March 2nd 2007 – Global Women’s Strike writes: The Global Women’s Strike thanks you for supporting our COMO/APPO sisters in struggle in Oaxaca, Mexico. The letter you have signed is on our webpage with all the signatures we received. More signatures come in every day.
see also: Appeal from the Trinational Coalition for the Defense of Public Education to the Mexican representative of the United Nations’ Human Rights Commission, filed February 22, 2007
So far we have sent US$1,000. The women have decided to put this towards the hospital bill of the family of compañero Marcos García Macedas, who was shot by police and is struggling for his life. The van in which he was traveling was hit 177 times, four bullets hit Marcos. The bill is US$10,000 so far. Another operation is needed which will cost about US$5,000. Please send a donation if you can.
As you know, in an attempt to defeat the COMO/APPO movement, the government has thrown hundreds of people into jail. The struggle to get rid of the repressive governor Ulises Ruiz and free the prisoners continues! On 6 January, Day of the Kings, 300 children marched to demand the release of their parents. On 17 January, marchers assembled at the Monument to Mothers.
The next mega-march of women has been called for 8 March, International Women’s Day.
Our sisters in Michoacan – who were with us when we met the Oaxaca women and who have participated in Global Women’s Strike activities for years – are also in a big struggle against violence and corruption by party officials. A separate email will give their account of the situation there and what support is needed.
Please send letters of protest in support of the Oaxaca movement against repression to the following politicians:
President Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa
Residencia Oficial de los Pinos
Casa Miguel Alemán Col. San Miguel Chapultepec,
México DF, C.P. 11850
Tel: +52 (55) 27891100
Fax: +52 (55) 52772376
We have no email for him, please send a fax
Licenciado Francisco Javier Ramírez Acuña
Secretario de Gobernación
Bucareli 99, 1er. piso Col. Juárez, Delegación Cuauhtémoc
México D.F., C.P. 06600
Fax: +52 (55) 5093 3414
We have no email for him, please send a fax
Lic. Eduardo Medina-Mora Icaza,
Procurador General de la República
Av. Paseo de la Reforma #211-213 Col. Cuauhtémoc, Delegación Cuauhtémoc
México D.F., C.P. 06500
To send an email on line: pgr.gob.mx/index.asp
Dr. José Luis Soberanes Fernández
President of CNDH
Periférico Sur 3469, Col. San Jerónimo Lídice
10200, México, D.F.
Tel: 631 00 40, 6 81 81 25
Fax: 56 81 84 90
Free long distance call: 01 800 00 869
Emails: correo@fmdh.cndh.org.mx
correo@cndh.gob.mx
Lic. Ulises Ruiz Ortiz
Ex governor of the State of Oaxaca
Fax: + 951 5020530
gobernador@oaxaca.gob.mx
Please send us copies of your letters at:
huelgamundialdemujeres@terra.es
womenstrike8m@server101.com
codep_cnpp_oax@yahoo.com.mx
COMO/APPO sisters in struggle
Friends,
I am attaching an appeal from the Trinational Coalition to the Mexican representative of the United Nations’ Human Rights Commission, filed February 22, 2007.
I am hoping that this appeal for justice and the human rights of the people of Oaxaca can be a part of the activities for March 8th.
Solidarity,
Dan Leahy
Coordinator
Trinational Coalition for the Defense of Public Education
PO Box 602
Olympia, Washington 98507
(360) 352-7086
Download the pdf
GLOBAL WOMEN’S STRIKE 2007
http://www.globalwomenstrike.net
Celebrating International Women’s Day around the world
The Global Women’s Strike and Payday, a network of men, campaign together to win economic and social recognition for unwaged caring work and to demand the return of military budgets to the community, starting with women the first carers everywhere. We demand a world which invests in caring not killing. (Demands below).
Since March 2006, the organizations which co-ordinate the Strike and Payday in different countries have:
• Organized against the war in Iraq and the “war on terror”, including fighting for the right to protest in front of the UK parliament • Worked with the mothers and other relatives of US and UK soldiers who refused to go to war, especially Lt Ehren Watada´s mother Carolyn Ho • Supported Israeli and other conscripts, men and women, gay and straight, who refused to join the military, especially Mehmet Tarhan in Turkey • Campaigned against prison for life for UK refusers • Demonstrated to stop US war planes and torture flights refueling at Irish airports • Marched against military atrocities in northern Uganda to make a way for multinationals, and protested against lack of water and food there • Worked against the murderous and racist US-UN occupation in Haiti and gave Haitians a platform in the US to speak for their struggle • Won in India the release of hundreds of women, men and children from bonded labour, marched against rape by landlords, and brought rural Dalit and Tribal women and urban domestic workers together • Won greater recognition for domestic workers´ rights in Trinidad & Tobago and in Peru where the workers have formed a trade union and are running self-help workshops for Indigenous and other rural women migrating to the city • Gathered support for women in Mexico organizing against electoral fraud, rape and other repression • Opposed the building of large dams that would drown Kurdish villages in Turkey • Organized across race divides to fight racial and domestic violence in Guyana, and won back most of the new tax imposed on basic foods and other necessities • Campaigned in the US for a health food co-op to boycott Israeli goods, and fasted in the UK to protest the bombing of Lebanon • Worked with survivors of hurricanes Katrina and Rita for survival money, housing and reconstruction by government, and to expose theft by aid agencies • Protested the distribution of formula milk that undermines breastfeeding in Africa and Iraq, and defended the right of breastfeeding mothers who are HIV+ • Helped win housing and money for mothers in Venezuela; attended as a network (72 people from 9 countries) the World Social Forum there, launched our new book on the Women’s Development Bank and made a film of our journey to publicize the revolution to which women are central • Co-ordinated a European speaking tour for two grassroots organizers who represent the Strike and Payday in Venezuela • Campaigned for the constitution of Ireland to recognize caring work, including with payment, as the constitution of Venezuela does • Campaigned for sex workers´ right to safety and protection, for single mothers´ right to an income for their caring work, and for the right of people with disabilities and older people to a decent income, healthcare, services and transport • Helped win asylum in the UK for many women fleeing homophobia, rape and other torture in dictatorships and proxy wars in Africa and elsewhere • Petitioned in Spain for wages for those who care for relatives and for benefits to be extended to all mothers • Worked with anti-rape organizations for rapists and racist attackers to be prosecuted and convicted, and for survivors to be compensated rather than persecuted, and their anonymity protected • Publicly challenged the voluntary sector and those feminists who make careers claiming to speak for us while they implement government policies of privatization, cuts and deportation • Gathered support from lawyers and journalists for a fair trial for death row Black journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal • Made visible the justice work of women fighting for their loved ones who have been killed, imprisoned or injured • Made holistic health treatment available • Deepened our knowledge of Marx and our understanding of how he can help us to change our world…
And we worked hard to maintain and expand our international network, via email, websites, travel, and Skype phoning; run our women’s centres (a new Strike centre in India!), update our technology and learn new skills and languages. We have translated materials on most initiatives into many languages, especially Spanish, Turkish, Italian, Hindi, German, Arabic, French and English. We got some media coverage for this work and for other grassroots struggles, in particular on an hour-long weekly radio
programme in Los Angeles hosted by the co-ordinator of Women of Colour in the Global Women’s Strike. Yes, it’s been a busy year and more work lies ahead, but we have many more friends and are more effective as the movement grows stronger internationally.
Our ongoing connection with the developing revolution in Venezuela is a power for all we do. In one country at least the government is not training guns against us or imprisoning “troublemakers”. Instead, the creative efforts of women and the grassroots generally to reshape the whole society from the bottom up are reinforced and represented by President Chávez. The Strike’s films about this revolution are circulating with subtitles in a number of countries.
As a grassroots movement we confront the poisoning and destruction of the soil, the air, the water, the food, the climate and thus the health of the planet and of all of us. Everywhere women are struggling with a double and triple working day, the richest have got richer and most of us have got poorer. While feminism has helped to ensure that more women are in positions of power, most of them have followed orders rather than respond to the needs of the grassroots. Now is the time for our movement to re-examine every question.
Power to the sisters to stop the world and change it!
London Co-ordinating Committee
Demands of the Strike
* Payment for all caring work – in wages, pensions, land & other resources. What is more valuable than raising children & caring for others? Invest in life & welfare, not military budgets or prisons
* Pay equity for all, women & 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 & technology which shortens the hours we work. We all need cookers, fridges, washing machines, computers, & time off!
* Protection & asylum from all violence & persecution, including by family members & people in positions of authority.
* Freedom of movement. Capital travels freely, why not people?
http://www.globalwomenstrike.net