Statement in Defense of Red Thread Women’s Organization in Guyana
Clash! Editor’s Note: Red Thread Women’s Organization in recent months has been in the forefront of difficult but uncompromising advocacy for teen girls and children — almost all Amerindian. Some perished in the Mahdia school fire, a poor and neglected school for Amerindian youth. A teenage girl accused of setting the fire has been detained and criminalized without proper legal rights and care.
And another teenage Amerindian girl has startled the country and the world by boldly writing to President Irfhan Ali describing courageously, and with horrid detail and distinguished maturity under adversity her sexual harassment, entrapment, abuse and rape by one of his government ministers — Nigel Dharamlall, former Minister of Local Government and Regional Development. This courageous young soul also has been detained by the Guyana Police Force and not allowed proper care and legal representation. Red Thread is fighting “The Dharamlall Coverup.”
Red Thread’s activism elevates global awareness of the plight of Amerindians and neglected teenage girls who facing poverty and patriarchy are finally left to confront the state on their own. They have also tied this exploitation of Amerindians to the contempt all political parties in Guyana show through their shared search for oil profits with ExxonMobil as they bring ecological catastrophe closer.
Solidarity and Respect to Red Thread and the Amerindian Peoples Association. Our Thanks to Sister Alissa Trotz — see her note below.
Starbroek News Diaspora Column Editor’s Note: Over the last four to five months, Red Thread Women’s Organization in Guyana has received a number of threatening emails; the most recent was sent last week. The women have reported the threats to the police. They also issued a press release and shared information with women and organizations they work and are connected with in Guyana, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Caribbean Diaspora. On July 28, a letter of support was issued by Guyanese
On July 31, a second statement, which has been translated into Spanish, Kreyol and French, was issued from women’s organizations and individual women of the Caribbean and its diaspora. It has also been endorsed by the climate justice movement 350.0rg (https://350.org/) and Instituto Climainfo in Brazil (https://climainfo.org.br/). The statement’s title, ‘Touch One, Touch All,’ was used by Guyanese Red Thread activist Andaiye in 2017 in a regional campaign against sexual violence.
This week we carry the Caribbean statement and initial list of signatories who have declared solidarity with Red Thread. For further information and to add your name for updates, email Touchall2023@gmail.com
This statement is issued in response to death threats and other attempts to silence activists in Guyana who have spoken out against mining, fossil fuel extraction and sexual violence. Red Thread is a women’s development organization that has been specifically targeted.
1. We, women of the Caribbean, condemn all threats on the lives of the women of Red Thread in Guyana.
2. We also condemn all threats and all attempts to silence Caribbean people who report or protest sexual violence and all other forms of extractive violence that menace the region.
3. The struggle of the women of Red Thread to defend women, indigenous people and the environment is a Caribbean struggle, not just a national one. Sexual violence and gender-based violence is rampant across the region. The UN has reported that Jamaica has the second highest rate of femicide in the world at 11 per 100,000. Trinidad and Tobago stands at 6.6 per 100,000. We therefore all stand to gain from struggles against sexual violence wherever we are in our region.
4. At the same time the natural landscape of the entire Caribbean is at risk. Our beaches disappear daily. Our lands are deforested. Our people are uprooted from their homes. Our water and air is polluted. Our fish die and our livelihoods are at risk. As the world burns, it is obvious that we are all called upon to struggle to prevent the destruction of our environment through mining, fossil fuel extractivism, deforestation, pollution and dispossession whether we are located in Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago all the other many beautiful Caribbean islands, Suriname, Belize or Guyana.
We remind our governments that we are watching how you respond to those whose fearless defense against sexual violence and extractive violence to our land is a model for all of us throughout the region.
5. We stand in solidarity with our sisters in Guyana. You inspire all people of conscience in our region to defend our bodies and our land.
6. Hands off the women of Red Thread. Touch one! Touch all!
[This defense statement has already gathered over 75 signatures from concerned activists and scholars in Canada, the U.S., and Britain, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, Suriname, Belize, Barbados, Guyana, Grenada, Dominica — a vast Caribbean Women’s Network]
