24 Hours of Feminist Action around the World : World March of Women International Declaration

Today, on the 10th December 2012, we, the activists of the World March of Women, shall carry out actions within our communities between midday and 1pm. Starting in New Caledonia and across the globe until reaching Seattle, we will be mobilised during 24 hours, to demonstrate our awareness towards what is happening in the world, the attacks perpetrated on women’s rights, and to make our acts of resistance as well as our alternatives known.

Eight years ago, during our International Meeting in Kigali, Rwanda, in 2004, we approved our Women’s Global Charter for Humanity after a long process of collective construction. At that moment, we asserted that: “We women have been marching a long time to denounce and demand an end to the oppression of women and to the domination, exploitation, egotism and unbridled quest for profit which breeds injustice, war, conquest and violence… We are building a world in which equality, freedom, solidarity, justice, and peace are its driving forces. A world which, through our own strength, we are able to create.”

Today, in 2012, our efforts to find other ways to organise our lives that overcome patriarchy, capitalism, racism and lesbophobia have become even more relevant as we face the systemic crises and the false solutions promoted for them. The economic crisis is worsening the problem of unemployment, which is being met with austerity measures and cuts to social policies. The only response given to the environmental crisis and climate change is the privatisation of nature. The impacts of the care-work fall largely on women’s shoulders crisis, as they remain responsible for, and burdened with, caring for the most basic needs we all have. These false solutions are imposed by corporations and financial technocrats who have captured the political arena, as well as by the criminalisation of social struggles, and the increase of militarisation. They strengthen themselves through the promotion of conservatism, an increase in attacks by different religious fundamentalists, the increase in all types of violence against women, as well as through the control and commodification of our bodies, and the weakening of our rights and of the progress that we women have made.

The Filipino poet Joi Barrios summarises it best: “To be a woman, is to live in a time of war.”

We women weave the very fabric of our lives against the backdrop of permanent crisis. We build alternatives for the production and preparation of food, for care-giving, in the solidarity economy, in community radios and in many other mediums of communication within our social movements, and in popular celebrations exempt from sexism and discrimination. We develop counter-hegemonic practices which join with our alternatives built on people’s power, which recover our grandmother’s memories as well as that of many other feminist activists, which re-establish harmony between humans and the environment, which invite us to debate what a life worth living is.

We propose building another world where exploitation, oppression, intolerance and exclusion no longer exist, and where integrity, diversity and the rights and freedoms of all are respected.

Together we carry out a common action on the 10th December, as we strengthen resistance in our respective countries and throughout the world:

We march

We organise and resist

We march

And we rebel

We march

And we build other ways of life

We march

And we unite

We march

We acknowledge each other and decide

We march

We speak and shout

We march

And we create an alternative economy

We march

We dance and sing

We march

And we take to the streets

We march

We remember, and discover ourselves

We march

And from our roots upwards, we are

We march

And freely live our sexuality

We march

And reaffirm feminism as the space for the real solutions we seek

We march

We struggle,

We march and build lives which are worth living

We will remain united until all of us are free!

 

Women in resistance, 10th December 2012

 

More information: http://www.24heures2012.info/

LETTER OF SOLIDARITY WITH THE PEOPLE OF GAZA

For several days, the Israeli army has intensified bombings and incursions into the Palestinian territory of the Gaza strip, causing the death of several Palestinian civilians, including children.

The World March of Women condemns the targeted killings and attacks against the besieged population of Gaza.

The World March of Women calls on the international community to press for the cessation of this wave of deadly violence, and for the immediate lifting of the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli government moved one step further by murdering Ahmad Jabbari, the head of the armed wing of Hamas.

Today, the Israeli state has officially announced and resumed its military operations against Gaza, afflicting the people of Gaza, subject to an illegal and inhumane blockade since 2007, with new bombings, deaths and destruction. This leads to retaliations also affecting Israeli civilians.

We deplore all civilian casualties, but we consider that, by breaking the ceasefire and starting hostilities, the State of Israel bears responsibility.

No one has forgotten the massacres perpetrated by the same Israeli army during the operation “Cast Lead” in 2008-2009, resulting in the death of nearly 1,500 Palestinians and that the same excuses were put forward by the Israeli government to justify this murderous attack. It was, as today, the eve of elections in Israel. And as in 2008, the attacks of the Israeli army carry on today despite a cease-fire agreement achieved through Egyptian mediation, and respected by the Palestinians until the assassination of the head of Hamas.

Binyamin Netanyahu, who has announced his party’s alliance with Avigdor Lieberman’s, the leader of the far-right, is clearly using this attack against the Gaza Strip for electoral purposes.

Also, this government has systematically worked towards wrecking the Palestinian initiative at the UN. It asserts clearly and unequivocally its desire to overthrow the Palestinian Authority and even to wipe out its leadership if Palestine becomes a UN member.

Preserving the chances of peace goes hand in hand with the international community bringing Israel’s impunity to an end. This involves sanctions and not occupation premiums, as done by the European Union and the USA and its allies.

We are pursuing our work towards solidarity during the Social Forum Free Palestine, which will take place in Porto Alegre from November 28 to December 1, and on December 10 during our 24 hours of feminist action.

 

International Committee – World March of Women

 

News from the collectif Paris

Dear sisters,

I hope you are going well since august …

–   We’re going to organise a working week about the attacks on abortion right en Europa. Main goal : create a website about it. This week should be at the end of january in Paris. In the program: exchanges on cyber-activism experiences; training in creation and animation of websites; exchanges on situation and actions for the right to abortion and contraception for all.

 –   We also organise another meeting for a discussion about our camps, something like an evaluation and imagination for the future. This meeting will take place at the end of february.

If you are interested in one project or the other, please write to us quite fast (wenesday maximum), to know more about it … mmfjeunes@gmail.com

Financial conditions like in the camps: 70% of travel and lodging supported. Remaining 30% of the travel costs.

Targoviste demostration on August11th

Our camp continues….

On Saturday we had a demonstration in the center of Targoviste.

We had performances, batucadas and slogans from our different countries.

Some photos are available from www.feministcamp.tumblr.com

Luptati, luptati si nu abandonati lupta feminista anticapitalista!!!

This is a declaration about migration prepared for the demonstration :

 

DECLARATION  ON  MIGRATION

Camp of the Young Feminists of Europe WMW

Moroieni, Romania

11th of august 2012

We denounce the migration system who allows some people to move around the world and cross freely the boarders and imprison others in their territories. We denounce the militarisation of the boarders in this fortress-Europe and the development of detention centers of migrants. We denounce the increasing political repression against activists, women and migrants.
We denounce poverty due to this capitalist, racist, imperialist and patriarcal system. We are aware that this poverty and lack of autonomy affects first the women. The under-valuation of women work, like domestic and reproductive work is a key-point in this system, as well as sexual violence and the way girls are raised perpetuating this gendered social hierarchy.
As shown in this performance, we denounce the traffic of women for the sexual use of men in every country. We denounce the exploitation of women for the hard work of cleaning, caring, farming, etc. We denounce the impossibility of meeting with our feminists sisters living in southern countries, Lydiah from Kenya, Clydie from Philippinas, Najla from Tunisia, who couldn’t be here because of these barriers.
Poverty and violence affect  particularly certain women such as Roma women, women belonging to cultural minorities, young women, lesbians, trans and queers, elder women, and so many more. This system is organised by the legal authorities working hand by hand with the mafias and the market forces.
We affirm that we, young feminists of Europe and of the world  are working on destroying the system, change our prejudices and work on our own societies influenced by racist and partriarcal ideologies, and find new ways to live free from violence and oppression for all human beings in this world.

The second edition of the Young Feminist Summer Camp has started!

 

The second edition of the Young Feminist Summer Camp has started!

This year we are more than 50 young women from 12 different countries and territories; Romania, Basque country, Turkey, Catalunya, France, Armenia, Italy, Germany, Norway, Galiza, Portugal and Switzerland. There are also participants from Brazil and Chile to strengthen our camp.

Some young women recognize each other from last year’s camp and many new participants have joined the gathering. We are excited to be together sharing our experiences, supporting each other in our feminist struggles and building an international young feminist movement!

 

This year the camp is organized slightly differently.Unfortunatley, the camp ground that was originally planned was cancelled at the last minute for political reasons and so instead of tents we are sharing a few cabins. This means that our desire of self management is not completley acheived, but it also means that most of us can sleep in beds and have hot showers, which is also not such a bad thing!

 

We have started our third day of the camp and we’re already immersed in various workshops. Safer-sex; Political Lesbianism; Women and Environment; Women, Militarization and Peace; Radical struggles against sexual violence etc. are only a few examples of the subjects we have started to tackle. We will have a few more days of workshops,plenary sessions and a protest on Saturday.

Also, 30 more girls from Romenia and other countries will join us over the weekend for more activities and discussions. We are all very excited to be here and each of us has worked hard (especially the Romanian team) to make the camp happen. It has not been without difficulty: in a Europe shaped by crisis and austerity policies, many of us as young women find ourselves in precarious situations.

We have also had difficulties with immigration officials to obtain visas for some of the international participants comming from the global South. As last year, some young women have already so much to do with their struggles at home, that they could not participate in the camp.

Nonetheless, we are pushing forward our desire to create a permanent international young feminist movement!

 

We’ll keep posting information, photos and texts in our blog :

French: http://campementfeministe.wordpress.com/

Spanish: http://campamentojovenesfeministas.wordpress.com/

English: https://youngfeministcamp.wordpress.com/

 

We’re also twitting during the camp under the hashtag #YFSC

We will also post pictures in feministcamp.tumblr.com

News from the camp

Good news! We got the funding for the camp!

This is a very good news, because this allow us to help finance the travel costs for more participants from all over Europe.

This also means that we have a lot of work from now until the camp.

If you and your group are already registered or want to participate please contact us!  mmfjeunes (at) gmail.com

Registration

News from the 2012 Camp

The organizers of the 2012 Camp (the women from Romenia) visit last week the location of the camp, Moroieni.  They send us some news:

The camp is is close to the street in a small village, there is a small store, a market in the center of the village and also a pharmacy.
We discussed with the administrator of the location and a few other locals and we will buy some of the food from them (milk and eggs). There aren’t many vegetables in the area but there is a market where producers from the county come to sell on weekends, so we will probably buy most of the things that we need from them.

We also discussed the possibility of having two local women helping us in the kitchen (for lunch and dinner). This is a touristic area so most of the women work as cooks for the local guest houses. We will see if we have enough money to pay them to do that.

We will also talk to the mayor of the village and try to make a partnership with the city hall for the camp, they are really nice and excited that this is going to happen there and think that it will be good publicity for the village. We were thinking to make a concert (we have to see if that fits in the budget also) and maybe ask them to have it at the community cultural center. We will also discuss with the local police just to make sure that we and our belongings will be secure during the camp.

The best part about the location is that it is really close to the Bucegi mountains, the Ialomitei cave (aprox 30 km). We hope we will have time to organize a trip around. The administrator from the place told us that we could find horse driven carriages to take us there. That will be really nice I think, experiencing a bit of the way of living in the countryside in Romania.

The place still needs some cleaning and they will have it all done by the time of the camp. They will cut the grass in the yard, where we will install our tents. They will also make sure that we have access to electricity in the yard.

The place has two small camping houses and two bigger buildings, 18 beds in total, 6 baths and two outdoor showers. We will see if we need all that, Laura is going to talk to them to get a price for renting the whole compound. The total surface is not that big (2800 square meters for the whole compound) but we have a contact from a lady across the street with a big and nice yard and we talked to her about setting up a few tents there also in case we run out of space. We have to negotiate a price so this is not final yet.

There is an outdoor wire for drying clothes and we will buy detergent and soap (maybe locally produced also). The place has two equipped kitchens (including 2 microwaves) and 3 fridges.

What we have to do next is to gather volunteers for the preparation, make a list of everything we need.

 

 

 

News from WMW Europe

 News from WMW Europe

The meeting of the European Coordinating Body of the World March of Women was held in Romans,
France, from June 1st to 3rd. Delegates from some 10 countries discussed the latest developments in
their countries and worked to arrange a campaign against austerity measures and to denounce their
impact on the lives of millions of women. The campaign will take place from October 17 to March
8, 2013, under the slogan: “States have a debt toward women, not toward banks!” Two days of
decentralized action are planned across all of Europe.

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