Recently, Tucker Carlson of Fox News went apoplectic when Dutch journalist and historian, Rutger Bregman, came in for an interview and told Carlson, “You may not like it but you’re a millionaire funded by billionaires.” As Bregman continued to, in his own words, “speak truth to power,” Carlson quickly ended the interview in a string of insults.

Generosity is precisely the word that comes to mind as I think of the Feminist Forum against the G20 which took place late November in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Generosity of knowledge and experience, of feminist transformative energy, of solidarity. Let me show you.

My name is Alejandra Sarda-Chandiramani. I am a long-time sexual rights activist. I am from Argentina, where at present there is a very strong and massive feminist movement thanks to which Parliament has finally started discussing de-criminalizing and hopefully also legalizing abortion. I wear a green handkerchief, a symbol of that struggle.  

Now more than ever, feminist organizations need to deepen the search for autonomous resourcing models that work for our movements, on our own terms.

Every time it comes around, the G20 summit attracts protesters of every stripe. The 2018 summit, which takes place in Buenos Aires, from November 30 to December 1, has already mobilized social movements to resist the G20 neoliberal agenda. 

In August 2015, Luisa Lozano, a Kichwa woman from the Saraguro people joined an indigenous mobilisation to defend their right to land from corporation takeovers and demand increased protection of indigenous rights. It is during these protests, that military and police “beat a pregnant women with truncheons, dragging her about 30 meters and spraying her with pepper gas.” Soon thereafter, Luisa Lozano was arrested for defending the pregnant woman and was sentenced to 4 years in prison alongside other women.

Without accountability, corporations will continue to exploit the system and us all

International Women’s Day, firmly rooted in the struggles of women, is the perfect occasion to recall that we will not be on the path of gender equality without a binding treaty. States must support and engage constructively in the negotiations if they truly wish to champion women’s rights. 

This is a joint written contribution by 14 organisations*, including AWID, submitted to the third session of the UN Open-ended intergovernmental working group (IGWG) on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights, on 23 October 2017.

Environmental degradation is deliberate, violent and patriarchal. From Turkey to Guatemala, women are on the frontlines of resistance.