The World March is at a Turning Point

From July 2 to 9, 2006, the World March of Women will meet in a general assembly in Lima, Peru. In addition to deciding on a strategic plan and the actions to carry out in coming years, this 6th International Meeting will vote on the International Secretariat’s move to a country in the South (Brazil and Mali are candidates).

This is a turning point since the Secretariat (executive team) of the World March of Women has worked out of Montréal, Québec, since the very start (1998). The choice of Montréal stems from a historical fact, namely, that the March began as a project launched by the Fédération des femmes du Québec. As the March developed into a worldwide phenomenon (164 countries and territories, and over 5000 groups are members), our concern about taking into account the diversity of sensibilities, visions and actions led us to this process.

Before explaining the content of this meeting, just have a look at the steps the March has done.

From 2000 to 2005, numerous actions took place.

Since its official launching on March 8, 2000, we realized numerous actions. As part of our mobilization and sensibilization actions, we collected five million signatures signatures in support of the demands that we delivered to the UN.

At the same moment, throughout 2000, the national coordinating bodies created for the March drafted national platforms and organized national actions and marches. Over 6000 groups from 161 countries and territories took part in the March.

Some key moments were: on October 16, 2000, in meetings with leaders of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, a delegation of the March denounced the devastating impact on women of these institutions' policies.

On October 17, 2000: 10,000 women marched in the streets of New York City, while a delegation presented the March demands to UN leaders.  On October 18, 2000, women decided to continue their collective action. Therefore, they decided during the 3rd International Meeting of the March, on October 6, 2001, to increase the March’s presence at anti-globalization forums. Peace was also adopted as a priority.

An International Committee was formed at the 4th international meeting which took place un India, May 2033. Collectives and working groups were named to follow-up some dossiers : violence and sex trafficking, rights of lesbians, peace and militarism, alliances and globalization, feminist economic alternatives.

Since 2001, the World March of Women participated actively at the World Social Forums  (Porto Alegre, Brazil,  2001, 2002, 2003 ; Mumbai, India, 2004; Bamako, Caracas et Karachi en 2006). It played a role during the Peoples' Summit of the Americas in Québec city, April 2001, at the Global Forum on Financing the Right to Sustainable and Equitable Development, in Monterrey, Mexico, March 2002, at the Sustainable Development Conference, in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2002, at the G8 Summit at Kananaskis, in Alberta (Canada), June 2002, at the Beijing +10 Conference in 2005 in  New-York and in numerous regional forums.

We published numerous documents during all these meetings as well  We also put out a document on feminist economic alternatives, for internal distribution, and published a critique of the Millennium Development Goals based on our Women's Global Charter for Humanity.

The issue of peace has been at the core of our concerns since the March’s inception. In October 2000, women from five regions in recent or current conflict situations wrote a women’s declaration for peace, which was delivered to the UN Assistant Secretary-General. In 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2005, while we were holding International Meetings or actions, we issued declarations and marched against attacks, bombings and invasions, whether they took place in New York, Afghanistan or Iraq. At the same time, we denounced all armed conflict and governments’ inaction in recognizing the role of women in conflict prevention and resolution and in peace building. In 2004, we held an international seminar on peace and demilitarization in Goma, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and from there we denounced the forms of violence against women in war. A worldwide campaign began with the aim of giving a face to the reality of violence against women and to denounce the impunity of attackers who use women’s bodies as another arena of warfare.

On December 10, 2004, the World March of Women adopted the Women’s Global Charter for Humanity during its 5th international meeting in Kigali, Rwanda.

On March 8, 2005 the global Launch of the Charter took place in São Paolo, Brazil. This event marked the beginning of a world relay of the Charter and a progressive assembly of the Patwork World Solidarity Quilt. The relay stopped in 54 countries.

At every stop, women organize actions to present and distribute the Charter and transmit it to decision-makers, asking them to make the values equality, freedom, solidarity, justice and peace come true.

During the relay, women reaffirmed their commitment to fight against :

- neoliberalism, capitalism, patriarchy;

- violence against women and sexual trafficking;

- State inaction to put an end to gender discrimination;

And also to fight for :

- peace and demilitarization;

- access to land, water and food sovereignty;

The Relay of the Women’s Global Charter for Humanity and of the Solidarity Patchwork Quilt took place in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in presence of an important international delegation. At the same moment, at noon, women were holding actions for the 24 hours of Solidarity.

Our Vision from Now Until 2010

Where do we want the World March of Women to be in 2010? This is the question that we asked the national coordinating bodies to answer, at the beginning of this year. During its last meeting in March 2006, in Montreal, the International Committee also suggested some ideas to answer it. It is the central question on which we will build our strategic plan until 2010. It will be a key question during this meeting.

wo dimensions invariably came up in women's description of their long-term vision: the idea of the World March of Women as a movement that increasingly must be reckoned with–nationally, regionally and internationally; also, women want to reinforce the diversity of the March and at the same time reinforce our political identity.

We want to mount ever increasing resistance to the offensives orchestrated by men who refuse to share their power and commit themselves to equality, and to the attacks of the wealthy and conservatives of all stripes who promote individualism, exploitation of human beings and resources and the “natural” dominance of certain groups. We want the Women’s Global Charter for Humanity and the values it represents to become shared tools to advance the rights of all.

That’s why we propose to construct our strategic plan and actions based on four areas:

- peace and the demilitarization of our planet;

- violence against women as a tool for maintaining patriarchy (control of women’s bodies, lives and sexuality, and commodification of women’s bodies);

- women’s work (formal and informal, overwork and exploitation of women’s work, and type of work and working conditions);

- the common good (access to resources, water, land, environmental protection, and food sovereignty).

The World March of Women was born because we saw the impact of neoliberal globalization on all women's lives, and realized we had to have tools to counter this phenomenon that is founded on exclusion, exploitation and discrimination. Globalization in its present form reinforces existing systems of oppression and undermines the progress that the women’s movement has managed to achieve in some countries. We believe that globalization fuels patriarchy, capitalism and racism. This is why, as feminists struggling to create a better world, we must question and change our economic, political, social and cultural models. The analysis and impact of current globalization should be integrated into all our areas of action and guide us in making strategic decisions concerning the future of the World March of Women—just as an analysis of patriarchy as a system of oppression, operating by its own rules, institutions, means of control and repression, and governing the lives of all women, is part of our common platform and guides us in our actions.

Consolidation of our international movement and our political identity

Funding and the transition of the International Secretariat are among the first steps we must take. In July, we will select the location of our next IS and resume discussion on the funding we must raise to support work at the international level.

We will consolidate our movement through our links with grass-roots women's groups and by creating or strengthening national or territorial coordinating bodies. We will better define membership by changing some of our nomenclature and offering a more explicit definition of active participating groups. We must also set ourselves the goal of creating or re-creating national coordinating bodies in areas where none currently exist and inviting new groups (especially those that unite women facing multiple forms of oppression, rural women, indigenous women, disabled women, and young women) to join the World March of Women.

The reinforcement of our role as political actors on the national, regional and international scene, and our impact

One of the March’s strengths is certainly the fact that we set our own political agenda and focus our actions on proposals for alternatives. We also want to achieve tangible results and generate more media coverage. This is why we propose to operate in four areas of action; for each, we will determine our strategic goals for the next period, including our targets, our actions and our allies.

Alliances, indeed, are very important to the achievement of our goals. We must, however, thoroughly examine the reasons, structures and initiatives around which we intend to develop our alliances—both with other international feminist groups and other social movements. We must also decide how to share responsibility for developing these alliances among International Committee members and the collectives, as well as national groupings. We must discuss how best to maintain these alliances, both locally and internationally, while considering national realities and our global strategies.

We must also, in accordance with our analysis of globalization and our fields of action, respond to calls to take part in mobilizing efforts during meetings of international institutions like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, and the G-8. And, of course, there are the UN conferences. We must continue to hold discussions with each other to address our differences regarding our relationship with the United Nations and how—or if—we wish to deal with this international organization. We know that within our membership we have different approaches in this matter and we can surely learn from each other by discussing them more clearly.

Our presence in the alternative globalization movement remains at the centre of our strategic plan. In this arena, we conduct networking and we develop a shared agenda with the other social movements. It remains to be seen how we will intervene in the World Social Forum process; it is beginning to show signs of slowing down and factions are battling for control.

We give you appointment in 2007. In partnership with Via Campesina, we’ll organize the World Forum for Food Sovereignty, that our Malian friends call  Nyéléni, that will take place in Mali. et que les organisations maliennes ont proposé de nommer 2007.

She fought for rural women’s rights. According to the legend, she domesticated the fonio, a very important cereal in West Africa. We’ll try to use as a mobilizing moment and an event to reinforce likns between the movements. We’ll also talk about other issues.

Diane Matte, Coordinator, International Secretariat, World March of Women