Activists around the world are planning their Risings and V-Day benefits, and the 16th class at City of Joy in the Democratic Republic of Congo is well underway.
Here are recent October updates and news for upcoming events!
JOIN Eve and Jane Fonda for a TEACH IN on Women & Climate This Thursday
Last month, hundreds of thousands of protestors took to the streets all over the world to demand action against the climate crisis that will destroy our planet and make it inhospitable for the human race. “We have to act like our house is on fire, because it is,” said Greta Thunberg.
That’s why Jane Fonda, one of V-Day’s Board members, began Fire Drill Fridays, an action to highlight the importance of taking decisive climate crisis action now. Jane will be protesting every Friday, for the next four months, in front of the U.S. Capitol, at 11 AM ET and demand action be taken to address the climate crisis. She will be joined by scientists, Indigenous leaders, community members, movement leaders, and experts.
In addition to Jane Fonda’s weekly Friday action, she will also conduct a Thursday evening teach-in, covering various topics related to the climate crisis. While the climate crisis threatens everyone, vulnerable populations such as women, are threatened.
Join us in NYC for BE HEARD ON THE THIRD on 3 November!
Everyone deserves equality, safety, and dignity at work. Join the Be Heard Coalition, on Sunday, 3 November at Caveat in New York City for an empowering afternoon of storytelling. With the introduction of the Be Heard Act – comprehensive legislation to address workplace harassment – survivors and women will be rising every third of each month to demand local and federal policy change. It is a nonpartisan and educational event which will feature women from many different sectors of the workforce, such as State Senator Alessandra Biaggi, actress Alysia Reiner, producer, actor, and director Carmen Lobue, and workplace culture strategist Daisy Auger-Dominguez.
OBR Bangladesh Premieres New Theme Song, AMI SHIKHA
OBR Bangladesh commemorated their 2020 launch event with the premiere of a new theme song (in association with Colours FM 101.6). Entitled “Ami Shikha“, it is an artistic reminder to their commitment to ending social inequality and violence against women.
One Billion Rising South Africa Coordinator Lucinda Evans Honored on BBC’S TOP 100 WOMEN OF 2019
Congratulations to Lucinda Evans, One Billion Rising South Africa Coordinator, on being named by the BBC as a Top 100 Women of 2019. Lucinda Evans founded Philisa Abafazi Bethu (Xhosa for Heal Our Women) in 2008 to primarily help women and children suffering from sexual and physical abuse by offering services such as counselling, search committees for kidnapped girls, and safe houses for women escaping intimate partner violence. In response to South Africa experiencing rising rates of murder and rape against women and girls, Lucinda Evans continues to be a leader for us all by leading nationwide marches and rallying thousands of women in the streets of Cape Town, to demand action.
“My hopes, as a Khoisan woman, are that we will one day be freed from violence against our bodies, and the bodies of our daughters, sisters, mothers and aunties. I hope that one day we will have a female president. For this, I will continue to advocate and rise in pain to power.”
A new survey from the Association of American Universities reveals that almost one in four undergraduate college students have experienced sexual assault at 33 major universities. Released on 15 October 2019, it is the second one in recent years to document widespread sexual assault at public and private universities. These statistics remind us of why V-Day student activists produce The Vagina Monologues – and other artistic works – to raise and funds awareness to benefit centers and shelters that provide critical support for survivors everywhere.
Actor, Activist & #VDay Board Member Jane Fonda is RISING! Fire Drill Friday Teach-Ins, actions and demonstrations every week. Don’t Miss Teach-In: Women – on Women and Climate with Jane and Eve Together with Frontline Activists
Inspired by Greta Thunberg and the groundswell of support she and other young climate activists have inspired across the world – as well as the visionary work of Naomi Klein, Reverend William Barber’s Moral Mondays and Randall Robinson’s anti-apartheid protests – actor/activist and V-Board member Jane Fonda is upending her life and moving to Washington, D.C. for 4 months to be at the epicenter of the fight for climate justice where she will hold “Fire Drill Fridays.” Jane explains:
“Our climate is in crisis. Scientists are shouting an urgent warning: we have little more than a decade to take bold, ambitious action to transition our economy off of fossil fuels and onto clean, renewable energy. We need a Green New Deal to mobilize our government and every sector of the economy to tackle the overlapping crises of climate change, inequality, and structural racism at the scale and speed our communities require. We need and deserve a world beyond fossil fuels while creating millions of family-sustaining, union jobs, and prioritizing justice and equity for working people and communities of color on the frontlines of climate disaster and fossil fuel exploitation, so the clean energy transformation leaves nobody behind.”
At yesterday’s first Fire Drill Friday demonstration over climate change, Jane was arrested as she was among those protesting in Washington, D.C. on the Capitol. The Hollywood Reporter reported, “The actress was protesting with the group Oil Change International over the climate crisis… ‘I can no longer stand by and let our elected officials ignore — and even worse — empower — the industries that are destroying our planet for profit. We can not continue to stand for this.'”
Through mid-January, Jane will hold Thursday evening teach-ins (which can be viewed virtually on Facebook Live) with scientists, movement leaders, experts, activists, Indigenous leaders, community members and youth. On Fridays she will lead demonstrations at the US Capitol, each of which will have a different focus. At the demonstrations, Jane will invite activists, thinkers and leaders to speak to the crowd, some of whom will invite arrest.
Join Jane Fonda and Eve Ensler on 31 October to explain how Women and Climate are so intrinsically connected.
In this Thursday Teach-In on 31 October, our focus will be Women. Climate change is a women’s issue! And women are at the heart of climate solutions. While the climate crisis threatens everyone, it especially impacts vulnerable populations, including women and girls. In many places, extreme weather events increase the workload women have and adds enormous risk to their safety and security. Often, women and girls are the last to be rescued, and the last to be given crucial resources like food and water. They overwhelmingly face greater health and safety risks as water and sanitation systems become compromised as well. The good news is that promoting women’s rights, increasing women and girls’ education, advancing reproductive justice and centering women and girls in climate solutions works. Around the world, women and girls are leading climate solutions, from stopping deforestation and improving agricultural practices to leading Climate Strikes and running for office as the kind of real climate leaders the world needs.
Fire Drill Fridays is setting forth an urgent and bold set of demands:
A GREEN NEW DEAL
Transform our economy to 100% clean, renewable energy by 2030 and phase out all fossil fuel extraction through a just and equitable transition, creating millions of good jobs
A halt to all leasing and permitting for fossil fuel extraction, processing and infrastructure projects immediately in order to avoid a lock-in of increased emissions as we work together for a responsible transition to clean, renewable energy.
RESPECT OF INDIGENOUS LAND AND SOVEREIGNTY
Honor the treaties protecting Indigenous lands, waters, and sovereignty by the immediate halt of all construction, leasing and permitting for resource extraction, processing and infrastructure projects affecting or on Indigenous lands
Recognize the Rights of Nature into law to protect our sacred ecosystems and align human law with natural law to ban resource extraction in defense of our environment and people
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
A transition that invests in prosperity for communities on the frontlines of poverty and pollution
Welcoming those displaced by the cumulative effects of the climate crisis, economic inequality, violence, and lack of opportunity
PROTECTION AND RESTORATION OF BIODIVERSITY
Protection and restoration of at least 30% of the world’s lands and oceans including a halt to all deforestation by 2030
IMPLEMENTATION OF SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE
Investment in farmers and regenerative agriculture and an end to subsidies for industrial agriculture.
Last month, hundreds of thousands of protestors took to the streets all over the world to demand action against the climate crisis that will destroy our planet and make it inhospitable for the human race. “We have to act like our house is on fire, because it is,” said Greta Thunberg.
Everyone deserves equality, safety, and dignity at work. Join the Be Heard Coalition, on Sunday, 3 November at Caveat in New York City for an empowering afternoon of storytelling. With the introduction of the Be Heard Act – comprehensive legislation to address workplace harassment – survivors and women will be rising every third of each month to demand local and federal policy change. It is a nonpartisan and educational event which will feature women from many different sectors of the workforce, such as State Senator Alessandra Biaggi, actress Alysia Reiner, producer, actor, and director Carmen Lobue, and workplace culture strategist Daisy Auger-Dominguez.
Congratulations to Lucinda Evans, One Billion Rising South Africa Coordinator, on being named by the BBC as a Top 100 Women of 2019. Lucinda Evans founded Philisa Abafazi Bethu (Xhosa for Heal Our Women) in 2008 to primarily help women and children suffering from sexual and physical abuse by offering services such as counselling, search committees for kidnapped girls, and safe houses for women escaping intimate partner violence. In response to South Africa experiencing rising rates of murder and rape against women and girls, Lucinda Evans continues to be a leader for us all by leading nationwide marches and rallying thousands of women in the streets of Cape Town, to demand action.
