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The Unhappy Marriage of the Spanish 15-M Movement and Feminism

The Unhappy Marriage of the Spanish 15-M Movement and Feminism. Capitolina Díaz Martínez Lydia González Orta University of Oviedo. Introduction to the “Spanish Revolution”. The socio-political context: Burst of the real estate bubble Subprime mortgage crisis Alarming eviction rates

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The Unhappy Marriage of the Spanish 15-M Movement and Feminism

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  1. TheUnhappy Marriage of the Spanish 15-MMovement and Feminism Capitolina Díaz Martínez Lydia González Orta University of Oviedo

  2. Introduction to the “Spanish Revolution” • The socio-political context: • Burst of the real estate bubble • Subprime mortgage crisis • Alarming eviction rates • Sovereign debt crisis • Unemployment rates (5000000 people) • Youth unemployment rates • Deregulation of the labor market • Welfare cutbacks • Hegemonic two-party system The 15-M Movement as the expression of a social crisis and a political-institutional crisis due to the effects of the world economic recession in Spain

  3. Characteristics of the Spanish 15-M Movement: • Spontaneous and pacific social protest • Camps in Sol (Madrid) and in almost every city • Web- and mobile-based technologies • Anonymous and self-organized movement • Horizontal and inclusive logic • Multiple political ideologies • New socio-political identity “outraged” • Local decentralization Factors of the success experienced by the 15-M Movement and of its ability to gather thousands of people

  4. Emergence of feminist groups and commissions that practiced the double militancy • Feminisms within the 15-M Movement: • Absence of gender analyses • Women, LGTTBQ people and migrants demands were invisible • Patriarchal dynamics in assemblies • Sexist aggressions • Feminist initiatives included: • Writing of placards • Manifestos • Proposals • Feminist debates • Pedagogical workshops • Two main contributions: • Bring feminism back to the streets • Introduce a gender perspective and feminist demands

  5. Feminist discourse Source: http://feminismosol.net/galeria

  6. 15-M discourse Source: http://vocesconfutura.tumblr.com/

  7. Feminism, social movements, unhappy marriages • Women’s history and feminist theory useful to situate theoretically and historically the experiences of feminist groups at the 15-M Movement. • Socialist feminism in the 70s • Double system theories: The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism: Towards a More Progressive Union (1979) by Heidi Hartmann. • Marxism subsumed the woman’s question into the “broader” social question • Sex-blind categories • Power relations between women and men concealed Double system of oppression: patriarchal capitalism Double militancy in socialist and feminist organizations

  8. Back to socialist feminist analysis and practices in feminist groups at the 15-M Movement: • Patriarchal capitalism as the system of oppression • Double militancy • Intersectional approach: gender + class + race + … • Recurrent topics: effects of the economic crisis on working class women, women’s unpaid work, migrant women’s care work, LGTTBQ people discrimination in the labour market, etc. Resurgence of a Spanish left feminism, the critique of capitalism again at the center of feminist debates • Ideological parallelism: • Class / Class + gender as the classical ideological conflict between feminism and the left • Subordination of gender at the theoretical level and women’s subordination at the organizational level.

  9. Reflections on the “Arab Spring” • The socio-political context: • High unemployment • Deteriorating living conditions • Political corruption • Authoritarian regimes • Different cleavages • Similar strategies, common demands • Pacific and anonymous protest • Occupy the squares • Web- and mobile-based techonologies • Multiple political ideologies The Arab Revolutions as the expression of an economic crisis and political-institutional crisis • Personal dignity • Responsive governments • Change of economic models

  10. Western amazement about: • Popular Arab movements, due to Western assumptions on Arab people as politically immature communities and non-democratic political cultures • Massive women’s participation, due to Western representation of Arab women as victims, traditionalist and politically passive women. • Women’s roles in the “Arab Spring” • Bloggers, supportive roles • Leaders in demonstrations • Advocates for women’s rights • Occupying public spaces • Re-appropriation of the political discourse However… Women revolutionaries were objects of State violence, sexual harassment and patriarchal dynamics.

  11. Source: http://arabwomenspring.fidh.net

  12. The future of Arab women’s rights • Male-dominated political representation • Absence of women’s voices in new constitutions • Patriarchal use of Islam Can we talk about an “Arab Spring” for women’s rights? • Parallelism: Gender patterns and a specific violence against women operating in contemporary contestation movements emerged as a result of the 2009 world economic recession.

  13. Conclusions • Contributions of feminisms in the 15-M Movement: • Bring feminism(s) back to the streets • Enlarge the limits of the 15-M discourse • New feminist alliances and networks • Prominence of transfeminism and anti-capitalist feminism • Women’s participation in the Arab Revolutions: • Sexual violence against women revolutionaries • Patriarchal politics after the Revolutions • In short, the recognition of “gender” as a source of oppression in equal terms of “capitalism” (15-M Movement) or “authoritarian regimes” (Arab Revolutions) has not occurred, reproducing the problems of “The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism.” But… Feminist discourse has been secondary in the broad 15-M discourse

  14. List of analyzed documents • #Acampadasol (2011). “Manifiesto Acampada Sol.” Available at: http://madrid.tomalaplaza.net/manifiesto-2/ — Manifiesto “¡Cambio de modelo ya!” Available at: http://madrid.tomalaplaza.net/2011/10/16/13n-manifiesto-completo/ • Acampada Barcelona (2011). “Declaració AcampadaBCN.” Available at: http://acampadabcn.wordpress.com/documents/declaracion-de-principios/ — “Primeras Medidas para una Vida Digna.” In Rodolfo Ruíz Ligero (2011). El Viejo Topo, 284, 11-19. • Asamblea de Transmaricabollo, Madrid (2011). “Manifiesto Transmaricabollo.” Available at: http://madrid.tomalaplaza.net/2011/06/03/manifiesto-del-grupo-transmaricabollo-del-movimiento-15m-en-madrid/ — “Manifiesto Toma el Orgullo 2012.” Available at: http://madrid.tomalaplaza.net/2012/06/23/18779/ • Assemblea Feministes Indignades, Barcelona (2011). “La revolución será feminista o no será.” Available at: https://n-1.cc/pg/file/read/1184748/la-revolucion-ser-feminista-o-no-ser-manifiesto-fi-25052011/ • Colectivos Feministas, Granada (2011). “Una marea violeta contra la ofensiva patriarcal de los gobiernos conservadores.” Available at: http://www.feministas.org/spip.php?article339

  15. Comando Rosa, Zaragoza (2011). “Democracia anal ya.” Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6qRxhaP4Ps • Comisión Feminismos Sol, Madrid (2011). “Dossier de la Comisión de Feminismos.” Available at: http://madrid.tomalaplaza.net/2011/07/22/dossier-de-comision-de-feminista/ — (2012) “Una marea violeta contra los recortes y el sistema.” Available at: http://www.feministas.org/IMG/pdf/Feminismos_Sol_MareaVioleta_Madrid_enero2012-1.pdf • Democracia Real Ya (2011). “Manifiesto 15-M.” Available at: http://www.democraciarealya.es/manifiesto-comun/ — (2011)“Propuestas.” Available at: http://www.democraciarealya.es/documento-transversal/ — (2012)“Manifiesto contra el rescate a los bancos.” Available at: http://norescatesabancos.democraciarealya.es/manifiesto/ — (2012)“Declaración Ciudadana ante la Estafa de la Deuda Pública.” Available at: http://declaraciondeuda.democraciarealya.es/ • Hetaira, Madrid (2011). “Comunicado del Colectivo Hetaira en Acampada Sol.” Available at: http://prostitucion-visionobjetiva.blogspot.com.es/2011_05_01_archive.html • Octubre Trans, Barcelona (2011). “Manifiesto Octubre Trans Bcn 2011.” Available at: http://octubretransbcn.wordpress.com/manifiesto-2011/

  16. References • Abu-Lughod, Lila (2002). Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and its Others. American Anthropologist, 104(3), 783-790. • Amorós, Celia (2009). Debates ideológicos en el movimiento feminista durante la transición española [Ideological debates within the feminist movement during the Spanish political transition]. In Martín Tel, Carmen, Purificación Gutiérrez and Pilar González (Eds), El movimiento feminista en España en los años 70 [The Spanish feminist movement during the seventies] (pp. 189-202). Madrid: Cátedra. • Anderson, Lisa (2011). Demystifying the Arab Spring. Parsing the Differences Between Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya. Foreign Affairs, 3(90), 1-7. • Arnedo, Elena (2009). Mujer y Socialismo [Woman and Socialism]. In Martín Tel, Carmen, Purificación Gutiérrez and Pilar González (Eds), El movimiento feminista en España en los años 70 [The Spanish feminist movement during the seventies] (pp. 219-246). Madrid: Cátedra. • AAVV (2012). R-evolucionando. Feminismos en el 15-M [R-evolutioning. Feminisms in the 15-M movement] Barcelona: Icaria. • Bustelo, María and Emanuela Lombardo (2007). La metodología de análisis de marcos [The methodology of frames analysis]. In María Bustelo and Emanuela Lombardo (Ed.), Políticas de igualdad en España y en Europa. Afinando la mirada [Equality policies in Spain and Europe. Refining the gaze] (pp. 21-35)Madrid: Cátedra.

  17. Caryl, Christian (2012). The Women of Tahrir Square Fight Back. Available at: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/07/05/the_women_of_tahrir_square_fight_back?page=full • Ebadi, Shirin (2012). A Warning for Women of the Arab Spring. The Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203370604577265840773370720.html • Errejón Galván, Íñigo (2011). El 15-M como discurso contrahegemónico [The 15-M Movement as a Counter-hegemonic discourse]. Encrucijadas: Revista Crítica de Ciencias Sociales, 2, 120-145. • Ezquerra, Sandra (2012). Discursos y prácticas feministas en el movimiento 15-M: avances y asignaturas pendientes [Feminist practice and discourse at the 15-M movement: progress and pending subjects]. Available at: http://fundacionbetiko.org/index.php/es/anos/2011/448-discursos-y-praciticas-feministas-en-el-15m • Hartmann, Heidi (1997 [1979]). The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism: Towards a More Progressive Union. In Linda Nicholson (Ed), The Second Wave. A Reader in Feminist Theory (pp. 97-122). New York: Routledge. • Hawkesworth, Mary (2006). Intersectionality. In Feminist Inquiry (pp. 207-248). New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. • Heideman, Kendra and Mona Youssef (Eds) (2012). Reflections on Women In the Arab Spring. Available at: http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/International%20Women's%20Day%202012_1.pdf

  18. Hill Collins, Patricia (1998). It’s All in the Family: Intersections of Gender, Race and Nation. Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, 3(13), 63-82. • Osman Ibnouf, Fatma (2012). To Arab Women: Golden opportunity to stand-up for your rights. Global Advanced Research Journals, 5(1), 113-117. • Sampedro, Víctor and J.M. Sánchez (2011). La Red era la Plaza [The Network was the Square]. Available at: http://www.ciberdemocracia.es/articulos/RedPlaza.pdf • Santamaría, Antonio (2011). La rebelión de los indignados: reflexiones a pie de acampada [The rebellion of the outraged: reflections at the foot of the camp]. El Viejo Topo, 282-3, 21-25. • Shabi, Rachel and Laura Collins (2012). Women of the Arab Spring give voice to their hopes and aspirations. Available at: http://www.thenational.ae/lifestyle/women-of-the-arab-spring-give-voice-to-their-hopes-and-aspirations • Taibo, Carlos (2012). Almas, corrimientos, apoyo mutuo [Souls, landslides, mutual support]. Availlable at: http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=145083 • Viñas, Verónica E. (2009). Catástrofes y cambio de políticas públicas: “Prestige” seis años después. Un análisis de marcos interpretativos [Disasters and change of public policies: “Prestige” six years after. An analysis of interpretative frames]. Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas, 127, 121-153. • Vocesfutura, JBS (2011). 15M - Spanish Revolution. Available at: http://www.rebelion.org/docs/140721.pdf

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