Call for Womens’ Day 2020 from AIRWO India: Resist fascism! Fight for equality and dignity for women!
Even as the divisive, communal and sinister CAA was passed amidst surging protests throughout the country, led in great part by women and youths, atrocities against women and the relentless pauperization of the masses have continued to rise steadily.
We are approaching the International Working Women’s Day at a time when Indian women are not only facing unprecedented violence but also being deprived of decent jobs and wages and being pushed into an existence of dependence and penury. Data released by the National Crime Records Bureau have revealed that a total of 2,249 unemployed women committed suicide in 2018. The total number of suicides by unemployed women and men surpassed that of farmers and serve as a harsh comment on the state of joblessness and poverty in the country.
Women of the world weave a bond of solidarity! Call for the 3rd World Women’s Conference of grassroots women 2021 in Tunis!
From the Andes, to the Rocky Mountains, from Ayers Rock to the Alps, from the Himalayas to the Urals and Atlas, our call resounds and becomes an outcry that spreads across the world – echoing in the metropolises until it finally reaches every corner of the earth! It embraces more and more women. Let us weave a bond of solidarity together!
Come to Tunis for the 3rd World Women’s Conference 2021!
Tunisian women textile workers are fighting against work stress, gender discrimination and violence at work. Courageous strike leaders are put on black lists. Women textile workers in Bangladesh fight unionized for a minimum wage that is enough to live on. They defy prison and violence. They all form the backbone of the militant women’s movement.
In Iran the embers of the revolution are re-ignited, women stand up – defying death – against the Islamist-fascist mullah government. Their demand for women’s rights is connected with the struggles of the workers. Indigenous women of Latin America fight for the future of the children and the planet. They call out to the world: Save our mother earth!
Proposal for the Agenda for the European Conference of the WFK on 9 May 2020 in Srbrenik/ Bosnia
European Coordinators
Halinka Augustin/Netherlands
Susanne Bader/Germany
| No. | Subject | Responsible | Time |
| Friday 08. May | |||
| Arrival and registration
In the evening a friendly “welcome” |
World women from Bosnia
All of us |
||
| Saturday 09. May | 9:00 | ||
| 1 | Welcome and greetings | Bosnia | 15 min |
| 2 | Presentation of the present
Delegations and guests |
Coordinators | 15 min |
| 3 | Discussion and decision on the
Agenda and Rules of Procedure |
Coordinators | 15 min |
| 4 | Review and control of 2018 decisions | Coordinators | 15 min |
| 5 | Report on the work of the
Coordinators from April 2018 to April 2020, Discussion |
Coordinators | 45 min |
| 6 | Delegations’ country reports You also have the possibility to show photos Each country report maximum 10 minutes = 1.5 pages Reports should include: We ask you to send us your country report by 24. 4. 20 at the latest in writing |
Each delegation for its own country report
plus 5 min at the lecture for the translation |
180 min |
| 7 | Work to be done, roadmap for the 3rd WFK and resolutions of the 4th World Meeting in Erfurt 2019 | Coordinators | 105 min |
| 8 | Financial independence – trademark of the World Women’s Conferences | Coordinators | 15 min |
| 9 | Resolutions and resolutions
Please bring your suggestions |
Coordinators | 45 min |
| Expected end (including breaks) | 18:30 | ||
| Evening cultural programme
Please bring ideas for it |
All of us |
On Sunday there is a cultural program of our hostesses.
International Theoretical Seminar : Introductory speech by the Kurdish Women’s Movement
PDF Download: Introductory speech by the Kurdish Women’s Movement V01 EN
Introductory speech by the Kurdish Women’s Movement
International Theoretical Seminar on Women’s Liberation
2-4 December 2018 – Bangalore
Dear women, dear comrades, dear sisters,
We are honoured to be in the presence of such revolutionary, struggling women. We are especially grateful to our Indian comrades for hosting us and making this historic gathering possible. On behalf of the Kurdish women’s movement, we salute you and your resistance.
We thank the organizers for dedicating the venue hall to our precious comrade Sakine Cansiz. Sakine Cansiz, nom de guerre Sara, born 1958 in Dersim, was one of the co-founders of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party. She was detained in 1980 in the infamous military prison of Diyarbakir, where she was tortured brutally. As a leading figure of the prisoner’s resistance she became a living legend. After her release in 1991, she joined the Kurdish guerrilla. She played a special role in the founding of the Kurdish women’s guerrilla and the autonomous organisation of women within the Kurdish liberation movement. On January 9, 2013 together with two of her comrades, Fidan Dogan and Leyla Saylemez, she was assassinated by the Turkish intelligence in Paris/France. , Comrade Sara has been a symbol for women’s resistance during her lifetime and continues to drive our struggle beyond her death.
Theoretical Seminar of the World Women’s Movement: Introductory Presentation on the Liberation of Women (3rd Day)
PDF Download: Lecture Womens Liberation Dec 2018 India_EN_ec
Monika Gärtner-Engel and Halinka Augustin, November 2018
Dear friends and comrades,
I will read out a joint presentation written by Monika Gärtner-Engel, the former European coordinator and a provider of ideas for the World Women’s Conference and this seminar – and by myself. Monika is also the co-author of the book, New Perspectives for the Liberation of Women, which has been translated into seven languages to date and is studied and discussed in many countries worldwide. Unfortunately, she cannot participate herself but sends us warm greetings and best wishes for success. Although she cannot be present we asked her to contribute to this speech on the topic, which is based on the above-mentioned book! I will now read out the contribution.
Dear friends and comrades,
During recent years, the international militant women’s movement has obviously strengthened itself, accomplished great achievements through struggle, and has made significant progress.
Let us just look at the last few months:
- Thousands of female workers of You Li International in Cambodia have been fighting since July. Shorter time allowances worsen the working conditions. The wages of the workers who do not fulfill the targets are cut; this also applies to pregnant women.
- In Swaziland on 18 September, 10,000 female and male workers from five textile plants went on strike for higher wages and better working conditions – despite being violently attacked by the police.
- Since the end of September, in Indonesia thousands of female workers of the garment factory PT II Jin Sun have been on strike, because their wages have not been paid for months.
- For two months, female textile workers in Myanmar went on strike for better working conditions. Their demands were largely fulfilled. The management sent in gangs of thugs. Since that time, the women have been organizing a protest camp in front of the gates.
- At the end of October 3,000 female workers of the garment factory Ivory Vietnam went on strike against too many extra shifts, low extra pay, and too expensive canteen meals.
Conclusion: more and more women are becoming part of the international industrial proletariat and the working class. They constitute the backbone of the militant women’s movement. The numerous female textile workers are in the vanguard worldwide.
Further international greetings to the Women’s Day 2019
From the Philippines sent Sharon Cabusao Silva greetings ” Fiery and militant greetings on International Women’s Day!”
From Africa writes Mwambu Margaret Jane from Uganda: “Thank you so much and wishing you a happy women’s day, see you soon”. Yours, Mwambu Margaret Jane
Grüße zum Frauentag 2019 aus Dhaka/Bangladesh vom Socialist Women’s Forum
Brief des SWF Bangladesh 8 March 2019 als PDF Datei
Dear Sisters & Women Activists,
Solidarity greetings to all on International Women’s Day. On 109th International Women’s Day Socialist Women’s Forum organized a rally at 11am 8th March 2019. Also six leftist women’s organizations including Socialist Women’s Forum observed International Women’s Day jointly. Our call was ‘protest rape-sexual harassment-violence and come on the struggle to establish women with human dignity and equal right’. On this occasion we demanded ‘ Equal right on inheritance’; ‘Equal-wage on equal-work’; ‘Establish uniform civil code’; ‘Economic value of household works in GDP’; ‘Stop violence against women’; ‘Stop gender-base violence at work’ etc.
Please keep us informed about your activities, analysis and keep in touch.
Comradely yours
Shampa Basu
General Secretary/Central Committee
Socialist Women’s Forum
deepl Übersetzung:
Solidarische Grüße an Alle am Internationalen Frauentag. Am 109. Internationalen Frauentag organisierte das Sozialistische Frauenforum am 8. März 2019 um 11 Uhr eine Demonstration. Auch sechs linke Frauenorganisationen, darunter das Socialist Women’s Forum, haben gemeinsam am Internationalen Frauentag teilgenommen. Unser Aufruf lautete “Protest gegen sexuelle Belästigung – Gewalt und der Kampf um die Verwirklichung von Frauen mit Menschenwürde und Gleichberechtigung”. Bei dieser Gelegenheit forderten wir ‘ Gleiches Recht auf Erbschaft’; ‘Gleiches Entgelt für gleiche Arbeit’; ‘Einheitliches Zivilgesetzbuch’; ‘Wirtschaftlicher Wert von Haushaltsarbeiten im BIP’; ‘Gewalt gegen Frauen beenden’; ‘Geschlechterbezogene Gewalt am Arbeitsplatz beenden’ usw.
Bitte informieren Sie uns über Ihre Aktivitäten, Analysen und bleiben Sie in Kontakt.
Impressions from the Womens Day 2019 in Lisboa/Portugal
Call of the World Women’s Movement for International Women’s Day 2019
European Coordinators of the
World Women‘s Conferences of Grassroot Women
Halinka Augustin/Netherlands and Susanne Bader/Germany
Call of the World Women’s Movement for International Women’s Day 2019
“In the struggle for liberation I felt freedom for the first time, that’s why I organized myself!”
In many countries of the world, women’s consciousness has awakened on a massive scale!
On International Women’s Day, the day of struggle of the world women’s movement, we look with pride at our revolutionary pioneers like Clara Zetkin! She wrote under the impression of the first socialist revolution in Russia in 1917, as a result of which the right to vote for women was won:
“The first dictatorship of the proletariat is a true pioneer of full social equality for women.“
In many countries, on International Women’s Day 2019, the women’s movement chooses the “strike” as a form of protest, following the example of the workers’ movement. The struggle for the liberation of women is on the agenda in the 21st century. Women of all social strata and classes are at odds with the capitalist system, its representatives in the bourgeois parties and governments. But the contradiction is often still limited to individual questions and demands and is non-binding in its form. In order to become a force that can change society, it needs clarity and organization.
The first theoretical seminar of the World Women’s Movement 2018 in India was an important contribution to this. In this strategy debate it became clear:
From Africa to Europe to Asia female workers fight organized for their equal rights and participation in social life. In India, Sri Lanka, female tea plantation workers are on strike for equal wages with their male colleagues. Female textile workers in Bangladesh are fighting union battles for wages they and their families can live on. Women farmers demand a right to land. The approximately 67 million domestic workers worldwide demand employment contracts and social security, protection against sexual violence and an end to lawlessness. Carers and nurses in the Netherlands and Germany fight for recognition of their work and higher wages.
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