On the preparation of the 3rd World Women’s Conference in Tunisia 3 to 10 September 2022

Women of the world weave bonds of solidarity!

In only 7.5 months we will organise our third WWC and we want to let you know that the preparations of the 3rd WWC are going well and have truly started in Tunisia and on the 25th of November also in other countries.
Of course we are still in a difficult situation with the COVID pandemic that is still roaming the world. On the one hand we don’t know how the situation will be in September and it will (perhaps) make it difficult for women who would like to participate to come to Tuni-sia. But we will prepare all necessary health measures. We have to be careful and protect participants and hosts.
But like we said during the preparation of the 2d WWC in Nepal after the major earth quake: Together we can do it!

We have a great task ahead of us. Let us work together as a team to make a success of the 3rd World Women’s Conference!
How can we together realise a really internationally organised World Women’s Conference of grassroots women that is financed independently ?
(more…)

Continental coordinators decide to postpone the 3rd World Women’s Conference until 2022 and start preparations worldwide

The Continental Coordinators unanimously decided to postpone the 3rd World Conference of Grassroots Women until the end of 2022.
Many factors are decisive for this, first of all the currently unpredictable situation in Tunisia itself and the still existing dangers of the corona pandemic.
The worldwide crisis of imperialism/capitalism is answered in many countries with mass protests, strikes, uprisings and revolts. Women are standing up, they are often at the forefront of the struggles against the shifting of the burdens of crisis onto the backs of the people. The need for a 3 World Women’s Conference of grassroots women is undisputed, but it must be able to take place as a face-to-face meeting! This is not possible at the moment. We can neither guarantee with the necessary care for the protection and health of all participants, nor can we organize visa and travel processes. We also lack the financial resources at the moment. And, also we have lost through Corona, important women leaders like Sharmistha Choudhury from India.
The Continental Coordinators propose that from now on, preparation for the 3rd World Women’s Conference begin in all countries: with street activities, culture, webinars, educational evenings, sporting events – the sky is the limit. The important thing now is to start planning.
A first highlight will be the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the 25.11.21. Worldwide, we will simultaneously present our demands in public as far as possible! At the same time, there will be a Zoom conference with representatives of the countries for further consultation on the situation and struggles of women worldwide.
Your continental coordinators

 

Letter of condolence from European Coordinators for Sharmistha Choudhury

European Coordinators
World Women’s Conference of grassroots women
Suse Bader, Halinka Augustin

Condolences for our comrade and friend Sharmistha Choudhury, General Secretary of the All India Revolutionary Women’s Organisation (AIRWO) and leading comrade of the CPI (ML) Red Star

Sharmistha died on the 13th of June 2021 in a hospital in Kolkata (Calcutta) as a result of corona disease. She was only 45 years old.

Dear friends of AIRWO, comrades of the CPI (ML) Red Star,
It is with great sadness that we learnt of the death of comrade Sharmistha.

On behalf of the militant world women’s movement, we extend our deepest condolences to her partner, her mother and to you all! Sharmistha’s death leaves a large gap in the revolutionary and international militant women’s movement.

We commemorate Sharmistha and her life’s work which has now ended so abruptly and far too soon.

Sharmistha was co-founder and leader of the All India Revolutionary Women’s Organisation (AIRWO), a mass movement with organisations in all states of India.

The liberation of women from exploitation and all forms of oppression was an important concern for her. As a revolutionary, she campaigned for liberation in a socialist society. Sharmistha also worked theoretically in this regard. The CPI (ML) Red Star writes in their obituary:

“On the question of women’s liberation, Sharmistha has written many important essays which have exposed the theoretical weakness of the communist movement from the beginning in developing a consistent political line and practice against Brahminical, Hindutua ideology and patriarchy …. and from …. all reactionary forces perpetuating the slavery of women and other genders. She has campaigned for the revolutionary emancipation of women….”.

Sharmistha was an internationalist. In this capacity, she actively contributed to the organisations and development of the World Women’s Conference of grassroots women. At the 1st and 2nd World Women’s Conferences in Caracas/Venezuela and Kathmandu/Nepal, she made valuable contributions with theoretical contributions, translation, mobilisation and organisation work. She was a safe pair of hands for the international militant women’s movement.

In December 2018, together with AIRWO and the coordinators of the World Women’s Conference, she organised the first strategy seminar of the world women’s movement in Bangalore/India. The women from Banghar (West Bengal) gave moving accounts of their 22-month struggle against energy giants and the Modi government’s privatisation plans.

Sharmistha, together with her partner Alik Chakraborty and other comrades, built the “Committee for the Defence of Land, Livelihood, Ecology and Environment”.  The villagers blockaded the area and defended it against hooligans, government troops, police and representatives of the power giants. Over 20,000 people became active in these struggles and women played a prominent role.

Sharmistha trained and educated the women, who were often illiterate, on the tasks in the struggle. These women reported on this confidently, in colourful saris.

We heard: “I felt what freedom is for the first time.” and “Now we were sitting next to the men, we were no longer relegated to the house. When the men were arrested, we women stepped into their place in the struggle.”

On several occasions, the World Women’s Movement organised protest and solidarity actions for our comrade Sharmistha. Neither prison nor kidnapping stopped Sharmistha and her comrades from continuing the struggle.

Sharmistha was proposed to strengthen the Asian coordination of the World Conference on Women. Now this is no longer possible. The Indian authorities refused to allow her to leave the country in October 2019 and she was unable to attend the conference.

We bid you farewell Sharmistha, and we pledge to continue building our international militant women’s movement! At the 3rd World Women’s Conference in Tunisia in 2022, you will be there too!

 

We mourn the loss of Sharmistha Choudhury

Dear friends,

we are very sad to announce that our beloved friend and comrade Sharmistha passed away on 13/06/21 in a hospital in Kolkatta.

It is terrible and sad news and we wish our comrades and friends in India and her family much strength and solidarity.

Sharmistha was a cornerstone of revolutionary and women’s work in India and internationally. She was a leading force in the struggle of peasants in West Bengal for the preservation of their environmental and living resources.

She will be sorely missed by our friends in India and by all of us in the militant women’s movement as a friend, comrade and comrade-in-arms. Sharmistha only turned 45 years old.

A few weeks ago she contracted the coronavirus and had to be hospitalized because of additional problems caused by the disease. She got sick again when she was participating in the election campaign in Bhangar and had to stay away from all activities from then on. She was hospitalized on the eve of June 13.

European coordinators Halinka Augustin and Suse Bader

Thank you for your solidarity

Hello Halinka, Suse and Zaman,

We received your solidarity message on the very day when Women Farmers’ Day (18th January) was being observed at the farmers’ protest sites. Thank you very much.
Today our women gathered in large numbers at the protest sites to raise the voice of women farmers and protesters. The programme had a special significance because, very recently, in a very regressive observation, the Supreme Court of India advised the protesting farmers to ‘keep women away’ from the protest sites! Women across the country were outraged at the Court’s suggestion that women had no agency, that they were not conscious protesters, but had actually been ‘brought in’ by men and could be ‘sent back home’ by men. Hence today Women Farmers’ Day was spiritedly and militantly observed across the country, emphasising women’s inalienable right to protest and demanding repeal of the new draconian agri-laws.
I am sharing the links of two short videos here. The first shows Comrade Urmila of AIRWO reading out the solidarity message from the European Coordinators of the World Women’s Conference at the protest site on the borders (Tikri) of Delhi.
The next link shows Comrade Nandini of an organisation called Feminists in Resistance reading out the solidarity message at the protest site in Kolkata.
Warm regards,
Sharmistha


European Coordinators
of the World Women’s Conference
Susanne Bader, Germany
Halinka Augustin, Netherlands
Deputy
Zaman Masudi/ Germany

Dear Sharmistha
dear women of AIRWO
to the struggling peasants and women peasants

we European coordinators of the World Women’s Conference of Grassroots Women follow with great respect the development of the workers’, peasants’ and women’s struggles in India.
The new laws, the so-called “agrarian reform” mean the death of many small farmers. Therefore we are happy about the great success of the struggle that these laws have been suspended for the time being. An important reason for this was that the women’s movement, together with the workers and the revolutionaries of the country, declared solidarity with the peasants and carried out great mass activities.
We understand the news to mean that the Modi government is striving to give Indian corporations an edge in the international competition. Therefore, the government is dismantling the “hurdles” of profit maximization in the country. Wide sections of Indian society are affected and these attacks by the Modi government are also worsening the situation ofwomen and families.
It is an important signal for the international militant women’s movement and an expression of the growing women’s consciousness that in all these struggles women farmers, housewives, grandmothers, students, teachers up to nurses are in the front line and form the backbone of the protests. We read that in Delhi’s outskirts of Tikri, more than 2000 women are camping
there and carrying the protest. But it is not only in the capital that they are taking on important tasks, without which a sustained protest would not be possible: they are providing thousands of demonstrators with food and water and preparing beds for them to sleep in.
The masses of people fighting for their social and political rights in India have all our solidarity. We wish them full success !
Please convey our solidary and militant greetings from Europe to the struggling people!
Susanne Bader
Halinka Augustin
Zaman Masudi



Sharmistha Choudhury,
AIRWO (All India Revolutionary Women’s Organisation, India

It’s lovely to hear from you.

We are reading about the second wave of coronavirus in Europe in newspapers here and are full of apprehension. I also read that France and Germany have opted for another month-long lockdown. My best wishes to all of you and solidarity to all comrades fighting against the callousness of governments in effectively dealing with this pandemic. Meanwhile, the general news from Chile and Bolivia is encouraging in these bleak times. The women’s protest in Poland against anti-abortion legislation is also inspiring.

The situation in India is grim. The Hindu rightwing, fascist central government has intensified its attacks on the people. The economy has crashed. Joblessness and poverty are on the rise. India is 94 out of 107 countries on the Global Hunger Index, which shows how pathetic the situation is. On the other hand, Indian billionaires are getting richer and occupying top positions on the list of richest people in the world.

Unfortunately, the Indian Left has simply not been able to get its act together. A large section of the liberals is shouting that Covid is a hoax (like Trump) and there is no need of any special measures. Since the lockdown has increased joblessness and poverty, the common people are now having to make the choice between death by Covid and death by hunger. The government is using the misery of the people as an excuse to lift all restrictions, leading to a possible steep spike in Covid cases very soon. The Parliamentary Opposition simply refuses to raise and struggle for the demand that the government should shoulder economic responsibility and ensure that every needy family gets cash allowance from the government during the pandemic.

The fascist government is going full speed ahead with its agenda of converting India from a secular country into a Hindu nation. It is upholding Islamophobia and the recent incidents in France have given a filip to this. Voices of dissent are being ruthlessly crushed. Anyone criticising the government is being labelled as anti-national and put into prison.

Attacks on women are on the rise. The fascists are trying to seize all hard won women’s rights and champion the philosophy of Hindutva which relegates the status of woman to that of a slave to man. Dalit ((in the traditional Hindu caste system, a Dalit is a member of the lowest caste) women are being attacked and raped by so-called upper caste men. Those who protest against this are victimised by the government. In the incident of the rape and murder of a young girl in Hathras of Uttar Pradesh province, even a journalist going to report the incident was arrested and charged with anti-terrorist laws. The government did everything to pretend that no rape happened and a senior doctor in the hospital where the girl was first admitted before she died was dismissed from his job because he had publicly said that the girl had indeed been raped. Many more such incidents have occurred since then.

AIRWO is protesting against this state of affairs in the different provinces where it has strength. But the pandemic-related reality is not conducive to protests of the magnitude demanded by the situation.

I think I have written rather a long reply! I hope I do not strain your patience!

With love and solidarity,

Sharmistha