For immediate release
March 22, 2012

Toronto, ON—In celebration of this year’s International Women’s Day, over 80 participants gathered to heighten their militancy and strengthen their resistance at the Philippine Women Centre of Ontario’s forum, “Taking the Revolutionary Road: Heightening Women’s Resistance Against Neoliberalism.” Organized in collaboration with Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance—Ontario at York University and the University of Toronto (UKPC/FCYA-ON @ York and UofT), the forum engaged participants from both campuses and beyond during each back-to-back session. The forum also set a successful start for the upcoming string of educational events in preparation for the conference titled “Workers Struggles Amidst Neoliberal Globalization,” to be held later in August this year.

In outright refusal of the intensifying violence perpetuated against women in light of the current downward economic spiral, the forum challenged all women to reclaim their rightful role in taking the revolutionary road towards building a women’s movement that strives for nothing less than genuine equality and liberation for all women and humanity as a whole. Speakers Rachel Gorman, Tania Das Gupta, Evelyn Encalada and Cecilia Diocson focused on various aspects of women’s struggles and resistance that altogether highlighted the need to build a strong women’s movement based on an anti-imperialist and working-class perspective.

In “Occupying identity politics,” Dr. Rachel Gorman, professor at York University, delved into the event’s theme by presenting some key ideas and challenges in sustaining revolutionary movements. She described the current social and political landscape within the terms of “global apartheid,” wherein the delineations of race, class and gender oppression are tightly circumscribed to further workers’ exploitation and to sustain an economy in crisis—seen especially in the temporary migration programs and labour casualization mechanisms that divide workers to harness profits and resources. As such, the challenges of this global apartheid system must be met head-on without recourse to liberal or reformist solutions and must recognize the various aspects of people’s identities as crucial parts of a collective working-class struggle.

Speakers Dr. Tania Das Gupta and Evelyn Encalada (from Justicia for Migrant Workers), both university educators and activists, shared their experiences and insights on the specific issues of women and workers in the cleaning and healthcare sectors, as well as Seasonal Agricultural Workers, respectively. They describe how the implementation of neoliberal policies has commodified and devalued women’s labour as migrants and as casual workers alongside the privatization of public services and the casualization of work, the impacts of which can no longer be denied by workers as a whole. This endless drive for cheap labour and the nature of work that racialized and migrant workers perform can give rise to their boundless potential for breaking down such forms of oppression through self-organization and political action.

As well, Cecilia Diocson, Executive Director of the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC), continued the discussion on temporary work programs and migrant labour by focusing on the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) and by sharing the NAPWC’s struggle to scrap this racist and anti-woman program. The continued existence of the LCP as a de facto mechanism to serve Canada’s growing childcare and healthcare needs has entrenched a relentless reliance on women’s exploitation and oppression as domestic workers, which then stands in direct opposition to the goals and values of the women’s movement and the overall struggle for women’s liberation. With over 90% of women coming through the LCP being from the Philippines, the Filipino Canadian community’s poverty and social exclusion is a testament to the downward development of women as legislated through this program.

As emphasized by each speaker, now is a crucial moment to expose the realities of imperialist globalization that have lead to the downward development of all women, majority of whom are from the Third World. As the forum demonstrated, not only are race and gender are essential aspects of the revolutionary working-class movement, but also that the possibilities of furthering this movement are well and alive today. Members of PWC-ON and UKPC/FCYA-ON@York and UofT will continue to be steadfast in exposing and opposing the neoliberal agenda’s attacks on all women and will continue to advance the struggle for genuine women’s equality and liberation.

-30-

For more information, contact:
Philippine Women Centre of Ontario
(416) 519-2553
pwc-on@magkaisacentre.org
www.magkaisacentre.org