[asia-apec 672] 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
>