[E-rundbrief] Info 1508 - Via Campesina - women's struggle to win our rights

Matthias Reichl info at begegnungszentrum.at
Mo Mär 7 16:41:36 CET 2016


E-Rundbrief - Info 1508 - La Via Campesina - International Peasant's 
Movement: Women - March 8th: Organising and struggle to win our rights.

Bad Ischl, 7.3.2016

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

www.begegnungszentrum.at

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La Via Campesina - International Peasant's Movement

Women

March 8th: Organising and struggle to win our rights

     Published on Monday, 07 March 2016 20:36

http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/main-issues-mainmenu-27/women-mainmenu-39/1988-march-8th-organising-and-struggle-to-win-our-rights

2016-03-07-Afiche-EN.jpg (Harare, March 8th, 2016)

Today, International Women’s Day, La Via Campesina is calling for 
action against capitalist violence all over the world. Capitalist 
violence is not only the violence that is directly inflicted upon 
women; it is also an integral part of a social context of exploitation 
and dispossession that is characterised by the historical oppression 
and violation of the basic rights of women peasants, farmers, and 
farmworkers, landless women, indigenous women and black women.

La Via Campesina emphasises the importance of organising and struggle, 
leading to liberation and awareness and enabling women to participate 
in politics as historical subjects – with the goal of building a just 
society, regardless of ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation.

The international peasant and farmer movement is very troubled to see 
that, with the spread of conservative policies which constitute an 
attack on women’s human rights and their very lives, there is growing 
oppression of women by capitalism and the patriarchy around the world.

In Turkey, where we recently held the La Via Campesina Midterm Women’s 
Assembly, we saw how the situation of women has worsened with the 
growing extension of neoliberal and conservative policies. Women 
continue to be deprived of their most basic freedom, of their 
elementary rights; they are exposed to violence and to feminicide. In 
recent years, in this region of the world, there has been a dramatic 
increase in murders of women. Girls are forced to marry when they are 
still very young. In the economic sphere, most of the precarious work 
is done by women. In the rural areas, women perform many jobs; they do 
not, however, have economic freedom or access to property, and still 
less do they have social rights.

In south-eastern Turkey, women’s problems are being exacerbated by the 
ongoing war,  and their lives are under very real threat. The current 
political situation in Turkey does not offer any solution to the 
problems faced by women. In fact, current policies are compounding the 
problems and increasing the discrimination against women. For these 
reasons, women are organising, and they are now leading many 
environmental, social, and political struggles.

In recent days, we have learned with great sadness of the 
assassination of Berta Cáceres,  peasant leader of the Lenca 
indigenous people and member of COPINH (the Civic Council of Popular 
and Indigenous Organisations of Honduras). Berta Cáceres had 
repeatedly expressed her opposition to the destructive plans and 
actions of the Honduran government, which is offering natural resource 
concessions to foreign transnational corporations for dam construction 
and is facilitating the takeover of the resources belonging to the 
indigenous peoples.

It is for these reasons, that the women and men of La Via Campesina, 
confronted by this context of criminalisation, are calling for March 
8th, 2016, to be a day of mobilising and organising against all forms 
of oppression, of taking to the streets and public areas of our 
cities, towns, and territories, in order to denounce the destructive 
capitalist and agribusiness model and to show how it harms the lives 
of women and jeopardises the food sovereignty of the world’s peoples – 
directly affecting women peasants and small-scale farmers. We will 
continue to struggle for new gender relations within our movement, and 
we will continue to promote a societal model based on justice and 
equality.

Berta lives on! The struggle continues!

Globalize the struggle! Globalize hope!

Long live our solidarity with Turkish women!

See also:

La Via Campesina Women’s Manifesto: 
http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/our-conferences-mainmenu-28/6-jakarta-2013/resolutions-and-declarations/1451-women-of-via-campesina-international-manifesto-2

Video: Women Planting Struggles and Hope! 
http://tv.viacampesina.org/Women-planting-struggles-and-hope?lang=en

Postcards and audios: Campaign to Stop Violence Against Women: 
http://tv.viacampesina.org/Post-cards-to-End-violence-againts?lang=en


-- 

Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
Center for Encounter and active Non-Violence
Wolfgangerstr. 26, A-4820 Bad Ischl, Austria,
fon: +43 6132 24590, Informationen/ informations,
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