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<b><font face="Arial"><br>
The Women's Fightback Network/Red de Mujeres en Lucha</font></b></div>
<div align="center"><b><font face="Arial">and the International Action
Center invites you to attend an:</font></b></div>
<small><font face="Arial"> </font></small>
<div align="center"></div>
<div align="center"><font color="#ff0000"><b><big><font face="Arial"><br>
</font></big></b></font><b><font face="Arial"><img
src="cid:part1.01040004.06090900@iacboston.org" alt="" align="left"
height="272" width="250"></font></b><font color="#ff0000"><b><big><font
face="Arial">Eyewitness Reportback and Video Highlights from </font></big></b></font><br>
<font color="#ff0000"><b><big><font face="Arial">The Women's
International Democratic Federation Congress (WIDF) </font></big></b></font><br>
<font color="#ff0000"><b><big><font face="Arial">held in Caracas,
Venezuela in April 2007</font></big></b></font></div>
<font color="#ff0000"><b><big><font face="Arial"> </font></big></b></font>
<div align="center"></div>
<div align="center"><font color="#009900" face="Arial"><big><b>Wednesday,
May 23 - 6:30 PM</b></big></font><br>
<font face="Arial">Action Center</font><br>
</div>
<div align="center"><font face="Arial">284 Amory Street, The Brewery</font></div>
<div align="center"><font face="Arial">Jamaica Plain, MA</font></div>
<div align="center">
</div>
<div align="center"><font face="Arial">(2 blocks from the Stonybrook T
Stop on the Orange Line)</font></div>
<font face="Arial"> </font>
<div align="center"><font face="Arial">childcare and refreshments
provided</font></div>
<div align="center"><font face="Arial">donation requested</font></div>
<div><small><font face="Arial"> </font></small></div>
<div><small><font face="Arial"><br>
<br>
<br>
</font></small></div>
<div><small><font face="Arial"><b><i>Hear U.S. delegates:</i></b></font>
</small></div>
<div><small><font face="Arial"> </font></small></div>
<div><small><font face="Arial"><b>Berta Joubert-Ceci</b> - founder of
Philadelphia International Action Center,</font></small></div>
<div><small><font face="Arial">and Co-Director of People's Video
Network who has written extensively</font></small></div>
<div><small><font face="Arial">on Latin America. </font></small></div>
<div><small><font face="Arial"> </font></small></div>
<div><small><font face="Arial"><b>Sara Mokuria</b> - student, educator
and activist, involved in the Committee </font></small></div>
<div><small><font face="Arial">for Justice for Hector Rivas, and Keep
Assata Free Campaign in Dallas Texas. </font></small></div>
<div><small><font face="Arial"> </font></small></div>
<div><small><font face="Arial"><b>Liza Green</b> - member of AFSCME and
Women's Fightback Network-Boston. </font></small></div>
<div><small><font face="Arial"> </font></small></div>
<small><font face="Arial">Under the theme, <i>"Women of the World: a
vital force against neoliberal globalization, terrorism and imperialist
war; for equality, social and economic justice and for peace,"</i> more
than 1,000 women representing organizations from five continents met in
Caracas, Venezuela from April 9 through April 14. They were joined by
thousands of Venezuelan women who hosted the 14th Congress of the
Women's International Democratic Federation.</font></small>
<div><small><font face="Arial"> </font></small></div>
<div><small><font face="Arial">Held for the first time in Latin America
and in the midst of the Bolivarian Revolution, the Congress condemned
imperialism and neoliberal policies, especially the U.S. war in Iraq.
<br>
</font></small></div>
<div><small><font face="Arial"> </font></small></div>
<div><small><font face="Arial">On April 13th, a national holiday in
Venezuela, Hugo Chavez addressed the Women's Congress. On this same
day in 2002, President Chavez returned to Venezuela to a hero's welcome
following his April 11th </font></small></div>
<div><small><font face="Arial">kidnapping by right wing forces friendly
to the Bush administration. Saluting the women delegates, Chavez said,
"Women are the engines that fuel the working class struggle."</font></small></div>
<div><small><font face="Arial"> </font></small></div>
<div><small><font face="Arial">Hear members of the U.S.
delegation share their impressions of this historic Congress of Women
in Struggle Worldwide.</font></small></div>
<div><small><font face="Arial"> </font></small>
<hr size="2" width="100%"><b><small><font face="Arial">2) <br>
</font></small></b><br>
<b><big><big>Women’s International meets in Latin America<br>
</big></big></b> <!---deck-->
<!---byline-->
<div class="byline">By Berta Joubert-Ceci
<br>
Caracas, Venezuela
<br>
</div>
<!---page text-->
<!--begin page--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p>Under the theme “Women of the World: a vital force against
neoliberal
globalization, terrorism and imperialist wars; for equality, social and
economic justice and for peace,” more than 1,000 women representing
organizations from five continents met in Caracas, Venezuela, from
April 9
through 14. They were joined by thousands of Venezuelan women who
hosted the
14th Congress of the Women’s International Democratic Federation.</p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p>This congress, the WIDF’s first in Latin America, was of crucial
importance in coalescing the political line and actions of
anti-imperialist and
revolutionary women who comprise the membership of the federation.</p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p>The congress was preceded by a two-day Encounter of Young Women—an
attempt to involve younger women more actively in the federation.</p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p>Plenaries and workshops alternated with cultural presentations. Each
day ended
with an Anti-Imperialist Tribune in an outside tent. Some topics of the
working
sessions provide an idea of the discussions held: the impact of
neoliberal
globalization on women; women’s struggle and the impact of state
terrorism, occupation and imperialist wars, and the struggle for
national
liberation; exploitation of women and children, with a special emphasis
on
immigrant and displaced women; building international solidarity
against
political repression and all forms of violence against women; defense
of
Indigenous and African-descendant women and their culture and for
equality.</p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p>A detailed listing and information about the congress and the WIDF
can be found
at <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="http://www.fdim-widf.com.br">www.fdim-widf.com.br</a>.</p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p>A special session for women holding government office was held in
the National
Assembly, hosted by Venezuelan socialist parliamentarians under the
theme
“International Meeting of Parliamentarians against Imperialism and for
Solidarity and Peace in the World.”
</p>
<div><strong>History of the WIDF</strong><!--end paragraph-->
<!--begin paragraph-->
<p>It is not accidental that very little is known in the U.S. about
this
federation, which was born to fight against the same imperialism that
the U.S.
leads. On Dec. 1, 1945, right after World War II, women from 41
countries met
in France to create the WIDF (FDIM in Spanish). Many of these women had
suffered directly from the bloody effects of the war and many had
struggled
against fascism.</p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p>Yolanda Ferrer Gómez, general secretary of the Cuban Women’s
Federation, gave a moving statement on the organization’s history:
“They were widows, mothers who had lost their children, former
prisoners
from Nazi concentration camps, combatants who fought alongside men in
the
battlefields, members of the resistance and clandestine movements,
guerrillas,
workers who secured the rearguard and supplied the front, fighters all
of them
in uniform or civilian clothes.”</p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p>She continued: “With them, women who had fought in other latitudes
against fascism also united, Spanish exiles, members from national
organizations from the Americas and Asia, African women, from Arab
countries,
from Indigenous communities, all in solidarity.”</p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p>They pledged “To defend the economic, political, legal and social
rights
of women; to fight so that the indispensable conditions for the
harmonic and
happy development of our children and future generation are built;
struggle
tirelessly so that all forms of fascism are forever annihilated and
establish
worldwide a true democracy; fight without rest to assure a lasting
peace in the
world.”</p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p>The WIDF was also enriched by the membership of socialist women from
the
revolutions that later developed in Cuba and Vietnam. The federation
has played
a key role in support of national liberation, such as in Angola, and
against
apartheid in South Africa. It has worked in international forums trying
to give
a more militant direction and has given voice to those under the yoke
of
imperialism, from Palestinians to Iraqis.</p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p>The WIDF was especially hard-hit during the 1990s, when the
disintegration of
the USSR and the Eastern and Central European socialist countries meant
that
material support and great theoretical and practical contributions so
instrumental for the functioning of the federation suddenly stopped.</p>
</div>
<div><strong>Crucial role of Cuba</strong><!--end paragraph-->
<!--begin paragraph-->
<p>Vilma Espín—one of four WIDF vice presidents, a combatant in the
Cuban Revolution, a member of the Central Committee and the Political
Bureau of
the Cuban Communist Party and president of the Cuban Women’s
Federation—played a decisive role in the enormous task of assuring the
survival and development of the WIDF. Thanks to Cuban action, the
federation
not only survived but thrived as a space of struggle and promotion of
women.</p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p>During the WDIF’s 13th Congress held in Beirut, Lebanon, in 2002,
Marcia
Campos from Brazil was elected president. This was the first time a
woman from
Latin America held that post. She had founded the Confederation of
Brazilian
Women and is a member of the Central Committee and the National
Secretariat of
the October 8th Revolutionary Movement in Brazil.</p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p>The 14th Congress was held in Venezuela to show solidarity with the
Bolivarian
Revolution. But a new phenomenon occurred. The fighting revolutionary
masses
who are transforming this region also came to the congress. Many of the
organizations present were not yet affiliates of the WDIF, but infused
the
congress with their combative energy. Wanting to affiliate and move
forward the
federation, many representatives spoke at the regional work session of
the
Americas.</p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p>There were Indigenous women from the Bolivian Bartolina Sisa Peasant
Union,
Peruvian Indigenous parliamentarians, young women from Puerto Rico and
Colombian women urging a humanitarian exchange of prisoners. Prominent
was the
participation of Venezuelan women who, as the hosts, worked tirelessly
to
assure the smooth development of the congress and in their
presentations
highlighted the important role and advances of women under the
Bolivarian
Revolution.</p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p>The overall experience was tremendous: meeting and sharing with
revolutionary
women from all over the world, listening to their countries’ struggles,
and most important, experiencing the overwhelming solidarity among all
the
attendees and their great respect, admiration and gratitude for Cuban
President
Fidel Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.</p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p>Where else could you hear women from the Sahara thanking Chávez for
his
support of their cause in international forums? The congress gave the
opportunity to interview many women from different struggles who
offered their
progressive views on crucial current events: women’s role in
Angola’s MPLA, South Africa after apartheid, Zimbabwe’s land
distribution, the political view of the Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea, the struggle against Plan Colombia and so much more.</p>
</div>
<strong>Delegation from the U.S.</strong><!--end paragraph-->
<!--begin paragraph-->
<p>Many women went from the U.S. The largest delegation was organized
by
African-American artist Vinie Burrows, who is also the WDIF
representative to
the U.N., and the National Women’s Fightback Network (NWFN) of the
International Action Center. The NWFN is now an affiliate of the WIDF.</p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p>The Burrows delegation included representatives of the Granny Peace
Brigade and
the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. The NWFN
delegation included Susan Abulhawa, Palestinian writer and director of
Playgrounds for Palestine; Brenda Stokely and Anna Wilson from the
labor
sector; Patricia Dahl, who works in solidarity with Colombia; Nellie
Hester
Bailey, co-founder and director of the Harlem Tenants Council; Sara Ann
Mokuria, LeiLani Dowell, Liza Green, Jill Hill, Kris Hamel, Minnie
Bruce Pratt
and this writer, all from the NWFN.</p>
<!--end paragraph--><!--begin paragraph-->
<p>The WIDF congress is not simply a “women’s issue.” As one
participant said, “Everything and every struggle is of concern to
women;
we are half the world and give birth to the other half.” It was a
Congress of Women in Struggle.</p>
-- <br>
</div>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">*******************************************
Women's FightBack Network
Boston:
617-522-6626
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:wfn@iacboston.org">wfn@iacboston.org</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.iacboston.org">http://www.iacboston.org</a>
National Office:
212-633-6646
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.iacenter.org">http://www.iacenter.org</a>
</pre>
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