LOCAL EVENTS WINNIPEG:

ANNUAL WOMEN'S MEMORIAL MARCH:

Coming up this February 14 (next Tuesday Valentine's Day) Winnipeg's annual March for Murdered and Missing Women. Here's the invite.
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Annual Women's Memorial March of Manitoba

Tuesday, February 14, 2012.5:30pm until 7:30pm.. To stand together united as one strong voice, for those who are unable to sound their voice, the women who are missing or have been murdered. We wish to raise awareness and honour the missing or murdered women in support of their families and friends.

There will be people across Canada on February 14, 2012, marching to honour these women.

Hot refreshments and food will be served.

Please wear red or purple if possible

LOCAL EVENTS WINNIPEG

NO MEANS NO RALLY THIS FRIDAY:

A recent decision by Judge Robert Dewar has aroused a lot of ire here in Manitoba. The basic story is that the judge allowed a convicted rapist to serve a two year conditional sentence because the "attire" of the woman involved "provoked" him to assume that "sex was in the air". Love those wind currents. Here is a call for a demonstration outside the Manitoba Law Courts Building to protest the idea behind this sentence.

LELELELELELE
Judge Dewar: No Means No! Rally
Information about the Rally:

Who: Campus and Community Women’s Centres
What: Rally against Judge Robert Dewar’s rape case ruling
Where: Manitoba Law Courts Building
When: Noon, Friday, February 25, 2011
Why: Judge Dewar said: "inviting circumstances" and survivor’s attire make rapist less morally responsible for rape.

Everyone is more than welcome to bring your own signs with your own message but there will be signs available at the rally.

Please spread the word about this event to everyone you know. There is also an event created for the rally through this facebook group that can be shared.

In order to show your support please change your facebook profile to the no means no picture and change your facebook status to express your views on Judge Dewar's ruling.

ANARCHIST HISTORY:

RADICAL WOMEN OF THE IWW:

Here's a great little piece that Molly recently discovered at the website of the Irish Workers' Solidarity Movement.

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Radical Women of the IWW
Donal Fallon profiles some of the women who played a large part in the illustrious history of the Industrial Workers of the World.

Women have been at the forefront of the IWW since its inception. The IWW was the first union of its kind to attempt to organise prostitutes in major US cities. While the percentage of female representatives at their inaugural convention (around 12 in total) may seem quite small, the issue of gender equality was always at the front of the organisations agenda.The women profiled here are just three of the famous female faces among the wobblies of the past. There are many others whose names remain unknown.

During one strike, in Lawrence, Massachusetts, female strikers carried homemade placards proclaiming “we want bread and roses too!” committed to improving not just the conditions of the working class in the work place, but indeed the general living conditions of working class people. During the strikes in Lawrence, local media reported that more female strikers than males were arrested by the local police force! Their crimes included, according to the police, “intimidating strikebreakers."

There are countless other chapters to the history of women within the IWW, not least the Patterson Silk Strike of 1913 when around 25,000 striking silk workers managed to shut down 200 silk mills and dye houses in New Jersey for 5 months in 1913. The IWW’s attitude to the state is what sets it apart from many unions. Its bold mission statement stated that the working class and employing class held nothing in common, a philosophy it continued to work by through good times and bad. The women, and indeed men and children of the IWW are, I feel, best remembered in the lines of the classic IWW ballad Everett County Jail:
In the prison cell we sit
Are we broken hearted—nit.
We’re as happy and as cheerful as can be,
For we know that every Wob Will be busy on the job,
Till they swing the prison doors and set us free

Elisabeth Gurley Flynn

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn is one of the many women who stand out in the history of the Industrial Workers of the World. She was just seventeen when she shared the platform with a certain James Connolly, who she described as a “Short, rather stout, plain looking man, [...] a scholar and an excellent writer [whose] speech was marred for American audiences by his thick North of Ireland accent.” Connolly thought very highly of her too.
“She started out as a pure utopian, but now she laughs at her former theories. Had she stuck by her first set of opinions she would have continued a persona grata with the Socialist Party crowd,” Connolly wrote, “but her advocacy of straight revolutionary socialism and industrial unionism alienated them and now they hate her.”

Gurley Flynn once famously remarked, when responding to criticism of the IWW for using women as shields:
“The IWW has been accused of putting the women in the front, the truth is- the IWW does not keep them at the back- and they go to the front”

Lucy Parsons

Lucy Parsons was one of the founders of the IWW She had been involved in the foundation of the journal of IWPA in 1883. In a piece entitled ‘To Tramps, The Unemployed, the Disinherited, and Miserable,’ published in the IWPA journal, The Alarm, in 1884, she called on the poor and disenfranchised to:
“Avail yourselves of those little methods of warfare which Science has placed in the hands of the poor man, and you will become a power in this or any other land. Learn the use of explosives!”

In 1905, she displayed similar radicalism when speaking at the IWW’s foundation (a speech that was reputedly interrupted several times by loud applause).
“We, the women of this country, have no ballot even if we wished to use it, and the only way that we can be represented is to take a man to represent us. You men have made such a mess of it in representing us that we have not much confidence in asking you !We [women] are the slaves of slaves. We are exploited more ruthlessly than men. Whenever wages are to be reduced the capitalist class use women to reduce them, and if there is anything that you men should do in the future it is to organize the women.....”

A very powerful orator, said to be more dangerous than a ‘thousand rioters’ by the Chicago Police force, she quickly took to editing The Liberator, the newspaper of the IWW in the Chicago area. While class struggle was always to the front of her political agenda, she used the space this paper offered to push for, among other things, women’s right to access birth control and the legalisation of divorce. Interestingly, Parsons was highly critical of the idea of ‘free love’, and disagreed with attacks made on the traditional institutions of marriage and family by other anarchists, in particular by Emma Goldman. It is thought that Lucy Parsons married twice, firstly to Oliver Gathing, and later to Albert Parsons - a fascinating character, who had fought as a confederate soldier before becoming involved in union activism and gaining an interest in anarchism, leading to his eventual execution as one of the famous Haymarket martyrs.

Mother Jones

We can even find an Irish connection when we look at the historical role played by women in the early days of the wobblies. Mary Harris Jones, better known as Mother Jones and born in the rebel county of Cork. She was once described as “the most dangerous woman in America,” which must be up there with being “more dangerous than a thousand rioters”! She stated in her autobiography that her family had been involved in the ‘struggle against British rule’ in Ireland. Indeed her grandfather was hanged as a result of his activity in the nationalist movement. Mother Jones played a huge role in bringing the issue of Child Labour to the forefront of the political agenda, writing in her autobiography
“In the spring of 1903 I went to Kensington, Pennsylvania, where seventy-five thousand textile workers were on strike. Of this number at least ten thousand were little children.....“I called upon the millionaire manufactures to cease their moral murders, and I cried to the officials in the open windows opposite, “Some day the workers will take possession of your city hall, and when we do, no child will be sacrificed on the altar of profit.”

Mother Jones famously led a group of striking children on a march all the way to the front door of a certain Theodore Roosevelt. The march, from Pennsylvania to New York City, was designed to take the issue of child labour right to the Presidents doorstep. Around 100 children took part in the march, designed to show what she termed the “New York millionaires” the suffering of working class children. She led the children all the way to the Presidents Long Island home, and when they reached the home, she was informed by the president’s secretary that Teddy himself was “unavailable”. Still, the campaign had succeeded in drawing public attention to a shocking issue. In her own words:“We are told that every American boy has the chance of being president. I tell you that these little boys in the iron cages would sell their chance any day for good square meals and a chance to play. These little toilers whom I have taken from the mills --deformed, dwarfed in body and soul, with nothing but toil before them -have never heard that they have a chance, the chance of every American male citizen, to become the president.”

The children carried banners with slogans like “We want time to play!”, “We miss our parents” and “We want time to go to school” and demanded a new federal law prohibiting the exploitation of children in the work place. While they failed in this, it was clear Mother Jones was standing by her own life philosophy to “pray for the dead, and fight like hell for the living.”

FEMINISM:
WOMEN WON'T FORGET VIGIL:


Here's a reminder of the 14 women murdered at the École Polytechnique in Montréal in 1989. A vigil being held in Toronto for the victims.
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Women Won't Forget Candlelight Vigil
Time Monday, December 6 · 6:00pm - 9:00pm

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Location Philosophers Walk, U of T

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More Info
December 6th is the National Day of Action and Remembrance on Violence Against Women

We will gather at the memorial boulder in Philosopher's Walk to mourn the 14 women murdered because of their gender at l'Ecole Polytechnique in 1989. We vow not to forget these women and all women who live with violence, who have died due to violence, and those who have survived.

This year's speakers and musical performers...
...*Judy Rebick* is a writer and activist and fmr President of the
National Action Ctte on the Status of Women.

*Aruna Papp* is a survivor or forced marriage and domestic abuse.


*Kiran Mehdee* is a writer, performer, and a University of Toronto student, who is herself a survivor of childhood abuse, and dedicated to helping and empowering people who have suffered from and survived abuse of any kind.

*Neena Saloiya* is a visually impaired poet, U of T student and facilitator of women's support groups at COSTI.

*Samba Elegua*

Join Women Won't Forget as we remember and tell the stories of those women who can no longer speak for themselves. It is the job of those of us who go on living to speak for them and to change the world we live in.

Please Note:
You do not need to have lost a woman to violence to participate or gain meaning from the vigil. We do this to learn, to raise awareness of an incredibly important issue and to take a stand. People come to the vigil representing a voice that says "Violence against women, anywhere in the world, is NOT acceptable"

*Following the Vigil there will be a screening of the documentary "Dishonour Defied" presented by the Women and Gender Studies Student Union.

FOUND TREASURES:

THE ANARCHA LIBRARY:

The theme of this part of the blog is "found treasures on the internet", and our first item is the Anarcha Library, a relatively new online library of anarcha feminist writings. I have to admit that I haven't finished fully exploring this site, but what I have found so far impresses me. There are literally hundreds of items from across the world on a wide variety of themes from 'Ableism' (5 items) to 'Zine' (89 items). From what I read the two most prominent tags are 'sexism' (131 items) and 'queer' (95 items). A world of reading to explore. Here's a brief sample from an Croatian site.

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What is anarcha-feminism? (2007)
http://www.zamirnet.hr/anfema/fest/about_anarcha_feminism.php

Difficult question: That's why it's the best to start from the beginning. In the beginning of the story of anarcho feminism, anarchism and feminism were basically different expressions, although they were always a tight connection between them. (E.g. one of the oldest anarchist newspapers of the world "freedom", was founded by the woman and feminist Charlotte Wilson among others). In the end of the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century feminist and anarchist were very active and noticed, for example Mary Wollstonecraft, Lucy Parsons, Voltairine de Clayre and Emma Goldman, who made the connection between anarchism and feminism a very popular idea. Maybe they could even be called the pioneers of the fight for the freedom for women and by that for the society in general. In the 20th century the idea and the movement developed their ways of organising, especially independent groups. They are masked by decentralism, non-structure, non-dogmatism, refusing of one ideology or line and complete despise towards hierarchy as a structure inside the group but also inside the whole society.

Such a way organising & acting stayed until today. Why were the anarchist ideas always so important for the feminist movement?

Anarchism is fighting in its bases with every kind of authorities and their authoritarian systems, also against the authority of the man over the woman and against patriarchy. Authoritarian systems consider the family as a base for their existence. This is what children, and especially female children, in this kind of system learn, from the father to the leader, from the boss to god, is to OBEY. Feminism is fighting against those dogmas of the patriarchy that has always been there, against the systematical domination of the man over the woman within all the structures of the society, against the culture of rape and against all the stereotypes of the woman life as a saint, mother or whore, woman as a sexual object or as a passive individual.

Feminism is fighting for the equal rights of women and men, complete realisation of male and female potentials, and it's aiming to change the "man's world" towards a "world for all people", without caring about gender, age, race, sexual choice. Anarchism gives this opportunity to feminism. And this is the point where anarchism and feminism connect themselves to anarchafeminism. Anarchafeminism recognises patriarchy as the essential weapon of modern capitalistic and hierarchical society, which decides about human everyday life through institutions and family as one of the institutions. That is why I consider that anarchafeminism is a more complete solution than feminism alone, because it doesn't focus on changing situation for only women, but on changing for all people in society, like a total change in society. The problem of women as second (third?) citizens in society is not a separate problem but is part of the whole problematic society of non-equality and authority. And non-equality among people, same as among women and men will exist as long as the relation of superior and inferior is rolled out. The system that still holds this fetish of female inferiority does this because most of all it hates when its authority is touched, when it is provoked. That characterises for all authorities, regardless if it is authority of masters over their slaves or men over women. Anyway the people escape from their cages with big free steps.

Anarchafeminism is a challenge to this system for both women and men, but also a personal challenge in itself, after all the first necessary change is in oneself, and then around oneself. Human passion and need of freedom exists from the very beginning of human kind and the thing is not just in emancipation of women but in emancipation of society, all people. We don't want to be able to do the same as men we want all together to be able to do much more.

And when we succeed, Anarchafeminism will reach its goal. It'll be free to erase itself.

LOCAL EVENTS WINNIPEG:

TAKE BACK THE NIGHT 2010:





The annual Take Back The Night march will be held here in Winnipeg this coming September 30. Here's the particulars.
TBTNTBTNTBTN


Take Back the Night 2010
Time September 30 · 7:00pm - 9:00pm

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Location Magnus Eliason Recreation Centre
430 Langside Street
Winnipeg, MB

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More Info
Shine a Light: Take Back the Night

Take Back the Night is an annual march which takes place all over the world. It is a collective display of solidarity to reclaim the streets as safe for all, and calls for an end to violence against women.

This year we will "shine a light" on violence against women which takes place in the street, but also that which happens under the cover of darkness and behind closed doors.

Rally begins at 7:00 p.m. March to follow. Reception with refreshments after the march.

There will be drumming, and music provided by Little Hawk after the march.

Speaker TBA

All are welcome to attend the march.

Bring your noisemakers, drums, banners, placards and your voice!

**Take Back the Night 2010 in Winnipeg is a World March of Women 2010 event**

Please share widely and invite others!!

HUMOUR:

POINTS OF VIEW:

LOCAL EVENTS WINNIPEG:

WALK FOR THE SHELTERS:

Here's an interesting event beginning today in Winkler and ending on the 21st in Memorial Park here in Winnipeg...the 'Walk for the Shelters'. The cause is the support of shelters for battered women in Winkler and in Winnipeg, and you can see more about it at the walk's website.

Yes, I know, I know, I know. The purists out there amongst the anarchists will complain about any event that asks for more government money, and doubtless they are right in an abstract sense. Yet, this is one of many situations where the government actually doles out its funds to things that are useful, and there is little immediate prospect of funding coming from elsewhere. Aside from the absurdity of waiting for the revolution that will never come there are, of course, other solutions that could be applied in the intermediate to long term. One would be to expand the category of "tax credits" such that donations to certain things would be deductible from income tax.

This is certainly not an impossibility, merely something that would be difficult to get enacted in anything but the very long term. Especially when so much of the opposition to our conservative rulers are either just as statist as they are or are under the delusion that protest is all that has to be done. Yet it would go very far to making the operation of such worthy things as shelters for battered women independent of state control. It's an idea well worth considering.

Here's the story from the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) about their support for this walk.

MLMLMLMLML

CUPE Respect Campaign supports Walk for the Shelters
Text size
(What are these?) Aug 13, 2010 01:32 PM

WINNIPEG – CUPE’s Respect Campaign is honoured to support Steve Braun’s Walk for the Shelters as he walks from Winkler to Winnipeg to raise money for two women’s shelters, drawing attention to the fact that women’s shelters across Manitoba lack the funding necessary to provide adequate services to victims of domestic violence.

On August 17 at 9:00 a.m., Steve Braun will begin his 150 kilometre walk. Kathy Macdonald, president of CUPE Local 2343 and member mobilizer for the CUPE Respect Campaign, will be walking alongside Steve during part of his four-day journey which will conclude on August 21 at Memorial Park.

“I’m proud to walk alongside Steve in his quest to make people aware of just how under-funded our women’s shelters really are,” said Kathy Macdonald. “These shelters need adequate resources to provide women and children who are victims of domestic violence a safe alternative.”

CUPE Manitoba represents social services workers in women’s shelters across Manitoba. The goal of the Respect Campaign is to raise the profile of what CUPE members contribute to the people in their care and for their communities.

“In a perfect world, shelters would receive adequate funding from the provincial government and efforts like Steve’s would not be necessary,” said Kathy Macdonald. “Sadly that is not the case. I’m very impressed with the leadership Steve has shown on this issue.”

The funds raised by the Walk for the Shelters will go directly to address staff and resource shortages at the IKWE-WIDDJIITIWIN shelter in Winnipeg and Genesis House in Winkler.

For more information about the Walk for the Shelters or to make a donation, please visit the Walk for the Shelters website.

For more information, contact:

Liam Martin
Communications Representative
Tel: (204) 612-0901

Kathy Macdonald
Respect Campaign Member Mobilizer
Tel: (204) 942-0343, ext. 214

Sheree Capar & Allan Bleich
Social Service Coordinators
Tel: (204) 942-0343

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS IRAN:

STOP THE EXECUTION OF SAKINEH ASHTIANI:

In response to wide international protest the judiciary of Iran has relented and said that Sakineh Ashtiani will not be executed by "stoning". It is left open, however, whether she will be executed in another fashion for the "crime" of adultery. It should be noted that generally in Islamic jurisprudence it is almost impossible to prove adultery as it takes the eyewitness testimony of four male witnesses to the act. There is, however, an out as confessions are taken as equivalent evidence. Ashtiani's so-called "confession" was obtained by duress ie during the course of her whipping. That apparently can be done even if there is not the standard of proof required for the death penalty to be applied. She has later recanted her forced confession. Here's at item from the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) calling you to sign a petition demanding that Ashtiani not be executed by any method.

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Help save lives in Iran


People from across the world are organizing to save the life of Sakineh Ashtiani, the Iranian woman who faces death after having been tortured for alleged adultery.

Act now and join the hundreds of thousands of people demanding that the Iranian government halt Ashtiani’s execution.

Sign the international petition

In 2006 Ashtiani was convicted of having an illicit relationship and received 99 lashes. Since this time the 43-year old mother of two has been in jail where she recanted the confession she made under the duress of the lashing.

She was recently re-tried and again convicted. Her sentence: death by stoning.

Due to international pressure Iran’s government has indicated that she will not be executed by stoning, though her death sentence may still be carried out by some other method, likely hanging.

Even if Sakineh Ashanti is not executed she may still face a long prison term. Right now fifteen more people are on death row in Iran waiting stoning, in which victims are buried up to their necks in the ground and then large rocks are thrown at their heads.

Don’t let Sakineh Ashtiani become another victim of the debasing, inhuman treatment of women that has become the daily reality in Iran. Make your voice count and encourage others to do the same.

Take action against the practice of stoning; take action against abuse of women. Sign the petition at the link below. Encourage your friends and family to do so to.

By working together we can help make a difference by keeping up the international pressure on the Iranian government to stop this brutal violation of human rights.

Take action now

IWIWIWIWIW

THE LETTER:

Please go to this link to sign the following petition to the Iranian authorities.

IWIWIWIWIW
To Ayotollah Ali Khamenei and the leaders of Iran
We call on you to finally put an end to capital punishment by stoning and to reverse the unjust judgment in the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani.

WEIRD STUFF:

INSTANT SONS- JUST ADD MILK:

The following from the Care2 site is way off the beaten path. I mean it, way off the beaten path. I present it here as a cautionary example of why clerics of all persuasions should never be allowed even the slightest tiny morsel of political power. There are those amongst the religious right in North America who harbour schemes that are just as strange when viewed from the outside. Anyways, for all you connoisseurs of human irrationality here's the article.

WWWWWWWWWW

Saudi Clerics Advocate Breastfeeding Adult Men
posted by: Robin Marty 1 day ago


I haven't pulled any punches in the past discussing how bothered I am by the laws against women in Saudi Arabia. From ridiculous "guardianship" laws to burdensome rules on being in public with men, to arresting women who even have too much of a tan, it's no wonder the public is beginning to physically fight against the authority in the land.

Obviously, the religious authority knows it has a problem that must be dealt with. But is this really the answer?


Women in Saudi Arabia should give their breast milk to male colleagues and acquaintances in order to avoid breaking strict Islamic law forbidding mixing between the sexes, two powerful Saudi clerics have said. They are at odds, however, over precisely how the milk should be conveyed.

A fatwa issued recently about adult breast-feeding to establish "maternal relations" and preclude the possibility of sexual contact has resulted in a week's worth of newspaper headlines in Saudi Arabia. Some have found the debate so bizarre that they're calling for stricter regulations about how and when fatwas should be issued.

Sheikh Al Obeikan, an adviser to the royal court and consultant to the Ministry of Justice, set off a firestorm of controversy recently when he said on TV that women who come into regular contact with men who aren't related to them ought to give them their breast milk so they will be considered relatives.



One cleric claims simply pumping and having the men drink the milk is enough to create this familial bond. Another, however, does say that "men should suckle the breast milk directly from a woman's breast."

The logic behind the edict is an apparently common practice known as "breast milk siblings" where according to the article, if you provide 5 "fulfilling" breastmilk meals to a male child before the age of two, you and your female family members will not have to cover your faces in front of him later in life, something that is apparently common among nieces and nephews.

But, when translated into somehow trying to provide this connection to an adult, and use it as a loophole in order to allow women to be in the presence of men who are not blood relations, a lot of obvious problems jump to mind. The first, of course, is the assumption that every woman is lactating, when in fact the only candidates for this process would be married mothers with children under the age of two, the traditional cutoff point for breastfeeding in that country. Women aren't just wandering around with milk in their breasts all of the time, married or not, mothers or not. This would provide no outlet for any unmarried woman, who tend to suffer the most under these strict guardianship laws, nor for widows or the elderly.

The second problem is what is meant by "fulfilling" meals. A grown adult obviously would take much more to be "fulfilled" than an infant, or even a toddler, whose stomachs are smaller than an apple.

Third, even with this loophole available, clerics have decreed that it cannot be used with a driver. As women in Saudi Arabia are not allowed to have driver's licenses, no woman would be able to go anywhere outside walking distance without having a man drive her. If this breastfeeding loophole can't be used with someone who can drive them from place to place, they are still essentially trapped without a family member to accompany them, regardless.

Breastfeeding adult males in order to be allowed to be with someone of the opposite sex who is not a family member is no real solution to the issues of Sharia law. In fact, it actually exacerbates them, as it simply reinforces the idea that a woman sole purpose in existence is to extend and tend to the family unit. Women in the country deserve real freedom, not that which is only granted to them if they act as the "sustenance" of the family.

FEMINIST THEORY:

GOING DOWN THE WRONG ROAD:

The following article seems to be a "bouncer". According to what appears below it started off in The Guardian, went to Z Communications and finally ended up at Mostly Water here in Canada. The following text is from that site. To say the least this is a subject on which there is more heat than light. While being agnostic (but slightly "pro") what follows below, I think it is important to present such "dissenting" texts (in the sense of dissenting from 'received leftist "wisdom"). God knows there are other things where a critical light has to be shone, but this is one such dark corner. Here's the story.

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Enough Middle-Class Feminism
(Molly Note- while this may be a bad start to an article that I basically agree with I really don't like the use of the insult term "middle class". This term is more popular in Britain- where this article originated, but even in translation it is almost meaningless- except as a term of abuse. The anti-sex section of feminism has enough real quirks that could be better used as titles of insult than this one. I know that there is an attempt to inject class politics into the debate, but I think it could be done better than this. For those unaware of "Britishisms" the term "Middle Class' would translate over here as "bourgeois" with all the meaning or lack thereof that that implies. )
Metropolitan feminists, obsessed with the politics of strip clubs and lads' mags, are failing to see the wider picture

By Carrie Hamilton; March 26, 2010 - Znet
http://www.zcommunications.org/enough-middle-class-feminism-...

Source: The Guardian

BBC Four's recent three-part documentary Women was enough to make any seasoned feminist weep with despair. After sitting through the obligatory first installment on celebrity second-wavers, and cringing through the second week on post-feminist consumerist mothers, I looked forward to the finale. "Activists" promised to celebrate the resurgence of feminist activism in the contemporary UK. How disappointing, then, that this new feminism turned out to be nothing more than a small group of London-based women who have attracted media attention over the past couple of years with their single-issue campaigns on violence against women.

There is not a feminist on the planet who isn't outraged at sexual and domestic violence, as well as the overwhelming evidence of the complicity of governments, police forces and justice systems in perpetuating this violence and protecting its perpetrators. Violence against women is rightly a major focus of any feminist movement. But this serious problem cannot be understood, or challenged, in isolation from other forms of violence and oppression, such as racism, restrictive labor and migration laws, and poverty. Yet the groups featured in "Activists" – Object and the London Feminist Network – treat violence against women largely in isolation. They have lots to say about the media objectification of women but, bizarrely, little to say about consumerism or capitalism.

The favorite topics of these organizations seem to be lap-dance clubs, pornography, lads' ["men's"] magazines and the sex industry in general. This is part of a growing trend in middle-class feminism. Feminist writers and bloggers can't seem to get enough of prostitution and pornography these days. But these are not the most important issues for the majority of women. Why should a sex worker be a symbol of sexism any more than a competent professional woman denied promotion in favor of a younger male colleague? Or a teenage girl who doesn't get the education she deserves because her family are too poor to play the postcode lottery or pay tuition fees? Or a migrant woman whose children are locked in a detention centre?

The serious issues of violence against women, and sexist oppression generally, are grossly simplified when they are constantly associated with the sex industry. Feminist campaigns to eliminate sex work by claiming that it is the same as violence against women are not only bad for the sex workers they aim to protect. They're also bad for feminism.

The contemporary feminist focus on male violence against women is bad for feminism because it positions women primarily as victims, while giving power to male police and politicians to "protect" us from "bad men". It returns us to the tired old model of two opposing genders: man=masculine=aggressive v woman=feminine=passive. It offers no analysis of, and therefore no effective political opposition to, the ways violence against women relates to other forms of violence that women (and men) experience. But most of all, it's bad for feminism because it defines women's experiences of sex and sexuality exclusively in terms of fear and danger, and reserves for men the privileged terrains of desire and pleasure.

Anyone who's been around for the past 25 years will hear echoes in these debates of the feminist "sex wars" of the 1980s. What's most depressing about this sense of history repeating itself is that groups such as Object and LFN ignore the wealth of feminist theory on representation, desire and sexuality, as well as the scholarship on the intersections between sexism, racism and class produced over the past few decades. But the blame for this lack of theoretical reflection cannot be placed on activists alone. It must be shared by feminist academics, many of who have abandoned the wider public sphere of political debate and activism in recent years. That too is bad for feminism.

A return to feminist academic dialogue with activism might help us to understand why so many young women today are attracted to forms of feminism that emphasize male violence against women above other forms of sexism. ( Actually I don't think they are. I think that most feminism today has moved beyond the strident. Feminism now is a very broad thing and it is unwise to see it only as the public presentations of ideological groups which are often silly beyond belief.- Molly )Other people have noted that young feminist groups in the UK today are "predominantly white, middle-class and university-educated". Why are these privileged women so drawn to a movement that positions them first and foremost as victims of patriarchy?

Luckily there are lots of other feminists out there, from different generations and backgrounds, making links between violence against women and other oppressions. One group recently posted a Manifesto for 21st-Century Feminism that emphasizes women's exploitation in all areas of the labor market, not just the sex industry, and recognizes the sexualization of society as part of contemporary consumer capitalism. That's the kind of feminist resurgence we need.

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS:

A SHORT HISTORY OF INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY:

International Women's Day is drawing to a close, and I'd better do my duty and reprint (with editing) the comment that I have published for the last two years here at Molly's Blog. What follows is a short history of the day and its significance.

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HOLIDAYS (OR IT SHOULD BE)

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY:

Today, March 8, is celebrated as 'International Women's Day'. Way back when, on March 8 1908, 15,000 women marched through the streets of New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights. In 1910 the first international women's conference was held in Copenhagen, Denmark, under the aegis of the Second Socialist International. The German socialist Clara Zetkin was the originator of the proposal. No fixed date was set at this event. The conference called for the establishment of an international women's day. This had been preceded by a declaration of the Socialist Party of America in 1909 calling for such an event on the last Sunday of February.

The date of March 8 gradually became an accepted time because it commemorated an 1857 protest in NYC by garment workers who later went on to establish the first labour union in the USA two years later. (Molly Note-Since I first wrote these words there have been further entries at the Wikipedia site on this day, claiming that this 1857 demonstration never took place. I am unable to say whether this is true or not, but I urge the reader to consult the Wikipedia site for details on the controversy )March 8 was also the day when women in Europe held peace rallies in 1913 as the clouds of WW1 gathered. IWD also gathered force from the Commemoration of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire on March 25, 1911 when 140 garment workers were killed in a factory fire because the owners had locked the doors, barring any escape.

On the persuasion of Alexandra Kollontai IWD was declared a holiday in the USSR shortly after the Revolution. But.....this "holiday" remained a regular working day until May 8, 1965. Wags might remark that this is the usual stuff of communist pronouncements, with the name and the reality usually at significant variance. Nonetheless IWD remains an official holiday in many countries today. Most are members of the ex-Soviet bloc or other communist countries. By 1975, International Women's Year, the United nations began to sponsor the day. Today there is pressure in many countries to declare it an official holiday. In 2005, for instance, the British Trade Union Congress passed a resolution calling on the United Kingdom to issue such a declaration.

Nowadays celebrations are held across the world on this day. The global women's group Aurora hosts a semi-official list of events and resources. For an anarchist take on the day and its significance see THIS and THIS from the Anarkismo.Net news site. Also 'Feminism, Class and Anarchism' by Deidre Hogan (also available as a downloadable pdf).

INTERNATIONAL ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-BARCELONA:

ANARCHA-FEMINIST CONFERENCE:

This March 8 marks International Womens' Day and this year marks the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo, the anarcho-syndicalist CNT of Spain. It is thus quite appropriate that this weekend will signal the start of a month long anarcha-feminist conference in the heartland of international anarchism, Barcelona. The following is the announcement from the CNT Centennary Commission. The English language version below comes from the Anarkismo website.

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Barcelona: Anarcha-Feminist Conference
Martha Ackelsberg, Ana Sigüenza, Antonia Rodrigo, the Colectivo Juana Julia Guzmán from Colombia, Mujeres Libres... just some of the participants in this festival of feminism and anarchism organized by the CNT in Barcelona in March. [Castellano]

Barcelona: Anarcha-Feminist Conference

This year - 2010 - the CNT celebrates 100 years since it was founded, in a context very different from today's. For this reason, we want to analyze and reflect on the path that this class-struggle union has followed throughout its history and examine its role today. There is no doubt that the people who have been members of the CNT have mostly been women and men with a capacity for critical thought, sometimes well ahead of their time, and there have been times when the CNT has played a vital role, as in the social revolution of 1936. Today we ask ourselves how it sees itself as a union that fights against every form of authority, and especially against something as important as patriarchy which, along with capitalism, inhibits the freedom of many living beings and is destroying the planet.

So, this Feminist Conference arise from the need of various female members of the CNT to visualize the vital role that women play in the anarchist movement, to reflect on the connection between anarchism and feminism, to challenge traditional gender roles, female and male, on which patriarchy are based.

The Conference on Women and Anarchism will be an opportunity to get closer to the realities of female militancy. We intend to analyze, discuss and highlight the participation and organization of women who identify with libertarian principles without giving up their gender identity. We want to see the problems that affect us as women in the various areas where we operate: labour, educational, organizational, health, emotional, etc., and the problems arising from a patriarchal and capitalist society such as ours that affects us and our comrades, male and female alike.

To this end, we will try to deal with the subject on two levels: one level is our own situation as female workers and union activists in a class-struggle, revolutionary and libertarian union, covering the historical perspective and the needs that we see today. The second level is feminist women's participation in the various organizations that seek to contribute to social change. We are interested in highlighting these daily struggles, the projects that result from them, the difficulties that exist and the contradictions that we encounter. We also wish to work on these aspects by collecting multiple experiences from the past and others that are in progress today all over the world.

To try to cover these objectives, we have organized five topics:

1. Women, work and the union

2. A historical reference: the Mujeres Libres

3. Anarcho-feminism: organized women

4. Women in the press and propaganda of The Idea

5. Sexual diversity and anarchism.

Everyone is invited to participate in these reflections on our/your part so that we can try to get closer to achieving our/your utopian society.

Let our thoughts become action.
PROGRAM

- Saturday 6 March 11.00 a.m.

Women and Anarcho-syndicalism: with Ana Sigüenza (first Secretary General of the CNT) and Laura Vicente (Doctor of Contemporary History at the University of Alicante), author of "Teresa Claramunt. Pionera del feminismo obrerista anarquista".

Venue: Centre Cívic Drassanes - Sala d'Actes. C/Nou de la Rambla 43. ( L-3: Liceu, Drassanes ó Paralel).

- Sunday 7 March 5.00 p.m.

Workshop - Self-managing our health (women-only event - prior registration required: libertariascnt@hotmail.com )

Venue: Casa de la Solidaridad. C/Vistalegre, 15. ( L-2: Sant Antoni)

- Wednesday 10 March 7.00 p.m.

Cine forum: "Adrift (by casual women workers)" Authors: precarias a la deriva.

Venue: Espai Obert. C/Violant d'Hongria 71, 1º. ( L-5: Plaça de Sants i Badal; L-3: Plaça del Centre)

- Friday 12 Marzo 7.00 p.m.

Anarcho-feminist Theory & Practice, with La Katino Anarkista (member of the Red Anarcofeminista de Mujeres and creator of the publication "Alejandra") and Vanessa Ortíz, from the Juana Julia Guzmán collective (Bogota).

Venue: Fundació d'Estudis Llibertaris i Anarcosindicalistes - FELLA. C/Joaquin Costa 34. ( L-3: Catalunya ó L-1 i L-2 Universitat).

- Saturday 13 March 5.00 p.m.

Anarchist women propagandizing The Idea, with María Ángeles García Maroto, anarcho-feminist journalist and writer, member of the Alcoi SOV, and Antonina Rodrigo, writer, author of the book "Amparo Poch y Gascón, médica y anarquista".

Presentation of feminist publications. RAG (Ireland), Herstory (Barcelona), Histeria (Barcelona), Mujeres Preokupando 8 (Barcelona) and others...

Venue: Centre Cívic Pati Llimona. C/Regomir 3. ( L-3: Liceu ó L-4 Jaume I).

- Sunday 14 March 5.00 p.m.

Feminist self-defence workshop. Organized by a Barcelona self-defence group (women-only event - prior registration required: libertariascnt@hotmail.com ).

Venue: Casa de la Solidaridad. C/Vistalegre, 15. ( L-2: Sant Antoni)

- Friday 19 March 7.00 p.m.

Animal liberation, liberation of the land and liberation of women. Natalia, Maria, Isabella and Clara.

Venue: Espai Obert. C/Violant d'Hongria 71, 1º. ( L-5: Plaça de Sants i Badal; L-3: Plaça del Centre)

- Saturday 20 March 5.00 p.m.

Mujeres Libres, yesterday and today, with Martha Ackelsberg, professor of Political Science and Women's & Gender Studies at Smith College, Northampton, MA (USA) and author of "Free Women of Spain: Anarchism and the Struggle for the Emancipation of Women", together with comrades from the Mujeres Libres in Extremadura and Madrid.

Venue: CCCB – Aula 2. C/ Montalegre, 5 ( L-3: Catalunya ó L-1 i L-2 Universitat).

- Friday 26 March 7.00 a.m.

Gender, race and class. Carla.

Venue: Espai Obert. C/Violant d'Hongria 71, 1º. ( L-5: Plaça de Sants i Badal; L-3: Plaça del Centre)

- Saturday 27 March 11.00 a.m.

Sexual Diversity and anarchism: debate organized by D-género, a pro-sexual liberation libertarian collective from Madrid, Karolina, Filipo Brenda and Maricarmen.

Venue: Centre Cívic Barceloneta. C/Conreria 1 – 9. ( L-4: Barceloneta).

* Workshops are for women only. Prior registration is required - write to: libertariascnt@hotmail.com . Dates for the workshops are subject to change, and in this case participants will be advised by email. Further workshops may be organized if the maximum number of participants is exceeded.

Organized by:
Comisión del CeNTenario (Barcelona)

English translation by FdCA-International Relations Office
Related Link: http://www.cnt.es/centenario

LOCAL EVENTS-WINNIPEG:

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY MARCH:

International Women's Day is, of course, on March 8th, but because this falls on a Monday many locations are holding their events during the weekend before. Here in Winnipeg the traditional march will be held on Sunday, March 7. It will be followed by a "feminist fair". Here's the details from the Facebook site for the event. Molly does not necessarily endorse all of the following demands of the committee.

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International Women's Day March 2010

breakout! no one's free until we're all free!
Date:
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Time:
1:00pm - 4:30pm
Location:
Meet at the Legislative Building / End at the MERC,
Street:
450 Broadway / 430 Langside
City/Town:
Winnipeg, MB
View Map
Description
Winnipeg's International Women's Week Committee invites you to attend this year’s International Women’s Day March and Feminist Fair!

The march will be held on March 7th. We will gather together at the legislature at 1:00 pm and march to Magnus Eliason Recreation Centre at 430 Langside Street. Once at MERC we will celebrate with a Feminist Fair!

2:30 - 4:30 Feminist Fair at Magnus Eliason Recreation Centre at 430 Langside Street.

Winnipeg's International Women's Week Committee is a coalition of individuals, collectives and organizations committed to creating a vibrant week of events for Winnipeg during International Women's Week.

Bring your tools to break free!...

a giant key, a cardboard crowbar, a flying machine! Endless possibilities!

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Women on the March

Until We Are All Free!

Winnipeg Demands for 2010

Starting in March 2010, the women's movement and its allies will take to the streets in Manitoba and across Canada to defend demands to combat poverty and violence against women. The marches come in response to the call of the World March of Women, which, for the third time, is calling on women around the world to take action between March 8 and October 17, 2010, under the theme of "Women on the March Until We Are All Free!" and in Winnipeg, “No one’s Free Until We’re All free!”

In accordance with the Women's Global Charter for Humanity, we are striving, not only for equality for women, but also, for a world of peace, justice, freedom and solidarity for all. We are calling for a large-scale march, and to make it happen, the Winnipeg's International Women's Week Committee has adopted demands reflecting a broad vision of the issues affecting women and society in general. The demands are addressed to the local and federal governments and are grouped into five action areas, as follows.

Women and Work: Women's Economic Autonomy

Urgent Anti-Poverty Measures

We demand that the minimum wage be increased to $10.66 per hour so that minimum wage workers who work 40 hours per week can earn an annual income equivalent to the low-income cut-off before taxes established by Statistics Canada for single persons.

We demand the abolition of the social assistance categories ("capable" and "incapable" of working) to combat prejudice and guarantee all people a minimum income that covers their essential needs and ensures their personal dignity. This amount should be automatically indexed every year.

We demand that the Canadian Government reinstate Pay Equity. The right to equal pay for equal work is not a bargaining matter.

We demand the establishment of free, localized, culturally and linguistically sensitive training centres for women to attain skills and knowledge in order to attain higher paying jobs.

Common Good and Access to Resources

We demand an end to the privatization of public services and the common good (water, telephone, energy, transit, education, health) and we oppose any rate increases for these services.

We demand access to clean water, adequate and affordable housing. We demand that the Government of Canada provide and pay for drinkable water and sanitization in First Nations communities; provide and pay for housing that is safe and meets the need of the First Nations communities.

We demand that the Canadian government establish a national childcare program, on and off reserve, where quality childcare is accessible and affordable for all parents.

Violence Against Women as a Tool to Control Women's Bodies

We demand that Crimestat and Winnipeg Police Services restore the original definition of sexual assault that includes those assaults perpetrated by someone known to the victim. We believe that finding holistic and effective solutions to domestic and sexual abuse begins with being given accurate information.

We demand that the Manitoban and Canadian government implement practical measures for preventing and combating violence against women, particularly the hypersexualization and commodification of women's bodies, starting with:

- Legislation on advertising practices;

- Sex education courses with an egalitarian and non-sexist approach.

We demand that the Canadian government guarantee women's inalienable right to choose whether to have children, which means the maintenance and consolidation of free and accessible abortion services provided by public and community networks and the development of new public services in inadequately covered areas.

We demand that all levels of government provide adequate funding for women’s organizations, shelters and programs that work in the field of Violence Against Women including those on-reserve in First Nations communities, specifically:

- Temporary housing

- Transition housing

- Training opportunities

- Culturally, linguistically and ethnically appropriate supports and services for women escaping violent and exploitative relationships

We demand the decriminalization of sex work in Canada. We know that sex work is NOT inherently violent or exploitative. However, sex workers are being raped and many have been killed. Because sex workers are criminalized by the systems that protect other Canadians, they are denied access to legal recourse that would deter clients, pimps and police from continuing this violence against them.

Peace and Demilitarization

We demand that the Manitoban government prohibit military recruitment in all Manitoban educational institutions.

We demand that the Canadian government immediately withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.

Rights of Aboriginal Women

We demand that Canada sign the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and guarantee the rights referred to therein, with particular attention paid to the rights of Aboriginal women and children.

We demand that the government of Manitoba standardize K-grade 12 education on-reserve, off-reserve, for rural and urban Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students.

We demand that the Manitoba Integrated Taskforce for Missing and Murdered Women respond promptly, effectively, accountably and with transparency to the unsolved cases of homicide involving women and missing-persons files involving women.

We demand that the Canadian Government fully fund the Sisters in Spirit initiative through the Native Women’s Association of Canada. First Nations women must be the leaders in resolving the national shame of missing and murdered Aboriginal women. They are our experts.

LOCAL NEWS MANITOBA:

FIRST NATIONS PROTEST MISSING WOMEN DURING TORCH RUN:

Well, it looks like the province of Manitoba will let the Olympic Torch run pass with very little in the way of protest. On its first pass through the city of Winnipeg little happened in the way of 'anti-Olympics' besides the appearance of what is apparently a "travelling PETA" protest that follows the torch run from city to city. I hardly want to even begin discussing those people. The Winnipeg Sun reported that there were "a small group of other protesters" but that nobody was able to ascertain what they were protesting.

The only place where any significant protest took place was in eastern Manitoba when the torch first entered the province. The protest by a number of native activists was not about the matter of unceded native lands on the west coast and the seemingly eternal wrangling about land claims in Canada. It was, however, about an issue equally as important, the hundreds of native women who have disappeared over the years in Canada, presumed victims of fatal violence. If the reader wishes to follow this issue more closely I can suggest the website of the Native Women's Association of Canada. Each year, on October 4, the NWAC holds the 'Sisters in Spirit' vigils in numerous communities across the country to remember this missing and murdered women. Last year the event was held in 72 different Canadian centres.

The demonstration in the east of the province got little publicity. Here is one item from the CTV Olympic coverage that gives an idea of what happened.

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Murdered and missing women a ‘national disgrace’:
The Globe and Mail
By Susan Krashinsky

RURAL MUNICIPALITY OF REYNOLDS, MAN. - The Olympic torch trucks whizzed along the Trans-Canada Highway into Manitoba yesterday, but as they crossed over the Whitemouth River and flew past a remote junction, a slower and more sombre procession took place.

Horses. Seven of them, carrying leaders from native communities as nearby as Roseau River and as far away as the Canupawakpa Dakota Nation near the Saskatchewan border. Those who didn't ride walked along the shoulder. They came to this stretch almost 100 kilometres southeast of Winnipeg, in cars and vans and buses, to draw attention to the plight of missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada.

The demonstration was peaceful, and did not disrupt the torch's progress.

Allan Courchene, the principal of the high school at the Sagkeeng First Nation brought a gaggle of teens on the 90-minute trip in the early morning. "I brought our students to support the cause of our females that have gone missing," he said, adding that such cases need to be investigated with more urgency.

"We are not protesting the athletes," said Chief Terrance Nelson of the Roseau River Anishinabe First Nation. He organized the demonstration. "We welcome them. But we want to remind people ... what's happening to our people."

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN:

THE MONTRÉAL MASSACRE- 20 YEARS AFTER:

It was 20 years ago that Marc Lepine went on a rampage at the École Polytechnique in Montréal. Blaming "feminists" for his failures in life he entered that engineering school armed with a semi-automatic rifle and a hunting knife. In the end 14 people, all women, were dead and 14 others, ten of them women, were injured. Lepine ended by killing himself. The full details of the incident can be read at a Wikipedia article on the subject.

Since that day November 6 has become an officially recognized 'National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women'. Here in Winnipeg two events were held today, one a showing of the film 'Polytechnique' at the University of Winnipeg and the other a candlelight vigil in front of the office of Conservative MP Shelley Glover. Tomorrow there will be a candlelight march beginning at 7:30 am (!!!) from the Union Centre at 275 Broadway to the Legislature down the road. A memorial service will follow. Here are several statements on the import of this day. First, from the Canadian Labour Congress.

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National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women December 6, 2009:
Posted: Friday, 27 November 2009
On December 6th, we mourn the 14 women killed in Montreal in 1989. On this day we remember all women who are murdered or experience violence by partners, family members and strangers throughout this country. On this day we recommit to take action against all forms of violence against women in our society.

This December 6th will mark 20 years since those 14 young women were murdered in Montreal simply because they were women. Ironically, as this anniversary approaches, our government is trying to do away with the firearms registry, the one concrete measure taken to reduce gun violence against women.

We recognize that ending this violence will only be possible when all women in Canada live in economic and social equality. We know that fighting violence requires governments to pursue an integrated legal, social and economic agenda.

For twenty years, women have been waiting for action. Twenty years is too long. On this anniversary of the December 6th murders, Canadians can take action to demand a serious government commitment to ending violence against women.

The Canadian Labour Congress has developed a campaign asking Canadians to send 20 postcard messages to the federal government. The campaign is called “20 Days 20 Ways to End Violence Against Women”.

Beginning on November 16th, Canadians can send a postcard every day to the Prime Minister to remind him that we need action now.

The CLC’s 20 Days 20 Ways campaign recognizes that a law and order agenda will never end violence against women. Women need a series of comprehensive social and economic policies including:
*maintaining the long gun registry, which has reduced gun-related spousal homicides by 50% since it was started.
*access to affordable, safe housing;
*a living minimum wage;
*effective pay equity laws;
*a national publicly-funded child care programme;
*equal access to Employment Insurance;
*access to justice, including the resources to challenge discriminatory government action and legal aid;
*increased governmental support for women’s centres, rape crisis centres and women’s shelters;
*legal protection and support for women who report sexual assault.

Rather than promoting women’s equality, the federal government is severely limiting women’s capacity to organize, advocate and lobby. They won’t support women’s equality in the workplace and have limited women’s rights to challenge discrimination before the courts.

Canadians cannot accept an erosion of our hard-won and still fragile equality rights. We will not be silenced by the socially conservative government agenda.

We call on the federal government to reverse its policy decisions on childcare, pay equity, the gun registry, the Court Challenges Program and Status of Women Canada. We call on the government to drop its law and order agenda and instead, develop an effective women’s equality agenda.

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Also, from the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)

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20 years later, remember and take action:
December 4, 2009 01:11 PM
This December 6 marks the 20th year that we remember and mourn the 14 women who were shot and killed at Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal in 1989.

While December 6 is a day of remembrance, it has also become a national day of action to address the many outstanding issues that continue to threaten the safety and security of women.

CUPE is participating in the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) December 6 postcard campaign, which outlines 20 different measures that the federal government can take to improve the safety and security of women.

At our recent national convention, the National Women’s Committee highlighted the issue of violence against women by encouraging delegates to participate in The Handkerchief Project to end violence against women and girls.

The money raised was matched by CUPE National and a donation was sent to the Sisters in Spirit, an organization addressing violence against Aboriginal women - in particular the high rates of missing and murdered Aboriginal women in Canada.

In recognition of the 20th anniversary of the tragic events of December 6, CUPE has updated its poster “Until all Women are Free to Be”, available from the Equality Branch.

There are ceremonies across the country honouring the memory of those women who died on December 6. We encourage CUPE locals and members to participate in these events in your communities.

CUPE will continue to do whatever is necessary to ensure that women have economic and social security so that they truly can be safe at home, at work, and in our communities

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And from the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW)

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December 6 — National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women:
04/12/2009
Downloadthe 2010 National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women in Canada poster

December 6, is the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women – still one of the most important days of commemoration on our calendar. It marks the sombre anniversary of the day in 1989 when a disturbed young man used a rifle to murder 14 women at a Montreal engineering school – singling them out simply for being women.

Most of us remember vividly learning the grim details of the Montreal massacre as the news emerged. Such a calami­tous event, it was fair to think, would certainly result in posi­tive changes for women in the future. And there have been changes for the better – the general awareness of issues involving violence against women has definitely grown.

But, 20 years from the Montreal tragedy, are we really farther ahead? Aware­ness and education are vital factors, but women are still victims of violence with alarming regularity. And today our federal government continues to procrastinate and even move backwards on legislation and policies that affect women’s safety and well-being.

At a time when vision and action are needed, the Harper Conservative government is sadly lacking. Programs that would help women are being cut or ignored rather than growing or being enhanced. The 20th anniversary of the events in Montreal must be a wake-up call to our leaders to take action for positive change for women in Canada.
In solidarity,
Wayne Hanley
National President

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Many other statements could be appended, and I am sure that they would all express noble and lofty sentiments. There is a problem here, however. Most of these statements express the sentiment that the government must do something. Such opinions are, of course, common in any statist society where it is seeming "common sense" that for anything to be done effectively it has to be done by government. It is, however, sad to see this way of thinking expressed by labour groups who should know better than others that government action tails effective action by those most concerned rather than initiates it. At best government action makes achieving a certain goal that many people are already working towards a little bit easier. It never initiates such action, and it quite often derails and prevents such civil society action from achieving the fullest expression of its goals.

That doesn't mean that such legislation should be opposed, though I think the long gun registry is one piece of repressive legislation that should be abolished. It can, after all, have minor benefits. In relation to the subject of women and their advancement one should ask the old chicken and egg question. How many of the gains that women have made over the past decades were due to government action ? How much of such legislation was merely a response to formalize gains that were already well under way by the "molecular action" of society outside the state ? How much does a focus on government detract from a focus of what people, women included and especially, have to do themselves ? Questions to ponder now that the day of remembrance and (entirely) symbolic action is over.