Montreal International Women’s Conference
Moving Forward the Militant Global Women’s Movement in the 21st Century!
Liza Maza is a women’s rights activist and parliamentarian in the Philippines. She is the President of GABRIELA National Alliance of Women and a three-time representative of women in the Philippine House of Representatives, representing Gabriela Women’s Party in the 13th and 14th Congress and Bayan Muna Party-list in the 12th Congress. She authored and sponsored important laws on women such as the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003 and co-authored the Anti-Violence in Women and Their Children Act of 2004 and the Magna Carta of Women.
Dr. Dolores Chew is a longtime activist and community organizer with the South Asian Women’s Community Centre in Montreal of which she is also a founding member. She is an historian and teacher and Research Associate at the Simone de Beauvoir Institute as well as the Chair of the Liberal and Creative Arts Department at Marianopolis College in Montreal. Dr. Chew combines academic expertise with grassroots activism and is one of the founding members of Women of Diverse Origins. She has been an inspiration to young women both as her students and as activists involved in fighting for women’s rights. She has been actively involved in campaigns against racial profiling and patriarchal violence against women. She is a founding member of CERAS (the South Asia Centre) in Montreal. She has written and presented extensively on issues such as racial discrimination in Canada, violence against women in India, and the oppression and injustice of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
Brenda Stokely is a human rights activist dedicated to ending all forms of national oppression, racism, sexism and exploitation of workers. She co-found and built several key organizations, including the 2004 Million Worker March Movement (co-NE Regional Organizer), New York Labor Against the War (co-Convener), Local 215 (former President), Social Service Employees and District Council 1707 (former President), and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, representing 25,000 human service workers (former President). She is a rank and file member in both private and public sectors who has won union recognition, just contracts, and internal union democracy. She is also a founding member of Troops Out Now, Blacks in Solidarity Against the War, May 1st Coalition for Workers and Immigrant Rights, New York Solidarity Coalition with Katrina/Rita Survivors, and Coalition to Save Harlem.
Videos produced by MIWC delegates: