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| October 2000 |
Vol. 1, No. 1 |
The World March of Women
Ottawa, October 15th, 2000
The Moment is the first in a series of new Halton Social Planning Council
and Volunteer Centre communiqués to share with you important community
initiatives. The Moment is a translation of the Spanish word
"coyuntura". This word is used throughout Latin America to describe
the coming together of a number of important, historical, economic and social
factors that create a "moment" of opportunity to implement social
change.
This is "the moment" of the World March of Women 2000. The
Halton Organizing Committee, of which the Council is a member, has asked that we
share this important information with you about this event. Therefore, we bring
to your attention information on the World March of Women 2000.
Introduction
In 1985 the U.N. announced that the target date for women's equality was the
year 2000. However, 15 years later, women and children make up 70% of the
world's poor yet perform 66% of the world's work, control 10% of the global
economy and own 1% of the earths arable land. Over 6000 women and children in
Canada are in shelters on a typical day. Forty to seventy percent of homicides
of women worldwide are committed by intimate partners. (The National Action
Committee on the Status of Women, Manifesto for the World March of Women 2000
Against Poverty and Violence, 2000).
The World March of Women
The World March of Women 2000 is an international campaign running from March
to October this year. All around the world, women have been mobilizing to raise
awareness of and to eradicate poverty and violence against women.
The World March of Women is part of the same continuum as four major world
conferences on women convened by the United Nation. We are working in solidarity
with over 800 community groups across Canada and over 5000 women's groups in 157
countries around the world.
The objectives of the World March are:
- To work on a national scale to identify demands related to poverty and
violence against women and to start acting to get them implemented;
- To foster solidarity among women of all continents through exchanges,
common projects and unifying actions. In the context of market
globalization, solidarity between North and South has become crucial in
building a resistance movement;
- To lay the foundations of an international women's network where
dedicated, creative women will want to unite to encourage and support major
changes in the order or disorder of the world.
The Canadian Women's March Committee, a coalition of national women's and
labour groups, has worked with organizations from the women's movement,
students, anti-poverty groups, and churches to develop a list of national
demands including:
- Women's right to social security
We demand full access to welfare and income security, fully funded
public health care and education, social housing, and adequate pensions.
- Women's right to equality at work
Working women demand improved labour standards, including a minimum wage
above the poverty line - $10 an hour, the right to unionize; we want
effective and enforceable pay and employment equity legislation; we need
sexual, racial, sexual orientation and personal harassment protection, and
we demand the restoration of unemployment insurance to 1996 levels at
minimum.
- Care for our children
Women demand access to non-profit, state funded child care, paid
maternity leave and dependant care leave.
- The right to be free of violence
Women demand that the federal government provide $50 million in funding
directly to women's shelters, rape crisis centres and sexual assault
centres.
- Access to the rights of citizenship
Women in Canada demand an open immigration and refugee policy, domestic
workers rights, access to work and welfare for immigrants and refugees. We
demand that the federal government return to core funding for women's
organizations. We demand full lesbian legal equality and access to all
benefits available to others.
- Women's rights internationally
We join with women around the world in our full support of the demands
of the international march.
The Halton Organizing Committee, a coalition of local women's organizations
and individual women, are committed to raising awareness and supporting the
World March in Halton.
In Halton…
- In 1996, 31,325 individuals were poor and family poverty increased 80%
between 1986 and 1996
- The average number of adults and children using food banks each month
increased from 2,835 in 1994 to 3,905 in 1998 - a 38% increase
- In 1996, 11% of children and youth were poor
- The number of calls to the Rape Crisis Centre increased from 50 in 1989 to
2,774 in 1999
- The immigrant population increased from 62,320 in 1986 to 76,290 in 1996 -
a 22% increase
- Seven percent of Halton residents or 22,585 persons are considered a
visible minority
- One family per day was turned away from Halton Women's Place in 1999
The Halton Organizing Committee invites you to join millions of women all
over the globe who are:
- marching to end all forms of discrimination and violence against women
- marching to create a world based on sharing our common spiritual and
material wealth so that every woman and man has the means to make a living
and make living worthwhile
- marching in peace to put people not profits at the centre of our concerns
and to broaden solidarity to a worldwide level
- marching to put an end to the process of homogenization of culture and the
marketing and commercialization of women in the media to suit the needs of
the market
- marching to reaffirm our commitment to peace and to the protection of the
democratic operation of nation-states.
To take our demands to our capital, the Halton Organizing Committee invite
you to join us as we bus to Ottawa to march and rally on October 15,
along with women around the world who will also raise their concerns in their
nation's capital.
Join us as we march to eliminate poverty, eradicate violence and guarantee
human rights. Thanks to generous sponsorship from the Elementary Teachers
Federation Ontario, the cost of joining the Halton trip is only $10, which
includes refreshments on the bus. Bring your own lunch or purchase it in Ottawa.
We are leaving Sunday, Oct. 15 at 6 a.m. from the old GO parking lot at Bronte
Road and Q.E.W., picking up North Halton participants at 6:15 a.m. at the
Zeller's parking lot at Main Street and Hwy. #25 in Milton. We arrive in Ottawa
around noon and depart at 4:00 p.m. arriving back in Milton around 9:30 p.m. and
Oakville around 9:45 p.m. To sign up for the bus call Marilyn or Linda at (905)
332-1633.
For further information on the World March of Women contact:
Helen Szuliga,
World March of Women, Halton Organizing Committee*
P.O. Box 1573
Burlington, ON L7R 4L9
Tel: (905) 825-3624
or check visit the website at: www.canada.marchofwomen.org
*The Halton Organizing Committee includes: Elementary Teachers Federation
Ontario, Halton Branch; Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation, Halton;
IDEA; Halton Coalition for Social Justice; Halton Multi-Cultural Council; Halton
Rape Crisis Centre; Halton Social Planning Council and Volunteer Centre; Women's
Information and Support Centre of Halton; Halton Women's Place and Oakville and
District Labour Council.
Produced by the Halton Social Planning Council
860 Harrington Court
Burlington, Ontario L7N 3N4
(905) 632-1975, (905) 878-0955; Fax: (905) 632-0778; E-mail:
office@cdhalton.ca |
