This International Women’s Day (8th March), join Plymouth Women’s Network and allies, from 12.30 – 2pm at The Sundial, to stand in solidarity with our sisters around the world and support the International Women’s Strike, aka 8M.
Last year on 8th March, Plymouth Women’s Network joined millions of women and their allies worldwide in supporting the International Women’s Strike. We helped create a memorial at the sundial to remember, commemorate and celebrate the women who have been at the frontline of the pandemic response and have borne the brunt of the hardships.
This year we will be returning to the Sundial, in a city that has experienced such levels of gender based violence that a commission has been convened to address it.
We invite everyone to join us at midday at the Sundial for a two hour stand where we’ll hear from inspiring women speakers and poets on a range of topics, plus chants, an open mic, and drumming led by Lorna McTavish from Celebrate Your Heartbeat. At 1:15pm join us in a DIE-IN where we’ll use our bodies to express our protest and offer tribute to the lives of our sisters taken here in Plymouth, and around the world, due to misogyny and objectification.
Then we’ll rise up in a chant, to show the power and strength of our voices.
We invite everyone to wear red as a symbol of life and resistance.
There will be a small memorial to the cis and trans women we have lost, including placards made in workshops leading up to the event. Bring candles, flowers, or anything red to add to this!
Some of the speakers include the Women’s Equality Party, Feminist Fusion, Plymouth Out Women, End Violence Against Women and Girls Protest Group, author Christa Mackinnon from Women Weaving Change and councillor Rebecca Smith from the Commission to End Violence Against Women and Girls.
Among the poets we will have Marieluise Niehus, Marion Clare, Antonia Raines, Mary Greenfield, Gabi Marcellus-Temple, Poppy-Jayne Jones, Mimi Jones and Samantha Carr.
We will be running a series of workshops to help prepare for the event.
More Information:
International Women’s Strike takes place on International Women’s day and is organised by a loose collective of global feminist organisations, the Global Women’s Strike network, with national co-ordinations in 11 countries and participating organisations in over 60 countries.
The aim of the strike is to highlight the staggering inequality that women face daily and to take back International Women’s day as a day of political activism, not just a series of corporate events highlighting women’s participation in the work-force or paying lip service to progress, without enacting real change.
The demands of the strike are simple and ones that will bring benefits to all humanity if enacted, such as:
- Payment for all caring work – in wages, pensions, land & other resources. What is more valuable than raising children & caring for others? Invest in life & welfare, not military budgets or prisons
- Pay equity for all, women & men, in the global market.
- Food security for breastfeeding mothers, paid maternity leave and maternity breaks. Stop penalizing us for being women.
- Don’t pay ‘Third World debt’. We owe nothing, they owe us
- Accessible clean water, healthcare, housing, transport, literacy.
- Non-polluting energy & technology with a Climate Justice approach.
- Protection & asylum from all violence & persecution, including by family members & people in positions of authority.
- Freedom of movement. Capital travels freely, why not people?
Plymouth Women’s Network is a platform for women to network and support initiatives related to our empowerment and a greater participation towards a fair and compassionate community.
International Women’s day is on March the 8th every year and is marked and celebrated worldwide. This year’s theme is “Break the Bias”. Imagine a gender equal world. A world free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination. A world that’s diverse, equitable, and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated. Collectively we can all #BreakTheBias.
