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6,300 join International Women's Day march in Brussels

16:32 08/03/2020

More than 6,000 people joined the march on Sunday in Brussels for International Women's Day, according to police estimates.

The procession set off from Central Station to the Justice Palace, and back.

"Stop sexism" and "Solidarity with women around the world" were among the chants and messages displayed on banners.

According to the official police count, 6,300 people took part in the march, which began with a flash mob and concerts and ended with speeches and slam poetry.

The demonstration was organised by the World March of Women, a global network gathering associations, unions and other campaign groups.

“First and foremost, we are here to argue that fighting against the dismantling of social services is also fighting against sexism,” the organisation said in a statement. “Equality between women and men is crucial, but without financial resources, it is in vain. How do we combat completely unbalanced domestic work if we do not have high quality and accessible public services?”

Organisers also pointed out that they were marching with women around the world and are showing solidarity with women struggling in Mexico, Chile, Sudan, Algeria and Russia, “against reactionary and oppressive regimes”.

In Antwerp, 150 people marched, and 300 people gathered for the Women’s Strike Festival on De Coninckplein. The events were organised by Collecti.e.f 8, which emphasises that women still do most of the unpaid work to maintain households.

“The welfare of our society would be impossible to maintain without the work of women,” the Collecti.e.f said. “If women stopped doing it, the world economy would collapse.” Collecti.e.f 8 also organised marches yesterday in Leuven, Hasselt and Ghent.

Photo: Nicolas Maeterlinck/Belga

Written by The Bulletin