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Remembering the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

MADRE just received this message from Sunila Abeysekera, a longtime friend of MADRE. She wrote about commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire last Friday, March 25. The 1911 fire took the lives of over 100 women, mostly young, immigrant women. You can read Sunila's message below:

Yesterday I was privileged to be in New York on the day that marked the 100th anniversary of the fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in which 146 garment workers, mostly young (from 14 to 40) migrants, were killed. The women were members of the garment workers' union that had the previous year participated in a very widespread strike calling for better working conditions. There is a lot of information on the website, Remember the Fire.

Anyone who has ever heard me speak on Women's Day knows that this incident is one which I refer to, it is a tragedy that led to a great moment in working class and women's history and one which led to a series of laws and policies that improved wages and conditions in factories. 

In the evening, I went to a memorial meeting at the great hall in Cooper Union, where in 1909, the woman garment worker Clara Lemlich initiated the call for the garment workers' strike. It was very interesting because the whole event linked what is happening in the world today to what had happened 100 years ago: in terms of attitudes towards women, towards workers, towards immigrants.

There was a Bangladeshi woman worker who spoke and referred to the women killed in a garment factory fire last year. She called for a campaign against Walmart which apparently is a buyer that pays no attention to work conditions. Among other speakers, there was a Chinese woman who had worked in garment factories in the US when she was young and who now works with factory workers in China, women descended from migrants from Italy and Mexico and Central America, men and women from teachers' unions and someone from the coal miners union where also people had been killed in a fire in West Virginia.

There was music, a slide show, readings from newspaper reports of the time, performances, it was an amazing atmosphere, very moving, bringing home the appalling reality of women being burned to death in a matter of minutes because the bosses had locked the doors, because the fire escape collapsed, because the fire engine ladders didn't reach far enough, because the fire department safety nets broke when the women's bodies landed on them, because actually nobody cared about the safety of these young 'disposable' workers.

And there was an amazing affirmation of hope in working class organizing and solidarity!

It was so old fashioned, ... and yet so timely... and many who were there felt it was symbolic of an emerging interest in labour organizing. In past weeks there has been a flurry of union activity in many states against Republican attempts to make inroads into hard-won union privileges.

The New York City workers' choir sang 'bread and roses' and 'union girl'...

I thought of us all,

Sunila

Project Update: Engineering a Solution for Clean Water in Nicaragua

In celebration of World Water Day earlier this week, we have been posting project updates about MADRE's water projects around the world. On Wednesday, we posted about Palestine. Today, we're posting about Nicaragua.

In the North Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua, Indigenous Peoples often live without health or sanitation services, a result of government neglect and marginalization. This has left people facing life-threatening risks. We have heard women in the communities of our partner organizations speak of their worries that their children will fall sick because of the water-borne illnesses that peak during hurricane season when flooding carries raw sewage and other contaminants into their water supply.

MADRE and our sister organization, Wangki Tangni, are working together through our project, Liwa Mairin | Women Waterkeepers to reduce the incidence of water-borne disease. We train Indigenous women and their family members to maintain latrines and wells, and we build a clean water culture through educational posters, seminars and radio programs.

We also received an update from Rose Cunningham, Director of Wangki Tangni, earlier this week. Read what she had to say by clicking here.To read the full Nicaragua project update on the MADRE website, click here.

Finally, you can take action by demanding that the right to water be upheld by signing MADRE's petition to President Obama. Click here to sign on.

Youth Activist in Iraq Kidnapped, Tortured and Threatened

Days ago, MADRE received news from Yanar Mohammed, Director of MADRE's Iraqi sister organization, the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), that a youth activist organizing pro-democracy protests in Iraq is in danger. Alaa Nabil was kidnapped, detained and tortured by Iraqi security forces. They have threatened to kill him if he continues to protest. Below is the statement we received from Yanar:

After a police squad released him from a one-hour detainment yesterday, he asked for his personal belongings, as they had banners that he needed to use in the next demonstration on Friday in Al Tahrir Square in Baghdad as an organizer of February 25 Group. After 24 hours, four-wheel drive vehicles with tinted glass were heading to his residence in Al Kifah district, filled with men who are dressed in civilian clothes. They kidnapped him from the alleys around his house, forced his head down so he cannot see where he was taken.

In a big hall, which may have been designated for these tasks, they stood him facing a wall, and they started all beating, kicking, and whipping him with hoses and cables on the back and the arms. When they got tired, he was threatened in these exact words: "We will cut your tongues, you and your organizing colleagues, Firas Ali, Suad Shwaili, and Falah Alwan, if you dare to reach Al Tahrir Square. And if you insist to continue this work, we will shoot each one of you and throw you where your bodies cannot be found."

Then Alaa was thrown into a car which took him away and released him in Al Alawi square, close to the Green Zone.

These are the methods adopted by the new security agencies of the "democratic" Iraq. This is how they handle freedom of speech and peaceful demonstrations. It seems that the militias of sectarian cleansing have found a new campaign to recruit and pay for their services, but for the oppression of peaceful demonstrators this time. And all of these measures are part of the gains of the US occupation.

We will not let the criminals and murderers prevail in Iraq.
Their oppression and blows against the rebellion for freedom will be defeated.
Long live Freedom.

The torture and kidnapping of Alaa Nabil is a violation of his human rights. Please help us raise awareness about these threats. Post this message to your Facebook status:

A youth activist organizing pro-democracy protests in Iraq is in danger. He was kidnapped, detained and tortured by Iraqi security forces. They have threatened to kill him if he continues to protest. We need the eyes of the world now. Post this to your Facebook status to stand up against the violent silencing of activist voices: http://ht.ly/4mrZH

With international attention, we can protect Alaa Nabil and other youth activists under threat.

Continuing to Question the No-Fly Zone: AFRICOM's Role in Libya

One week ago, the UN Security Council declared a no-fly zone over Lybia with Security Council Resolution 1973. As MADRE Executive Director Yifat Susskind noted in her Q&A on military intervention in Libya, "We cannot allow the focus on the no-fly zone to divert our attentions away from the need to identify alternatives to promote democracy and human rights in Libya."

Recent discussion of the role of the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) in the conflict further calls into question the humanitarian justification. As Horace Campbell of Syracuse University reveals,

AFRICOM is fundamentally a front for U.S. military contractors like Dyncorp, MPRI and KBR operating in Africa. U.S. military planners who benefit from the revolving door of privatization of warfare are delighted by the opportunity to give AFRICOM credibility under the facade of the Libyan intervention. No African country has agreed to let AFRICOM onto the continent. The U.S. needs to stop bombing Libya and meaningfully work with the African Union, which (less mailable to Western interests than the Arab League) has been pushed aside.

Emira Woods, co-director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies and specialist in Africa, continues the critique of AFRICOM by stating,

AFRICOM makes its first major foray in Africa with massive air strikes on Libya. The velvet glove of humanitarian trainer has at last been taken off to reveal the fist of the military and its dominant role in U.S. Africa engagement. Established under the Bush administration and strengthened under Obama, AFRICOM has been rejected by African governments, scholars, and human rights champions. AFRICOM’s lead role in the assault on Libya will breed greater anti-Americanism while draining much needed monies and threatening civilian lives, with each bomb dropped.

As the military intervention in Libya escalates, we must continue to ensure that the demands of Libyan civilians and their human rights be at the forefront of this analysis. For more on MADRE's coverage of the conflict in Libya, click here and here.

A Call for Action on the Right to Water

In celebration of World Water Day this week, MADRE is calling on you to take action.

Every human being needs water to survive. Yet, we have had to fight for governments to recognize access to clean and safe water as a universal right. Finally, last October, the United Nations Human Rights Council officially recognized that the right to water is contained in existing human rights treaties, affirming it as a legally binding obligation.

But there is more to be done. The next step in the process of making clean and safe water accessible is for our governments to put their human rights commitments into action. All UN member states must devise and implement a plan of action showing how they will make the right to water a reality – and the Obama Administration must be part of this effort. 

You can help realize this demand by telling President Obama that his Administration must produce a plan of action to uphold the right to water. Click here to take action.

Project Update: Looking for Clean Water in Occupied Gaza

(Photo credit: Zakher Association)

Beginning yesterday on World Water Day, we posted information about MADRE's work to demand the right to water for all, and how you can get involved. In the coming days, we will continue to share updates from our water projects in Gaza, Nicaragua and Kenya.

Today, we're focusing on Gaza. Gaza’s water crisis is one of the most urgent humanitarian crises in the region. In Gaza City, many houses have running water only once a week, and in some of the poorest communities, families do not have taps in or near their homes. As a result, women and their families are left without clean drinking water.

MADRE has been working with our partner, the Zakher Association, to ensure that women and their families have reliable, affordable and clean water. Through your support of “Clean Water for Gaza" we are installing water filters in key parts of Gaza City, including schools and kindergartens. Our efforts reduce the dangers of water contamination and provide safe drinking water for women, their children and families. By installing four water filters in kindergartens, we gave 600 children clean drinking water in their classrooms.

To read the full project update on the MADRE website, and to hear how your support goes toward helping women like Maryam, click here. To learn more about MADRE's Clean Water for Gaza project, click here.

Q&A with Yifat Susskind, MADRE Executive Director, on Military Intervention in Libya

[I sat down with Yifat Susskind, our Executive Director, to ask her some questions about recent developments in Libya. Our Q&A is below:]

Last week’s UN Security Council resolution on the no-fly zone in Libya has triggered days of bombing campaigns, and the worldwide progressive community is still divided on whether to support the no-fly zone. What are your thoughts?

After decades of Qaddafi’s repressive rule, the uprising of the past few weeks represents for many the first chance to demand a democratic future for Libya. In the face of a brutal crackdown, the calls of this rebellion have struck a chord worldwide and galvanized a need to act.  In the past days, the political will of world leaders has coalesced around a Security Council Resolution authorizing the imposition of a no-fly zone, and bombing campaigns led by the US, France and other NATO powers have already begun.

Despite the humanitarian rhetoric, progressives are right to be wary of this escalating military campaign. It is notable that, unlike his predecessor, the Obama Administration did seek out the approval of the Security Council, giving the launch of this military action some international legal cover. But we should not be overly impressed that this military intervention is technically legal.  From a human rights and social justice perspective, legality is not a litmus test for progressive support.  An action may meet the technical status of legality and still be unethical. Part of our criteria for supporting an action can be legality under international law, but that cannot be the end of it.

We need to consider important questions, like those I raised on the MADRE blog last week.  Yes, the Security Council resolution highlights dangers to civilians as a justification for their authorization of the no-fly zone. But, the prospects for civilians faring well in the entrenched conflict that is likely to continue are grim. We cannot allow the focus on the no-fly zone to divert our attentions away from the need to identify alternatives to promote democracy and human rights in Libya.

How would you relate the uprising in Libya to the broader developments in the region?

It is easy to conflate Libya with the broader progressive mobilizations in the region, namely the successful overthrow of Mubarak in Egypt. But the reality is that Libya is not Egypt. Despite the incredible speed with which protests have spread across borders and have responded to each other, each instance is defined by the people who take part and by the conditions they confront.

In Libya, there is no indication yet that this uprising represents a broad-based progressive social movement. Unlike in Egypt, an ideologically diverse civil society was never allowed to develop in Libya. The coalition of feminists, youth and trade unionists that animated so much of the protest in Egypt—and created that progressive potential—does not exist visibly in Libya. The people behind the opposition that has lined itself against Qaddafi’s regime remain largely unknown to us, and yet, their words are being repeated by those pushing for an international military campaign.

What do we know about the Libyan opposition movement?

What we know for sure about the opposition is that they want to see an end to Qaddafi’s rule. Their calls for a no-fly zone are propelled by this argument; they say that it is necessary in order for them to rally their own forces to effectively unseat Qaddafi.  But that doesn’t mean they deserve international support from progressives.

We have also seen an uncritical acceptance of anyone who’s willing to confront Qaddafi as representative of the opposition. A New York Times article this week quoted a man identified only as “Muhammed” saying “We want the international community to go all the way to bomb this bloody dictator into submission.” The article labels him as a “rebel spokesman” for the city of Misurata, but otherwise his identity is a mystery. We have heard much about the demands of the Libyan opposition for a no-fly zone but little about who they are.

The UN Security Council Resolution that authorized the no-fly zone justified itself on the basis of seeking an “end to violence and all attacks against, and abuses of, civilians.” How do you respond to these arguments for humanitarian intervention?

We must be reminded of the extreme unlikelihood of US-led NATO launching this effort for humanitarian reasons. Their repeated warnings of the risk of massacres have emerged as they attempt to construct a humanitarian banner to attach to these attacks.

NATO is a military institution casting about for a reason to exist; it should have been dismantled after the Cold War. Instead, it was reinvented as a US-controlled intervention force. Nowadays, NATO forces are deployed either as part of a “humanitarian intervention” or in the “war on terror.” Both of these frameworks cannot be separated from the concerted projection of US power. 

The humanitarian credentials of this operation can be further called into question. We need to look no further than Bahrain.  What is being called a humanitarian crisis in Libya is being ignored in Bahrain. What’s more, Saudi Arabia, a favored US ally in the region, has sent in its army to Bahrain to put down a revolt of people protesting for progressive democratic reform. In this instance, the US is allowing for violent repression to take place.

Here’s another example. World leaders dithered for years about creating the no-fly zone in Darfur, when the degree of humanitarian crisis was much clearer than it is currently in Libya. They were never able to muster the political will. Fast forward to last week, and the debate over the no-fly zone in Libya moved to a conclusion at lightning-speed.

In the end, the people who do unquestionably deserve our support are the Libyan civilians who are living through what looks more and more like a civil war.  As the violence escalates, MADRE calls for the immediate delivery of humanitarian aid and the distribution of such relief in ways that recognize and protect the human rights of people affected by war and displacement.  Furthermore, we call for open borders with neighboring countries, including European nations across the Mediterranean, so that people seeking refuge will not be turned away.

Updates from Nicaragua on World Water Day

Happy World Water Day! As we celebrate this day and reinvigorate our commitment to demand access to water for all, we want to share with you some updates we just received from Wangki Tangni, MADRE's sister organization in Nicaragua.

While access to clean water and sanitation was declared a human right by the United Nations General Assembly in July 2010 and made legally binding in October 2010, 884 million people are still denied access. For years, MADRE has been working with Wangki Tangni on the North Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua where lack of access to clean water and health care has led to increased incidences of waterborne diseases that quickly become fatal. Through our Liwa Mairin / Women Waterkeepers Project, MADRE and Wangki Tangni train Indigenous women and their families on how to maintain wells, and we work to provide much needed water pumps and supplies to facilitate access to clean water.

Today, Rose Cunningham, the Director of Wangki Tangni, sent me an update about a group of engineers that are currently visiting the project in the communities of Kisalaya and Kururia. She shared with MADRE that during their week-long trip, the engineers will be able to work with Wangki Tangni to repair approximately 10 water wells, install 2 water pumps and provide education on hygiene and sanitation to bring clean water to Indigenous families and their communities.

These simple solutions spearheaded by a local community group will make valuable strides in improving access to clean water.  It is a lesson we should all embrace on this day.

As Aristide Lands in Haiti, MADRE Upholds His International Right to Return

This morning, former president of Haiti Jean-Bertrand Aristide returned to the country after seven years in exile. Haiti, which has still not recovered from an earthquake that struck the island nation over a year ago, is also scheduled to hold run-off presidential elections this weekend. MADRE has worked in Haiti since the 1990s, and currently works there with our partner organization KOFAVIV. Below, read MADRE's statement about Aristide's return:

Today, former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide returned to Haiti after seven years of exile in South Africa. Aristide, the nation’s first democratically elected president, was twice ousted from power with support from the United States. MADRE calls for all members of the international community, including the US, to respect Aristide’s right to return.

News of Aristide’s return comes as the country prepares for run-off presidential elections to be held on Sunday. The United States had tried to prevent Aristide’s return, unsuccessfully pressuring the South African government to keep him from leaving.

MADRE affirms Aristide’s right to return to Haiti, as well as his freedom of movement and expression, which are guaranteed by international law. As stated in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), “no one should be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country.”

Our partners in Haiti report that opponents to Aristide may use his return as a pretext for violent attacks. MADRE echoes the calls of the women of Haiti as they demand an end to the use of political violence, and we stand with their work to promote peace.

To read more about Aristide's return, click here. For more on MADRE's work in Haiti, click here.

Questioning the No-Fly Zone in Libya

Yesterday, the UN Security Council voted to authorize a no-fly zone in Libya to be enforced by NATO, after weeks of violence and rebellion in that country.  Part of a wave of uprisings that have swept across the region, pro-democracy protests in Libya have been met by brutal force.

In response, many voices in the international community have called for a no-fly zone to protect Libyan civilians and to dislodge the regime.  However, many who cheered the successful protests in Tunisia and Egypt are questioning whether progressives should support or oppose a no-fly zone. Opponents recognize that such a military campaign includes bombing raids that endanger civilian lives. Supporters of a no-fly zone argue that the Libyan opposition is calling for the intervention and deserve international assistance.

 As you formulate your own position in this fast-moving debate, here are some questions to consider:

• Does the imposition of a no-fly zone with humanitarian justifications cover up other underlying intentions?
• Does the Libyan opposition have a progressive vision? Who are the voices among the Libyan opposition that progressives should support?
• Is the no-fly zone the best way to protect Libyan civilians? What alternatives exist to promote human rights and democracy in Libya?

As we work towards answers to these questions, we will share resources and analysis here.