South African women celebrate

South African women celebrate

By Anthony Benbow

FREMANTLE — "When you strike a woman you strike a rock" was the message given to the 200 people who attended the Fremantle Education Centre to celebrate South African Women's Day on August 9.

The meeting featured speeches, performances by the South African Women's Day Choir and the Combined Trade Union Choir, and a one-act play written and performed by Lynn Hazelton.

The message from the ANC Women's League paid tribute to the past 30 years of organised women's struggle and called for a non-racist, non-sexist, democratic and peaceful South Africa.

All who spoke emphasised that women of colour bear much of the hardship that results from the apartheid system, yet have virtually no input into bodies such as CODESA. This is set to change as women start to organise to fight sexism as well as racism.

Mingili Wanjurri spoke of Aboriginal women's struggles in Australia and expressed their solidarity with the women of South Africa.

From GLW issue 67