We resist o live, we march to transform!
This is the page about the activities of the Europe region at the closing of the 5th International Action of the World March of Women.
Here you will see the documents that resulted from the debates, workshops, conversations in the countries and territories of the region in the process of the 5th International Action.
European Region Analysis
The European document for the closing of the 5th International Action — available in full at the following link — was prepared in a process of discussions among the national coordinations in Europe. The text (available in English and Spanish) begins by talking about the processes of privatization, precariousness, criminalization and the revival of extractivism that were already underway in the region since the financial crisis of 2008. These processes have allowed the growth of the extreme right in Europe and have expanded the militarization of lives. The pandemic and the punitive and repressive health measures adopted by governments have worsened the consequences of all this, especially for women. Unemployment, gender-based violence and manipulation of information to create hatred against migrant and racialized communities have increased.
The offensive of patriarchal capital has not succeeded in crushing and silencing critical voices, the sisters write. “Even in a pandemic situation, there has been resistance from social movements, such as black life movements and feminist groups organizing strikes, as well as popular solidarity initiatives to support the most vulnerable during the pandemic“. However, the text warns of the fragmentation of progressive forces and the need to build and strengthen alliances in order to create a common agenda and provide responses to the social crisis we are experiencing. “Here it is important to bring to the table the 20 years of political work that the World March of Women has constructed as well as the most recent analysis elaborated for our 5th International Action, focused on migration and multinationals“.
The process of dialogue and articulation between movements was the subject of the webinar Connecting our struggles, held by WMW Europe with the participation of the European Network of Migrant Women and strategic allies of the March: Via Campesina and Friends of the Earth.
Basque Country, over all the bridges.
Because we keep marching to transform, in the Basque Country the compañeras are already beginning another process of mobilization. A process that begins on October 17, on the border between the Basque towns of Irún (Spanish state) and Hendaye (French state), and will end on March 6. The mobilization is called “Zubi guztien gainetik! Mugarik ez! Trasnazionalik ez!” (Over all the bridges! No to the borders! No to the transnationals!)
The symbol will be the bridges. “We have understood that bridges have not had and do not have the same meaning for all migrants because those that once served to connect us have become walls that do not facilitate the transit of people and that become scenarios where people are discriminated against, oppressed, excluded and even killed. We invite you to rethink migration from a decolonial perspective and explore all the cracks that will open up in its path. To question and denounce the functioning of transnationals, borders and migration policies as instruments of the racist, colonial, capitalist and hetero-patriarchal system. Likewise, to identify the privileges on which the well-being of Europe is based and to reflect on our role and responsibility in that logic”.
“At the end of February we will take the processes or the conclusions and demands to the streets,” they tell us. The March continues until we are all free!
Zubi guztien gainetik, mugarik ez! transnazionalik ez! ¡Resistimos para vivir, marchamos para transformar! Nous résistons pour vivre, nous marchons pour transformer!
WMW Turkey discusses digitalization, attack on common goods and food sovereignty
On the 3rd and 4th October, the WMW in Turkey promoted the international workshop “Digitalisation and Women”, in the framework of the 5th International Action. The workshop discussed issues such as the effects of digitalization on women’s lives and its relationship to our struggle for autonomy, against transnational corporations, against sexism and for popular communication. The algorithms were the subject of a workshop with IT for Change, which dealt with data collection and how discrimination and inequalities are reinforced and expanded in this process of digitalization. The videos of the workshop can be seen on Youtube of the WMW in Turkey – they are recorded in the language of origin of the participants and the workshops, Spanish, Turkish and English – and will be used for other training activities.
On the last day of the 5th International Action, the 17th October, International Day of the Fight against Poverty, the WMW in Turkey will hold two rounds of online conversations, called “Embrace Water, Land, Life”. The first will be about women’s struggle for food sovereignty, with feminist women farmers and production cooperatives. And the second will be about the predatory extractive industries of transnational corporations and the defense of territories, with environmental activists. Women in the front line to prevent the capitalist plundering of the commons and to create life centered alternatives.