Public Forum: Stop the War on Women: Why government's are not doing enough

Forum: Stop the War on Women: Why governments are not doing enough

Tuesday 25 June, 6:30pm (dinner from 6pm)

Resistance Centre & Bookshop, Level 5, 407 Swanston Street, Melbourne.

Entry by donation

The anger from tens of thousands of people on the streets, demanding serious government action on men’s violence against women, was loud and clear during the 'No More: National Rallies Against Violence' on April 27–28.

In the most extreme cost-of-living crisis in 100 years, rates of homelessness are growing and the average salary is not enough to afford basic housing, utilities, food and medicines. The shortage of affordable housing and the enforced privatisation of public utilities, as part of the government's neo-liberal program, impacts women in particular. As public housing is being dismantled and privatised, it's ultimately women that bear the brunt of these attacks, pushing the gains of women back further and further.

Every day, women and children are turned away from emergency services. Family violence is one of the key reasons women and children become homeless.

Despite gains in advanced capitalist countries in the second wave of the feminist movement, women are still treated as second-class status under the patriarchal capitalist system where women still do the majority of unpaid labor, both in the home and workplace. Although governments give superficial recognition of the seriousness of violence against women, this is nothing more than rhetoric when these same governments refuse to adequately fund the sorts of things that would seriously help tackle this epidemic of violence against women.

So how do we make progress towards an Australia in which there is full economic, social and political equality for women?

Join this public forum to discuss the struggle for equality, including eliminating violence against women, why the government is not doing enough and some of our immediate demands.