International Women's Day conference
Promoting spirit of unity and fightback
By Minnie Bruce Pratt
New York
March 8 marks International Women's Day. In
celebration of this struggle-oriented date, a spirited Women's
Fight back Conference against Economic Oppres sion was held in
New York on March 6. The conference was organized by an IWD
Committee initiated by the International Action Center and was
attended by women and men of many nationalities, ages and
genders in support of women's rights.
There were First Nation and Indigen ous women, women from
Buffalo, Balti more, Boston and the Bronx, from Harlem and
Jamaica, women from Algeria, Canada, the former Yugoslavia and
Somalia, from India, Korea and the Philippines, and those
seeking the right to return to Pales tine. There were teenagers
and grandmothers and same-sex lovers; there were students,
unionists, poets, house clean ers, lawyers, organizers for the
movement, film makers, teachers and health care workers.
A welcoming talk from conference co-organizer Ojette
Brundage made the connections between women's lives and the
depth of oppression they suffer under capitalism. She spoke of
the current 49-percent rate of unemployment for Black women in
New York--and the 70-percent unemployment for women in
Palestine--and described how women in so many communities are
living under economic and military or police occupation by the
U.S. She challenged the participants: "The corporations want us
to see only our differences, but today we take down the
walls."
The opening plenary deepened these connections as Mahtowin
Munro, co-leader of United American Indians of New England,
highlighted the dispossession of Indigenous women from their
land as a central issue in struggles against globalization. She
spoke of the racist treatment of Native and other women of
color in the U.S. military.
Other speakers detailed how racism, the vicious stereotyping
of Arab, South east Asian and Muslim people, and other national
oppressions double and triple the difficulties of women's daily
struggle for survival. They gave the brutal statistics of how
capital's drive for profit has driven women from subsistence
peasant farming all over the world, imprisoning them in
sweatshops, prostitution, poverty and war zones.
Among the speakers were Dr. Andrée Nicola McLaughlin,
Medgar Evers College; Dr. Asha Samad-Matias, SAFRAD-Somali
Association; Randa Jamal, Al-Awda Palestine Right to Return
Coalition; Pat Chin, co-editor of "Haiti: A Slave Revolution";
Dr. Celesti Colds Fechter, Assistant Dean, Academic Affairs,
the New School; and Monami Maulik and Supriya David from the
South Asian group, Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM).
Cuban women defend their gains
Dora Carcano of the Cuban Democratic Federation of Women and
Alicia Gonzales of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) spoke of
women's dramatic gains since Cuba's socialist revolution. The
"feminization of justice" has meant that women now make up 36
percent of parliament, 49 percent of judges, and 47 percent of
the Cuban Supreme Court. They stressed that, from its
inception, revolutionary Cuba launched a campaign against rigid
traditional roles for men and women. Said Gonzales, quoting FMC
founder Vilma Espín, "We have not conquered all, but we
must defend what we have conquered."
They both stressed that the U.S. would like to do to Cuba
what it is currently doing to Haiti, where there was only one
doctor per 7,180 people--until Cuban doctors came to help.
Deirdre Sinnott, co-director of the IAC, motivated why it is
important for women to come out for the March 20th
international demonstrations against war, occupation, racism
and cutbacks, from Iraq to Palestine to Haiti.
A majority of women met in two consecutive workshops that
focused on domestic and international issues. The wide-ranging,
open and personal nature of the discussions responded to the
challenge by another plenary speaker, Brenda Stokely, president
of District Council 1707, AFSCME, who urged the gathering to
reclaim the "true revolutionary history of working-class
women--the stories that have never been told," that we learn
from each other only in the struggle. Workshop participants
spoke movingly about a recent loss of job or school
opportunities, the U.S. war drive, and its impact on women here
and worldwide.
Others talked of the heavy toll on their lives of lack of
health care--or the fact that they were from communities so
oppressed, such as First Nation peoples or undocumented
domestic workers, that health care was not even on their
agenda. There was frank discussion of issues, such as racism
and class divisions, that keep women from struggling in
common.
'Women unite to globalize the struggle!'
After the workshops, attendees came back to the main
auditorium for a final plenary that began with a traditional
Indian dance by Vandana Nagaraj. Chair person Monica Moorehead
affirmed that "Every issue is a women's issue" and urged that
"Women unite to globalize the struggle--We have nothing to lose
but our chains!" Conference co-organizer Emelyn Tapaoan
reported on how the discussion groups had "interpreted cold
statistics into bitter truth."
Other talks were presented by Yoomi Jeong, Deputy Secretary
General, Korea Truth Commission; Pam Africa, Inter national
Concerned family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal and Move;
Algerian writer Rachida Mohemmedi; and novelist Nadja Tesich,
whose description of what women in her country, the former
Yugoslavia, had gained under socialism--and have lost since
U.S. intervention and war--evoked mighty applause.
Maricela Ortiz Rivera, of Bring Our Daughters Home, gave a
devastating account of the murders during the last 11 years of
over 300 indigent young girls in Juarez, Mexico, and the
disappearance of 4,000 more, most of them workers at
maquiladoras in the border town. Her remarks highlighted the
interconnection of women's economic issues and sexual and
physical assault.
Latina lesbian activist and author Rebeca Toledo spoke of
the struggle of lesbians, as well as gay, bisexual and
transgender people, to create sustainable family units. Lesbian
families, and especially women of color, are feeling intense
economic pressures because of women's lower pay. She described
the surging civil disobedience movement in the U.S. for the
right to same-sex marriage. Marriage would give them access to
over 1,000 civil rights with economic implications, such as
housing, medical benefits, hospital rights, wills and Social
Security benefits.
Dorotea Mendoza, Secretary General of GABRIELA Network of
the Philip pines, asked, "How are reproductive rights connected
to imperialism? And how is racism connected to sex
trafficking?"
Julie Fry, from the Rutgers University chapter of the
National Lawyers Guild, made an appeal for participation in the
April 25th March on Washington for Reproductive Rights.
Euline Williams and Sheila Ireland of Community Voices
Heard, an East Harlem group that organizes low-income women for
welfare rights and job creation, ended the conference. Ireland
said, "They tried to take my dignity, but they couldn't take my
soul. The people have the power!"
Groups represented at this conference also included All
People's Congress of Baltimore, International ANSWER, American
Indian Community House, Boston's Women's Fightback Network,
Canadian Voices of Women for Peace, Central New Jersey
Coalition for Peace and Justice, Damayan Migrant Workers
Association, NY Free Mumia Coalition, Harlem Tenants Council,
International Mothers of Liberia, Monmouth County Residents for
Immigrant Rights, Network in Solidarity with the People of the
Philippines, Northeast Bronx Cultural Association, Wakening
Indigenous Nations Defense & Support (WINDS) and Workers
World Party.
Reprinted from the March 18, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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