From the Editor
Greetings! We are a bit delayed with the fourth issue, but you may agree that there is good reason for this.
With this regular issue, we carry a Special Issue on Atlantic Canada. This has been compiled by women fishworkers and their supporters from the Atlantic Canadian region. It is one of the outcomes of the Workshop on Gender, Globalization and Fisheries held in May 2000 in Newfoundland, Canada.
What comes through again is that issues that confront women of fishing communities, whether in the North or South, are common. How else can you explain that women fish-plant workers in New Brunswick, Canada are still struggling for pay equity in the year 2000? How else can you explain the fact that women fishers and fish-plant workers in Canada are still not well-represented within fishworker organizations and have little say in decision-making? How else can you explain the continuing lack of recognition of women’s roles in the fishery by the government and its agencies?
We get more of the same message from the articles in this regular issue. The article from Netherlands, for example, describes the process by which women fishworkers are coming together for the first time, despite being part of the fisheries in important ways.
For those of us working with women in fisheries issues, the message is clear. There is a need to come together, whether from the South or the North, and work together on such issues that are common to us.
A workshop organized by ICSF in Brazil in June, provided one such opportunity for fishworkers and their supporters in Latin America to come together to reflect on gender issues in fisheries and to work out a concrete plan of action. We carry a report of this meeting in this issue.
In the last issue we had carried an interview with a woman working with fishworkers in Pernambuco, a northeastern state of Brazil. Continuing this, in this issue, we carry excerpts from an interview with another courageous woman fishworker, also from the same region. Among other things, it also tells us of the struggles of her group to protect the rich mangrove habitat that gives them their livelihood.
From the other side of the world, from India, we hear of another fishing community with similar preoccupations. That struggle too is for livelihood.
In addition to several other articles, two of our readers have sent in letters, both seeking to establish a dialogue and discussion. We hope you bite the bait!
Please send us your own stories and responses for the next issue. Kindly ensure that these reach us before the end of October 2000.
