‘Stop U.S. war on women, at home and abroad’
By
Phebe Eckfeldt
Boston
Published Mar 16, 2005 1:50 PM
“Stop the U.S. war on
women at home and abroad. Money for human needs, not war!”
This was
the theme of an International Women’s Day celebration hosted by the
Women’s Fightback Network here on March
12.
Kim Rosario: ‘Keep marching, keep organizing, keep fighting.’
|
“International” aptly described the participants and
speakers who came to share their struggles. They included women from Latin
America, the Carib bean, Asia, India and the African-American
community.
The program was moving, strengthening and uplifting. It was a
celebration of the lives of poor and working women.
Speakers, poets,
musicians and artists addressed the crowd through their voices and their works
about the ongoing struggles against sexism, racism, poverty, lesbian/bi/trans
oppression, for human needs and human rights and against war.
Dorothea
Peacock of the WFN put it this way: “Is there really a war going on here
in the U.S. against women? We don’t see any bombs or fighter jets, do we?
But many poor and working women feel under siege, under attack by Bush’s
cuts in housing, health care, child care and education.
“The
devastation is felt when we can’t find a job, or there is no food in the
fridge at the end of the week, or not enough money to pay for our child’s
asthma medication, or we want to go to college but there are no
funds.
“Instead, the Bush administration’s policy is to give
huge bailouts to mega-corporations and billions for an ‘endless war’
in Iraq. Many women of color live under warlike conditions, with police
occupying their communities, murdering and brutalizing at will. Immigrant women
are besieged by Homeland Security, which can round them up and deport them on a
moment’s notice.
“But we won’t shut up,” Peacock
vowed. We’ll keep on fighting.”
Kim Rosario’s
19-year-old son is in the military in Iraq. An organizer for the anti-war GI
support group SNAFU, Rosario told the crowd: “Women bear the burden of war
and budget cuts when our men are sent off to war or incarcerated. Grand mothers
are left raising their grandchildren. Military recruiters prey on our sons and
daughters. They are stealing our children’s futures.
“But you
do have a voice and you do have a choice...don’t give up the struggle.
Keep marching, keep organizing, keep fighting.” She called on everyone to
attend the March 19 anti-war demonstration in New York City.
Other
speakers included LeiLani Dowell of New York’s Queers for Peace and
Justice and the youth group FIST—Fight Imperialism-Stand Together; Diane
Dujon of Survivors Inc. and the Mas sachusetts Welfare Rights Union; Jenny
Rodriguez and her two daughters who spoke on racial profiling; Oslyn Brumant, a
shop steward with the Boston school bus drivers’ union, Steel Workers
Local 8751; and a representative from the Haitian Women’s
Association.
Cultural performers included poets Margaret Campbell,
Sharel’le Campbell, Jennifer Badot and Elizabeth Doran, and musician Lisa
Doyle. Women artists displayed their work at tables set up in the
room.
The meeting was co-chaired by Carol Brown of Dorchester People for
Peace and the International Action Center and Maureen Skehan, a leader of the
WFN and a Section 8 housing advocate.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
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