Don't Leave Your Friends Behind - Issue 3

Issue 3 of the fantastic Don't leave your friends behind (to which the CRAP! Collective has contributed) is available to read or print from here. Dont leave your friends behind is produced by north American anarchafeminists China Martens and Vikki Law. Please see their call out below for submissions for the next issue.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS:
Don't Leave Your Friends Behind a Handbook for Radical Parenting Allies
Deadline: September 15, 2010!
Don't Leave Your Friends Behind is a book geared toward the non-parent radical community about how to be an ally to the parent(s) in their midst.
This book is going to be a collection of some of the best minds out there. We're looking for activists, allies, and radical parents to submit the most kicking stuff to make this the best book ever for getting down to business: let's make a better world WITHOUT leaving out the mamas (and papas, partners, child-care providers) and children this time!
We want to know how you do support children and their caretakers in your collectives, organizations or communities.
Parents: What concrete things can those around you do to support you and your family? Send us your list of suggestions!
Radical Childcare Collectives: What are your concrete tips on how you organize with your collective? How do you organize childcare?
We are especially interested in experiences that also take into account factors such as race, class, gender, single parenthood, immigration, disability, and/or mental health issues.
Word limit is from one sentence suggestions to 5.000 word essays.
Deadline for Zine #4: Sept. 15, 2010

dontleaveyourfriendsbehind.blogspot.com/

Squat - Anarchist Birth Journal

Squat - anarchist birth journal is available on-line to read or print here

They are also looking for submissions for next issue. Submissions can be emailed to submissionstosquat@gmail.com.

Visit their blog at squatbirthjournal.blogspot.com

RAG Feminist Gathering in Ireland August 2010

*** Attention all feminists! ***

* RAG, the Dublin-based anarcha-feminist collective, are organising a
gathering in Ireland on the 27th-29th August 2010 . This will be a chance
for feminists to come together to discuss, learn and share in a radical but
supportive environment. *

* As plans for the weekend are being drawn-up, we want to ask you to scratch
these dates into your diary now. *

* This great event will take place in Dublin’s autonomous social centre,
Seomra Spraoi (seomraspraoi.org). Costs will be kept to a minimum. Children
are very welcome.*

* A full update of what’s planned for the weekend will follow in the coming
week, so keep an eye on our blog (http://ragdublin.blogspot.com/), our
website (http://www.theragdublin.org), or find us on facebook. *

* If you are interested in attending this gathering, or have any questions or
suggestions please email ragdublin at riseup dot net

* Also, if you have a workshop you would like to give, please email us with
the subject WORKSHOP in the email *

Big love and mega solidarity,

RAG Dublin

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please forward
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Global Protests Save Iranian Mother from Death by Stoning for Adultery

Yesterday an Iranian woman, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, was saved by global protests
from being stoned to death.

But she may still be hanged -- and, meanwhile, execution by stoning continues. Right
now fifteen more people are on death row awaiting stoning in which victims are
buried up to their necks in the ground and then large rocks are thrown at their
heads.

The partial reprieve of Sakineh, triggered by the call from her children for
international pressure to save her life, has shown that if enough of us come
together and voice our horror, we may be able to save her life, and stop stoning
once and for all. Sign the urgent petition now and send it onto everyone you know --
let's end this cruel slaughter NOW!

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_stoning/?vl

Sakineh was convicted of adultery, like all the other 12 women and one of the men
awaiting stoning. But her children and lawyer say she is innocent and that she did
not get a fair trial -- they state her confession was forced from her and, speaking
only Azerbaijani, she did not understand what was being asked of her in court.

Despite Iran's signing of a UN convention that requires the death penalty only be
used for the "most serious crimes" and despite the Iranian Parliament passing a law
banning stoning last year, stoning for adultery continues.

Sakineh's lawyer says the Iranian government "is afraid of Iranian public reaction
and international attention" to the stoning cases. And after Turkey and Britain's
Foreign Ministers spoke out against Sakineh's sentence, it was suspended.

Sakineh's brave children are leading the international campaign to save their mother
and stop stoning. Massive international condemnation now could finally stop this
sickening punishment. Let's join together today across the world to end this
brutality. Sign the petition to save Sakineh and end stoning here:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_stoning/?vl

In hope and determination,

Alice, David, Milena, Ben and the whole Avaaz team


SOURCES:

Iranians still facing death by stoning despite 'reprieve', The Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/08/iran-death-stoning-adultery

Britain condemns planned Iran stoning as 'medieval', AFP:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hjVdkvkzicGeInqw2R10rCKrqs3A


Support the Avaaz community! We're entirely funded by donations and receive no money
from governments or corporations. Our dedicated team ensures even the smallest
contributions go a long way -- donate here.


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To contact Avaaz write to us at
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Reclaiming Birth, and the Albany Midwives

Below is an interesting article by our sisters in London anarcha feminist kolektiv, about reclaiming birth and the recent closure of the Albany Midwifery Practice, Peckham, South London.

Reclaiming Birth, and the Albany Midwives

The Albany Midwifery Practice provided a free service – as part of the NHS - for women around Peckham for over twelve years. As an independent group, based in the community and sub-contracted by Kings Healthcare Trust, the Albany midwives provided individual, continuous maternity care for all kinds of women, including those who are often denied proper choices by the Health Service: working-class women, women from ethnic minorities, those with mental and physical disabilities or with medical risks.

The Albany midwives aimed to provide choice, continuity and control for women, with a philosophy that pregnancy and birth are a normal part of women's lives, not a medical problem. They would provide information and let women make their own decisions, about their maternity care and the birth itself. They believed that women deserved continuity, so guaranteed access to the same pair of midwives throughout pregnancy, giving them a chance to develop a mutually-respectful, trusting, relationship with each woman before she gave birth.

This type of care is understandably popular with women, and has been proven to result in lower rates of infant mortality, lower rates of caesarian section (less than half the national average), and also much higher rates of home-birth and breastfeeding. 74% of the women using the Albany decided they didn't need pain relief during labour.

This quality of care is rarely available on the NHS. Although there are some other group practices which operate in a similar way to the Albany midwives, in many areas women have to pay privately if they want this kind of maternity care, which puts it beyond the means of most.

In December 2009, Kings Healthcare Trust abruptly terminated its contract with the Albany midwives, without any consultation ( either with the midwives themselves or those who used their services) or warning (even for those women about to give birth in the next few weeks).

Kings claimed that the issue was one of patient safety, as earlier on in the year a baby had died one week after being delivered by the Albany. Kings commissioned a report from the Centre for Maternal and Child Enquiries (CMACE). They claimed that babies delivered by the Albany Practice at this time had higher rates of “Hypoxic Ischaemic Encephalopathy” ( brain damage caused by lack of oxygen), than those delivered by midwives directly employed by the Trust. These figures have been contested since the outset, with various organisations, including the National Childbirth Trust (NCT), criticising the CMACE reports. Despite requests, the full reports have still not been made public. Although Kings terminated the Albany contract on the grounds of patient safety, they then offered the same midwives jobs within the Trust's own midwifery service. All of them declined the offer.

The closure of the Albany Midwifery Practice prompted a range of protests, including a large, very vocal, very colourful march and rally in central London on Sunday 7th March. The 'Reclaiming Birth' march was called by the Albany Mums Group, both to protest the closure and to push for better, more women-centred approaches to childbirth. It was supported by the NCT, the Royal College of Midwives, the Association of Radical Midwives, Independent Midwives UK, the Alliance for Improvement in Maternity Services (AIMS) and many feminist groups.

If Kings succeed in damaging the reputation of the Albany midwives, this could have serious repercussions on a wider scale. Their model of care has long been recognised as a way of improving outcomes for mothers and babies. Most women in the UK don't get offered this level of choice, or continuity. Instead, they are only offered an obstetric-based model of care, institutionalised, with high levels of medical intervention and operative deliveries. The choice to birth at home is dependent on the availability of midwives, and unfortunately there is a shortage of midwives. Those already working in the NHS are under-paid and over-worked, and there are not enough staff to provide the quality of care women deserve, let alone set up loads of small group practices like the Albany.

Centralised, industrial-scale obstetric care may be expedient for bureaucrats, but does not allow true choice, and does not equate with a satisfying, safe and empowering birth experience. As public services suffer more cuts, our already over-stretched and under-resourced maternity services are in crisis, and ultimately this is bad news for us all.

For more information on the Albany Midwifery Practice, the CMACE report,and the 'Reclaiming Birth' march, visit: www.savethealbany.org.uk.

Another article worth reading: “Industrial Birth”, by Shonagh of Dublin's Revolutionary Anarchafeminist Group (RAG). www.adbusters.org/magazine/80/industrial_childbirth.html.

Birth – Everyone's Business

Are you alive? Then you were born.
The way in which you were born affected your immediate chances of survival, the kind of nourishment you would come to receive and your potential for intelligence, growth, health, emotional development and social adjustment. It helped set the relationships you would have with your parents, by either encouraging or preventing their ability to positively bond with you. It was monumentally important in your life – but you probably won’t remember it.

Your mother will. Her experience is likely to have had a profound effect on her. Was it good? Did she feel free, empowered and in control amongst people she loved and trusted? If she did, she was fortunate and more likely to be able to love, care for and breastfeed you thus setting you up for a lifetime of good health and well-being outcomes – providing resilience to the physical, emotional and social challenges of life.

Was your father there? Did he welcome you into the world? Did he feel involved and know his child from the outset? Did he accept you into his heart as his own to love and protect regardless of how life and relationships would progress? Were other parents, family members, friends and communities supported and supportive? Were you all as a family welcomed, provided and cared for in the world? Were you as a baby given the chance to thrive? Because it affected you for life.

Perhaps you have or want children of your own? Perhaps it will happen unexpectedly. Or maybe you hope for a different, better society, or a revolution? For the human race to continue in any form, from utopian to post-apocalyptic, babies will need to be born, parents will need to care for them and communities will need to raise them. How it’s done isn’t just important; it's integral, and its effects are infinitely wide ranging. It matters, to you, to me, to everyone.

None of us can afford to forget about childbirth, but that's easily done when we don’t remember it happening to us, and the event itself is hidden away in special secret places, which often provide difficult, negative and traumatic experiences. Lets stop sidelining this as a women’s issue, a health issue or identity politics. It’s huge, it’s vital and we should all be taking an interest and a responsibility for the coming generations.

London Anarcha Feminist Kolektiv
www.lafk.wordpress.com
lafk@riseup.net

Friends of Hackney Nurseries Petition - please sign

Community nurseries in Hackney are facing serious cuts to funding. These cuts once implemented will see a loss of jobs in nurseries, as well as a serious reduction in nursery provision, and are a disaster for the nursery workers, parents, and children.

***please distribute widely***

Sign the Friends of Hackney Nurseries petition and send the Hackney Learning Trust a loud and clear message!

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To: Hackney Learning Trust

This April, at least 8 community nurseries in Hackney were informed of immediate cuts ranging from £30,000 – £50,000 for each nursery. These cuts were implemented without consultation or a fair and open process. They mean a serious threat of nursery closures. The Hackney Learning Trust and Hackney Council are denying that there is a programme of cuts to nursery provision.

We, the undersigned, call on the Hackney Learning Trust to
1) immediately reverse the decision to cut funding to nurseries’
commissioning grants
2) have full consultation with community nurseries about funding and answer
Friends of Hackney Nurseries questions on how money is being allocated

*Sign the petition here: www.petitiononline.com/fhn/petition.html*

For more details of this struggle to fight cuts to community nurseries in Hackney, East London and how to get involved in the campaign visit http://friendsofhackneynurseries.wordpress.com

Pinkstinks' Victory Over UK Supermarket's Sexist Labelling

PINKSTINKS FORCES SAINSBURY’S SUPERMARKET CLIMBDOWN OVER ‘SEXIST’ LABELLING:

Pinkstinks has forced UK supermarket giant Sainsbury’s to withdraw the ‘sexist’ labelling on some of its children’s clothes. The retailer – which has more than 500 stores nationwide – has agreed to re-label thousands of children’s dressing-up outfits after pressure from Pinkstinks and the group’s 13,000 supporters.

Sainsbury’s has now admitted that its gender-specific product-labelling was ‘not acceptable’. The store was selling princess outfits and a ‘circa 1940s’ nurse outfit labelled GIRLS, while pilots, superheroes, soldiers and most astonishing of all, even doctors white coats were marked BOYS.

Abi Moore, Pinkstinks co-founder said: “We asked what sort of message this was sending to girls about what they are ‘fit’ for and what their aspirations might be. As far as we are aware, there are more women at medical school than men nowadays. On our website – www.pinkstinks.co.uk - one of our most popular role models is Flight Lieutenant Kirsty Moore, the first female Red Arrows pilot. An amazing achievement and yet Sainsbury’s pilots’ outfits were also labelled ‘boys’. As were the army outfits even though women have been fighting alongside men at the front line for years. We simply drew to Sainsbury’s attention the fact that it would be a hugely confident and independent little girl who would dare risk the ridicule of her friends by asking for a costume in-store clearly ‘meant’ for boys, no matter how much she wanted to dress up like a doctor, while the nurses outfit sends a message to boys that they are not ‘meant’ to be nurses either.”

Sainsbury’s has pledged the outfits with new non-gender specific labels will be in-store from July. Sainsbury’s customer director, Gwyn Burr, told Pinkstinks: “It isn't
acceptable to suggest certain professions are the reserve of any gender. This is an error and one I am seeking to address ASAP. The new labels which will be non gender specific will go on the next allocation of clothing, so will be in store from July.”

Says Abi: “Though this may seem trivial, it is important. This kind of labelling is
part of the drip, drip of messages that girls (and boys) receive on a daily basis about their roles in life and the expectations that they should have. Pinkstinks is committed to tackling any kind of gender stereotyping, in particular that which is aimed at children, which we see as damaging, limiting or just plain old-fashioned. We want to congratulate Sainsbury’s on its swift action to redress this matter and hope other retailers will follow their lead. We will be watching.”

For further information contact Lucy Lawrence, Head of communications, at media@..., or on 020 8318 4582. For out-of-hours enquiries please phone 07887 635698.

MORE INFO ON PINKSTINKS:

Pinkstinks was established in 2008 to challenge the culture of pink which invades every aspect of girls' lives. In 2009 its founders won the Sheila McKechnie Foundation’s campaigners award in the Women Creating Change category.

Last December, Pinkstinks ran the campaign Early Learning Centre – Early Learning Emergency, to try and raise parents’, educationalists’ and other concerned parties’ awareness of the widespread gender-stereotyping of the toys and dressing-up outfits being sold in its stores. We felt very strongly that, although the ELC is by no means the only such offender on the high street, its commitment to stretching children’s boundaries was being directly undermined by the products it was marketing towards girls while, at the same time offering boys all manner of exciting action,
adventure, educational and other toys. That campaign received coverage on hundreds of websites, in newspapers, on TV and radio, in 43 countries around the globe and gained us more than 11,000 supporters on Facebook alone.

Pinkstinks aims to counteract the national obsession with celebrities and to champion women who we see as inspirational, important, ground-breaking and motivating. Our website is for parents and non-parents alike and aims to gather support, promote discussion and ultimately to mobilise that support to influence commerce and the media about the importance of promoting positive gender roles to girls.

Also, under development, is our project cooltobe.me, aimed directly at children themselves. Using the best in design, writing, interactivity and content, we will use the power of the web and multi-media to challenge the norm. Unlike many toy manufacturers we will credit our audience with intelligence. We will engage with girls - and boys - to give them something real and cool to aspire to be."

VIVA LA REVOLUCION FEMINISTA!