Women of the World, Mobilise this #March8

By Rashmi Munikempanna, Iridiani Seibert, Mily Treviño-Sauceda - La Via Campesina, February 27, 2017

For the women of La Via Campesina from all over the world, 8^th of March is a day of struggle, resistance and denunciation of the capitalist system, transnational corporations (TNCs), patriarchy and masochism. These oppress, exploit and violate women. It's also a day of solidarity with women’s struggles. 

As peasant women, we are fully committed to the struggle for food sovereignty as a solution for systemic change. This includes our struggle for access to land, water, health and seeds. We use agroecology as a political practice which envisions a world built on the principles of justice and equity.  

In recent times, we have seen an increase in violence against women. Our struggles and resistances are being criminalised in a context of growing conservatisms, dismantling of public policies and violations of long-fought-for women’s rights.

The recent grab of power by right-wing governments and heteropatriarchal forces around the world has further imposed an environment where women are violated, oppressed and in some cases assassinated with impunity. In this system, women suffer violence in different ways every day. There are patriarchal forces that confine and bind women in the private sphere, i.e. the home, to care for others. These forces constantly keep us, women, away from political sphere or the social and public life.  

Therefore, it is necessary for us, peasant women of the world, to take the street on this 8^th of March, to mobilise, take action and defend our rights, lands, seeds, healthy food and to raise our voices to say Stop Violence Against Women, in ways that suit each organisation’s struggles, goals and local contexts.

We are committed to building alliances for the struggles of peasant women against capital and heteropatriarchal violence. Therefore, we also support and join the International Women Strike this 8th of March. 

Stop violence against women! 

Globalise the Struggle, Globalise Hope!

Take Action

• Send in your posters, photographs, videos, event plans, press invitations to lvcweb@viacampesina.org
• You can also create short videos. To know more click here
• To download posters, social media cards and more click here 

Contacts: 

• Rashmi Munikempanna (India) - rashmi.munikempanna@gmail.com | +91 8762805428
• Iridiani Seibert (Brazil) - iridianigs@yahoo.com.br | +55 61999662804  
• Mily Treviño-Sauceda (US) - milyliderescampesinas@msn.com | +19515451917

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.