March 16, 2010

MOTHERS MARCH – GLOBAL ROUND UP

Saturday 13 March 2010 -- Mothers in a number of countries are taking part in the Mothers March to highlight all the work we contribute to society and to demand justice.

"In London women are assembling at 2pm in Trafalgar Square to march to Parliament Square for a speakout.

Mothers in a number of countries are taking part in the Mothers March to highlight all the work we contribute to society and to demand justice.

We all know that the survival of the human race depends on the caring work of mothers. Mothers have the longest working day and the lowest incomes.  On top of caring we’re expected to work for the lowest pay to feed our families.  We get no recognition or support, only blame when things go wrong.  And in times of wars or even ‘peace’, mothers are to the most dedicated campaigners for justice for our loved ones – an extension of our caring work.

In cities, towns and villages, mothers are demanding our entitlements.

GUYANA – For the first time in this racially divided country, women of African, Indian and Mixed descent on the coast travelled to the interior to march with their Indigenous sisters. They demanded clean potable water, electricity, housing, money for carers, protective rape law, and an end to racial and domestic violence. This historic unity was front page news in the national papers. 

HAITI – Mothers are gathering to speak about the aftermath of the earthquake. They have lost children, husbands and other loved ones. They are traumatised, but they are organising – this time to discuss why most of the aid never reached their communities, and what role they need to play in the reconstruction. Working with those small donors committed to the grassroots, they have been mobilising to buy and distribute water and food, and to run mobile clinics staffed by doctors and nurses. They are also demanding the return of elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide who was overthrown by a US coup in 2004.

INDIA – Thousands of Tribal and Dalit women from rural Chhattisgarh are assembling to demand: equal rights to land and property; ration cards for mothers below the poverty line; higher pensions for single, widowed and divorced women; and compensation for mothers and children released from bonded labour.  (Only the men are considered “workers” but the whole family is bonded; women do the domestic work and children tend the animals of the land owner.

MEXICO – Indigenous women in Oaxaca are broadcasting discussions on their workload and the government repression they face when they organise.

PERU – Lima.  Mothers who are single mothers and domestic workers raising other women’s families as well as their own, will launch Kutikuy – a new organisation formed to fight for grassroots women’s entitlements.  Many are Indigenous women from the rural areas who have emigrated to the city where they face exploitation, discrimination and even rape by employers.

TURKEY – The Peace Mothers have asked the Mothers March to publicise their struggle with this message: “There's been a civil war in Turkey for years. Many Kurdish women are suffering from this war. We lost our children, husbands, relatives and friends… We are forced to immigrate… As Peace Mothers we also say ‘invest in caring not killing’…. We demand: 1) stop the military operations which are threatening our lives; 2) liberate Kurdish political activists, our sisters and our children who are imprisoned.  On this Mother's day, we want to come together with our children.”
In Istanbul, the Project of Legal Aid for the Victims of Rape and Sexual Harassment in Custody together with Feminist Women Circle are holding a conference on “Militarism and Sexual Violence against Women”.  The conference is part of Women’s Festival Week, Bogazici University Women’s Studies Students Club.  It aims to make visible the devastating effects of war and militarism on women’s lives. Victims of sexual torture and their advocates will speak about the difficulties they encounter in fighting such cases.

USA – Events in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and San Francisco.  Low income mothers whose children have been taken from them by social services because of racism, poverty and other discrimination, are marching for their suffering children’s return.  Some have already won their cases by working together in their campaigning organisations. 

VENEZUELA – Gatherings called by women in the Land Committees and the Women’s Development Bank."

For more information about the Mothers March please contact:
womenstrike8m(at)server101.com

www.globalwomenstrike.net

source: Women in Black international listserve