Around 8M: our rights in debate
Cover a mural, approve the Equality Law and modify the Abortion Law all together, in debate, as a prelude to International Working Women's Day.
Little more than a month to 8M and the words feminism and feminists begin to appear in the headlines of the newspapers, but not because of the historical claims that we have been making for years but because the extreme right and the progressive government PSOE-Unidas Podemos are fighting to see who is more or less feminist.
On the VOX side, and its allies in Madrid of the PP and Cs for days that have installed in society a discussion about the withdrawal of the mural of Ciudad Lineal. A mural that since the year 2018 It is painted on one of the walls of the La Concepción Sports Center and it represents 15 women from all over the world who over the years have been protagonists of our history. With the justification "that this is not their feminism" they took the motion to delete it to the plenary session, but the pressure in the streets has made them retract and finally the mural continues.
On the side of the PSOE-Unidas Podemos, two headlines related on the one hand with the Law of Equal Treatment and Non-Discrimination and on the other with the modification of the law of voluntary interruption of pregnancy. The famous "only if it is if" law, which has been promising its sanction since the government took office, has generated more than one difference between government partners to such an extent that last week the PSOE decided to present it alone and spread it as the Zerolo Law, in the face of criticism from his purple partners, Irene Montero and Carmen Calvo met this week to establish a new meeting schedule for the law to come out in common agreement, Although due to the legal deadlines, it will not be presented for 8M as Montero intended, delaying once again a law, that although insufficient, would raise greater rights for women and the LGTBI community.
Regarding the modifications in the Abortion Law, propose to establish that abortion is pharmacological up to nine weeks, They say it is to alleviate the economic pressure on the autonomous communities that currently pay for the expenses of instrumental abortion in concerted clinics. What they hide is that in this way women are denied the right to decide about their bodies, The instrumental method has not yet been established as curricular material in nursing and medicine careers and it does not extend sexual and reproductive rights for women.
By far right or by center left, neither one nor the other represent anti-capitalist feminism that continues to fight from below to expand their rights. Because while they discuss laws or murals, women continue to kill us and all governments look the other way, the budget to combat gender violence continues to decline, The pandemic has made visible the greater conditions of vulnerability that women suffer and on these underlying issues, neither one nor the other give an answer. That is why we will continue to organize and on the streets, fighting for each of our rights. That is why the next 8M we must once again make our claims visible, because there is no mask that prevents us from screaming NOT ONE LESS, ALIVE AND FREE WE LOVE US.
