On International Women's Day - Colombia and Palestine come to the North East
This year's International Women's Day event in the region benefited from the involvement of some inspiring international guests. Alfamir Castillo, President of the Sugar Cane Workers Women's Committee, Colombia currently on a national tour addressed the conference, along with Palestinian performance poet, Rafeef Ziadah. There was standing room only as over 150 women and men turned up to support and participate in the event which was co-organised with War on Want.
The event began with a rendition of her poem, 'We Teach Life, Sir' performed by Rafeef Ziadah. The audience found it very emotive, immediately engaging them in thinking about the role of women in the struggle for freedom and equality.
Alfamir Castillo, President of the Women Sugar Cane Cutters from Colombia, gave a moving account of the struggle of the Sugar Cane Cutters fight against poverty and their efforts to lead their families out of poverty. The support that had been offered by UNISON and other external groups meant so much to the women that Alfamir represented; especially in giving women the leadership skills they needed to improve lives for themselves, their families and communities. As Alfamir said, 'Women want to continue to empower ourselves, and to educate ourselves and improve our children's lives through education too'.
This fight came at a huge personal cost for Alfamir and she spoke passionately and courageously about the struggle of her own family following the murder of her 15 year old son and the legal battle to bring those responsible to justice. She also talked of living with the constant death threats against her and other members of her family. Getting her to Newcastle alone was extremely difficult.
In conclusion Alfamir said that as a woman she saw poverty getting worse as a result of the big sugar cane companies. It was important to make their position visible globally. It was important that as women we stood together.
Rafeef Ziadah, spoke about her belief that poetry, art and culture helped to sustain activism. As a trade union activist in the Middle East she had worked in the garment sector, the majority of whose workers were women. She had witnessed first-hand the deplorable conditions that these women worked in which were little more than sweat shops.
Rafeef highlighted two campaigns:
Palestinian Call for BDS (Boycott Disinvestment and Sanctions), and
Stop Arming Israel
For further details on campaigns and how to get involved go to http://www.waronwant.org/ and http://www.palestinecampaign.org/
She drew attention to G4S having successfully won a prison contract in Israel, where 4000 Palestinians, including 300 children were held in Israeli jails.
Rafeef went on to explain that life under occupation was not a normal life. The Palestinian people are fighting for their right to return and were calling for equality. It was important to put pressure on the State of Israel and the companies that dealt with it such as G4S. Especially as Israeli ships carried arms to Colombia. These were actions that we as individuals could take to support Palestinian people in their fight for justice and equality.
Clare Williams, Chair of the Northern TUC Women's Group, spoke of the continuing struggle that women in the UK had to face in defending the equality gains that we had made over the decades which were under attack by the present Government: everything from women's education, employment, equality and welfare reform. That was why international solidarity was so important. Because where ever we live, one woman's struggle is every woman's struggle.
In both Alfamir and Rafeef we were honoured to have such inspirational speakers in the North East, showing that it is women who are paying the price of globalisation, especially in the indigenous communities around the world, but it is women who are the catalyst for change. It is women leading struggles for equalities across the world who can and do create fundamental change.
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