[asia-apec 670] Workshop on Strategies, Gains and Challenges in Women's Struggle Against Globalization (2nd announcement/invitation)

[tpl at cheerful.com]

2nd Announcement and Invitation
			
APWLD (Asia-Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development), GABRIELA, SRED
(Society for Rural Education and Development - Madras) and the Tamilnadu
Women's Forum invite you to the Workshop on Strategies, Gains and
Challenges in the Women's Struggle Against Globalization. It will be one of
the simultaneous forums in the 3rd International Women's Conference Against
APEC to be held on November 8-9. The women's conference is the initial
activity of the Asia-Pacific Peoples' Assembly (APPA) which will continue
until November 10-15. 

3rd Women's Conference Against APEC
November 8-9, 1998
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Workshop on Strategies, Gains  and Challenges 
in Women's Struggle Against Globalization
November 8 (2:30 - 10:00 p.m.)


Objectives

To learn from one another's strategies and gains in the women's struggle
against globalization.

To determine challenges for the next decade in the women's struggle against
globalization.

To determine burning issues that will be the basis for regional and/or
international women's action in the next  years.

Programme 

November 7	Registration to the 3rd International Women's Conference 
		and the Workshop on Strategies, Gains and Challenges

November 8

Morning Session
0900	Welcome
0930	Opening Plenary with Vandana Shiva and irene Fernandez 
		as keynote speakers
1045	Plenary Session: Sharing of Women's Struggles Against Globalization
	-	Assembly of the Poor (Thailand)
	-	Wheat Revival Movement (South Korea)
	-	GABRIELA's Campaign Against Imperialist 
		Globalization (Philippines)
	-	On Migration (Solidaritas Perempuan, Indonesia)
	-	Fundamentalism and Violence Against Women (SRED, India)
1230	Open Forum

Afternoon Session

1430	Start of Simultaneous Workshops

	Workshop on "Strategies, Gains and Challenges 
	in Women's Struggle Against Globalization" 

	Introduction by Elisa Tita Lubi of APWLD and GABRIELA

1500	A Challenge to Women: Resist Globalization, Liberalization and
		Privatization by Dr. Pao-Yu Ching, university professor and 
		social activist, U.S. and Taiwan

1530	Impact of Globalization and Challenges for South Asian Women
		by Nimalka Fernando, President, IMADR

1600	Tea Break

1615	The Indonesian Situation
		by women from Kalyanamitra Foundation, Aceh, 
		West Papua and East Timor

1715	Tamilnadu Rural Women's Caravan
		by Fatima Burnad
		Executive Director, SRED 

1745	Organizing and Mobilizing Women Youth and Students
		by Maricel Gavina
		Secretary General, GABRIELA - Youth

1815	From the Point of View of Socialist Women
		by Joan Hinton
		a former nuclear physicist who has worked in agriculture 
		in China in the past 50 years

1845	Legal Strategies in the Hands of Women
		Radhika Coomaraswamy (to be confirmed)
		UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women

1915	Dinner

2015	Open Forum:  Issues
       	      Resolutions
	             Action plans for regional and international 
			  	women's campaigns

2200	Adjourn

November 9

0900	Plenary Session of the 3rd International Women's Conference
	- Workshop Reports and Resolutions
1300	Lunch
1430	Plenary Continued: Additional Discussion and Synthesis
1700	Closing Ceremony and Cultural Event
 

Please write to APWLD copy furnish the 3rd Women's Conference Secretariat 
if you plan to attend:

>	APWLD
>	Tel (66-53) 404 613 to 614
>	Fax (66-53) 404 615
>	Email <apwld at loxinfo.co.th>
>	
>	Sarojeni Rengam
>	Tel (60-4) 657 0271
>	Fax (60-4) 657 7445
>	Email <panap at panap.po.my>
>
Participants to the 3rd Women's Conference are enjoined to stay for the
Asia Pacific People's Assembly (APPA) which will be held on November 10-15.
The APPA schedule is indicated below:

	Nov 10 (whole day)	Registration
		(evening)	APPA Opening Ceremony
	    11-12		Issue and Sector Forums/Workshops 
				(We are holding the women's conference 
				earlier than APPA so the women can join these
				forums/workshops.)
	    13-14		APPA Plenary Sessions
		15		Closing and People's Action 

For APPA registration and information materials, please write to the APPA
Secretariat <appasec at tm.net.my> You can also subscribe to the APPA
listserve by sending a message to <Majordomo at jca.ax.apc.org> with the
following in the body of your message: subscribe asia-apec.

For purposes of budgeting: food and accomodation in Malaysia will cost
approximately M$120-150 (~US$30-38) per person per day. There is also an
APPA registration fee of US$50 per person which will entitle you to attend
all APPA activities and events. The Malaysian government charges US$11 for
airport tax. Taxi from the international airport to Kuala Lumpur is US$42
roundtrip.
>
>See you in Kuala Lumpur!

---------------------------------------

Rationale

Women have been in the forefront of the struggle against globalization.
This comes as no surprise as women shoulder the heaviest burden of
denationalization, liberalization, deregulation and privatization, the main
components of the globalization scheme that throw women and men to the
sharkteeth of the so-called free market. 

Women workers suffer mass lay-offs, insecurity of tenure due to
casualization and contractualization, slave wages, debilitating working
conditions, sexual harassment and violations of their right to strike and
unionize. Rural and indigenous women continue to be deprived of their right
to own land due to monopoly land ownership by big landowners and
agrocorporations, land conversion to tourist resorts, residential
subdivisions and so-called industrial centers, crop conversion to export
products, and maldevelopment projects like logging and mining by
multinational corporations and construction of huge dams. The urban poor
are driven away from their communities as their houses are demolished to
give way to commercial centers. 

Women have to work even longer hours to keep their families afloat with
additional income that can absorb currency devaluation and spiraling prices
of basic commodities and services. Small wonder that women from various
sectors are forced to go abroad to earn a living, despite the low wages,
terrible working conditions, violation of contracts, racial discrimination,
cultural trauma, the loneliness of being away from their loved ones and
even physical and sexual violence.  Some women are also forced into
prostitution in their own countries and abroad.

Globalization, instead of easing, only intensifies the global economic and
financial crisis. It benefits a few, not the majority of the peoples of the
world. It is the handiwork of the centers of global power - the US, Japan
and the European Union led by Germany - and the multi national and
transnational corporations (MNCs/TNCs), all of them expanding their wealth
and power to further exploit and dominate the poorer nations. They have
their client states of the Third World and the local ruling elite as their
partners.

"The current economic and political agenda in the Asia-Pacific region
disempowers women, feminizes poverty and disintegrates families and
communities. It has also given rise to dangerous 'anti-globalisation
forces' based on narrow, chauvinistic nationalisms. In South Asia,
fundamentalism increases violence against women. In East Asia,
'nationalist' reactions to the crisis amplify harsh treatment of migrant
workers. In Australia, the lobby against Asian immigration escalates. These
emerging local and national trends are especially worrying for women."
(Rag, 1 Jul 1998).
 
It is therefore important to share and replicate pro-people and pro-women
strategies of resistance and alternatives to globalization as more and more
women and men among the workers, peasants, indigenous peoples, urban poor
communities, youth & students, professionals, church people, health sector,
teachers, government employees and local entrepreneurs have become aware of
the true nature and ill effects of globalization. More and more have taken
up the fight against globalization and found alternatives: the Assembly of
the Poor in Thailand, Wheat Revival Movement in South Korea, anti-dam
campaign in Malaysia and Cambodia, the Cordillera people's campaign against
open pit mining in the Philippines, campaigns against trafficking of women
and the International People's Campaign Against Imperialist Globalization
led by the Philippine people's movement.

APWLD, GABRIELA, SRED and the Tamilnadu Women's Forum have organized the
workshop on Strategies, Gains and Challenges in the Women's Struggle
Against Globalization to provide a venue through which women can share and
learn from each other and plan concerted actions.

End results
 
Statement of Unity
Resolutions that will guide national, regional and international 
  women's action
Initial regional and/or international campaign plans