Marzo-Mars-Março-March 2021
Editorial
March 8th: A pandemic won’t stop us
Without a doubt the celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8, 2021 was different from previous years for the women of the Americas, due to the pandemic that cannot be contained and continues to hit harder across the globe. We face a health situation that forces us to isolate ourselves from one another and to virtually take on the tasks and commitments that were conducted in-person in the past.
This process has not been easy, considering that all too often women suffer from precarious economic conditions that do not allow them to have adequate technological equipment to maintain good communication between ourselves and the organizations of which we are members, and which we represent.
Despite all of these obstacles, women continue to mobilize and are taking actions, this time at the grassroots level, to break the communication barriers imposed by governments. At different latitudes across the Americas, there have been lightning rallies, artistic demonstrations, solidarity actions, poetry readings, virtual forums, marches, bumper stickers, canvases, murals, and many other actions to unite the voices of feminism across the continent. This all shows that we women continue to be strongly united in the face of the oppressive capitalist and patriarchal systems that dominate politics, culture, and the economy in the Americas.
At the World March of Women, our slogan “We Resist to Live, and We March to Transform” remains true in 2021: every day we are resisting poverty to survive and to keep up the spirit of solidarity that accompanies women’s struggles. And we march to transform because popular demonstrations and street actions do not last if they are invisible, and the mass demands that will set the alarm will be those that cross borders in the face of injustice and human rights violations that are commited accross the region.
This historic date, which celebrates women and feminists worldwide and the fight to defend social, economic, and cultural rights, must be kept as a moment for deliberation, spreading awareness, and mutual learning in the process of advancing towards women’s political participation, the passing of laws that protect sexual and repoductive rights, and for state protection to sanction and eradicate violence against women and sexual minorities.
For all these reasons, the eighth of March is and will continue to be a symbolic day for us women who aspire to having a full life, through the struggle of our organizations and the national and international alliances against this capitalist-patriarchal system, the root of oppression in the world.
This process has not been easy, considering that all too often women suffer from precarious economic conditions that do not allow them to have adequate technological equipment to maintain good communication between ourselves and the organizations of which we are members, and which we represent.
Despite all of these obstacles, women continue to mobilize and are taking actions, this time at the grassroots level, to break the communication barriers imposed by governments. At different latitudes across the Americas, there have been lightning rallies, artistic demonstrations, solidarity actions, poetry readings, virtual forums, marches, bumper stickers, canvases, murals, and many other actions to unite the voices of feminism across the continent. This all shows that we women continue to be strongly united in the face of the oppressive capitalist and patriarchal systems that dominate politics, culture, and the economy in the Americas.
At the World March of Women, our slogan “We Resist to Live, and We March to Transform” remains true in 2021: every day we are resisting poverty to survive and to keep up the spirit of solidarity that accompanies women’s struggles. And we march to transform because popular demonstrations and street actions do not last if they are invisible, and the mass demands that will set the alarm will be those that cross borders in the face of injustice and human rights violations that are commited accross the region.
This historic date, which celebrates women and feminists worldwide and the fight to defend social, economic, and cultural rights, must be kept as a moment for deliberation, spreading awareness, and mutual learning in the process of advancing towards women’s political participation, the passing of laws that protect sexual and repoductive rights, and for state protection to sanction and eradicate violence against women and sexual minorities.
For all these reasons, the eighth of March is and will continue to be a symbolic day for us women who aspire to having a full life, through the struggle of our organizations and the national and international alliances against this capitalist-patriarchal system, the root of oppression in the world.
“We will keep marching until all of us are free.”
Mafalda Galdames
Mafalda Galdames
¡Resistimos para vivir, marchamos para transformar!
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