“We are the ones who put our bodies and hands to work the land”, said the comrades of the Landless Rural Workers Union in Mendoza (Argentina). Also in Argentina, in Santiago del Estero, the women of the National Peasant and Indigenous Movement (MNCI-CLOC-VC) are joining urban women “for production, food sovereignty, integral agrarian reform, against displacements and patriarchy, for life and dignity, we struggle united against exploitation and oppression”, said Deolinda Carrizo.
Meanwhile, Helena Zelic, representative of the World March of Women of Brazil, called for a big feminist march “for the world we want”, in rejection to Jair Bolsonaro´s administration, which is aiming to impose a neoliberal economic agenda through a pension fund reform -among other measures that will have a strong impact on women. They will march for democracy, Lula´s freedom, against violence and the criminalization of social movements. They demand justice for Marielle Franco.
In Colombia, the National Agrarian Coordination will mobilize this March 8th in all public squares of the country under the slogan: “Women continue weaving life, territories and peace”. The call comes from Santander de Quilichao (Cauca). Thousands of women will mobilize, from social and political movements, workers, peasants, artists, indigenous women, black women, students, young women, disabled women, LGTBI, feminists, defenders of the territory, popular congresswomen, internationalists, leaders and human rights defenders, to protest, propose and demand respect and the protection of life and territories, a political solution to the armed conflict, ensuring rights and people´s sovereignty, among other things.
Clemen Bareiro of the Feminist Articulation of Paraguay, which is part of the organizers of the Women´s Strike in that country, highlighted that the defense of labor rights is key in this strike. In this context, peasant and indigenous women are denied access to land; the pay gap is deep, since men make 37 per cent more than women for the same job; for women it is more difficult to access higher positions due to gender discrimination and because the State does not cover the care work of women. In addition, they are especially concerned about the situation of domestic workers who make 60 per cent of the minimum national wage.
“Women who struggle”: this will be painted on the banners of the National Association of Rural and Indigenous Women of Chile (ANAMURI) which is mobilizing together with the 8M Coordination in this country. “We´ve been fighting for over 20 years against the capitalist, extractivist, racist and patriarchal economic system”, said Gabriela Curinao, national chair of ANAMURI to RWR, who once again denounced the systematic institutional violence experienced by Mapuche communities, with women suffering persecution, torture and criminalization for defending their territories. ANAMURI will highlight “the story of women who came before us in the fight for equal social and political rights, autonomy and the visibilization of our specific demands, such as NO more violence towards women, sexual and reproductive rights, including free, safe, legal abortion, no to street harrassment, etc”.
Meanwhile, the Chair of Friends of the Earth International, Karin Nansen stated: “March 8th marks a fundamental day for the feminist struggle, when women around the world take to the streets to raise our voices against patriarchy. As an organization that struggles for environmental, social, economic and gender violence, we understand that the multiple crises we face are consequences of a system that imposes a perverse logic of capitalist and patriarchal accumulation. A system that destroys our territories and livelihoods, that privatizes and commodifies nature and the different spheres of life, and that exploits the work and bodies of women and imposes its brutal violence against women.
That´s why, Nansen said that FoEI is joining the mobilizations “in solidarity with the feminist movement to say once again NO to patriarchy” and she made reference to the Federation´s commitment “to dismantle a system that imposes care work on women without recognizing it as work, a system that exploits this work and that ensures the accumulation of capital through this exploitation. A system that denies women the right to be a political subject”.