Voice of Revolution

March 8, 2006 - Sao Paulo, Brazil - Women Say: "No to Bush's War: Out of Iraq"

International Women's Day

Salute the Struggle of Women to End War and All Exploitation

March 8, 2006 finds women the world over in the front ranks of the struggle against imperialist war and to end all exploitation. American women are standing with those from Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Haiti, demanding an end to U.S. aggression and interference and calling for all U.S. troops to be brought home now. Numerous actions in dozens of cities across the country are testimony to the determination and courage of women as they stand to affirm their rights and the rights of all. Among Katrina survivors organizing for the right to return and rebuild, women are in the front ranks. In the anti-war movement, the battles for housing and education, against police brutality and racism, women are in the front ranks. Voice of Revolution salutes the leading role women are playing in building the resistance against U.S. imperialism and in insisting that Another World Is Possible.

The struggle developing in the aftermath of Katrina exemplifies both the utter brutality and state terrorism of the U.S. government and the recognition by the people that they and they alone are capable of solving the problems society faces and creating this new world.

In the face of failure of the U.S. state all down the line, it is women and their daughters who are coming to the fore to uphold the fighting traditions of New Orleans, lay claim to its culture of resistance and strengthen all the many organizing efforts to defend the rights of all. Free health clinics are being developed, collectives are working to do the rebuilding, develop schools, and organize together to solve problems large and small. Broad support across the country and worldwide is being organized. The spirit that we are all one humanity and we together must ensure humanity marches forward can be seen in this fight for New Orleans, a fight for that forward march. Voice of Revolution salutes the Katrina survivors, in New Orleans and scattered across the country and urges women and all concerned to step up work to lend a hand to this vital battle.

The struggle to rebuild New Orleans, like the struggle to end war in Iraq are also putting the issue of political power front and center. The large majority of Americans, like the vast majority of the world's people stand against the U.S. path of fascism and war. They stand against the agenda of the giant monopolies that demands crimes and more war in the name of being "competitive in the global market" and more disasters for the people. While Bush openly flaunts all international law and the Constitution, the Congress passes an even more repressive Patriot Act and funds yet more hundreds of billions for world destruction. This repeated refusal to submit to the will of the people cannot and must not stand. It is the current political set-up that makes this refusal possible and it is this set up that must be changed.

New political arrangements are needed, arrangements that empower the people themselves. New arrangements that serve the interests of the people at home and abroad, that stop the crimes being committed and open a path for the progress of humanity are required. Let all the women in action today come forward to lead this battle to unite all the people in the fight for political empowerment. And let women across the country join the ranks of the communists, where the building of these new arrangements is the main focus and where all energies are devoted to the emancipation of all humanity.

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All Out for International Women’s Day 2006!

- The Marxist-Leninist Daily, Canada -

Across Canada and around the world women are organizing meetings, demonstrations, get togethers and other events to mark March 8, International Women’s Day. As in past years, the main focus is opposition to imperialist war and occupation and the neo-liberal, anti-social offensive which are causing devastation around the world.

From the success of the Palestinian people in asserting their will during their recent election, to the refusal of the peoples of Haiti, Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries to accept U.S. dictate, the question of who decides has been put front and center. Everywhere women have been in the forefront of these struggles. They are leading initiatives in defense of rights and for people’s empowerment. They are demanding that societies meet their responsibilities towards their members and end the brutal fend-for-yourself dictate.

The history of International Women’s Day is a testimony to the leading role played by women in defending rights and fighting for the new. In 1910, following two major revolts of women textile workers in the U.S. against their exploitation, Clara Zetkin proposed March 8 be designated International Women’s Day at a conference convened by the Second Communist International. March 8 was born out of the struggle of working women for their rights and of communist and revolutionary women in building societies in which women stand second to none.

The very essence of International Women’s Day is that the emancipation of women is inexorably linked to the emancipation of the entire working class. It is based on the recognition that this struggle can only be successful when the mass of women put themselves in the forefront to solve the problems confronting their societies. Women around the world are proudly taking their stand to resolve the problems facing humanity, saying loud and clear that Another World Is Possible!

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Happy International Women’s Day!

- Radical Women, U.S.A. -

Around the world, working class women keep alive the radical tradition of International Women’s Day as an opportunity to demand our rights and freedom. Today we salute courageous sisters in all corners of the globe, from Palestinian mothers fighting for their homeland to Venezuelans seeking a just society, from Sudanese women combating rape and genocide to Hurricane Katrina survivors battling for medical care, housing, food, education, employment, and the right to return to their own homes.

Within the United States, the struggle for fundamental civil liberties continues. Radical Women has defended Lynne Stewart, a veteran human rights attorney falsely convicted of aiding terrorists, who was targeted by the government in the effort to silence dissent. We have demonstrated against the dangerous anti-immigrant Minutemen and the criminal U.S. war in Iraq. We’ve mobilized for abortion rights and reproductive justice and expect a pitched battle over these basic human rights in the coming year.

Radical Women has also built cross-border solidarity in collaboration with Iraqi women and Central American sisters, and formed new contacts at recent meetings of the World Social Forum. Because we live in the earth’s greatest exporter of misery and violence, the greatest act of assistance we can provide to the world’s people is to achieve a socialist revolution right here in the heartland of capitalism. With a working class rainbow of women and men, people of color, indigenous nations, immigrants, lesbians/gays/bisexuals/transsexuals, youth and elders — we can do it! Long live International Women’s Day and the global leadership of women as a force for human survival and revolutionary change!

For more info: www.RadicalWomen.org

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Women's Day Anti-War Actions

Events Organized Worldwide and in 65 U.S. Cities

- CodePink -

Following a very successful event Sunday in NYC, the Iraqi women finished their press conference in the UN just in time to watch their friends, Cindy Sheehan and Medea Benjamin be dragged off by cops and jailed for trying to deliver the truth. The week of International Women's Day has begun.

From Argentina to Kazakhstan, from Burkina Faso to Bosnia, women are joining together on March 8, International Women's Day, to say no to the war in Iraq. Over 90,000 people from 78 countries have already signed the Call for Peace.

Last we checked, there were March 8 anti-war actions planned in 18 countries and 65 cities in the U.S. In Hyderabad, Pakistan a group will go to the U.S. embassy with signatures and a message that "the Pakistani people do not want war in Iraq." In Cairo, Egypt they are going to both the U.S. and UK embassies. On the Fiji island of Suva, women have been wearing pink every Wednesday to spread awareness and get more signatures to deliver to the U.S. embassy on their island. In Venezuela, after hearing the call from President Hugo Chavez to support the Women Say No To War campaign, a brand new CodePink Caracas chapter formed last week and is organizing an action on March 8.

In Tucson, Arizona women will hold a rolling fast leading up to a huge rally on March 18, the anniversary of the occupation of Iraq. In Oakland, California women will march from the military recruiting center to a church where women of color soldiers will speak out in opposition to this war. In Los Angeles, over 2,000 women will gather to create an aerial peace image.

With the escalating violence in Iraq claiming the lives of 1,300 people in the past week, it is more critical than ever to come together to demand an end to the occupation and the violence. Together we can end the war! Join us on March 8, and send us your ideas of how we can keep working together for peace.

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U.S. and Iraqi Women Hold Anti-War Protest at UN Headquarters

A delegation of Iraqi women joined members of CodePink and Cindy Sheehan, anti-war activist and mother of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq, on March 6 for a press conference and protest outside United Nations headquarters in New York City.

Women Say No to War, which organized the event, reports that Sheehan, CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin and two other women were arrested while trying to deliver a petition to the U.S. Mission to the UN. The petition contained more than 60,000 signatures urging the "withdrawal of all troops and all foreign fighters from Iraq."

Ann Wright, a former U.S. Army colonel and U.S. diplomat, said in a statement that the U.S. Mission refused to send someone to meet with the women "whose lives and families have been shattered by this destructive and immoral war." The protesters refused to leave without delivering the petition, she said. Police said they were arrested for criminal trespassing and resisting arrest.

At the news conference, Sheehan said when her 24-year-old son died in April 2004, "the morgues were filled with innocent men, women and children." Dr. Entisar Mohammad Ariabi, a pharmacist at the Yarmook Teaching Hospital in Baghdad, became tearful when recalling the deaths and injuries she has witnessed daily. She estimated that 1,600 Iraqis are killed in Baghdad every month, with a greater number injured.

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Global Women's Strike - March 8, 2006

End Poverty, War and Environmental Devastation - Invest in Caring Not Killing!

- Globalwomenstrike.net -

Dear Sisters & Brothers,

Every International Women's Day since 2000, women in over 60 countries have taken all kinds of grassroots actions to demand that society Invest in Caring Not Killing, and that the money squandered on war is instead spent on what our communities need, beginning with the needs of women the first carers on whom everyone else depends.

We invite you again to take action together in the 7th Global Women's Strike on or around March 8.

In January and February, coordinating groups of the strike in England, Guyana, India, Ireland, Peru, Spain, Uganda and the U.S. attended the World Social Forum in Caracas - an opportunity to meet grassroots organizers from around the world and to meet as a network in the heart of a revolution spearheaded by women - the Venezuelan revolution. We held workshops in English and Spanish which gave visibility to different countries of the strike but also different sectors of the grassroots: women and men of different races, different sexual choices and different disabilities - each found her/his counterpart in the Venezuelan movement. We have been strengthened and encouraged by the tremendous energy and determination of grassroots women who have protected a government which invests in caring, starting with the poorest communities, and which in turn supports women.

The world is beginning to recognize and value women's hidden contribution to society, but Venezuela goes further. On February 3, President Hugo Chávez announced that, in recognition for their work in the home, the poorest housewives would receive a monthly income equivalent to 80 percent of the minimum wage (372,000 bls or about $180). He also announced a 15 percent increase in the minimum wage (which with the ticket employees get for meals and other -essentials would bring its value to 835,350 bls or about $400 a month), along with increases in pensions and other low wages. The first hundred thousand housewives will benefit from June, and another 100,000 from July. Chávez said that he aims for up to 500,000 women eventually to get this money.

This is not the implementation of the revolutionary Article 88 of the constitution which recognizes the economic and social contribution of women's unwaged work in the home and on that basis grants housewives a pension. Article 88 still needs legislation to put it into practice.

Rather than wait for this, Chávez has put together the recognition Article 88 gives to housewives' work, with the recent legislation aimed at lifting the poorest out of poverty, and -redirected some of the oil revenue to women - Chávez has repeatedly said, women are the poorest, work hardest and are most committed to the revolution.

This is finally a wage for housework, something we have demanded since 1972! It is bound to raise women's wages in Venezuela. We heard about it first from people phoning to congratulate us on this victory which they assumed was directly associated with our work.

The Grassroots Network of Los Altos in Miranda State (Venezuela), which is part of the Strike and hosted us in Los Teques, issued a public statement welcoming the payment by the Venezuelan for housework. They urged that revolutionary community work also be recognized as productive work and paid for, proposed ways for the government to prevent corruption in how beneficiaries are selected and the wages distributed. We are circulating their statement (enclosed) and invite you to do the same.

Another high point of the trip was meeting a woman from the Indigenous organization Organización Nación P'Urhépecha in Mexico who has been organizing Strike actions for the past three years, publicizing what she read on email that women in other countries were doing and hoping it was all true! She has since raised the Strike at a national women's network and they have agreed to take part!

In London the key event will be on March 17: Report back from Venezuela - Women Spearhead the Revolution, and discussion on the strike's relationship with the women and men organizing there. We will also be showing a film on the resistance to the coup in Haiti, a resistance also led by women but much distorted and denigrated.

On 11 March in the great tradition of New Orleans funerals, the Strike in Los Angeles along with the Katrina Evacuees Councils will hold a "Second Line" March, a Survivors' and Supporters' Speak-Out, followed by a "Taste of New Orleans" Cuisine (see www.globalwomenstrike.net).

Power to the sisters to stop the world and change it!

Demands of the Strike

. Payment for all caring work - in wages, pensions, land and other resources. What is more valuable than raising children and caring for others? Invest in life and welfare, not military budgets or prisons.

. Pay equity for all, women and men, in the global market.

. Food security for breastfeeding mothers, paid maternity leave and maternity breaks. Stop penalizing us for being women.

. Don't pay "Third World debt." We owe nothing, they owe us.

. Accessible, clean water; healthcare, housing, transport, literacy.

. Non-polluting energy and technology which shortens the hours we work. We all need cookers, fridges, washing machines, computers, and time off!

. Protection and asylum from all violence and persecution, including by family members and people in positions of authority.

. Freedom of movement. Capital travels freely, why not people?

. National coordination in Guyana, India, Ireland, Peru, Spain, Uganda, U.S. -Participating groups in 65 countries so far.

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Global Women's Strike 2006

Philadelphia and East Coast Events

Thursday, March 2, 7pm, Princeton, NJ

Screening of the video Refusing to Kill featuring refuseniks and their families, supporters and other anti-war protesters around the world. A Payday video introduced by Eric Gjertsen, followed by a panel of military refusers including Erik Young on Opt Out campaigning in Philadelphia. Sponsored by Coalition for Peace Action. Princeton Public Library (65 Witherspoon St.) For info: 609-924-5022 ablenman@peacecoalition.org

Saturday, March 4 - Monday, March 6, Washington, DC

National Solidarity Conference on Venezuela. Global Women’s Strike will be participating and holding a workshop on Saturday afternoon: Women — Creating a Caring Economy in Venezuela. Phoebe Jones of GWS/Philly is a plenary speaker on Sunday. George Washington University, Elliot School of International Affairs, 1957 E Street NW.

Monday, March 6, 12noon, Washington, DC

Demonstration: NED out of Venezuela and Haiti, outside the offices of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) 1101 15th St. NW. NED has been funding coups and destabilization in Venezuela, Haiti and countries around the world.

Wednesday, March 8, Philadelphia

Speakout at welfare office for “Justice is Appealing” campaign (12 noon) followed by drop in at the crossroads women’s center (2-5 pm). Demanding an end to military spending and agencies wasting our money — money needed to feed our children. Circulating Every Mother is a Working Mother’s Fair Hearing How-to Guide. Alden District (welfare) office, 5853 Germantown Ave. Then welcome to the Crossroads Women’s Center for videos, photo exhibit, refreshments. 33 Maplewood Mall, Germantown.

Saturday, March 11, 2 - 5pm, Philadelphia

Report back: news of the revolution in Venezuela and Book Launch of Nora Castaneda’s Creating a Caring Economy. Tabernacle United Church 3701 Chestnut St. W. Philadelphia.

Report back from our multi-racial delegation from eight countries to Venezuela. Hear the latest including President Chavez’ announcement of the first payment to housewives in recognition for their work. Launch of Creating a Caring Economy by Nora Castañeda, President of the Women’s Development Bank of Venezuela, edited by Nina Lopez. A path-breaking framework for building the movement “creating an economy at the service of human beings.” Childcare. Wheelchair access. Spanish translation. Snacks. Donations: $3-$10. All welcome!

As grassroots women and men everywhere, in the Gulf Coast, Iraq, Haiti, Venezuela, Benton Harbor, India, Africa, Chiapas, Palestine, Bolivia, the Philippines, Guyana, South Central Los Angeles, North Philadelphia, we are mobilizing in grassroots-initiated relief centers, schools, prisons, health and refugee centers, community gardens, women’s centers, … to reclaim our homes, our lands, our rights and our communities from the devastation of wars, occupation, poverty, global warming, environmental destruction, hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, sexism, racism and every other discrimination, pollution, famines, governmental and NGO corruption and more.

We need your input, ideas and the involvement of your networks.

Contact: Global Women’s Strike/Philadelphia: 215-848-1120; philly@crossroadswomen.net; www.globalwomenstrike.net

Los Angeles Events

Marking International Women’s Week since 2000, women and men who support us in more than 60 countries are taking part in the Global Women’s Strike 2006.

In the great tradition of New Orleans funerals, GWS/LA ’06 will feature a “Second Line” March, Survivors and -Supporters Speak-Out and a “Taste of New Orleans” food, music and celebration.

Saturday, March 11, 11am

Starting in Leimert Park at Crenshaw and Vernon, ending at Christ the Good Shepherd Episcopal Church, 3303 W. Vernon (wheelchair accessible)

Honor those who died in New Orleans and other victims of government neglect, war and occupation around the world.

Recognize self-mobilization of survivors from New Orleans, to Pakistan, Guatemala, Iraq and Afghanistan, to Haiti, Chattisgarh, India and Guyana, to the Philippines, Benton Harbor, Michigan, to South and East LA, beginning with women, to rebuild lives and communities as central to the struggle for justice.

Support those making the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela.

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