To
All Feminists -
Women and Men
By
Gudrun
Schyman
TFF
associate
June 5, 2004
In June 2004 elections will be held
in 25 countries to renew the European Parliament. We
invite support for this call to challenge patriarchal
power structures in Europe.
The European Union today is
characterized by a strongly hierarchical organisation.
Its system of political representation is lacking in
legitimacy since so few participate in elections. The gap
between those elected and their voters is manifest. A
predominantly male political elite currently rules the
Union.
Economic policies that enjoy close
to constitutional status advocate privatisation and the
selling &endash;off of social rights and welfare,
policies which make it more difficult for women to
combine paid work with parenthood and exclude men from
sharing care responsibilities in society and in bringing
up children. When cut backs reduce public responsibility
for welfare, women are the ones who step in to do the
job.
The explicit demand for increased
military investments will steal money from social
investments and welfare reforms. The patriarchal notion
that men must defend women and children by military means
is still today fundamental to security thinking within
the European Union.
The emerging European state bears
the hallmark of consistent patriarchal thinking. This we
cannot accept!
In member countries
-women still carry the main
responsibility for care in health and social
sectors
- men's violence against women is
growing
- trading women for sexual
purposes(trafficking) is expanding
dramatically.
Women have for decades been
marching for gender equality and human rights. Year after
year their demands are repeated without any decisive
change taking place. Quite the opposite &endash; in some
areas we are loosing ground.
Insecurity in the labour market and
in family relationships is growing. Many involved people
have of course achieved a good deal, but &endash;IT IS
NOT ENOUGH!
The patriarchal power structures
must be broken down, within individual member states as
well as within the governing bodies of the Union itself.
If democracy is to be strengthened it is necessary to
include all citizens, women as well as men.
We therefore call for
- the interruption of the work to
finalise the Constitution so that the proposal can be
subjected to democratic scrutiny in every country (In
Sweden we are demanding a referendum).
- the withdrawal from the proposal
of the directives in chapter III on promoting competition
and privatisation of welfare services within the Common
Market
-that care and welfare issues be
developed in a new balanced system, in contrast to the
current market system,
- that quota based systems of
representation with an equal number of women and men be
introduced at all levels of decision making.
We therefore urge all women and men
to refuse to support policies shaped by patriarchal
thinking and doing. We will support only those
candidates
- who clearly show their intentions
of changing patriarchal power politics in the
EU
- who wish to prevent the
deregulation and the privatisation of the welfare
sector
- who intend to work seriously to
prevent men's violence towards women and who give
priority to peaceful, non-patriarchal solutions to
conflicts, in homes, in the labour market and over
international issues at the negotiating table.
©
TFF & the author 2004
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