Newsletter - December 2003

COLLECTIVE ACTION TO CREATE OUR FEMINIST UTOPIA!

Bringing together women’s groups in 163 countries and territories, the global feminist action network called the World March of Women has entered a new phase of mobilization. At our last international meeting (in India last March) we adopted an action plan extending to 2006. In July 2003 the March’s International Committee (composed of activists from 11 countries) met in Utrecht, the Netherlands, to finalize the action plan and elaborate the next steps of the work and mobilization plan. Here are some excerpts from a letter the International Committee sent out in September to national coordinating bodies of the March briefly describing our action plan. We hope you will find it stimulating and that it will make you want to participate in these actions in solidarity with women around the world!

The Women’s Global Charter for Humanity

The idea of collectively creating a Women’s Global Charter for Humanity springs from the urgent need for economic, political, social and cultural alternatives to make another world possible. We want to tell the whole world that it is possible to make another world founded on gender equality, equality of all human beings and peoples, and the respect of our planet’s environment. We also want to debate our visions of this other world and our feminist solutions among women and with allied organizations, locally, nationally, regionally and internationally.

We will propose the outline of a Charter for another world based on universal and feminist values. The text will draw on the 17 world demands of the March for the formulation of alternative proposals. We want to create a proclamation of universal principles rather than a list of demands. It will describe the social model we want—our feminist utopia that will guide us in designing our action strategies.

Why a Charter?

The goal of the Charter is to affirm the indispensable nature of our movement as a force for global social transformation and to serve as a mobilizing tool for international women’s movements. It is addressed to women of the world and their organizations; to civil society and other social movements; and to institutions (local, national, regional and international). As part of the different actions of the March, the Charter will be presented to national, local or regional governments, and used in various ways to challenge political and economic institutions. We will also present it to other social movements. Our action will again be rooted in a popular education process, enabling each participating group to make women’s voices heard and link up with alternatives proposed by women in other countries. The Charter will be the foundation stone of our actions and popular education activities. Our sharing of this feminist vision for humanity will take different forms in our respective communities. We will also come up with ways to link this global ‘manifesto’ to our local and national concerns and demands. We will find creative means for expressing the Charter using theatre, song and—of course—a quilt!

Drafting the charter

It is understood that the process of drafting the Women’s Global Charter for Humanity will include all groups who participate in our network and movement. It has also been agreed that the Charter’s content will be inspired by the WMW’s 17 world demands and reflect the vision, ideas and strategies from which they emerged. We also want to highlight the contribution of feminists of recent decades whose writing is still relevant today and could enrich our work on the Charter.

The proposed process for drafting the Charter involves three components:

• Gather up inspiring writing

We plan to develop an inventory of feminist writings that reinforce our vision and that could help us to formulate the text of our Charter (for example, Déclaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne by Olympe de Gouges, certain texts produced by the World March of Women, etc.), and ‘best practices’ that have been implemented at the local, national or regional level to promote women’s rights.

• Questions for discussion in WMW participating groups

We will list the questions and debates that need to be addressed in order to further particular aspects of our vision.

• Contributions of local groups

We also want local and grass-roots organizations to participate in the elaboration of the Charter, using popular education methods and creative means to enable women to express their aspirations and dreams for changing the world.

We have already sent national coordinating bodies a general outline proposing the Charter’s content so that discussions could begin with a view to elaborating the first draft. As a framework, we proposed five broad themes (universal rights, economy, environment, freedoms and equality, and democracy). Based on the comments we received we decided to approach the themes as feminist values—equality, freedoms, solidarity, justice and peace. In February a first draft of the Charter will be sent to national coordinating bodies of the March so they can organize discussions and contributions of grass-roots groups. After we have received their comments a second draft will be written and the Charter will be ratified at the 5th international meeting of the World March of Women to be held in Rwanda in December 2004.

Throughout the process of drafting the Charter and preparing the WMW’s next actions, general coordinating duties will be the responsibility of the International Committee and international Secretariat of the WMW (based in Montréal). In addition, because we want to decentralize operations, some national coordinating bodies will be responsible for coordinating work on particular international issues. To this end, the International Committee has asked the Québec coordinating body to join the international Secretariat to set up a sub-committee that will be responsible for overseeing the process of drafting and ratifying the Charter. Québec’s Coalition Nationale des Femmes Contre la Pauvreté et la Violence and the Fédération des Femmes du Québec were happy to take on this role.

Global actions for 2005

World Relay of the Women’s Global Charter for Humanity

On March 8, 2005, the Women’s Global Charter for Humanity will be launched with simultaneous public events in every participating country. On the same day, the World Relay of the Women’s Global Charter will also be launched. A copy of the Charter will circulate throughout the world, stopping at 50 focal points. The relay will start in Brazil and continue through the Americas, Asia and Oceania, the Middle East, Europe and Africa – ending on October 17, 2005 (International Day for the Eradication of Poverty), in an African country (yet to be chosen). A world map will accompany the Charter; women in the country receiving the Charter will embroider their location on the map to illustrate the Charter’s journey. Women at each stopping point will keep the Charter for three to four days, during which different events will be held; it will then be sent to the next country.

National and Regional Relay Marches

Countries and regions (where possible) will organize relay marches between March 8 and October 17. Countries that are also stopping points could organize their marches to coincide with the Charter’s arrival.

Global Patchwork Solidarity Quilt

On or around March 8, at the conclusion of popular education activities based on our Women’s Global Charter for Humanity that will have taken place across the planet, women will be invited to express their vision for another world creatively on pieces of material that will then be assembled into a patchwork solidarity quilt. These squares will be sent to a central location (by June 1, 2005) to be assembled and then brought to the international delegation event on October 17 (see below). After the October 17 action, the quilt will be divided into five sections that will travel to the different world regions so women can see them and use them in regional, national and international actions (in particular November 25, International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women).

24 Hours of Women’s Global Solidarity and Actions Against Poverty and Violence Against Women

At noon (local time) on October 17, 2005, actions (one hour long) with some common symbolic elements will take place all over the world. The actions will begin in Oceania and follow the sun westward, from one time zone to the next for a 24-hour period – forming a 24-hour-long feminist relay action.

Arrival of the Charter and Solidarity Quilt

On October 17 the Charter and the quilt will arrive at the final destination point in Africa and be received by a small international delegation as part of a solidarity action.

WOMEN CITIZENS OF THE WORLD IN CANCÚN

The International Forum on Women’s Rights in Trade Agreements, held on September 8 and 9, 2003, was one of the first activities of the Peoples’ Forum for an Alternative to the World Trade Organization. It was very successful, among other things because it contributed to building a women’s worldwide front of resistance to the imposition of a universal market-driven socio-economic model. Women from the World March of Women in several countries took part in the Forum, while the WMW of Mexico was one of the organizing groups.

For two days, 230 women from 43 countries belonging to women’s networks on the five continents analyzed the decisions made by the handful of developed countries that control the WTO. We also examined those decisions’ impact on quality of life of women and peoples in general. In over 30 presentations and in plenary sessions, we discussed the most significant items on women’s agenda in relation to agriculture; food security and self-ufficiency; GMOs; alternative rural economies operating in solidarity; health, education and water services; trade-related intellectual property rights (TRIPs Agreement); labour rights; investments; militarization; violence against women; foreign debt; and migration.

The following declaration was adopted at the Forum.

Political Declaration of the International Forum on Women’s Rights in Trade Agreements (September 8 and 9, 2003, Cancún, Quintana Roo, Mexico)

We the women participants from Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Germany, Great Britain, Guatemala, Guyana, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Mongolia, Netherlands, Palestine, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Senegal, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, United States and Venezuela

DECLARE:

1. That the Fifth Ministerial World Trade Organization Conference in Cancún is held within a global context marked by an atmosphere of war, militarization and unilateralism in several regions of the world.

2. That the big economic powers and multinational corporations have brought out new strategies to condition and pressure developing countries through regional and bilateral agreements that deepen inequality and disadvantage, with the resulting negative impact on communities, indigenous peoples, and especially women.

3. That WTO negotiations and free trade agreements violate women's human, economic, social, and cultural rights, enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in many international agreements.

4. That the least favoured populations of the world are legally unprotected because the aforementioned commercial agreements are given unequal status. Whereas the agreements are given constitutional status in developing countries, this is not true for the big economic powers. Once the agreements are signed it is very hard to cancel them.

5. That the themes being discussed in the Fifth Ministerial Conference have a drastically negative impact on women's quality of life on the planet.

• Agriculture is a basic activity and way of life for the development of countries, since it constitutes the means of sustenance for billions of people and families. It is also the basis of food security and self-sufficiency, and is related to the knowledge and enrichment that women have contributed and protected for thousands of years.

• Privatization of the public services transfers the social costs of reproduction onto women. Health care, education, water, and other services are the public responsibility of governments, and thus cannot be converted into mere merchandise by WTO agreements.

• The agreements on trade-related intellectual property usurp communities’ rights to their natural resources and the traditional knowledge of indigenous women. They foster privatization of genetic resources and biodiversity, inhibit developing countries’ scientific and technological development; and give supremacy to the earnings of the large transnational companies.

6. That the so-called "new themes" such as investment, competition, government acquisitions, and facilitation of trade should not be opened to negotiations because they will lead to the impoverishment of developing countries and contribute to placing more obstacles in the way of overcoming gender inequality.

7. That women will promote an alternative globalization agenda centred on women’s human, economic, social and cultural rights in which:

• Nations’ food security and self-sufficiency are assured, women's preponderant role in agricultural production is recognized, and gender relations are transformed to allow women the full exercise of citizenship.

• International agreements and treaties related to human, environmental, labour, sexual and reproductive rights take precedence over trade rules and agreements.

• Decision-making bodies and mechanisms leading to forms of democratic governance among nations are promoted so that developing countries can rescue their right to sovereignty. These mechanisms must guarantee women's equal participation.

The International Forum on Women's Rights in Trade Agreements calls on the governments of countries to not sign any agreements that undermine women's quality of life.

We call on the Peoples’ Forum for an Alternative to the WTO to join in this declaration and adopt the demands of women, who make up 70% of the world's poor.

Mujeres Hacia Cancun (the collective that prepared the forum, comprising several organizations, including the World March of Women)

EUROPEAN ASSEMBLY ON WOMEN’S RIGHTS

Following the first European Social Forum (ESF), held in Florence in November 2000, came a proposal to organize a European Assembly on Women’s Rights for the next ESF in Paris (in November 2003). This idea answered several concerns:

• a very negative assessment of the degree to which women’s concerns and demands were reflected in the Forum: very few women speakers in the plenary sessions and seminars; very few interventions on gender within the thematic areas; participation of men in workshops and seminars dealing with women’s issues was in general extremely low...;

• the need to bring together for the first time within the ESF as many European feminist organizations as possible in order to share information and experiences; identify priorities for collective work; decide on joint campaigns; and, to accomplish this, to create European networks and a Manifesto of European demands;

• the desire to affirm and take our place in the alternative globalization movement.

In short, we agreed on the urgent need to construct a common European feminist force to resist the attacks on our gains and to win new ones, especially in countries where the status of women lags behind.

A great success

We rose to the challenge and even surpassed our expectations: 3500 people in the big tent, including 360 associations and organizations from 55 countries in five continents. People came in droves, which proves that women’s liberation is still a hot topic; it also shows there is a huge expectation and need for mobilization. We were able to ascertain that all the European networks had both the capacity and the desire to mobilize for the event and felt they had a place there. We are sensing the birth of a European conscience that needs to mobilize to gain strength. 

Feminist activitists and women’s organizations were in the majority at this assembly. But the impact was increased because many participants considered the Assembly an integral part of the Forum and therefore an extra opportunity to listen and be educated on this subject.

Despite a few logistical problems, the ambiance was positive, with a prevailing feeling of warmth, solidarity, and resolute optimism, punctuated by thoughtful, often touching remarks. The day of plenary sessions and workshops (Women and Power, Women and War, Employment/Poverty/Instability, Women and Violence, Migrant Women, Right to Choose) provided people with a better understanding of the status and rights of women in Europe and paved the way for coordinated work.

The Women’s Assembly and the rest of the ESF

The Women’s Assembly had an impact on the rest of the European Social Forum, and this can be accounted for in several ways:

• its existence meant that feminists were forced to participate in all the preparations for the ESF and exercise more vigilance;

• during preparations for the ESF, it enabled several debates on women’s place in the Forum; people were consequently more careful about including women in the plenary sessions and seminars, although the generous goal of parity announced at the beginning was more or less forgotten by the end. Nevertheless, the percentage of women speakers rose from roughly 20% in Florence to about 35%. Work remains to be done! The women’s movement we have constructed must help the social and alternative globalization movement take women’s problems into account.

We opened the ESF—that is how the day was seen by the public and the media; this Assembly caused a big jump in the participation of feminist associations in the ESF; people came to the Women’s Assembly and went back to the alternative globalization movement afterward. All this is very positive.

The impact and success of this day prove that it was necessary and that we were right to fight to make it happen. Now that we have demonstrated its importance, there is general agreement that it should be an ongoing part of the ESF.

Nelly Martin – World March of Women - France (article based on notes from the evaluation meeting of the Collectif de préparation de l’Assemblée européenne des droits des femmes)

THE WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: A PROCESS FOR US TO APPROPRIATE

The 4th World Social Forum (WSF) will be held in Mumbai, India, from January 16–21, 2004. For the first time, the Forum will be taking place outside Porto Alegre. This is a concrete way of demonstrating that the WSF process belongs to all social movements and organizations who are critical of the brand of globalization that narrows our world and imposes a prefabricated vision, including solutions with dramatic consequences. At the WSF International Council in 2003, the World March of Women supported the decision to maintain the annual event in a country of the global South, while changing the location of the World Social Forum at regular intervals. This allows different communities to mobilize and demonstrate their opposition to the war, exclusion, inequality and hegemony in all its forms.

The WSF offers the women’s movement, in particular the World March of Women, an opportunity to raise awareness of feminist analysis and create new alliances that will enable us to create the social transformation we wish for. But this process is not without problems. It must be acknowledged that certain groups and individuals are resistant to sharing the space created by the WSF in the global arena. Although feminism has marked most social movements in recent decades, all too often it is relegated to second place when it comes to setting priorities. Feminism is women’s concern, and socialism is everyone’s concern! Women-related questions are ‘specific’ while men’s concerns are of a ‘general’ nature! The struggles against neoliberalism, imperialism, and neocolonialism are, at times, priorities. When it comes to the struggle against patriarchy—well, things will get better when we’ve made advances in the other struggles...

But women don’t want—and indeed, cannot—wait any longer. Our challenge now is to clearly define our priorities and expectations regarding the World Social Forum as a process and as members of the Social Movements International Network, which was created by the WSF and of which the World March of Women is a founding member. At the next Forum in India, on January 20, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., to be precise, a panel will debate the future of the World Social Forum process. We intend to participate and we invite you to send us your comments on the WSF process in your country or region of the world to add to our discussion.

In another vein, we must also review our association with other feminist networks involved in the WSF. From January 14 to 15, in Mumbai, there is a meeting of representatives of regional and international feminist networks. It will be an occasion to review our working processes and identify points of convergence in our respective analysis and actions. Five women of the World March’s International Committee will represent us at the meeting. They will present our 2005 action plan and discuss the Women’s Global Charter for Humanity.

We will also have a chance to present our 2005 actions during a panel discussion jointly organized by the WMW, ALAI-Mujeres (L’Agence Latino-américaine d’Information), the Network of Women Transforming the Economy (REMTE), the women of Via Campesina/CLOC (Latin-American Coordination of Peasant Organizations), and South-South Dialogue. The title of the panel is Diverse Alternatives for Global Change. It will be held on January 18, from 9 a.m. until noon.

On the evening of January 18, the main activity will treat an issue of great interest to feminists: The War Against Women/Women Against War. The World March of Women in India, for its part, is organizing a workshop entitled Religious Fundamentalism, Communalism, Castism, and Racism: the Agenda of Globalization? that will likely be held on January 18.

The Indian women’s movement is organizing a large women’s conference on many subjects, but we don’t have the exact date for this event. The World March of Women has been invited to participate in different workshops and panels, among them one on “Women and the Security of the Commons,” in which the German economist Maria Mies will be participating. There, we will have a chance to present our current thinking on maco-economic alternatives. We have had other invitations also: from Bread for the World, to be part of a panel on violence against women, and from Social Alert, for a panel on women and the informal economy, but the dates of these activities have not yet been confirmed. We are also planning a workshop on Feminism and Action/Activism in the youth camp, as follow-up to our activity at the 2003 WSF.

For women who are going to Mumbai, we remind you to let us know how we can contact you between now and the WSF and during the Forum because we also want to organize a meeting of women of the World March of Women for January 16 and another meeting to evaluate on January 21. With women in India we are planning diverse visibility activities for the World March of Women. Among other things, we will have a stand where you will be able to pick up more information on our activities during the 4th edition of the World Social Forum.

As it has in preceding years, the World March of Women International Committee will use the occasion of being together at the Forum to meet with each other. We will hold our second meeting since the New Delhi International Meeting in Mumbai from January 11–13. It will be a chance for us to revise the first draft of the Women’s Global Charter for Humanity before sending it out for a first consultation! In the Charter we refer to values feminists have defended for many years: equality, freedoms, solidarity, justice and peace. Among other things, the Charter will be an extremely useful tool in the World Social Forum process, driving our appeal to build another world based on these values.

THE WORLD MARCH OF WOMEN IN YOUR COUNTRY

In the next issue of the newsletter we will publish examples of recent WMW actions in different countries. So if the World March of Women in your country or region has organized actions recently (marches, rallies, etc.)—or wants to announce upcoming actions—please send us a short paragraph describing the event (in either English, French, or Spanish, with a maximum of 150 words).