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2. Reigniting Labour’s Fight against Gender-Based Violence
Helen Kennedy
November and December mark important dates in the fight for gender
equity. The 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence is an annual international
campaign held between November 25 – The International Day for the Elimination
of Violence against Women (1993) and December 10 – International Human Rights
Day (1948). In Canada, it includes December 6 – the National Day of Remembrance
and Action on Violence Against Women
which was declared by Parliament after the horrific murders of thirteen women
at the Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal in 1989. These 16 Days of
Activism should immediately be expanded to 21 to include November 20 – the
Transgender Day of Remembrance – which has been observed annually since 1999 to
memorialize those who have been murdered as a result of transphobia. The labour movement historically has played a role in coordinating actions
associated with these dates, but it seems they have contracted out this crucial
role to civil society groups. As a result, the impact of organizing a strong
coordinated labour fightback has once again been diminished by inaction.
The statistics, however, prove that a comprehensive fightback on gender-based violence is needed today,
more than ever.
One horrendous example of why we must step up the campaign against
gender-based violence happened just this month. Three-year-old Hunter Haze
Straight-Smith was brutally murdered by his mother’s former boyfriend. This is
one gruesome reality of gender-based violence – men who target a mother’s child
as the ultimate pay-back. The fears of many women were heightened by this
tragedy – those who remain in abusive relationships because their partners
threaten to harm their children.
The inclusion of the transgender day of remembrance in the ‘Days of
Activism’ is essential to raise awareness of the increased attacks on trans women over the past twenty years. Just this past summer, the American
Medical Association declared that violent attacks on trans women are “an epidemic of violence.” Trans women are more likely to be victims of gender-based violence, and at
the same time they face more barriers to accessing social supports, including
access to women’s shelters and rape crisis centres.
Toronto Public Library’s recent decision to allow a transphobic lecture to proceed led directly to an
increase of death threats against the organizers of the counter protest. Poet
and trans activist
Gwen Benaway led that
protest and ended up locked in Palmerston Library
by the police. That morning, Benaway had been
notified that she had won the Governor-General’s award for poetry for her
collection Holy Wild. Author/activist Alicia Elliott captured the irony:
Last year’s UN report revealed that out of 87,000 women who were
murdered around the world in 2017, 58% of them were killed by family members or
partners. In addition, 49 of the world’s 195 countries have no laws prohibiting
domestic violence, and the number of deaths from gender-based violence is on
the rise. More statistics from the UN paint an overwhelmingly desperate picture
of women’s oppression around the world as victims of gender-based violence:
The picture of gender-based violence in Canada reflects our history of
colonization. According to the Native Women’s Association of Canada, there are
more than 4000 murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls. It has been
estimated that more than half of the victims of human sex trafficking are
Indigenous women and girls. Statistics Canada reports that Indigenous women and
girls are three times more likely to be victimized by violence, including
intimate partner violence and violent crime, and approximately six times higher
to be a victim of female homicide. Labour needs to include the fight for the implementation of the
recommendations of the Missing and Murder Indigenous Women Task Force and the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission in their action plans.
In recent years, campaigns such as #MeToo, #TimesUp, #Niunamenos, #NotOneMore and #BalanceTonPorc have raised awareness of
gender-based violence. These campaigns, however, have little or no impact on
the majority of working-class women struggling to make ends meet in the age of
austerity. Increased awareness needs to be matched with fighting for organizing
rights and strong collective agreements. Labour should lead this fight.
Internationally, labour has had
a major victory at the policy level. On June 21, the International Labour Organization celebrated the historic adoption of an international law
on violence and harassment in the world of work. ILO Convention No.
190 and its accompanying Recommendation No. 206 affirms everyone’s right to a world of work free of violence and harassment.
Unions around the world are now gearing up to have their governments pass the convention. Uruguay hopes to be the first country to do so. While
the convention is a step forward for international recognition of the
importance of fighting gender-based workplace violence, much more needs to be
done at the local level to ensure labour laws are
changed to favour
organizing workers into unions.
Gender-based violence is an integral part of capitalist society. Every
day, gender oppression reinforces working class inequalities. In order to
improve the lives of those who are oppressed, labour must step up their fight for gender equality. First, though, they need
to ensure that their organizations are not replicating the systemic oppression
and that unions themselves are workplaces free from violence and harassment.
Organizing workers into unions would be a good second step, starting with those
who are most vulnerable to gender-based violence.
Helen
Kennedy is the former president of CUPE Toronto, a former community development
worker and longtime activist.
In a series of four regional rallies over November and December, the
Ontario Health Coalition (OHC), with the support of the local health coalitions
and unions and service providers, are not sitting back while the Ontario
government restructures the health care system through austerity cuts and
privatization
The above article is from the
November 16-30, 2019, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist
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