NOV
2015 Friday 20TH posted by Morning Star in FeaturesBetween panels that regularly provoked tears, belly-laughs, chants and standing ovations from the audience, hundreds of buzzing chats took place. Becka Seglow-Hudson reports Had you walked past the cafes of Hampstead in north London this past weekend you might have noticed people chatting outside the former town hall. You may even have heard some whoops, applause or chants escaping from the building. But you could be forgiven for thinking nothing remarkable was going on. If you had stepped inside, however, as my mother and I did, you would have seen a room teeming with experience of the world’s injustices and of the defiance, strategies and hope tackling them. Between panels that regularly provoked tears, belly-laughs, chants and standing ovations from the audience, hundreds of buzzing chats took place. Scottish kinship carers sipped tea with a Haitian head teacher, the founder of a Norwegian immigrant and refugee centre applauded the president of Britain’s bakers’ union, an Indian campaigner against bonded labour shared samosas with a Greek anti-militarist, anti-rape feminists from Romania swapped ideas with an Irish academic and a pay equity campaigner, and activists for queer rights and sex work decriminalisation in New Zealand, Thailand and the US laughed alongside the secretary general of the Peruvian domestic workers’ union. This was Caring, Survival and Justice vs the Tyranny of the Market, an international women’s conference called by the Global Women’s Strike (GWS), Women of Colour in GWS and Payday, a network of men working with the GWS. At a time where feminism, as Professor Alison Wolf explained on the opening panel, is increasingly reduced to “more women at the top,” an event focusing on the majority of the world’s women who remain impoverished and devalued seemed crucial. In the fight for a world where all life is protected and nourished, from the ground up and for everyone, the “golden skirts” who do the market’s bidding were not discussed as sisters, but as obstacles. As Wolf summarised: “If you’re a female banker, you’re still a banker.” Something more every day and yet more extraordinary was at the forefront of the conference — care work. Most of us, when prompted, will recognise this labour — our mothers and other women we know do it all the time, largely unnoticed. We see them take multiple jobs, cook, clean, shop, launder, listen, mend, medicate, organise appointments, protect us from harm, fill out endless forms and navigate services to keep us alive and functioning. We heard of the rapidly increasing numbers of children forcibly taken into care or adoption from impoverished mothers, particularly women of colour. Disabled women spoke of the literally lethal nature of cuts and work capability assessments. Women called on the police and courts to take rape seriously: “The wrong people are inside. Only 4 per cent of reported rape ends in conviction, while thousands of non-violent women and men are locked up.” Doctors and nursery workers described how privatisation created conditions that prevented them from caring. Their concerns were echoed by whistleblowers who discussed the brutality they had witnessed in detention centres, hospitals and care homes. Many speakers connected their personal experiences with their campaign work, showing how, even when confronted, institutions repeatedly eclipsed their humanity with a concern for profit. I was struck to hear the many things caring can encompass. A panel on justice work saw Shandre Delaney whose prison lawyer son is being prosecuted after blowing the whistle on torture in US prisons, and Donna Hill whose daughter is serving life for killing her rapist, speak alongside Kadi Johnson and Marcia Rigg whose brothers died in police custody in Britain, and Mohamed Ahmed whose sister killed herself after the rape she reported was neglected by police, mental health and ambulance services. These campaigners, through incomprehensible grief, continue to battle to salvage truth and justice for those they love. In doing so, they defend all of us. As Margaret Prescod, founding member of Women of Colour, summarised to a standing ovation: “If black lives don’t matter, no lives matter.” Work to save our environment from obscene greed was also framed as care by the Nanas Against Fracking from Lancashire. Though George Osborne intended for multiple fracking sites to be up and running by 2013, Britain remains largely frack-free due to groups like theirs. Confronting riot police in yellow aprons and mobilising communities to resist drills capable of causing earthquakes is, for them, simply another way to care for the world, its people and its future. Helen Lowder, co-ordinator of shadow chancellor John McDonnell’s office whose constituents are fighting slum housing and zero-hours contracts, reminded us that our time has come. This was echoed by GWS co-ordinator Selma James who explained to great applause that a living wage for mothers and other carers is an anti-capitalist perspective which prioritises life not the market: “We can win. We must win. We will win!” The breadth and promise of this collective view is what the weekend brought home for me. Women Sexism Becka Seglow-Hudson by Selma James Women carers are still fighting for the right to not be impoverished, overworked, isolated, or exploited in their work. From left to right, Selma James, Margaret Prescod and Professor Alison Wolf at Global Women's Strike conference. Women face a dilemma. If we do the caring, men do not become carers with us but consumers of the care we provide. And if we refuse to care, those who need care suffer neglect and worse.
This weekend Global Women's Strike's international women’s conference in London made visible a growing women’s movement, of those who do most of this reproductive, caring work. Women do two thirds of the world's work, and most of it is unwaged. The experiences shared with others from many parts of the world, including Canada, Greece, Haiti, India, Ireland, Palestine, Peru, Romania, New Zealand, Norway, Thailand and the US, included the ways they fight for the right to be carers, but at the same time not to be impoverished, overworked, isolated, exploited and even demeaned for doing this work. Our central demand is for a living wage for all workers, including mothers and other carers. Marxists may have incorporated into their thinking some of the considerations of the unwaged work of reproduction almost always done by women, but they have not often understood all the implications, and are weakest in appreciating the struggle over this work in a political, that is, an anti-capitalist way. In fact, the struggle by women – as mothers, as nurses, and other care workers – is based on challenging the uncaring market. We struggle against the market fetishism that governments ask us to worship: the idea that the uncaring market is central to survival. This is the exact opposite of the truth. Marx did not forget the crucial process: the production of labour power. InCapital Volume One he described “the production and reproduction of that means of production so indispensible to the capitalist: the labourer himself”. But he didn’t know so early in industrial capitalism’s history that capitalism would not always be able to take the reproduction of labour power for granted. One reason he didn’t see this reproductive work as part of the struggle was that so little of it was being done when the whole family was in the factory working 12 or 14 hours a day from an early age. That is why working class life expectancy was so tragically short in 19th century England. At the time, there was not yet a powerful women’s movement, which could for example, organise a Birth Strike, as happened in the early 20th century. The invisibility of women’s care hides the impact on the whole society when women are driven out to work with the ethos that stacking shelves in a supermarket is work but that those caring for the new-born are (in Tony Blair’s word) “workless”. But why should waged work for capital by anyone be the priority, especially for those of us who are anti-capitalist? It is at this moment, when millions of women in industrial countries are exhausted by the double day and many more millions of subsistence farmers find it even harder with climate change to feed their families, that payment for caring work is forcing its way onto the agenda. Justice work is an even more hidden extension of caring work. 'Mothers, daughters, sisters, wives fighting for our loved ones’ lives' reads the slogan, held on banners at protests against deaths in custody, stop-and-search, detention and deportation of immigrants and refugees. Women everywhere are doing justice work against every discrimination and in situations of occupation and war. We cannot avoid addressing the growing split in feminism. The 13% of women for whom the movement is primarily a career ladder for their ambition have defined anti-sexism as their struggle to rise in the class hierarchy. And when they do rise, little or nothing changes for those of us who are left at the bottom. Our conference heard about new important research on the “golden skirts”, in the professions, the boardrooms and government. As with every movement, some from the sectors the movement form to liberate have risen. But all this means is that the well paid ruling stratum is slightly more diverse. Recent figures show that boardrooms in top FTSE companies have 26% women. A recent report is pressing for 30% in the next 10 years. This is liberation for the few and sexism (and racism) for the many. Carers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose. You have a living wage and a caring world to win. Global Women’s Strike argue it’s time to stand up for women’s unpaid care work. It is forty years since the women of Iceland took a Day Off and brought the country to ahalt and 20 years since we won a commitment from governments celebrating the UN Decade for Women to include the value of women’s unwaged work in their national accounts. Yet women are still the poorer sex, doing two thirds of the world’s work, including growing most of the food. We care for children and for sick, disabled and elderly people, in the family and outside, in war as in peace. Society cannot survive without caring, yet carers are undermined not supported. An uncaring market The economic and social priorities that dismiss the carer are determined not by people’s health and well-being, or even the survival of the planet which sustains all life, but by the global market. In 90% of UK families the primary carer is awoman. 79% of austerity cuts have targeted women, that is carers and those we care for. While the 1% more than doubled their income in the last 10 years and the arms trade has risen by 22%, 1 billion children worldwide live in poverty,3.7m in the UK and 176,565 surviving on food banks. Michelle Dorrell spoke for many on BBC Question Time when she attacked government plans to take away tax credits. “I can hardly afford the rent I have to pay. I can hardly afford the bills I’ve got to do, and you’re going to take more from me. Shame on you!” Many go without so their children can eat. Many do two or three low paid jobs. Many do sex work to pay the rent. Even junior doctors (60% of whom are women under 30) are being targeted: pressured to work longer for less and to lose their maternity protection. We have got used to measuring sexism by how many women have made it to the commanding heights of the economy and politics. Professor Alison Wolf has attacked as a “betrayal of feminism” this “modern obsession” with women at the top, while the poorly paid mainly women shift workers on which these “golden skirts” depend, are ignored. We are told that a job, any job, is better than caring When Nadiya Jamir Hussain won the Great British Bake Off she said she was “proud to represent stay-at-home mums” and spoke about the “negativity” she had to face in an age when mothers are expected to prove their worth by going out to work: “As a mum that was quite tough.” Selma James, co-ordinator of the GWS, points to the neglect of the carer and the people who need care as the basis of sexism. “They don’t want women to have the power that our reproductive work should earn. We are told that a job, any job, is better than caring, and the skills it requires are undervalued and underfunded even in the job market – domestic work, homecare, childcare and even nursing are low paid. Caring is not just an industry profiting from our needs, but the perspective of a movement which is demanding that the market be at the service of people rather than people at the service of the market.” A living wage for all, including mothers and other carers Working with Women, the policy of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, recognises caring as skilled work; the SNP promises to raise carer’s allowance and theGreens propose a basic income for all. And what about technology cutting the working day rather than wages so we all have time to care? What about redirecting economic and social policies by paying all workers, including mothers, a living wage? That would make people and the planet which sustains us all the priority, rather than banks and businesses; help bridge the income gap between women and men; and attract more men to caring. The International Women’s Conference, Caring, Survival and Justice vs the Tyranny of the Market takes place in London on Saturday 14 & Sunday 15 November. Called by: Global Women’s Strike, Women of Colour in GWS, Payday (network of men working with GWS). Speakers Tickets 020 7482 2496 • [email protected] NOV 2015 Wednesday 11TH
posted by Morning Star in FeaturesAround the world caring work is overwhelmingly carried out by women. Why is it still not given the recognition and respect it deserves, asks NINA LOPEZ IN 1946, Liverpool Suffragette and independent MP Eleanor Rathbone won universal family allowance — later called child benefit — after decades of campaigning. She was outraged at mothers’ dependence and poverty: “Nothing can justify the subordination of one group of producers — the mothers — to the rest, and their deprivation of all share of their own in the wealth of a community which depends on them for its very existence.” The lack of recognition for women’s caring work has not changed. And the view that any job is better than caring is more entrenched than ever. Since Tony Blair called single mothers “workless” we have been treated as “worthless” and our benefits have been cut — first one-parent benefit, then universal child benefit and income support, the only benefits which recognised that mothers were entitled to money from the state while raising their children. Internationally, women are still the poorer sex, doing two-thirds of the world’s work, including growing most of their families’ food. We remain the primary carers everywhere — for children and for sick, disabled and elderly people, within the family and outside, in war as in peace. In 90 per cent of UK families the primary carer is a woman. Some 79 per cent of austerity cuts have targeted women — that is, carers and those we care for. While the 1 per cent more than doubled their income in the last 10 years and the arms trade has grown by 22 per cent, one billion children worldwide live in poverty, 3.7 million in the UK and 176,565 surviving on foodbanks. Society cannot survive without caring, yet carers are undermined, not supported. We have got used to measuring sexism not by how carers are treated but by how many women have made it to the commanding heights of the economy and politics. Professor Alison Wolf has attacked as a “betrayal of feminism” this “modern obsession” with women at the top, while the poorly paid mainly women shift workers on which these “golden skirts” depend, are ignored. Rathbone understood that “a people accustomed to measure values in terms of money will persist, even against the evidence of their own eyes, in thinking meanly of any kind of service on which a low price is set and still more meanly of the kind of service which is given for nothing.” When Nadiya Jamir Hussain won the Great British Bake Off she said she was “proud to represent stay-at-home mums” and spoke about the “negativity” she had to face in a time when mothers are expected to prove their worth by going out to work: “As a mum, that was quite tough.” The caring work mothers and other women do at home is not valued. When we go out to a job — often more caring work — it is undervalued and low paid. And while those of us who are immigrants and refugees are scapegoated by politicians, we do some of the lowest-paid caring jobs and keep the NHS going. Devaluing caring work devalues people. We see it in hospitals and care homes as scandal after scandal exposes neglect and worse. Justice work is an even more hidden extension of caring work. It is usually mothers, daughters, sisters and wives who fight for loved ones when they are victims of deaths in custody, disappearances, stop-and-search, wrongful imprisonment, detention and deportation, and every discrimination. Women are often the majority in human rights organisations, though not always the most visible. All this and more will be discussed at an international women’s conference in London this weekend. Selma James, who first coined the word “unwaged” and will be opening the conference, comments: “The struggle by women who do most of the reproductive work — as mothers, as nurses, as home care workers — is based on challenging the fetishism that the uncaring market is central to survival. Quite the opposite. There is a growing movement of women in different countries fighting for the right to be carers, but at the same time not to be impoverished, overworked, isolated, exploited and even demeaned for doing this work.” Carers of the world, unite. You have nothing to lose. You have a living wage and a caring world to win. • The conference, Caring Survival and Justice vs the Tyranny of the Market is called by Global Women’s Strike, Women of Colour in GWS and Payday (a network of men working with GWS). For more information and to buy tickets visit http://gwsconf15.weebly.com. Carers Gender Equality Nina Lopez Global Women’s Strike The campaign for a living wage has taken off internationally led by cleaners, McDonald's employees, caretakers, hospital and other workers. But will mothers and other carers be included or will we continue to be treated as ‘workless’ scroungers?
The International Women’s Conference, Caring, Survival and Justice vs the Tyranny of the Market, Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 November will address this and more. Forty years after all the women of Iceland went on general strike and brought the country to a halt, women still do two-thirds of the world’s work, including growing most of the world’s food. We remain the primary carers everywhere: for children and for sick, disabled and elderly people, in the family and outside, in war as in peace. Without caring work society cannot function. Yet far from being supported, women are the poorer sex and carers are not considered workers. We are told that a job, any job, is better than caring When Nadiya Jamir Hussain won the Great British Bake Off she said she was 'proud to represent stay-at-home mums' and spoke about the 'negativity' she faced in an age when mothers are expected to prove their worth by going out to work: 'As a mum that was quite tough'. Selma James, co-ordinator of the Global Women's Strike, will open the conference, pointing to the neglect of the carer and the people who need care as the basis of sexism. 'They don’t want women to have the power that our reproductive work should earn. We are told that a job, any job, is better than caring, and the skills it requires are undervalued and underfunded even in the job market – domestic work, homecare, childcare and even nursing are low paid'. An uncaring market The economic and social priorities that dismiss the carer are determined not by people’s health and well-being, or even the survival of the planet which sustains all life, but by the global market. In 90 per cent of UK families the primary carer is a woman. Yet austerity attacks carers and those we care for first of all. While the 1 per cent more than doubled their income in the last 10 years, and the arms trade has risen by 22 per cent, 1 billion children worldwide live in poverty, 3.7m in the UK and 176,565 surviving on food banks. Michelle Dorrell spoke for many on BBC Question Time when she attacked government plans to take away tax credits. 'I can hardly afford the rent I have to pay. I can hardly afford the bills I've got to do, and you're going to take more from me. Shame on you!' Many go without so their children can eat. Many do three or four low-paid jobs. Many do sex work to pay the rent. Even junior doctors (60 per cent of whom are women under 30) are being targeted: pressured to work longer for less and to lose their maternity protection. Caring work is justice work Speakers and participants will include women from Greece, Haiti, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Scotland, Spain, Thailand, USA, and men who share our perspective. We will be able to exchange experiences, and discuss strengthening our campaigning: from our right to asylum from war and starvation, to opposing racism and other discrimination, to defending the environment. Caring is also justice work: fighting for loved ones when they are sacked, raped, killed, imprisoned or detained for trying to survive, for blowing the whistle, for organising. Caring is not just an industry profiting from our needs, but the perspective of a movement which is demanding that the market be at the service of people rather than people at the service of the market. A living wage for all, including mothers and other carers We have got used to measuring sexism by how many women have made it to the commanding heights of the economy and politics. Professor Alison Wolf (keynote speaker) has attacked as a ‘betrayal of feminism’ this ‘modern obsession’ with women at the top, while the poorly paid mainly women shift workers on which these ‘golden skirts’ depend, are ignored. Working with Women, the policy of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, recognises caring as skilled work; the SNP promises to raise carer’s allowance; and the Greens propose a basic income for all. And what about technology cutting the working day rather than wages so we all have time to care? What about redirecting economic and social policies by paying all workers, including mothers, a living wage? See the petition for a living wage for mothers and other carers. The event is organised by Global Women's Strike, Women of Colour in GWS and Payday (network of men working with GWS). Please buy tickets in advance. Conference venue: WAC Arts, Hampstead Old Town Hall. Email [email protected] #GlobalWomen15 BY NINA LOPEZ ON 10 NOVEMBER 2015
The cost of caring It is forty years since the women of Iceland took a Day Off and brought the country to a halt, and 20 years since we won a commitment from governments celebrating the UN Decade for Women to include the value of women’s unwaged work in their national accounts. Yet women are still the poorer sex, doing 2/3 of the world’s work, including growing most of the food. We remain the primary carers everywhere: for children and for sick, disabled and elderly people, in the family and outside, in war as in peace. Society cannot survive without caring, yet carers are undermined not supported. An uncaring market The economic and social priorities that dismiss the carer are determined not by people’s health and well-being, or even the survival of the planet which sustains all life, but by the global market. In 90% of UK families the primary carer is a woman. 79% of austerity cuts have targeted women, that is carers and those we care for. While the 1% more than doubled their income in the last 10 years, and the arms trade has risen by 22%, 1 billion children worldwide live in poverty, 3.7m in the UK and 176,565 surviving on food banks. Michelle Dorrell spoke for many on BBC Question Time when she attacked government plans to take away tax credits. “I can hardly afford the rent I have to pay. I can hardly afford the bills I’ve got to do, and you’re going to take more from me. Shame on you!” Many go without so their children can eat. Many do three or four low-paid jobs. Many do sex work to pay the rent. Even junior doctors (60% of whom are women under 30) are being targeted: pressured to work longer for less and to lose their maternity protection. We have got used to measuring sexism by how many women have made it to the commanding heights of the economy and politics. Professor Alison Wolf has attacked as a ‘betrayal of feminism’ this ‘modern obsession’ with women at the top, while the poorly paid mainly women shift workers on which these ‘golden skirts’ depend, are ignored. When Nadiya Jamir Hussain won the Great British Bake Off she said she was “proud to represent stay-at-home mums” and spoke about the “negativity” she had to face in an age when mothers are expected to prove their worth by going out to work: “As a mum that was quite tough.” Selma James, co-ordinator of the GWS, points to the neglect of the carer and the people who need care as the basis of sexism. “They don’t want women to have the power that our reproductive work should earn. We are told that a job, any job, is better than caring, and the skills it requires are undervalued and underfunded even in the job market – domestic work, homecare, childcare and even nursing are low paid. Caring is not just an industry profiting from our needs, but the perspective of a movement which is demanding that the market be at the service of people rather than people at the service of the market.” A living wage for all, including mothers and other carers Working with women, the policy of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, recognises caring as skilled work; the SNP promises to raise carer’s allowance; and the Greens propose a basic income for all. And what about technology cutting the working day rather than wages so we all have time to care? What about redirecting economic and social policies by paying all workers, including mothers, a living wage? These issues and more will be discussed at a forthcoming International Women’s Conference,Caring, Survival and Justice vs the Tyranny of the Market, London, Saturday 14 & Sunday 15 November. Called by: Global Women’s Strike, Women of Colour in GWS, Payday (network of men working with GWS). Speakers Tickets 020 7482 2496 • [email protected] • http://gwsconf15.weebly.com/ Dear friends,
As a self-help group of asylum seekers and refugees from all corners of the world, we are delighted to be taking part in an exciting event hosted by the Global Women’s Strike and Women of Colour@GWS. (See below for details.) One of us will be a panel speaker on organising for survival and change in our home countries and our fight against racism, destitution and detention here in the UK. For us it will be a momentous and rare occasion to meet, hear from and organise with other activists from the Global South who are fighting for survival and justice and against rape, violence and poverty. Some of the amazing women of colour who will be speaking over the weekend are listed here along with all the other panellists. We hope you will want to take part – but tickets are selling quickly, so we suggest you register soon!! Botikala Malamu (stay well) Alex and Marischka On behalf of All African Women’s Group For more information about our group . . . see our demonstration at St Pancras International in support of refugees in Calais, . . . see AAWG, BWRAP and WAR at the protests demanding the closure of Yarl’s Wood IRC . . . Tweet us at AllAfricanWomenGroup @AfricanGr Caring, Survival and Justice vs. The Tyranny of the Market International Women’s Conference WAC Arts, Hampstead Old Town Hall, 213 Haverstock Hill, London NW3 4QP (nr Belsize Park tube) On 14/15 November, Women of Colour Global Women’s Strike are co-hosting an international women’s conference: ‘Caring, Survival and Justice vs. The Tyranny of the Market’.
We are very pleased to be welcoming women of colour speakers from Haiti, India, Palestine, Peru, Norway, Scotland, Canada and the US, and they will be available for interview. See below for further details. The conference comes in the midst of an explosion of activism and organising against the sexism and racism of austerity, poverty, prisons, detention and deportation, deaths in custody, war, environmental devastation, and for our right to survival, justice and resources. We bring together distinguished grassroots activists from the Global South and North, fighting on the local, national and international level. Speakers will make visible all the justice work women do, during war and occupation, against bonded labour and rape, for the rights of domestic workers, prisoners and more. Campaigners from a variety of movements will speak. The conference will highlight the undervalued, unrecognised caring work that women across the world do. We will also make the case for an economy and a society which invests in caring not killing, and launch our Petition to all governments for: A living wage for mothers & other carers. For more information: Tel: 020 7482 2496 [email protected] @woc_gw Women of Colour Speakers Shandre Delaney: Coordinator of the Justice for the Dallas 6 Campaign, and mother of Carrington Keys, one of the Dallas 6 | USA Rea Dol: Director and co-founder of Society of Providence United for the Economic Development of Petition-Ville | Haiti Reni Eddo Lodge: Award winning journalist & Black feminist | UK Manju Gardia: Nawa Chhattisgarh Mahila Samiti | India Kadi Johnson: Campaigner and sister of Sheku Bayoh who died in police custody in Fife | Scotland Janaya Khan: Co-founder of Black Lives Matter Toronto | Canada Leddy Mozombite Linares: General secretary of the domestic workers trade union | Peru Fakhra Salimi: Founder and director of MiRa Resource Centre for Black, Immigrant and Refugee Women | Norway PRESS RELEASE . . . PRESS RELEASE . . . PRESS RELEASE . . .
Caring, Survival & Justice vs the Tyranny of the Market International Women’s Conference, London 14-15 November 2015 Contact: Global Women's Strike, Women of Colour in GWS. Tel: 0207 482 2496 http://gwsconf15.weebly.com #globalwomen15 We all need, we all want a caring society. Why don’t we have one? An impressive lineup of international speakers will tackle the obstacles to building a caring society and discuss what they are doing about it. From Greece to Haiti, Peru to India, Palestine to Ireland, Romania to New Zealand, Canada to Norway, Thailand to the US . . . and of course the UK. Mothers, grandmothers and other carers will speak about their struggle for survival and wellbeing, but also for justice and the environment. The conference will be opened by Selma James, co-ordinator of the GWS, who points to the neglect of carers and the people who need care as the basic expression of sexism, and by Prof Alison Wolf, author of The XX Factor, who has attacked as a “betrayal of feminism” the “obsession with women in boardrooms or in parliament” while the poorly paid female shift workers on whom “golden skirts” depend are ignored. Why are some people getting obscenely rich while so many others are struggling to survive on food banks and zero hour contracts? Why are mothers and other carers devalued and impoverished? Why is the NHS being privatised against most people’s wishes, and nurses and junior doctors forced to work longer hours than anyone can cope with? Why is the income of most women much lower than men’s? Why are increasing numbers of women and men criminalised? Why is health deteriorating despite higher life expectancy? Why is rape always in the news but convictions still so low? Why is racist policing allowed to carry on with impunity? Why are immigrants and refugees escaping destitution and war refused entry and scapegoated? Why have we been unable to stop climate change? In 90% of UK families the primary carer is a woman. Carers are undermined not supported – many go without so their children can eat. Many do three or four low-paid jobs. Many do sex work to pay the rent. 79% of austerity cuts have targeted women, that is carers and those we care for. 3.7m children live in poverty and 176,565 survive on food banks. Of the 3 million families who receive tax credits, 2.2m are either single or married mothers; 200,000 children they care for would plunge into poverty if the cuts to tax credit are implemented. Political parties are catching on to a growing movement of carers. Labour’s new leader Jeremy Corbyn, recognises caring as skilled work; the SNP promises to raise carer’s allowance; and the Greens propose a basic income for all. But what about paying all workers, including mothers, a living wage? Would that not redirect economic and social policies? Caring, Survival and Justice vs the Tyranny of the Market called by Global Women's Strike, Women of Colour in GWS, Payday (network of men working with GWS). London, Saturday 14 & Sunday 15 November. Info: 020 7482 2496 • [email protected] • http://gwsconf15.weebly.com/ |
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