Wollongong International Women's Day: No War on Iraq

BY GRANT COLEMAN

WOLLONGONG — An anti-war protest on International Women's Day, March 8, could attract numbers similar to or bigger than the 5000-strong February 8 anti-war demonstration.

International Women's Day Collective member and Socialist Alliance candidate in the NSW election Dr Margaret Perrott is confident that this year's march and rally will be the biggest for decades.

"The women of Iraq are facing a war that will only increase the poverty and hardship they already face — thousands of innocent women will also be killed by bombs and starvation. Wars also bring rape, forced prostitution, sexual exploitation and trafficking of women and children. Women and children also make up the majority of refugees world-wide and Bush's war will only result in greater numbers being dispossessed.

"The collective has decided that this rally will be most effective if men are invited to march alongside women. The collective wants the streets of Wollongong to again be filled with the determination and enthusiasm of the rising anti-war movement here."

From Green Left Weekly, February 19, 2003.

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From GLW issue 526