On International Women’s Day, ACTSA held a rally in solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe, calling for Dignity and Democracy, linked to their Dignity! Period campaign.

Unfortunately the Dignity and Democracy for Zimbabwe rally in Trafalgar Square organised by ACTSA on International Women’s Day failed to attract the hoped for thousands, partly because some were already at Marble Arch for the start of the march.

The Dignity! Period campaign launched by ACTSA in 2005 in solidarity with the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) and supported by the UK trade union movement and a number of celebrities offers very practical support to the women of Zimbabwe, where inflation has made sanitary products prohibitively expensive. Since its start the campaign has distributed more than 3 million sanitary pads, enabling women and girls in Zimbabwe to continue work and education without the risk to their health from using newspapers and dirty rags.

Speakers at the rally included a number of trade unionists from Zimbabwe and the UK, including TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber and Diana Holland, Unite national organiser for women, race and equalities. As well as the hundred or so ACTSA supporters present, some others in the square stopped to listen to the speeches. Unfortunately I had to leave after only around half an hour to rush to the start of the Million Women Rise march.

More about this – and many more pictures – on My London Diary soon.
 http://mylondondiary.co.uk/2008/03/mar.htm#dignity