By Justin Podur - August 14, 2008

The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) is a women's organization that runs underground schools and other projects, educates Afghan girls, runs a periodic journal, and agitates politically for women's rights, human rights, secularism, and social justice in Afghanistan. From the 1979 Soviet invasion through to the 2006 closings of the camps, millions of Afghan refugees lived in Pakistan and many still do. While RAWA's operations were always based primarily in Afghanistan, they have also had a strong presence in the Pakistan refugee community. I spoke to Mariam from RAWA in Islamabad when I was there in July 2008.

An innocent little Kachin girl was rapped and murdered by Burmese government troops. It was a most horrific tale for someone so young to endure. The details of which were beyond imagination.

[Warning: graphic material]

Ian Sinclair at the Morning Star...did an interesting interview with "Catherine, a prostitute, dominatrix and activist with the International Union of Sex Workers..."

"...[W]e didn't go out and rescue the miners, take them away and give them a wash, and say ‘come and do this you will be much happier'. We gave them rights, we gave them bargaining power."

Bangladesh Garment Workers RiotThousands of workers from neighbouring factories rioted in solidarity at a garment factory where hundreds of (mainly) women had been fired without pay and two were beaten by private security.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008 - CBC News

Rita MacNeil was as surprised as anyone to learn she was the target of RCMP undercover agents investigating the women's movement nearly 40 years ago...She represented the Toronto Women's Caucus at a March 1972 meeting of women's groups in Winnipeg, and, as an RCMP memo states, was the "one who composes and sings women's lib songs."

Monday, August 4, 2008 - Canadian Press

RCMP spies infiltrated Canada's women's movement in the early 1970s, monitoring meetings and rallies to keep an eye on feminists, including the popular Maritime singer-songwriter Rita MacNeil, new research into declassified documents shows...It has long been known that the now-defunct [RCMP Security Service] spied on a vast array of groups — from trade unionists to student associations — during the Cold War with the aim of gauging the potential threat from left-wing subversives...The force opened the file "Women's Liberation Groups — Canada" on May 13, 1969.

From Subversivesub

It always makes me a little irritated when I see BDSM misrepresented in the mainstream media. It makes me sad to see feminists critiquing other women for their kinky sexual orientations/practices. But it breaks my fucking heart when I see anarchists doing it.

This a critical moment and this action requires your support -

"A-wake": A Procession to STOP CONCORD PACIFIC'S "DISCOVERY" OF THE DTES

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Saturday July 5th
Meet at 2 pm
Pigeon Park (Hastings and Carrall)
EVERYONE WELCOME! COME OUT!
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What does war smell like? How much pain does its odour cause? Half a year has passed since close to fifty humanists from various countries met in the University of the Land in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas. They responded to a call of the Sixth Commission of the EZLN. When the colloquium was at the point of ending Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos spoke to say: “Those of us who have been at war know how to recognize the paths through which it is prepared and nears us. The signals of war in the horizon are clear. War, like fear, also has an odour. And now we begin to breathe its fetid odour in our lands” (December 16, 2007).

SIDE NOTE: Naomi Klein was present at the International Colloquium mentioned in this article.

The Interfaith Summer Institute for Justice, Peace, and Social Movements
announces a two day public forum. It's goals are to improve and build relationships between those who are opposed to the sexual
exploitation of women during and after the Olympics; provide an analysis of
trafficking and sex tourism that considers migration , displacement, labour

- mark your calender and please forward -

2nd Annual Women's Housing March

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Saturday, June 14 @ 2:00 pm
Starts outside Downtown Eastside Women's Centre
(302 Columbia - corner of Cordova, just west of Main)
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As we prepare to celebrate Mothers Day across the Americas and abroad, for some this is a sad time. Within the Aboriginal communities in Canada, America and Mexico sorrow fills the eyes of those who lost their beloved mothers. In Canada alone over 500 Aboriginal women have been murdered and simply came up missing in the last 20 years. This statistic is shared throughout the Northern Hemisphere. This disproportionate figure is a clear sign the conquering people of the America’s have little regard for the Native populations as a whole. Of course other social issues go unaddressed as well and the “secret third world of the America’s” struggles to exist in this ambivalent world we live.

Grassroots Women is holding its Fifth Annual Mothers' Day March and Rally on Sunday, May 11

Rally @ McSpadden Park, 12:30 pm (E. 5th Ave. & Victoria Dr.) - Hear how mothers are resisting around the world! Political balloons for the kids!
March to Trout Lake Park (E. 13 Ave. & Victoria Dr.) - Testimonials from mothers and open mic.

Join us! Everyone welcome! Child-friendly event.

by Daphne Bramham - Vancouver Sun

From the 1960s through most of Saddam Hussein's regime, Iraqi women were among the most liberated and liberal of all Muslim women. Girls went to school, women worked, wore what they chose, drove cars, ran for office and spoke their minds...Yet far from restoring women's rights, on the Americans' watch, Iraq has become a prison for women.

By Chris Summers | BBC News

A bill outlawing the possession of "extreme pornography" is set to become law next week. But many fear it has been rushed through and will criminalise innocent people with a harmless taste for unconventional sex.