Venezuela Hosts Global Grassroots Women’s Conference to Mark 100-year Anniversary of International Women’s Day http://upsidedownworld.org/main/venezuela-archives-35/2948-venezuela-hosts-global-grassroots-womens-conference-to-mark-100-year-anniversary-of-international-womens-day

Irma, from Colombia stated , “The most serious problems facing women in Colombia is a result of the last 40 years of civil war. Women have had to be the heads of households and confront the consequences of capitalism, double oppression, low-wages and the feminization of poverty. Aditionally we confront Yankee Imperialism in many ways. We have military bases here, so we are one of the key countries for penetration, not only in Colombia but all of latin America.”

Rachel Dickson , from the US-based School of the Americas Watch, which works against militarization and US aggression in Latin America, also attended the conference and participated in the workshop on Wars of Aggression and Imperialism. SOA Watch is promoting a campaign called Bridges not Bases, which seeks to build alliances of solidarity throughout Latin America as an effective tool in working against the presence of military bases in the region.

The impacts of imperialism also extend beyond militarism and includes economic and environmental exploitation by multinational corporations. Erica Carcaño a student from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México said, “In Countries like mine, every day, we live the effects of pollution created by corporations, which means we are continually seeing a decrease in the quality of water and severe air pollution as a product of these corporations.