Mothers March - Sat 12 March 2011

[lojopo]

International Women?s Week & Mothering Sunday

MOTHERS MARCH

Sat 12 March 2011 w All welcome

Assemble 12 noon: Trafalgar Square (north side)

Speak-out 2pm: Room G2, SOAS

(School of Oriental & African Studies) Thornhaugh St, London WC1H 0XG

Invest in caring not killing

For Everyone?s SURVIVAL & WELFARE

End Cuts, Poverty & Discrimination

WOMEN, MEN, YOUNG, OLD BRING YOUR DEMANDS!

Why a Mothers March? Because:

· Mothers produce and care for the world?s people, while brutal market forces destroy us and our planet.

· Mothers? basic contribution to survival and welfare is unrecognised and unpaid.

· Governments invest in weapons of war, banks and corporations. Feeding, housing, health, support, education, the environment ? they couldn?t care less.

· Our young people are victimised for defending everyone?s right to education.

· Everywhere people are risking their lives to bring change ? from Palestine to Egypt, from Haiti to Colombia, from Kashmir to Congo and Nigeria ?

Why march with us? Because:

· Many of us do caring work, whether we?re mothers or not.

· We?re all being robbed of benefits and services our labour and taxes paid for.

· We?re thrown out of jobs or made to work for less.

· Mothers can help bring together all who stand for life, against war and exploitation.

· Everyone?s contribution and struggle must be counted and supported.

· Fathers, sons, brothers, partners . . . it?s time to show your support.

Mothers March in Guyana, India, Peru, the US.

ASK ORGANISATIONS TO ENDORSE THE MARCH

www.globalwomenstrike.net Tel: +44 (0)20 7482 2496 [email protected]

Join gws on facebook & on twitter.com/WomenStrike

The Global Women?s Strike is an international network for recognition & payment for all caring work, and for military spending to go back to the community starting with women the main carers.

Why I?ll be marching:

Ø ?My daughter has a life threatening disability. If I am forced out to work and there?s no one to look after her, we are heading for disaster.?

Ø ?It?s frightening to raise children in a world where they are not valued.?

Ø ?We asylum seekers were cut first. No recourse to public funds, food vouchers, destitution. That?s what they intend for everyone.?

Ø ?We run a small health food shop. Times are hard. The oldest of my three children is losing his EMA. I don?t know how we?ll manage.?

Ø ?We use the library all the time, for revision, books and films for the holidays.?

Ø ?Women are not believed. I was raped, accused of lying and jailed.?

Ø ?Legal aid enabled me to sue the police for assault and wrongful arrest. Without it only the rich will be able to afford justice.?

Ø ?Mums of young children are treated as ?workless?. When I was on Income Support I could be available to my son.?

Ø ?After school clubs are closing. Children are treated as ?collateral damage? for the cuts.?

Ø ?Grandparents are expected to step in. But we?re also expected to retire later. ?

Ø ?I was put in a detention centre, and my children with social services.?

Ø ?We share our house with other people to reduce costs. Cuts in housing benefit will make it impossible, especially in London.?

Ø ?I went into sex work to support my kid and pay for my degree.?

Ø ?People are told to blame ?others? for the cuts. Racist attacks go up, all kinds of bullying, against immigrants, disabled people, lesbians, gays, trans. It?s scary.?

Ø ?Child Benefit should be universal. Kids should see they and their mums are valued. Means testing stigmatises; many kids hide they?re on school meals.?

Ø ?Young people want to find their own way to activities. Without out-of-school clubs, sports, music . . . our families are impoverished.?

Ø ?Flooding, drought. And they want to take our forests. They don?t respect anything.?

Global Women?s Strike international demands:

Payment for all caring work - in wages, pensions, land & other resources. What is more valuable than raising children & caring for others? Invest in life & welfare, not military budgets & prisons.

Pay equity for all, women & men, in the global market.

Food security for breastfeeding mothers, paid maternity leave and maternity breaks. Stop penalizing us for being women.

Don't pay 'Third World debt'. We owe nothing, they owe us.

Accessible clean water, healthcare, housing, transport, literacy.

Non-polluting energy & technology which shortens the hours we work. We all need cookers, fridges, washing machines, computers, & time off!

Protection & asylum from all violence & persecution, including by family members & people in positions of authority.

Freedom of movement. Capital travels freely, why not people?

Yes, good idea (only just seen this). I hope lots of people turn up.

You are of course ignoring that many mothers are married to men in the military and indeed, are in the military themselves. There are two sides to every coin.

Reading the OP, she says she is against governments investing in weapons of war and that 'Mothers can help bring together all who stand for life, against war and exploitation'.

I think army wives, mothers and military personnel are all against war, surely far more than anyone else, aren't they?

I hate war and I wish we didn't have soldiers risking their lives in the current conflicts. I wish politicians were more ready to pursue talking solutions rather than sending these young men and women to war. I think the people on the front line are heroes, all of them - no doubt about that - but I still hate war.

I expect the OP feels the same.

However, I did wonder if it was a good idea for the Mothers' March to have such a wide, generalised focus.

Military spending is about defence, not always about offence.

'for military spending to go back to the community starting with women the main carers.' Military spending pays my husband's salary and supports our family. People talk about the military and only think about the hardware, not those in the Forces and the families that support them.

what a bunch of ignorant nasty hippies. asylum seekers shouldn't be here they are criminals under international law and under the UN regulations on asylum. they should claim it in the first country they pass into that is safe. as they travel across europe to get here they have broken the law. we need a stronger and robust ,military just look at the middle east at this time within 3 years the muslim extremists will control the area and we will not only have to defend our selves from attack but may have to invade to ensure oil supplies from these 7th century fanatics. the third world owes us we owe them nothing by the warped PC logic of these hippies we are entitled to Billions from the Germans the Italians The French the Scandinavians. equal rights is a pipe dream and can never be achieved so stop wittering on about it, muslims hate Homosexuals etc if you ban them what of their rights if you support them what of the Homosexuals, women get paid the same as men look in the paper it doesn't say work for us and this is a woman's pay and this is the mans the jobs offer a wage. God i hate these PC morons

Had a bad day, Reiver?

The oil doesn't belong to anyone than the people and governments of the land it is from. If they don't want to share it out then tough doo doo thereiver.

Your grammar was a little off so I am not sure if you were sayin that the "third world" owes the UK or not. Could you clarify?

the third world owes the first world big time for every thing they have. and re the oil if they wont share then they cant complain when blockade them and cut of their resources and supplies. oh for a gunboat as when the world was well run

What world do you live in thereiver? Topsy-turvy world? You sure have an overwhelming sense of entitlement for some reason and have a strong animosity toward anything outside your world-its called a siege mentality in case you're wondering.
Amongst your targets for derision are 'hippies', 'asylum- seekers' and 'muslim 7th century fanatics' whose oil you depend on.
And did it ever occur to you that the 'first world' you think you inhabit may have come about because of its history with the 'third world'. There was a transfer of natural resources in terms of manpower and materials from the latter to the former when the UK was a colonial power which is how it developed and infact continues to do so.
It's your own ignorance which you need to question and remedy surely?

how pathetic that there are still mindless fools who believe they are the only ones who hate war. everyone does, but the majority recognise you have to be prepared to fight them. the views of these hippies is war is never justified. so we should have allowed Hitler to control europe and continue to murder millions, the same with napolean the Falklands etc the list is huge, we have stopped so many tyrants so war is so often justified and we must be ready, because soon we will have a huge one once the arab nations unite across north africa.