Dear friends, I'm writing on behalf of the national organising committee of the World March of Women 2000 (WMW2000) in Australia. The national organising committee for the WMW2000 in Australia comprises representatives from sixteen national women's organisations and/or constituencies. These organisations/constituencies include two representatives of Indigenous Australian women including one from ATSIC, one representative of NESB women, the YWCA, UNAA Women's Committee, Coalition of Activist Lesbians, National Foundation for Australian Women, Women with Disabilities Australia, Women's Rights Action Network Australia, Soroptimists, Baha'i Women's Network, National Union of Students Women's Committee, Union of Australian Women and Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. WMW2000 will be launched both internationally and nationally on or around IWD, March 8. In Australia, launch activities have been arranged in many centres around the country. These launches have been organised cooperatively and in solidarity with IWD Collectives and IWD Committees. The support cards for signature will be available as from the date of the launches. The main activity for WMW2000 will take place in early October. (More details below.) Below is the text of the leaflet re the World March of Women 2000 (WMW2000) in Australia. If you would like to have a version of the leaflet (with graphics) suitable for printing and distribution to your networks and groups, please email me and I will send it to you as an attachment. in solidarity, Cathy Picone on behalf of the WMW2000 national organising committee ============================================= World March Of Women 2000 - Australia "2000 Good Reasons to March: Eliminating Poverty and Violence" Fight Poverty! End Violence Against Women! WHY WMW 2000? "By the late 1990's the fifth of the world's people living in the highest-income countries (and that includes Australia) had: * 86% of world Gross Domestic Product (the bottom fifth just 1%) * 82% of world export market (the bottom fifth just 1%) * the world's 200 richest people more than doubled their net worth in the four years to 1998, to more than $1 trillion." (UN Human Development Report, 1999) One billion of the world's present population are living in extreme poverty. Of those, 70% are women. We are campaigning to resolve these conditions. WHO IS TAKING PART IN WMW? Women from more than 143 countries are this year demanding that the UN and its member States take concrete measures to: * ELIMINATE poverty and ENSURE a fair distribution of the planet's wealth between the rich and the poor, and between women and men. * ELIMINATE violence against women and ENSURE equality between women and men. WHEN AND WHERE? In Australia, a national committee comprising many Non-government Organisations (NGOs) is co-ordinating our response for WMW2000. Action begins everywhere with many launches around the country on International Women's Day. Internationally, the seven-month "march" will culminate on October 17 - International Day for the Elimination of Poverty - with a World Rally in New York (NY) when millions of the signed support cards will be presented to Kofi Annan at UN HQ in NY. EVENTS HERE INCLUDE: * Women's Song & Dance Fests (cultural sharings) around the country on October 7; * Distribution of support cards to go to the UN. Cards can be signed by women and men; * Numerous other events organised by particular women's organisations and particular constituencies. For example, the Trade Union Women's Congress in August this year will focus on the WMW2000, and the Australian Education Union is distributing an information kit to Australian schools. A group of Australian women will represent us all in New York at the World Rally. WHAT YOU CAN DO TO JOIN US IN THE WMW2000? * Sign and return a postcard. * Distribute cards among your friends and networks. Copies of the card can be downloaded at: www.uq.net.au/march2000/ or obtained by contacting the address below. * Attend the Women's Song & Dance Fest in your locality on Saturday October 7. * Get a group of women together to perform an item for the Song and Dance Fest, eg., Indigenous Australian women could sing together, Greek women could sing a Greek song, Lebanese women could perform a dance, women of Jewish heritage could sing a Jewish song. * Ensure that NGOs you belong to have endorsed the March - encourage public events in support of it. * Make a donation. We need money to print more support cards. Donations are tax deductible. Cheques should be made out to the National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW) and sent to the address below with a note as follows "I wish my donation to go to WILPF (Australia) for the World March of Women 2000". FOR MORE INFORMATION: World March of Women (Australia), c/o WILPF, GPO Box 2094, Adelaide, SA, 5001 Phone: 08 8296 4357 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] web site for Australia: http://www.uq.net.au/march2000/ and overseas: http://www.ffq.qc.ca/marche2000 The national coordinating committee for World March of Women 2000 in Australia acknowledges the support for its work given by Senator Kate Lundy and by Jenny Macklin, Member of the House of Representatives for Jagajaga. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
