The chant “Solidarity for women worldwide” filled the air on October 17 as more than ten thousand women (and some men) demonstrated outside the United Nations in New York City. Their goal? To end poverty and violence against women. Demonstrators from more than a hundred countries hit the streets, armed with signatures of support from some 5 million women in 159 countries and territories who supported 17 policy demands.
Eliminating developing countries’ debt and establishing women’s rights as human rights were the two main demands at this event, dubbed the World March of Women. In an historic first, on the day before the U.N. march, an international delegation of 50 women presented the demands to the heads of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, two stalwarts of the global financial system.
Women around the world began mobilizing for the march last year on International Women’s Day (March 8), when the project was launched by the Federation of the Women of Quebec (FFQ). Francophones dominated the scene in the fall as the FFQ’s sisters–from Africa, Canada, and Europe—showed up in droves, challenging the prevalence of the English language at global women’s gatherings in New York.
Add your support at ffq.qc.ca/marche2000.
