Letter published in the Guardian Tuesday October 26, 2004

Women must be heard

A major problem for grassroots organisers, especially if we are women, is that neither Stop the War nor the unions are independent of political parties, and both sabotage any organising that doesn't serve their interests (Letters, October 25).

Women are central to achieving real economic and political change. Yet women were silenced at the recent European Social Forum, in which Stop the War and various unions had a controlling hand.

Fifty organisations from 12 countries asked the ESF to hold a women's day. We were turned down - so we called our own. The ESF then hurriedly convened a short women's assembly chaired by those who opposed the women's day. When we finally spoke at the closing plenary, many agreed that a women's day should be integral to the ESF. They also agreed that there is no place at the ESF for police being called on protesters, and for pro-war Iraqi men being given a platform, while anti-war Iraqi women, asylum seekers and Haitians opposed to the US-French coup are not.

Anna Thorburn
Global Women's Strike
Tina Baguma
All African Women's Group
Charo Luque Galvez
Mujeres de Negro, Spain
Eva Thun
Women's News, Hungary
Katarzyna Gawlicz
Wroclaw University, Poland
Renata Franmartino
Unione Donne Migranti Per La Pace, Italy
Sara Callaway
Women of Colour in the Global Women's Strike
Anna Kaminska
Pre-Election Coalition of Women, Poland
Asun Navarro
Collectiu 8 de Marc, Alcoi, Spain
Carolyn Kagan
Director Research Institute for Health and Social Change, Manchester Metropolitan University
Dee Coombes
Liverpool Committee Against the Destitution of Asylum Seekers
Domenico D'Anna
Segreteria Provinciale Modena, Confederazione Generale Italiana Lavoratori, CGIL, Italy
Ingrid McClements
Scotland
Katarina Ferro
ARGE Feminismus, Austria
Katarzyna Szumlewicz
Poland
Maggie Ronayne
Global Women's Strike, Ireland
Marcin Starnawski
Active Society Group, Wroclaw, Poland
Marek Krakowski
Poland
Margarita Morales
England
Mariangela Casalucci
Manchester Social Forum, in a personal capacity
Owen English
Indymedia Oxford, in a personal capacity
Payday men's network
England, Italy
Sara Williams
Global Women's Strike, Spain
Steven Porter
Independent Venezuela Network, Chesterfield


Others who signed but whose signatures arrived too late to be published in the Guardian:

Estella Schmid, Kurdistan Solidarity Committee, England
Ann-Kristin Kowarsch, Netherlands
Corrinna Lotz, Movement for a Socialist Future, England
Fakra Salimi, MiRa Resource Centre, Norway
Christine Klecha, Frauenforum and Berlin Association of Familywomen & Familymen
Sophia L. Thessaloniki, Greece
Uta Depner, Germany
Kathie Martins
Alan Liddiard
Philip O’Brien
Philippa Willitts
Nicky Melling