Media Alert – March 8th
Women’s Survival is Focus of International Women’s Day Events in Los Angeles
What: International Women’s Day Event
When: Saturday, March 9, 10:30am
Where: Outside the Downtown Jail, 441 Bauchet St LA 90012
Contact: Pat Alviso, Military Families Speak Out 562-833-8035
Nancy Berlin, Alexandria House 323-422-2830
Margaret Prescod, Women of Color Global Women’s Strike 323-646-1269
Diana Zuñiga, Californians United for a Responsible Budget 213-864-8931
Spanish speaking contact: Rossana Cambron 562-728-7895
A series of actions are planned for Los Angeles on Saturday March 9 to commemorate International Women’s Day with the theme “Women: Surviving Globally, Surviving in Southern California.” The SoCal event is part of global actions taking place in India, Guyana, Haiti, US, UK.
SoCal Events include a 10:30 rally and speak-out at the Twin Towers jail (441 Bauchet St), a March for Survival from the jail to The Last Bookstore and a 1:30 teach-in at The Last Bookstore (453 S. Spring). Children’s activities; food; wheelchair accessible. All events are free of cost and all are welcome. Interviews are available prior to and at the event in English and Spanish.
LA City Council has issued a resolution entitled “Women: Surviving Globally, Surviving in Southern California to honor the contributions of the women of the City of Los Angeles.
“Our focus on International Women’s Day will be on the increasingly precarious position of women and our children in Southern California and around the world,” said Margaret Prescod of Women of Color in the Global Women’s Strike. “The ongoing economic crisis is hitting single mothers, immigrants and other low and no income people the hardest, and women of color are disproportionately impacted. And our children with few options end up in the military, thus far over 400 teenagers have been killed in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.”
The women are calling for an end to poverty, for support, for the RISE, and for the WORK Act which will be reintroduced into Congress. The women are calling for the halt of the building of the new women’s jail or “village” in Los Angeles; for establishment of a Bill of Rights for Domestic Workers; to halt the removal of children by DCFS simply because the mothers are poor; to stop the separation of families resulting from immigration laws and more. The women want a change of priorities from a war and prisons economy to one that priorities the caring of people and the environment. Global demands can be found at www.globalwomenstrike.net.
“California has been cutting funding for welfare, homecare, public education, health care, food security and other basic survival needs of low income communities, youth, the elderly and people with disabilities, while increasing spending on prisons and local law enforcement and undermining labor unions,” said Nancy Berlin of Alexandria House “Our very survival is being criminalized. With 50 million people living in poverty in the US what mother would not do what she needs to in order to put food on the table and keep a roof over the heads of her children?
“While billions of our tax dollars are being spent on war, the continuing war in Afghanistan, veterans are not taken care of when they get home In LA County there are 9,000 homeless Vets. Our loved ones in the military are still dying, and countless come home unable to deal with the effects of PTSD, traumatic brain injuries, sexual trauma and other invisible wounds of war, says Pat Alviso with Military Families Speak Out. “Every day about 22 veterans in the US kill themselves.”
“The US has 5% of the world’s population and has 25% of the world’s prisoners. Women are increasingly suffering from homelessness and incarceration. Women are having their children taken from them every day. Women are hungry and in need of health care. What does Los Angeles County want to do? They want to build a $200 million so-called ‘Women’s Village’ – a new jail!” said Diana Zuñiga of Californians United for a Responsible Budget. “The women of Los Angeles don’t need a new jail or a better jail. We need to be out of jail with housing, food, education, quality healthcare of our choice and other resources necessary for the care of our families, communities and the environment.
Coordinating the So Cal events is the So Cal IWD Planning Group: Alexandria House, Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB), Critical Resistance, DCFS Give Us Back Our Children, Every Mother is a Working Mother Network, Iraq Veterans Against the War LA Chapter, KidVillage@OccupyLA, Martin Luther King Coalition, Military Families Speak Out, NO MORE JAILS LA, Veterans for Peace, Women’sCircle@OccupyLA, Women of Color/Global Women’s Strike and GWS/LA
Co-sponsors to date: California Partnership, Coalition to End Sheriff Violence, Long Beach Area Peace Network, Long Beach Recruiter Awareness Project, Orange Co Peace Coalition, Youth Justice Coalition
Global Action called by: the Global Women’s Strike including in: Guyana, Haiti, India, Peru, UK, US
