Colombia’s City of Women: The War Goes On

How a group of female victims of violence displaced by Colombia’s conflict united to build their own city.

by Maya Thomas-Davis, Julia Zulver from AJE with thanks

Dayanera and her daughter at the stand where they sell food to neighbours; opportunities to make money are limited, and often confined to the community itself. [Julia Zulver/Al Jazeera]

“We made little cardboard houses and put them in a big box, and you reached your hand in and pulled one out … ‘What number are you in? … Aiyee! you’re my neighbour!'” says Lubis proudly. “It was an amazing experience. From that moment forward, we thought as a collective.”

Lubis, one of the leaders of the League who helped to build the City of Women [Julia Zulver/Al Jazeera]

Lubis is the owner of one of the 98 life-size, concrete realisations of those little cardboard houses and one of the leaders of the Liga de Mujeres Desplazadas (League of Displaced Women), the Colombian women’s group. The organisation’s efforts have built a community known as the City of Women, to restore the right to housing to some of its most vulnerable members and their families.

Based in the northern region of Bolivar, the Liga is a grassroots group run by and for women who are victims of the conflict between the government, right-wing paramilitaries, crime syndicates and leftist armed rebel groups, such as FARC, a battle that is still ongoing despite a peace process which began in 2012. The six-decade long conflict in Colombia has displaced more than six million people, hitting indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities in particular.

While most of the combatants in this war’s armed factions are men, more than 50 percent of those forcibly displaced by it are women. It is estimated that half of these have experienced sexual violence: perpetrated systematically mainly by paramilitary groups, but also by state forces and rebel groups. Continue reading “Colombia’s City of Women: The War Goes On”

São Paulo 136 Occupied Schools fight on: Student Victory March

update 12th Dec. VICTORY!. The ‘school decimation’ has been suspended for a year and the Education Minister Voorwald has resigned. Many occupied schools have decided in assembly to CONTINUE OCCUPYING, calling for total cancellation of government plans and solutions for many other issues.

update thurs 10 Dec.. 136 schools are still occupied!!!

BY ERIN GALLAGHER REVOLUTION NEWS Students and teachers in São Paulo continue to protest against conservative Governor Alckmin’s attempts to “reorganize” the educational system in São Paulo which will involve closing almost 100 schools.

The student movement is fully autonomous and self-organized with protesters mostly between the ages of 13 to 18 occupying high schools around the city.

As of the time of this publication, the website keeping track listed a total of 219 occupied schools. Plans for the reorganization have been temporarily suspended so occupation numbers may be dropping. The student movement has gained such support that some students in Italy have now occupied a school in Rome inspired by the student occupations in Brazil.