The struggle has a female face. Justice has a female face. The demand and the urgent need for dignity and rights has a female face.

In this world, which has been thrown into confusion by the progressive breakdown of the capitalist systems of domination, the calls to ensure Humanity’s present and future have a female face, a female voice and body, female intelligence and a female spirit.

Our Planet is calling on us to establish another way of life. Women, in tune as they are with Mother Earth, are calling for another rhythm, another path for Humanity, so that life can prevail, so we can continue existing.

Mother Earth is urging us to detain further catastrophe. Women the world over, with our potential for motherhood and life, have taken a stance against the cataclysm of values and are proposing other ways, other practices that prioritize dignity and rights in all their forms. Because it is only by adopting alternatives ways that we will make possible the continuation of life for all beings, starting with the Earth herself which, today, we acknowledge as a living being that vibrates and shudders.

What could be more important than our demands for dignity and rights...? What could be more transcendental that our demand for our own existence to be acknowledged and respected, our demand for affection, and, above all, for justice...? What could possibly be more urgent than the need for women to occupy the front line in the battle to transform inequality into dignity, solidarity and complementarity...?

The 21^st Century belongs to women. This is the century, the year, the month, the week and the day we must use to enforce our capabilities and our rights in order to continue fighting with all our energy, denouncing, demanding, occupying spaces, with this the clearest and most profound vision: to give Humanity back its sanity and to bring life itself back to the transcendental sense of evolution.

We come together to declare that women’s intelligence and sensitivity is lacking in political, economic and social processes.

We declare that a culture which incorporates this vision - a vision based on complementarity which, we are convinced, would contribute to the restoration of Humanity’s balance by virtue of the particular characteristics of our gender - is lacking in the world today.

The world, which has been governed by a system that excludes and discriminates against women’s talent and intelligence, is now at an irreversible stage of destruction which now we can only hope to mitigate while simultaneously proposing ceaselessly the indispensable need for change.

We are convinced that history is giving us the responsibility to propose alternatives in the battle against Humanity’s grave problems: the economic, environmental, food, labour and social crises... the crises created by the culture of war which fosters unprecedented instances of displacement and humanitarian emergencies... the disasters we once referred to as natural disasters... the hundreds of thousands of victims of all disasters and emergencies... the relentless coldness of the unidimensional brain with its eagerness to dominate, its loss of a sense of fraternity and of the concept of one human family.

It is up to us, the women of the world, to put forward alternatives.

The fact that we have been living under a system which unilaterally imposes its ruthless agenda and rationale without taking into account the needs of life itself has become so desperately obvious. Without complementarity, without the coming together of all forces, without the logic of incorporation and integrity, we simply cannot exist!

We women are the alternative force that makes up Humanity and that, today, Humanity yearns for. We are the force capable of promoting balance, of proposing, debating, convincing and welcoming as part of the dynamic circular movement of all processes of life.

Throughout history it has been women that have contributed most to peace and understanding. We are more intuitive, more capable of reflection, more able to act with the heart, with spiritual intelligence, and more capable of applying generosity and affection to situations where resentment, bitterness and hate have provoked devastation.

The world needs this generosity, this affection, this alternative force that contrasts the logic of war and searches for strength in harmony.

During the difficult times our world is going through we see ourselves in the face of the women that fight to uphold rights and liberties, to defend independence, sovereignty, natural resources and patrimonies – water, earth, minerals, vegetation, seas, glaciers, air...

We see ourselves in the mirror of different cultures which, with their own different designs and models, stand up today against global economic, ideological and media and entertainment domination...

We see ourselves in the mirror of the families that defend their patrimonial territories in the face of the painful reality of climate change...

We see ourselves in the mirror of the women who defend their beliefs, the symbols of their beliefs and their ancestral practices, in the face of Empires’ incomprehension and imperialist cultural and mental colonialism and neocolonialism...

We see ourselves in the courage of the women of Indigenous Peoples across the world and in particular in Our America, who have established themselves as indispensable defenders of all rights...

We see ourselves in the mirrors of women the world over who stand up today to fight against biopiracy, brain drain processes, neo-slavery, human trafficking, the sex trade, racism and the terrible domestic and sexual violence so loaded with crimes and abuses against our human condition.

We stand side by side female farmers and producers fighting to recover traditional family agriculture practices, as we do female homemakers demanding fair prices (i.e. food sovereignty and food security) in the face of the voracity of the capitalist model which prioritizes biofuels, speculates on food prices and, with its mega transnational industries and commercial networks, makes food more expensive and harder to come thus, effectively, rendering food inaccessible and, consequently, imposing a shameful policy of hunger, dependency and begging...

We see ourselves in the mirror of young women around the world who justly demand education, health care, dignified work and a future in line with their identities, realities and cultures. Young women full of ideals and dreams which we should claim as our own, in this inescapable Human Gender World Agenda which, each day, we are obliged to reaffirm.

From Nicaragua, today, March 8^th, we see ourselves in the mirror of all women the world over who come together, stand up for, represent and are alternative solutions and ideas.

This year, 2011, Nicaraguan women have recovered the right to be protagonists in political, economic and social processes opening up the perspective of our own realities and experiences. We know that there is nothing more important than the defence of that right. We are fully aware of all the territory we still have left to cover, of all our achievements and our shortfalls.

We know that neoliberalism has tried to snatch both revolution and rights from us. We know, also, that we are defeating neoliberalism and consolidating a revolution of rights and responsibilities, a revolution of peace, a peaceful revolution, a revolution that represents the transformation of our consciousness and the recuperation of our health, our dignity, our capabilities, and our joy of life with a sense of transcendence and power.

Nicaraguan women acknowledge in this revolutionary process our present and our future. We are proud to live in Nicaragua, today. We acknowledge the privilege of being protagonists in a country which is home to its own patrimonial treasure – a courageous people that has shown itself capable of confronting the greatest challenges with integrity, strength and faith and, consequently, has been capable of moving forward and upholding its identity, traditions, national pride, symbols and undefeated banners.

Nicaragua’s women value the privilege and responsibility that International Women’s Day entails. It is a day that unites us and obliges us to reflect, to make inevitable commitments, to ratify our ideals, aspirations and rights at this stage in the construction of citizenship, the development of democracy, the enjoyment of liberty, the affirmation of processes of economic improvements, and the guarantee of decision of a people which recognizes that strength and triumph can only be found in unity.

Today, March 8^th, Nicaraguan women see the horizon clearly: United, Nicaragua will triumph! United, Nicaragua represents the common good! A Christian and Socialist Nicaragua, a Nicaragua in Solidarity, represents us all!

Confidently, we move towards a country free of illiteracy, free of poverty, a country with access to education, health care, work, peace, rights for everybody, a country with a female voice and spirit, a country with female leadership.

The future depends on this certainty and this confidence that we women are capable of transmitting because we believe and we are convinced that where female intelligence and a female heart prevails there is security, well being, family, life, present and future, there are values, there is wellbeing for everyone, there is Revolution!

Rosario Murillo, March 8^th 2011

“Con tod@s y por el bien de tod@s!”
“Everyone working together for the wellbeing of us all!”

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