BUILDING THE WORLD WE WANT
Forum : 9:30am- noon
Concordia University 1455 de Maisonneuve, 7th floor. 
Translation and babysitting available
Accesible to individuals with functional diversity

*Keynote speaker*

Ellen Gabriel, Mohawk activist and artist from Kanehsatà:ke Nation - Turtle Clan, known for her involvement as the official spokesperson, chosen by the People of the Longhouse, during the Oka Crisis.
To mark the 25th anniversary of the Oka crisis - We want a world where the rights of indigenous peoples to land and their way of life is guaranteed; a world where they have every opportunity to flourish in harmony with nature and other humans.

Other speakers:

Leila Bdeir, Collective of Muslim Women: Leila Bdeir is a Muslim feminist and social justice activist. She teaches Humanities at Collège Vanier.She will speak on the impact of Islamophobia on women. We want a world free of discrimination based on religion or race. 

Viviana Carol and members of Women's Committee, Immigrant Workers' Centre: immigration laws that prevent equal opportunities for immigrants and keep them in precarious conditions: We want all people working in Canada, to be treated in an equal manner with access to the same benefits and unionization. 

Samia Botmeh is a visiting Palestinian professor from Birzeit University and coordinator for The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). We want a world where the women and people of Palestine's right to exist and right to their land is respected and defended by all.

Chantal Ismé, Maison d'Haiti, MCVI, la CLÉS -Contemporary racism metamorphoses on the terms of global capitalism.How does sexism intertwine with this? This presentation will look at women from ethnic minorities, in particular black women, in order to highlight the impact of this triumverate on different aspects of their lives. "We want a world where racial diversity is recognized as a richness, not a weakness and all people live as equals."

Agnes Calgo, Filipino Indigenous Peoples' Organization in Quebec, will talk about the impact of large mining projects in their region of the Philippines and the historic struggles of women to protect their territory and their sources of life. We
want a world where respect for the environment and well-being of the population take precedence over the search for private profit.

Marie-Eve Marleau is coordinator of the Comittee for Human Rights in Latin America, and one of the organizers of the Permanent People's Tribunal on Canadian Mining Companies in Latin America. She will speak about plans for a second session of the Tribunal to bring out the vision of women about the impact of extractive megaprojects. We want a world where Mother Earth is respected and protected for future generations. 

Protest:
1pm Normand Bethune Square corner of de Maisonneuve and Guy ( Metro Guy-Concordia) https://www.facebook.com/events/568146209994281 

Organised by Women of Diverse Origins, a working group of QPIRG Concordia


BUILDING THE WORLD WE WANT!

The world in which we mark this year’s International Women’s Day is a world at war propelled by imperialist nations and multinational corporations. The March 8 Collective of Women of Diverse Origins denounces the hypocrisy of the Canadian government, the elites and states that claim to fight on our behalf for freedom and democracy.

On March 8, we invite women of all origins and the most vulnerable among us who are stigmatized, despised and rejected by the economic,  social and anti-democratic policies adopted by governments in Quebec, Ottawa and in many countries around the world, to demonstrate and take to the streets, to denounce them and to declare that we will build the world we want!

We denounce Quebec and Ottawa for their neoliberal policies — cuts and attacks on health services, education, childcare, energy rates, transportation, employment insurance and the most fundamental rights, to a decent life, to dignity and to work. The excuse is the economic crisis that world capitalism and the states that serve it have themselves caused. We also denounce the laws and policies in Canada and Quebec, attacking the rights of immigrant and refugee women and their families, temporary workers who will never get permanent status, creating a permanent class of sub-citizens. This state racism endorses discrimination, Islamophobia – where Muslim women are particularly targeted – and paranoia against minorities.

We denounce the hypocrisy of states that loudly publicize their denunciation of crimes against women, for example the victims of Boko Haram, while they exhibit double standards, like Canada’s indifference when it comes to the missing and murdered native women here. We denounce the danger of militarization of society, increased state surveillance of individuals, increased military and police presence, preventive arrests and extraditions in Canada and elsewhere. The world is scarred by imperialist, patriarchal and colonialist policies, such as those of the United States and its allies in the Middle East. By funding and arming reactionary forces and fundamentalist states they have triggered chaos in Syria, Libya, Afghanistan and Iraq and stood by while Palestine was brutally attacked.. We denounce and reject the spurious “war on terror” and stand in solidarity with women around the world who are among its victims. This is all Canada and its allies offer to improve the world. This war is a continuation of economic suffocation, plunder and colonialist policies. This “war on terror” only wreaks havoc, destruction, repression and civilian casualties … but no solution. 2015 marks the 25th anniversary of the attacks on Kanehsatà:ke by Quebec and Canada — state violence that attempted to criminalize the Mohawk people who were resisting capitalist exploitation of their land, in a continuum of colonialism that started over 500 years ago.

We resist. We organize and we will build a world free from the oppressions of patriarchy, racism, capitalism and class inequality, religion and imperialism! We will build a world where economics will be based on meeting peoples’ basic needs of housing, childcare, work, food, health and human security. We will build a world without oppression, where power is in the hands of the majority, not concentrated in the hands of the minority of the most rich!

• We will demonstrate at the side of native women on February 14 to protest the murders and disappearance of their daughters, sisters, mothers;
• We will participate with the World March of Women on April 24 in solidarity with the women workers of Bangladesh to commemorate the hundreds of victims killed when their factory collapsed;
• We reaffirm our solidarity with the women of Palestine who have resisted with their people for generations to assert their right to exist and their right to their land.
• We salute the women who organize resistance against the aggression of Canadian mining companies from here to Ecuador, the Congo and the Philippines!
• AND WE WILL BE IN THE STREET ON MARCH 8 – TO CHANGE THE WORLD!

https://wdofdo.wordpress.com/


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