The Progressive

NewsWire

A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact:

Diana Duarte, Media Coordinator
(212) 627-0444; email: media@madre.org

Yes We Did but We're Not Done

NEW YORK

MADRE and our sister organizations join millions in the US and around the world in congratulating Barack and Michelle Obama and all who helped bring about last night's historic victory.

This election is of course a watershed for all those who fought for civil rights and against racism in the United States; an election 400 years in the making. As some of our Indigenous sisters would say, "today, the ancestors are smiling."

Barack Obama's victory also carries a special meaning for those whose lives are still circumscribed by discrimination of all sorts today-not only in the United States, but around the world.

For the women of MADRE's sister organizations this election proved that discrimination can be overcome. Our sisters in Nicaragua, Iraq, Palestine, Colombia, Cuba, Kenya, Sudan and elsewhere are reminded that the United States can be more than the sum of its past unjust policies. Transformation is possible.

We need that powerful truth, that infusion of hope to sustain our work for human rights and to bolster our belief that we will change the terrible conditions we see in the world.

MADRE looks forward to supporting the leadership of President Obama in promoting human rights and social justice at home and abroad. And we commit ourselves to holding the Obama adminstration accountable to the highest standards of human rights and international law.

Last night we saw that the United States can be a place of extraordinary transformation and possibility. But this victory is not the end of a historic struggle. It is a place to catch our breath and celebrate and keep right on going. That's what MADRE intends to do. As we have for the past 25 years, MADRE will be there for the next four, reminding President Barack Obama that he was absolutely right when he said that, "Change doesn't come from Washington. Change comes to Washington."

MADRE is an international women's human rights organization that partners with community-based women's groups to advance women's human rights, challenge injustice and create social change in contexts of war, conflict, disaster and their aftermath. MADRE advocates for a world in which all people enjoy individual and collective human rights; natural resources are shared equitably and sustainably; women participate effectively in all aspects of society; and all people have a meaningful say in policies that affect their lives. For more information about MADRE, visit www.madre.org.