Women Group Marches against Rio+20 Summit in Brazil
June 18, 2012
AFP | JUNE 18, 2012
Thousands of women representing social and farm movements marched in central Rio Monday to rail against the “green economy” advocated by the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development.
Behind a large banner from the international peasant movement Via Campesina proclaiming “the peoples are against the mercantilization of nature”, they marched several miles to the Flamengo park, the venue for the “People’s Summit” organized by civil society groups on the sidelines of the Rio+20 event.
Several hundred men closed off the march to show their solidarity.
Perched atop a truck fitted with loudspeakers, a female activist howled: “This is a march of urban and rural women against this Rio+20 charade.”
“No to green capitalism! Yes to an economy based on solidarity, yes to people’s sovereignty,” she added.
People’s Summit militants view the “green economy” concept touted by organizers of the official Rio+20 gathering as just “another stage of capitalist accumulation” after the failure of the current model.
World leaders are to gather here from Wednesday to Friday to debate how to steer the planet toward a greener and more sustainable future.
“We are out on the streets to give visibility to our world struggle for an end to violence against women, for peace and demilitarization, access to common goods and economic empowerment for women,” said 36-year-old Celia Alldridge, a member of the march secretariat who described herself as “half English, half Swiss”.
The marchers comprised women of all walks of life, students, rural and indigenous people, some carrying placards reading “women are not meant to be slapped on the face or the buttocks.”
Luise Sanuto, an ethnic Tabajara from northeast Brazil, said she faced even greater discrimination as an indigenous person.”
“Indigenous peoples are discriminated against and have been shown disrespect since the arrival of the (Portuguese) colonizers” in 1500.
