From Unity, 21 June 2008

Will we survive?

by Lynda Walker

This week has seen a number of different actions around women, work, peace, and human rights.
     On Monday there was a protest at Stormont by women in the community regarding Community Peace-funded projects, which are now under threat. The protest of about two hundred women and children was given little press coverage. Jennifer McCann MLA (Sinn Féin) told the Minister for Employment that up to fifty-two projects in the women’s learning and education sector are in danger of collapsing if matching funding cannot be found.
     The women’s sector has gradually grown since the 1970s, when it was made up of mostly voluntary organisations, like the Northern Ireland Women’s Rights Movement. In the 1980s organisations in England, Scotland and Wales were able to apply directly to the European Union for projects that were specifically aimed at women to redress training issues, for example courses for women in the community and non-traditional training courses. Child-care facilities were also provided. Even though Northern Ireland was an “objective 1 region,” the funding was difficult to access. Women were not targeted as a group, except for one specific project at the University of Ulster in 1987.
     Since the 1990s this has gradually been redressed and with the establishment of the Training for Women Network and Peace funding. The fact is that most of the women’s sector gives services that are run for the benefit of women in the community: they are not profit-making enterprises, and they find it hard to survive and are constantly under pressure to find funding.
     The Peace III budget is €332,891,807; this is a shared allocation between Northern Ireland and the border region of the Republic of Ireland. This funding is complicated: it requires organisations to get matching funding, to apply through councils that are not yet up to the job, and it will also leave a gap between when Peace II stops and Peace III starts.
     Women’s organisations are not the only ones to be hit by these problems. Any organisation that gets funding is automatically thankful to the EU, but we tend to forget that the money we get comes from working people’s taxes throughout the member-states.
     One project to help politicise women is “Peace by Piece,” which has culminated in a conference at the Waterfront Hall this week. Over the past few months the project has encouraged women to become more interested in politics, at home and abroad, including visits to the UN and the EU and by running special workshop on politics and challenging racism and sectarianism. It is to be commended for its imaginative initiative but to be criticised for giving a very pro-European stance, especially at a time when the Lisbon Treaty campaign was under way. On the international side, the programme does not include any input from the Middle East wars, perhaps the biggest area of conflict at the present time.
     Women workers and the trade union movement have also been given a low priority. It is probably true to say that the average mother with two or three children who is either on benefits or is working full or part-time will find it difficult to attend these events that are being organised.
     Water charges, affordable public housing, drug abuse amongst teenagers, child care and poverty were all issues that were identified as major problems for women at a seminar organised by Trade Mark last week. It gave an in-depth opportunity to explore the social and economic reasons why people experience inequality and discrimination.

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