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Women across Latin America and the Caribbean Rise Up against Patriarchy, Femicides and Capitalism

Peoples Dispatch

This March 8, on the International Women’s Day, hundreds of thousands of women across Latin America and the Caribbean took to the streets to protest against patriarchy in all its forms and manifestations and demand equal rights in all spheres of life. Women in several countries also demonstrated against the growing femicides and gender based violence in the region, as well as against the increasing capitalist onslaught on the environment under neoliberal governments.

From Argentina to Mexico, millions of women came onto the streets to demand equality in the most unequal region of the world, and to proclaim that they refuse to continue being marginalized, discriminated against, excluded, and murdered.

Argentina

Throughout Argentina, several massive demonstrations were held to demand an end to gender inequality in the workplace and effective measures against the alarming increase in femicides and other types of gender based violence.

In the capital Buenos Aires, the Ni Una Menos or Not One (Woman) Less movement along with various social organizations and trade unions, held two major mobilizations. First, in the early afternoon, in front of the city legislature building to demand work with rights, salary recomposition and comprehensive care system; compliance with the city’s transvestite-trans labor quota law; effective public policies and with a budget to eradicate gender based violence; measures against harassment and repression of workers, among others, and second, in the late afternoon, in front of the National Congress to demand the approval of the Emergency Law on Gender Violence.

In addition, massive colorful and peaceful marches were carried in the provinces of Chaco, Córdoba, Corrientes, Entre Ríos, Jujuy, La Pampa, Mendoza, Misiones, Salta, Santa Fe, Santiago del Estero, Tierra de Fuego and Tucuman, among others to demand immediate sanction of the emergency law.

In the first 67 days of this year, 65 women have been murdered in Argentina for the simple fact of being a woman.

Brazil

In Brazil, under the banner of “Fora Bolsonaro” or “Out With Bolsonaro”, thousands of women took the streets of major cities to demand president Jair Bolsonaro’s resignation and superior vaccination coverage against COVID-19, denouncing his government’s mismanagement of the pandemic that has left more than 260,000 people dead in the country.

Various different protest actions were organized to denounce Bolsonaro for the escalation in femicides and violence against women and the members of the LGBTQI community. Brazilian women also condemned the fact that under Bolsonaro’s neoliberal and anti-people administration, hunger, poverty and unemployment have aggravated in the country and demanded urgent measures.

Last week, more than 95 feminist organizations from across Brazil called for demonstrations throughout this week and yesterday’s mobilizations marked the initiation of their struggle against Bolsonaro’s far-right regime.

Chile

In Chile, hundreds of thousands of women held a national strike called for by the 8M Feminist Coordinator and peacefully marched through the streets of various cities to demand gender parity in all realms, non-sexist education and the right to free, legal and safe abortion.

In the capital Santiago, close to half a million women gathered at the iconic Dignity Plaza and flooded the whole of Alameda avenue to express their rejection of the right-wing national government, led by president Sebastian Pinera, and its repressive security forces. This protest like many others in Chile was also violently repressed by the national police force, the Carabineros. However, Chilean women stood strong in the face of the tear gas and water canons, and forced Piñera’s repressors to retreat.

In the cities of Valparaiso, Concepcion and Puerto Montt massive demonstrations were also held.

Dominican Republic

In Dominican Republic, in the capital Santo Domingo, hundreds of women protested gender based violence and discrimination in the country. They demanded reproductive rights and inclusion of femicide and other forms of violence against women as punishable offenses in the new penal code, which is till being drafted in the country.

El Salvador

In El Salvador, thousands of women, human rights and LGBTQI activists demonstrated in the capital San Salvador to denounced violence against women and LGBTQI community members and to demand decriminalization of abortion in the conservative country. For the first time, journalists and reporters also joined the women’s day march to demand permission to cover and report on gender based violence in the country.

Guatemala

In Guatemala, women took to the streets in the capital Guatemala city to demand an end to gender-based violence and justice for those who have been victims of femicides, rapes, and other forms of sexist violence in the country. The demonstrators called on the government of president Alejandro Giammattei to pass strict laws against sexual harassment and abuses.

Honduras

In Honduras, hundreds of women marched against the wave of femicides that has shaken the Central American country with over 50 cases so far this year. They demanded that the national government implement effective measures to tackle the serious issue. They also demanded the abolition of the reform that reinforced the ban on abortion and same-sex marriage in the country. They declared that they will continue to fight to claim autonomy over their bodies and lives.

Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Honduras have the most conservative legislation around abortion in the region. Abortion is illegal in these country in all circumstances, without any exception. These countries are also the most unsafe countries for women in the regions, with the highest indexes of gender-based violence and femicides.

Mexico

In Mexico, one of the countries with the highest femicide and impunity rates in the world, tens of thousands of women hit the streets of the capital Mexico City, rejecting the situation. To protest against femicides, members of feminist groups and women’s movements turned the metal fence surrounding the National Palace into a “wall of memory” by covering it with the names of thousands of victims killed in recent years.

The government guarded the National Palace, the Palacio de Bellas Artes, the hemicycle, the offices of the Bank of Mexico and the Ministry of Foreign Relations with fences, “to protect them from being damaged during the feminist march” and “avoid clashed like last year”. Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador called it the “wall of peace.” However, the measure was criticized by feminist groups, who described it as an impediment to free demonstration.

During the evening, feminist claims such as legal abortion, end to femiicdes and violence against women, among others were projected on the National Palace.

In Colombia thousands of women hit the streets demanding cessation of the wave of femicides. In Ecuador as well, women demanded legalization of abortion and recognition of their right to decide about their body.

(Courtesy: Peoples Dispatch, an international media organization with the mission of highlighting voices from people’s movements and organizations across the globe.)

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Women’s Groups across Europe Mark International Women’s Day

Peoples Dispatch

On March 8, Monday, feminist organizations and women’s groups across Europe hit the streets to mark International Women’s Day. The raging pandemic, job loss and other distress due to the lockdown, rise in femicide, misogyny, conservative laws fueled by the far-right has worsened the situation of many women over the last year. Braving all odds, women across Europe made their mark by raising the flags of women’s emancipation and liberation on March 8 on the streets and workplaces.

On Monday, in Poland, women under the leadership of National Women’s Strike (Strajk Kobiet) demonstrated across the country raising the slogan ‘Women’s Day Without Compromise,’ protesting the misogynist tyranny of the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party led government. Groups including Strajk Kobiet and the Polish Left have been fighting the ban on abortions imposed by the constitutional court since last year.

The leftist party in Poland, Razem, said that instead of flowers, polish women need rights. Razem said that Poland has almost a total ban on abortion and women are forced to give birth to even severely impaired fetuses. “Every year in Poland, between 400 and 500 women die as a result of domestic violence, whereas 94 percent raped or molested people do not report the case to law enforcement. Only 28 percent of Parliament MPs are women in Poland, while women constitute 52 percent of its total population,” added Razem.

In France, women’s rights groups including Greve Feministe and major trade unions organized more than 150 mobilizations across the country to mark the occasion. They protested the gender pay gap that still exist in the country and the spike in violence against women.

Greve Feministe said “on March 8, we will be on strike with women around the world to refuse to pay the price of the pandemic crisis with our work, our wages, our bodies. The confinements have highlighted that women are essential to the functioning of society while they remain permanently invisible. Women, and increasingly migrant women, make up the majority of those in care, health, education and cleaning jobs…[T]hey are underpaid, and get little or no recognition…Despite the beautiful promises, no substantive negotiations have taken place in this direction!”

In Belgium, women’s right’s groups organized mobilizations and renamed some of the streets in La Louvière to names of women who fought for their rights. Organizations have also reiterated the demand for an hourly minimum wage of 14 Euros (16.66 USD) per hour.

In Portugal women’s rights groups including the Democratic Women’s Movement (MDM) and the March 8 Network organized demonstrations across Portugal and online events on March 7 and 8.

Mobilizations and campaigns also took place in the cities of Spain, Switzerland among others and online events and campaigns were also organized by others such as Women’s Strike Assembly in the UK and Die Linke in Germany.

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On International Women’s Day, Palestinian Women are on the Front Lines of Liberation Struggle

Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network

“To our colleagues, to Palestinian students and those around the world, from the heart of the Zionist prisons. On the occasion of 8th of March, we long for freedom, justice and equality for all women of the world, including students, inside and outside the prison cells. Our battle is united, as we are all fighting oppression on the basis of gender, fighting class exploitation and fascist colonialism and foremost among which is the occupation on our land. To our female university colleagues, who are at the front lines of the battle for change, our confidence is in your struggle and resistance that illuminates the sky of our homeland and lights the road for freedom. For all Palestinian women, we believe that our social struggle is an inherent part of the struggle of our people, and for the liberation of land and people, we sacrifice, struggle and bring forth strugglers.”

– Bir Zeit University student prisoners: Layan Kayed, Elia Abu Hijleh, Ruba Assi, Shatha Tawil, Damon prison, Mount Carmel, 8 March 2021

“On this 8 March, humanity exposed to the devastation of the Corona pandemic on the one hand, and the regime of tyranny, racism and colonialism on the other hand. A thousand greetings to every voice that resists injustice and oppression. May women remain at the forefront of this resistance, and 8 March stand as a symbol of liberation!”

– Khalida Jarrar, imprisoned Palestinian leader, feminist and rights advocate, Damon prison, Mount Carmel 7 March 2021

As we commemorate International Working Women’s Day around the world this 8 March, there are 35 Palestinian women in Israeli jails, representing all facets of Palestinian society: students, activists, organizers, parliamentarians, journalists, health workers, mothers, sisters, daughters, aunts, strugglers, freedom fighters. Palestinian women have always been at the center of the liberation movement through all aspects of struggle and have led within the prisoners’ movement, organizing hunger strikes and standing on the front lines of struggle even behind bars. On International Working Women’s Day, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes the leading role of Palestinian women in struggle and urges the immediate release of all Palestinian women prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons.

Palestinian women prisoners include 11 mothers, six injured women and three jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention. They include Khalida Jarrar, Palestinian parliamentarian, feminist, leftist and advocate for Palestinian political prisoners, sentenced to two years in Israeli prison for her public political activities just days prior to International Women’s Day; Khitam Saafin, President of the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees, jailed without charge or trial, her administrative detention renewed for another four months; Bushra al-Tawil, Palestinian journalist and activist whose detention without charge or trial was also renewed for another four months on 7 March 2021.

They include Palestinian students, like Layan Kayed, Elia Abu Hijleh, Ruba Assi and Shata Tawil of Bir Zeit University. Hundreds of Palestinian students are routinely detained by the Israeli occupation, especially those who are part of student organizations involved with campus political life. At Bir Zeit University alone, approximately 74 students were detained by occupation soldiers during the 2019-2020 academic year.

Palestinian women prisoners are among 5,000 total political prisoners, but Palestinian women are broadly affected by the mass incarceration of Palestinian men as well. Palestinian women are the mothers, wives, daughters, sisters, lovers and friends of Palestinian male prisoners. They make homes for themselves and their children, denied access to their husbands and fathers. They lead the movement outside prison to highlight the names, faces, voices and stories of all Palestinian prisoners struggling for liberation.

Since 1948 and before, from the earliest days of the Palestinian national liberation movement, Palestinian women have been expelled from their homes and targeted for repression on multiple levels, their very capacity to reproduce and raise their children labeled as an unacceptable threat to the racist settler-colonial project of Zionism. Since 1967 alone, around 10,000 Palestinian women have been jailed by the Israeli occupation for their political activity and involvement in the Palestinian resistance, including Palestinian women in Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and Palestinian women holding Israeli citizenship in occupied Palestine ’48. Palestinian women in exile and diaspora have been denied their right to return to Palestine for over 72 years yet continue to struggle, facing political repression, criminalization, deportation and imprisonment.

Palestinian women prisoners are routinely subjected to torture and ill-treatment by Israeli occupation forces, from the moment they are detained — often in violent night raids — and throughout the interrogation process, including beatings, insults, threats, aggressive body searches and sexually explicit harassment. Within Israeli prisons, the official state policy of “worsening the conditions” of Palestinian prisoners has particularly targeted Palestinian women, denied family visits or even phone calls, subjected to intense surveillance that violates their privacy, denied education and held in dangerous and unhealthy conditions. They are transported in the “bosta,” a metal vehicle where women are shackled on a long, circituous trip that takes hours longer than a direct route and often denied access to sanitary facilities.

Damon prison, itself formerly a stable for animals, is located in occupied Palestine ’48 — in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and making it even more difficult for Palestinian women’s family members to visit them. All visits are subjected to an arbitrary permit regime which is often obstructed by the Israeli occupation regime.

However, Palestinian women behind bars continue to resist and to lead. In April 1970, Palestinian women prisoners at Neve Tirza prison launched one of the first collective hunger strikes of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement when they refused food for nine days. They demanded access to women’s sanitary supplies as well as an end to beatings and solitary confinement. Palestinian women have been consistently involved in general hunger strikes and protest actions, including strikes led by women prisoners in 1985, 2004 and 2019 that inspired global women’s solidarity. Despite the denial of formal education by the Israeli colonial regime, Palestinian women prisoners have developed revolutionary education for all prisoners, expanding their knowledge and commitment to struggle.

Palestinian women prisoners are not alone; they struggle alongside fellow women political prisoners in the Philippines, Turkey, India, Egypt and around the world. And their imprisonment is also international: it is funded, backed and supported by the diplomatic, military, economic and political backing given to Israel by the imperialist powers, including the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and the European Union states. Palestinian women also confront the role of the Palestinian Authority’s “security cooperation” regime under Oslo and the normalization politics and repressive attacks of reactionary Arab regimes.

Despite all attempts of the Zionist regime to isolate them from the global movement for the liberation of women and humanity through imprisonment and repression, Palestinian women continue to organize and struggle from behind bars, in the streets and fields of occupied Palestine, and everywhere in exile in diaspora, seeking return and liberation. On International Women’s Day 2021, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes the movement of Palestinian women and their leadership in the ongoing and daily struggle for national and social liberation.

We urge women’s organizations, student organizations and people of conscience everywhere to raise their voices and act in solidarity with Palestinian women, and Palestinian women prisoners, targeted by the Israeli occupation – including by building the movement for the boycott of Israel, its institutions and complicit corporations like HP, Puma, Teva Pharmaceuticals and G4S. The Israeli occupation wants to continue its colonization of Palestine unchecked by isolating and detaining the leaders of the Palestinian people’s movement. Now is the time to act and urge their immediate release and the liberation of all Palestinian prisoners, and of Palestine, from the river to the sea.

Take Action!

1. Join the Campaign to Free Palestinian Students! Over 325 organizations have already signed on to the campaign to take action to free imprisoned Palestinian students. Get involved at freepalestinianstudents.org.

2. Organize protests, demonstrations creative actions. Ad hacks, postering and other outdoor actions – especially near an Israeli embassy or consulate – can draw a significant amount of attention to the Palestinian women prisoners and the Palestinian cause at this critical time.

3. Build the boycott of Israel! Join the movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel. Highlight the complicity of corporations like Hewlett-Packard and the continuing involvement of G4S in Israeli policing and prisons. Build a campaign to boycott Israeli goods, impose a military embargo on Israel, or organize around the academic and cultural boycott of Israel.

(Article courtesy: Struggle La Lucha, a US based socialist publication.)