March On International Women's Day! March 8
The following statement was put out by the International Women’s Day
’08 Coalition based in New York City. Women activists and women’s
groups are encouraged to sign the statement, View or
Download English or
Español flyer for
NYC March, or volunteer
to build the demonstration or list a local IWD event in your area.
- No war on women at home and worldwide
- Unite to win our liberation
On March 8, 1908, working women in the needle trade industry took to the
streets of New York City demanding better working conditions, higher wages,
shorter workdays and the overall improvement of women’s lives in this
country.
These women marched through New York City demanding justice for women
workers and immigrant workers; they were in fact working immigrant women.
The message and militancy of these women were so inspiring to women around
the world that in 1910 the International Socialist Congress meeting in
Copenhagen, Denmark, officially declared March 8 International Women's
Day.
This year, on the 100th anniversary of that historic march, we call on you
to join us in commemoration of International Women’s Day 2008 to honor
all the women who have fought for our liberation by continuing the fight for
freedom today.
We are in the midst of a rise in attacks on women--including Black, Latina,
Asian, Indigenous, Arab and white here in the U.S.--as well as women who
originate or currently live in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, the
Middle East, Pacific Islands, Australia and Europe.
The attacks inside the U.S. include legal and extralegal attacks on our
reproductive self-determination; an escalation of sexual assaults and rapes,
like that of Megan Williams and Crystal Mangum; violence toward lesbian,
bisexual and transgender women, like the persecution of the Jersey 4; and the
detention and deportation of immigrant women and their families.
Artists worldwide are using their creativity to combat the anti-Black and
anti-woman images we see in today’s corporate media machines. The media
conglomerates peddle destructive mind-poison that hatefully twists and
manipulates the images of women of all nationalities and backgrounds. These
unrealistic messages promote the rape, abuse and murder of women and young
girls everywhere.
Attacks on living standards and the war budget
The economic crisis is affecting women in a distinctive way. Women, young
and old, are uniquely affected by the mortgage foreclosures; demolition of
public housing in New Orleans, New York and elsewhere; evictions; lack of
health care, childcare and job loss that this crisis--intensified by Wall
Street’s greed for profits--has caused.
Women comprise the fastest growing population of prisoners in the U.S.
Meanwhile, war on working-class youth and youth of color, including racist
police brutality and militarization of schools, is demonizing and killing our
children.
Cuts in funding for education and social programs are decreasing the quality
of life of our youth. The illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are stealing our
children, dehumanizing them and devaluing them into nothing more than property
of the U.S. military, or worse, taking their lives.
The conditions for women worldwide have greatly deteriorated as a result of
war, occupation and ruthless U.S. foreign policy.
The military occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, costing trillions of our
tax dollars, has caused a backward movement in women’s rights and
freedoms in those countries, including a decrease in educational opportunities.
Women in those countries are losing family members to murders and illegal
detentions and are being sexually assaulted, killed and detained
themselves.
The people of Palestine are under a violent and genocidal occupation by the
U.S.-funded state of Israel. Women in the West Bank are seeing the demolition
of their homes, the murder of their children and the imprisonment of
Palestinian men and are being imprisoned and killed themselves. The women of
Gaza are starving, dying of thirst and watching their children and loved ones
die from lack of health care, water, food and income--all of this forced on
them by the U.S. and Israeli blockade. In the most recent revolt against U.S.
imperialism and Israeli apartheid, the women of Gaza played a key role in
breaking through the Egyptian wall in order to obtain food, water and life
necessities.
Women in Sudan and other areas of Africa are dying from U.S. sanctions;
women in the Philippines are being rounded up and killed or imprisoned for
resisting the U.S.-backed regime; the women of Latin America and the Caribbean
are being affected by economic and political U.S. intervention, forcing them to
live in poverty and leave their homes for the prospect of better
opportunities.
Indigenous women are being brutally repressed for reclaiming their original
lands throughout the Americas.
Worldwide sex trafficking has forced women and children into prostitution
and illegal servitude. Often these women and children are kidnapped or forced
into sex trafficking as a result of economic disparity rooted in imperialist
plunder of their countries’ resources.
We mention all these issues because every issue is a woman’s
issue.
What women are doing now to resist
The fight for women’s liberation has been a long road and will take
unity and militancy to complete.
The growing numbers of new union members are largely women willing to stand
up against their bosses and fight for justice at the workplace.
Mothers, wives, sisters and grandmothers are organizing challenges to racist
cops who murder their sons, grandsons, husbands and partners with impunity.
Women are leading the fight against military recruiters in their
children’s schools and their neighborhoods.
Women are fighting against the legal and extralegal heteronormative and
homophobic assaults on the LGBT communities.
Military women are standing up and resisting the violence against their
persons and the imperialist war.
Women across the country are organizing against domestic violence, rapes and
racist torture.
Women continue to band together to defend their right to control their own
bodies and to fight for reproductive justice.
Women are standing up against the bulldozing of their homes and leading the
struggles against displacement, gentrification, foreclosures and criminal
landlords.
Women have mounted strong and united efforts against the destruction of our
land, air, food, water and environmental racism.
Women organize to free their family members who are political prisoners.
Women band together in their communities to stop the lack of quality
education, jobs, health care and a safety net for the disabled, seniors, poor
families, the homeless and children.
Women stand up against the racist immigration policies that separate them
from their children and family.
Women are struggling to recover their children from the so-called child
welfare system.
Women will use their creativity to conjure what is nurturing, beautiful and
strong about women in our songs, our dances, our poems, our drawings and our
musical compositions.
Whether on the streets, in the schools or in our own homes, women will
continue to organize their families and friends and will not stop until a more
life-affirming depiction of the sustainers of our world becomes mainstream.
Our mission is to empower women worldwide as well as to bring to the
attention of our sisters and brothers that we must challenge our
oppressors’ divide-and-conquer tactics, such as racism, sexism,
homophobia and xenophobia.
This call is for all of us to honor and uphold the great traditions of women
warriors who continue to display courage, strength, wisdom and the will to
resist against great odds. Organize, Resist and Build Our Movements for
Victory!
Women activists and women’s groups are encouraged to sign the statement, View or
Download English or
Español flyer for
NYC March, or volunteer
to build the demonstration or list a local IWD event in your area.
Sign the
Statement
http://troopsoutnow.org/iwd08endorse.shtml
Download
Flyers
http://troopsoutnow.org/iwd08.html
Donate to
help with organizing expenses - http://troopsoutnow.org/donate.html
