Sunday 31 May 2009

In Gaza for the children, CodePink invite President Obama to visit the Strip

120 US citizens enter Gaza to bring help and solidarity to the children of Gaza, traumatised by long years of occupation, siege, and war. They invite President Obama to visit the Strip during his stay in Egypt on June 4th.





Yesterday, May 30th, a delegation of over 70 people entered the Gaza Strip bringing toys, school materials, medicines, and the makings of three playgrounds.
This delegation joins a group from New York and 40 students who were already in the Gaza Strip, bringing the US presence in the area to more than 120 people.

In addition to bringing solidarity to the population, the US activists invited US President Obama to visit the Strip during his upcoming stay in Egypt to see with his own eyes the conditions in which people are living because of the siege.

"We believe that if President Obama is serious when he says he wants to reverse the past trend of US policy, then he should personally see Gaza. ", declared Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CodePink Women for Peace and promoter of the delegation to the Gaza Strip. " We are sure that if he could go in person and see and hear of the sufferings, he would put the necessary pressure on the governments of Israel and Egypt to immediately open the borders. ".

"If President Obama can, at the last minute, add a visit to Saudi Arabia for a private dinner with the king, then he can certainly go to Gaza", said Colonel Ann Wright, co-leader of the delegation, a retired colonel who resigned from the Department of State in 2003 in protest at the war in Iraq.

To convince him, the invitation will be sent to him by way of an international petition, and the signatures collected on the Internet will be delivered to the US embassy in Cairo on June 4th, the day on which Obama will make his speech to the Islamic world.

Click
here to sign the CodePink petition calling on Obama to take this important step towards peace in the region.

CodePink has organised several delegations to the Gaza Strip to witness the devastation caused by the Israeli attack and by the siege which continues to block the arrival of food, medicines, and materials for reconstruction almost 6 months after the Israeli invasion.

Thursday 28 May 2009

A Udine: Recognition for RAWA

On April 25th 2009, the “Honor et Dignitas” prize was awarded to RAWA at the Balducci Reception Centre

RAWA,
the Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan has been active for 25 years. It was founded in Kabul in 1977 by a group of women intellectuals, under the leadership of Meena, a teacher and poet, who was assassinated in 1987 by Afghani agents of the KGB in collaboration with the fundamentalists of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

RAWA maintains a political position in defense of democracy and against all forms of fundamentalism. RAWA also performs social work both in Afghanistan and among the refugees in Pakistan. They have opened schools, orphanages, literacy courses for women, groups to raise awareness about health, rights, and democracy.

In a female population that is suffering from serious problems of depression
- statistics show percentages rising to 98%- the women of RAWA have tried to keep alive the awareness of rights and the hope of change in a civil society devastated by civil war, by fanaticism, by exile. They have preserved the seeds of culture and of civilisation that represent the only prospective for the future.

It was May 2001, when Mariam Rawi and Zoya Gathol, invited by the Women in Black, first met the women and men of Udine. The assembly was attentive to their testimony, participative and grateful for the example of courage and simplicity that the young women of RAWA offered when they denounced the arrogance and the freedom-killing power of the Taleban.
They were admired for their nonviolent resistance, for the tenacity with which they continued to sow the seeds of a free future in their martyred land.

We know that the Afghans look to the Italian Resistance as an example of an achievement that in their own country seems dramatically remote; a symbolic place from which to draw the force to feed the hope that they need. And for this reason, they immediately accepted the proposal of participating with the Women in Black in parade celebrating the liberation of Italy on the 25th April.


So, on a wonderfully sunny day, crowned by the prize giving ceremony that took place a few hours later at the Balducci Centre, they walked with us - Women in Black from Udine and other cities and with the women of Cisda.

We walked, knowing that we were participating in an event that transcended the limits of our own lives and the limits of geography. In a great embrace of recognition we joined with those who fought during the Resistance because they could not live with injustice, so that it might be possible to build a world founded on respect for the rights of everyone, founded on peace.

Perhaps also for this reason, the Afghan women sought among the lined faces and among the flags, a face of a woman who could, at least in part, make that embrace a reality.
They wanted to tell a woman partisan about the importance they felt in being there, and they found her in one who after having urged them to continue in their struggle - firstly in the struggle for freedom from male oppression - took off the ANPI neckerchief and gave it to Sahar, who then tied it round the tiny head of her little four month old daughter. A gesture of passing on, that moved us deeply.

The prize giving ceremony was held at the Balducci Centre in Zugliano. A long and emotional applause accompanied Mariam when she moved to take her place on the platform.
Her testimony spoke to us of an ever more violent Afghanistan - more violent today than it was on the eve of the armed Western intervention.

In 2001, three objectives were bandied to justify the war in Afghanistan: to bring freedom and rights to women, to bring democracy, and to defeat terrorism. But the situation now is terrible, much worse than the international media would have us believe, since the strategy that the US have adopted to destroy the power of the Taliban has been to make pacts with war criminals and fundamentalists, who have come together in parties like the Northern Alliance and who currently make up - according to Human Rights Watch – 85% of the Afghan parliament.

Strategies such as setting up talks with so-called "moderate" Talibanis ” or with criminals like Gulbuddin Hekmatyar – cannot and have not set a course towards pacification. Instead they have lead to a new heightening of the conflict. And the countries of Europe, including Italy, have lined up behind the US policy.

The consequence of the power structure in Afghanistan is to make the conditions for women even more dramatic: “ Violence and rape of young girls and very old women, group rapes, forced marriages - including very young girls” are commonplace, as RAWA has witnessed.

The percentage of women who commit suicide has risen sharply, as have the acid attacks on women students and teachers. ”.

However, the most serious matter - that has no parallel in other countries, according to Mariam, is the recent law proclaimed by parliament that denies women the rights of freedom of movement and self-determination.

we have returned to the Taliban period and the US is doing nothing to oppose the violation of elementary and fundamental rights, such as the right to leave the house or to study. The war, so they said, was needed to free women from the burqa, but eight years on, no woman goes about without the burqa or the chador, because of the fear of being attacked by fundamentalists. ”.

Mariam also asks: how can cities and villages be bombed killing helpless civilians, in the name of the fight against terrorism? Further - with a completely corrupt parliament, in the hands of the fundamentalist war criminals, whose pockets are being lined with the economic aid coming from the international community?

For the population it's clear that the the strengthening of the Western presence in Afghanistan brings about only the construction of more military bases.

The Afghan parliament, supported by the West, is absolutely nothing to do with democracy and those who use the instruments of democracy to oppose it are persecuted - for example, the case of independent journalists like Sayed Kambaksh who was condemned to death and has had his sentence commuted to 20 years in prison. Many others are in prison like him, many have even been killed. The Afghan parliament, supported by the West, is absolutely nothing to do with democracy since one of the conditions imposed to get the reconstruction law passed has been the total impunity for war crimes committed by those who now sit in the parliament.

Mariam also asked what kind of democracy the West has brought to Afghanistan when threats are made against “associations like RAWA while war lords are free to do whatever they want”.

Thursday 21 May 2009

Support the Reopening of the Anti-violence centre for the Women of L'Aquila

The antiviolence centre for the women of the province of l’Aquila is a project that was started around two years ago by the group donnEmanifestE, made up of many women's groups, associations, and movements, including the Women in Black.

To get to work, the centre used space at teh AIED consultation centre - which is a participant in the project, as is th Women's library that is hosted in the same premises in the old centre of L'Aquila.


The antiviolence centre is run by around 20 women from the group donnEmanifestE, who have provided women who have turned to the centre free legal advice and psychological and medical help. They are supported by the collaboration of women professios in the fields of psychology, gynaecology, and law and were able to launch their services with an initial grant from the Province of l'Aquila.

During the two years of actvity many Italian and immigrat women, victims of male violence, mainly in the home, have turned to the centre for help.

Since the earthquake the centre is no longer usable and all the women from the centre have now been displaced.

Despite this difficult and painful situation all the women of donnEmanifestE are convinced of the urgency of reopening a physical space to restore the visibility of the antiviolence centre, to reconnect the threads of relationships with the women and to rebuild a place of welcome and of exchange of experiences for the women, especially in the current situation where emergency causes the nuclear families to close in on themselves and reinforces the relationships of power between men and women within the family.

Faced with the uncertainty of the timelines for rebuilding, of the management of the funds and their destination, the most important need of the centre is to rebuild a place, even if it is temporary and precarious - a place that is recognisable for women, so that they can restart their work and not lose the experience they have developed so far.

The conditions of great difficulty for all the women that gave life to the antiviolence centre project make it impossible for the women of of the centre to restart their activities alone. For this reason, they need concrete help by way of a campaign in solidarity with the antiviolence centre.

To send contributions:
c/c IBAN IT88S0501812100000000126343
Bank: Banca Popolare Etica
Account name: Associazione Biblioteca delle Donne Melusine
Address: Via delle Tre Spighe n°1, 67100 L'Aquila
Codice fiscale: 93005400663
Motive: emergenza terremoto Centro Antiviolenza.


For info: Simona Giannangeli 335/8305681, Valentina Valleriani 328/2424103.

Tuesday 19 May 2009

Unacceptable and immoral - the purchase of the F35s


We maintain that it is unacceptable and immoral that the government should decide to invest tens of billions of Euro to purchase military strike aircraft. For this reason we promise that we will ensure that this cry of protest reaches every corner of Italy, in the hope that this programme may be halted.


The decisions, on the 7th and 8th April, of the Defense Commissions of both the Camera and the Senate in favour of a «programme, extending over several years, for the purchase of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) is only the most recent and most obscene example of the policy of rearmament which the Italian government is pursuing, together with its allies. The obscenity of the decision is made more visible because it occurred at the time when Abruzzo was struck by an earthquake. Money's hard to come by for rebuilding houses and civilian infrastrucure, but when it comes to buying war planes - No problem!



The military strike aircraft JSF (better known as F-35) are attack planes, capable of carrying atomic weapons, and which constitute the new tactical direction of the airforce and the navy in the first half of this century. They are certainly the perfect instruments for the type of "global policing" that is being developed: Once they've been built, they certainly won't lie rusting in their hangars in Italy or Holland, but rather will be speedily put to use killing and destroying in different wars, both current and future.

The F-35s will cost us a pile:

  • Around 600 million Euro to build and bring into production the factory at Cameri
  • Around 13 billion Euro (in installments, until 2026) for the purchase of the 131 planes

And a billion Euro has already been spent or pledged.

No one can ignore the fact that, with this kind of money , everyone's conditions of life could be improved: for example, improving and extending social spending, protecting the environment in the cities and the country, investing in renewable energy sources and redistributing wealth.

According to the government the F-35 project will create jobs, will generate technolgical advances for Italian industry and will increase gross domestic product. So, rearmament as a way out of the economic crisis, just like in the great crisis of the 1930s and the depression at the end of the 1800s. A pity that in both cases this path led to world wars.

One thing is certain, the use of the new fighter-bombers in the "peace" missions will produce destruction, death and suffering.

We invite everyone to sign the petition proposed by the National Indignation Campaign(Click the image below):



and to participate in the actions to spread the protest against the rearmament policy :

22nd May, Rome, Piazza Navona
From 11.00 to 19.30 there will be a vigil to denounce the decisions of parliament and to communicate information against rearmament, nuclear weapons, the F-35s, with videos, exhibitions and documentation about military bases in Italy.

2 JUne, Novara, National Demonstration
15.00 Piazza Garibaldi in front of the train station.
Against militarisation, against factories of death, against all wars, for the conversion of military sites for civilian use, for a different economic model. Organised by the Coordination against the F35s.
http://www.nof35.org/

Saturday 16 May 2009

61 years on, the Nakba continues

May 15th 2009 marked a shameful anniversary: 61 years since the Palestinian Nakba; 61 years that Israel has denied the right - recognised by international law - for the Palestinian refugees to return to their own land; 61 years that the nations of the world have approved the aid for Palestinian refugees, as if they were victims of a natural disaster instead of taking a meaningful position against the policies that produced and have prolonged this tragedy.



To he who carved his path through the wounds of millions
To he who, in his armoured car, crushed the roses of the garden
To he who smashed the windows of the houses in the depths of night
To he who set flame to the vegetable garden, the hospital, the museum
And then sang as they burned.
To he who wrote, with his step, the lament of the mothers,
bereaved of their children,
their vines torn down.
To he who pronounced sentence of death on the songbird of joy
To he who from his aircraft swept away
The dreams of youth
To he who shattered the rainbow,
Tonight, the children with the severed roots
Tonight the children of Rafah proclaim :
We did not weave blankets from a strand of hair
We did not spit in the face of the victim
(after extracting the gold teeth)
Why to you rob us of sweetness
and give us bombs?
And why do you make orphans of the children of the Arabs?

From Children of Rafah, Samih Al-Qasim






The recent massacre in Gaza brought to light again the long and bloody Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the tragedy of the Palestinian people, forced to live in conditions of absolute precariousness, of continuous threat, of constant insecurity because of the Israeli occupation.

The media showed the ruins left by the destruction rained down on Gaza by operation "Cast Lead": a desolate landscape, shattered by bombs that fell from the sky, following the white trail of Phosphorus, a disfigured place where life stopped with the advance of the armoured cars: a pile of rubble and ashes where women, men and children ran distracted with fear, burning like torches: many lay still on the ground, with the broken and mutilated bodies, beside brothers, mothers, fathers, children, husbands, wives... dead.

But the accomanying words seemed to want to soften the brutality of the images, clarifying that Israel was reacting to attacks by Hamas, that they were defending their population from the launching of Kassam missiles against the towns close to the Gaza border. Once again the immense destructive force used by Israel passed in to second place and the military attack became the expression of the right to defend themselves.

It's never said that Israel, between 1948 and 1967 took over more than 78% of the land of Palestine and that they continue to occupy the rest with new and extended settlements.

It's never said that the state of Israel was born and developed its policies based on a triple denial:

  • Denial of the existence of the Arab community in historic Palestine. Zionism was pursuing the objective to give a homeland to the Jews of the Diaspora in the land promised to their forefathers, based on the slogan: "A land without people for a people without land".
  • The denial of the cultural identity of the Palestinian people . Palestinians are not recognised as a people with their own culture, but treated generically as Arabs and so destined to live in any Arab country.
  • Denial of the humanity of the Palestinians. For many Israelis, the Palestinians are not humans but rather blood-thirsty beasts, terrorists, who have no respect for life, not even their own, since they turn their own bodies into bombs: even the women are not normal mothers because they wouldn't suffer for the death of their children - they let them go to die then mourn them as martyrs.

The truth is not spoken when the conflict between Israel and Palestine is talked of without recognising the Israeli occupation as the fundamental obstacle to peace.

The Women in Black from Milan have prepared a dossier to support counter-information to combat the silence and dishonesty of the media. Copies are available from marinella.sanvito@fastweb.it. They cost 10 Euros plus post and packing.

Thursday 14 May 2009

Peace puts down roots in Vicenza




On May 10th , 530 people signed papers in the presence of a notary for the collective purchase of the land where the Permanent Protest against the Dal Molin project to build a US base. The land occupied by the protest is planned to be the north




"Let's put down roots at Dal Molin" is the name of the campaign in which sol many citizens who are opposed to the military base have paid a subscription of 100 Euro to buy the land. The No Dal Molin movement provides a stable basis for their own opposition and, above all, puts a spanner in the works of the militarisation: the land that has been purchased should, according to plans, be expropriated for the construction of the entrance to the base.



It was a really festive occasion at the Presidio with long lines of patient people waiting hours for their turn to sign in the presence of the notary. But they had the chance to meet friends, to listen to music or readings, watch theatre, or take a guided tour around the area and get refreshment at the bar at very reasonable prices.


Those who were in line waiting for the notary received a leaflet about the next initiative - to take place on July 4th, when the people of Vicenza once more invite everyone to come to Vicenza "to free Dal Molin from the war base". On the eve of the G8 and of Obama's arrival in Italy, the city of Vicenza will once again be the centre of attention for those who struggle against war and its instruments.


"On the day in which US citizens celebrate their independence from the British Empire, we want to claim our independence from military servitude. "

Tuesday 12 May 2009

We will not raise our children to kill another mother's child

" We the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. From the bosom of a devastated earth, a voice goes up with our own. It says, Disarm" Disarm!"
Julia Ward Howe, declaration of Mothers' Day, 1870


On the 10th May, 2009, Mothers' day, the US women's peace group Code Pink organised a 24 hour vigil outside the White House to celebrate mothers, but also to remember mothers in conflict zones who pay the price of war with their bodies, their loved ones, their homes, and their future.



They also invited women from around the world to take part, making the pledge: "I will not raise my children to kill another mother's child". Many women, among them Women in Black from Italy took up the invitation and sent photos to bear witness to their refusal of the logic of war.




In theory, the promise should be easy to keep - according to the Italian constitution, Italia repudiates war. But despite the constitution, our country is involved - directly and indirectly in the majority of armed conflicts. Italian territory is used to launch attacks. In our research institutes, there is collaborative work with Israel - a country which is credibly accused of war crimes - to develop new military technologies.

Arms - Italy sells to everyone, including countries that are at war - Turkey, India, Pakistan, Georgia, Israel, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Sri Lanka, Congo are all clients.

In 2008 the turn over in the arms industry grew by 222% compared to the preceding year. According to the office of the Prime Minister in its last report on export, import, and transit of arms: "This represents an important technological, employment, and productive capital for our country. ."

We demand the liberation of our country from bases of war, the liberation of our universities from military research.

We demand an economy that promotes life, health, joy, home, instead of desperation, destruction and death.

Monday 4 May 2009

Marisela Ortiz Rivera: The fight against femicide

Every week in Ciudad Juarez at least one woman disappears never to be seen again, unless the kidnappers decide to let her lifeless body turn up, marked by signs of brutal torture, sexual violence, mutilation and . It's a source of terrible pain for this community. Is it really possible that there's nothing that will move those who have the power to halt this horror?

The desperation and fear of the families who know when their daughters leave the house but not when or if they will return, together with more than 300 murders and around 600 disappearances don't seem to be enough of a motive to act to stop these crimes.


My daughter
abducted, tortured, bitten, beaten, crushed
burned, cuffed, raped, strangled

without pity
without heart
without soul


by stony-heart
by empty-soul
by devil-hand

My daughter
discarded like a throwaway, non reusable product
treated like trash
like garbage.


My daughter
despised, defamed, disgraced,
calumnied
in her virtue
vilely, falsely,

by cowards


Those in power
without heart to feel
without ears to hear
without eyes to see
without soul to seek

JUSTICE!!!

for my daughter

Eugenia Muñoz

Marisela Ortiz Rivera, teacher ad psychologist, is one of the founders of the association Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa, - an organisation made up of the family and friends of the young murdered and disappeared women. The activists of Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa work to ensure that public opinion sustains the denouncing of the phenomenon of "femicide". Marisela has been battling for years against the culture of silence and the coruption of the institutions. Her life changed when her best pupil, Alejandra, was abducted in February 2001 and never found again. With the girl's mother, she had the strength to do what no one else in Ciudad Juarey had dared speak out. She founded Nuestras Hijas de regreso a casa ("Bring our daughters back home"), an association of women united by grief, by desperation, by the thirst for justice for crimes almost always unsolved and unpunished.


Last year , Marisela was in Padua where the Women in Black and the women of the Pandora Centre interviewed her:

Where does a woman find the courage to confront what you have, threats, attempts to kill you, bullying, and carry on in spite of everything? How do you live with the fear?

It's not a decision that I took in at any one time. I believe it's a long process. It's something I learned from all I've experienced in these years. I think you must have the strength when you have these examples before you: a group of mothers who have lost their daughters in such a tragic way, who live without sleep and are always thinking of what their daughters suffered, and who despite this pain struggle to keep going, to be there for their children, to seek justice and to try to prevent other mothers from suffering this terrible pain. So, when these examples are there for you, you can't do anything other than carry on. For me it is a great commitment, the admiration and respect that I have for these women makes me carry on, and besides I have a family who have always supported me. Sure, it was hard at first. As I said, it's a process that isn't complete from in a single day.


Fear has always existed and there's no simple way of overcoming it. Knowing each day that you could lose your life at the hands of people without scruples is a terrible thing. I believe I will never overcome the fear, but still I've learned what to do with it. At first it was a fear that paralised me, a fear that could have made me draw back to do other things: my own life, my children, my family, but now I've decided to continue with the fear and I've said that even with fear we can go on.

Fear cannot make me hide under the bed. Fear must not make me fold my arms. I must confront the situation to make myself braver and so that the people who threaten me don't see my weakness.

The complete interview (in Italian) together with:

  • Micaela from Women of Sand by Humberto Robles
  • Juarez for the Vagina Monologues of Eve Ensler
  • A short file on Marisela Ortiz
  • A short bibliography

Costs 3 Euro and can be bought from

Centro Culturale Pandora
Donne in Nero
Via Tripoli 3
35100 PADOVA
e-mail orvivia@gmail.com

http://centropandora.splinder.com/
http://retedidonne.wordpress.com/