CAMPAIGNS AND NEWS OF GROUPS
Peru
ACTION FOR THE LIBERATION OF PERUVIAN WOMEN
The following declaration and request for international solidarity comes from the Action for the Liberation of the Peruvian Woman - ALIMUPER, apartado 2211. Lima 100, Peru. Although it dates from September 1979, it is still applicable, and an important action to support.
Women in Peru are confronted with a recent decision of the Ministry of Health which has forced the suspension of programmes in all government hospitals which offer contraceptive services to Peruvian women. This measure seriously affects women in the lower income groups in our society who wish to limit the number of their children but cannot afford to pay the high prices for private clinics. We of ALIMUPER - Action for the Liberation of the Peruvian Woman - solicit your support and make the following declaration:
We deplore this measure which deprives the majority of Peruvian women of the right to receive adequate information about and to have affordable access to modern contraceptive methods, thereby impeding her ability to decide whether TO HAVE or NOT TO HAVE children.
This disposition is a complete contradiction of the goals expressed in the so-called "POPULATION POLICY" enunciated by this government in 1976 which recognized the "right of the couple" to decide how many children they wished to have. Under the name of "Responsible Parenthood" there was much propaganda about the necessity to utilize and rely upon contraceptive services in the Government hospitals, as part of an integral health programme
Now, with the suspension of these services, only a minority
of women of the middle and upper classes have access to
contraceptive services in doctors' offices and private clinics,
where high fees are demanded. Poor and working class
women are now deprived of these services, as they are not
able to pay for private doctors or buy the pills or other
devices. Too often they are forced to seek clandestine abortions,
risking grave consequence to their health. We believe that this measure on the government's part which according to The Lima Times and other reliable sources, is motivated by pressure from Church authorities is a backward step which infringes on the human rights of Peruvian women who are victims, once again, of masculine power established in government, the churches, legislative bodies and the political parties. We wish to make clear to you that the suspended programmes are those in all the public hospitals and were funded by the United Nations. These programmes were, to best of our knowledge, strictly voluntary and low cost. We object to enforced sterilization projects, imposed birth control, or other population policies in which women have no power of decision.
THEREFORE, we call on all women and organizations dedicated to fight for human rights to make a declaration against this abusive measure and demand the re-establishment of these services for Peruvian women.
We ask you to send your declaration or letter to:
Presidente Morales Bermudez - Palacio de Gobierno — Cardenal Juan Landazuri Ricketts — Arzobispado de Lima — Peru.
Nicaragua
ASSOCIATION OF NICARAGUAN WOMEN "LUISA AMANDA ESPINOZA"
At the end of 1979 we received this text from the Association of Nicaraguan Women, and felt it important to publish for our readers. The Association can be contacted at: Casa de la Mujer, Apartado A, 238 Managua, Nicaragua.
Association of Nicaraguan Women, "Luisa Amanda Espinoza"
During this new stage of Nicaraguan history, w/e extend greetings to all those associations, groups and international organizations which, in a great spirit of solidarity, helped and supported our just struggle for liberation-a victorious struggle which now permits us to build the basis for a new, free and sovereign society, in which women can participate fully in every way.
The tasks at this time are many and enormous. We inherited a country destroyed and ravaged by the dictatorial Somoza regime. Today we are called upon to participate actively in the national reconstruction. In this, we need your generous assistance, so that the new Nicaragua can arise and so that
women can become fully Involved in the life of the new
society we are creating.The National Association of Nicaraguan Women "Luisa Amanda Espinoza" was born in September 1977 under the name "AMPRONAC" (Associacion de Mujeres ante la Problematica Nacional). It grew out of the historical need for Nicaraguan women to take full and active part in the revolutionary process of national liberation which the Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional was furthering.
Our first assembly, held on September 19, 1977, brought together approximately sixty women who denounced the atrocities being committed by the Somoza regime during those long years of martial law and state of siege.
At that time the objectives of the Association were the following:
- Women's participation in studying and seeking a national solution;
- Defense of the social, economic and political rights of Nicaraguan women;
- Defense of human rights in general.
In this way, women began participating in a variety of activities, such as denunciation of disappearances (in an unprecedented assembly which brought more than a thousand people together, the Association denounced the disappearance of hundred of peasants in the North); churches were occupied and hunger strikes held to demand the release of political prisoners; campaigns were organized against repression, against rising prices, increased taxes, etc. and to inform citizens of their rights.
In January, 1978, AMPRONAC actively participated in the demonstrations and general strike which took place following the killing of journalist and opposition figure Pedro Joaquin Chamorro.
Active in every neighbourhood and province, our Association grew stronger every day. Using all means at our disposal, we mobilized women: opposition radio stations gave us broadcast time; we published statements; we published our own monthly bulletin, "Voice of Women" which was circulated nation-wide as well as internationally. In this bulletin, the Association published its own analysis of the current situation and provided women with a forum of expression.
AMPRONAC women began deepening their commitment and played a key role in building up the Civil (now Sandista) Defense Committees. Before the insurrection, the Association undertook to prepare its member organizations so they could participate effectively in the final struggle. It organized first-aid courses and prepared first-aid stations and clandestine clinics in every neighbourhood for treating the wounded; it also set up food stocks and established networks for secret information and emergency communication.
In the present national situation, the Nicaraguan woman faces challenges now as before to participate actively in the tasks of national reconstruction and the building of a new society, based on the valuable experience of AMPRONAC and its militant participation in the national liberation struggle.
Thus at this new stage, we felt the need to give our organization a name which reflects its present substance and the combative spirit of the Nicaraguan woman who, now as before, breaks down the traditional barriers which have kept her marginalized, as she stands up to defend and rebuild the liberated homeland. Luisa Amanda Espinoza, a seamstress by trade, was the first women member of the Frente Sandinista to fall in combat - a symbol of the struggle of the Nicaraguan Women.
Constituting more than 50% of the Nicaraguan population, we are called upon to fulfill a key role - like every Nicaraguan - in the restructuring of our country and in building andconsolidating a new society free of injustices and exploitation.
From this point of view, the Association's principal goal is to fully integrate women into the economic, social and political life of the country — breaking through the cultural backwardness which has kept them subjugated for centuries.
Thus it is important to provide general educational programmes for women through seminars, cultural centres, schools, publications, and also through their extensive participation in the national literacy campaign, "Heroes and Martyrs", which will also help provide basic education for women, especially rural women who have always been the most marginalized and isolated.
In order to achieve for women a greater share in the productive and economic life of Nicaragua, our Association has another two-fold objective: On the one hand, to encourage professional training programmes which will provide women with the necessary background knowledge to take skilled jobs; on the other, to promote day-care, child development centres, schools, community kitchens, laundries, and dispensaries, which can alleviate the burden of domestic labour in the household and thus free women to become more fully involved in the political and cultural life of the country.
Structure and functioning of the association
The organizational structure of the Association allows full integration and direct involvement of its members in the activities and programmes to be carried out.
The Assembly is made up of all affiliated members at a provincial level; its function is to make decisions about programmes and changes in the leadership. The Assembly meets every 6 months. Extraordinary sessions can be called in cases of emergency.
The Council is made up of the executive committee and the coordinators from each local (base) organization. It is responsible for decision-making, and for evaluating and ratifying plans proposed by the executive.
The Executive Committee is the main planning body. It makes proposals to the Council and later carries out the tasks. The executive committee is composed of 6 members, each of whom is responsible for one key work committee, which are: propaganda and culture; education and political formation; organization; finance; administration; social welfare; and solidarity and international relations. The executive committee meets at least once a week.
The Coordinating Group is the meeting of all coordinators from every base or local organization, with a representative from the executive committee. Its tasks are to coordinate and plan weekly activities.
Local or Base Committees. This is the local organization, made up of all members in one zone or centre of work; it functions according to the needs of its sector and follows the guidelines of the Association. Each base committee elects its representatives democratically, and functions with work committees.
Similar to the Executive Committee, with the exception of committees for solidarity and international relations, and the committee on education and training, the Local or Base Committees meet weekly to review their work and to assign tasks.
Nicaraguan woman, organized in the Association of Nicaraguan Women "Luisa Amanda Espinoza" (previously called AMPRONAC), from the first days of the struggle against the Somoza dictatorship, played a key role in the political life of the country. Her role is reflected in all levels of struggle. She was a vital force which strengthened the wave of revolutionary energy which made the overthrow of the dictatorship possible.
These same women were prepared to shed their blood and to offer to the nation their lives' most valuable treasures, their sons and daughters, in order to obtain our liberty.
Today, she is equally disposed and decisive in the defense of our process and our reconstruction, with sacrifice and work, until we can forge a nation a thousand times better than the dreams of Sandino.
Today, women are involved in all the mass organizations which form the pillar of the new revolutionary process.
The Association of Nicaraguan Women "Louisa Amanda Espinoza" is present, and fully integrated in the process of national reconstruction and the measures that are gradually being implemented are tending to recover the dignity of women and equality of rights in all areas.
In order to realize our objectives and projects, and given that our country was left devastated by the corrupt administration of Somozism and its allies, given the destruction perpetrated by the "National" Guard of Somoza, we are calling on all womens' organizations and progressive movements in the world to collaborate in solidarity and fraternity in the reconstruction of our Free Nicaragua.
ORAGANIZED TO STRUGGLE
ORGANIZED TO RECONSTRUCT
EDUCATION FOR OUR LIBERATION
FORUM AGAINST RAPE
India
In Bombay, Indiana Forum Against Rape has recently been formed. Vibhuti Patel has sent ISIS the following article about it.
Those who are reading news papers regularly, must have noticed that every day cases of eve-teasing, sexual assault, rape are increasing. Our daily experience in crowded trains, lonely roads, dark places are enough to make us realise that women are treated as sex-objects in this society. We live our lives with constant dread of being raped, adapt ourselves to it, avoid deserted places, stay at house after dark and so on. Women fear this more than they fear death. Yet rape has been considered a taboo subject. But alert and militant women's organizations have started raising their voice against this most heinous crime committed against women. In most cases state, legal institution and so-called protectors of law and order, "Police", have sided with the rapist in one form on the other. In many incidents the police have acted as a rapist institution. One month back at Rhatinda one legless begger-woman was raped by four police men. Efforts of human rights organisations could only help to punish the culprits. But there are thousands of incidents where rapists in the garb of protectors of law and order go scot free. Atrocities committed by Police, on the wives of railway workers (during 1974 Railway strike), on the wives of mine workers at Baila Dilla in 1977, on Dalit women at Chandigarh, Bhojpur and Agra, on Muslim women at Jameshedpur and Aligarh in almost all communal riots, police maltreatment of women in custody which rocked the state of Madya Pradesh in 1977-78, are not isolated incidents. There are thousands of such unreported cases each one as horrible as the next.
The story of the girl , Mathura, aged about 15years, who was called for interrogation at a police station in the "dead of night " and raped by the police constable in the presence of the head constable is equally perturbing. The question whether it was " rape " or "a willing submission" was the moot point to be decided by Court. The session Court acquitted the accused while the Bombay High Court reversed the judgement. The Supreme Court, however, in appeal, restored the sessions Courts verdict, holding that under section 375 of the penal code only "fear of death or hurt " can vitiate consent for sexual intercourse.
We all are aware that it is well nigh impossible to prove the allegation of rape in a Court of Law as the law stands now. Dr. Upendra Baxi, an eminent jurist and three other teachers of law have in an open letter to the Chief Justice of India urged for a rehearing of the above case by a larger Bench or the full Court as the "cold-blooded legalism" of the verdict " snuffs out all aspirations for the protection of human rights of millions of Mathuras (the girls in the case) in the countryside". They have described the court decision as " extraordinary , sacrificing human rights of women under law and constitution " . They have sharply pointed out the double standard of the judiciary while writing, " the Court under your leadership, has taken great strides for civil liberties in cases involving affluent urban women ". Must illiterate, labouring, politically mute Mathuras of India be continually condemned to the pre-constitutional Indian fate?
We also feel that the Court decision reflects a value system which ultimately denies basic rights to women and mirrors the underlying norms embodying the most extreme manifestation of an oppressive patriarchal sexist class society which perpetuates the idea that dominance, hostility , power and aggression are necessary so that by competition some persons may acquire material possession and control at the expense of remaining persons who are dispossessed and controlled . As in all other cases, in Mathuras's case sexist attitude of our society was quite obvious. She was put through a humiliating session of questioning and then declared guilty as if she "asked f o r rape" and afterwards " invented a story of rape" in order to sound virtuous before the public (I) while culprit s are left free.
Because of this attitude very few attacks of rape are reported . Among the masses also there is a stigma attached to rape, the belief that rape cannot happen to nice girls, that victims are somehow responsible. In our city of Bombay, last year there were 837 reported cases of rape. For every
one case reported, there are 10 - 12 unreported ones.
Doctors dealing with rape victims declare, " no strata of
society is immune, from high society to pavement dwellers;
age is no bar; from 18 months t o 60 years, any baby, girl
or a women can be a victim of rape or sexual molestation".
To mobilise against rape becomes a need of the hour for all those women and men who are against injustice and oppression. In Bombay, recently the FORUM AGAINST RAPE has been formed in which many journalists, lawyers, women activists, organisations, students, lecturers and women's wings of the left parties have taken active interest. They are going to have public meetings, demonstrations, exhibitions, plays, slide-shows to arouse public awareness on the problem of rape. All alert citizens should also take an active interest in the same.
Marathwada Riots: Dalit Women Bearing the Brunt of Castists Vibhuti Ratal Another article by Vibhuti Patel recounts the situation of Dalit women in India. The rape of Dalit women by caste Hindus has almost become an institution and is used as a punishment for "untouchables" who try to assert their rights. Again it is the women who bear the brunt.
Ireland
The following piece is compiled and extracted from reports of the group Women Against Imperialism, c/o 7 Riverdale Park Drive, Andersonstown, Belfast 11, N. Ireland, and reports appearing in the London Women's Liberation Newsletter No. 142, c/o A Woman's Place, 48 William IV Street, London WC2, England, and WIRES, England. Women Against Imperialism also (produce a journal, Beansaor (free woman) available from the above address.
S o l i d a r i t y f o r Women in Ireland
Peaceful Picket of Armagh Gaol Attacked 11 Women in court on charges of Assault
To celebrate International Women's Day on 8th March 1979,^Women Against Imperialism (based in West Belfast, Northern Ireland) held a picket outside Armagh women's prison. They were demanding an end t o inhuman treatment imposed upon the women political prisoners inside.
More than 50 women are incarcerated in Armagh Gaol because of their direct involvement in the fight against British presence in Northern Ireland. They are locked up for 21 hours a day in their cells. They are denied reading and writing materials, free association and any educational or handicraft facilities. As a result of their demand to be treated as political prisoners they suffer a daily regime of beatings and harassment, such as restricted medical and toilet facilities.
The peaceful picket consisted of about 50 women and children who sang, cheered and shouted slogans to the prisoners inside, who responded by yelling and waving banners from their cell windows. It was a great success. The women moved off quietly to go home when the brutal Royal Ulster Constabulary, enraged at the successful protest, attacked them (they had no prior police instruction that the picket was not permitted or that they should disperse). One of the women arrested described the attack:
"We were suddenly attacked by four jeep loads of the RUC, armed with their sub-machine guns, wearing flak jackets. They began beating us and dragging us to the jeeps. Some of the women were carrying children and these seemed to be singled out by the police for rough treatment."
The eleven women arbitrarily selected for arrest were held five hours and were subsequently charged with obstruction, disorderly conduct and assault upon the police.
The women responded to the arrests by singing "the women's army is marching" and promised to return. And return they did. The second picket was held on 7th April and women from Dublin and Derry responded to the call to show the RUC that women would not be intimidated off the streets. Again the RUC attacked the picket and removed the sit-down protesters on the pavement. The prisoners inside cheered and the RUC stole Women Against Imperialism's banner for the second time. Women in London supported the Women and Ireland group's Solidarity march in Kilburn on the same day.
"We will continue to fight for political status for our sisters in Armagh and their comrades on the blanket in H Block. We will continue to campaign for the women's movement to show its solidarity with the women political prisoners in Armagh as they did so successfully on the second picket". (Women Against Imperialism).
The eleven women charged have appeared in court twice now - on 25th October 1979 and 2nd January 1980. Both times the trial was adjourned, the first time half way through, the second because the director of public prosecutions did not show up. The women on trial have now decided not to go back to the court. This does not mean the case is finished: they will be sentenced in their absence and will probably be fined. If they cannot pay the fines they will have to go to prison. It is estimated that £ 3.000 will be needed.
These women need continued support and solidarity from the women's movement internationally. Women supporting them are organising the fund-raising and have proposed that this year's International Women's Day march on Saturday 8th March should take place in Ireland. This means that as many women as possible from other countries should go to Ireland. The group is looking into cheap transport, organising creches in the area, etc.