IWD, March 8th 2009: Young Feminists' Pan-Canadian Day of Decentralized Actions

March 8th is approaching fast and we're ringing the bell for feminist action! The young feminists' pan-Canadian day of decentralized actions is around the corner!
We produced a bunch of tools to support you in the organization of your actions.

Here, you can download:

• A guide: "How to Organize a Feminist Action for IWD 2009"
• Suggestions for Facilitating a Workshop on organizing feminist actions
• A reminder sheet on how to get media coverage for an action in just a few steps, including a sample media advisory and a sample news release that you can adapt to your community and your action

Women, it's time for action; we need to raise our voices, make our Manifesto known and shake up the established patriarchal order.

It's really not hard to organize an action! Especially for passionate young feminists who are eager to change the world! The Gathering's massive feminist energy generated over 20 actions that were organized and carried out in one afternoon! There, young feminists got into workshops to discuss specific topics and then agreed on an action they would carry out in connection with the theme; the idea was to move quickly from analysis to action. Why not do the same thing for IWD 2009?

The pan-Canadian days of decentralized feminist action to resist the rise of the Right will be a first in Canada, as was the Gathering. It's up to us to get involved in organizing the actions! You can organize your actions independently or join with feminists of all ages to help organize actions in your community. The main thing is, we want to see feminist fists covering the map of Canada with lightning speed, indicating all the actions organized by RebELLEs! Actions that testify to our presence, our rejection of the Right and our feminist alternatives.

Background… Where does this idea come from?

During the plenary session on action strategies to counter the rise of the Right, Gathering participants decided to have a day of joint action. We collectively decided that on March 8, 2009, we, young feminists from across the country, would organize feminist actions to resist the rise of the Right, or participate in actions already being organized by contributing our analysis and distributing the young feminists Manifesto.
Here's a reminder of some of the feminist commitments made during the Gathering that appear in the Manifesto:

" We will: Organize pan-Canadian days of decentralized feminist action against the rise of the Right
We will: Organize and struggle: build alliances with existing feminist groups and create new ones, fight together in solidarity, be seen and be heard, disrupt, trouble, destabilize established powers, become culture jammers
We will: Change our attitude: get pissed off, refuse, resist, walk out, speak up!
We will: Believe that a better world is possible and work to achieve it "

From the Manifesto adopted at the pan-Canadian young feminists Gathering

Please contact us ASAP to tell us about actions you're organizing or participating in: mobilisation@rebelles2008.org

The Toujours RebELLEs!/Waves of Resistance Organizing Committee!