CONVOCATION 28 May 2023: INTERNATIONAL DAY OF WOMEN FOR PEACE AND DISARMAMENT

24 May, International Day of Women for Peace and Disarmament

A feminist look at the struggle for peace

It was the feminist antimilitarism that coined the slogan Neither war that destroys us, nor peace that oppresses and at this time women from all over the world celebrate 24 May as the International Day of Women for Peace and Disarmament. Since the 80s we remember the struggles of women such as the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp protesting against nuclear weapons and the arms race taking place in the world. Once again, on this date we reclaim the incorporation of women in the peace processes.

We know that since 1915, when more than a thousand women met at the International Congress of Women at The Hague, it was possible to give women visibility and the opportunity to participate actively in the advances of everything that concerned peace, in search of a more just and worthy society free from bellicose confrontations and war.

Despite the adverse conditions and dangers to which they expose themselves, women worldwide work for peace and against war both individually and in groups — women in places in conflict or at war such as Sudan, Palestine, Israel, Yemen, Afghanistan, Kurdistan or Colombia or in situations during which their governments and the armed actors invest, research, develop, industrialize or exhibit in fairs of armaments destined for destruction and/or death.

With the purpose of recognizing their work and to sensitize other women on the Day of Women for Peace and Disarmament, Women in Black join the shout and struggle of all the feminist and antimilitarist women and collectives, both within and outside of Spain, who at this time go into the streets with diverse actions to commemorate the achievements of women for peace and security and against war, and to express appreciation for the work they are accomplishing or have accomplished boldly standing up against any initiative for war or mechanisms that facilitate war.

As women for peace, we demand of our government of the Community,

♀ That the celebration of any exhibition of armaments be prohibited, concretely at this moment the “International Defense and Security Exhibition”, organized by the FEINDEF Foundation, as it happened in 2021 when Fibes did not welcome the armaments fair so as to not connect the image of Sevilla to a controversial and inappropriate event linked to the business of death, We ask that, as at that time, they keep in mind the opinion of the community with regard to the celebration of such initiatives.

Women demand a complete peace.

Down with war! Women in Black for Peace

Un recuerdo para nuestras compañeras María José de la Rosa Ignacio, Madrid, y Eulalia Torrent Tort, Valencia.

Translation: Trisha Novak, USA – Yolanda Rouiller, WiB Spain