'Watch Out, You Machista': A Network of Feminist Activists Is Building Across Latin America
Latest
By Wednesday afternoon, thousands of Brazilian women had taken to the streets, occupying government buildings and protesting on major thoroughfares. In Rio de Janeiro, a group of stilt-walkers wearing purple skirts and silver tinsel soared above the massive throngs of women who had assembled at the 18th century Candelária church. They marched through the historic city center to the beat of drums and chanting “Watch out, you machista; Latin America will all be feminista.”
In Peru, women halted all activities for one hour—“La Hora M,” for mujeres—to highlight the “most invisible and least valued” domestic tasks that women routinely perform. And in Buenos Aires, Argentina, activists estimated that 300,000 women protested femicide in Latin America.
All were participating in the International Women’s Strike, a day of resistance that took place in more than 50 countries. The strike’s platform called for women to halt all forms of work—paid and unpaid, formal and domestic—in their fight against gender-based violence, economic and educational inequality, and a lack of control over their bodies.
But the strike did not emerge overnight. Feminist organizers around the world have been planning and strategizing for months. Last week, women from some 25 countries participated in a four-hour Skype call to discuss organizing efforts in their countries and search for ways to establish solidarity.
In the lead-up to March 8th, International Women’s Day, Jezebel spoke with strike organizers from Brazil, Argentina, and Peru, who have been building the event locally and in partnership with women around the world. The interviews reveal a coordinated effort to build a global movement that fights for country-specific issues while forming international alliances. The interviews also made clear that yesterday’s strike is part of a long-term process—one that includes local meetings and city-wide assemblies—that is building a democratic feminist movement capable of responding to conservative advances and attacks on women’s fundamental rights.
On a rainy night in Rio de Janeiro last week, some 70 women crammed into a graffitied performance space and LGBT shelter called Casa Nem for the fourth and final planning meeting of the International Women’s Strike. The women who had braved Rio’s flooded streets and the dangers of the city center after sunset were diverse: black, white, students, trans women, university professors, union representatives, longtime and first-time activists, women who had traveled hours from the periphery. In a wide-ranging three hour meeting, the women discussed strategy for the upcoming strike—which historic buildings to pass on the march, how to reach more poor and working-class women, symbolic options for women who risked getting fired, and ways to strengthen international alliances.
The women appeared angry, exhausted, and fired up all at once. In Brazil, abortion is illegal, a conservative government is pushing austerity measures that activists say will disproportionately affect women, and violence against women is constant.
Despite the huge outpouring of feminist organizing at this year’s Carnival, one woman noted that more than 2,000 calls had been made to Rio’s police to report acts of violence against women. In other words, a woman in Rio de Janeiro was attacked every four minutes during the five-day holiday. The energy in the room shifted as the urgency of the strike came into sharp focus.
“The number one priority is fighting machista violence. There’s no other option,” Brazilian organizer Mariana Bastos told Jezebel in Portuguese in an interview before Rio’s planning meeting. “In the two hours that we’ve been sitting here talking, a woman has been killed in this country.”
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
