Voices Against the Cuts: Women and Austerity is a free event on Saturday February 2, from 1-4pm at the Brighthelm Centre, North Road, Brighton. Doors open 12 30.
Local campaigning group Brighton & Hove Women against the Cuts (BHWAC) aim to bring together those affected by and who care about effects of the sustained government attack on the poorest in society, particularly women. The group’s booklet, Voices against the Cuts – an overview of the impact of Coalition policies and cutbacks on women and the many alternatives to austerity, will be launched and available free at the event.
Chaired by Brighton Women’s Centre director Lisa Dando, the panel of speakers includes: Caroline Lucas MP; Olufemi Hughes (Community Dialogue for Change), Gail Grey, Chief Executive of RISE (local refuge, information, support and education project), Rehana Azam – GMB national officer for public services, trustee Shana Pezzaro and advice officer Katie Love, from Brighton’s Fed centre for Independent Living, and Mary Ann Stephenson, Coventry Women’s Voices co-ordinator and author of TUC Women and the Cuts toolkit.
Workshops will focus on using the media; benefits – support and campaigning; art & activism; setting up a women’s network; women& safety; women & the public sector; NHS – building the local campaign; and non-violent direct action.
Spokeswoman Madeleine Dickens said:
“Cuts in benefits and tax credits are impoverishing and set to impoverish millions more non-working and working people – women and men, black, minority ethnic and white, young and old, people with disabilities. The only employment options for many are workfare schemes or temporary low-paid jobs. Our NHS is being broken up and handed over to private companies. Local authority funding is being slashed and thousands of public sector workers are losing their jobs.
“Advances women have made over the past century are being reversed. We are being forced out of the labour market or into the lowest paid, short-term jobs. Single parents, women with disabilities, public sector workers, women who suffer domestic violence, who are home carers are being deprived of benefits, living incomes and essential services. ”
The event will provide a forum for people to express their views and to share ideas for challenging the Coalition’s austerity measures.
Everyone is welcome.
The event will be sign language interpreted and a crèche is provided by Threshold Women’s Counselling Service.
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