Radical Women
* Solidarity Salon: 580 Sydney Road, Brunswick Vic 3056
* Phone/fax 03-9388-0062 * [EMAIL PROTECTED]
* www.radicalwomen.org
News release -- 12 October, 2003
From: Radical Women
For more information:
In Melbourne - Debbie Brennan, 9386-3230
In Geelong - Brigitte Ellery, 5241-3901
For immediate release
Stop Bush's War on Women
There's a killer, a dangerous fundamentalist and a
sinister patriarch on his way to Australia. George
W. Bush will arrive on October 22 to promote his
never ending war, advance his free trade agenda and
peddle his conservative social values.
Bush will visit Australia immediately following the
APEC summit to be held on 21 October in Bangkok. He
will address the Federal Parliament on 23 October.
Feminists are among those involved in the "Stop
Bush's War Committee" which is planning a protest at
the State Library in Melbourne at 5 pm on 22
October. The Melbourne action will farewell
protesters travelling overnight to Canberra to make
sure the message is heard loud and clear around the
world that George W. Bush is a war criminal who is
not welcome in Australia.
Radical Women organiser, Debbie Brennan, is planning
to join the Melbourne protest. Brennan, who was born
in the U.S. and identifies with "the other U.S.A --
the queers and feminists, civil rights activists,
unionists, anti-war campaigners and radicals of
every stripe -- is angered by the Bush
administration's cynical attempts to misuse feminism
to try to get women behind its so-called "war on
terrorism." "Bringing out Laura Bush to stand by her
man and justify the destruction of Afghanistan
because of the Taliban's horrific sexism was a nice
touch, but let=92s be clear that liberating Afghan
women was not the Bush administration's goal. Just
as its goal in Iraq is not to stamp out honour
killings. Bush's war is about oil and profits, not
women's liberation," she argues.
Brigitte Ellery, a grandmother and former Socialist
Alliance candidate for the State seat of Lara,
agrees. She is also critical about Bush's domestic
agenda. Ellery describes Bush as "a warmonger,
union-buster and opponent of civil rights who
prescribes marriage as the economic solution for
women on welfare and who is systematically
dismantling affirmative action and eroding
reproductive rights in the U.S. and around the globe."
Radical Women, a socialist feminist women's
leadership organisation, says that coupled with his
other crimes, George W. Bush is conducting a war on
women.
The group points to the following facts as evidence
of the current U.S. administration's anti-woman
agenda. The Bush administration:
* defunded programs that monitor discrimination
* opposes affirmative action and aims to defund the
Headstart early education program which assists poor
children
* continues to appoint people who opposes
affirmative action, welfare for single mothers, gay
rights and abortion
* is eroding Title IX, the 1972 law that mandates
equality for women in education
* appointed a doctor to the reproductive Health and
Drugs Advisory Committee of the FDA who refuses to
discuss contraception with unmarried women and
advocates prayer as a treatment for pre-menstrual
tension
* is among only three countries which have refused
to sign the Un Convention on the Elimination of all
forms of discrimination against women
* opposes and defunds family planning and AIDS
prevention programs if they even mention condoms
* declared war on any sex education program which
advocates anything other than abstinence as the way
to prevent pregnancy and avoid STDs
* imposed a gag rule on international family
planning providers, barring them from providing
information about abortion -- even using their own
funds -- if they receive any U.S. funding
* opposes domestic partnership legislation
* is determined to outlaw abortion by reversing Roe
versus Wade and has attacked reproductive rights so
successfully that only 13% of U.S. counties now have
access to abortion services
Radical Women is mobilising feminists to join the
anti-Bush protests. The group is also hosting a
discussion about Bush's War on Women and how it can
be stopped. The meeting titled "Women say NO to the
War on the Homefront" will take place on Tuesday 28
October, 7 pm at Solidarity Salon, 580 Sydney Road,
Brunswick. A mouthwatering dinner, with vegetarian
option, will be served at 6.30 pm for a $6.50 donation.
Radical Women members are available for interviews
.
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