3/8 SF: Int'l Women's Day Protest and Film about Venezuela

Please forward to your lists.....

Calling all women to the
5th GLOBAL WOMEN'S STRIKE
"Invest in Caring Not Killing"
Calling all men to join with women as
we
STOP THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT!
Action in over 60 countries, from Venezuela to Peru, India,
Uganda, England...leading up to International Women's Day.

Defend a ‘Caring Economy’ in Venezuela
Condemn US in Haiti – the 1st independent Black republic

Monday March 8, International Women’s Day
Federal Building San Francisco
3:30-5:30 pm, 450 Golden Gate (near Polk St)

Men welcome too!




¨ Oppose all US intervention that prevents grassroots people,
starting with women who are the poorest of the poor, from creating an
economy at the service of human beings not corporations.

¨ Stand with women in the Caribbean who are grieved and outraged at
the coup and yet another racist & colonial US occupation of Haiti; end the
terror against the grassroots.

¨ Publicize how women in Venezuela won Article 88 in the
Constitution, entitling housewives to social security, health care and more.
Women want that everywhere.

¨ Demand that our caring work as mothers, grandmothers, and others is
recognized in welfare and other policies as a critical part of building a
caring economy in the US.

*************
Followed by: Film Premier, and celebration
Location: ‘Wild Awakenings’ Café, 148 McAllister, SF, 6-9pm
Brand new film on Venezuela:

“Women the Heart of Venezuela’s Revolution”& clips Nora Castaneda US tour

Film on Haiti: “We Will Bend But Not Break”






Invest in Caring Not Killing!



The Global Women’s Strike is part of the movement against war and
occupation. However governments justify war, in whatever country, of
whatever race or religion, from Palestine to Iraq, women point to the
suffering and the tragic loss of life. We have been campaigning for
recognition of all the unwaged work women do, and for pay equity, joint
levers against poverty, exploitation and discrimination of every kind. Women
do 2/3 of the world’s work & although in every country all this work is
basic to the welfare and even survival of humanity, it is devalued and
ignored by the Market, and women get only 5% of the world’s assets in
return.



In Venezuela, we are working with the women who are building a caring
economy and won Article 88 of the Constitution, which recognizes housework
as an economic activity that creates added value and produces social welfare
and wealth, entitling housewives to social security. We want an Article 88
wherever we are! The Strike has been spreading news of such momentous
victories and supporting the revolutionary process there. Venezuela is the
world’s 5th largest producer of oil, yet 80% of the population, mainly women
and children of African and Indigenous descent are poor. In 2002 the US
backed a coup against President Chavez, elected to combat poverty and
corruption. A popular movement spearheaded by grassroots women reversed the
coup. The US continues to finance the opposition, now pushing for a
referendum to prevent the Venezuelan people from advancing their
anti-poverty programs.



The US has forced President Bertrand Aristide out of Haiti at gunpoint,
and it must not succeed in Venezuela. Neither will it succeed in hiding the
truth about US involvement in preventing the people of Haiti – who 200 years
ago won the first independent Black republic – from ridding themselves of
the continuing impact of French and US imperialism, furious at what Black
people, “their property”, had accomplished against them. Caribbean women
have said: “The coup is the latest action in the 200-year effort by the
colonial powers…to defeat the struggle for freedom of Black people of Haiti
and to prevent them from serving as an inspiration to others…we must defend
Haiti…We must act in defence of the other countries of the Americas where
the US is also working… to bring about regime change…We will not silently
permit US destabilization in Venezuela, a Caribbean country”.





Demands of the Global Women's Strike

* Payment for all caring work – in wages, pensions, land & other
resources. What is more valuable than raising children & caring for others?
Invest in life & welfare, not military budgets & prisons.

* Pay equity for all, women & men, in the global market.

* Food security for all, starting with breastfeeding mothers. Paid
maternity leave, breastfeeding breaks & other benefits - stop penalizing us
for being women.

* Don’t pay ‘Third World Debt’. Women owe nothing, they owe us.

* Accessible clean water, healthcare, housing, transportation, literacy.

* Non-polluting energy & technology which shortens the hours we work. We
all need cookers/stoves, fridges, washing machines, computers, & time off!

* Protection & asylum from all violence & persecution, including by family
members & people in positions of authority.

* Freedom of movement. Capital travels freely, why not people?



SF events coordinated by GWS Planning Group/SF.

Sponsors: Venezuela Solidarity Group, KPFA Radio, Tri Valley Cares,
ANSWER, Wages Due Lesbians,

US PROStitutes Collective Endorsers: Chiapas Support Group, Berkeley
Women in Black, Mourning Mothers Affinity Group, and more….

The GWS was founded by the International Wages for Housework Campaign and
is an ongoing network of organizations and individuals. Contact: Tel/fax:
415-626-4114 PO Box 14512, SF 94114.

Email: sf [at] crossroadswomen.net Web: http://www.globalwomenstrike.net Checkout
the website of Payday Men’s Network who support the GWS at
http://www.refusingtokill.net