8 march, International Women’s Rights Day
#8march: The workers of GAMS Belgium are on strike
“When women stop, the world stops.” On March 8th and 9th, 2020, the 8 maars Collective calls upon the women* of Belgium to participate in a two-day strike. The employees of GAMS Belgium, an association stemming from a precarious sector, have decided to stop working on Monday, March 9th. They’ve had enough!
GAMS Belgium joins Collecti·e·f 8 maars
This year, the feminist strike organized by the Collecti·e·f 8 maars focuses on four axes: the strike of waged work, the strike of domestic work, the strike of consumption, and the strike of studies and training.
GAMS Belgium is a feminist association in daily contact with migrant women facing gender-based violence. The strike of the organization will also aim to denounce violence against women.
March 8: Join us!
Specifically, on Sunday, March 8th, the members of the GAMS Belgium team will participate in activities organized throughout the country.
- In Liège and Namur, they will march alongside the women who attend the association.
- In Brussels, they will participate in the major demonstration and co-host the “Violence” discussion tent from 10:00 am to 11:30 am at Place Albertine.
- And as part of the International Film Festival of Mons, they will lead the discussion after the screening of the film “A Girl From Mogadishu,” which recounts the journey of an activist in the fight against female genital mutilation.
March 9: Women on strike
On Monday, March 9th, female employees of GAMS Belgium, both in Brussels, Wallonia, and Flanders, may choose to strike with maintained salary. Male employees show solidarity by keeping the Brussels headquarters open.
Because we, the employees of GAMS Belgium, have had enough
- Enough of the violence and discrimination based on gender suffered by women and gender minorities. Female genital mutilation, forced marriage, sexual violence, harassment, gynecological and obstetric violence, mutilation of intersex children, domestic violence, femicide… The list is long. We face violence every day in our work, and as women, we are victims of it.
- Enough of the impunity for this violence!
- Enough of interfering with our bodies and our lives. Enough of imposing on women* how to live their sexuality, their relationship with motherhood.
- Enough of the precariousness of the associative sector in which we work, a sector largely “feminine” and underfunded, with precarious jobs that make us insecure.
- Enough of the underfunding of support services for people who have experienced gender-based violence.
- Enough of racist migration policies that endanger the people who come to GAMS, confine them, condemn them to poverty.
- Enough of bearing the mental load, whether in waged work or in domestic work and caring for others.
- Enough of discrimination based on our skin color, our origins, our genders, our sexual orientations, our beliefs…
- Enough of sexist stereotypes in education, culture, media, and advertising, which portray us as objects and confine us to specific and secondary roles.
When women stop, the world stops.
By woman, the Collecti·e·f 8 maars means any person identified and/or identifying as a woman. The Collecti·e·f 8 maars includes cis and trans women, trans, inter, and non-binary individuals.