Global Women's Strike Organizers to Confront LA Times Editors

What: Angry Women Confront LA Times Editors

When: Tuesday March 11, 10:30 am

Where: Los Angeles Times Building 202 W. 1st St.

Why: To protest sexist, inaccurate and sensationalist coverage of March 8, Global Women’s Strike on International Women’s Day.

Outraged at what they describe as inaccurate, sexist and sensationalist reporting, a delegation of women and men supporters will converge on the LA Times building in downtown Los Angeles, to demand to speak with Times editors responsible for the shoddy and insulting coverage of the Southern California International Women’s Day Global Women’s Strike protest held on March 8th. The event’s theme was: Women Say No War-Invest in Caring Not Killing. The women are demanding that the Times print a story that reflects the reality of what happened on International Women’s Day in LA.

The women are outraged that the LATimes focused not on the Global Women's Strike event with an estimated 3000 participants, but the disrobing by 4-5 members of the Realian sect who made the press recently for claiming they have cloned a baby. The Times also did not mention that the Strike took place in 80 countries on every continent. The Times coverage was not only limited, but also full of misinformation.

“The reporting of the LA Global Women’s Strike event was an insult to women in Los Angeles and around the world. It was the kind of sensationalist and inaccurate reporting that should be beneath the standard of a paper that claims national stature, “ says Ruth Todasco, one of the organizers of Saturday’s event. “On March 8th women and men who support us were demanding that the military budget be spent on healthcare, welfare for single mothers, decent quality childcare and education, pay equity for women, care for the elderly and people with disabilities not on war; in other words, money for life, not for death and destruction. Was this message too threatening for the Times to print?” Asks Pam Hall, a housewife and mother participating in Saturday’s event.

Despite the fact that women and men traveled from all over Southern California for the event, and that it was the largest International Women’s Day event in Southern California in more than 20 years, it was basically ignored and given token coverage by the Times.

Speakers at Saturday’s event, alongside mothers on welfare, grandmothers, women who had been wrongfully imprisoned, women from the Middle East, Indigenous women and more, were actors Danny Glover, Ed Asner, David Clennon, and Wendy Malick. Also on the program was Ron Kovic, author of the film “Born on the Fourth of July”. The women say this was the first time public figures stood with grassroots women not only to oppose war in Iraq, but also to support their demand to reclaim the military budget. This was a significant breakthrough, however one that the Times chose not to inform the public about.

Partial list, endorsers, LA Global Women’s Strike event: Alexandria House, Alliance for Democracy, A New Way of Life, CALIF, Center for the Advancement of Nonviolence, CISPES, Coalition for World Peace, Every Mother is A Working Mother, Glendale Greens, Human Rights Committee/UTLA, Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union, International ANSWER/LA; Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace, International ANSWER Coalition Los Angeles, International Action Center, IRAPS (IHHS Recipients and Providers Sharing), Latino Coalition Against War in Iraq, LA Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness, LA County Council for the Green Party, LA Greens, LA Radical Women, Maternal and Child Health Access, Mazer Lesbian Archives, Neighbors for Peace and Justice, Not In Our Name, Quality Homecare Coalition, Raging Grannies of Southern California, Safeplace, SCADA (Southern California Americans for Democratic Action), SEIU 434 B, SEIU 535, WILPF of LA.

Contact: Margaret Prescod, 323-292-7405