March 8 rally in hiangmai, 2006

APWLD Secretariat joined the March 8 rally in Chiangmai, 2006

The history of March 8 as the International Women’s Day is rooted on the movement for women’s rights and peace in the 1910s with women marching on the streets of Europe, Russia and the US demanding bread and peace. Almost a century later, women are still marching on the streets with the same demands.

PHILIPPINES

AMIHAN at the March 8 rally in Manila, 2006

20,000 women of different political colours and persuasions, and from different sectors, came together in an unusually huge number for a March 8 rally in Manila. The collective call was for the ouster of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA), and demanding the resolution of urgent women’s issues. This was part of the continuing mass actions of the peoples’ movement in the Philippines demanding GMA to step down for issues of cheating the national elections, corruption involving her family and gross human rights violations.

As the other rallies and demonstrations against GMA, the women’s march was also met with violence. Women marchers were assaulted by anti-riot police and women leaders were arrested.

March 8 rally in Manila, 2006

Elsewhere in the Philippines, women’s groups went out into the streets of different provinces with the same call – OUST GLORIA NOW! Other calls were for the withdrawal of US troops from the Philippines and prosecution of the US marine soldiers who allegedly raped a 22-year-old Filipina in November, 2005. Issues of poverty and hunger were also raised, which are being worsened by the imposition of the expanded value-added tax and other policies of the World Bank and World Trade Organisation (WTO).

As public support for her dwindles, GMA holds on to her power in any way she can. And like other desperate national leaders who have lost legitimacy, she turns to the use of military force to suppress resistance.

March 8 rally in Manila, 2006

Activists andhuman rights defenders from progressive political groups have been targeted. A long list of women and men has been killed, including children. The number of activists who are being persecuted is frighteningly increasing. On the list are Tita Lubi, a member of APWLD’s programme and management committee, and Liza Masa, GABRIELA Women’s Party-list representative to the Philippine Congress. Both are from the progressive women’s organisation, GABRIELA. Both of them are included in the list of 51 people being accused of the non-bailable offence of rebellion.

“It is ironic that as we celebrate this day to give praise and recognition to the important role that women play in nation building, Gabriela Partylist representative, Liza Masa, who brought the fight for women’s emancipation from the streets to the hallways of Congress, the law making institution of the country, is now facing government persecution, and is facing the threat of arrest and detention on possible charge of rebellion,” the AMIHAN statement read.

“Wages and salaries have been frozen for many years now, left far behind by the fast-rising prices of commodities and services. An imposition of the 10% Expanded Value Added Tax, which rose to 12% last month, and other additional taxes, fees and exactions imposed by government, coupled with rising costs and deterioration of public services due to privatisation and cutting down of government subsidies for people’s welfare. The daily cost of living for a family of six was P508 in 2005, while the daily minimum wage was stuckat PhP200.00.

Unemployment and underemployment reached a high of 8.3% and 26.1%, respectively in 2005. Meanwhile, the government continues to promote its Labour Export Policy as a way out, by selling our labour power abroad where our exploited migrant workers face serious and constant risks to life, mind and limb all around the world.

In the countryside, farmers’ incomes are plunging due to importation of agricultural products imposed by the WTO agreements and policies. This has led to the loss of traditional sustainable agriculture, dependence on food imports and agrochemicals sold by multinationals and displacement from our lands and traditional livelihoods, aggravated by intensified exploitation of our natural resources by destructive industries like mining, logging and energy projects.

Women experience daily the violence of poverty and oppression. Poverty is violence in itself, not to mention the many other forms of violence against women such as sexual abuse, rape, harassment, prostitution, pornography and battering. Violence against women is increasing and is often accepted as normal or natural in our society that views women as inferior, for sex, for sale, or for the home,” are the facts from Innabuyog Statement for March 8.

However, the courage and the spirit of the women activists and the women’s movement in the Philippines has not waned, and they vowed to keep the fight until Arroyo steps down and fundamental changes in the society have been achieved.

BURMA

Women’s League of Burma working in exile, based in Bangkok, issued a Statement on March 8: “WLB, since it was established, is committed to raise awareness about struggles and plights of all women of Burma- regardless of ethnicities, religion, and tradition- among all sectors of society and vowed to work towards the end of all forms of discrimination and violence against women.

WLB believes that only way to obtain the sustainable peace within a society is achieving gender equality. Women must be at the forefront of all decision making processes to achieve gender equality. To achieve the full participation of women in fight for gender equality, the constitution of Myanmar must guarantee these rights and must recognise the importance of the roles of women. Women’s rights must be guaranteed in the constitution of future Federal Union of Myanmar. WLB reaffirms that the women’s rights declaration Constituting Our Rights must be a part of the constitution of the Federal Union of Myanmar ensuring the full participation of women in economic, social, and political processes of the country.

NEPAL

March 8 rally in Katmandu, 2006

“End of Autocratic Monarchy and Establishment of Absolute Democracy” – is the continuing battlecry of the thousands of Nepalese women who went out on the streets for a March 8 rally organised by the All Nepal Women’s Association (ANWA) together with other women’s mass organisations and trade unions.

This demonstration of 3,000 women was just another of the series of mass actions by women activists and the broader peoples movement in Nepal since King Gyanendra usurped power on February 1, 2005. The Gyanendra Monarchy justified his takeover by announcing that it meant to restore peace and democracy, in the light of the ongoing armed struggle of the Maoists. However, what the monarchy has brought was more restlessness and more violence. It is difficult to obtain information on the extent of this violence in the country, especially in the countryside as press has been muzzled.

The ANWA has been one of the targets of harassment by the police as they consistently oppose the continuing autocratic monarchy. Hundreds of ANWA women have been arrested. Massive crackdown has reached its members at the village level. The ANWA has a long list of membership beaten up by police during dispersals and during arrests. Their energy and determination, however, remain strong as ever, as they continue to expose the brutality of this monarchy, and demand for the end of violence, and begin the process of building democracy.

Thailand

On women’s day, APWLD members in Thailand – Sustainable Development Foundation, Northern Development Foundation, Virada Somswasdi and Wanee Thitiprasert, Programme and Management committee members – were on the streets in Bangkok along with thousands of other women calling for democracy in Thailand, shouting “THAKSIN, GET OUT!” This has been the slogan of women’s voices as they form part of the hundreds of thousands of people in unprecedented actions of the movement against the Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The main issue which united women and men from different sectors of the society was corruption. This was triggered by the January 2006 sale of Shincorp (a Shinawatra family business) to a Singaporean company, a transaction which was loaded with anomalies, giving the Shinawatras hundreds of thousands of dollars of savings through tax evasion. Issues of non-respect of fundamental rights such as freedom of speech were also lodged against him.

However, long before this controversy, APWLD members have been vocal and active in raising democracy issues against Thaksin and his neoliberal economic policies. Among these is the entry of Thaksin’s government into Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with countries such as China, and now ongoing negotiations with the US, which have damaging impacts on the livelihoods of Thai small farmers and agricultural workers. The campaign against the increasing commercialisation of natural resources, such as forest and water, under the Thaksin government has been carried for several years now. The militarist governance of Thaksin has led to the deaths of thousands of rural women and men in his war against drugs; and has caused the escalation of violence in the South of Thailand, leaving hundreds of women widowed, fatherless, and with limited opportunities of livelihood. It is under the Thaksin militarist governance that human rights defenders are harassed, killed and made to disappear.

After months of massive protest actions, Thaksin admitted defeat, even as his party “won” in a snap election which was boycotted by opposition parties. He declared that he will not take on the premiership. With Thaksin out, that’s one step to victory. But his neo-liberal policies remain and the structure of militaristic governance is still in place, so the struggle goes on.

On another March 8 occasion, the National Human Rights Commission organised a ceremony to honour five women human rights defenders: two Muslim women, Ms Ankhana Neelaphaichit, wife of the abducted human rights lawyer, Somchai Neelaphaichit, who supported the fight for women’s rights under the Muslim Law, Ms Soraya Jamjuree who has promoted the understanding of the different languages and culture in the South through her community radio. The other three were the anti-corruption activist, Ms. Rosana Tositrakul, the media reform activist, Ms. Supinya Klangnarong and a hill tribe activist, Ms. See Sae Lee, a Mong who struggle for gender equality and human rights in her community for decades. The poem dedicated to Samran Khamgleun, a young women worker shot dead during the workers’ strike in front of the factory in the 1980s, was read by Wanee B. Thitiprasert, APWLD member, and a moment of silence was called to honour the women human rights defenders for their commitments to the human rights.

INDONESIA

March 8 rally in Aceh, 2006

Over a thousand rural women, mostly tsunami women survivors, were out on the streets of Banda Aceh to celebrate women’s day. This was a sight to behold, as this is the first women’s mobilisation in decades. Aceh has been under military repression for more than 30 years and under Islamic Shariah law for several years. It was indeed a celebration of life as they survived the devastating tsunami in December 2004, and a tribute to their strength and resilience. Organised by Solidaritas Perempuan-Aceh (APWLD member) along with 17 other organisations, the women’s march was calling for the recognition and promotion of their rights, as they urged the government to expedite the reconstruction work of Aceh.

In Jakarta, women of Solidaritas Perempuan (SP), along with other women’s organisations, marched to the President’s Residence to highlight the issue of feminisation of poverty. “Around 34 million Indonesian women still live in poverty. They do not know whether they will have food tomorrow. If they do not have such basic thing as food, how they can even think of health care and education of their children? Indonesia is one of 186 countries that signed the Millennium Development Goals treaty in September 2000 in New York and committed to reduce the poverty rates by half by year 2015. However, government policies only increased poverty rates. Deregulation, privatisation of state enterprises and trade liberalisation accompanied by cutting the subsidy for the social sector have brought havoc to people’s lives: loss of agricultural lands, exploitation of natural resources, eviction from land and homes, growing unemployment and loss of food sovereignty. These policies were adopted to accommodate foreign interests such as the WTO, TNCs, IMF and World Bank?” read their statement.

SP, which has several branches in different provinces of Indonesia, has also organised actions in different parts of the country – demanding rights to land, freedom from violence, and the protection of migrant women workers’ rights. In Yogyakarta, the women’s day also saw the women’s rejection of the Anti-pornography Bill, which has controversial provisions targeting women’s bodies.