International Action Center Women's Fightback Network Statement of Purpose: March 8, 2007
The Women's Fightback Network is a
grassroots alliance of poor and working women, immigrants, disabled activists,
students, elders and youth, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual and transgender
women--all standing together to protest budget cuts, racism, sexism and war. As
women, we have a special place in the fight for equality and human
needs.
We and our families bear the brunt of the budget
cuts and attacks on the poor. Women and children continue to be the poorest of
the poor, while the Pentagon budget swells and the banks and big business get
bailouts and tax cuts, and while the U.S. government exports war to the rest of
the world, with a devastating and disproportionate impact on women and gender
and sexually oppressed people.
The U.S. is the richest country in the
world--there should not be hunger, homelessness, utility shutoffs, illiteracy,
unemployment, or lack of health care. Don't balance the budget off our
backs! Stop the war on women, in the U.S. and abroad!
The great victories of women's liberation
and progressive change in the U.S. in the past have been won not by the vote,
but by mass action, organizing, and collective action. Women's right to
vote, the eight-hour workday, social security, welfare, food stamps,
unemployment benefits, disabled access, public education and legal
abortion--these were won by activists who organized, from local neighborhood
rallies to mass national demonstrations.
Civil rights, desegregation and affirmative
action came from picket lines, sit-ins and boycotts with fierce leadership by
community women. Labor unions and unorganized and undocumented workers, often
under the leadership of militant working women, continue to test the brave
tactics of walkouts, plant occupations and strikes in today's struggle for
a living wage, safe working conditions and an end to discrimination, hiring
freezes, forced overtime, speedups, and harassment, including sexual
harassment.
Women in our communities also lead in the fight
against racist police occupation and brutality, as well as in resisting other
forms of violence against women, on the streets and in our homes. Funding for
mental health treatment, recovery programs, women's shelters for survivors
of battering and rape, girls' sports, and women's art, as well as
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights can all happen with organized
fightback.
A vibrant, strong, independent, multinational
women's movement led by women who represent the most oppressed workers and
poor people, undocumented immigrants and Indigenous peoples, young and old,
lesbian, bisexual and heterosexual, transgender and transsexual, disabled and
Deaf, has the power to change history. A women's movement independent of
capitalist interests and big-business political parties is essential to
changing the world.
When we act together, we become stronger and
more confident. When we fight back together, we can move mountains. The
isolation and alienation of sexism and racism, of sexuality and gender
oppression, of class oppression, is broken down, and we become a powerful force
for change. We can lift up our voices, demand our needs be met, and act to
create a more just world.
Because so many issues overlap in our very
lives, women need to be in the leadership of a broad-based movement speaking
out against right-wing attacks, racism, sexism and homophobia and transphobia,
against corporate greed and economic exploitation, against U.S. wars abroad and
the domestic war on people inside the U.S
Our network is global! We are in solidarity with
our sisters and brothers fighting against U.S. aggression from Vieques to
Colombia, Palestine to the Philippines, Afghanistan to Iraq, from Venezuela and
Cuba to the nations of Africa and Asia. Women united will never be
defeated!
For more information about Women’s
Fightback Network in your area, look for the list of IAC local chapters
at:
International Action
Center
http://www.iacenter.org/
Mujeres del mundo condenan violencia y agresiones de EEUU contra
Irak
