12 September 2013 | Interviews | 9th Meeting of the World March of Women | Human rights | Gender | Food Sovereignty
A Determined Movement
International Meeting of the WMW comes to an end: Thousands of women take to the streets and Africa will host the new international secretariat
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The last day of the International Meeting of the World March of Women (WMW) was intense. In the morning, the groups that were working on crucial issues such as anti-racism, lesbian visibility, communications and counter-hegemonic culture, international solidarity, among others, shared their debates and conclusions with the Plenary. In the afternoon, approximately four thousand women marched under the slogan “Feminism to Change the World”, closing the day with an event at Plaza de la Republica.
One of the highlights of the morning was when Miriam Nobre, Coordinator of the International Secretariat of the WMW, delivered the World Letter of Women to Humanity to the Mozambican delegation of the WMW, thus symbolizing the transfer of the Secretariat to that country.
“Brazil received the International Secretariat in Quebec in 2006. We believe we managed to maintain the political culture of the March of working, building consensus among women with different political experiences and cultures, strengthening our movement as a feminist, anticapitalist, antiracism and antihomophobic movement”, said Miriam before symbolically granting the Letter.
In the afternoon, while thousands of women flooded Av. Paulista, Sao Paulo´s main avenue, the Social Movements Communication Convergence talked to the next International Secretariat Coordinator, Mozambican Graça Samo.
Surrounded by her friends, Graça said: “we are extremely happy we were chosen to host the International Secretariat starting on January, 2014. This represents a huge challenge for Mozambican women, but it is also a huge victory, because it is a recognition of our political struggle to change the lives of women”.
The feminist activist said that this new responsibility implies to strengthen the political struggle to achieve women´s autonomy in Africa, which means “autonomy over their bodies, their natural resources and land”, which is threatened by transnational corporations.
Before the plenary session, the activist highlighted the need that the 1600 women present in the meeting in Sao Paulo bring the discussions, experiences and ideas of these past days to each country, each grassroots movement and each community, “so that the women who stayed can share this with us and carry this strength to continue struggling, building this determined movement, this movement that will change the world”, concluded Graça.
Photo: Cintia Barenho WMW-RS/CEA/Social Movements Communications Convergence
