BY JOHN NEBAUER
ADELAIDE — Women gathered in the Women's Pioneer Memorial Gardens on October 8 to launch this year's poster for the annual Reclaim the Night march, to be held on October 31.
Local artist and Reclaim the Night collective member Melina Magdalena, who designed the poster, addressed the launch. She spoke of her experiences of violence and sexual abuse and stressed the importance of breaking the code of silence that surrounds the issue.
The theme this year will be "Women marching together — we have the right to a safe world". The organisers have decided to express solidarity with women around the world struggling against the effects of war and invasion, and with the Kungka Tjuta — Aboriginal women elders — and their supporters who are opposing the federal government's planned nuclear waste dump in South Australia.
Socialist Alliance member Emma Murphy told the gathering: "We won't forget the women of Afghanistan just because US President George Bush says they have been liberated. We won't ignore the warnings and pleas of the traditional owners just because the federal government tells us the nuclear dump is safe. And we won't stop marching just because we're told we've made it.
"As long as stories like Melina's are part of our reality, rather than horror stories from the dark ages; as long as war is creating refugees (most of whom are women); as long as our government insists on locking those refugees up; as long as we know there is still a fight to fight, we will reclaim the day and reclaim the night, until we've got what we're demanding — the right to a safe world."
From Green Left Weekly, October 15, 2003.
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