About 2500 women gathered on November 12, the day before the official opening of the ESF in a day long European Assembly of Women’s Rights. There appears to be a resurgence of feminism across Europe in the face of the neo-liberal assault on social programs. The slogan of the forum was With Women for Another Europe.
A major issue debated at the forum was that the proposed European Constitution has no provision for the legal equality between men and women; re-introduces the Christian heritage which threatens gains women have made in freedom of choice, the right to divorce and the right to work; and carves in stone neo-liberal policies that will lead to the disappearance of the welfare state. The discussion reminded this Canadian feminist of the constitutional battles of ten and 20 years ago in Canada.
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