[act-ma] 3/31 - International Women's Day Rally - An Evening in Solidarity with the Struggles of Women from, New Orleans to Iraq to New Bedford

Wed Mar 28 13:15:13 PDT 2007

*The Women's Fightback Network
invites you to join us for an:*

*International Women's Day Rally*

*/Women Still Rising:/
An Evening in Solidarity with the Struggles of Women from
New Orleans to Iraq to New Bedford*

*Women and their families are under attack!
How do we organize and fight back?*

Come share your experience and bring your ideas on building
a stronger fightback movement!

*Saturday, March 31, 2007
6:30 pm*
Boston School Bus Drivers Union Hall
25 Colgate Road, Roslindale, MA
(Directions: from Forest Hills T stop, take #30,
34-37 or 50 bus to Archdale Rd. stop
(less than 1 mile), walk back one block to Colgate Rd.

For more info: *Women's Fightback Network (WFN) 617-522-6626 
/**wfn at iacboston.org <mailto:wfn at iacboston.org>*

Refreshments and childcare provided
Wheelchair accessible/Donation requested

/*Speakers and Cultural Presentations to include:*/

*Georgia Scott*, USW L. 8751, Boston School Bus Drivers Union

*Dorotea Manuela*, Co-Chair, Rosa Parks Human Rights Day Committee; 
Boston May Day Coalition

*Kaveri Rajaraman*, Alliance for a Democratic and Secular South Asia; 
Global Women's Strike

*Khitam Edelbi*, Palestinian educator, actress and student

*Mahtowin Munro*, United American Indians of New England

*Jessica Tang*, INCITE--Women of Color Against Violence

*Mia Campbell*, Politicin' with the Sisters; Women's Fightback Network

*Sonja Chery*, Boston Workers Alliance

*Celenia Toledo*, Healthcare activist in Lowell & Lawrence, MA communities

*Isshoni*, Voices of Liberation

*Sara Mokuria*, Student Activist; Committee for Justice for Hector 
Rivas; Happy Birthday Assata Campaign

*Susan Mortimer*, Statewide Harm Reduction Coalition (SHARC)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
On International Women's Day, March 8, 2007 we salute the heroic and 
determined resistance of our sisters in the forefront of the worldwide 
struggle against imperialist war-- from Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan 
to Haiti, Colombia and the Philippines.

It is our sisters and brothers in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, the 
Caribbean and Latin America who are showing us the way forward thru 
their revolutionary sacrifice, vision and perseverance.

International solidarity, working class unity and militant fightback are 
at the heart of International Women's Day.  These ingredients are as 
vital today as they were in the early 1900's when immigrant women 
factory workers marched out on strike to demand an end to the extreme 
and degrading work conditions they toiled under. Their actions helped to 
change history and continue to inspire us to work harder in advancing 
the struggle against imperialist war, economic exploitation, racism, 
sexism, LGBT oppression and all the social ills created by an economic 
system that puts profits before people's needs.

Currently, the US congress is preparing to vote on an additional $245 
billion dollars for the criminal and genocidal US-led wars in Iraq and 
Afghanistan.  It is time to cut off the funds that feed the war and 
occupation and bring the troops home now!

Any additional money for these wars of occupation will bring even 
greater death and suffering for Iraqi and Afghani women and their 
families.  In the past 4 years over 700,000 Iraqi women, men and 
children have been killed and many millions more have been maimed, 
traumatized and displaced from their homes, jobs and schools. Women's 
rights have been rolled back and there are severe shortages of food, 
electricity, medicines and drinkable water.  Mothers have been shot and 
killed at checkpoints with their children watching and teenage girls 
have been murdered and raped by US soldiers.

In Afghanistan Bush and his gang cry crocodile tears over women's rights 
while occupying troops continue to bomb, displace and terrorize women 
and their families, ravaging the country with high tech, poisonous weapons.

Each day the war continues the cost hits home even harder in our 
communities.  Women and children suffer the most from deepening budget 
cuts that siphon off urgent funding for Section 8 housing, Medicaid and 
Medicare, public education, early intervention programs, daycare, 
HIV/AIDS funding, drug and alcohol treatment, and many other vital 
services for poor and working people.

The survivors of Katrina know first hand how the war budget has impacted 
their lives.  Vital resources that could have strengthened levees and 
protected the peoples of the Gulf Coast from this deadly hurricane, were 
instead diverted to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  18 months later, 
the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are still waiting for the 
US government to fulfill its broken promises to rebuild their 
neighborhoods and allow them to return home.

Another aspect of the war at home, is the repression and terror directed 
against immigrant workers and their families. Just this past week, in 
New Bedford MA, approximately 360 immigrant workers, mostly women from 
Guatemala and El Salvador, were terrorized, arrested and detained by 
armed federal agents. As a result of these criminal raids children have 
been separated from their parents and face the terror of not knowing 
when they will be reunited.

This latest raid in New Bedford is by no means an isolated incident. 
Throughout the country there has been a dramatic increase in repression 
against immigrant workers, including raids, detentions, deportations and 
forced separation of families.

The severe economic devastation of globalization has forced millions of 
workers and their families to migrate to the US in hopes of a better 
future for their children.  In many instances they risk extreme danger, 
imprisonment and death getting here, only to encounter the bitter 
realities of racist repression, super exploitation and a full scale 
assault on immigrant workers.

All who support peace and justice must unite and stand in solidarity 
with our immigrant sisters and brothers who are under attack. We demand 
full legalization for all immigrant workers, an immediate stop to all 
raids and deportations and the reunification of all families.  It is 
time to build the broadest support and participation we can for the 
nationwide Great American Boycott II demonstrations planned for May 1, 2007.

/Globalize the workers struggle!
Long Live International Solidarity!
The Women United Will Never Be Defeated!/

Women's Fightback Network demands: 

    * Bring the troops home now!  Fund human needs not war!
    * Full legalization for all immigrants!
    * Stop the ICE raids and deportations!
    * The Right to Return and Reparations for all Katrina survivors!
    * Our youth need jobs and education not jails!
    * Military recruiters out of our schools!
    * Full reproductive rights and healthcare for all women!
    * Stop the war on immigrants, women, LGBT people, youth of color,
      workers and the poor!
    * No racial profiling and police brutality!

Immigrant Rights & International Women's Rights: Two Struggles 
Intertwined -
http://www.workers.org/2007/world/women-0301/index.html

*******************************************
*Women's Fightback Network*

617-522-6626
wfn at iacboston.org <mailto:wfn at iacboston.org>
http://www.iacboston.org

Troops Out Now Coalition
http://troopsoutnow.org
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