International Day to End Violence Against
Women: A Proposal

I want to talk about international days of action: in particular 25th
November, the International Day to End Violence Against Women.

International and national days have been about for a long time.  They seem
connected to the age old lore of ceremony, festivals and holidays.  Some are
nominated by the elite (remember Anzac Day) and some are co-opted (May Day).

In the last few years there seems to be a proliferation of international days
of action that are initiated and/or responded to by ordinary people looking
for change.  This is an indication of increased and more effective networking
amongst grass-roots social change groups.

Some that I wouldn't miss are International Women's Day (March 8), Invasion
Day reenactment (January 26) and Reclaim the Night (last Friday in October). 
And others that I know about and sometimes feel guilty about are Political
Prisoner's Day (December 1), International Human Rights Day (December 10) and
World AIDS Day (December 1).

Most of these days are globally oriented in some way, with the exception of
Invasion Day which is associated with the Australian continent.  Reclaim the
Night is celebrated in different continents at different times.

Some campaigns nominate international or national days of action as
focalising points for getting something happening.  This can be a good thing,
especially as a way of initially getting people active on an issue.

However, sometimes campaigning days of action can also be strategically quite
disturbing.  For example, in my experience the decision for such an event has
come from just one or two nodes in the network campaign with little
consultation of wider groups.  The group I was in was rung up, faxed or
emailed a couple of weeks before the date and was told "There is an
international day of action - quick, quick do something" (or words to that
effect).  If responded to, this can shift the centre of energy of a campaign
as the group takes off in a direction outside the strategy direction it was
already holding.  This is more likely to happen to groups without a firm
strategic direction and in groups that have high levels of urgency and
despair.

What's Good
It is important to think carefully about building these campaign days and
international days into a strategy instead of jumping from one to another as
a basis of a campaign structure.
* They can be a good way of educating people, of focussing attention on an
important issue ("Violence against women happens in our community")
* The date can be an important symbol that crystalises meaning for us and
those we want to communicate with.
* They are an excellent way of giving people a global perspective and
building solidarity. ("Today thousands of women all around the world are
protesting the violence they suffer")
* They are a way for ordinary people to reclaim and project what is important
and meaningful to us in place of the forced state celebration of Easter and
Anzac Day.
* They make action manageable by restricting it with neat starting and ending
times.
* They can link with other days of action to make longer periods with a
specific focus.  For example, in Fiji, the Fiji women's movement links 25
November with 10 December and has three weeks of action focussing on the
rights of women and violence against women.

The international day to end violence against women was instituted by Latin
American women's groups in 1981 to mark the 1960 murders of the Mirabel
sisters in the Dominican Republic.  Since then, actions have spread at least
to Brazil, Germany, Thailand, the Philippines and Fiji.  Last year forty
women gathered for a vigil in Ballarat, Victoria.

In 1993, the Council of War Resisters' International (WRI), a global
nonviolence network committed itself to advertising and promoting actions
held around this date.  They were acting in response to increasing pressure
by their Women's Working Group to work more widely around issues of violence
against women and to network on issues that were relevant to women (people)
in Asia, the Pacific, Africa and South and Central America.

I envision many possibilities for the 25th November as a day of action in
Australia.  I see it as a day of many small events and gatherings of women
and men; a day of affinity group actions which make links and act in
solidarity with groups taking action throughout the world.  Because it is
quite close in time to International Women's Day and very close to Reclaim
the Night, large march and rally type actions would be quite inappropriate.  
People would have to move in their thinking to smaller decentralised events.

It will be possible to get ideas from the international alternative press and
media.  My friends in Fiji tell me that they do an enormous amount of radio
work for their three weeks of action.  It sounded to me like they almost take
over the single national radio station with panel discussions and interviews!
And the newspaper of WRI, Peace News, has promised to cover 25th November
both before and after to give news, information and stories of events.

Because it is classic exam time for many students, groups taking part would
have to look further afield for participation - there are lots of women who
aren't students, you know.  Organisers might have to move away from the
general reliance on middle class academia and young adult students that tends
to pervade large segments of the social change movements.

Because of its proximity to Reclaim the Night it could be linked to make a
month of action - the Australian Month to End Violence Against Women!!  A
great benefit of this is that at the hugely attended reclaiming of the night
in late October, we could advertise the smaller affinity group actions and
events projected for the 25th November.

It is a global day that men who work against patriarchy can get involved
with.

And in the same way that WRI have taken it on, it is something that could be
acted on and networked through the ANN.

This would increase communication and build links with the wider women's
movement.  I have already used it as a a way of connecting with women's
groups in Cairns and got to talk about ANN and the Centre for Nonviolence.

This year the new government of Cambodia declared International Women's Day a
national holiday!  Even though I doubt this will happen in Australia in the
near future, I look forward to ordinary people taking up 25th November and
using it to speak out, make links and take action.
Margaret Pestorius