Thursdays in Black (TIB): Towards a World Without Rape and Violence is a movement launched by
the World Council of Churches (WCC) in the 1970s, as an activist branch of their Decade in
Solidarity with Women. This decade was meant to address and combat issues that
disproportionately affect women, and Thursdays in Black was to address and combat rape and
sexual violence.
The WCC had no explicitly religious connotations for the TIB campaign,
and asked only of their followers what we ask of you – wear black on Thursdays, wear the TIB
badge, and commit to saying NO to sexual violence. The campaign is promoted internationally
and people everywhere are invited and encouraged to take part. The TIB movement is
particularly strong in South Africa, where it was re-launched in 2
008 as a part of the 16 Days of Activism campaign. This campaign
was an initiative to encourage the general public to be involved with various social justice
initiatives. In South Africa, there is a strong partnership between TIB and community
organisations who advocate for the health and wellbeing of people living with HIV and
AIDS.
There are other activist groups across the globe who have historically dealt with
issues of violence and used black as a motif, or organised on Thursdays. Mothers of the Plaza
de la Mayo (Mothers of the Disappeared) grieved and protested publicly on Thursdays in Buenos
Aires, for those killed in the Balkla War of the 1970s. In the 1990s, a group named Women in
Black wore black and made women-to-women solidarity visits to Croatia and Serbia during the
political unrest in the region. Thursdays in Black at New Zealand Union of Students’
Associations (NZUSA) supports the anti-violence kaupapa of these movements and considers them
a part of the political history of wearing black for activism and organising on
Thursdays.
NZUSA and Tertiary Women New Zealand (TWNZ) adopted this campaign under the
leadership of Women’s Rights Officer of 1994, Jan Logie. It was rolled out as an
information-raising campaign on campus and experienced a high reach and lots of popularity at
the time. While it specifically targeted students as a demographic, it experienced a lot of
support from the sexual violence sector and other community organisations. As funding for the
national student movement dwindled in the late ’90s, the full-time Women’s Rights position was
dissolved. While the campaign continued to be run from the national office, it experienced
strain from a lack of resources and eventually tapered off, with only minimal visibility at a
select few campuses today.
In 2016, this campaign is being officially re-launched on
campuses by NZUSA and TWNZ. The ethos of TIB remains the same – raising awareness and making
concrete, measurable progress towards a world without rape and violence. The co-ordinators of
the 2016 launch want to respect and honour the history of the campaign, while also expanding
its reach to acknowledge the complex and varied ways that people of different groups
experience sexual violence.
Photo: Jan Logie supporting the 2016 launch of Thursdays in Black