"Light step, light step, whoever builds feminism changes the whole country!” With this and other chants, with songs and drums, the feminists of the World March of Women took to the streets in all of Brazil this March 8, 2023. In more than 20 cities of 15 states of the country, the activists participated in organized actions proposing the agenda of popular feminism for the reconstruction of Brazil. The actions expressed the women's agenda to rebuild Brazil: democracy, work, legal abortion, combating hunger and fascism, punishing racist coup participants. In the last years, women have been protagonists in the fight for democracy and the transformation of the country. Nalu Faria, WMW activist in São Paulo, writes in her article for the Sempreviva column in the newspaper Brasil de Fato that women are “strengthened to recover democracy, which we always articulate as the fight to defeat neoliberalism and build the project of a popular and sovereign country”. This vision relates to the struggle of women on a global level. In the international declaration of the WMW for this March 8, we defend that “women and peoples of the world have never stopped fighting, even in the face of efforts of murder and criminalization of social movements.” In this context, we highlight our resistances, alternatives and proposals to transform the world, putting life at the center”.
March 8 on the streets The March 8 day of fights began early, at 8am, in Aracaju, Sergipe, where the members of the WMW participated in the unified action under the slogan “For the life of all women: No loss of rights! No amnesty for coup participants!” At the same time, the sisters in Belém, Pará, were already in the Largo do Redondo to defend democracy, the lives of women in the Amazon, and their territories. Along this line, the defense of the life of women as well as democracy, good living (buen vivir) and against fascism was present in the streets of Natal and Mossoró, in Rio Grande do Norte, in Caruaru, Garanhuns, and Recife, in Pernambuco, in Fortaleza, in Ceará, in São Luís, in Maranhão, and in Maceió, Alagoas, in the Northeast. "Nem cá mulesta um Brasil sem democracia e sem renda básica!", the sisters sang spiritedly in Caruaru in a procession. In Maranhão, women closed the day of actions with a cultural festival at night in front of the Solidarity Economy Reference Center. In the North, we were also in the streets of Manaus, Amazonian state, and Palmas, Tocantins, visibilizing the fight of women of the Cerrado and of the Amazon against violence and hunger with street actions, flyering, the landless women fair, and the WMW drums. On the other side of the country, in the South, we made our voices and agendas heard in the cities of Curitiba and Guarapuava, in Paraná, in Porto Alegre, in Rio Grande do Sul, and in Florianópolis, in Santa Catarina. In this last city, the protest honored the memory of Antonieta de Barros, professor, journalist, and first Black congresswoman elected in Brazil, who dedicated her life to the fight for the rights of the Black and female population. In the Southeast, at the end of the afternoon, we were in the streets of Campinas and São Paulo, Belo Horizonte and Juiz de Fora, in Minas Gerais, and Río de Janeiro, in defense of democracy, in favor of punishing racists and coup participants, for labor rights, the legalization of abortion, and an end to hunger. With sticks, cans, and drums, women occupied the streets of these cities and raised their voices with chants against patriarchy and in favor of the right to abortion.
In the mid-West, in Dourados, Mato Grosso do Sul, we took to the street to say that we are free, that we are alive and in resistance, fighting for cities for women. And in Brasilia, the country's capital, Ticiana Studart, from the Ceará WMW, was present in the federal government's function to announce her commitment with policies for women. In a video, Ticiana explains that this “is a moment in which we initiate a negotiation process with the government because we'll be permanently occupying the streets.” At this function, represented by sister Mazé Morais, from CONTAG, we presented the Charter of the People's Committee of Feminist Women of Brazil to President Lula, with demands and proposals from women for the rebuilding of Brazil. We'll remain in the streets permanently, resisting and fighting for the world we want! Our agenda continues on now towards the March of the Daisies, to take place in August, under the slogan “For the rebuilding of Brazil and good living”, the March of Indigenous Women to take place in September, the March of Black Women, and the International Gathering of the WMW, to take place in the second half of the year, with the participation of delegates from all the national coordinations of the movement. Our fight is permanently against patriarchy, capitalism, racism, imperialism, and LGBT phobia. On March 8 and throughout the year, we'll keep marching until we are all free!