Strike Marks Pan African Women's Day and Women of the Venezuelan Revolution in Galway

galway | anti-war / imperialism | press release Thursday July 31, 2003 12:47 by Global Women's Strike

Today, 31 July 2003, the Global Women's Strike, with the support of the African Liberation Support Campaign (ALISC) and Payday (a network of men), mark Pan African Women's Day with our anti-war/occupation picket in Galway and a speakout dedicated to the struggles of women in Africa, starting with the women in Cameroon and Uganda....

THE GLOBAL WOMEN'S STRIKE ANTI-WAR COMMUNITY PICKET
AT MILL STREET GARDA STATION IN GALWAY MARKS
PAN AFRICAN WOMEN'S DAY AND WOMEN OF THE VENEZUELAN REVOLUTION

Today, 31 July 2003, the Global Women's Strike, with the support of the African Liberation Support Campaign (ALISC) and Payday (a network of men) mark Pan African Women's Day with our anti-war/occupation picket in Galway and a speakout dedicated to the struggles of women in Africa, starting with the women in Cameroon and Uganda.

In Cameroon, the Groupement des Femmes Employees des Collectivites Publiques Locales du Wouri (GFECOP) will be holding a march demanding: NO TO WAR -YES TO PEACE AND SECURITY. INVEST IN CARING AND DEVELOPMENT, NOT KILLING. GFECOP is a women's organisation based in both rural and urban areas, and is part of a network with members in the DR of Congo, Central Africa, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, R of Congo, Sao Tome and Chad.

In Uganda, the Kaabong Women's Organisation will also hold a march in Karamoja, one of the poorest and most arid regions. This will be followed by group discussions, drama and speeches, including from women councillors of four sub-counties. The West holds up Uganda as a model country; yet 75% of its budget goes on the military while women and girls have to walk many hours each day to dig for water which is not even safe to drink. As our sisters from Kaabong point out: "We do work endlessly caring for families bearing children, yet on empty stomachs. Money which would have made our life easier is instead put on the military bubget. Our survival is not an economic priority, so our survival work is not seen."

We only hear of Africa as a troubled continent of tribal wars and AIDS. We hear nothing of the struggles of women, often across ethnic divisions and national boundaries, for: clean accessible water, food security, breastfeeding, support for subsistence agriculture, healthcare (besides HIV/AIDS), literacy, protection of the environment, sustainable development, a living wage, and against war, rape and domestic violence, low prices for cash crops, Western theft of natural resources . . .

Yet we know that:
- our sisters in Uganda have organised the purifying of their water and other life-sustaining work; and hold great Strike events every year, in spite of having to walk without food for days in order to gather together;
- women in Nigeria are once again occupying oil installations, demanding that Shell Oil provide electricity, schools, jobs and other community needs;
- women in Kenya have risked long prison sentences to destroy cash crops which benefit only multinationals and a few men, planting instead their own subsistence crops on which survival of their communities depend;
- women in South Africa are at the forefront of the movement against privatization of water, electricity, etc., still fighting the economic apartheid which never ended.

We are not told about the Western interests -- in oil and other natural resources and in huge profits from the arms trade -- which promote and fund ethnic and national divisions and the resulting wars. Nor are we told that AIDS is being used to re-colonise Africa nation after nation, to experiment on people, including with dangerous drugs and vaccines, and cut budgets previously dedicated to tackling poverty (including by protecting breastfeeding and promoting water and food programmes).

Actions on Pan African Women's Day in both Cameroon and Uganda, part of the Global Women's Strike, are in support of the women of Venezuela who last year defeated a coup and reinstated their elected government and constitution. Though Venezuela is a major oil producer, 80% of the population, mostly people of African and Indigenous descent, live in poverty. But in the past four years Venezuelans have won a new constitution, land for those who work it, and homes for the homeless which prioritise women-headed households, pay equity between women and men, water and food security, free education, recognition of housework as productive work, social security and pensions for housewives . . . Women in Africa, who have wide experience of using what limited resources they have to organise for more, have been quick to see what the Venezuelan revolution is winning for women, mostly women of colour, and what it can spearhead for all of us. That is why they are taking the lead to spread news about it.

In Caracas, Venezuela, the women are holding a mutual support event, the first Global Women's Strike action in Venezuela. Support actions are also being held in London, England; Barcelona, Spain; and Los Angeles and Philadelphia, USA.

For more information: Global Women's Strike, 10, Galway Bay Apartments, Salthill, Galway. Tel: 087 7838688. Email: maggie_ronayne@hotmail.com
African Liberation Support Campaign, PO Box 21266, London W9 3YR, UK. nkexplo@yahoo.co.uk
Payday, Email: payday@paydaynet.org, and see www.paydaynet.org