Darwin's International Women's Day plans

Darwin's International Women's Day plans

By Angela Hassan and Sibylle Kaczorek

DARWIN — The International Women's Day (IWD) 2000 collective here is building on the gains made over the last few years. As the collective has broadened its activities, a greater diversity of women have been attracted to the organising meetings.

The collective members are of various ages, ethnic backgrounds and political perspectives, and include students, workers, service providers and activists.

The first meeting of the collective decided to include political discussions in each meeting agenda, discussions which have proven provocative and challenging. The collective, which will be organising a public forum in the near future, has discussed the history of IWD, feminism and why some women do not identify as feminists, and women's international solidarity.

The collective found it difficult to shortlist the demands that need to be raised this year. After much lively discussion, it has decided to focus on: freedom from violence; the right to reproductive choice — free safe and accessible abortion on demand; no tax on tampons — no GST; increased funding for women's services — free and accessible child-care; and economic independence as a democratic right.

Rally speakers will be drawn from a variety of backgrounds and the collective has set a new venue and time for the march and rally in the expectation that this will enable more women (and supportive men) to participate (see page 28 for details).

From GLW issue 393