Kerryn Williams
A century ago, women marched for the right to vote — and won (with the exception of Indigenous women, who could not vote until 1967). Almost half a century ago, women marched to demand equal pay for equal work — and won (at least formally). Green Left Weekly asked a range of women activists what they will be marching for when they mark International Women's Day (IWD) for 2004.
Lyn Symes, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family violence worker at the Wollongong Women's Centre, said she will be marching on International Women's Day for "social change, particularly around justice and equity issues".
The occupation of Iraq is a major issue motivating many women to take action. Marisol Salinas from the Chilean Popular and Indigenous Network told GLW: "Our government is engaging in state terrorism, showing total disrespect for human rights and the right of sovereignty of Iraq."
Fidan Yildirim, Kurdish feminist and member of the Melbourne IWD collective, said that, "even though we are in 2004, women are still facing oppression on a daily basis. Refugees in Australia are being herded into concentration camps, while women in Iraq are subjected to a murderous and criminal occupation."
South Australian Senate candidate for the Greens Mij Tanith also has global concerns: "I'll be marching for the rights of women all over the world to live in safety. For this to happen, there has to be an end to warfare, an end to the exploitation of farmers, coffee growers and factory workers in all developing countries.
"I'll be marching for the growth of fair trade practices right across the world, because, with the growth of free trade, the living standards of the majority of people are falling and it is the women who are suffering most."
The situation facing women within this country also motivates many activists to take part. Salinas told GLW: "Women in Australia might have won formal rights, however our struggle for real liberation is far from over."
Louise Walker, Socialist Alliance member and vice-president for general staff in the National Tertiary Education Union's Melbourne University branch, said she'll be marching for "decent maternity leave and universal childcare availability. Unions have started to fight on the former, but there's no proper campaign around the latter. There absolutely has to be. These are really big, important issues for women today. It's a disgrace that Australia has such poor provisions in these areas."
Freda Botica, a women's resource worker at the Wollongong Women's Centre, will march "in respect of past strong women who faced severe opposition, derision, denouncement, victimisation and verbal and physical brutality so that I could vote, be educated and be paid a fair wage".
"Our young women face less work opportunities than I did as a young woman... We see our hospitals starved of funds, our state schools forced into offering substandard opportunities", Botica added. "Women are being forced to endure conditions that are unacceptable in the year 2004."
One thing that Melbourne Resistance activist Zoe Kenny will be marching for is free education. "Young women are very angry about the government's changes to higher education, which are going to make it much harder for everyone, but especially women, to pay off their degrees."
Botica called for other women to "stand up and be counted" and "not allow ourselves to become token voices, belching out rhetoric [but] doing little".
Kenny agreed: "As well as marching on IWD, we need to join others in action to have an impact on these issues — to defend public education, fight for decent child care, end the occupation of Iraq, and end the mandatory detention of refugees."
From Green Left Weekly, March 3, 2004.
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