WLOE E-Newsletter: Voices of Women, March 2004
March began with a terrible bang 50 years ago, as WLOE international advisor Corazon Valdez Fabros informs us from the Philippines:
"On this day, 1st March, 50 years ago in 1954, a hydrogen bomb code-named Bravo, was detonated on the surface on Bikini atoll in the Marshall islands- the blinding explosion gouged out a crater 240 feet deep and 6,000 feet across, melted huge quantities of coral, sucked them up and distributed them far and wide across the Pacific.
The island of Rongelap (100
miles away) was buried in powdery particles of radioactive fallout to a depth
of one and a half inches, and Utirik (300 miles away) was swathed in radioactive
mist. The people of Rongelap and Utirik lived on their newly radioactive islands
for three days; inhaling, touching and ingesting the fallout particles, until
the US navy belatedly sent ships to evacuate them.
This is but one example of the horrific racist experiments that colonizing governments
have inflicted on the peoples of the Pacific, used as human guinea pigs in the
insane and pointless pursuit of nuclear weapons supremacy..."
http://www.pcrc.org.fj/
March 8, International Women's Day - Why go on Strike?
" Women &
girls do 2/3 of the world's work, most of it unwaged. $1 trillion a year is
spent on the military worldwide, more than half by the US.
10% of this would provide the essentials of life for all: water, sanitation,
basic health, nutrition, literacy, and a minimum income."
This year again there were international actions for women's rights, and a transfer
of resources from means of death to basics for life. Read more at: http://www.globalwomenstrike.net/
17 March: Remembering
Rachel Corrie, a year later
Israeli peace
activist Gila Svirsky writes from Jerusalem:
"I was not present
in Rafah that terrible day, but I have frequently replayed in my mind the events
leading up to the moment when a bulldozer rolled over Rachel Corrie. I think
to myself: What compelled this young woman, neither Jewish nor Palestinian,
to travel 10,000 miles from home, to throw in her lot with a family not her
own, a people not her own, and ultimately meet a death that came suddenly, swiftly,
in an instant of shocked comprehension..."
Full text at:
http://www.womenandlife.org/WLOE-en/information/peace/gilarachel17mar.html
Author and activist Starhawk
is back in Palestine working with the International Solidarity Movement. Her
"West Bank Journal" entries are featured at:
http://www.utne.com/web_special/
She writes about the deaths of two ISM activists: "The Price of an Orange",
For Rachel Corrie and Tom Hurndall
http://www.starhawk.org/activism/activism-writings/price_of_an_orange.html
17 March: Women in Black vigil for Korean Comfort Women's rights
March 17th was the 600th weekly vigil by Women in Black Tokyo for "any
apology, reparation or justice from the Japanese government" for the remaining
Korean women survivors who were forced to serve the Japanese army in a series
of organized brothels. Women
in Black groups around the world joined in the protest, and others signed
a petition of support for the 600th vigil and its demands. From Women in Black
Tokyo:
"The Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery ... began
the Wednesday Demonstration on January 8, 1992 in order to resolve the issues
of Japan's military "comfort women" in solidarity and participation by people
who have their love for human rights and peace in and outside the country. Wednesday
Demonstration is not only a means for achieving justice from the Japanese government
but is also an educational venue by which to shed light to the past, present
and the future, as much as it is a venue by which to realize peace. Wednesday
Demonstration which we have continued for 12 years, without missing a single
day, reaches its 600th time on March 17, 2004. Together with the Japan's military
"comfort women" victims, who are the biggest victims of war, we will host a
special demonstration to oppose wars that are currently ongoing throughout the
world, and to wish for peace..."
"Korean survivors have been demonstrating every single Wednesday for 12
years in front of the Seoul Japanese Embassy, ever since the very first "comfort
woman" survivor to speak out in public broke half a century of silence. Hundreds
of survivors of Japan's sexual slavery throughout Asia and the Netherlands stood
up in response. Their courage has moved thousands of women throughout the world
to together demand justice and share each struggle and touch on its way..."
http://www.women21.or.kr/data/women21/EngPDS_X/military-slavery.htm
20 March: War on Iraq, a year later
"On Saturday, March 20, upwards of 2 million people took to the streets
around the world to protest the one-year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.
People in more than 60 countries throughout the world - from Japan to South
Korea to Spain to Australia to South Africa - called for an end to the occupation,
which they believe is only increasing violence and insecurity in Iraq..."
See report on international actions and photos from Code Pink women for peace
at:
http://www.codepinkalert.org/National_Actions_March_20.shtml
UK - MENWITH HILL (US electronic
monitoring center) WAS BLOCKED! "Together around 200 people helped blockade
three of the four gates causing serious disruption to the shift change and leading
to Menwith Hill issuing a statement for the first time for many, many years.
There were 29 confirmed arrests and 10 people were charged. Congratulations
to all those that attended and supported the event. We will be back with another
Block the Base so watch this space!"
http://www.blockthebase.org.uk/
http://www.womenandlife.org/WLOE-en/information/peace/europe.html
22 March: World Water Day
The international network
Diverse Women for Diversity
sent some interesting links on World Water Day from "The Hindu Sunday Magazine":
From "Water first"
by DEEPA KANDASWAMY... an example of women's action
"...Nafisa Barot, Executive
Trustee, Utthan a Gujarat-based NGO cites her experience of how almost no
government and complete community involvement in nearly 150 villages across
Gujarat has changed the situation in these areas. In villages, women, who are
the primary users of water, have been trained in good water management principles
and overseeing the implementation of roof top harvesting, check dams, the management
of water use and so on.
These women repair broken pipes and pumps on their own and no Public Works Department
(PWD) helps them. Again the question arises. Can this be replicated in other
areas? But the point is this: how much water will be needed and to what extent
and in what ways can the needs be met? .."
Read full article at: http://www.hindu.com/mag/2004/03/21/stories/2004032100170200.htm
See also: http://www.worldwaterday.org/
and
http://www.womenandlife.org/WLOE-en/information/ecology/water/waterforum.html
28 March: Three Mile Island
nuclear plant accident -- 25th Anniversary Days of Action
March 28, 2004 is the 25th Anniversary of the TMI Unit-2 Meltdown
Information about the plant,
the history of its operation and opposition to it is at the site of Three Mile
Island Alert
http://www.tmia.com
For a list of actions commemorating
the anniversary see:
http://www.besafenet.com/nukeevents.htm
Witness to the accident,
Marie Holowka, Farmer, Zion’s View, PA, reported on her experience:
“I went to the barn around four, four-thirty (in the morning). We were milking
cows. And the barn started to shake. And I heard a rumble like underground.
Well, I wouldn’t say an earthquake. But it was going like ‘brrup, brrup, brrup.’
And then it shook and shook and we didn’t hear the big rumbles. But every now
and then you could hear a rumbling in the ground. And Paul, my brother, was
with me and he says, ‘That’s an earthquake.’ I said, ‘Paul, it don’t sound like
an earthquake. Earthquake, it just rattles. But you don’t hear the noise, the
brrup, brrup.’ It just (was) like there was boiling water coming underground.
And I said, ‘I think something happened at Three Mile Island.’ Then we kept
milking..."
http://www.tmia.com/accident/witness.html
Good work Katherine Gun!
25 February 2004 - "'I have no regrets, and I would do it again,' former British
intelligence employee Katharine Gun said on Wednesday in London, just after
the government dropped charges against her for violating the Official Secrets
Act.
In early March 2003, the Observer newspaper in Britain published a U.S. National
Security Agency memo describing a "surge" in U.N. spying aimed at winning authorization
for war on Iraq -- targeted "against" delegations from swing countries on the
Security Council. Katharine Gun, who leaked the memo, faced two years in prison.
In Washington, the Institute for Public Accuracy issued a statement Wednesday
praising Gun as "a genuine heroine." The statement added: 'She courageously
exposed what the Blair and Bush governments sought to keep from the light of
day -- the spying on U.N. diplomats at a crucial time when the Security Council
was considering a resolution for war on Iraq. Now, top officials in London and
Washington hope that the U.N. spying scandal will quickly subside -- but it
should not, and it will not. New revelations in recent weeks present a challenge
-- and an opportunity -- for governments around the world to assert themselves
on behalf of U.N. integrity.'" See:
http://www.accuracy.org/press_releases/PR022504.htm
http://www.accuracy.org/gun/
10 March 2004: a "high-ranking
military officer" reveals how Defense Department extremists suppressed
information and twisted the truth to drive the country to war.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/031204A.shtml
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