Global Women's Strike Calls Women to Shannon Airport on 8th March!

national | miscellaneous | news report Tuesday March 04, 2003 14:32 by Global Women's Strike Working Group Galway - Global Women's Strike

Women in Ireland say No War -- Invest in Caring Not Killing -- Globalise Neutrality

The Global Women's Strike is organising a national event against war at Shannon airport on International Women's Day, starting at 2.30pm. As we prepare to take Strike action with women from many countries, we face the threat that the US and UK governments will unleash their weapons of mass destruction on women, children and men in Iraq, people just like ourselves, only poorer. The Strike is calling all women to down tools on Saturday, join the Strike caravan and travel from all over Ireland to the airport on that day. All women are invited to Shannon airport under the banner 'Women Say No War. Invest in Caring Not Killing'. Women in Ireland, proud of our anti-war tradition, are saying, 'Globalise Neutrality'. The event is organised by non-party political grassroots women who are part of a global network. Together we make women's hidden case against war...

Global Women's Strike Calls Women to Shannon Airport on 8th March!

Women in Ireland say No War -- Invest in Caring Not Killing -- Globalise Neutrality and reclaim the military budget for carers

The Global Women's Strike is organising a national event against war at Shannon airport on International Women's Day, starting at 2.30pm.
As we prepare to take Strike action with women from many countries, we face the threat that the US and UK governments will unleash their weapons
of mass destruction on women, children and men in Iraq, people just like ourselves, only poorer.

The Strike is calling all women to down tools on Saturday, join the Strike caravan and travel from all over Ireland to the airport on that day. A
Strike bus and cars will leave from Galway at 11.15am after a breakfast at 10.15am for all women and a women's speak-out in word, song and performance
at the Town Hall Theatre. The Strike caravan will be stopping off in Ennis at 12.45pm. We will meet other women in the market in Ennis to make our voices heard en route and for more music.

All women are invited to Shannon airport under the banner 'Women Say No War. Invest in Caring Not Killing'. Women in Ireland, proud of our anti-war tradition, are saying,
'Globalise Neutrality'.

The event is organised by non-party political grassroots women who are part of a global network. Together we make women's hidden case against war:

** We and our children are the majority of victims.
** During and after war, the enormous burden of work of survival of our families and
communities, falls on women's shoulders.
** We are the first to do without so that governments can build weapons of mass destruction
which, neutral or not, threaten all of us and even our planet home.

Maggie Ronayne, Strike co-ordinator said, 'Global military budgets now total well over $900 billion. The cost of war is paid for first of all by women and our families, in cuts to welfare
and basic services and ultimately, with our lives. We demand all of this stolen wealth back first of all for women but ultimately for the care of every single, precious human being and for our
planet'. 'We're asking women to bring their reasons for demanding back a part of the billions wasted on death and destruction globally each year' she added.

Women in over 70 countries will take Strike action, including our sisters in the huge and growing US movement against the war (though news of this massive movement is censored out of the media).
The Strike is co-ordinated by the International Wages for Housework Campaign. The official International Women's Day event of the Venezuelan government has endorsed the Strike. 'We are inspired by what grassroots
women have won there through great efforts. The Strike action of women at Shannon will recognise their victory. We know that in recognising and supporting the enormous struggle for survival of Venezuelan women
and others in the global South, we support ourselves,' added Ms Ronayne.

Women from Derry, Dublin, Kilkenny, Tipperary, Cork, Ennis, Connemara, Galway, Limerick and Shannon, have contacted us to say they will join us. Clare Women's Network, Women in Media and Entertainment,
Organise!- Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation, Organise!- ASF Women's Commission in the North of Ireland and the Mid-West Alliance Against Military Aggression (MAMA) are supporting the Strike. The Women's Commission in Belfast
will link up live with the Strike in Shannon from their radio show, as will radio stations in the US.

Women taking part in Ireland to protest the war include pensioners, single mothers, African women, women from Iraq, women from the North of Ireland, students, Roma and traveller women, women from the Connemara gaeltacht,
women with disabilities, women with children with disabilities, women in waged jobs such as teachers, as well as 'veterans' of the women's peace camps at Greenham Common and, most recently, at Shannon. We demand recognition
and payment for our work and are striking around the world to reclaim military budgets for caring, feeding, healing, learning.

Why is there money for war and no money for: clean accessible water, food, single mothers, maternity care in rural areas, childcare for all women and not just those in waged work, disability benefits and carers, students,
pensioners, travellers, asylum seekers fleeing war, rape and other torture, decent pay for teachers, nurses, jobs at Shannon airport . . .?
Why is WAR the priority for which we must all do without?

Therese Maher, a mother who has supported the Strike for the past three years asked, 'Why is killing a paid job when giving birth and the work of caring we women do is unpaid, under-resourced and unsupported?' 'They are trying to
close down maternity services and other health care in rural areas now which will put more women, especially mothers and our babies, at risk. Women seeking asylum and traveller women are let down even more badly by the health system
here,' she added.

African women joining the Strike said, 'Services in villages and rural areas don't even exist in many places in the global South. African women spend most of our lives growing and cooking food, collecting water and fuel that keeps the
rest of the world alive. Women have to walk for hours to collect water in many places in the Middle East and Africa. Then we face wars and our work becomes almost unbearable. We demand social and economic compensation for this contribution.'

Men in many countries are supporting our Strike because they well know that what grassroots women win always benefits the whole community. This support is co-ordinated internationally by Payday, a network of men working with and in support of
Strike. Pier Paolo Frassinelli, an Italian immigrant to Ireland working to support the Strike with technical support and childcare said, 'I refused my military service in Italy because I did not want to be part of the military machine that attacks
and slaughters women, children and men. As a conscientious objector I worked instead in a school for children with disabilities. Why don't they pay more of us men to do this kind of work, rather than training us to kill in the army?'
Internationally renowned playwright John Arden is joining the Strike caravan to Shannon; he writes in support that 'this year, as never before, the importance of a Global Women's Strike flings itself at our heart and at our head. It demands support
of all men who oppose the war . . .'

Ends

1. For further information and interviews with the Strike women, telephone the Strike co-ordination in Ireland: Maggie Ronayne on 087 7838688 or email maggie_ronayne@hotmail.com
2. The Strike bus from Galway will cost 10 euros (waged), 5 euros (unwaged) and children go free. There will be a small charge for breakfast at the morning event and donations to the women's Strike fund are welcome.
3. For further updates, see our website: http://womenstrike8m.server101.com or email womenstrike8m@server101.com Men from Payday, which organises with the Wages for Housework Campaign are co-ordinating men's support for the Strike.
Email payday@paydaynet.org and see website: http://www.paydaynet.org
4. The Global Women's Strike wishes to clarify that this is an independent women's non-party political event, which takes place every year, and is not called or organised by any other anti-war organisation. We welcome support from
every sector of the anti-war movement on the basis of respect for the autonomy of grassroots women and what we are organising in Ireland and globally.