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F.5.ii.1. Mobilising Across Borders

How was the March 8 International Women’s Strike woven together, Viewpoint Magazine, 16/02/2017,

Highlights the organisation and impact of the October 19, 2016 Strike in Argentina - the first women’s strike in the history of the country (and Latin America), which alone mobilised 250,000 people in Buenos Aires. The strike inspired by the same initiative taken by Polish women, which extended to many countries in the world thanks to the coordination of groups activities, petitions sent to the UN and manifestos.
Dalit rights activists break new grounds in South Asia, UN Women, 2018

Brief account of the initiative of Moni Rani Das, a Dalit woman living in Dhaka, Bangladesh, who started advocating for nearly 3 million Dalit women living in the country and became the first Dalit woman sitting on the National Human Rights Commission in Bangladesh. Her activism is a source of empowerment for 120 million women altogether that live in South Asia and contributed to the transnational activism of FEDO, Feminist Dalit Organisation based in Nepal, which formed connection with the UN’s Women Fund for Gender Equality; more local organisations such as Nagorik Uddyog in Bangladesh, Swadhikar and Asia Dalit Rights Forum in India; and the Human Development Organization (HDO) in Sri Lanka. By predominantly promoting women’s economic rights, FEDO’s activity constitutes a protection against gender-based violence against Dalit women.
Women worldwide must be heard and respected, The Guardian, 08/03/2019,

Letter published by The Guardian on International Women’s Day 2019, signed by women activists and actresses, as a public statement advocating the protection of women’s rights worldwide.

Another letter addressed to an international audience was published by The Guardian and was signed by prominent African women from all spheres titled ‘Equality for African women’. It can be accessed on here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/08/equality-for-african-women.
Beaumont, Peter ; Holpuch, Amanda, How the Handmaid's Tale has dressed global protests, Guardian Weekly, 10/08/2018, pp. 12-13

The televising of Margaret Attwood's dystopian feminist novel The Handmaid's Tale has inspired activists in Argentina, Northern Ireland, the USA and London to wear the distinctive scarlet cloaks and white bonnets to protest for abortion rights and contraceptive rights and against President Trump. The article discusses with Attwood and others how the costume signifies subjection of women and works for protests.
Featherston, Lisa, It’s international Women’s Day. Women around the world are striking, Jacobin, 08/03/2019,

Touches upon the history of the celebration of the International Women’s Day on March 8 and on the particular significance of striking on this day. It also includes mention of the initiatives that have taken place on 8 March 2019 in many cities around the world.
Feng, Jiayun, Hard times for feminists in China, SupChina, 08/03/2017,

Feng outlines difficulties of Chinese women’s experience for organising mass protests. However, she sheds light on the mass initiatives that happen behind the scenes, such as the WeChat group named “Walking with women from all over the world” from which Chinese feminists attending the march can broadcast live video and photos. It also reports on the sexist campaigns led by the Chinese government that portray women as submissive to patriarchal ideologies and stereotypes.
Hogan, Gwynne, Dominican protesters call attention to femicide, urge New Yorkers to take action, WNYC, 09/03/2018,

Briefly reports on ex-pats from the Dominican Republic who marched on the streets of Washington Heights, denouncing an epidemic of gender-based killings in their home country, where an average of 200 femicides per year occur. The protest in New York was called “March Against the Plague of Femicide”.

See also https://www.vibe.com/2018/03/new-york-marches-against-dominican-femicide  and https://borgenproject.org/challenges-for-women-in-the-dominican-republic/
Lok-to, Wong, China silences its feminists on International Women’s Day, Radio Free Asia, 09/03/2018,

Reports on the shutting down by the government on the occasion of International Women’s Day of Feminist Voices account, a micro-blogging platform in China similar to Twitter, which is predominantly used for causes related to sexual harassment and gender discrimination in a way that attempts to bypass censorship.
Palmeiro, Cecilia, The strike as our revolutionary time, Verso, 07/03/2018,

Highlights the impetus that the National Wommen’s Strike on 19 October 2016 gave to the further development of the movement ‘Ni Una Menos’ in Latin America and the links it revealed between the most dramatic forms of violence against women such as femicide, rape and physical violence, to the more normalised forms of exploitation of women’s abilities in the context of neoliberalism.
Phillips, Tom, #Cuéntalo: Latin American women rally around sexual violence hashtag, The Guardian, 03/05/2018,

The article recounts the emergence of the campaign #Cuéntalo in Latin America, which followed the wave of protests that occurred in Pamplona, Spain, after 5 men on rape charges were only convicted on a lesser charge. It reports that the rate of prosecution for femicide is very low in Latin America, and the region is considered one of the most dangerous in the world for young women and women’s safety.
Resistencia, Mujeres Grabando, ¡Viva Nos Queremos! (Art) , NACLA Reports on the Americas, Vol. 50, issue 4, 2018, pp. 418-422

The initative of 14 women of capturing the feminist struggles through artistic production within the #VivaNosQueremos campaign. Many cities throughout the world joined the campaign and printmaking appeared in cities like Ciudad Juárez, Oaxaca, Mexico State, Puebla, New York, Chicago, Montreal and Barcelona as well as other countries like Costa Rica, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Italy.
Selma, James, Four decades on, our strike is still growing, The Guardian, 08/03/2018,

Looks back at the 1975 Iceland women's strike at the start of the UN Decade for Women; the 8 March 2000 Global Women's Strike, the 2016 Polish women's strike to resist successfully anti-abortion legislation, the 2017 Argentina women's mass demonstration against the rape and murder of women, and the cooperation between women in Poland and Argentina in 2017 to coordinate the International Women's Strike.
Siling, Luo, Fighting on behalf of China’s women – From the United States, The New York Times, 15/02/2017,

Reports on how more than 20 other Chinese feminists who live in the United States and belong to the Chinese Feminism Collective, a nongovernmental organization supporting feminists that face sustained political pressure in China, carry on with their activities in support of women in China such as Global Leaders’ Meeting on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in collaboration with the UN; photography exhibition  ‘Aboveground: 40 Moments of Transformation’, art performance ‘Our Vaginas, Ourselves’ and others.

See also https://nuvoices.com/2018/11/18/100-attend-nuvoices-nyc-launch-and-discussion-on-chinese-feminism/ for a more recent discussion on Chinese contemporary feminism at a New York City conference.
Topping, Alexandra ; Redden, Molly, 'We are international, we are everywhere’: women unite in global strike, The Guardian, 07/03/2017,

Comprehensive report on the 2017 Women’s Strike that involved more than 50 countries worldwide, and started by taking inspiration by 25,000 women in Iceland that, in 1975, gathered in the streets of Reykjavik refusing to go to work, clean, cook and taking care of the children.

For more info on the International Women’s Strike, also visit: http://parodemujeres.com/about-us-acerca-de/