Canada DEMONSTRATION & ASSEMBLY FOR INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

Solidarity Against Precarity! Smash the Glass Cage of Insecurity!

– A call from the March 8 Committee of Women of Diverse Origins.
This March 8, 2014 we declare our solidarity with the poorest and most vulnerable among us, and take to the streets to denounce the PRECARITY and insecurity imposed on us by a system based on economic, social and political inequalities. We reject the diversionary tactics of the government preying on fears around cultural identity, and focus instead on the conditions we face as the vast majority. Together we will smash this glass cage of capitalism and patriarchy!
The majority of women find themselves at the bottom of a hierarchy of inequality in Canada and around the world. Government policies are widening the gaps between haves and havenots, as they race to provide increasingly cheap, more vulnerable and flexible workforces for the capitalist class and public sector employers.
Precarity is imposed on us in Québec, Canada and globally, in the current world order, at all levels of existence.
PRECARITY OF EMPLOYMENT – low-wage, part-time, casual jobs without benefits, protection or unions; Walmartization of the service sector where women are the majority. Women outnumber men in minimum wage jobs; 70 % in part-time jobs; women head the majority of single parent families. Still today, for every dollar earned by a man in Canada, a woman earns only 70 cents.
Precarious conditions for domestic workers, still denied minimum protection of CSST because their jobs aren’t considered “real work.” Racism and discrimination faced by foreign caregivers under the Live-In Caregiver Program who can be denied resident status if they fall ill, or fail to complete two years in their employers’ homes within imposed time limits. Despite these harsh conditions Filipino women are forced to leave their homes for such employment—part of the global feminisation of migration and the commodification of women.
PRECARITY CAUSED BY IMPERIALIST WARS AND VORACIOUS TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS to control the resources of the planet, leaving environmental devastation and poverty in their wake. Millions are forced to migrate to survive.
PRECARITY OF MIGRATION, reinforced by changes to immigration and refugee laws. Unemployment twice as high among recent immigrants than among locally-born (15% compared to 7.5%), foreign qualifications and accreditation unrecognized, with the consequence of de-skilling of thousands of workers and professionals; immigration policies that have shifted to bring in even more vulnerable workers. Since 2008, Canada has brought in more temporary foreign workers, at wages up to 15% below average wages and the trend shows no sign of decline. More migrants driven underground to become easy prey for contractors and employers who push wages down further. We stand behind the demands for the regularization of non-status migrants.
PRECARITY WITH RESPECT TO BODILY SECURITY & MOTHERHOOD – Immigration and refugee laws have a devastating impact on women, making them more dependent and vulnerable to abuse and violation of parental rights when they enter Canada as sponsored spouses. Oppression and violence also negatively impacts the bodily security of queer and trans women. Reproductive choice is constantly threatened.
PRECARITY FOR ABORIGINAL WOMEN in Canada and abroad whose lands are taken and communities destroyed by mining and lumber extraction projects. Over 600 aboriginal women are missing or murdered in Canada. We join our Native sisters in demanding justice for them.
PRECARITY FOR STUDENTS, many of whom are forced to combine work and studies for years, and even then accumulate debt, with no guarantees of employment once they graduate.
PRECARITY OF SOCIAL RIGHTS — Constant attacks on social housing, education, health services and transportation, further inequality for women, particularly elderly and single and women with disabilities. Even children of migrant women are often denied access to school and other social services.
PRECARITY FROM RACISM — Discrimination against indigenous women, migrant women, especially newcomers, women of color and increasingly, Muslim women, whose employment rates are consistently lower than those of the general population in Canada.
PRECARITY FROM COMMODIFICATION OF FEMALE BODY — Sexist advertising long in existence, combined with, sexual exploitation and trafficking which are increasingly commonplace. The female body has become just another commodity for sale or rent.
On the occasion of March 8, we invite women of diverse origins and their allies to come out and show their resolve to smash the glass cage that keeps us subordinate, unequal and in poverty, and oppose the “inevitability logic” of capitalism and patriarchy. They are not our destiny! Unite in sisterhood and solidarity with the most oppressed to organize to free ourselves. This International Women’s Day, let us keep up the proud tradition of women at the forefront of struggles for justice and equality and demand an END TO PRECARITY!
PUBLIC MEETING – 1:00 PM
Dawson College, 4001 De Maisonneuve West, room 4C.1, Montréal, Metro Atwater DEMONSTRATION – 3:30PM
START: Cabot Square (Atwater metro, corner Ste-Catherine)

A call from the March 8 Committee Women of Diverse Origins
(A working group of QPIRG Concordia)
Founding member of the International Women’s Alliance Includes the following organizations:

Association of Parents of Filipino Origin; Centre for Philippine Concerns; Comité Amérique Latine de l’UQAM; Dignidad Migrante; Front Féministe Prolétarien; Immigrant Workers’ Centre (CTI-IWC); Iranian Women’s Association; Mexicanos unidos para la regularizacion (MUR); Mouvement contre le viol et l’inceste (MCVI); PINAY (Filipino Women’s Group of Québec); South Asian Women’s Community Centre (SAWCC).