BY LINDA KAUCHER
SYDNEY — The World March of Women 2000 conference on September 2 brought together speakers on many factors contributing to women's poverty and many aspects of violence against women. The WMW 2000, initiated by women in Canada and taken up in 155 countries, is a global call to action on these issues.
Beginning the conference, Thea Ormerod, from Jubilee 2000, explained that women make up 70% of the one and a half billion people who live on less than US$1 a day.
Although the rich countries of the G7 have promised to cancel $100 billion of the debt of the world's "highly indebted poor countries", only $13 billion has been cancelled, and the HIPCs are still paying interest on the rest. For each $1 that the Western world gives in "aid", developing countries repay $13 in interest.
Dorothy Makasa from Zambia explained that for Africa, four centuries of colonialism, along with Western education and Christianity, have cut across all aspects of life, and impacted severely on African self-esteem. This has been exacerbated by a global trading system that has continued to devalue commodities such as Zambia's copper.
Working in the prison system, it is Kath Kartinyeri's job to explain Aboriginal culture to prison workers, who mostly have very little experience with Aboriginal people, but who will work in prisons where often the majority of prisoners are indigenous. Describing the devastating effects that continue through the generations when children are taken from families, she referred to the high rate of suicide amongst indigenous prisoners.
Linda Bartolomei, from the Australian National Council on Refugee Women and the University of NSW Centre for Refugee Research, talked about the campaign to have rape definitively categorised as a war crime. She pointed to the Australian government's lack of commitment to human rights and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the potential for countries with poorer records on these matters to interpret this as a message that their conduct is okay.
Speaking on behalf of the No New Women's Prison Campaign, Dr Eileen Baldry, a senior lecturer in Social Work at the University of NSW, showed how the female component of the Western world's prison population has grown from 2.5% to up to 7-8%, over the last 15 years. This is exponential growth, because prison populations overall are increasing.
In Australia, 25% of female prisoners are on remand, and Aboriginal women are over-represented in prison statistics. Most women in prison are there for crimes against themselves, such as drug taking.
Liz Reedy from the NSW Council of Social Service discussed government services, especially as they affect women, such as in housing, health care, and care for children. Changes are having particular impact on those with low incomes who can't purchase what the government has stopped providing.
According to Reedy, fewer resources are available because of the withdrawal from national spending, the proliferation of tax avoidance by high earners and corporations, and a focus on obtaining a budget surplus, regardless of deprivation for those most in need.
Sally McManus, from the Australian Services Union, gave a perspective on what's happening in women's employment, focusing particularly on Australian Workplace Agreements. AWAs have been forced on women much more broadly than on men.
In growth areas of female employment, such as call centres, women have little choice about whether to accept a workplace agreement or hold out for an award through collective bargaining. The usual pattern, according to McManus, is that a woman is shown the AWA at the job interview and told to sign if she wants the job.
Bronwyn Winter, from the National Tertiary Education Industry Union, put an NTEU perspective on what's happening for women in tertiary education, both students and academic staff. While the NTEU has managed to stop AWAs in the tertiary sector, it is being subjected to tremendous pressure from the government in regard to pay rises.
The casualisation of tertiary teaching staff has mostly affected women. Senior academics tend to be men and junior academics women.
Doli Ondawame, a West Papuan woman, referred to cases where children as young as three years old had been sexually abused by the Indonesian military. She reported that women in West Papua have always taken their part in the struggle against the brutal occupation of their country by Indonesia.
Maria Vucko, from the Cumberland Women's Health Centre, recently finished a study of domestic violence, and the participants in the conference were keen to discuss her findings. Alcohol is much less of a factor than may have been expected, while patriarchy, the need for power and the pervasive effects of irresponsible media may be much stronger elements in creating domestic violence situations.
Jane Corpus Brock, who comes from the Philippines, called for a better deal for migrant workers, who have often left their home countries because of the harsh effects of structural adjustment programs imposed by global lenders, only to be treated as second-class people when they arrive in a country such as Australia. She also referred to the hardship and violence that some women have been subjected to as "mail order brides".
Jane Murray, from Asian Women at Work, described how the Fairwear Campaign targets companies that allow their goods to be manufactured by underpaid outworkers. A labelling strategy will soon be introduced that will help consumers to pick who the responsible retailers are.
The Fairwear Campaign will utilise the opportunity of the Olympics to target a main offender, Nike. A Sydney rally mimicking the Opening Ceremony, at Victoria Park on the evening of September 11, will feature a giant shoe and a march-past of representatives of all the countries where workers are oppressed by Nike's industrial malpractice.
The reasons for S11, the protest against the World Economic Forum in Melbourne on September 11, were explained by Annette Maguire, from CACTUS (Campaign Against Corporate Tyranny in Unity and Solidarity).
For the World March of Women 2000, many millions of postcards from women around the world will be delivered to Kofi Annan, at the UN in New York, on October 17, World Poverty Day, and representatives of the WMW 2000 will meet with him. Preceding this, on October 15, there will be a march at the IMF and the World Bank, in Washington.