Democracy Now! March 8, 2002

9:01-9:06 HEADLINES Today is international womens day. For women in some countries, that is international working womens day, to celebrate the importance of womens labor. For other women around the world, its a day to strike against womens work, so much of which is unpaid, unnoticed, and unaccounted for. International womens day has a long history, both in this country and around the world. We turn now to a demonstration in New York for international womens day on March 8 of last year, to hear some of the history of this day. This is Marion Larkin of the socialist feminist group Radical Women. GUEST: MARION LARKIN, Radical Women, New York AUDIO CLIP 9:06-9:07 ONE-MINUTE MUSIC BREAK 9:07-9:20 MORE THAN 30 PEOPLE DIE IN ISRAEL-PALESTINE IN ONE OF THE BLOODIEST DAYS IN RECENT HISTORY, BUT ISRAELI AND PALESTINIAN WOMEN ARE WORKING TOGETHER TO END THE OCCUPATION The Associated Press is reporting that more than 30 people have been killed in Israel-Palestine in one of the bloodiest days in seventeen months. Early this morning, Israeli troops raided towns in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, killing some 26 Palestinians and wounding nearly 60 others. At the same, just miles from one of the raids, a 17-year-old Palestinian attacked dormitories and a Bible study hall in a Jewish settlement in Gaza. Five Israeli teenagers were killed. Despite the fighting, President Bush has announced that he is sending his special envoy, General Anthony Zinni, back to the region to try to negotiate a ceasefire. The blueprint for his proposal is based on a truce plan sketched last year by CIA chief, George Tenet. It calls for the Palestinians to crack down on so-called militants and prevent attacks on Israel, and for Israelis to lift its broad travel bans on Palestinians and pull back to positions it had before September 2000. Zinni is expected to present his plan to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, and others next week. But as men come together at the negotiating table, plotting a peace process that may or may not work, who will speak for Palestinian and Israeli women? Throughout the occupation of Palestine and the ensuing conflict, women have suffered uniquely and inordinately. At the same time, they have played a leading role in the struggle against the occupation as well as peace efforts. Today we will speak with two women from the Jerusalem Link, the coordinating body of two independent women's centers: Bat Shalom - The Jerusalem Women's Action Center, located in West Jerusalem - and Marcaz al-Quds la l-Nissah - the Jerusalem Center for Women, located in East Jerusalem. The groups work together toward a real peace, not merely a treaty of mutual deterrence. GUEST: AMNEH BADRAN, director, Jerusalem Center for Women CONTACT: www.j-c-w.org/contact.htm GUEST: TERRY GREENBLATT, director, Bat Shalom CONTACT: www.batshalom.org/1.htm 9:20-9:21 ONE-MINUTE MUSIC BREAK 9:21-9:30 DID THE US REALLY LIBERATE THE WOMEN OF AFGHANISTAN? PLAYWRIGHT AND V-DAY FOUNDER EVE ENSLER SPEAKS FROM KABUL AS SHE PREPARES FOR TALKS WITH AFGHAN WOMEN LEADERS In his State of the Union address several weeks ago, President Bush declared that US military action in Afghanistans had successfully liberated the countrys women from the Talibans grip. In rousing tones, he announced: The last time we met in this chamber, the mothers and daughters of Afghanistan were captives in their own homes, forbidden from working or going to school. Today women are free, and are part of Afghanistan's new government. But have Afghan women really been liberated? And are they really better off now than under the Taliban? Well, as women around the world celebrate International Womens Day, a group of Afghan women leaders and womens rights activists from around the world are holding their first meeting in Kabul to discuss ongoing challenges and historic next steps for Afghan women. The meeting brings together more than 30 prominent Afghan women leaders, who have traveled against all odds from Kandahar, Jalalabad, Herat, and other regions. The discussions are a follow up to the Afghan Womens Summit For Democracy, which was held in Brussels in December. The goal of the Summit was to bring the voices of Afghan women into the political discourse and ensure that women have equal say and rights in the new interim government. We head now to Kabul to speak with some of the organizers of this weekends talks on the future of Afghan Women. The event is sponsored by V-Day, the global movement to stop violence against women and girls, as well as Equality Now and the Center for Strategic Initiatives of Women. GUEST: EVE ENSLER, playwright and founder of V-Day. Ensler traveled underground in Afghanistan two years ago, long before the international community began to pay attention the situation of Afghan women. The Kabul talks coincide with the opening of Enslers play "Necessary Targets" Off-Broadway in NYC. Based on interviews with numerous women who survived the civil war in the former Yugoslavia, "Necessary Targets" provides a timely reminder of the effects of war on women in America and overseas. GUEST: HIBAAQ OSMAN, Founding Director of the Center for the Strategic Initiatives of Women, an organization that has been convening women leaders across Somalia and Sudan to promote peace efforts in the region. She was born in Somalia. 9:40-9:41 ONE-MINUTE MUSIC BREAK 9:31-9:58 GLOBAL WOMEN'S STRIKE: VOICES OF WOMEN AROUND THE WORLD ON THIS INTERNATIONAL WOMENS DAY Three years ago, a womens group in Galway, Ireland, a small town in the west of the tiny country, called for women to stop work on International Women's Day. Women all over Ireland held a strike to end conditions of no pay, low pay and too much work for women all over the world. A few months later, the Irish women leaders approached the International Wages for Housework Campaign at a U.N. meeting in New York, and the strike went global. Women in 60 countries took part in the first ever Global Women's Strike on March 8, 2000, demanding pay equity and wages for all caring work, the abolition of Third World debt, access to clean water and affordable housing, and an end to violence against women. Today we are going to go to some of the women across the world, holding a global strike for International Working Womens Day. We go first to Margaretta Darcy, who is one of the founders of the global womens strike. She is leading a ten-hour rally and vigil in Galway and they are sending a message of sweeping out corporate greed and unequal treatment. GUEST: MARGARETTA D'ARCY, (Galway, Ireland), Women In Media & Entertainment, global womens strike organizer GUEST: NINA LOPEZ JONES, (London), coordinator with the Housewives Union, the group thats coordinating the strike in Argentina. GUEST: MANJU GARDIA, (Chattesgar state, India), Chattesgar Womens Organization GUEST: LORI NAIRNE, (San Francisco) global womens strike coordinator, organizer with the group Wages Due Lesbians, part of the Wages for Housework campaign. CONTACT: http://womenstrike8m.server101.com http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/crossroadswomenscentre/WFH.html 9:58-9:59 OUTRO AND CREDITS