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COAST-TO-COAST RALLIES KICK OFF WORLD MARCH OF WOMEN
(This article is from the March 16-31/2000 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)
STARTING WITH A breakfast event in St. John's, Newfoundland, then moving across the country with rallies, marches, forums and socials, thousands of Canadian women helped launch the World March of Women on March 8th. International Women's Day actions were held in about forty cities and towns, demanding government action against the inequality, violence and poverty facing millions of women.
The World March of Women will continue for another seven months, with the participation of 3,500 organizations in nearly 150 countries. The campaign will culminate with a World Rally on Oct. 17 in New York and related solidarity actions across the planet, including a mass demonstration in Ottawa on Oct. 15.
Some events began earlier, most notably Toronto's annual IWD rally, held on Saturday, March 4th.
"We stopped the MAI, we stopped the WTO. Now we're going to stop women's poverty and violence against women," declared Canadian Labour Congress Secretary-Treasurer Nancy Riche at the launch of the World Women's March in Toronto. At a rally at University of Toronto's Convocation Hall, Riche was one of many speakers who pledged to fight for the eradication of poverty and violence against women.
Joining Riche were women from Chile, Iraq, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Mozambique who provided horrendous details of the violence and oppression faced by women around the world. Also speaking was Cathy Crowe, who spoke poignantly about the plight of homeless women on the streets of Toronto, and asked for a renewed commitment to pressure the government to solve the problem of homelessness.
Women's disappointment in the federal budget echoed throughout the rally speeches. Riche noted that the "$58 billion in tax cuts is 116 times the amount of money that we asked for to fight violence against women." Many speakers noted that the number of women living in poverty is increasing and that violence against women is also increasing while funding for shelters, housing and support programs is being decimated.
Over 2000 women attended the rally, and then marched through downtown Toronto to the IWD fair.
Almost as many took part in Vancouver's IWD rally on Wednesday, March 8th. After gathering at the downtown art gallery, where a large tent with information tables drew big crowds, women and their supporters marched to the office block containing the central library and federal government offices. There the women participants formed a huge moving circle around the block, a highly colourful demonstration in support of the demands of the World March of Women.
One of the most powerful speakers at the Vancouver rally was Faye Blaney, president of the Aboriginal Women's Action Network and a vice-president of NAC. Blaney's impassioned appeal for unity around the World March campaign was backed up by the excellent turnout from unions, aboriginal women, immigrant organizations, students, and other groups.
The response was just as significant in dozens of smaller communities across Canada. In the working-class northern BC town of Quesnel, for example, over 130 people, including a large number of young women, took part in a lively IWD rally on March 8th. The Quesnel rally and festivities included 14 speakers, on topics ranging from lesbian rights to child poverty.
Speaking in Toronto, Joan Grant-Cummings, President of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, said the next seven months will see the rising up and acting up of women across the country and around the world. "We will be young and restless," said Grant-Cummings, "until every single woman enjoys full human rights."
(With files from Helen Kennedy, Jane Bouey, and Myra Churchman.)
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