NEWS CENTER - DEM Party's women's election manifesto emphasized equal representation and stated that "ecology unions, lines against violence, barrier-free living centres, free women's cooperatives, dengbêj houses and women's political academies" would be opened.
People's Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) announced its women's election manifesto for the March 31 local elections. Many headings were included in the manifesto announced in a hotel in Ankara. DEM Party Women's Assembly Spokesperson Halide Türkoğlu announced the manifesto titled "We will build local democracy with the will of women."
Emphasizing that they acted from a women's libertarian perspective, Türkoğlu said: "We never voted for local elections, nor did we see local governments as merely municipal buildings."
Recalling the local elections of 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014, Türkoğlu noted that women achieved great gains at great costs. Türkoğlu said: "The trustees appointed by the AKP-MHP directly targeted and tried to destroy our gains that we achieved with a deep struggle and great costs. Acting on the instructions of the palace, the trustees closed the centres of violence against women and transformed these institutions into 'family centres', thus strengthening the so-called 'family unity'. It reinforced and legitimized violence against women in the name of 'protecting' women."
Then Türkoğlu explained the programs and projects included in the manifesto title by title;
* Despite the Kurdish and misogynist policies, trustees, violence, oppression and attacks of the government, which introduces a new practice every day for the institutionalization of fascism, we are once again coming to take back what was stolen from us for 'Local Governments with Women's Will'. We did it, we won. Now we come to expand our success and gains. We will produce common solutions to our common problems with solidarity and organization through the Women's Boards that we will establish together with all women's organizations, civil initiatives, neighbourhood councils and municipal women's councils.
* With the co-chairship system; We will continue to strengthen the will of women in all areas of life, ensure their full participation in urban management processes and disseminate the understanding of democratic local government.
* We will continue to organize municipal and provincial council lists as one woman and one man, with our equal representation principle and zipper system.
* We will expand regional, national and universal women's struggle, solidarity and partnership in local governments.
* We will strengthen the participation of all women in decision-making mechanisms by supporting the multi-identity, multi-cultural, multi-lingual structure of the localities with women's solidarity.
DEM Party Women's Assembly Spokesperson Halide Türkoğlu
DIRECTORATES TO BE REALIZED
* We will continue to build the restructuring, protection, defence and permanence of social life with the values of equality and freedom, with pro-women policies and the principle of decentralization.
* We will effectively implement the principle of equal access to education in the mother language, urban planning, architecture, disaster coordination centres and urban services for all women living locally.
* We established Women's Policy Departments in metropolitan cities and Women's Desk, Women's Board and Women's Policy Directorates in other provincial and district municipalities. We established Women's Economy, Combating Violence Against Women and Women's Education units, Women's Cooperatives and Women's Centres affiliated with these units. We will continue to strengthen all of these institutions and establish new ones in line with our needs.
* We will continue to form 'Municipal Women's Councils', consisting of elected officials and employees, to effectively include women in decision-making processes in municipalities. We will continue to develop and popularize the 'Women's Boards' and 'Women's Coordinations' and 'Women-Men Equality Commissions', which include elected women and men, to carry out the practical work of 'the parliament within the parliament', which we have created to reflect the women's perspective in all local policies.
* We will continue the practice of including provisions that include sanctions for employees who commit violence against women in collective agreements to be made in local governments.
* We will strengthen the unique organizations of young women in all units that determine women's policies; We will support their voice, authority and effective participation in decision-making mechanisms.
* We will produce policies to socialize care labour against the male-dominated capitalist system's disregard of women's labour and provide public nurseries, elderly, ill and disabled care services.
WOMEN'S POLITICAL ACADEMIES
* We are determined; By liberating our local governments from trustee usurpation, we will be one of the inspirations of the great women's struggle that will make the 21st century the century of women with our democratic, ecological and women's libertarian local government model.
* Local democracy with the will of women; We will not give up on the co-chairship system. We will continue to implement the co-chairship system in all our Metropolitan, Provincial, District and Town municipalities.
* We will expand Women's Politics Academies and Local Government Women's Politics Schools.
* We reject all budgets prepared by men, both at the central and local levels, that foster gender inequality, are prepared behind closed doors, and do not include women, young people, or differences.
* We will carry out all processes such as strategic planning, budgeting, discussion and decision-making in our municipalities with the active participation of women's councils and women's organizations, and we will prioritize employees' participation in gender training prior to their municipal employment.
WOMEN'S MEMORY CENTERS
* We will more strongly implement our project of women's cultural houses and dengbêj houses that will produce art in mother language against assimilation policies.
* We will turn it into places where old women can share their experiences.
* We will organize Women's Culture and Arts Festivals at certain times of the year by determining pilot locations.
FREE WOMEN'S COOPERATIVES
* We will continue to base local production against sexist policies that create the budget of the war by stealing women's food, meals and labour, that want to push women out of production areas and that impose poverty on women as their destiny.
* We will open and disseminate Digital Marketing and Vocational Courses by determining pilot regions.
* We will re-implement our 'Free Women's Cooperatives' project.
* We will re-implement the 'women's city gardens' and 'doorstep gardening' projects. We will offer free seedling services through the 'seed houses' we will open.
* We will expand our purple stand and neighbourhood markets projects with the women's budget we allocated from our municipalities throughout the province and district. We will open market areas everywhere where they can sell the products they produce in cooperatives, homes and orchards without intermediaries.
* Every year, within the scope of our projects under the title of 'Women's Economy', we will organize festivals in certain places where women producers will open stands and exhibit their products.
* We will implement the discounted JINKART application for women in all our municipalities.
* We will implement our PED-MATİK project, in which women will receive their pads and hygiene materials free of charge, by selecting pilot regions and expand it in line with the needs.
* We will open a web portal by determining pilot municipalities. We will expand solidarity by opening digital Community Markets within municipalities, by writing what is needed within these markets on the web portal and ensuring that these needs, ranging from food to clothing to household goods, are met free of charge.
PROJECTS FOR YOUNG WOMEN
* We will discuss and fight together with young women about more comprehensive policies against education, economic difficulties and obstacles to their political struggles.
* We will establish centres that carry out free study-training and cultural and artistic activities to empower young women.
* We will install stronger lighting systems around the dormitories and bus stops where young women live.
* We will re-implement our dormitory projects for young university women with housing problems.
* We will give scholarships to young women who have entered university but cannot attend university or continue their university education due to financial difficulties.
ANTI-VIOLENCE PROJECTS
* While violence against women has increased by one thousand four hundred percent, we are the ones waging the greatest struggle against those who ignore women's acquired rights. Together, we will implement policies that will take back what was stolen from us and further increase our gains. Within the scope of combating violence against women, we will implement and accept as reference documents that are achievements of women's struggle, such as CEDAW, Beijing Declaration and Istanbul Convention, which are international documents.
* We will reopen the shelters affiliated with our municipalities by creating appropriate conditions in every province and district with a population of over 100 thousand.
* We will reopen our centres to combat violence against women, which will provide free psychological and legal support and create production areas to create their own economy.
* We will fight against all kinds of violence against LGBTI individuals.
* The first step in the fight against violence against women will be to reopen our stations and increase their number.
* We will carry out multifaceted work to prevent male violence against women and gender identities other than the dominant one, by developing common struggle ground and relations with the women's dynamics in the city of our women's councils and boards to be established within the scope of local governments.
* We will re-establish the 24/7 accessible multilingual 'LINE OF VIOLENCE' in all our municipalities.
* We will provide free dormitories and internet services so that all children, especially girls, can continue their education.
WOMEN'S DISASTER ACTION PLAN
* 'Women's Disaster Action Plan' will be uniquely structured and officially accepted in each of our municipalities.
* From the moment the disaster occurs, we will quickly conduct current situation and needs analysis and provide resource management coordination.
* We will have women volunteer teams in disaster areas. We will ensure equal representation and participation at every stage of the emergency disaster coordination.
* We will ensure regular distribution of the Municipality's hygiene kits, which women and children can benefit from after the disaster, for at least a year.
* We will create temporary shelter centres compatible with the needs of women.
* We will create security and social service units trained on male violence in temporary accommodation centres.
SITUATION OF DISABLED WOMEN
* Affordable policies remain the biggest obstacle to disabled women and girls' inclusion in life today. Since adequate policies have not been established for disabled women and girls, the streets continue to be places where these individuals will be exposed to all kinds of neglect and abuse.
* We will create barrier-free women's living centres.
* Participation of disabled women in social life within the scope of Women's Departments and Women's Directorates; We will create Equality Units to solve the problems they face in accessing rights such as education, health, sports, housing, transportation and work.
* We will be in solidarity with women who care for the ill, elderly and disabled and will produce policies in line with their demands and needs and implement these policies.
THE RIGHT TO FREE HEALTH IN MOTHER LANGUAGE
* We will not give up saying in the face of monist, sexist health policies: "Free healthcare in mother language is a right."
* We will create our health policies together with women and women's organizations.
* We will build health units in our municipalities and develop special projects on women's health.
* We will relaunch our women's health centres by determining pilot municipalities.
ECOLOGY AND WOMEN FRIENDLY LIVING AREAS
* We will establish 'ecological unions' in our municipalities.
* We will build ecological, women-friendly cities together.
* We will implement policies that will make our villages and cities compatible with the ecological texture.
* We will popularize the sapling planting campaigns organized every year according to seasons with the slogan 'If You Don't Have a Tree Planted, You Don't Have Anything'. We, women, will build our urban forests together.
REFUGEE WOMEN
* We will continue to stand against policies of war and violence.
* By creating units within the Departments of Women's Policies; Women immigrants' participation in life, employment, language, violence, access to health, child marriage, exposure to double marriage, labour exploitation, education, housing, transportation, etc. will find solutions to their problems; We will develop policies so that they can freely use and live their language and culture and participate equally and freely in social life in the cities they settle in.
* We will implement policies that will enable immigrant and refugee women who are subjected to violence to benefit from women's shelters and centres to combat violence."