Newsletter - August 2003

WOMEN OF THE WORLD TAKE ON THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION

A call to action

In preparation for the next ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO), to be held in Cancún, Mexico, September 10 to 14, 2003, women all over the planet are either readying their gender proposals for presentation at the Peoples’ Forum for Alternatives to the WTO in Cancún, or they are planning to stage demonstrations and other actions in their respective countries.

The WTO, set up in 1995 to regulate international trade, operates on the basis of anti-democratic relations thereby becoming a weapon against poor countries and sustainable development. In closed-door preliminary mini-meetings, a small group of rich countries decide on laws and rules favouring their own interests; they then impose them on developing countries—more often than not with those countries’ leaders’ consent. There is no room for civil society to intervene, even when matters compromising humankind’s present and future are at stake.

As pointed out in the recent call by the Hemispheric and Global Assembly against the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) and the WTO to derail the 5th Ministerial of the WTO, countries find themselves in a context of persistent economic war. The trend is toward the unipolar control of a world where the market leads to the private accumulation of wealth and not to looking after peoples’ needs. Economic relations are thus dehumanized.

As women we are affected differentially by those anti-democratic, discriminatory measures that strengthen inequality and unjust situations. We have endured such circumstances for centuries in patriarchal societies. We are forced to join the job market under increasingly unfavourable conditions. Our unpaid workload is becoming more and more burdensome as we take over tasks related to the education and health of children, the elderly and sick people that used to be the government’s responsibility. This is just one example. Poverty is on the rise generally and we women continue to take first place in statistics on the world’s poor (70%). Violence against us is increasing because of our deteriorating economic conditions and the commercialization of our bodies.

Faced with this bleak panorama, women are more and more determined to join forces worldwide to express our rejection of a model that excludes our rights and also to internationalize our hopes and battles. Perhaps one of the World March of Women’s most significant contributions was to have strengthened the spaces for worldwide exchange between women.

This is what prompts us to search for new paths; it also fires our imaginations. In Cancún, we will hold an international forum called WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN TRADE AGREEMENTS on September 8 and 9, 2003. Speakers will come from all continents and we will be able to share our experiences, struggles and actions against unfair trade legislation and also achieve a common position on the WTO.

Given that the increase in poverty contributes to greater violence against women, as part of the Peoples’ Forum activities on the International Day of Mourning for economic, military and gender wars, on September 11, in Cancún, we will perform a stage play. The play, denouncing the serial murders of women in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, will symbolize our rejection of this type of violence all over the world. Other cultural activities specifically by women include performances by a group of women rockers and a singer. A photo exhibit using plotters will be presented at the International Women’s Forum, and other activities will showcase the status of women, our struggles and gains.

Not all women on the planet can be in Cancún of course, but ALL of us can participate in activities and demonstrations in our countries organized by the women’s movement and the social movement at large. We will mobilize to “derail the WTO,” piece together our own alternatives and demand from our governments and world leaders that they stop economic, military and gender attacks. Actions by women anywhere in the world will lend more credibility and strength to the voices raised by their sister militants in Cancún.

Together we will succeed in changing the rules of the game; we will build a fairer and more equitable world where peoples will not serve the market, instead the market will be a means to improve our status, with full recognition for our economic, social, political, cultural, sexual and reproductive rights.

In closing we want to remind our readers that, in addition to actions planned for the International Day of Mourning for economic, military and gender wars that will be held everywhere on September 11, an International Day of Action has been planned with all the international social networks in Cancún and everywhere else to derail the WTO on September 13.

For more information on activities in Cancún and elsewhere, visit the following Web pages:
www.cancun2003.org and www.movsoc.org

Or write to:
mujereshaciacancun@yahoo.com.mx
and/or mujerdialogo@prodigy.net.mx

Leonor Aida Concha and Gaby Labelle, World March of Women- Mexico

See also : “Your money AND your life”: the World Trade Organization’s premise - Mobilization Paper for the International Forum on Women’s Rights in Trade Agreements. The Forum is part of the Peoples’ Forum for Alternatives to the WTO (World Trade Organization) that will be held before and during the 5th Ministerial Meeting of the WTO in Cancún (Mexico) in September 2003.

WOMEN PEASANTS ARE PROTAGONISTS OF THE WORLD MARCH OF WOMEN

Brazilian women are organizing the Marcha das Margaridas on August 26, when 50,000 women are expected to gather in Brasília, the country’s capital. They are demanding access to land and water, a decent minimum wage, health care, and an end to violence against women. Supported by social movements, the Marcha das Margaridas will be an important opportunity to remind President Lula's democratic and popular government that the people want change and hungry people can’t wait.  Representatives from rural women workers’ movements in several Latin America countries are expected to participate in the march.

Julia Di Giovanni, World March of Women - Brazil

2004 WORLD SOCIAL FORUM

Call for the organization of self-directed activities

Preparations are well underway for the next World Social Forum (WSF), to be held in Mumbai (India) from January 16-21, 2004 (www.wsfindia.org). During the recent meeting of the World March of Women’s International Committee, we talked about the March’s involvement in the next WSF. In addition to our continuing participation in the Forum’s International Council, the World March of Women in India is also involved in organizing the WSF, partly through preparations of the Women’s Forum, which will precede the WSF. In the next months we will send you more information about the diverse activities of the March during this important event (among other things, we are organizing a workshop about our global action in 2005). The March's International Committee and Alliances and Globalization collective will also organize debates and mobilization activities and, as in the past, will work to ensure the presence of feminists throughout the Forum program.

Right now we particularly want to draw your attention to a fast-approaching deadline. Registration of activities to be held at the World Social Forum is now open. This year we launch a specific invitation to national coordinating bodies and March participating groups to organize their own activities (seminars, workshops or meetings) at the WSF on different topics linked to poverty and violence against women.

The deadline for registering your own activity in the WSF program is September 30, 2003. The registration form is at this address: www.wsfindia.org/event2004/ The registration deadline for activities was moved ahead from that of the first three forums in Porto Alegre, in order to facilitate coordination of the activities and enable participants of the 2004 WSF to have the overall program as early as possible. For more information about the process, please check this Web site: www.forumsocialmundial.org.br You have until November 30, 2003, to register your group and delegates as participants in the World Social Forum in Mumbai.

Please let us know if you are planning an activity. We can then make sure that information about the different activities of the World March of Women is transmitted to the women who will be attending. We hope many of you will respond to this appeal so we can take our place in this important forum and continue to advance our common thinking, analysis and strategies for making another world possible. These activities will be important occasions for women of the March to discuss with each other, with other feminist networks and with allied social movements.