From: SIUHIN@aol.com
Date: Wed Oct 24 2001 - 05:03:33 EDT
Women protest CNN & HHS in San Francisco
Date: 10/23/2001 6:00:59 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From: 70742.3012@compuserve.com (WFH/LA)
INVEST IN CARING, NOT KILLING!
Women's protests called by the International Wages for Housework Campaign
and the Every Mother is a Working Mother Network
Thursday, October 25, 2001
12-1pm No secrets on welfare 'reform' Hearing outside the Grand Hyatt,
345 Stockton, between Sutter and Post.
All welcome
4:30-5:30pm No life is "collateral damage" Anti-war picket outside CNN,
50 California (near Market)
All welcome
The new war depends on the media trumpeting the government's lies and
hiding the truth. We are targeting CNN because:
· CNN has refused to show images of the dead and wounded, victims of the
bombing in Afghanistan. Their lives are dismissed as "collateral damage",
but they are no less valuable than those who died on Sept 11. Their
mothers and other loved ones also grieve and seek justice.
· It also censors news of the massive opposition to the war in every
country - including in the US.
· CNN is the main TV news internationally.
CNN has marketed the government's response to September 11th as "America's
new war", as though we should be proud of it. While the people of
Afghanistan are bombarded with missiles, we are bombarded with figures that
supposedly prove the US supports the war. In fact, many of us, including
relatives of those who died on Sept 11th, have been saying "Not in our
name!" But our protests are given no coverage.
Instead of broadcasting the truth, CNN, along with most of the US media,
repeat the government's propaganda, which originates from the board rooms
of Texas oil companies. Most of the US remain uninformed and misinformed
about the role of the military in enforcing policies which benefit not them
but US corporations and have cost the lives of millions around the world.
From Afghanistan, where the US funded and backed the Taliban regime it is
now attacking, to Palestine, Iraq, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama,
Indonesia, Turkey, Mozambique . . . and of course Vietnam and Korea - the
list is endless. The message the US sends is that the poorest people are
disposable.
And what is this "American way of life"? While a tiny minority are
obscenely rich, millions of us have no access to health care, inner city
communities have infant mortality rates as high as Bangladesh, the prison
population is the biggest in the world, there are frequent mass killings
from Oklahoma to shootings in schools and other public places, etc.
Why women are protesting: Women and children are the majority of those
killed and wounded in armed conflicts worldwide and 80% are refugees.
Women invest our lives into children who are used as canon fodder for the
military. In peace and war, women are the ones whose work maintains
community and life itself.
While the government lavishes obscene amounts of money to bomb people
abroad, it can find no money to feed women and children at home who are
going hungry and lack housing. Welfare "reform" cuts are throwing
thousands of welfare moms into destitution, prostitution and homelessness.
This is the American way of life CNN is not showing. Nor does CNN tell us
that poverty in the US forces those with no income into the armed forces,
which are now 60% people of color.
To expose the devastating impact of welfare reform on women and children,
Every Mother is a Working Mother Network (EMWM) is co-sponsoring a protest
on the same day outside a "listening" session called by the Health and
Human Services (HHS) Department. The "listening" session is part of a
public relations stunt by HHS - it has been kept secret and is closed to
the public. As you know the very basis of welfare reform denies the value
of the work of raising children.
At both actions we will be demanding that the government invest in caring
not killing, and that welfare be funded from the military budget. See you
Thursday. Bring your signs.
We can be reached at (415) 626-4114 or email 70742.3012@compuserve.com.
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