Thursday, February 21, 2008

in LOS ANGELES


Endorsers: ANSWER, INCITE, GLOBAL WOMEN'S STRIKE, MIWON, CODEPINK

in NEW YORK CITY

Saturday, March 8, 2008, 4-6pm
Washington Square Park, NYC

W. 4th St., 1 block east of 6th Ave. By subway: A/C/E/F/V/B/D to W. 4th St; or R to 8th St.; or 1/9 to Christopher St.; or 6 to Astor Place. Look for women in red, by the fountain or the southeast side of the park.

For more info: (212) 592-3507 or (718) 753-0257, nynj@gabnet.org or secgen@gabnet.org

WEAR RED. BRING NOISE MAKERS, A SONG, POEM…
WOMEN SPEAK OUT AGAINST THE WAR!

Sunday, February 17, 2008

MARCH 8TH AGAINST THE WAR



WHEN:
March 8, 2008, Saturday

Answering the call to mark this year's International Working Women's Day as a day Against the War. (Please see call to action from Mariposa Alliance and GABNet.)

ACTIONS:

1) DEMONSTRATE in a location significant for you or to women’s history or symbolic of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. (See other posts to see actions in your area).

2) wear RED as our color of unified resistance

3) have a STATEMENT (see ours here) and read or chalk it on the sidewalk or display it on a placard or hand it out on a leaflet or write it on the sky.

4) download a FLYER here to complete with your own details and handout to your family, friends, neighbors, classmates,…

5) PUBLISH your action on this site—reply to this post or email: taketothestreets08@gmail.com

6) We’re making our mark. Let’s DOCUMENT it! Remember to send us photos, videos, slideshows, audio, and/or testimonies about the day.


EXAMPLES OF ACTIONS:

Make Noise With Your Pots and Pans
Organize a March (see LA and SF posts)
Paint Your Face
Create Music
Write a Chant
Spit a Poem
Make a Sign
Chalk a Sidewalk
Light a Candle
Sit / Zen Meditate, for 20 minutes
Do Street Theatre

EXAMPLES OF PLACES:
Stand in solidarity and sisterhood at a Consulate or Embassy
Public Spaces (Parks, Markets, Malls)—check if you need a permit
Landmarks and Tourist Attractions
In front of Your building


On March 8th, 2008, wherever you are, you know that you have sister standing with and for you; sisters getting out of the kitchen, taking to the streets, saying no to war.


SIGN ON: Declare March 8th Against the War!

OPEN DECLARATION
MARCH 8TH AGAINST THE WAR!


International Women’s Day arose from the upsurge of women’s activism on both national and international politics. 1913 was a watershed for the women’s movement. On March 8th, women led peace rallies in Europe, in protest against the looming threat of a world war. In Russia, the women went on strike, calling for “peace and bread,” thereby starting the cresting of a revolutionary wave until the 1917 October revolution. In the US, Ida Wells-Barnett, an African-American journalist, broke segregation laws by marching with her white colleagues, calling for the women’s right to vote. Indeed, the 20th century was replete with instances of women challenging national and international politics, culminating in rallies, pickets, demonstrations on March 8th.

Since then March 8th has been co-opted and turned into a so-called commemoration of women’s achievements, as though there were no more need for further achievements. It is time to return March 8th to its historic role as the day women challenge government decisions and policies inimical to peace, justice and the preservation of the human species. It is time for March 8th to be known as the day when women unite and march against state policies dangerous to the health and safety of the nation.

In the year 2008, we issue the call to all women to transform March 8th into a historic protest against the war in Iraq. Despite the majority opprobrium against this war, it continues, sucking up resources needed for education, health and social services. Despite majority opposition to the war, it continues, funneling hundreds of billions of taxpayers’ money into the maws of war-profiteers and war-racketeers. Despite majority disgust with the war, it continues, killing one US youth after another, nearly 4,000 now; killing nearly 2 million Iraqis; the endless carnage justified by hollow assertions of “victory” and “it’s working.”

The March 8th Against the War Committee call on all women to use this day of international activism to protest the war, call for its end, and for US troops to return to US soil. The March 8th Against the War Committee invokes the memory of Clara Zetkin and Alexandra Kollontai, of the European women and the Russian women who opposed imperialist wars. May their likes walk with us again, in the 21st century!

OPEN CALL: March8th Against the War


Dear Sisters:

1913 was a watershed year for the commemoration of International Women’s Day. This year, the uprising of the women of Petrograd occurred, precipitating the downfall of Czarist Russia; in the United States, Ida Wells-Barnett, an African-American journalist, broke segregation laws by marching with her white sisters in Washington DC for women’s right to vote; and all over Europe, women held peace rallies denouncing the looming World War I.

We need to return our Day and our Month to their rightful and correct significance in both national and international arenas. Though March was meant to be a celebration of women’s achievements, International Women’s Day and International Women's Month were also meant to be the time when the women’s voice regarding national and international events was meant to be the loudest. State violence has been foremost in women’s minds, as this has been the most destructive of life and the conditions for the well-being, not only of womankind, but of the entire human species.

GABRIELA Network, in cooperation with the initiating committee of the Mariposa Alliance, is inviting you and your organization to join us in organizing and calling upon all women to declare 2008 March 8th Against the WarCampaign.

We are establishing coordinating committees in various cities, to ensure that activities around March 8th carry this declaration of our continuing opposition to war, invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the use of war, invasion and occupation as a method of resolving differences and as a means of intervening in the internal affairs of other countries.

We hope that by ensuring that our 2008 IWD and IWM activities – whether these be marches, forums, gatherings – are centered around women’s opposition against the war, we can restore International Women’s Day to its proper historical context.

If you and/or your organization are interested in working on this, please contact: in the West Coast -- Annalisa Enrile, Chairperson, GABNet, chair@gabnet.org, 212.592.3507; in the East Coast and MidWest -- Dorotea Mendoza, Secretary General, GABNet, secgen@gabnet.org, 718.753.0257.

Onward,
Mariposa Alliance
GABNet