. The national slogans, the Web sites of a number of national marches, the list of countries and participating groups, the newsletters and news releases can all be found there. You will also find analytical documents such as the advocacy guide to the world demands. A photo gallery shows you the March launching in several countries and the actions that followed:
Fédération des femmes du Québec
Newsletter, August 2000, Special Issue
Actions by the myriad
Newsletter, August 2000, Special Issue
In September and October, roads and streets will echo with your footsteps!
Newsletter, August 2000, Special Issue
October 17, 2000
Newsletter, August 2000, Special Issue
Pressure, pressure everywhere
Newsletter, August 2000, Special Issue
A chain of signatures
Newsletter, August 2000, Special Issue
Please note...
http://www.marchemondiale.org/en/recueil.html
http://www.marchemondiale.org/photos/index-general.html.
Last modified 2006-03-23 03:08 PM
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