WUNRN
World March of Women 2010 Website: http://www.wmw2010.info/our-action
WMW Country Actions: http://www.wmw2010.info/countries
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AWID - Association for Women's
Rights in Development
THE WORLD MARCH OF WOMEN:
GLOBALIZING RIGHTS, HOPE & STRUGGLE
Wilhelmina Trout
AWID interview with Wilhelmina Trout of the World March of Women, a movement formed to put an end to social, political and economic injustice against women.
English: http://www.worldmarchofwomen.org/index_html/en?set_language=en&cl=en
World March of Women offers French, English, and Spanish Translations.
By
Kathambi Kinoti - AWID
AWID: Who started the World March of Women (WMW) and why?
WILHELMINA
TROUT: The World March of Women started as an
initiative of the Quebec Federation of Women inspired by a successful march
carried out in
AWID:
In which places around the world have your marches taken place?
WT: One common mistake is to interpret the march as a
single event that takes place at a specific moment. It is not like that. We
define ourselves as an international permanent movement, an international
feminist action movement connecting grass-roots groups and organizations working
to eliminate the causes at the root of poverty and violence against women. We
are diverse women – urban and peasant women, youth and trade unionists - who
come from different political backgrounds but have in common our desire to
eradicate this capitalist and patriarchal system. We are present in more than
fifty countries in various continents, organized in what we call National
Coordinating Bodies (NCBs) and we organize actions all the time, either during
some key dates for our movement (such as March 8, October 17 or November 25) or
in alliance with other social movements such as demonstrations against
militarization, free trade or the false solutions to the systemic crisis and to
climate change.
Each
country NCB has the autonomy to decide its action according the local contexts.
However, every five years we come together to organize our international action
under a common slogan and fields of action. After our first action in 2000, we
organized our Second International Action in 2005 and right now, in 2010, we
are carrying out our Third International Action in more than 50 countries.
AWID:
Do you have different themes each year, and if so, how do you select the
themes?
WT: Our key theme is the struggle at the root causes
against poverty and violence against women, but these are very broad issues. As
explained before, the March is not a single event. So, as women from diverse
backgrounds we are involved in a huge set of struggles defined by women on a
national level. For example: the struggle for equal and just salaries among men
and women and women themselves, or the struggle over women’s territories -
understood as not only our land but our bodies as well- , for public services
and for punishment of perpetrators of violence against women. In our process to
constitute ourselves as a movement, we arrived at the definition of four fields
of action which are organizing our 2010 action as well: peace and
demilitarization, women’s work (for women’s economic autonomy), violence
against women, and common good and public services. These four fields of
actions or “themes” are a synthesis of the national platforms of the Second
International Action and they were defined at our sixth International Meeting
held in
AWID:
What achievements are you most proud of?
WT: So many! One of these is the way we have been able to
construct our Women’s Global Charter for Humanity presented in 2005. The
process was so consultative and so inclusive of the views of women around the
world. It was wonderful that we were able to bring out a charter that is truly
representative of voices of women at grassroots. The second thing is our
ability to build solidarity. We bring messages and organize actions to support
the struggle of women around the world like in
AWID:
What challenges have you encountered?
WT: We have very positive challenges, like languages. For
instance, my personal challenge is to learn Spanish or French to better
participate in our international meetings. Another challenge is how to balance
the work in alliance with other movements and the effort to build ourselves as
a movement.
AWID:
What are your future plans?
WT: 2010 is the year of our Third International Action.
The actions are taking place in two key moments: from March 8 to 18, and from
October 7 to 17. In the first moment we had decentralized actions in more than
50 countries. Now, we have the challenge to plan the next moments of our
action, especially the closing action, which will be held from October 14 to
17, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), focusing on peace and
demilitarization. Before that, we also are organizing our regional actions: the
European action will be held on June 30, in
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