-------- Original Message -------- Subject: World March of Women: women invited to initiate meetings on Date: Fri, 6 Oct 2000 17:26:25 +1000 From: "margaret" <margaret at rie.net.au> Reply-To: mujereslibres at lists.tao.ca To: <mujereslibres at lists.tao.ca>
Be ye 'non-violent' or notNV therefore violent? get active on October 17th...
From: Cathy Picone <cathpete at camtech.net.au> Sent: Thursday, October 05, 2000 12:03 PM Subject: World March of Women: women invited to initiate meetings on
Women Invited to Initiate Meetings on October 17th
Aung San Sui Kyi, the democratically elected leader of Burma, is among world leaders who support the World March of Women in the Year 2000.
Women and women's groups around the globe are working together in the World March of Women campaign for concrete change to combat the growing gulf between the world's rich and poor.
Never before have 5,200 organisations in 157 countries come together as they have for the World March of Women.
In Peru, Brazil, India, Morocco and Bolivia, in Switzerland, Panama, Romania, Haiti, Nepal and Mozambique, in Pakistan, Thailand, Fiji and Australia, women are uniting against this divided world to work together for an end to inequity.
Very soon - on October 17th, the World March of Women campaign reaches its grande finale.
A contingent of Australian women will join the mass rallies in Washington and New York and will meet with the UN's Kofi Annan and the World Bank's James Wolfensohn in a clear demonstration of women's determination to shake up the powers that be.
October 17th 2000, International for the Eradication of Poverty is a day that will be remembered in the history of the women's movement worldwide: on that day millions of signatures from people around the world will be presented to Kofi Annan at United Nations headquarters in New York.
These signatures carry the message that economic globalisation, privatisation of public assets and other policies imposed by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have brought an increasingly divided world:
* If all the world's wealth were evenly divided between every man, woman and child presently alive on the planet, we would all have $13 million apiece!
* Four years ago, according to the UN, the world's richest 358 billionaires had greater combined wealth than 45% of the world's peoples' combined annual income. And now, four years later, the gulf has increased.
* 1.6 billion people are now living on US$1 a day or less. Of these 70% are women and children.
Australian women are invited to be part of the campaign. Women are invited to organise a small scale meeting on October 17th. At work, at school, at home, in neighbourhood centres, women will be initiating small scale grass roots meetings with friends, family and work colleagues. If you'd like to run a meeting on October 17th, contact the World March of Women in Australia for guidelines. Information is also available from your local contact.
In addition, you can also participate in women's song and dance fests on
October 7th and other events in your local area. For more info, please
contact:
PERTH: Jo Dillon (08) 9362 3482
BRISBANE: Mary Ziesak (07) 3880 0164
HOBART: Andre Poppleton (03) 6231 3212
ADELAIDE: Cathy Picone (08) 8296 4357
SYDNEY: Dorothy Buckland Fuller (02) 9968 3910
NEWCASTLE NSW: Betty Mawdsley (02) 4971 3507
CANBERRA: Ruth Corrigan (02) 4849 4543
MELBOURNE: Sheila Byard (03) 9376 7870
NATIONAL:
World March of Women in the Year 2000 - Australia
c/o Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
GPO Box 2094, Adelaide SA 5001
(08) 8296 4357 email: cathpete at camtech.net.au fax: 08 8377 0706
web site for Australia: http://www.uq.net.au/march2000/
web site for overseas: http://www.ffq.qc.ca/marche2000