07 March 2010

“The demand for change on the condition of women workers and those in other oppressed sectors was what prodded the declaration of the International Women’s Day. The agenda of women remains to be of change.”

This was declared by Cynthia Abdon-Tellez, chairperson of the Hong Kong chapter of the militant women’s organization GABRIELA as they marked the centenary of the International Working Women’s Day with a protest action directed towards the HK government and public education and roving cultural performances to exhort women OFWs to take an active part in the movement for societal changes in the Philippines.

GABRIELA members joined other Asian women migrants in a rally to push for the inclusion of foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong to the legislated minimum wage and the scrapping of discriminatory policies such as the Two-Week Rule.

Clad in GABRIELA shirts, women OFWs marched with fellow FDWs to the Central Government Office of Hong Kong to their position on labour and social concerns of FDWs. 

“As women migrants in HK, we are subjected to discriminatory treatment aside from the various forms of violence we experience inside households where we work and in the general HK society. Our call for inclusion is a call against slavery that the HK government has been reducing the value of our work to,” she said.

After the protest action, leaders of GABRIELA –HK went around major areas of congregation of OFWs to relate the importance of the IWD and its continued relevance today. They outlined to fellow OFWs the current condition of Filipino women who they said are one of the worst affected by the economic and political problems in the Philippines.

They also scored the widespread violence against women in the Philippines as exhibited by the number of women victims of human rights violations, the death of 15 women in the Ampatuan Massacre and the illegal arrest of 26 women health workers in Morong in early February.

According to Tellez, the public teach-ins were meant to reach out to the broadest number of women FDWs to explain the significance of IWD and why women migrants have to involve themselves in the movement for the liberation of women in all spheres as well as the people’s movement for change.

“Filipino women should use all venues to advance the concerns of women. The electoral arena is one of such venues where women can effect change through ensuring that pro-women and progressive candidates gain seats," Abdon-Tellez remarked.

The group has declared its support to the senatorial candidacy of Rep. Liza Maza – well known leader of GABRIELA – and Rep. Satur Ocampo, himself an activist legislator. “Their record of service have earned Rep. Maza and Rep. Ocampo the women’s vote,” Abdon-Tellez stated.

Abdon-Tellez remarked that GABRIELA-HK stands for the concerted action of women in advancing changes in the economic, political, social and cultural spheres.

“This was the essential legacy of 100 years of International Women’s Day that we shall continue to uphold,” she concluded.