Women’s Strike planning meeting

International Women’s Day (March 8th) is not far off. We have made a lot of progress with our plans for a lunch-time walk-out and rally in Briggate at 12 noon on the day, and for a Women’s Strike Assembly at 4.30pm at Bridge Street. Now we need a lot more people to get involved to build for the event, help with preparations and take roles on the day. Please come to this meeting if you can, and if you can’t make it then message us or send an email to womensstrikeassemblyleeds@gmail.com.

Where are we up to?

We have an agreed set of demands, and a leaflet and poster ready to print. We have a Facebook “event” for the day. We have a men’s “social reproduction” group ready to organise food and childcare for the 4.30pm Women’s Assembly, so that women and non-binary people can take a break from their caring responsibilities and participate in planning future campaigns and actions. We have made a start on contacting various groups and trade unions for support.

More things to do

An urgent priority is for more people to liaise with their own union branches to get them to play an active role. Even though they can’t call an official strike, they may still be able to get people to the rally with union banners; they can send messages of support, and add their names to a list of organisations endorsing the women’s strike globally, nationally and locally. They can also pledge donations, as the strike day is only the beginning of building a movement which will need funds for publicity, meeting space and to ensure inclusion of people on the lowest incomes.

We need other organisations to endorse the event too, as well as to take part with their own banners and messages. Nothing is outside of feminism – whether it’s struggles around trans rights, sex-workers rights, sexual and domestic violence, disability rights, climate change, pay, benefits, housing, health and social care – all are part of our strike and we hope those involved in all these struggles will be represented. So if you are involved in any of these, please share this with your group and see how they can participate.

Practical stuff: painting banners, thinking up activities (for anyone who wants to get creative), doing stalls at weekends/lunchtimes, or going door-knocking or leafleting. The more people that can do this the better. We also need to do as luch media work as possible.

And on the day – roles might include facilitating at the Assembly, stewarding at the rally, dealing with media, and other things yet to be imagined.