Million Women Rise
By Jess McCabe | 10 March 2009, 15:49
An estimated 5,000 women flooded the streets of London this Saturday 7 March, to protest violence against women in all its forms.
On a mostly sunny day we stopped traffic, we sung, we shouted, we drummed, we chanted, we blew on whistles and got all emotional. The march went along Oxford Street, surely the busiest shopping street in the country, on a Saturday afternoon. It was a powerful opportunity to get our messages out there, not least because it has been followed up with exactly no coverage in the mainstream or local media!
Then, at the rally, women got up on stage to share with thousands of strangers their intensely personal stories of survival, and speak about their activism to put a permanent halt to the violence. The organisers also read out messages of solidarity from women all over the world.
Thank you to all the amazing women who worked so hard to organise Million Women Rise, and have been fund-raising for months to make it a reality.
But for some of us who were lucky enough to be there, the buzz hasn’t worn of just yet. We’ve been reliving the experience just a little, not least through blog posts, photos, videos, emails, Twitter and more.
(You might want to start with Laura Kidd’s fantastic video, which really caught the spirit of the march and rally…)
:: @warriorgrrl vBlog ep 05 - million women rise :: from warriorgrrl on Vimeo.
(See The F Word Flickr pool for more photos)
Laura Kidd (That’s her amazing video I’ve posted above by the way!)
Uplift Magazine
Women’s Resource Centre
Well I’ll Go to the Foot of My Stairs
Feminist Peace Network
Bird of Paradox
Please add links to your own photos and posts, and share your thoughts about the day in comments…
Same time, same place, next year!
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LonerGrrrl said:
I didn't attend this year, so thanks for the write up, pics and video. Really encouraging and inspiring to see as many women as last year take part. I know it's not that surprising mainstream media hasn't reported it, but it does make you wonder what it is we actually need to do get the message out there a bit more. 5,000 women marching through Oxford Street on a Sat afternoon is no small feat.
Posted on 10 March 2009 at 8:13 PM
Hannah said:
It was a great day and such a good idea to have the march route going down Oxford Street and Regent Street. It was nice to see a lot of positive reactions from passers-by.
I have seen precisely one newspaper cover it, however:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/a-whole-generation-of-women-is-lost-to-politics-1639762.html
A small piece on MWR appears after the main article :)
I will be doing a write-up at some point this week.
Posted on 11 March 2009 at 8:21 AM
Legible Susan said:
Is that Vimeo something that people have to download the software for? I've tried it several times over the past few days, and I've also tried it at the library which uses a different browser. When I click through the flash-blocker I get the still frame and the play button, but when it's supposedly playing, there's no picture or audio.
Posted on 14 March 2009 at 11:34 AM