Newsletter - March 2002

A large contingent of women associated with the World March in 20 countries participated in the World Social Forum held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, from January 31 to February 5. Check the March Web site for news of our participation and to read the papers prepared for the violence against women conference and the seminar, "A Feminist Alternative for Another World."
(http://www.marchemondiale.org/en/fsm2002.html).

Women from the World March are also involved in preparations for the Global Forum: "Financing for the right to sustainable and equitable development," to be held March 14-16, in Monterrey, Mexico. This Forum precedes the UN international conference on financing for development that will be held in the same location on March 18-22. The March will be presenting a paper entitled "What Type of Financing for What Type of Development" at a workshop during the Global Forum; it will be available shortly on the March Web site.

The International Follow-up Committee, formed during the 3rd international meeting of the World March of Women in October 2001, met in Brazil from February 5-6 of this year. Here is an overview of the topics discussed and several decisions that were made during the meeting.

The Follow-up Committee made a very positive assessment of the March's participation in the World Social Forum (WSF). We are pleased with the papers produced in preparation for the Forum, the activities organized, including the violence against women conference and the seminar on feminist alternatives, and our internal organization throughout the event. We had important discussions with representatives of other feminist networks and succeeded in making considerable progress in integrating feminist analysis into the WSF. Our future prospects for the WSF in 2003 include participation in the international board and organization of an international tribunal on violence against women. In addition, starting in October 2002, regional social forums will be held in several regions of the world. March participating groups and coordinating bodies are encouraged to participate actively in these regional forums and also organize women's forums in advance of regional forums wherever possible. We also wish to continue strengthening our alliances with other networks, among them youth, and work to increase women's participation in the various panels and events of the Forum. Even though women accounted for 43% of WSF participants, there were still far too few of us visible as spokespersons and speakers.

New March work groups were formed, joining those created in October 2001. In addition to groups on poverty, violence against women, lesbians' rights, the WSF and the Mexico Conference and Forum, we wish to create work groups to develop our alert network, the structure of the March and the use of the Internet and new technologies as mobilization tools.

It was proposed that the 4th international meeting of the March be held in Delhi, India, during the first week of December 2002 (to be confirmed). This meeting was originally to have been held in Mexico, but after some discussion, we decided to accept the invitation of NAWO (one of the Indian March coordinating bodies). The Mexican coordinating body is in full agreement with this proposal.

We also took the opportunity to continue thinking about future avenues of action for the March (a topic that we had little time to explore during last October's international meeting). During this brainstorming session, several interesting ideas emerged: women's street parliaments, days of action every October 17 based on international themes, an international women's fair, popular consultations of women at the grassroots, an awareness-raising and mobilization campaign concerning the image of women in our respective societies, another broad world action of the March culminating in a country torn by conflict, etc. We will continue developing action ideas with a view to discussing them in more detail and adopting action strategies at the 4th international meeting next December.

The World March Web site is constantly evolving, so we encourage you to check it out regularly. Among the new additions, you will find texts and images from the 3rd international meeting in October 2001 and two new sections called "International Meetings"
(http://www.marchemondiale.org/autresrv.html)
and "Urgent Actions"
(http://www.marchemondiale.org/actionsurg.html).
This last section includes numerous links and action calls by diverse movements. We encourage you to support these campaigns. This section will be updated constantly; obviously it is not an exhaustive list.