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April 2002 - Snapshots of Home and Elsewhere - Europe

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Snapshots of Home and Elsewhere - Europe

Contents
By way of introduction
Marching On for Bread and Roses
Demands
Actions to Revolutionize the World
How We Said It: Building Solidarity
Snapshots of Home and Elsewhere
2001: A March-to Be Continued?
Sources

Español

On track for a feminist,
anti-liberal Europe

In 2000, European women led a campaign to oppose a neoliberal Europe, supported by a common platform that united women in different countries. This extraordinary continent-wide process reinforced links between European feminists.

The platform called for a united, democratic and open Europe: where the gap between rich and poor is narrowed; where women participate on an equal basis with men in political decision-making; where they have the right to control their bodies and destinies and enjoy free choice regarding sexuality; where wife battering is defined as a crime. A Europe characterized by peace and sustainable, social and egalitarian development to help the poorest countries of the planet, and the rejection of dictatorships and fundamentalism.

It demanded equal rights for immigrant women, regardless of their status. It condemned practices that deny women their rights, such as forced marriage and genital mutilation.

The fight against violence, a priority everywhere on the planet. Pictured: March 8, 2000 in Geneva, Switzerland.

Inequality in industrialized countries

In a Europe of diverse cultures and economies, women of the March denounced the impact of a deteriorating economy that has led to wide-scale migration from Eastern to Western Europe, paving the way for drug trafficking and sex trafficking of women and girls.

See also : « For East Europe's Women, a rude awakening », Elisabeth Kulakowska, The Unesco Courrier.

They criticized the insecurity in which numerous women live, including in the industrialized countries, where they are often second-class citizens.

Indeed, women are unemployed more often and for longer periods than men. More women than men hold unstable and poorly paid jobs. They are less well paid than their male colleagues, even when they are in the same jobs. And the majority continues to work a double shift. European women called for professional and salary conditions equal to those of men, social protections to enable them to live in dignity, and the abolition of all forms of discrimination in this area.

European policies must be harmonized "upward" in the social realm and in the campaign to end violence against women, in Europe and in the world. Other demands included victim assistance, simplified legal procedures, prohibition of sexual harassment, and the criminalization of wife assault.

Although many countries still prohibit free access to abortion (Ireland, Portugal, restrictions in Poland, debate on time limits in Switzerland), European women have reaffirmed their opposition to religious fundamentalism manifested in particular by extreme right-wing Catholic organizations.

In a society dominated by the model of "obligatory heterosexuality," Europeans demanded that lesbian rights be included in the demand for the right of every woman to control her own body.

Participating countries and territories:

Albania
Armenia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Belgium
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia-Montenegro)
Finland
France
Georgia
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Italy
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Republic of Moldova
Romania
Russia
Spain (Andalousia, Austurias, Bask Country, Catalonia, Galicia, Madrid, Valencia)
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey
Ukraine
United Kingdom.

Illustration : A handout released in Denmark.
Illustration : Evaluation of the March in the Netherlands.

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Women on the March
April 2002

 
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Last modified 2006-03-23 03:09 PM
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