V-Day Blog Archive

As the World RISES, New Hip Hop Single Calls on Men to “DISMANTLE” Patriarchy

DISMANTLEPATRIARCHY.ORG

NEW HIP HOP SINGLE CALLS ON MEN
TO “DISMANTLE” PATRIARCHY

AS THE WORLD RISES, “DISMANTLE”
BY DUO CHARITY CROFF AND JACOB DENZEL OF ARCHDUKE
(FEATURING TAYLOR IMAN AND JENEE JONES)
LAUNCHES TODAY IN CONJUNCTION WITH
ONE BILLION RISING GLOBAL MASS ACTIONS,
AND THE CELEBRATION OF THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY
OF THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES AND V-DAY.

“I broke free thanks to Queens I know / They taught me not to fill no role… I ain’t gotta act hard now / I’m real big, real big like my heart now.” These are some of the provocative lyrics from hip hop duo Charity Croff and Jacob Denzel of ArchDuke’s new song “Dismantle,” premiering today in celebration of The Vagina Monologues‘ and V-Day’s 20th Anniversary and as part of One Billion Rising, the biggest mass action to end violence against all women and girls.

1 in 3 women across the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. That’s ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS. Every February, we rise – in countries across the world –to show our local communities and the world what one billion looks like and shine a light on the rampant impunity and injustice that survivors most often face. We rise through dance to express joy and community and celebrate the fact that we have not been defeated by this violence. We rise to show we are determined to create a new kind of consciousness – one where violence will be resisted until it is unthinkable. One Billion Rising is envisioned collectively by global coordinators around the world. Activists in over 200 countries are RISING to put the issue of ending violence against all women and girls front and center, to amplify the voices the most marginalized, and to call men to RISE.

“Honestly, patriarchy is a man’s issue,” said Charity Croff. “Generally, society tends to view feminism as this avenue through which women can liberate themselves. However, any liberation must involve the direct accountability and action from the oppressive group. In this case…men. ‘Dismantle’ is a song about men ripping that hypermasculine mask off and thereby exposing the loving, joyous, empathetic human being that lies beneath. It is my deepest hope that the liberation of women will be a natural byproduct of that process.”

“Dismantle” features a fusion of soulful afrobeats and classic New Orleans bounce, with lyrics that exemplify and raise awareness of the work needed to end sexism. In the video, ArchDuke performs in a mirrored room, brimming with movement and reflecting the energy of these men as they answer and issue a call to action. The song ends with a dance break, featuring a diverse group of women, coming together to rejoice in the music and the message.

The song will be featured in international artistic uprisings, challenging the systems that cause violence, including imperialism, fascism, racism, capitalism, and neo-liberalism.

ArchDuke and One Billion Rising invite everyone committed to ending gender-based violence to take part in the “Dismantle” Dance Challenge by moving in whatever way makes them feel alive, ecstatic, and powerful in their bodies. Activists and allies worldwide will video themselves dancing to the song in solidarity with the one in three women on the planet who will be raped or beaten in her lifetime. Share your video using the hashtags #DismantlePatriarchy and #1BillionRising.

“Art has the power to reach, transform and inspire people to act. That fact is at the heart of V-Day and One Billion Rising and has been since our founding. During our V20 year, we issued a call for new art, particularly art that engages men in ending violence against women,” said Susan Celia Swan, Executive Director of V-Day/OBR. “Charity and Jacob are passionate about doing the work of calling in men as men. Abuse doesn’t just happen, someone perpetrates it and the majority of the time, that someone is a man. ‘Dismantle’ is a powerful artistic tool for our community of activists, and it calls men into the work of ending violence against all women.”

RISE2019

The world is RISING, follow us at:
Facebook.com/vday
Twitter: @vday
Instagram: @one_billion_rising, @vdayorg

V-Day: Say It, Stage It – Produce a V-Day Benefit as an Artistic Uprising at your college/university, in your community

One Billion RISING: Rise In Solidarity – RISE in your community, for your community

City of Joy: Turn Pain to Power – Screen the Documentary, Support the Women in DR Congo

ONE BILLION RISING: REVOLUTION 2019 – RISING: FROM A CAMPAIGN, TO A WAY OF LIFE

OBR ENTERS ITS SEVENTH YEAR WITH A GLOBAL CALL TO ACTION AND MANIFESTA

Risings To Expand Our Understanding Of Women’s Oppression And Exploitation In The Context Of Capitalism, Colonization, Racism, Imperialism, Environmental Plunder And War

One Billion Rising, the biggest mass action to end violence against women in human history, announced today its 2019 theme and activities. Launched by V-Day on Valentine’s Day 2012, One Billion Rising (OBR) began as a call to action based on the staggering statistic that 1 in 3 women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. With the world population at 7 billion, this adds up to more than ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS.

The 2019 theme is “Rising: From A Campaign, To A Way Of Life,” amplifies that in the face of the global crisis women face amidst capitalism, colonization, racism, imperialism, environmental plunder and war,activism must become a daily practice.

“As a global movement, we are collectively coming into the time and space where we can no longer end violence against women, without looking at all the intersecting issues and layers of this violence, as well as what violence towards women and girls means in this context, and ensuring that these are all equally centered and made visible in our efforts.” – Monique Wilson, One Billion Rising Global Director

Since it began, OBR activists have been rising to free women (cisgender, transgender, and those who hold fluid identities that are subject to gender based violence) from sexual and physical violence in its more overt and obvious forms: rape, battery, incest, sexual harassment, female genital mutilation, sexual slavery and trafficking, child marriage, femicide, sexual-gender and reproductive oppression and violence towards LGBTQIA+ communities. There have been numerous victories as laws have been created, awareness has been raised and understanding of women’s experiences deepened.

As the 7^th year of One Billion Rising begins, activists are faced with bigger challenges. To end violence against women, the call to action is to commit to a deeper examination of violence in all its forms. Along with sexual and physical violence, we must also look at systemic violence in economic, political, socio-cultural, environmental and ideological spheres.

As we continue to Rise to end violence against women– it is imperative now for us to expand our understanding of women’s oppression and exploitation in the context of capitalism, colonization, racism, imperialism, environmental plunder and war. We have been compartmentalized and divided for too long. Our Rising must now connect our specific oppression to the common universal humanity that binds us all. This is no less than a way of life, a way of seeing, a way of being in the world. It is not one day that we rise, but every day that this consciousness must rise in all we do.

We call on activists this year to be braver, go deeper, reflect, study, listen, learn, awaken to what you don’t know, ask the difficult questions, engage, take actions, and push yourselves out of your comfort zones physically and intellectually. We call on you to commit to resistance and solidarity.

Because Rising is no longer a campaign – it is a way of life. RISE. RESIST. UNITE.

OBR MANIFESTA 2019:

Violence Against Women and Girls Equals…

Rape
Battery
Incest
Sexual Harassment
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)
Sexual Slavery and Trafficking
Child Marriage
Femicide
Sexual, Gender and Reproductive Oppression
Violence Towards LGBTQIA+ Communities

Violence Against Women and Girls also Equals…

Toxic Masculinity
Poverty/ Economic Injustice/ Labor Exploitation
Climate Destruction and Environmental Plunder
Racism, Hate and Discrimination
Religious Fundamentalism
State and Institutional Violence/ Militarization/ War
Forced Displacement/ Immigrant and Migrant Abuse

2019 initiatives include global solidarity spotlights, artists rising movement, men rising call, youth rising global network, as well as an ongoing social media campaign and activist news network. Activists worldwide are being invited to hold Artistic Uprisings to escalate political consciousness and urge radical calls to action, telling the stories of women, making their invisible stories visible, exposing the world to women’s issues from their local contexts and from their own voices. Invite radical artists who have curated creative work that fits the theme of OBR Revolution: Solidarity to join.

OBR has become a movement in itself, taking activism out of the theater and into the streets, front and center in countries and communities around the globe. Through Creative resistance, dance & artistic uprisings as a form of protest, OBR activists call for solidarity & an end to the exploitation of women & girls. On or about 14 February through 8 March/International Women’s Day, people across the world came together to express their outrage, strike, dance, and RISE in defiance of the injustices women suffer, demanding an end at last to violence against women.

# # #

RISE 2019! Take Action

ORGANIZE a Rising – RISE in your community, for your community

LEARN about 2019

STAGE an Artistic Uprising

SPREAD the Word on Social Media

This Wednesday in London – V20: London Rising, Get Your Tickets Today

V20 London Rising Announced: Calling London to RISE

Press Release
For Immediate Release

V20 London Rising Announced: Calling London to RISE

Join Eve Ensler, V-Day Board Member Thandie Newton* and One Billion Rising Global Director Monique Wilson, Artists, Musicians & Activists

Twenty years ago, Eve Ensler’s play The Vagina Monologues gave birth to V-DAY, a global activist movement to end violence against all women and girls (cisgender, transgender and gender non-conforming). The play and the playwright exploded onto the scene, garnering headlines and rave reviews, filling the theater night after night, breaking taboos, opening spaces for dialogue where they hadn’t existed before, and shattering the silence around women’s experiences with sexuality and violence.

This year marks the 20^th anniversary of The Vagina Monologues and V-DAY and to celebrate, One Billion Rising and V-Day are calling on activists in London to Rise, Resist, and Unite for a special evening at Café De Paris.

V20 London Rising is an Artistic UpRising. It’s a celebration of The Vagina Monologues, V-DAY and One Billion Rising, as well as an honoring of the amazing revolutionary work of One Billion Rising activists and artists around the world. The evening will be an artistic event boldly fusing music, theatre, dance, poetry, movement, and film in an exciting night of creatively subversive, beautiful, sensual, provocative and powerful performance art celebrating women.

The evening will also be a creative resistance Rising like no other, urgently needed in these times of escalating violence in every sphere – from violence towards young women and girls – which has escalated One Billion Rising Youth Risings globally – to workers and refugees and all displaced people, as well as the tremendous desecration now of our beloved Mother Earth. The time is now, to keep building, fostering, nurturing, and inspiring real, powerful solidarity amongst all movements. And to keep creating art as forms of rebellion, disruption, celebration and hope. Art that calls on us all to Rise for love and life.

Join Eve, V-Day Board Member Thandie Newton* and One Billion Rising Global Director Monique Wilson along with an astounding line up of artists and activists from the UK, US, Congo, Croatia, India and the Philippines to celebrate the pioneering achievements of the last 20 years. This Artistic UpRising also features Vocalist KARIN BELLO, Women from the LONDON CAPOEIRA COMMUNITY, UK multi-platform artist, singer, musician, actress, songwriter RIAH KNIGHT, dance group LAHING KAYUMANGGI doing the Philippine indigenous “Banga” fierce warrior women dance, THE ALPACAS- a London based multi-national pop rock band with members coming from Romania, Mexico, UK and Japan, International Circus Artists led by JACKIE LE  – doing aerial acrobatic performances in silk and hoop duo, and the MONAMAN THEATRE COMPANY – an international theatre company based in London led by Greek born actresses who do devised work that alter and defy all traditional theatrical rules.  Igniting the dancing for the evening will be one of the world’s most in-demand and top female DJ’s DJ PHILLY with her trademark Hip Hop, R’nB’ and House music.

The evening also features several grand flash mobs of the One Billion Rising theme song “Break The Chain” as well as the One Billion Rising Tilburg, Netherlands original dance/song “We Are Beautiful” – featuring over 50 international actors from the East 15 Acting School as well as West End actors, who will be joined by women refugees and women workers from Voice of Domestic Workers.

The evening is produced by New Voice Company (UK) Limited, Rossana Abueva/One Billion Rising UK Coordinator and V-Day/One Billion Rising.

Tickets are £36.00 www.onebillionrising.org/londonrising

Ends

 

Notes to Editors

V20: Background on V-Day, One Billion Rising and Eve Ensler

About V-Day:
Twenty years ago, Eve Ensler’s play The Vagina Monologues gave birth to V-Day, a global activist movement to end violence against all women and girls (cisgender, transgender, and gender non-conforming).

Since 1998, The Vagina Monologues and other works have been performed across the world by local V-Day activists, raising over $100 million dollars for grassroots anti-violence groups, rape crisis centers, domestic violence shelters, and safe houses in places like Kenya and Afghanistan.  V-Day supports and launched the City of Joy, a revolutionary center for women survivors of gender violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has graduated over 1100 women leaders.

Activists look at the intersection of class, race, gender, environmental destruction, imperialism, militarism, patriarchy, poverty, and war, as women face abuse and exploitation across layers of systematic and societal oppression, with the most marginalized and excluded often facing increased levels of violence.

In 2013, V-Day gave birth to One Billion Rising – the largest mass action to demand an end to violence against women in history.  V-Day and One Billion Rising are a crucial part of the global fight to stop gender-based violence through attacking the silence — public and private — that allows violence against women to continue.

With ingenuity and determination, V-Day activists around the world are tirelessly working to end harassment, rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation and sex slavery.

 

In London:
London activists have been on the leading edge of the V-Day and One Billion Rising efforts to end violence against women and girls, raising awareness for change on a global scale. V-Day benefit performances of The Vagina Monologues have been staged in London – including the Royal Albert Hall (The Vagina Monologues 2002) – raising funds for local rape crisis center and domestic violence shelters. One Billion Rising events have been held every year in London (Trafalgar Square for One Billion Rising 2013) since the campaign first launched globally on Valentine’s Day 2012 as a call to action based on the staggering statistic that 1 in 3 women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. With the world population at 7 billion, this adds up to more than ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS. On 14 February 2013, ONE BILLION people across the world came together to express their outrage, strike, dance, and RISE in defiance of the injustices women suffer, demanding an end at last to violence against women. Since then, events have taken place every year as the OBR campaign has deepened and expanded globally into a movement unto itself.

 

Eve Ensler
Eve Ensler is the Tony Award winning playwright, activist, and author of the theatrical Obie award winning phenomenon, The Vagina Monologues, published in 48 languages and performed in over 140 countries. Her plays include Lemonade, Extraordinary Measures, Necessary Targets, OPC, Emotional Creature and most recently In the Body of the World and Fruit Trilogy, which both recently wrapped Off-Broadway runs in NYC.

Her books include Insecure At Last: A Political Memoir and the New York Times bestseller I Am An Emotional Creature. She recently finished performing In the Body of the World at Manhattan Theatre Club, a one-woman show, which she adapted for the stage from her critically acclaimed memoir and first debuted the American Repertory Theater. Film credits include The Vagina Monologues, What I Want My Words to Do to You, and City of Joy.

Ms. Ensler is the founder of V-Day, the 20-year-old global activist movement to end violence against women and girls, which has raised over 100 million dollars. V-Day led her to also found One Billion Rising, the biggest global mass action to end violence against women in over 200 countries. She is a regular contributor for The Guardian. She was named one of Newsweek’s “150 Women Who Changed the World” and The Guardian’s “100 Most Influential Women.” Ms. Ensler is the recent recipient of the Lucille Lortel 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award and a 2018 Lilly Award.

 

Websites:
V-Day: https://vday.org/
One Billion Rising: https://www.onebillionrising.org/
City of Joy: https://drc.vday.org/

Social Media:
Facebook.com/vday
Instagram: @vdayorg, @one_billion_rising, @cityofjoyfilm
Twitter: @vday, @cityofjoyfilm

Media Information
For media information and press accreditation for V20 London Rising or to request a 20^th Anniversary Edition of The Vagina Monologues (featuring six never-before-published V-DAY monologues) please contact Hannah Bryce at Verdun PR. Eve Ensler and Monique Wilson will be in London from Tuesday 25^th September and are available for interviews.

Email: media (at) vday.org / Mobile: 07590545802

 

* pending scheduling

 

MEDIA ALERT: On March 8: Massive Women’s Rally at Department of Labor in DC #WOMENWORKERSRISING

MEDIA ALERT FOR MARCH 8, 2017

Contacts: CJ Frogozo, cj(a)drakecomms.us, 310 570 2622
Tim Rusch, ruschtk(a)gmail.com, 917 399 0236

On March 8: Massive Women’s Rally at Department of Labor in DC

#WOMENWORKERSRISING:
A RALLY WITH WOMEN WORKERS ON INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY TO END WORKPLACE VIOLENCE AND HARASSMENT AND PROMOTE PAY EQUITY, ONE FAIR LIVING WAGE,
PAID LEAVE, AND LABOR RIGHTS AT WORK
AT THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, WASHINGTON, D.C.
C Street NW at 3^rd Street NW, 3:30-5:30 PM

Featuring Performances, Songs, Testimony, Films, Dance, Poetry Created and Performed by Women Workers, Activists and Artists including Climbing PoeTree, Eve Ensler, Sophorn Yang, Joanna Cifredo, Keri Gray, D.C. Labor Chorus, and more

Remarks from Congresswomen Jan Schakowsky and Pramila Jayapal

Presented by One Billion Rising in Coalition with Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, the African American Policy Forum, American Federation of Teachers, Family Values @ Work, International Labor Rights Forum, Jobs with Justice, National Nurses United, National Domestic Workers Alliance, National Organization for Women, OUR Walmart, Good Jobs Nation
(List in formation)

Washington, DC – On International Women’s Day, Wednesday, March 8th, women are rising at a massive rally in DC – WOMEN WORKERS RISING. Women workers will come together and RISE for Dignity, Equality, and Respect at the US Department of Labor and continuing on to John Marshall Park. Organizers are calling all women and allies to come and be in solidarity with women workers – for an end to workplace violence and harassment and to promote pay equity, one fair living wage, paid leave, and labor rights at work. This rally will be on the day – and in solidarity with – women around the world rising for women’s rights, including the International Women’s Action and The Women’s March: A Day Without a Woman.

Sexual harassment and violence against women workers takes place every day at workplaces across the country, in every occupation and industry. From restaurant workers, teachers, retail workers, domestic workers, and at-home mothers to nurses, farmworkers, factory workers, workers with disabilities, federal workers, actors, office workers, company executives, and more, workplace violence is part of making a living for many women. In many cases, women don’t or can’t speak out or seek justice for fear of losing their jobs. All of this is happening in a global economic reality where it is increasingly difficult for women to earn a livable wage.

On March 8^th, working women from multiple sectors will rally and surround the Department of Labor in a show of unity, demanding that women workers be seen, heard, and treated with dignity, especially by the new Presidential Administration and Department of Labor leadership. They will be joined by allies in solidarity as they Dance, Rise, and Resist the bullying, attacks on workplace standards, and politics of exclusion practiced by the administration.

The event will feature live testimony and rallying cries from a diversity of voices, performances, videos, a flash mob, poetry, music, and much more. Through an artistic uprising, collective expression and creative resistance, women workers and artists will share personal powerful moving testimonies experienced on the job. We will come together to witness and listen to women workers who hold this country up but often remain invisible. The free event will take place from 3:30pm – 5:30pm and will honor the sacred and valuable work of women around the world, in all its forms, by demanding safe, violence-free workplaces.

WHO: One Billion Rising in Coalition with Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, the African American Policy Forum, American Federation of Teachers, Family Values @ Work, International Labor Rights Forum, Jobs with Justice, National Nurses United, National Domestic Workers Alliance, National Organization for Women, OUR Walmart, Good Jobs Nation, more to be announced

SPEAKERS AND PERFORMERS INCLUDE: Women workers from the coalition as well as Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, Eve Ensler (playwright and Founder of One Billion Rising, V-Day), Climbing PoeTree, Department of Labor Chorus, Liana Foxvog and Sarah Newel (International Labor Rights Forum), Jean Ross (National Nurses Co-President United), Saru Jayaraman (Executive Director of ROC- United), Sophia Urista (singer, The Voice), Sophorn Yang (Cambodian trade union leader), Angeles Solis (United Students Against Sweatshops), Joanna Cifredo (Transgender Activist), Keri Gray (Intersectionality and Youth Programming Artist) and more to be announced.

WHAT: Women’s Worker’s Rising: A Rally with Women Workers on International Women’s Day

WHERE: Department of Labor to John Marshall Park, Washington, DC

WHEN: March 8, 2017 3:30 – 5:30 pm

Rise in solidarity with women workers, join us.

Visit http://www.womenworkersrising.org
#WomenWorkersRising

###

ONE BILLION RISING is the biggest mass action to end violence against women in human history. The campaign, launched by V-Day on Valentine’s Day 2012, began as a call to action based on the staggering statistic that 1 in 3 women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. With the world population at 7 billion, this adds up to more than ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS. Every February through 8 March, thousands of Risings take place in hundreds of countries across the world and within local communities – to show the world what one billion looks like and shine a light on the rampant impunity and injustice that survivors of various forms of violence face.

Over the last four years, as One Billion Rising has grown and the local campaigns deepened, it has also brought in economic violence and the violence of poverty, racial violence, gender violence, violence caused by corruption, occupation and aggression, violence caused by environmental disasters, climate change and environmental plunder, violence impacting women in the context of state sponsored wars, militarization, and the worsening internal and international displacement of millions of people, and violence created by capitalist greed, among so many others. This year, One Billion Rising Revolution is giving sharper focus and visibility to the exploitation of women, and to harnessing even stronger global solidarity to demand an end to violence in all forms. Visit http://www.onebillionrising.org

PRESS RELEASE: One Billion Rising 2017: Rising In Solidarity Against the Exploitation of Women: RISE, DISRUPT, CONNECT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Susan Celia Swan/Colleen Carroll

media(a)vday.org +1 (917) 865-6603

One Billion Rising 2017: Rising In Solidarity Against the Exploitation of Women

RISE, DISRUPT, CONNECT

Using Dance as a Form of Protest, Activists In Countries Across the Globe Call For Solidarity & End to the Exploitation of Women’s Bodies, Labor, and Land

Activists Make Valentine’s Day a Day for Revolutionary Love and Resistance

Events To Be Held 14 February Through 8 March, International Women’s Day,

11 February 2017 – For the fifth year, activists around the world are Rising in Solidarity to demand an end to the Exploitation of all women and girls (cis, transgender and gender non-conforming), as part of the global One Billion Rising movement. 1 in 3 women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime, adding up to more than ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS. The annual call to action is developed by the team of Global Coordinators – from regions around the world.

“Because there can be no REVOLUTION without SOLIDARITY. We cannot call for system change – change of mindsets; change of structures that keep violence in place; change in consciousness, awareness and understanding of violence; the end of patriarchal values and cultures; change in policies that affect women economically, socially, sexually, physically, emotionally; the end of the revolving patterns of control, oppression and exploitation – alone. Solidarity is radical connection.” – Monique Wilson, One Billion Rising Global Director

“We declare our love for all who are in harm’s way, including refugees, immigrants, Muslims, LGBTQIAGNC people, Black people, the indigenous, the poor, and women and girls at risk of violence. We vow to see you as our brothers and sisters and fight by your side…We join forces and stand together with the millions of people across the planet who are rising to end violence against and girls and resist racist patriarchy. To protect women who are most often the most vulnerable within marginalized communities. We take part in it to honor our mothers whose bodies and beings and blood carved the path we are walking on. We are rising – we are dancing – to find the new language of these times – built on a deeper education, radical listening, humility and empathy.” – Eve Ensler, Founder of One Billion Rising

In response to the increase in fascist, racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, oppressive, authoritarian leaders – and the neo-liberal capitalist system rapaciously exploiting and oppressing the people of the world, activists are heightening their calls and escalating their actions.  Via One Billion Rising’s decentralized model of grassroots activism, each One Billion Rising location applies the 2017 call to action in their local context. Using dance as a form of protest – events, rallies, flash mobs, artistic uprisings, panel discussions, and concerts are scheduled on college campuses, in community centers, state houses, churches, in the streets, everywhere.

 

Rising Worldwide, Together In Community, In the Streets

Risings are happening across the African continent, in Nigeria, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Malawi, Uganda, Togo, Gabon and Cameroon. In Swaziland they are mobilizing rural women farmers and domestic workers who are rising to demand economic empowerment programs promised by the government. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, they will RISE in March. Events in South Asia include Risings in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka, the Region of Kashmir, and hundreds of events in India alone. OBR India kicked off with a huge OBR Delhi event entitled “Love Has the Power To End Violence” – a day of music, dance, theatre and conversation challenging violence against women and girls and celebrating love.

In Mexico City, activists will dance in the sixteen neighborhoods where human trafficking is concentrated. In the Balkans, activists focusing on women’s workers’ unions, are hosting risings from 14 February through 8 March, International Women’s Day. In Colombia, Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay organizers partnered with the International Holocaust Memorial Alliance & UNESCO to create education programs around the prevention of violence. Across the Philippines, activists will RISE for justice and peace, focusing on the exploitation and militarization, which harms their Indigenous communities known as Lumads.

In the United States, activists and allies from the Austin community will gather at the Texas State Capital to RISE in solidarity. Activists with the nonprofit Unchained At Last will be hosting a “Chain-in” on February 14 in the New York Statehouse to protest child marriage and forced marriage in New York and across the US wearing bridal gowns and veils, with their arms chained and mouths taped, to send a powerful message to legislators. In Santa Fe and Miami they are rising against the exploitation of Human Trafficking. In NYC’s Washington Square Park, Artists and activists will rally and rise to make Valentine’s Day a day for revolutionary love and resistance at an Artistic Uprising – A Call for Revolutionary Love.

ctivists throughout Europe are Rising. In Italy, over seventy cities are Rising. In Germany, over 160. In Poland, over 70 In Cyprus, activists are rising against sexual exploitation, violence, and rape, and for justice and services for survivors and the ratification and implementation of the Istanbul Convention. In Budapest, activists are hosting a wildly creative Anti-Exploitation Ball, where in addition to music, slam poetry, and dance attendees will be invited to the stage to speak out against all forms of exploitation. Members of the European Women’s Lobby (EWL) from all over Europe are mobilizing and will organize an OBR action in person and online to raise awareness about sexual exploitation and foster and demonstrate the solidarity between women and between women’s organizations.

On 8 March, International Women’s Day, Women Workers Rising in DC – a new event featuring activists, women workers and allies will begin on the steps of the United States Department of Labor, where they will Dance, Rise and Resist the bullying, harmful policies, and new norms touted by the proposed incoming Secretary of Labor. The activists will move through the streets and on to Dock 5, where a wildly creative Artistic Uprising will take place featuring those very women sharing stories of harm and care, of scars and redemption, of violence and victories they have experienced on the job. Through poetry, dance, theatre, song and collective expression we will witness these women, who have too long been ignored in society.

One Billion Rising first began in 2013 with the fierce struggle against sexual and physical violence – taking on the advocacy against rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation and sex trafficking that V-Day campaigns over 18 years have been at the forefront of. Over the last four years, as One Billion Rising has grown and the local campaigns deepened, it has also brought in economic violence and the violence of poverty, racial violence, gender violence, violence caused by corruption, occupation and aggression, violence caused by environmental disasters, climate change and environmental plunder, violence impacting women in the context of state sponsored wars, militarization, and the worsening internal and international displacement of millions of people, and violence created by capitalist greed, among so many others.

 

Rising Online, Broadcast Via Media and Social Media

Leading up to 8 March, the One Billion Rising website and social media channels will act as a hub amplifying the global efforts showcasing art, music, videos and news and blogs from activists and events worldwide. The website features an activist toolkit, campaign info, and FAQ and more. On social media, the hashtags #1BillionRising. #RiseinSolidarity, #Unbilliondepie, #RevolutionaryLove and more will flood Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat with posters, videos, images leading up to and live in-the-moment coverage of events and RISINGS via live tweeting, Facebook Live, Periscope, Instagram Stories, and other live streaming. Activists will share their demands, their calls to action and celebrate global solidarity across the Internet.

 

V-Day Activists Shine a Spotlight on Violence Against Women in the Workplace; Eve Ensler Pens a New Monologue “I Call You Body”

V-Day benefit productions of The Vagina Monologues and A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant, and a Prayer continue for a nineteenth consecutive year. For nineteen years, thousands of V-Day benefit events take place produced by volunteer activists in the U.S. and around the world. These efforts have raised consciousness, changed laws to protect women and girls, funded rape crisis centers and domestic violence shelters (in many cases these much needed funds kept them from closing), educated their communities, and raised over $100 million in urgently needed funds for groups doing the essential work of ending violence and serving survivors and their families.

Violence against women at work takes place every day, in every country, across socio-economic levels – from laborers to company executives, to waitresses and teachers, at-home mothers, nurses, farmworkers, factory workers, actors, and domestic workers. The additional layer of exploitation is that, in many cases, women facing workplace violence are vulnerable and impeded from speaking out or seeking justice for fear of losing their job. All of this is happening in the context of a global economic reality where it is increasingly difficult for women to even earn a livable wage. This year, we are honoring the sacred and valuable work of women around the world, in all its forms, by demanding safe, violence-free workplaces. Ten percent of all benefit productions around the world will be collectively donated to provide support to groups working to eradicate sexual and gender violence in places of work.

Each production will feature Eve Ensler’s newest monologue that honors the sacred and valuable work of women around the world, in all its forms, by demanding safe, violence-free workplaces as well as testimonials of local women workers sharing their experience with workplace violence. By platforming these original stories and voices – the spirit of the play and the campaign comes to life, unique to each community, but in solidarity with the thousands of other productions happening simultaneously worldwide, showing the world that we stand together to end violence here and everywhere!

 

New Call to Activists to Share Their Stories Via Video Testimonials

19 years ago V-Day was founded with the mission to end violence against women and girls through art and activism. Since that moment, thousands of activists have taken to the stage, activated in their communities and on college campuses, and staged massive events in celebration and defiance, in colleges, towns, theaters, churches, state houses, across the world inviting everyone into the dialogue with a common purpose – end violence against women and girls. Through One Billion Rising, activsts have shook the earth through massive RISINGS in which over ONE BILLION people danced to end the epidemic of violence, we have shifted consciousness and broken the deadly silence, making ending sexual violence a front-page issue, never to be silenced again.

These macro moments, are the culmination of micro movements – a woman who leaves an abusive partner, a rape survivor taking the stage and telling her story after years of silence, a man whose eyes are opened to rape culture and who pledges to living a life dismantling it, a young girl watch her mother reclaim cunt and a young boy dancing in the streets – and in preparation for our 20^th year V-Day has release a call for video testimonials to be used in a forthcoming documentary about the movement. 

 

Rising Anthem “Break The Chain” – Activists have creatively used the “Break The Chain” song and choreography in their communities often as a centerpiece and rallying cry for their events.   Since it was released in late 2012, the song has been translated into well over 15 languages making the message more accessible, the song more local. Communities around the world have adapted, localised and completely re-envisioned the choreography, in many places integrating the dance into their cultures. The constantly changing choreography is shared via Youtube videos and across the OBR News & Blog.

Rising in solidarity in 2017, activists and grassroots groups will mobilize en masse with one voice to end the exploitation of women and girls.

To get involved:
SIGN UP at www.onebillionrising.org
LIKE US on Facebook at Facebook.com/vday
FOLLOW on Twitter @VDay #RiseInSolidarity #1BillionRising #RevolutionaryLove #Unbilliondepie

FOLLOW us on Instagram @vdayorg & @one_billion_rising
READ about the campaign http://www.onebillionrising.org/about/campaign/
BLOG updates from Global Coordinators and activists http://www.onebillionrising.org/blog

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About One Billion Rising: One Billion Rising is the biggest mass action to end violence against women in human history. The campaign, launched by V-Day on Valentine’s Day 2012, began as a call to action based on the staggering statistic that 1 in 3 women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. With the world population at 7 billion, this adds up to more than ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS. Every February through 8 March, thousands of Risings take place in hundreds of countries across the world and within local communities – to show the world what one billion looks like and shine a light on the rampant impunity and injustice that survivors of various forms of violence face.

Through the collective efforts of activists in 200 countries, One Billion Rising has mobilised, engaged, awakened and joined people worldwide to end violence against women. It has made violence against women a global human issue not relegated to country or tribe or class or religion, and revealed it as a patriarchal mandate, present in every culture of the world. Over the last four years, as One Billion Rising has grown and the local campaigns deepened, it has also brought in economic violence and the violence of poverty, racial violence, gender violence, violence caused by corruption, occupation and aggression, violence caused by environmental disasters, climate change and environmental plunder, violence impacting women in the context of state sponsored wars, militarization, and the worsening internal and international displacement of millions of people, and violence created by capitalist greed, among so many others. Visit http://www.onebillionrising.org/.

ONE BILLION RISING: REVOLUTION is an energy, a platform, a global movement, a catalyst, a worldwide decision to end violence against women, a demand for justice, a paradigm shift, an invitation, a gathering of the ready, housed everywhere, housed in our hearts, you, us, REVOLUTION.

THE 2017 CALL TO RISE AGAINST RACIST PATRIARCHY

Let us RISE against neo-fascism, racist patriarchy, misogyny and sexism.

Rise against rape culture and all those who escalate and normalize it.

Rise against racism, discrimination and inequality.

Rise against neoliberal policies that place profit over people.

Rise against environmental plunder and Rise to protect Indigenous people, land and water.

Rise against homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, exclusion and hate.

Rise against imperialist wars, occupation, internal and international displacement and militarization.

Rise for food, land and justice.

Rise against fear mongering and division.

Rise against international capitalist and imperialist systems that perpetuate poverty.

Rise against the corporations and the rich making more profit off the backs of people’s suffering.

Rise against economic, labor and sexual exploitation.

Rise against human and sex trafficking.

Rise against the violence of poverty, exploitation and marginalization.

Rise for freedom, dignity, equality and respect.

How to Rise?

We need TO DISRUPT with active and radical defiance!

Disrupt in order to INCITE, MOBILIZE, AROUSE, AWAKEN, and INSPIRE.

Disrupt in order to shake the present global structure characterized by patriarchy and capitalist greed.

Disrupt to show how strong a creative “people power” force can be.

Disrupt to keep radicalizing our creative resistance.

We need to CONNECT and expand our political consciousness.

Connect by educating ourselves on all issues.

Connect by uniting in all our struggles and fighting for ALL rights.

Connect by hearing and listening and learning.

Connect by deepening our understanding of issues within the context of race and class analysis.

Connect by joining organizations and mass actions.

Connect by organizing our communities.

COME TOGETHER.

HOLD YOUR GOVERNMENTS and other exploitative patriarchal institutions ACCOUNTABLE.

And RESIST.

Resist with Rage.

Resist with fierce hope.

Resist with unwavering insistence on a future where freedom, equality and dignity is possible.

Resist with collective defiance.

Resist all together. With and For each other.

Rise In Solidarity!

Rise For Revolution!

 

Highlights of Risings Round the World

AFGHANISTAN:

Featuring a number of women who have been successful in their fields including representatives of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, Ministry of Women Affairs, Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Martyrs, and Disables, and Members of Parliament as well as a representative from an ethnic minority community. The event will also include performances by women rap artists who rap on social justice issues, particularly women’s rights.

USA (Albany, NY):

Unchained At Last, a NJ based non profit helping women and children escape child and other forced marriages in the United States. They will be hosting an OBR Chain-In protest at the New York State House in Albany. At their Chain-In they will be wearing bridal attire to drive home the fight to end child forced marriages in the US. Rise to End Child and Forced Marriage!

AUSTRIA:

OBR events will be taking place across Austria with highlights including a major event in Vienna, and in Modling – where after community dancing in front of the town hall to dance to end violence against women, participant will go with lanterns to the Church of St Othmar to bring their inner light to light.

BANGLADESH:

OBR Bangladesh will host their annual event on the street with fire spinners, singers and dancers, before embarking on a month long campaign until March on women’s issues of safety security, housing problems and women in the city not having rights as citizens of that city. A mock trial is being planned with cases of women domestic workers, migrant workers, garment workers, administration and office workers.

BYRON BAY:

Traditionally opening the 48-hour cycle of 14 February OBR events around the world, OBR Byron Bay once again will RISE by the beach at sunrise with dancing. Then they will continue onto the evening with an OBR event featuring original stories from local women at the Byron Theatre.

CAMEROON:

Activists will hold workshops and educational talks with youth from universities and civil society in conjunction with National Youth Day in the cities of Yaounde, Douala, Ngaoundere, Garoua and Bertoua. On February 14th, a major communication campaign in Doula at the “Place du Gouvernement” will be held with various signboards displaying awareness messages on women’s exploitation with the support of the ministry of women and Family Promotion. An OBR protest will also take place to join the international community to stand against violence against women

CARDIFF:

An Artistic Rising “Not An Isolated Incident” where Dinah, an artist, has created artwork of small figures each representing the more than 120 women who were murdered in the UK in 2016 – where the principal suspect was a man. The OBR event aims to raise awareness on violence against women by providing space for discussion, information and debate around the artwork.

DENMARK:

OBR Denmark will host a Conversation with sexologist Julie Jeune and Master Fatman also known as duo from Radio 24syv program Croque Monsieur. The theme explores what it takes to be in a deep respectful and intimate relationship with another human being and which spans gender stereotypes, and how it affects us in our intimate relationships. Another event is also being hosted by Au Pair Network of Denmark who will be holding “Break the Chain” flash mobs.

EWL (EUROPEAN WOMEN’S LOBBY):

The European Women’s Lobby (EWL) brings together the women’s movement in Europe to influence the general public and European Institutions in support of women’s human rights and equality between women and men. They are the largest European umbrella network of women’s associations representing a total of more than 2,000 organisations in all EU Member States and Candidate Countries, as well as 19 European-wide organizations representing the diversity of women and girls in Europe. The EWL will coordinate the action of its members throughout Europe, by giving them visibility through its social media channels, its website and newsletter. EWL members from all over Europe are mobilizing and will organize an OBR action (physically or virtually) to raise awareness about sexual exploitation and foster and demonstrate the solidarity between women and between women’s organizations. The EWL is launching a social media action on 14 February addressing key EU level decision makers and EU member states to take a stand against exploitation and violence against women. They will use their different social media channels and will strategically address relevant EU Decision makers at the European Parliament, European Commission, Presidency of the European Council and Member States (through their Permanent Representations to the EU).

GABON:

This is the first time OBR will be held in Gabon, and the day will include a performance event and exhibition. Popular artists will lead the event, together with the local NGO “Cris de Femmes” who work to protect rights of women and children and who run a shelter.

HONG KONG:

Thousands of migrant and domestic workers from around Asia working in Hong Kong will be Rising to end modern day slavery, social exclusion, xenophobia, discrimination and violence at work. They are Rising to call for decent wages, enough rest at work, safety and protection at work and against HK government policies that are anti-women, anti-migrant and against marginalized people.  The event will include a press conference with leaders from migrants and local groups, followed by an OBR parade around central Hong Kong with simultaneous dancing. In between speeches the OBR dances: “Break the Chain” (in English and Bahasa) and the OBR Philippine dances will be danced. There will be cultural presentations by Filipino, Sri Lankan, Nepali, Indonesian and local Hong Kong domestic worker groups. And an OBR Dance competition will also be held. Speeches will be on issues of social exclusion, human trafficking and modern-day slavery, sexual violence, discrimination, exploitation and xenophobia on immigrant women in HK, exploitation and discrimination of working women in HK, and the importance of global solidarity.

JAMAICA:

OBR Jamaica will be centering their Rising on a healing justices event entitled “Raise Ya Voice” at the Institute of Jamaica. Eve Ensler and Monique Wilson will be special guests.  The Rising will be centered on healing and solidarity to address gender based violence in Jamaica, and which will include discussions and actions on “Grounding our Healing”, “Drumming our Power”, “Singing our Power” and “Dancing our Resilience”. Coordinated and led by Afia Walking Tree.

KOLKATA:

OBR Kolkata will highlight the key themes of Discrimination, Dehumanization and Deprivation of women and their rights. There will be OBR performances by students from schools and colleges and by NGO’s. Kolkata is Rising through songs and dance to promote solidarity and to disrupt any infringement of women’s rights and act together to voice the wishes of women and girls.

LATIN AMERICA:

OBR Guatemala has partnered with the International Holocaust Memorial Alliance and the Ministry of Education to organize OBR events in educational institutions all around Guatemala, Colombia, Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay – where OBR dancing in schools will be highlighting the issues of violence against girls.

LONDON:

Justice For Domestic Workers group, long time OBR activists, together with their allies, will be holding an OBR event where they will be rising for rights of migrant and domestic workers and to end modern day slavery in the UK.  Additionally a group of OBR activists/artists are planning to spread messages of hope and more importantly creative resistance across high visibility areas of London – they will knit bomb, hang origami installations inside of which have instructional notes, and spray paint stenciled photos and slogans with the UK OBR hashtag, using water protective spray,  that only appears after the rain. This will be captured with photographs and posted on line from 14th-March 8th to encourage others to do the same and add more ideas.

MALDIVES:

Hope for Women will be partnering with a Sri Lankan organization on using theater to bring about behavior change using theatre for social justice. They will use this training and put together and conduct a series of theatre performances on violence against women in March. On 14 February, a number of events will be held across at least three islands of the country. There will be dancing and a number of other performances as well as messaging on sexual harassment in public spaces next to displays of women’s clothing.  Video spots are being created and disseminated to create awareness on the issue of violence against women and the exploitation of women. On 17 February, violence against women will be integrated into the Friday Sermon conducted by the Ministry of Islamic Affairs

MANILA: 

Yearly, 5,000 students Rise at the all girls St. Scholastica’s College – a pioneering school where girls are taught a feminist rights based curriculum. The main OBR Manila event will take place at Liwasang Bonifacio in busy downtown Manila, where 10,000 people are expected to join the Rising. Led yearly by the radical militant grassroots women’s group GABRIELA, OBR Manila is made up of a task force group of urban poor women, peasant women, women workers, students, church women, artists, teachers, children’s groups and migrants. The theme for this year is “Rising for Jobs, Land, Justice and Peace”. Over 150 lead up events are already taking place and continue to take place all over the country before the big day on 14 February – where over 100 Rising events will take place all over the Philippines led by local and regional Gabriela chapters in all regions, in a nationally coordinated campaign.

MEXICO:

Rising Caravans will see OBR Mexico rising and dancing in all the 16 neighborhoods that form Mexico City that are considered the red areas – locations with the highest cases of human trafficking. OBR Mexico Risers will be going through the neighborhoods with musicians and dancers to highlight the issues of violence, in particular, the connection of exploitation of women and girls and trafficking. The Rising caravan is a prelude to their main Mexico rising in Cancun on 4 March where they are expecting 50,000 people.

NEW MEXICO:

This year’s rising will be at the Roundhouse where activists will Rise in solidarity against the exploitation of women and girls and Mother Earth. Earlier on February 7th, there will be a campus rising at SFCC and Open Mic session at the Campus Center.

NEPAL:

Nepal is organising 4 flash mobs in different locations Nepal with their 27 project partners and civil society to spread the message of love and solidarity.  Marches will be held across Kathmandu on the issue of violence against women.

NIGERIA:

OBR Nigeria’s campaign entitled “Rise Nigera” will focus on gender inequality, cultural influence, poverty, property ownership, and exploitation of women in the work place, through religion and within education institutions. They have placed particular focus on women in Chibok, an area that was disturbed by the terrorist group Boko Haram. The OBR campaign has focused on enlightening women and girls in the community to take actions,  as well as participate in counseling to heal their experiences of hurt. On February 14th, an OBR workshop will take place where lawyers and activist will discuss their focal issues, before community dancing of “Break The Chain”.

POLAND:

Over 70 Rising events all across Poland. Highlights include OBR Warsaw where an all female choir have recorded an original song. Issues they are Rising for include the problem of violence on dates where 42% of women who have experienced rape have never reported it; 84% of women who have been raped knew their perpetrators; and where 84% of men who commit date rape do not define their action as rape.

PRAGUE:

OBR Prague, entitled “Dancing Against Violence” will take place at Palacky Square in Prague. As part of their campaign they will also be holding a photo campaign with photos showing slogans against gender based violence with their hashtag #OneBillionRisingPrague.

SOUTH AFRICA:

Their “Rise of the Women Leaders Voices of the Cape Flats” highlights the women leaders form the Cape flats working in the gang ridden Cape flats who are currently working with Domestic violence and Rape. Domestic Violence and Rape on the Cape flats has a direct link to Gang Violence. The launch of the campaign under the Banner of 1BILLION RISING, is to look at reducing the scale of violence against women within 10 communities on the Cape flats as part of a 3 year campaign, with advocacy and rights based programs, as well as looking at skills development and rights based training.

SWAZILAND:

Activists will hold a street festival in Manzini Town where main streets will be blocked off. The festival will encompass speeches, performances of the new and original OBR Swaziland song and will deliver demands from the informal economic sector – rural farmers, domestic workers, women informal traders and others in the informal sector. They will demand equitable participation from government programs that are meant to empower them economically but fail to do so.

SYDNEY:

ASIAN WOMEN AT WORK Inc is a network of Asian migrant women workers that empowers, resources and assists women to stand up, speak out and take collective action to advocate for their rights and develop strategies that improve women’s lives, end exploitation in the workplace and home, obtain secure employment and enable them to understand and contribute to Australian society. They will be dancing and rising in Sydney From Parramatta – to Bankstown – and to Campsie calling: No To Exploitation of Women!

TOGO:

Women from the plateaux region will be invited for a 4 day stay in the big city of Atakpame where they will receive full day trainings on gender based violence, education on legal processes for justice and how to build networks of women nationwide. On 10 February, a gala night will be held with speakers – women leaders from the sectors of law, social work, feminist activism who will share their experiences. The main OBR event will then take place on 11 February with an OBR caravan across the city with all the participants, joined by high school students and women from the communities, for a public sensitization that will include sketches discussions and public dancing.

UBUD:

In November, Green School welcomed award-winning playwright, activist, and Founder of V-Day Eve Ensler and activist and Director of One Billion Rising Monique Wilson to their jungle campus.

Now, Green School’s High School students are hosting this year’s special Green School version of V-Day – the global movement to end violence against women and girls.

Green School’s VDAY 2017 ‘In Solidarity’ is on Friday February 14 featuring a huge One Billion Rising Dance event, workshops, a special assembly, community events and performances with all proceeds going to the Bali Street Mums Project.

UGANDA:

Building up to their OBR event, poems, art pieces, and cultural/spiritual songs were created by local artists as part of a nationwide campaign. On 14 February, at the Katwe football pitch, a march will be led by the Chief of the Uganda Police Force, the Uganda Police Force and the Uganda Prisons Service Brass bands towards the Youth Sharing Hall for the main event. Program will begin with speeches and sharings on sexual violence and trafficking in Uganda. OBR will then be launched with a grand show and performances by top bands and with cultural dancers leading the dancing.

ZAMBIA:

OBR day will begin with a 2km walk from the market to ZOCS where the main activity will be held. There will be speeches by members of Parliament and by the Zambia National Director of WLSA and will culminate with ending violence against women messages through songs and dances led by a local theatre group.

ZIMBABWE:

OBR Zimbabwe will hold an Artists Rising event using art and activism in the town of Morella exploring what solidarity means for women, and what are the forms of exploitation women are facing in terms of violence and in terms of the economic environment they are in.

NEW VIDEO – “The Time Is Now…Rise for #1FairWage” (Featuring Thandie Newton & Chantal Georges) Co-Produced By RESTAURANT OPPORTUNITIES CENTER (ROC) UNITED and ONE BILLION RISING

AWARD WINNING ACTOR/ACTIVIST THANDIE NEWTON

AND ACTOR/ROC MEMBER CHANTAL GEORGE ARE FEATURED IN “THE TIME IS NOW”

VIDEO TELLS THE STORY OF THE SLAVE HISTORY OF THE TIPPED MINIMUM WAGE FOR RESTAURANT WORKERS

Co-Produced By RESTAURANT OPPORTUNITIES CENTER (ROC) UNITED

and ONE BILLION RISING, Directed By Sekou Luke

New York, NY – Today, Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United and One Billion Rising released a new video called “The Time is Now,” featuring award winning actor, activist and V-Day Board member Thandie Newton, star of HBO’s upcoming series Westworld, and New York-based actor and ROC member, Chantal George. Director Sekou Luke is an independent artist who is a former restaurant worker and member of ROC.

The video is a direct and artful attack on the racist history of the separate, lower wage for tipped workers in the U.S. Newton describes the subminimum wage as an economic system rooted in the nation’s history of slavery that subjected people of color to different standards of governing employment. This legacy persist to this day in the form of a $2.13 federal tipped minimum wage.

Newton said of her participation in this video, “I’m proud to be working with One Billion Rising and ROC to bring the nation’s attention to the racist history of the subminimum wage for tipped workers, which forces millions of workers– more than two-thirds of them women–to endure widespread abuse and exploitation. It’s an enduring legacy of slavery, and it has to stop now.”

The two-tiered system of a separate, lower minimum wage for tipped workers has left nearly 4.5 million working people across the country struggling to survive on poverty wages. The common misperception is that tipped workers are largely white men in their thirties, making six figures at a fine-dining establishment. To the contrary, they are overwhelmingly women and people of color, working at casual restaurants like Denny’s and The Olive Garden. Forced to rely on tips — and thus the whims of customers — to make ends meet, they disproportionately endure financial insecurity, sexual harassment, and discrimination.

Currently seven states — California, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Montana, Minnesota and Nevada — have eliminated the tipped minimum wage, establishing One Fair Wage for all workers, and they have watched their restaurant industries soar. Furthermore, The White House and Department of Justice support One Fair Wage, as does the Democratic Party, which has included the elimination of the subminimum wage system in their official platform.

This video is being released in conjuncture with the launch of the fifth year of One Billion Rising global campaign, which will focus on and give increased visibility to the exploitation of women and violence against women in the workplace, and build global solidarity to demand an end to violence in all forms. The campaign will feature actions, art, and events that highlight unprecedented forms of labor abuse women face, focusing on economic and sexual exploitation.

“We are proud to partner with Thandie and ROC United in the creation of this video that we hope will illuminate the legacy of slavery which laid the groundwork for the exploitative wages and practices that women in the restaurant industry endure today.  We hope this video will inspire everyone and anyone who has ever been served by a waitress to Rise in Solidarity to end exploitation towards restaurant workers and to demand One Fair Wage,” stated Eve Ensler, playwright, activist, and Founder of V-Day and One Billion Rising.

“Once the best kept secret in the restaurant industry, the racist origins of tipping in America is a story that must be told,” said Saru Jayaraman, ROC United’s co-founder. “In post-slavery America, tipping was viewed as a demeaning practice fit only for former slaves, whom business owners resented having to pay. Nearly two hundred years later, that rationale and practice — that tipped workers should rely on customers rather than their employers for a living wage — continues to persist, aided and abetted by the lobbying efforts of powerful restaurant industry giants like the National Restaurant Association. We must end this despicable legacy once and for all. We’re excited to partner with Thandie Newton and One Billion Rising to bring this important story to the world.”

#1FairWage

#TheTimeIsNow

#RiseInSolidarity

 

For interview requests:

 

Susan Celia Swan, One Billion Rising/V-Day: (917) 865-6603, susan(at)vday.org

Tim Rusch, ROC United: (917) 399-0236, ruschtk(at)gmail.com

 

Full Script Below:

VO Spoken by Thandie Newton:

There was a time…

When she put on her uniform with hope– with the promise of freedom and the possibilities it would bring.

She worked when she was sick because being ill meant no pay.

She served meal after meal to customers who assumed she was being paid.

She bit her tongue when they grabbed her and called her “sugar,” …”honey,” …”sweet thing.” use she knew she could be replaced and was always one complaint away from getting fired

There was a time… and for HER and millions of working American women that time is today. It is time to end the legacy of slavery,

 

Visual Messages:

It is time to end this inhumane subminimum wage for tipped workers.

It’s time to provide a livable wage for all workers, for all of us

It is time to RISE and provide ONE FAIR WAGE

We can do it together

THE TIME IS NOW.

 

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About Restaurant Opportunities Centers United:

Co-founded by leading workers’ rights advocate Saru Jayaraman (“One of the top 50 most influential people in the restaurant industry” – Nation’s Restaurant News), ROC United has 18,000 worker-members, 200 restaurant employer members, and several thousand consumer members in 15 states in the U.S., winning 15 worker-led campaigns, recovering $10 million in stolen tips and wages. Read more about Saru Jayaraman’s new book Forked: A New Standard for American Dining at forkedthebook.com

About V-DAY and One Billion Rising:

V-Day is a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls that raises funds and awareness through benefit productions of Playwright/Founder Eve Ensler’s award winning play The Vagina Monologues and other artistic works. Annually, V-Day benefit events are organized by volunteer activists in the U.S. and around the world. To date, the V-Day movement has raised over $100 million; educated millions about the issue of violence against women and the efforts to end it; crafted international educational, media and PSA campaigns; reopened shelters; and funded over 13,000 community-based anti-violence programs and safe houses in Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Kenya, Egypt and Iraq. www.vday.org

V-Day’s most recent campaign, One Billion Rising is the biggest mass action to end violence against women in human history. The campaign, launched on Valentine’s Day 2012, began as a call to action based on the staggering statistic that 1 in 3 women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. With the world population at 7 billion, this adds up to more than ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS. Every February through 8 March, thousands of Risings take place in hundreds of countries across the world and within local communities – to show the world what one billion looks like and shine a light on the rampant impunity and injustice that survivors of various forms of violence face. Visit www.onebillionrising.org.

Press Release: One Billion Rising: Revolution – Solidarity to End the Exploitation of Women. Rise, Disrupt, Connect

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Susan Celia Swan/Colleen Carroll
media(at)vday.org +1 (917) 865-6603

ONE BILLION RISING: REVOLUTION – SOLIDARITY TO END THE EXPLOITATION OF WOMEN
RISE, DISRUPT, CONNECT

2017 THEME/PLANS ANNOUNCED AS CAMPAIGN ENTERS ITS FIFTH YEAR

RISINGS TO SHARPEN VISIBILITY OF THE EXPLOITATION OF WOMEN WITH A FOCUS ON VIOLENCE TOWARDS WOMEN WORKERS IN ALL THEIR SPACES OF WORK

New Solidarity Rising Blog Series Begins, Launch Events Happening Across the Globe, New Video Features Voices of Global Coordinators

Using Dance as a Form of Protest, OBR Activists Call for Solidarity & an End to the Exploitation of Women & Girls

19 September 2016 – Today, One Billion Rising announced the fifth year of the campaign and theme: Solidarity to End the Exploitation of Women. Developed by the One Billion Rising global coordinators at their annual meeting in Lopud, Croatia, the 2017 campaign will sharpen the focus and visibility to the exploitation of women, and to harness even stronger global solidarity to demand an end to violence against women in all forms.

Through the collective efforts of activists in 200 countries, the campaign has mobilised, engaged, awakened and joined people worldwide to end violence against women. It has made violence against women a global human issue not relegated to country or tribe or class or religion, and revealed it as a patriarchal mandate, present in every culture of the world.

1 in 3 women across the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. That’s ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS. Every February through March 8th, thousands of Risings take place in hundreds of countries across the world and within local communities – to show the world what one billion looks like and shine a light on the rampant impunity and injustice that survivors of various forms of violence face. THIS YEAR, WE ARE RISING IN SOLIDARITY AGAINST THE EXPLOITATION OF WOMEN.

In conjunction with today’s announcement, OBR has released its newest short video featuring the voices of Global Coordinators on Exploitation and Solidarity. In cities across the globe, activists are hosting launch events in Denmark, Hong Kong, Belgium, UK, Nepal, Mexico, Kosovo, Philippines, Zimbabwe, Santa Fe, Swaziland, NYC, Hong Kong and Guatemala. After today, local activists will begin planning their rising activities, artistic events and protests for 2017 with a central unity towards ending violence against women and girls as part of the global One Billion Rising movement. This year’s focus on exploitation of women in the workplace, the home, economically and environmentally reflects the growing global economic inequality and oppression women face.

“Exploitation is the ugliest form of human act against those who are denied voice and life of dignity. While it is primarily an economic term, it is the daily experience of women inside and outside the home as their labour is extracted from their bodies as we extract natural resources of the mother earth.” – Abha Bhaiya OBR India Coordinator

“Solidarity is to RISE as one – against neoliberalism, patriarchy, militarism – and all their allied evils. And to fight for our liberation as women – and for the liberation of all oppressed people. – Sharon Cabusao, writer/ activist/ former political prisoner (OBR Philippines)

“Women’s solidarity means that Ours are not more trustworthy then Others.  It means we chose compassion, to have consciousness about ourselves and the other at the same time.  There is no war in the world if I cherish myself and the Other who is different then me.” – Lepa Mladjenovic, V-Day/ OBR Belgrade

 

RISE! – Understanding Exploitation

Exploitation is the action or fact of treating someone unfairly in order to benefit from their work and the action of making use of and benefiting from resources.  For women and girls, they are rendered more vulnerable to abuse of power in all areas – the home, in the workplace, and economically – when they have few or no options for survival.  Risings worldwide in 2017 will demand an end ALL forms of exploitation of women and girls.

 

Disrupt!

When people dance around the world, and when they Rise for revolution using art as a creative resistance – it is a global defiant demand to hold governments, institutions of authority and power, and other perpetrators accountable for their actions. Collective artistic action has the power to incite and mobilize, to arouse, awaken and inspire people to come together in one unified purpose as both a local and global community. It is a creative force that carries with it hope and will powerful enough to transform our present global structure of patriarchy and capitalist greed into a new world with justice and freedom at its core.  In the last fours years of the campaign we have seen DANCE remain and intensify as a wild, bold and radical embodiment of celebration, demand, protest and hope.

 

Connect! Why Solidarity?

The call for Solidarity reflects the growth of the campaign and the tent of ideas, networks and groups that are responding to the global call to RISE. Because a gathering of people joined in their determination for change puts pressure and accountability on state agencies, as well as cultural and international institutions, on their responsibility to prioritize ending violence against women and girls. Because unity creates hope – and hope creates strength for a shared vision. This vision escalates Art as both a powerful personal and collective form of protest and creative resistance. Because working together on global themes – allowing broad and deeper connectedness with other campaigns and movements – and facilitating a more pronounced awareness and education on global issues on a local level – gives opportunity to connect the global issues to local issues. Because being connected encourages inclusivity – and this continues and sustains diversity of participation  - from youth groups and students, older and new generation activists and feminists, media, bloggers, artists, academics, teachers, men and boys of all ages. Because harnessing cohesive purposeful action enables Artistic and Political strategies to combine as a powerful joint tool to escalate the Revolution call. Because when people come together, power is handed back to the people, not to governments or institutions.

Because there can be no REVOLUTION without SOLIDARITY. We cannot call for system change – change of mindsets; change of structures that keep violence in place; change in consciousness, awareness and understanding of violence; the end of patriarchal values and cultures; change in policies that affect women economically, socially, sexually, racially, physically, emotionally; the end of the revolving patterns of control, oppression and exploitation – ALONE.  Solidarity is radical connection. This revolution demands commitment, courage, trust, belief, and LOVE.

 

Sharing Solidarity, Amplifying the Voices of the Movement

The website – onebillionrising.org – will act as a global platform for local activists. New videos will be launched over the course of the campaign, the first “End Exploitation, Strengthen Solidarity” will feature the Global Coordinators on the 2017 themes and was shot in Croatia in June. A new blog series entitled “Rising Solidarity” will foreground voices of the movement including Sharon Cabusao (Philippines), Neli Delgado (Mexico), Colani Hlatjwako (Swaziland), Chi Hui-Jung (Taiwan), Donna Hylton (USA), Lepa Mladjenovic (Belgrade), Yanar Mohammed (Iraq), and more to come. In October a special web feature will launch, a space for activists to share their messages of solidarity via photo, video and text. The site will also offer an activist toolkit, new logos and easily sharable memes, stencils, and more. Hashtags for the campaign include: #1BillionRising, #Un Billón de Pie, #RiseInSolidarity, #Rise4Workers, #WorkersRising, #RiseAgainstExploitation, and more will develop over the course of the campaign and leading up to 14 February

Rising in solidarity in 2017, activists and grassroots groups will mobilize en masse with one voice to end the exploitation of women and girls.

SOLIDARITY AGAINST THE EXPLOITATION OF WOMEN
RISE! DISRUPT! CONNECT!
RISE 2017!

To get involved with ONE BILLION RISING:
SIGN UP at www.onebillionrising.org
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# # #

About One Billion Rising One Billion Rising is the biggest mass action to end violence against women in human history. The campaign, launched on Valentine’s Day 2012, began as a call to action based on the staggering statistic that 1 in 3 women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. With the world population at 7 billion, this adds up to more than ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS. Every February through 8 March, thousands of Risings take place in hundreds of countries across the world and within local communities – to show the world what one billion looks like and shine a light on the rampant impunity and injustice that survivors of various forms of violence face.

One Billion Rising began with the fierce struggle against sexual and physical violence – taking on the advocacy against rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation and sex trafficking that V-Day campaigns have been at the forefront of. Over the last four years, it has also brought in economic violence and the violence of poverty, racial violence, gender violence, violence caused by growing environmental disasters and plunder, violence impacting women in the context of state sponsored wars, militarization, and the worsening internal and international displacement of millions of people, and violence created by capitalist greed, corruption, occupation and aggression.

Through the collective efforts of activists in 200 countries, One Billion Rising has mobilised, engaged, awakened and joined people worldwide to end violence against women. It has made violence against women a global human issue not relegated to country or tribe or class or religion, and revealed it as a patriarchal mandate, present in every culture of the world.

ONE BILLION RISING: REVOLUTION is an energy, a platform, a global movement, a catalyst, a worldwide decision to end violence against women, a demand for justice, a paradigm shift, an invitation, a gathering of the ready, housed everywhere, housed in our hearts, you, us, REVOLUTION.

One Billion Rising 2016: The Revolution Escalates

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Susan Celia Swan/Colleen Carroll, media(at)vday.org; 917-865-6603 (c)

One Billion Rising 2016: The Revolution Escalates:

Focus on Most Marginalised Women & Girls To Bring About Deep Structural Change

Activists Globally Call For System Change And Revolution Through Art, Rising for Workers, Refugees, Indigenous Peoples and Migrant Workers, and Rising to End to Sex Trafficking, Sexual Slavery and Exploitation, & All Forms of Violence Against Women & Girls

Eve Ensler & Monique Wilson Tour Bangladesh, The Philippines, Hong Kong, Mexico, & UK

4 February 2016 – For the fourth year, globally One Billion Rising activists are planning their rising events, artistic uprisings, panel discussions, press conference, town halls, movies, articles, gatherings, poetry, art, posters, actions, and protests to take place on and about 14 February. With the theme – ONE BILLION RISING: Rise for REVOLUTION 2016, this year’s campaign will escalate the collective actions of activists worldwide, and amplify their call for systemic changes towards ending violence against women and girls once and for all.

Rising events will continue to focus on highlighting and creating bold artistic initiatives that reflect the actions taking place in communities. The theme Rise for Revolution allows creative and artistic expressions, multi-sectoral involvement, and provides a unique space to engage people from all walks of life. It allows the use of imagination, art and political actions – and allows everyone the freedom to localise their campaigns. REVOLUTION can bring everyone from the personal to the political – from the “I” to the “We”. It harnesses collective energy because it is hopeful and envisions possibilities and a future.

In a show of true global solidarity, activists across the globe are RISING and welcoming refugees who are fleeing war, persecution and poverty, from Italy to Croatia, India to the UK. In Germany there are over 100 cities hosting events and many are rising for and with refugees and other marginalized communities. Local OBR artist Phoenic Nicole Bornkessel has recently released this year’s local anthem “Station of Welcome,” featuring local activists welcoming refugees.

Across the world activists are rising for the victims of sex trafficking and labor trafficking; they are at the forefront of events and calls for revolution in New Mexico and Miami and Cancun, and more.

“We’ve danced, we’ve demanded justice, we’ve demanded changes. This year we are radicalising our actions — enlarging, deepening and expanding the revolution. Let’s continue to shift consciousness and be braver, bolder, more creative and determined with our actions. Communities will focus on the most marginalised women and girls to bring about true, long lasting change,” stated Monique Wilson, Global One Billion Rising Director.

“We are evolving our fight against violence against women, knowing that unless we put the marginalized at the lead, unless we address imperialism, war, climate change, racism, economic inequality, workers rights and patriarchy we will never end violence against women and girls. Let’s go further than we have ever gone, igniting revolution and paradigm change,” stated Eve Ensler, Founder of One Billion Rising who has penned a new monologue that activists worldwide will perform entitled “Rise, Dance, Disrupt”.

With the tagline Listen, Act, Rise, this year’s theme and call to action was created by the One Billion Rising global coordinators at their annual gathering in May. Their shared voices – from regions around the world – came to a unanimous decision to escalate the actions worldwide.

THE CALL FOR RISE FOR REVOLUTION 2016. LISTEN! ACT! RISE!

Amplify the Voices of Marginalised Women
Bring National and International Focus to Their Issues
Bring New Artistic Energy to Create This Possibility
Raise Other Issues That Have Not Been as Visible
Amplify REVOLUTION as a Call for System Change
Platform Voices That Have Not Been Heard Within Local Campaigns
Call on People to RISE FOR OTHERS
Call Upon People of Privilege to Rise for Those Who are Not
Create Synergy and Connection
Continue to Call for State Accountability and Justice
Keep Highlighting the Economic Context of Women
Remain INCLUSIVE, INTERSECTIONAL and COMPREHENSIVE
Keep Connecting the BODY with REVOLUTION
Rise for Change and Equality
ESCALATE REVOLUTION.

Bodies of Revolution Panel to be Broadcast

The panel, Bodies of Revolution: Women Rise Against Police, States & Empire, which took place on 5 December in NYC, has been edited into an hour long TV special which will air on LINK TV and TeleSur on 8 March. Hosted by journalist Laura Flanders of The Laura Flanders Show, the event featured activists including Fartuun A. Adan, Suad Amiry, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Eve Ensler, Frances Garrett, Nimmi Gowrinathan, Yanar Mohammed, Lu Pin, Thenmozhi Soundararajan, Sara Milena Ferrer Valencia, Monique Wilson and Zoya. The two panel discussions explore how and why women experience violence at the intersection of multiple oppressive forces and systems and how they are rising against imperialism, racism, sexism and neo-colonialism. With performances by Climbing PoeTree and Abby Hobson.

Rising 2016 Tour with Eve Ensler and Monique Wilson

Atlanta; Dhaka, Bangladesh; Cebu, Tacloban, Davao, and Manila, The Philippines; Hong Kong; Playa Del Carmen and Mexico City, Mexico, and London. One Billion Rising Founder, Eve Ensler, and Global Director, Monique Wilson, are set to head out on a multiple country RISING tour where they will join local organizers and activists for local events. Each rising, city and country is applying the 2016 call to action in their local context, focusing on marginalized communities and calling for justice and systems change to end all forms violence against women in girls. In Dhaka, organizers are hosting a revolutionary panel discussion followed by an evening of feminist themed performances and artistic pieces, including performances by Monique Wilson and Eve Ensler.

The pair will spend a week in the Philippines, in multiple cities, rising for and with a cross section of Filipina communities including Gabriela Women’s Party, comfort women, youth activists, labor activists, indigenous groups, and more. In Tondo, one of Manila’s biggest slum areas situated by the bay where water floods its residents on a daily basis, and where makeshift settlements are surrounded by slaughter houses and now a Coal factory, the pair will rise with residents demanding and end to violence and poverty. In Tacloban they will join Typhoon Haiyan storm survivors who are Rising for climate justice and Mother Earth, and rising for justice from government neglect. In Davao City, they join with activists from many grassroots communities including workers, urban poor, peasants, teachers, students, women’s groups, community groups, families of migrants, LGBT groups, groups for the rights of sex workers, Lumad communities who are currently displaced because of militarization and living in evacuation camps in the city as they rise for Lumad rights, against militarization, against mining and environmental plunder, and against political oppression and killings. And in Pampanga, Angeles City (known as a brothel city where US troops come to purchase and use Filipina women and girls for “Rest & Recreation”, OBR Pampanga is Rising against foreign intervention and militarization and the sexual and economic exploitation of women and children.

In Hong Kong, they will join domestic workers from the Philippines, Indonesia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh rising for the rights of domestic and migrant workers on 21 February. The next day, there will be an East Asia Rising summit gathering 35 coordinators from Taiwan, China, Mongolia, Japan and Hong Kong, joined by Eve and Monique, discussing OBR initiatives and issues around East Asia, as well as future plans and directions. Hosted by Taiwan’s Garden of Hope and Rain Lily – Hong Kong’s first one-stop-crisis center for female victims of sexual violence.

In March, they will travel to Mexico where this year’s One Billion Rising Revolution focus is the issue of the national and international sex trafficking of Mexican girls and women.

The tour is finishing in London with the London Premier of Ensler’s newest theatrical work the “Fruit Trilogy” at the Southbank Center, part of the WOW (Women of the World) International Festival and co-produced with the West Yorkshire Playhouse and a “Bodies of Revolution” panel at WOW with Eve Ensler, Monique Wilson, Christine Schuler Deschryver from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rada Boric from Croatia.

Rising Online – onebillionrising.org

Throughout the weeks ahead, the One Billion Rising website will mirror these efforts showcasing art, music, videos and news and blogs from global activists. A page featuring global videos is already live online, with more being added as the campaign unfolds. The website features an activist toolkit, campaign info and FAQ and more. Rising videos featuring activist voices from around the world are updated frequently and a social media feed keeps the campaign updated in real time.

Examples of Risings Round the World

Already activists have risen in London and Paris and New York for Climate Justice. They have marched to stop police killings of Black women and men and #SayHerName, joined forces with the Labor Rights group to stand for oppressed women workers after Rana Plaza in Bangladesh. We continue to fight sexual assault on hundreds of college campuses. We’ve joined in solidarity with the women of Cuba and will rise with them next year. We’ve stood with the women of the Balkans in their fight for justice for war crimes.

In Bangladesh activists will rise with garment factory workers and trade union leaders and members. They are rising for workers rights, for humane working conditions, for accountability and responsibility of factory owners and governments

Across the Balkans they are rising to protect threatened reproductive rights and against fascism. In Croatia the revolution is focusing on a cross-section of marginalized communities including Roma women, refugee women, women with disability and jobless female workers.

India is rising in a huge way, with large city events and small villages rising. They are rising for disability rights and access, youth are rising, rising against patriarchy, rising for mother earth. In Himachal Pradesh Tibetan communities in India are joining Indian activists and are rising for Peace and climate justice.

Activists in Puglia, Italy and Hong Kong and Taiwan are rising for migrant women and migrant workers.   Activists in Perugia have incorporated sign language into their rising choreography to highlight violence against women with disabilities

In Palestine they are rising for women in marginalized areas in the Jordan Valley; a place that where women face domestic violence and daily harassment and surmounting atrocities from the Israeli occupation and the illegal Israeli settlers, who are building their settlements on the land of the Palestinians and increasing their suffering from lack of water, sanitary, health, education, and basic life elements.

Activists in Peru are Rising for justice and reparations for victims of forced sterilization in the 1990s.

Across the Philippines activists are rising and dancing to end multiple forms of violence in oppression that harm communities in particular ways. They are rising for real justice for the victims of the Typhoon Haiyan and rising for Climate justice to prevent future tragedies. They are resisting forced migration and rising with and for indigenous communities rights by rising against militarization, rising against mining and environmental plunder, and rising against political oppression and killings.

In Mexico, actors from national productions including “Annie,” “The Lion King,” “Mamma Mia” and many more are joining the movement and sharing statements on why they are RISING.

Girls in Swaziland are rising against forced marriages.

In Central and South America they are taking the revolution to the streets will rise, dance drum in festivals and marches from Rio to Bogotá, in Guatemala, Venezuela and Argentina.

For more rising stories, visit the blog.

To get involved with V-Day and ONE BILLION RISING Revolution:
SIGN UP at www.onebillionrising.org
LIKE US on Facebook at Facebook.com/vday
FOLLOW on Twitter @VDay #rise4revolution #1billionrising
READ about the campaign http://www.onebillionrising.org/about/campaign/
BLOG updates from Global Coordinators and activists http://www.onebillionrising.org/blog

# # #

About One Billion Rising

One Billion Rising is the biggest mass action to end violence against women in human history. The campaign, launched on Valentine’s Day 2012, began as a call to action based on the staggering statistic that 1 in 3 women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. With the world population at 7 billion, this adds up to more than ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS. Every February through 8 March, thousands of Risings take place in hundreds of countries across the world and within local communities – to show the world what one billion looks like and shine a light on the rampant impunity and injustice that survivors of various forms of violence face. Through the collective efforts of activists in 200 countries, One Billion Rising has mobilised, engaged, awakened and joined people worldwide to end violence against women. It has made violence against women a global human issue not relegated to country or tribe or class or religion, and revealed it as a patriarchal mandate, present in every culture of the world.

ONE BILLION RISING: REVOLUTION is an energy, a platform, a global movement, a catalyst, a worldwide decision to end violence against women, a demand for justice, a paradigm shift, an invitation, a gathering of the ready, housed everywhere, housed in our hearts, you, us, REVOLUTION.

One Billion Rising 2016 Campaign Announced: ESCALATING THE CALL FOR REVOLUTION IN 2016

It has been a most amazing THREE years of the campaign. Our collective efforts mobilised, engaged, awakened and joined people worldwide to end violence against women. We made violence against women a global human issue not relegated to country or tribe or class or religion, and revealed it as a patriarchal mandate, present in every culture of the world.

1 in 3 women across the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. That’s ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS. Every February through March 8th, thousands of One Billion Risings events take place globally, within local communities to show the world what one billion looks like. This year, the campaign continues to grow, expand, deepen and shine a light on the rampant impunity and injustice that survivors of various forms of violence face.

Today, we announce the 2016 theme: ONE BILLION RISING: RISE FOR REVOLUTION Listen! Act! Rise!

For the fourth year of the campaign, the One Billion Rising’s global coordinators chose to continue the theme of Revolution as an escalation of the first three stages: One Billion Rising (2013), One Billion Rising for Justice (2014), and One Billion Rising: Revolution (2015).

We’ve danced. We’ve demanded justice. We’ve demanded changes. This year we are radicalising our actions — enlarging, deepening and expanding the revolution. Let’s continue to radically shift consciousness and be braver, bolder, more creative and determined with our actions. Focus on the most marginalised women and girls to bring about true, long lasting change. At their May gathering in New York, the global coordinators developed the call to action announced today.   

THE
CALL FOR RISE FOR REVOLUTION 2016:

LISTEN! ACT! RISE!
Amplify the Voices of Marginalised Women
Bring National and International Focus to Their Issues
Bring New Artistic Energy to Create This Possibility
Raise Other Issues That Have Not Been as Visible
Amplify REVOLUTION as a Call for System Change
Platform Voices That Have Not Been Heard Within Local Campaigns
Call on People to RISE FOR OTHERS
Call Upon People of Privilege to Rise for Those Who are Not
Create Synergy and Connection
Continue to Call for State Accountability and Justice
Keep Highlighting the Economic Context of Women
Remain INCLUSIVE, INTERSECTIONAL and COMPREHENSIVE
Keep Connecting the BODY with REVOLUTION
Rise for Change and Equality

ESCALATE REVOLUTION. Join us!

SIGN UP for One Billion Rising: Rise For Revolution >
READ more about the 2016 campaign >
EXPERIENCE the RISING movement through videos from around the globe >

LIKE US at Facebook.com/vday

FOLLOW the campaign on Twitter: @VDay; #Rise4Revolution