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Women in 37 countries participate in 24 Hours of Feminist Action around the World!
20-12-2012
Marches, performances, sit-ins and other kinds of street protests, in addition to media initiatives and meetings, workshops and seminars marked 24 Hours of Feminist Action around the World. They took place between midday and one o’clock (local time in each country) on the 10th December 2012. In total, actions were carried out in nearly 80 cities in 37 countries: Bangladesh, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Catalonia, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, England, Euskal Herria (Basque Country), Germany, France, Galicia, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Mozambique, Nepal, New Caledonia, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Portugal, Quebec, Romania, United States, South Africa, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey and Western Sahara.
The main focuses of the actions in New Caledonia, Nepal, the Philippines, Mozambique, Kenya, Germany, Chile, Bolivia, Haiti, Honduras and Ecuador were the condemnation of violence as a structural part of the capitalist and patriarchal system, as a means of controlling women’s territories – their body and work, their land and resources, and a demand for an end to the impunity for perpetrators of violence against women. Sexist violence was also the theme in Canada, where the coalition the Rebelles highlighted and analysed the massacre at the Polytechnique Montreal school from a feminist perspective. The massacre was carried out on the 6th December 1989 by a male student who assassinated 14 other colleagues, all of them women.
Working together with human rights organisations, the WMW in Haiti organised a sit-in in front of the Ministry of Justice to demand the incarceration of a high level government official, responsible for assaulting a woman.
The activists of the cities of Manila and the Bohol Islands in the Philippines used dance, songs and theatrical performances to champion the passing of the law for women’s reproductive rights, climate justice and equal pay for equal work as proposals towards an end to the oppression of women.
The action in Mozambique included the construction of the mural “Victims of Violence”, with letters, articles and other material published by newspapers about cases of aggression towards women. Participants of the action and the general public were able to read about cases, write messages of repudiation against violence and of solidarity between women.
In Belgium, Turkey, Tunisia, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama and Paraguay, the central elements of actions included: violence perpetrated by the State (ranging from security forces acting on private interests to fundamentalist religious groups); the criminalisation of social protest; and the repression of activists and advocates of women’s rights. In Turkey, protests took place in the cities of Ankara, Antalya, Bursa and Istanbul and called for the liberation of female prisoners, who are for the most part union activists. They received international solidarity from activists in Belgium. The struggle for peace and against militarisation was present in various actions, including the United States, the country which spends most on arms and war industries.
Condemnation of the capitalist development model which, to save itself from its crisis, is infringing on universal human rights, imposing austerity and authoritarian measures, was a key feature of the actions in most European countries, with particular attention paid to the right to public health services and safe abortions. In the streets of various cities in France, Catalonia, Switzerland, Euskal Herria (Basque Country), Galicia and Portugal, women denounced budget cuts which primarily impact on women, and even more so on poor and migrant women. They are triply affected: either they have no access to healthcare, they are exploited workers in this sector, or they are carers for the elderly or children or those who have no access to basic healthcare and education. The privatisation of public health services also featured in the action in Colombia.
The attack on the right to a safe abortion in Europe, with the closures or cuts to the resources of various voluntary pregnancy interruption centres in countries in which this right was already guaranteed is symbolic of a conservative ideology which is gaining ground in these times of capitalist crisis, in the attempt to take women out of public spaces and send them back to the home. The decriminalisation of abortion was also a theme of the action in Japan.
In a creative way, the hour of aerobic body combat in the streets of Bilbao, Donostia, Vitoria-Gasteiz and Pamplona-Iruña (in Euskal Herria, Basque Country), emphasised the pledge of WMW activists: “We will continue to march, resist and gain strength to take on capitalism and the patriarchy!”
The denouncement of the occupation and appropriation of women’s territories and natural resources as another face of the same coin of the capitalist and patriarchal model was integral to actions carried out in Brazil, Peru and Quebec. The role of transnational mining companies in the appropriation of natural resources – water, land, minerals – and in the violation of human and environmental rights and the criminalisation of social movements which denounce their conduct was highlighted in vigils carried out in various cities in Peru, but also in actions which took place in Quebec, the country of origin of many of these companies.
In Brazil, the actions focused on solidarity between social movements in the “Chapada do Apodi” region in the north-east, where an irrigation project threatens to destroy more than 50 years of an agriculture model developed in harmony with the semi-arid climate, for the benefit of a mere five companies. The condemnation of agribusiness, which destroys family agriculture, concentrates power and land in the hands of a few, imposes the use of agrochemicals which affect the health of millions of people and which drives hundreds to destitution was echoed from north to south in Araras, Belo Horizonte, Brasília, Quixadá, Feira de Santana, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Santa Cruz do Sul, São Paulo, Araguaina, Curitiba and Sao Joao del Rey, as well as in the Apodi region itself. Protestors in many of these actions also supported women in other parts of the world, who resist the occupation of their territory on a daily basis, such as the Saharans and Palestinians.
The 10th December also marks international Human Rights Day, thus we reiterated that we also have the right to equality, to participate in public life, to be heard; rights which were claimed in many countries, such as Bangladesh. Many female domestic workers around the world, such as in South Africa demanded the right to be able to organise ourselves, have our work valued and have access to labour rights, and they met on this date to make plans and reaffirm their fights and demands.
The right of people to self-determination, to choose their lifestyle and means of development marked actions in Cuba, which suffers constant attempted attacks on its sovereignty. Equally for the action held in the refugee camp of Tindouf, Algeria, where women from Western Sahara rejected Moroccan occupation, denounced arbitrary detentions, torture, abuse, violations of the occupied zone and the wall of embarrassment which separates a multitude of families, as well as all forms of aggression which Saharans endure.
Our action also enabled us to progress in our fight against corporate control of communication. We managed to develop our own media through this action – our website http://www.24heures2012.info.
Here we communicate, instantaneously sending photos of events in different countries, as well as reports in written form, audio files and videos of the preparation and post-action. The site has now been converted into a dynamic space of information and memories of our acts.
With our 24 Hours of Feminist Action around the World, we’ve shown once again that in the World March of Women – both on the streets and on the web - we are alert to what is happening in the world and we reaffirm that we are ready to resist and to promote our alternatives!
Click to read the WMW International Declaration for the 10th December.
The main focuses of the actions in New Caledonia, Nepal, the Philippines, Mozambique, Kenya, Germany, Chile, Bolivia, Haiti, Honduras and Ecuador were the condemnation of violence as a structural part of the capitalist and patriarchal system, as a means of controlling women’s territories – their body and work, their land and resources, and a demand for an end to the impunity for perpetrators of violence against women. Sexist violence was also the theme in Canada, where the coalition the Rebelles highlighted and analysed the massacre at the Polytechnique Montreal school from a feminist perspective. The massacre was carried out on the 6th December 1989 by a male student who assassinated 14 other colleagues, all of them women.
Working together with human rights organisations, the WMW in Haiti organised a sit-in in front of the Ministry of Justice to demand the incarceration of a high level government official, responsible for assaulting a woman.
The activists of the cities of Manila and the Bohol Islands in the Philippines used dance, songs and theatrical performances to champion the passing of the law for women’s reproductive rights, climate justice and equal pay for equal work as proposals towards an end to the oppression of women.
The action in Mozambique included the construction of the mural “Victims of Violence”, with letters, articles and other material published by newspapers about cases of aggression towards women. Participants of the action and the general public were able to read about cases, write messages of repudiation against violence and of solidarity between women.
In Belgium, Turkey, Tunisia, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama and Paraguay, the central elements of actions included: violence perpetrated by the State (ranging from security forces acting on private interests to fundamentalist religious groups); the criminalisation of social protest; and the repression of activists and advocates of women’s rights. In Turkey, protests took place in the cities of Ankara, Antalya, Bursa and Istanbul and called for the liberation of female prisoners, who are for the most part union activists. They received international solidarity from activists in Belgium. The struggle for peace and against militarisation was present in various actions, including the United States, the country which spends most on arms and war industries.
Condemnation of the capitalist development model which, to save itself from its crisis, is infringing on universal human rights, imposing austerity and authoritarian measures, was a key feature of the actions in most European countries, with particular attention paid to the right to public health services and safe abortions. In the streets of various cities in France, Catalonia, Switzerland, Euskal Herria (Basque Country), Galicia and Portugal, women denounced budget cuts which primarily impact on women, and even more so on poor and migrant women. They are triply affected: either they have no access to healthcare, they are exploited workers in this sector, or they are carers for the elderly or children or those who have no access to basic healthcare and education. The privatisation of public health services also featured in the action in Colombia.
The attack on the right to a safe abortion in Europe, with the closures or cuts to the resources of various voluntary pregnancy interruption centres in countries in which this right was already guaranteed is symbolic of a conservative ideology which is gaining ground in these times of capitalist crisis, in the attempt to take women out of public spaces and send them back to the home. The decriminalisation of abortion was also a theme of the action in Japan.
In a creative way, the hour of aerobic body combat in the streets of Bilbao, Donostia, Vitoria-Gasteiz and Pamplona-Iruña (in Euskal Herria, Basque Country), emphasised the pledge of WMW activists: “We will continue to march, resist and gain strength to take on capitalism and the patriarchy!”
The denouncement of the occupation and appropriation of women’s territories and natural resources as another face of the same coin of the capitalist and patriarchal model was integral to actions carried out in Brazil, Peru and Quebec. The role of transnational mining companies in the appropriation of natural resources – water, land, minerals – and in the violation of human and environmental rights and the criminalisation of social movements which denounce their conduct was highlighted in vigils carried out in various cities in Peru, but also in actions which took place in Quebec, the country of origin of many of these companies.
In Brazil, the actions focused on solidarity between social movements in the “Chapada do Apodi” region in the north-east, where an irrigation project threatens to destroy more than 50 years of an agriculture model developed in harmony with the semi-arid climate, for the benefit of a mere five companies. The condemnation of agribusiness, which destroys family agriculture, concentrates power and land in the hands of a few, imposes the use of agrochemicals which affect the health of millions of people and which drives hundreds to destitution was echoed from north to south in Araras, Belo Horizonte, Brasília, Quixadá, Feira de Santana, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Santa Cruz do Sul, São Paulo, Araguaina, Curitiba and Sao Joao del Rey, as well as in the Apodi region itself. Protestors in many of these actions also supported women in other parts of the world, who resist the occupation of their territory on a daily basis, such as the Saharans and Palestinians.
The 10th December also marks international Human Rights Day, thus we reiterated that we also have the right to equality, to participate in public life, to be heard; rights which were claimed in many countries, such as Bangladesh. Many female domestic workers around the world, such as in South Africa demanded the right to be able to organise ourselves, have our work valued and have access to labour rights, and they met on this date to make plans and reaffirm their fights and demands.
The right of people to self-determination, to choose their lifestyle and means of development marked actions in Cuba, which suffers constant attempted attacks on its sovereignty. Equally for the action held in the refugee camp of Tindouf, Algeria, where women from Western Sahara rejected Moroccan occupation, denounced arbitrary detentions, torture, abuse, violations of the occupied zone and the wall of embarrassment which separates a multitude of families, as well as all forms of aggression which Saharans endure.
Our action also enabled us to progress in our fight against corporate control of communication. We managed to develop our own media through this action – our website http://www.24heures2012.info.
Here we communicate, instantaneously sending photos of events in different countries, as well as reports in written form, audio files and videos of the preparation and post-action. The site has now been converted into a dynamic space of information and memories of our acts.
With our 24 Hours of Feminist Action around the World, we’ve shown once again that in the World March of Women – both on the streets and on the web - we are alert to what is happening in the world and we reaffirm that we are ready to resist and to promote our alternatives!
Click to read the WMW International Declaration for the 10th December.
