8M: marches to the Congress and the Obelisk to make gender claims visible

Maybe at some point they doubted it. The idea of ​​organizing a mobilization in the middle of the health emergency due to Covid-19 was a question that was discussed between the different collectives and feminist groups. But the growth of femicides, the gender-based violence, the slowness of justice to protect women who report their abusers and job insecurity, which has been exacerbated by the pandemic, they once again appealed: women will come out tomorrow and walk, once again. The meeting point will be Plaza del Congreso, from 4.30 p.m. For International Women’s Day, there will also be a strike.

In the first two months of the year alone, 50 femicides were committed; the first records this year coincide with figures in previous reports, which say a woman is murdered every 29 hours. Nothing has improved over time. Perhaps the feminist struggle is making inequalities and gender-based violence more and more visible, but the results are meager. The point 5 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) dictated by the UN aspires to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls by 2030. There are only nine years left and, judging by the statistics, we are getting further and further away from it. Almost six years after the first #NiUnaMenos, the names of women beaten, shot, burned and stabbed, mainly by their partners or ex-partners, are added to the list of victims. That of Úrsula Bahillo will appear tomorrow on the posters which will be raised to demand justice. The 18-year-old woman from Rojas received 15 stab wounds from her ex-partner, police officer Matías Martínez.

“This 8M we are taking to the streets again because of the agenda of the demands of the women’s movement and LGBTT people. At the center of the urgent problems lies the tragedy of femicides and transvesticides, which continue to increase. But also, This reality generates an even greater indignation because these cases are clearly preventable, as in the femicide of Úrsula, who had denounced 18 times his murderer, a police officer who was protected by the same force. It is the responsibility of the state and we see that the government of Alberto Fernández is not taking real measures to eradicate gender violence, ”said Manuela Castañeira, leader of the New MAS and of the feminist and socialist group Las Rojas. , which will meet at 4 o’clock. : 30 h at the intersection of Avenida de Mayo and 9 de Julio to walk to the National Congress. Its main demand is to demand “enough femicides”.

More than ever this year, virtuality will be an important communication channel. Despite the decision to take to the streets and walk, many groups disseminate slogans to reproduce from social networks and comply with the restrictions imposed by health care and contagion prevention protocols. For this reason, many women will accompany the demands with online initiatives, like that of Periodistas Argentinas, which proposes that women who cannot join the strike and march dress in black and share their messages.

Emergency law and care spaces

On the list of urgent demands, there is also the precariousness of employment, the inaction of the justice system to protect women who denounce their attackers, the approval of an emergency law on gender violence and creation of childcare places for workers. “On March 8, we go from the Plaza de Mayo to the Congress Against Femicides, Hunger and Unemployment. The State is responsible for this reality ”, a d Vanina Biasi, referent of Workers’ plenary. Too the activists of the Union of Popular Economy Workers (UTEP) will demand tomorrow the sanction of the emergency law on gender violence. According to the call, they will march from Hipólito Yrigoyen and Virrey Cevallos, as well as the movements of excluded workers, the Darío Santillán front and Nuestra América.

The bill for which feminist movements are fighting proposes the creation of a network for the care and accommodation of women victims of violence, in particular for cases where staying at home involves a threat to their lives. integrity.

Meanwhile, the Guernica Women’s Commission and the Permanent assembly will perform at 2 p.m. courtyard at the Obelisk alongside other sectors in struggle, under the slogan “Advice against violence, for land, housing, work and all women’s rights”.