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

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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