The International Women’s day is a crucial day for the socialist movement all over the world. It was founded as an initiative by famous socialist woman Clara Zetkin and the Socialist Women International. Throughout the history of 8th of March it has always been a fighting day to underline and make the struggles which women worldwide are finding themselves in more visible. The meaning of the day has not changed, but is more and more suffering from commercialisation. The International Women’s day is changing to another Valentines or Mother’s day; flower and chocolate shops smell the big business of another gift day.

For us as Socialists it must be clear that we have to re-establish and continue to use the International Women’s day as a platform for political fights. But it is not enough to fight on just one day per year; we need the International Women’s days to be 365 days a year.

In 2010 the International Women’s day is celebrated while the 54th Commission on the status of Women and the 15th anniversary of the famous Beijing Conference on women are taking place in New York.  The progress achieved by establishing the Beijing platform for action will be evaluated and discussions about the feminist politics in the future are taking place.

The launch of the Beijing platform in 1995 was a great effort made by Social democratic, socialist and progressive women. The outcome of the fourth World Conference on Women was a further step to real equality between men and women. The Beijing platform for action was created to take measures to protect and promote the rights of women and girls as an integral part of universal human rights. The goal of the Beijing Declaration was the equality of women and men - not only in economic and political terms, but also in the field of personal and social rights.

Fifteen years after Beijing the situation seems more difficult and a lot more unclear than in 1995. In the last 15 years feminist and progressive movements had to face an enormous conservative backlash especially in the field of women rights. Eight years of the conservative Bush administration in the USA have left their marks. Conservative governments in Europe and also the growing influence of the Catholic Church in some parts of the world did their job. Women rights as universal human rights are far away from becoming a common vision for the future. In fact the goal of universally accepted women rights is again an open battleground and feminists have to fight to stabilize and save what has been achieved years ago.

The 15th anniversary of the Beijing conference is more than evaluation and celebration. It is one more step towards the goal: “Women rights are human rights!” Fifteen years after the launch of the Beijing platform it is necessary to formulate this as a common goal again. But Beijing+15 should not only maintain the already achieved, it should also be a step forward. We are facing the biggest economic crisis since 1929 and women are - in the long term of this economic development - suffering most of it. We have to urge the fight for real equality and can’t allow the crisis to endanger women rights and equality issues.

We are far away from our goal to create a society in which everybody could live emancipated and equal to each other. The 8th of March is a good day to reflect our struggles for equality and to gain energy and motivation for our future fights. The main slogan for our activities as young socialists must always be: There is no socialism without feminism.

Dear Comrades,

We have the pleasure of inviting you, 1 person from each IUSY member organizations in Africa, America, Asia and BSAC, to a Workshop on Poverty, Project Management and Election campaigning in Stockholm prior to the IUSY World Congress.

Invitation Workshop

Deadline for nominations to the upcoming IUSY World Congress is the 28^th of February 2010.

IUSY Rules for Nominations & Elections

Veterans Invitation IUSY Congress 2010

In preparations for the upcoming IUSY Congress we make a call for new member organisations.

Here you find the IUSY Rules of Application for Membership that provides the relevant info on the process of becoming a IUSY member. Here you will also find the application form. All contact regarding membership applications is done through the IUSY Secretariat, iusy@iusy.info.

Deadline for membership applications to the upcoming IUSY International Congress is the 15th of February 2010.

IUSY Rules of Application for Membership

IUSY Membership Application Form

The earthquake on Haiti is one of the world’s biggest human tragedies in modern history. Over 200 000 have died and over 300 000 have lost the home’s. The disaster is enormous. Rescue teams are still trying to save people put the hope of finding more people alive is getting smaller and smaller. The hospitals are overfilled and lacking personal as well as equipment. People are homeless and hungry. Panic is all over and violence is threatening to take over. The earthquake happened several days ago but the tragedy continues.

The needs are enormous and the world needs the put all efforts on increasing rescue operations and to provide medical assistance as well as food and water. The world can and must do more.

Now focus must be on the short-term needs but also on the long-term. Haiti will need a lot of help to rebuild the country. Let’s not forget about the people of Haiti just because the news will move on…

It is sad to be aware of the fact that if Haiti wouldn’t have been one of the poorest countries with huge problems of corruption, lack of infrastructure, bad medical facilities, no capacity of rescue teams etcetera the situation wouldn’t be as horrible as it is today and more life’s could be saved. Help would have been faster and able to reached more people.

We can’t do anything about earthquakes but we can do a lot about poverty, infrastructure and rescue operations. The world’s capacity of human rescue operations is to small and should be developed and put under the UN. The UN is lacking capacity and resources to act fast and efficient. The latest years we have experienced several natural catastrophes, like the Tsunami’s, and unfortunate we will se more. The world needs to give the UN the role that is needed and the resources it deserves.

- IUSY calls for a development and coordination of international rescue operations within the UN.

- IUSY call all countries to pay their memberships fees and debts to the UN so the UN can fulfil its role.

- IUSY call all countries to fulfil their commitments to the UN Millennium Development Goals.

- IUSY call all countries and especially the SI member organisations that are in government to make it a political priority and reality to pay at least 0,7% of GDP to development aid.

The current tragedy in Haiti reminds us all of the continuously tragedy of poverty.

We encourage all to show their support to the people of Haiti. Give a direct support through SOLIDAR’s Solidarity fund for Haiti:

Solidarity with Haiti

In order to respond to this horrifying tragedy, the IUSY supports Solidar’s initiative of an Haiti emergency fund and calls all institutional partners and individuals to take part to this effort.

To help Haiti with a contribution in this moment of desperate need please make a Bank Transfer to:

SOLIDAR HAITI IBAN : BE53 7310 0861 1753 
BIC : KREDBEBB 
Account Owner : SOLIDAR 
Bank KBC Arenberg Horta - Branch 3728

Dear Comrades,

We have the pleasure of inviting you to the forthcoming:

The IUSY World Congress is our most important global event when we gather to evaluate the last years and to set the agenda for the coming. We are meeting in a time of crisis and opportunities. It is time for our movement to take the leadership of our generation’s future. We are looking forward to meet all of you again to enjoy both the fun and the politics.

Invitation to the IUSY World Congress 2010

Call for a New IUSY logo

IUSY Declaration on Climate Change