Workers' Liberty

Debate and discussion
All men and women welcome
reading and more info: socialist.feminist@gmail.com

Women and imperialism

The need to liberate women has often been used by the big powers to justify wars of conquest and other imperialist adventures. Has resistance to imperialism brought freedom for women? How can we oppose imperialism, war, national oppression, racism and chauvinism without resorting to cultural relativism or failing to oppose oppression?

Reading to download here: Background article (important text for the general debate from 1980s) Challenging Imperial Feminism by Valerie Amos and Pratibha Parmar
Contemporary "opinion" on women in Afghanistan

More on request: email: socialist.feminist@gmail.com

Feminist Fightback will be organising leafleting in Clapham junction, in South London, followed by a protest outside the Battersea Labour Party office. Both actions raise a broad series of pro-choice demands, relating not only to abortion rights, but to sex education, childcare, the NHS and the welfare state.

The aim of the leafleting is to raise public awareness of the issues involved; the aim of the protest is to put pressure on local MPs Martin Linton (Battersea), Kate Hoey (Vauxhall) and Sadiq Khan (Tooting), all of whom are known to be wavering on a likely amendment to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill - to be debated in May - reducing the time limit for access to abortion. We want the labour movement to stand up for women's liberation; if these MPs claim to be part of the labour movement, they should prove it by their actions. (Local Labour Party and trade union members will be particularly welcome on the protest.)

Meet 1pm, outside the front of Clapham Junction station (five-ten minutes from both Waterloo and Victoria)
Meet 2.15pm, outside Battersea Labour Party office, 177 Lavender Hill, London SW11 5LW (for a map see here)

From the Organisation of Women’s Freedom in Iraq

A conference will be held in London on 12 April 2008 - in addition to events in the US, Canada, Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark.

5-9pm, Saturday 12 April 2008
Room 3D, University of London Union (ULU)
Malet Street London WC1E 7HY. Closest Tube Russell Square, Euston or Goodge Street

Speakers:
Dr Sandra Phelps: Head of Sociology Department, Kurdistan University
Houzan Mahmoud: representative of Organisation Women’s Freedom in Iraq
Heather Harvey: head of women’s campaign, Amnesty International in the UK
Maryam Namazie: Spokesperson of Equal Rights Now; Organisation against Women's Discrimination in Iran
Maria Hagberg: Co-founder of Network against Honour Killings in Sweden
Azar Majedi: Chair of the Organisation for Women’s Liberation in Iran

Chair: Maria Exall, Communication Workers' Union National Executive

For more information please contact Houzan Mahmoud: + 44 7534 264 481 or email houzan2007@yahoo.com

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NO MORE STONING, NO MORE HONOUR KILLINGS. END THE TERROR AGAINST WOMEN!!

A statement on the anniversary of Du’a Khalil’s gruesome stoning

April 7 2008

It has been almost a year since teenage girl Du’a Khalil was stoned to death by a baying mob in Iraqi Kurdistan. The 17 year-olds’ “crime” was to have fallen in love with a boy outside the Yazidi tribe and religion. Betrayed by her family, she was dragged to a summary execution in the centre of Bashiqa city where a 2,000-strong mob, including her relatives, cheered as they hurled rocks.

When footages of the barbaric killing were broadcast people around the world were shocked. Yet a year later the situation is even more dangerous for the women and girls of Iraq.

Thousands more, from Basra to Baghdad and through to Kurdistan, have become victims of murder, violence and rape – all backed by laws, tribal customs and religious rules. Each day there are reports of women or girls being murdered by their relatives in the name of “honour”. More than ever they are subject to daily humiliations, are being forced into marriages – sometimes as children, are suffering female genital mutilation and are being driven to suicide.

In Basra just removing a veil can cost a woman her life. Iraqi police report at least 15 women are murdered every month for breaching Islamic dress code.

Meanwhile, sharia law is being used to underpin government rule, denying women their most basic human rights. Du’a was a victim of religious bigotry. According to the Yazidi faith she was only allowed to marry within her own religion and tribe. When it emerged that the boy she’d been dating wasn’t a Yazidi it spelled her death.

But despite extensive evidence, including the boasts of many involved in her stoning, Du’a’s killers have not been brought to justice. Police were among the crowd at her stoning and there have been accusations of the law turning a blind-eye. In a society where men are encouraged to claim ownership of women, crimes like this are becoming the norm.

This brutality must stop.

This can only be achieved through your support in a struggle for unconditional equality and freedom for these women and girls.

Religion is a personal choice and should never be allowed to override our rights and liberties. We must stand up against those who want to subjugate our lives, education and political choices to their religious bigotries.

We will not budge, we will continue to mobilise public opinion against the murder of women and girls in the name of “honour”. We will struggle for the creation of a movement to separate religion from the state and its laws, and for women’s rights.

The horrific crime of honour killings and the stoning of women is a crime we must all denounce. It must be consigned to the past.

Houzan Mahmoud
Representative abroad of the Organisation of Women’s Freedom in Iraq

Discussing ideas and planning action for a woman’s right to choose 12 April, 12-5pm, Clement House Building, London School of Economics, Holborn (Holborn tube)

rebecca.galbraith@yahoo.co.uk

12pm
Registration

12.30pm
Opening speech by Sofie Buckland (NUS National Executive)

1-2.15pm
a) Imperialism and Motherhood
Speaker: Anna Davin (founding editor of History Workshop Journal)
Facilitator: Gwyneth Lonergan
b) From Abortion Rights to Reproductive Freedoms
A panel discussion with Charlotte Gage (Abortion Rights), Cathy Nugent (Workers’ Liberty), Rosie Woods (NHS worker)
Facilitator: Anna Longman

2.20-3.35pm
a) Getting your message across
Jill Mountford (former organiser of the Welfare State Network) and James House (TV documentaries producer)
Workshop facilitator: Rachael Ferguson
b) How to campaign
Workshop Facilitator: Anne-Marie O’Reilly (trade union organiser)

3.45-5pm
Planning for a National Day of Action
Facilitators: Laura Schwartz and Rebecca Galbraith

* Food: cheap vegetarian food will be served from 12 noon
* Free creche: Please register with rebecca.galbraith@yahoo.co.uk for a free creche place
* Social with X-talk: 7pm @ The Ivy House, Southampton Row, Holborn
* The teach-in is free to attend but a suggested donation of £1.50 unwaged and £3+ waged is encouraged.

Feminist Fightback is holding an International Women's Day social to raise funds for student activists fighting repression in order to struggle for women's liberation, democracy and social revolution in Iran.

Bands to be confirmed.