March 8 - International Day of Actions for Women’s Rights
The women's movement traditionally marks March 8 with street actions. Women in Black, feminists and pacifists, have held demonstrations on the squares of Belgrade for the past ten years.
This year we wish to say that fascism has become part of our everyday lives and a method of survival for many. Becoming accustomed to violence is also fascism.
Fascism takes a thousand disguises - from our kitchen to our bedrooms. We are being taught that we are always a bit better than the others.
We use the term fascism:
- Because people are indifferent to violence, the suffering of others, aggression, massacres, destroyed houses, and death... That indifference is fascism.
- Because we settle for a constructed reality and irresponsibility fearing rejection and isolation. That too is fascism.
- Because violence has become part of our everyday lives - children are beaten because they are different, the media are being suffocated because of what they report. Everyone whose opinion is different is beaten or imprisoned. "The important thing is that the Party has survived, we can substitute the people."
- Because life has become irrelevant. That is why our salaries are 74 DM, our schools are cold and our teachers are hungry, city transport is insufficient and so are medicines, sugar, oil and milk. That is why people are ill and are dying.
We, Women in Black, have decided to:
- Be sensitive to the slightest crime in our surroundings. We refuse to assume the roles of victims and the divisions of "us" and "them.”
- Never forget ‘the other’ because we believe that the experience of ‘the other’ is as important as our own.
- Speak out about repression, war, poverty, compulsive conscription, non-existent bridges, and burned villages because silence will not bring salvation.
- Be disobedient to the state and to our father or husband because we believe that there is an anti-fascist in every one of us.
- Take responsibility for hope because when we label fascism, we are aware of it. We are not intimidated and we oppose it by big and small actions of disobedience daily.
SOLIDARITY WITH THE DIFFERENT IS THE POLICY WE ADVOCATE
On Wednesday, March 8, 2000, we will hold a vigil in Republic Square from 2:30 till 3:30 pm. Join us there!
Belgrade, March 7, 2000
Women in Black -- Belgrade
