FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22,2002
Women of colour unite and conquer We women of colour have been on the front lines of defence for our families and communities. but our work of defence and survival. in the face of various apartheids of war and other forms of genocide has received little recognition, even from our own communities and
On every continent, women of colour, particularly those in countries of the south, have the least amount of resources and work hardest for the longest hours. Yet we are the most invisible workers. Most of us spend our lives growing and cooking the food and collecting the water and fuel that keeps most of the world ahve. Women of colour have given birth to and cared for most of the people of the wortd during centuries of exploitation, through colonialism and every form of slavery. Racism has always been combined with sexism, so that global capital gets our labour for cheap or for free. If we are lucky enough to get wages for our work, we are die lowest paid everywhere. Usually the darker we are, the poorer we are. As mothers, daughters, sisters, wives, grandmothers and aunts, we raise the children of our communities only to see them forced into the hardest jobs for the least pay, imprisoned unjustly, used as cannon fodder for the military, and forced to confront every form of discrimination and indignity every minute of the day.
Women of colour stand at the crossroads of economic inequality, racial discrimination, sexism and homophobia. Today, neo-liberalism and trade agreements like those enforced by the World Trade Organization call for a diminished role of the state in economic affairs; less funding in essential social services such as health, education and social security nets; and elimination of state-subsidized basic needs such as food staples, energy and housing. AU of these have negative consequences on humanity, but hurt women of colour the most. When they are citizens of Third World countries, they often carry the brunt of household work while working full time, thus providing 60-70 per cent of their families' income and material needs. When the price of basic necessities rises, women are hurt the worst. In the north, where we are visible minorities, traditional and systemic marginalization are accentuated by cutbadrs and stress on social services. Women of colour become workers in maquiladoras and sweatshops in the south and up north, and they are trafficked for the global sex
trade, as mail order brides or as prostitutes in brothels. They invest in university education only to finish up as domestic workers in Canada and the U.S., through avenues such as the Live-In Caregivers Program right here in Canada. While women provide 90 per cent of the world's labour, we own less than 10 per cent of the world's wealth and one per cent of all capital goods. Presently, women hold less than five per cent of elected government positions worldwide. These are reasons that women of colour are uniting, particularly in North America where there exists a multicultural mosaic within the population. Even in a privileged country such as Canada, the voices of women of colour are rarelv heard, and racism and sexism are ever-prevalent within society. In KW, a women of colour collective has been formed for all self-identified women of colour. It is an opportunity to get together and discuss issues that no one but ourselves can truly understand. It is also an empowering group to take matters that affect us directly into our own hands. Our first initiative is putting together a Women of Colour zine. The theme of our first issue is "Coming Home." For more information about the group or the zme. contact
Free plugs
Free plugs is where it's at. For those who deserve them, at least. I want to shout some out here. The collective ticket: in case you missed last week's paper, I'm campaigning on behalf of them. I hope I don't get fmed.They are the ones with experience in consensusbased decision-making; a process that leads to everyone's concerns being addressed, and leads to the most people in agreement over the best course of action. Of course, for a consensusbased approach to work, people need to learn how to work with it. WPIRG is one place where you can go if you're interested in learning more about this type of decision-mkg. So big up to WPIRG and all the different action groups for doing what they do. See, another reason I'm pluggmg for the "revolutionaries" is the team members' involvment with the K-W Youth Collective and with The Spot (519-578-1425), a youth drop-in centre in Kitchener. Last Tuesday, I went to a labour council meeting with two of the four "collective" caddates to do some outreach work on behalf of the youth collective to promote their May Day happenings and to promote the K-W Solidarity Network. KWSN is new in 2002. It's a still-being-shaped structure of
communication and facktation of operations for local socially- and environmentally-mindedgroups and people. So far the structure consists of a Web site ontario.indymedia.org/kwsolidarity - and the use of both the Blindspot newspaper ontario.indymedia.org/blmdspot - and the CommunityEvents.ca online event calendar, and it's growing. Getting together makes things work better. Organizing and consolidating strengths and resources helps make things easier to do. So check it out, yo. CKMS, the university's ram0 station - 100.3FM: big up to the Thursday night (6-8,8-10 p.m.) hip-hop-plus duo of Bring Tha Ruckus and the Wax Jungle, for their top 10s of 2001. Special shout out to the Wednesday night/ Thursday morning (12-2 a.m.) show for the Bob Marley birthday celebration. Two hours of Bob. including songs, clips of interviews and "best Bob Marley song of all time" voting. Coming up on CKMS, check the WPIRG radio show (this Monday at 5 p.m.) for a focus on socially-conscious music, and UWS radio (this Thursday 5 p.m.), for a . discussion between myself and Mr. Aaron Lee-Wudrick. The Imp& team: if it weren't for them, you wouldn't be getting this paper. Big up. The UW track and field team: as they head into OU and CI action, it's time for everyone else to start worrying. May speed be with y'all. And, everyone who's got some love to give: don't worry, you'll get some back too.
WATERLOO
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