March 8, 2011

Dear Friends;

On March 8, International Women's Day, we at the Maquila Solidarity Network (MSN) would like to extend our solidarity greetings to all the women and men who have contributed their passion, vision, and hard work to the struggle for women workers' rights over the past year.

Our International Women's Day edition of the Maquila Solidarity Update is now available for download in English and Spanish on our website. It highlights not only the violence and repression facing women workers and women's rights advocates in cities like Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, but also the inspiring, creative actions that young women leaders are taking to empower women workers and challenge the global systems that create dangerous and unfair conditions in their workplaces and communities.

On Sunday, in Managua, Nicaragua, MSN members hand-distributed the Spanish version of our March Update to the over 1,500 women maquila workers who attended the 13^th annual Colloquium of the Movement of Working and Unemployed Women - Maria Elena Cuadra (MEC). The event was an inspiration for all of us. If you have not already seen the Update, please download your copy today.

The slogans at the MEC Colloquium were -"Jobs, Yes, but with Dignity" (Empleo Si, Pero con Dignidad) and "Violence Against Women and Femicide Must End".  MSN commits itself to working in solidarity with women's and labour rights groups on both these issues over the coming year.

The MSN team

The following pictures are from an International Women's Day march organized by 'El movimiento amplio de mujeres y feministas Nicaragüenses.' Women marched in Managua under the slogan of Todas Juntas, Todas Libres (Women united and free).