By Maria Gonzalez, Futuro en común
Last year Argentine feminists called for an international partial strike under the slogan “Not one less, we want ourselves alive”. Millions of women went out into the streets in 70 countries to make visible our demands for productive and reproductive work, areas in which our presence is essential and in which, at the same time, we are devalued, invisible and discriminated against.
In 2018, the feminist movement calls for an international strike to highlight our strength and our indignation at sexist violence, the violation of our sexual and reproductive rights, labour inequality, discrimination in access to economic, social and environmental resources, and the invisibilization of the paid and unpaid care work that, in its majority, women carry out all over the world. The Spanish Platform of NGDOs joins and participates in this mobilization. We make our call to all women to stop, to stop doing, to show how essential our work in all areas of life is, so that nobody can look the other way.
This international feminist strike goes beyond a work stoppage, it is a strike that puts at the center the nuclear participation of women in all spheres of life: consumption, education, paid and precarious work and essential care for people. It is a global strike, of all the women of the world, of our partners in Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East, of migrants, of women in transit and refugees, of all those whose rights are constantly violated and who for that reason will not even be able to join this strike.
As development cooperation organizations, we work with all these women. In addition, we are a sector supported by 70% of the work and dedication of women, who, in a remunerated or voluntary way, are linked to international solidarity. Besides, it is a sector in which women, have little access to management positions and decision-making spaces. Like most sectors, NGDOs should also change to achieve a work model that puts the focus on care, solidarity and sorority, values highly defended in their ideals and principles.
You can find the full release here (Spanish and English).
Futuro en comun offers a space to meet for organisations, movements, social platforms and networks that are working to end poverty and inequalities while respecting the planet environmental limits.
For information on other international women’s strikes see here: http://parodemujeres.com/map-of-events/