<<- Back to Beijing +10 report

Declaration of unity and intent

Women from 12 countries gathered in Manila, the Philippines, from August 17 to August 22, 2004 to commemorate the 9th women’s international solidarity affair and celebrate the 20th year of a relentless struggle waged by GABRIELA Philippines for women’s liberation, national independence and genuine freedom.

Through our participation in WISAP 9, we shared our many strengths and triumphs of the women’s struggle. These include the formation of the Women’s Anti-imperialist League (WAIL) in the US, the parliamentary victory of Gabriela Women’s Party in the Philippines, the victory of Bangladeshi women in stopping their government from sending Bangladeshi troops to Iraq, the rich experience of Grassroots Women in Canada in their campaign “Women’s Childcare is a Women’s Right”, the World March of Women Against Violence and Poverty in Europe, and the adoption of the Purple Rose Campaign all over the world. We take pride in the participation of women all over the world in rallying against the so-called US war on terror.

The times of WISAP 9 are without precedence in peril. Imperialist globalization has bared its cruelest aspect, disguised as a war on terror, in order to ensure the most intense of plunders of the world’s resources. Wielding militarism as international policy, under the euphemism of “preemptive war,” imperialism, led by the US and its allies, has made violence a constant of existence itself.

Where militarism is the main instrument of globalization, violence against women becomes a way of life as well. Women suffer 70% of civilian deaths and injuries, making them the most numerous of the so-called “collateral damage” of the war. In conditions of war, where existence itself loses its value, women suffer the spill-over of the heightened state of violence. From rape to trafficking, from repression of women’s rights to reversion to religious fundamentalism, from domestic violence to street violence to kidnappings – all these become constants in the lives of women.

Nowhere is this more palpable than in Iraq and Afghanistan, whose people endure a genocidal attack by the US and its allies – an attack purported to be punishment for “terrorist” attacks by groups created and funded by the US and its allies in the first place. We salute the incomparable courage of the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, even as we condemn the war of aggression and occupation launched against these sovereign countries and people by the US and its allies.

In places where the false peace of corporate civilization prevails, women suffer a slow death by exploitation. In the gigantic sweatshops operated by multinational corporations, women are chained to a cycle of inadequate wages, absence of social benefits and lack of opportunity for advancement. Indeed, women create nearly 60% of globalization’s profits – through menial scut work, through the transfer of forms of gender oppression from First to Third World Women, and most grievously, as commodity in the international labor and sex markets. In addition, women have been the primary target of the marketing of non-essential goods.

To maintain women’s vulnerability, US-led imperialism continues to support capitalist suppression of women’s rights and patriarchal marginalization of women from the centers of social, political and economic power. Even in areas where women have obtained a certain level of democratic rights, imperialism uses right-wing, fascist and religious fundamentalist groups to try to push back the gains of the women’s movement. Thus, we witness the relentless attacks on women’s reproductive rights and heterosexist attacks on their sexuality; we witness as well the relentless pressure on women to return to the so-called “traditional roles” which are nothing more than ensuring that corporations continue to be supplied of workers to exploit and to ensure and continue the power of men over women. At the same time, we witness the imposition of imperialist population policies violative of women’s bodies and reproductive rights. We reject this attempt; we refuse this pressure; and we vow to frustrate all attacks on women’s rights, and to frustrate all attempts to stop women’s liberation.

Having listened to the tales of women’s struggles from Haiti to Canada, from Iraq to India, from Bangladesh to Okinawa, Korea to Japan, Kosovo to Bosnia, from Palestine to the Philippines and concluding that the path to women’s liberation runs through the terrain of the anti-imperialist struggle, we women gathered at the 9th Women’s International Solidarity Affair do hereby affirm:

• Our rejection of the label “terrorist” to demonize people, groups and organizations who struggle against globalization, militarism, imperialism, and for national liberation;
• Our rejection of the label “terrorist” to justify invasion, aggression and occupation of sovereign nations like Iraq and Afghanistan;
• Our rejection of the capitalist values of greed, exploitation, untrammeled capital accumulation as priorities over the value of life and the earth themselves;
• Our rejection of the policy of plunder exercised by multinational corporations such as the oil companies Halliburton, Bechtel and Kellogg, Root and Brown food companies such as Dole, Del Monte, biotechnology companies such as Monsanto, and their imperialist backers;
• Our rejection of financial and development institutions that dictate anti-people and anti-women policies and programs under the guise of neo-liberal development, like International Monetary Fund, Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization.
• Our rejection of intensifying discrimination against race and ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation, class and other forms of intolerance and reaction.

We demand:

• That the US and its allies withdraw immediately from Iraq and Afghanistan; that Israel end the occupation of Palestine and its murderous campaign against its people; that the US, France and all their allies cease their intervention in Haiti; that the US immediately pull out its military troops and bases in the Philippines, Okinawa, Korea; and that indeed, all imperialist violations of national sovereignties cease and desist;
• That negotiations and diplomacy take supremacy over militarism in conflict resolution, and in particular that the peace talks between the GRP and the NDFP and MILF and other revolutionary movements continue full participation of women in the process until some resolution is achieved;
• That national liberation movements, revolutionaries and dissenters against imperialism not be demonized by the label “terrorist”;
• That women workers, peasant women, migrant women, indigenous women, Muslim women, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender and indeed all women of the world be provided with safe and decent jobs, adequate and equal wages and social benefits; that they be protected from harassment and capitalist exploitation;
• That governments ensure that women and children are guaranteed freedom from all forms of violence and that those who have been victimized be provided with support, that the trade in women and children cease immediately, and that the right to migration and free movement internationally of women be guaranteed;
• That enslaved and colonized peoples and countries such as Haiti, the Philippines, Korea, Afghanistan, and Iraq be paid reparations;
• That imperialist countries be held liable for all forms of violence committed against women, especially victims of sexual slavery such as the comfort women to receive reparation.
• That the control imposed by the US imperialism upon international discourse on women’s issues be broken through the simple expedient of holding international women’s gatherings, conferences, and meetings such as the Beijing +10 and the UN Commission on Women Meeting be held in areas outside the territorial and judicial control of the US.

We call on the American people to wrest control of their government back from the warmongering agents of imperialism and globalization.

We call on all peace loving people to condemn the subservience of US puppet regimes such as that of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo whose puppetry is expressed fully in support for the alleged US war on terror.

We call on the peoples of the world to stand up against imperialist policies enacted and enunciated by the US and its allies, and to build international solidarity.

We call on all women to join us in the march towards the complete emancipation of women, the liberation of peoples and nations, and the realization of genuine people’s democracy and freedom for the peoples of the world.

Down with Imperialism!
Resist US Intervention, Aggression and Occupation!
Onward with the Liberation and Emancipation of the Women of the World!
We will sing, we will wail; Filipinas Not for Sale!