‘Global Assembly Line’ highlights women workers

An International Women’s Day forum in Los Angeles on March 10 highlighted women’s leadership around the world in struggles for national liberation and against specific oppressions as women and as workers under capitalism. The March 25 Coalition for immigrant rights and the International Action Center-Los Angeles hosted the program.

From left: Bev Tang, Anakbayan; Gloria Verdieu; Rosa Pisani, Maggie Vascassenno, IAC -LA ; Martha Rojas, March 25 Coalition; Terri Cervas; Alma Castro; Shailendria Shakur, IAC -LA; and Sahar Khanian. WW photo: Bob McCubbin

Gloria Verdieu of the IAC-San Diego opened the program with remarks on the complexity and variety of women’s roles in cultures around the world. She also explained the communist origins of International Women’s Day.

Terrie Cervas of Habi Arts, and the Southern California coordinator of the progressive Filipino organization BAYAN-USA, discussed women in the Philippines within the context of their contribution to their national liberation struggle. She showed photos of militant Filipino protests against U.S. domination as well as domestic political violence, including photos that documented the political assassinations of women activists.

Alma Castro, youth organizer of the March 25 Coalition, gave a moving multi-media presentation with projected photos and text showing the quest for justice and accountability for the Mujeres de Juarez, the many women working in the Mexican border town of Juarez who have been disappeared and killed.

Participants also viewed “The Global Assembly Line,” an Emmy-Award-winning film that documents the impact of the global capitalist economy on workers employed in exploitative “free-trade zones” from Tennessee to the Philippines and the Mexican border.

The program closed with discussion on preparations for the March 17 demonstration against the U.S. war in Iraq and for the May Day 2007 immigrant-rights movement’s call for a mass turn-out against the raids and deportations.

—Maggie Vascassenno