Government Cuts Target Women

by C. L'Hirondelle- SWAG September 2003 newsletter

So why are women's centres being closed down? Because the BC Liberals are following in the footsteps of the NDP and are taking from the many to give to the very few. This is what neo-liberalism is. It is happening all over the world and has also happened for centuries as western imperialism. Women in BC must learn from women in other parts of the world where they have been suffering under and organizing against neo-liberalism under much harsher circumstances.

But the situation for women in BC is also grim. In February, a United Nations report singled out BC for criticism in how changes in government policy and cuts to social programs have impacted women. So why would the government fund women's centres who will speak out about the devastating effects of neo-liberal cut-backs? At a meeting in June, BC Liberal MLA Lynn Stephens, Minister of State for Women's Equality, told women's centres that the cuts to their funding were final: "her hands were tied" and they needed to "integrate" with other community groups. That means shut up about what is happening to women and drop anything 'political'. However, saying and doing nothing is very political. It means giving tacit consent to what is occurring and ensures that attacks on vulnerable groups will accelerate to affect ever more people.

All 38 women's centres funded lose their province (core) funding in March 04. SWAG will likely move to a much smaller office and will continue developing alternative funding ideas. Our priority is to be more effective at communicating on the issues that continue to devastate women's lives and to analyse how our current economic practices affect women. It is especially important to speak of these issues when so many organizations cannot because they fear alienating funders or losing their charity number (SWAG is a registered non-profit, but does not have a charity number). Our focus in the last two years has been on poverty. Last year we adopted a policy strongly in favour of a Guaranteed Livable Income (GLI) especially as it would greatly benefit women who pay a huge financial cost for doing the work of reproducing the species (if this work came to an end, so would all humans). There is no way there are enough living wage, socially useful and environmentally sustainable jobs available to all who need to survive. In addition, there is a worldwide glut of all kinds of goods and services which means to advocate more jobs for more economic growth means more destructive waste of natural and human resources. A GLI is the only realistic solution.