31 Jan-8 Feb 09 - International Gathering Against Sexism & Racism

international | rights, freedoms and repression | event notice Friday January 16, 2009 15:18 by R Shell - Global Women's Strike womenstrike8m at server101 dot com Crossroads Women's Centre, 230A Kentish Town Rd, London NW5 2AB 44 (0)20 7482 2496

You are invited to an INTERNATIONAL GATHERING of the
GLOBAL WOMEN'S STRIKE and INTERNATIONAL WOMEN COUNT NETWORK

The Struggle Against Sexism & Racism: an International Comparison

31 January-8 February 2009 London, England All Welcome

Five major events over 10 days. Films to be announced.

Grassroots Struggle

Saturday 31 January
9.30am-5.30pm
Bolivar Hall, Venezuelan Embassy
54 Grafton Way, London W1 5AJ

1. Grassroots Struggle Against Sexism and Racism: an International
Comparison

A Black family in the White House: what power can we draw for our movement?
What can we learn from our own struggle by comparing it with the struggle of
others?

SPEAKERS from: AFRICA and IRAQ on war-torn families; BOLIVIA on Indigenous
communities confronting the white elite; GUYANA on a people divided along
race lines; INDIA on Dalit and Tribal women; HAITI on rural and sweatshop
workers; PALESTINE on women's resistance to occupation; the UK on seeking
asylum and confronting racist assault; the US on immigrants' rights, and
Black communities fighting multinationals and the death penalty; VENEZUELA
on defending the gains of the revolution.

Sunday 1 February
10.30am-5.30pm
Bolivar Hall, Venezuelan Embassy

2. Our Debt to Haitians - the First to Abolish Slavery

Independent since their revolution in 1804, the Black Jacobins of Haiti have
blazed an anti-imperialist, anti-racist trail for us all. They have been
punished for their boldness. But despite a US coup in 2004 which overthrew
Haiti's first democratically elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a UN
occupying army, murders and rapes, the imprisonment and disappearance of
organizers like Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, four hurricanes and near
starvation, the Haitian grassroots, beginning with women, maintain their
revolutionary resistance, commanding our solidarity.

SPEAKERS from: HAITI, GUYANA, VENEZUELA, EUROPE, CANADA, the US.

Tuesday 3 February
6-8pm
House of Commons

3. Rape and Prostitution - A Question of Consent

While government feminists and religious fundamentalists equate prostitution
with rape and claim most sex workers have been trafficked, rapists continue
to get away with it - the conviction rate for reported rape in England and
Wales is a shocking 6%. But a growing international movement for women's
safety is demanding the decriminalization of sex work. In England it has
defeated government attempts to "rehabilitate" sex workers and is opposing
proposals to raid brothels and criminalize clients. In San Francisco 41%
voted for decriminalization in the last elections.

SPEAKERS from the Safety First Coalition, Women Against Rape, the
International Prostitutes Collective, and from GUYANA, INDIA, PERU, TRINIDAD
& TOBAGO.

Saturday 7 February
9.30am-5.30pm
Bolivar Hall
Venezuelan Embassy

4. Invest In Caring, Not Killing: Valuing the Work of Caring for People and
the Planet

While money is always found to wage war and bail out banks, the caring needs
of people and the planet are never the priority. Women who do 2/3 of the
world's work are the poorest everywhere. Mothers who produce all the workers
of the world are not considered contributors to the economy and must fight
for every penny to feed families in war and so-called peace. Others are
separated from their children and must fight to win them back. Domestic
workers who "produce time for others" are marginalized and exploited. Rural
workers who grow the food we eat are the most neglected. Men and women who
refuse to kill for the military are criminalized.

SPEAKERS: single mothers, women with disabilities, domestic & rural workers,
sex workers, women & the double day, trade unionists, refuseniks, from
ENGLAND, GUYANA, INDIA, IRAQ, IRELAND, PERU, SPAIN, TURKEY, TRINIDAD &
TOBAGO, the US, VENEZUELA.

Sunday 8 February
1.30-5.30pm
Bolivar Hall
Venezuelan Embassy

5. Rediscovering Tanzania's Ujamaa - Tribute to the Great Ntimbanjayo
Millinga and the Ruvuma Development Association

In the 1960s, a great anti-imperialist movement for independence swept the
world. President Julius Nyerere urged Tanzanians to reject capitalist
exploitation, and build a society based on African communalism. Ntimbanjayo
Millinga with a few others and hardly any funding put these views into
practice and built an extraordinary rural society based on equity between
women and men, young and old. By 1969, 17 ujamaa villages had formed the
Ruvuma Development Association (RDA). But the governing party was so
hostile that, against Nyerere's will, they closed it down. Tragically,
Millinga died in 2008. RDA's legacy is a beacon in our struggle today.

SPEAKERS: Conrada Millinga, Suleman Toroka, Ralph & Noreen Ibbott, Rosemary
Nyerere (daughter of the President) & Selma James.

We apologise that Bolivar Hall is not wheelchair accessible. Two trained
strong men will be available to help wheelchair users up and down the flight
of stairs. There is a toilet at the conference hall.

The Gathering is unfunded, donations welcome. For information contact:

Crossroads Women's Centre, 230A Kentish Town Rd, London NW5 2AB
Tel: 44 (0)20 7482 2496 Email: [email protected]
www.globalwomenstrike.net www.allwomencount.net