March on International Women's Day

[Troops Out Now Coalition]

*Rally & March On International Women's Day!
/March 8/
*

<http://troopsoutnow.org/>
	<http://troopsoutnow.org/>


*read call <http://troopsoutnow.org/iwd08.html#call>   donate 
<http://troopsoutnow.org/donate.shtml>  endorse 
<http://troopsoutnow.org/iwd08endorse.shtml>    list 
activities/volunteer 
<http://troopsoutnow.org/iwd08volorgcent.shtml>   download flyers 
<http://troopsoutnow.org/iwd08.html#flyers>*

------------------------------------------------------------------------


/The following statement was put out by the International Women's Day 
'08 Coalition based in New York City. Women activists and women's groups 
are encouraged to sign the statement 
<http://troopsoutnow.org/iwd08endorse.shtml>, View or Download English 
<http://troopsoutnow.org/flyers/iwd08eng.pdf> or Español 
<http://troopsoutnow.org/flyers/iwd08sp.pdf> flyer for NYC March, or 
volunteer to build the demonstration or list a local IWD event in your 
area <http://troopsoutnow.org/iwd08volorgcent.shtml>./

    * *No war on women at home and worldwide *
    * *Unite to win our liberation*

On March 8, 1908, working women in the needle trade industry took to the 
streets of New York City demanding
*Sign the Statement <http://troopsoutnow.org/iwd08endorse.shtml>*
http://troopsoutnow.org/iwd08endorse.shtml

*Download Flyers <http://troopsoutnow.org/iwd08.html#flyers>*
http://troopsoutnow.org/iwd08.html

*Donate* <http://troopsoutnow.org/donate.shtml> to help with organizing 
expenses - http://troopsoutnow.org/donate.html

better working conditions, higher wages, shorter workdays and the 
overall improvement of women's lives in this country.

These women marched through New York City demanding justice for women 
workers and immigrant workers; they were in fact working immigrant women.

The message and militancy of these women were so inspiring to women 
around the world that in 1910 the International Socialist Congress 
meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, officially declared March 8 
International Women's Day.

This year, on the 100th anniversary of that historic march, we call on 
you to join us in commemoration of International Women's Day 2008 to 
honor all the women who have fought for our liberation by continuing the 
fight for freedom today.

We are in the midst of a rise in attacks on women--including Black, 
Latina, Asian, Indigenous, Arab and white here in the U.S.--as well as 
women who originate or currently live in Africa, Latin America, the 
Caribbean, Asia, the Middle East, Pacific Islands, Australia and Europe.

The attacks inside the U.S. include legal and extralegal attacks on our 
reproductive self-determination; an escalation of sexual assaults and 
rapes, like that of Megan Williams and Crystal Mangum; violence toward 
lesbian, bisexual and transgender women, like the persecution of the 
Jersey 4; and the detention and deportation of immigrant women and their 
families.

Artists worldwide are using their creativity to combat the anti-Black 
and anti-woman images we see in today's corporate media machines. The 
media conglomerates peddle destructive mind-poison that hatefully twists 
and manipulates the images of women of all nationalities and 
backgrounds. These unrealistic messages promote the rape, abuse and 
murder of women and young girls everywhere.

*
Attacks on living standards and the war budget

*

The economic crisis is affecting women in a distinctive way. Women, 
young and old, are uniquely affected by the mortgage foreclosures; 
demolition of public housing in New Orleans, New York and elsewhere; 
evictions; lack of health care, childcare and job loss that this 
crisis--intensified by Wall Street's greed for profits--has caused.

Women comprise the fastest growing population of prisoners in the U.S. 
Meanwhile, war on working-class youth and youth of color, including 
racist police brutality and militarization of schools, is demonizing and 
killing our children.

Cuts in funding for education and social programs are decreasing the 
quality of life of our youth. The illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan 
are stealing our children, dehumanizing them and devaluing them into 
nothing more than property of the U.S. military, or worse, taking their 
lives.

The conditions for women worldwide have greatly deteriorated as a result 
of war, occupation and ruthless U.S. foreign policy.

The military occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, costing trillions of 
our tax dollars, has caused a backward movement in women's rights and 
freedoms in those countries, including a decrease in educational 
opportunities. Women in those countries are losing family members to 
murders and illegal detentions and are being sexually assaulted, killed 
and detained themselves.

The people of Palestine are under a violent and genocidal occupation by 
the U.S.-funded state of Israel. Women in the West Bank are seeing the 
demolition of their homes, the murder of their children and the 
imprisonment of Palestinian men and are being imprisoned and killed 
themselves. The women of Gaza are starving, dying of thirst and watching 
their children and loved ones die from lack of health care, water, food 
and income--all of this forced on them by the U.S. and Israeli blockade. 
In the most recent revolt against U.S. imperialism and Israeli 
apartheid, the women of Gaza played a key role in breaking through the 
Egyptian wall in order to obtain food, water and life necessities.

Women in Sudan and other areas of Africa are dying from U.S. sanctions; 
women in the Philippines are being rounded up and killed or imprisoned 
for resisting the U.S.-backed regime; the women of Latin America and the 
Caribbean are being affected by economic and political U.S. 
intervention, forcing them to live in poverty and leave their homes for 
the prospect of better opportunities.

Indigenous women are being brutally repressed for reclaiming their 
original lands throughout the Americas.

Worldwide sex trafficking has forced women and children into 
prostitution and illegal servitude. Often these women and children are 
kidnapped or forced into sex trafficking as a result of economic 
disparity rooted in imperialist plunder of their countries' resources.

We mention all these issues because every issue is a woman's issue.

*What women are doing now to resist*

The fight for women's liberation has been a long road and will take 
unity and militancy to complete.

The growing numbers of new union members are largely women willing to 
stand up against their bosses and fight for justice at the workplace.

Mothers, wives, sisters and grandmothers are organizing challenges to 
racist cops who murder their sons, grandsons, husbands and partners with 
impunity.

Women are leading the fight against military recruiters in their 
children's schools and their neighborhoods.

Women are fighting against the legal and extralegal heteronormative and 
homophobic assaults on the LGBT communities.

Military women are standing up and resisting the violence against their 
persons and the imperialist war.

Women across the country are organizing against domestic violence, rapes 
and racist torture.

Women continue to band together to defend their right to control their 
own bodies and to fight for reproductive justice.

Women are standing up against the bulldozing of their homes and leading 
the struggles against displacement, gentrification, foreclosures and 
criminal landlords.

Women have mounted strong and united efforts against the destruction of 
our land, air, food, water and environmental racism.

Women organize to free their family members who are political prisoners.

Women band together in their communities to stop the lack of quality 
education, jobs, health care and a safety net for the disabled, seniors, 
poor families, the homeless and children.

Women stand up against the racist immigration policies that separate 
them from their children and family.

Women are struggling to recover their children from the so-called child 
welfare system.

Women will use their creativity to conjure what is nurturing, beautiful 
and strong about women in our songs, our dances, our poems, our drawings 
and our musical compositions.

Whether on the streets, in the schools or in our own homes, women will 
continue to organize their families and friends and will not stop until 
a more life-affirming depiction of the sustainers of our world becomes 
mainstream.

Our mission is to empower women worldwide as well as to bring to the 
attention of our sisters and brothers that we must challenge our 
oppressors' divide-and-conquer tactics, such as racism, sexism, 
homophobia and xenophobia.

This call is for all of us to honor and uphold the great traditions of 
women warriors who continue to display courage, strength, wisdom and the 
will to resist against great odds. Organize, Resist and Build Our 
Movements for Victory!

/Women activists and women's groups are encouraged to sign the statement 
<http://troopsoutnow.org/iwd08endorse.shtml>, View or Download English 
<http://troopsoutnow.org/flyers/iwd08eng.pdf> or Español 
<http://troopsoutnow.org/flyers/iwd08sp.pdf> flyer for NYC March, or 
volunteer to build the demonstration or list a local IWD event in your 
area <http://troopsoutnow.org/iwd08volorgcent.shtml>.

/

**




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