8 March: picket Royal Courts of Justice 12-2 pm

WHAT IS THE INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S STRIKE?

● The first Global Women’s Strike (coordinated by the Wages for Housework Campaign – WFH) was called for 8 March 2000, inspired by the 1975 Iceland women’s Day Off and a strike call by women in Ireland ● In 2016 women in Poland stopped work against anti-abortion laws ● In 2017 they joined with the movement against femicide in Argentina, and coordinated an international strike with women in 50+ countries ● In 2018, 6m women in Spain went on strike ● The strikes highlighted unwaged caring work, unequal pay, rape and domestic violence, exploitation, climate change …

WHY THE HIGH COURT?

·       Many injustices are fought out here – destitution, detention, deportation, benefit cuts, zero-hours contracts, sexism, racism and other discrimination, criminalisation, pollution, the state taking children from mothers …

·       Since the 1970s, WFH has defended mums threatened with losing their kids because they were poor, fleeing domestic violence, lesbian, sex workers.

·       Children from poor areas are 10 times more likely to be taken; thousands are forcibly adopted each year. Mothers who are single, of colour, immigrant, disabled, victims of domestic violence are targeted.

·       Benefit cuts and sanctions (including Universal Credit), and starvation wages hit women and children hardest – 5m children live in poverty; single mother families are 85% of those affected by the benefit cap.

·       Calling poverty ‘neglect’ is one excuse to split up families – love, caring work, even breastfeeding, are dismissed. Families are denied their legal right to resources but millions are spent on placing children with strangers.

·       For two years Support not Separation (SnS) has picketed the family court. They will join us to demand a living wage for mothers and other carers.

·       We stand against the hostile environment, the destruction of life, the threat to our planet caused by corporate greed, wars, arms sales …

BRING YOUR CASE IN DEFENCE OF OUR KIDS, OUR RELATIONSHIPS, OUR COMMUNITIES, OUR PLANET …  WE ARE ALL UNDER ATTACK

Join us for a walking/rolling picket, speak-out, breastfeeding sit-in … bring the demands from your own campaigning … wear a gilet jaune (hi-viz vest) … bring pots and pans to be heard! All women, children and non-binary people welcome. Supportive men, please contact payday@paydaynet.org

Global Women’s Strike
Facebook event

gws@globalwomenstrike.net

020 7482 2496