Tomorrow women from around the World will be striking against gender inequality. The International Women’s Strike rejects the decades of economic inequality, criminalization and policing, racial and sexual violence, and endless global war and terrorism affecting women. Women and non- binary people will refrain from labour: both waged and unpaid work – domestic, emotional, caring or other services they provide to the society.

I will be joining the strike, meaning that, among other things, tomorrow I will be supplying you all with daily updates at Freedom News. Instead, I will be busy with some of those and am encouraging you to do the same:

London:

• 11am: Support the Cleaners campaigns for the Living Wage (CAIWU) – meet Moorgate Station
• 12noon: Support the Cleaners campaigns for the Living Wage (CAIWU) – meet at Museum of London main entrance
• 1pm Women’s Strike Assembly Russell Square, WCB1 – all genders, kids welcome, food provided
• 4pm Support the Cleaners at Royal Opera House (CAIWU) – meet at Covent Garden Tube
•   6pm-9pm Picturehouse Central International Women’s Day Strike – join the picket-lines Corner of Great Windmill and Shaftesbury Ave, Piccadilly
• 5-6pm  protest outside Unilver HQ against the company’s $667 million investment in Myanmar where the military are committing systematic rape and torture as part of their genocide against the Rohingya people: 100 Victoria Embankment, London EC4Y 0DY
• 7pm #strike4decrim Sex/Work Strike – all welcome, 55 Dean Street Soho
• Men: help out with the strike here

Brimingham:

• 9am – Community breakfast– Artefact Cafe – 1464 Pershore Rd, Stirchley, B30 2NT
• 10am – Breakfast Badges and Banners – Eastside Projects – 122 Fazeley Street, B5 5RS
• 12 Midday – Women’s Strike assembly rally/march, Victoria Square, City Centre
• 7pm – Women’s Strike: Dinner, Discussion & Dancing! – The Edge – 79-81 Cheapside, B12 0QH,

Cardiff:

• 12:30pm –  Join the WASPI women in their procession and support them in their fight for a fair transitional State Pension Arrangement
• 4.30pm: Women’s Strike Assembly at Nye Bevan for a march and speeches in front of Central Library
  

Aberdeen: 8am – 11.30pm: Women’s Strike Dunbar Hall

Brighton: 5.30pm – 6pm: Churchill Square: organised by Sisters Uncut Brighton

Edinburgh: 6pm Women’s Strike The Mound

Here are just some of the reasons to strike:

• Violence against women and girls: more than a billion women (one in three women) worldwide experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. The most affected are those who face discrimination due to their race, disability, gender identity, sexuality and poverty.
• Attacks on sexual and reproductive health rights of women worldwide
• Economic inequality: women continue to be economically marginalized and overrepresented in the lowest-paid, most insecure, jobs. Women are also frequently paid less for the same work, compared to men. Moreover, in the UK, they take on over 40% more unpaid household work than men: something they often do in their leasure time.
• Women are underrepresented in decision-making positions. Only about a quarter of parliament members worldwide are women. Moreover, women often work in informal sectors that are harder to organize, face restrictions that mean their voices are not heard in labor movements, and are restricted by social norms that view participation public life as something unsuitable for them.
• In many places around the World, women, and particularly indigenous women, are generally responsible for feeding their families but they are routinely denied access to land and incomes to buy it. That leaves women vulnerable and means when food is limited women go hungry first. 60% of the world’s hungry are women.
• Women are disproportionately affected by war, and, more often than men, are subjected to rape during military conflicts
• Sex workers, who are mostly women, face  sexist, racist and criminal laws and “whore stigma” that jeopardise their lives
• Trans women are subjected to discrimination, ostracism and violence due to their gender identity. Trans women of colour are particularly vulnerable.

See you at the barricades!

zb