Today, we hold close to our hearts the memories and lives of the 1,100 women garment workers who died in the collapse of Rana Plaza in Bangladesh in 2013. In their honor, we continue to struggle for dignified lives and working conditions that only a feminist economy can bring about.
The COVID19 pandemic is showing us once again that global capital supply chains will sacrifice workers in the global south to shield their profit margins in Europe and North America. Rather than paying for completed work, global brands like Guess and New Look are pulling out of contracts with Bangladeshi factories, refusing to pay workers. Workers, 65 percent of whom are 18 to 25-year-old women, are returning to their villages without pay. In some cases they are having to camp outside factories, waiting for them to reopen.
Patriarchal capital socializes risk and concentrates wealth in the hands of a few people who control transnational corporations. We must fight for a feminist economy that protects life, not profit. GGJ joins the World March of Women, marching until we are all free.
In this context of social isolation in many territories we are building the
Excerpt from World March of Women Global Statement on the 7th Anniversary of the Rana Plaza disaster.
24 Hours of Feminist Action and Solidarity against the Power and
Impunity of Transnational Corporations in the framework of the 5th
International Action of the World March of Women. We do not know when or how this situation will end, but we understand that this is a very
important moment to broaden our political analysis and strengthen our
construction as an international feminist movement, advancing our
alternatives to this system. On April 24th we have a commitment to unite online around the world to
denounce the impact of transnational corporations that exploit and
destroy women’s lives, having in our memory the thousands of women
who have died or been injured in the collapse of the Rana Plaza building
in Bangladesh, in 2013. To this day, the victims and their families have
had no justice and corporations continue to exploit people and natural
resources for more profit and power.”