[Montreal] Women of Diverse Origins -- Reclaiming the Roots of Feminist Resistance

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Public Forum
Saturday March 10th 9am - 6pm, lunch provided
University of Montréal,
3200 Jean Brillant, 2nd floor
(Metro Côte-des-Neiges / U de Montréal)

Suggested contribution: $5 (no-one turned away) Childcare available

On March 10th 2007, for the sixth year in a row, the March 8th Coordination and Action Committee of Women of Diverse Origins will be hosting a public forum to celebrate International Women's Day. Our theme, "Reclaiming the Roots of Feminist Resistance: remembering the past, looking to the future" addresses the rising tide of anti-feminist sentiment, here and around the world. There is an assumption that gender equality has been achieved. The lives of First Nations, refugees and immigrants, workers squeezed by globalizing economies, victims of police brutality, human rights violations and of violence against women and children, reveal a different picture. We urgently need to remember and draw lessons from feminist struggles, past and present, which have demonstrated the interconnectedness between gender, social and economic inequalities.

The assumption that gender equality has been achieved in the West, that it is women from 'other' cultures or countries, who need protection, (as with the recent declaration of Herouxville), is false, racist and patronizing.These presumptions obscure the reality that patriarchy is alive and well here; that imperialist violence by our governments, coupled with economic globalization, destroys the lives of women and their families in many other parts of the world. In Canada, the federal government's cutbacks to the Status of Women, the Court Challenges Program, and the Québec government's proposed policy changes requiring organizations that work with immigrants violate confidentiality, will prevent the most vulnerable, often women, from accessing rights.

On 10th March, Coni Ledesma of the Philippines, Hazel Hill of Six Nations, Shahrzad Mojab who works on gender and NGOs, Magali X Djehuty-Thot, Haitian Montrealer activist and Martin Dufresne of Montréal Men Against Sexism, along with many others, will address these issues and make the connections between Kathmandu, Kandahar, Caledonia,Haiti, Latin America and Montreal. Local organizations will present information and displays.

Saturday March 10th 9am - 6pm, lunch provided
University of Montréal,
3200 Jean Brillant, 2nd floor
(Metro Côte-des-Neiges / U de Montréal)

Suggested contribution: $5 (no-one turned away) Childcare available

Reclaim feminism, celebrate resistance on 10th March!

Additional info:

Tess Tesalona tess4a@yahoo.com