A long article from El Pais . Not a great translation but it sets out the issues that are being discussed at national and local level.
Feminism will walk separately this 8-M for the first time in history
In twenty Spanish cities there will be two demonstrations with different routes. The abolitionism of prostitution is the visible axis of the division, however, this debate is historical in the movement and had never meant a break
This March 8, for the first time in history, feminism will walk separately. There will be two demonstrations in twenty Spanish cities. In Madrid, which marks the pulse of this day, it will be at the same time with different routes. The abolition of prostitution is what has caused the division. However, it is a historical debate within the movement, it had never been a rupture, and there will be women in favor of this point in both mobilizations. Why, then, does this split occur? The panorama, in reality, is more complex. In the background is, above all and originally, the incorporation of the queer agenda (the demands of minority gender identities) to the official one, that of the Ministry of Equality; and the free self-determination of gender included in the so-called trans law, that is, that a person can change the name and sex on the DNI (identification documents)only with their will, without the need for medical reports and years of hormone therapy, as has happened up to now . Also, according to the arguments of the organizations that have decided on the alternative call, the legal loophole that allows families in Spain to obtain with children born to surrogate mothers in other countries, despite the fact that Spanish regulations prohibit it.
Here, the keys to that schism.
Who will make up these two demonstrations?
The division, in reality, is not such. There has been no joint decision by the movement to separate. It has been a split on the part of feminism, the one that considers that the abolition of prostitution should be one of the central axes of the claims.
Thus, the official calls —those called by the usual organizations— remain as usual. They will be trans-inclusive and will have slogans such as 'Rights for all, every day' in Madrid or 'Canarian feminisms without borders! Free and diverse women! Rights for all!', in Tenerife. This will be attended by the two parties in the Government, United We Can and PSOE.
And in parallel, abolitionist feminists organize alternative marches with abolition as their motto, with different routes and, in some cities, the same timetable. In addition, among the issues raised for this year, is the "withdrawal in the bills presented by the current Executive of all the articles that establish the self-identification of the sex of people and the legal erasure of women."
What happened?
Throughout the year, the different associations that make up the feminist movement meet in assemblies to debate the main problems and configure the arguments that will be launched on 8-M. There are issues that have always had an absolute consensus, such as the fight against sexist violence, and others that have never had it, such as abolitionism.
Ana Useros, from the 8M Commission —organizer of the official demonstration, as it has been in recent decades, along with other groups— says that "there are issues to which it is difficult to give a joint response." And when that happens, "it is assumed that they are going to continue working and they do not come out as a priority demand", but "neither does that mean that it is not among the main problems, nor has that ever led to their separation".
They, she adds, are “where they always” have been. "Those who have decided to leave" is because "they consider that there are certain very clear solutions to certain problems." She talks about prostitution: “I don't think there is a single woman who considers that this is not a problem, it is evident, what is not consensus is the solution. There is a part that opts for the Nordic model, a penal model that relies on more repressive legislation, and a part that does not. There are many positions and we decided that this was not what divided us. But it ended up happening.
Although in the 8-M demonstrations there has always been an abolitionist bloc, this year, some of those women in dozens of cities will make another itinerary. "She has silenced us and expelled us from the assemblies saying that prostitution could not be debated because there was dissension," says Lola Venegas, of the Feminist Movement of Madrid, one of the organizers of the abolitionist mobilization in that capital. “They [the 8M Commission] are not legitimized in their speech because they have been organizing the demonstration for 40 years, we have also been organizing the demonstration for 40 years,” she points out.
They have been living with this dissent for decades within the organization of International Women's Day, both in Madrid and in other territories. But Venegas points to what happened in 2020: “Banners calling for the abolition of prostitution were ripped open.” That year, the Madrid Abolitionist Assembly denounced, before the police and on social networks, That year, the Madrid Abolitionist Assembly denounced, before the police and on social networks with videos and images, that there had been verbal and physical aggressions —"grabbing, pushing"— by "transactivist women".
Those altercations and that this year the abolition is not part of the main argument of the 8-M -focused on the defense of public services and inclusivity and against precariousness- are what, they say, has led them "to take the step" . And from Madrid and Barcelona as nerve centers, that "step" has been extended to a dozen autonomies. “We have given it because we have reached a point of usurpation of the 8-M and of not defending the rights of women that was not sustainable. It is a difficult step, but we cannot continue walking under banners that we do not share or missing banners that should be there”, Venegas says
The background of the split
The phrase "usurpation of 8-M" reveals the background of what has happened, which goes beyond what solution to give to that violence against women that is prostitution. Silvia Carrasco, president of Feministes de Catalunya and member of the coordinator of the Feminist Movement Confluence, with associations from all over Spain, puts it clearly on the table: “The institutional call has an anti-feminist objective and is leading the decline in equality policies in Spain . The appearance of transgenderist ideology is not just another issue, it perverts it and turns the demands of the feminist agenda from 300 years ago on its head, behind it is the deactivation of that agenda”.
They believe that the Government, United We Can and PSOE, and in particular the Ministry of Equality, with Irene Montero at the head, have put “diversity” at the center of their policies and thereby “forget” women. But in that, for the Government there is no debate. "Trans women are women," Montero repeated a few days ago in an interview with this newspaper. Both parties managed to reach an agreement to carry out the trans law; but that consensus, at least until now, is impossible within the movement.
Venegas, also a member of the Alliance against the erasure of women —which defends that gender identity “turns the definition of a woman into something completely subjective” and threatens the progress of women— sums up this infeasibility: “Either the reproductive exploitation of women or it goes unreported. Either it is defended that men can be women or the laws of gender self-determination are denounced, there is no way to reach consensus there.”
Ana Useros, from the 8-M Commission, also does so, from the other side: “On the trans issue there is a very clear consensus, trans women are part of the feminist struggle and have always been part of it. Their rights are human rights and there is no discussion of that within the organization.” And she explains that, regarding surrogacy, “it is not that there is no consensus, it is that it has not been debated because it is a relatively recent issue and going through the pandemic it has not been possible.”
This gap will be seen in Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Granada, Malaga, Ponferrada, Gijón, San Sebastián, Coruña, Lugo, Santiago de Compostela, Vigo, Cádiz, Córdoba, Murcia, Burgos, Gran Canaria, Zaragoza, Toledo and León, according to Confluence Feminist Movement data. In those cities there will be two demonstrations this 8-M.
Although this Sunday the concentrations of the abolitionist movement have already begun in at least 11 Spanish cities for various reasons. In some, because being Tuesday the organization was more complicated; in others, moreover, because they have been active around that day for several years; and in all of them, says Silvia Carrasco, to "reclaim the real feminist agenda."
47 years of democracy without a specific law
In the entire history of democracy, no political party in government has placed prostitution among its urgent legislative lines. There is still no specific law; a certain normative movement did begin in 2018 and progress has been made in the last two. On the one hand, the PSOE promised to remove it in this legislature last fall; on the other hand, there are currently two regulations being processed, none of which are abolitionist.
One is the Organic Law of Guarantee of Sexual Freedom, known as the law of only yes is yes, in which the exploitation of the prostitution of others is included as sexual violence and two penalties that the PSOE removed from the Penal Code in 1995 and that now the socialists have again introduced as amendments to that regulation: fines of up to three years for the locative third party (those who profit economically by renting premises or flats to practice prostitution) and non-coercive pimping.
The other, the trafficking law, still under debate within the Government and which focuses on guaranteeing the rights and safety of female victims, does not aim to penalize the pimps and punters. This, an issue that the PSOE included in the draft they wrote in 2018 —titled Comprehensive Law Project against trafficking in human beings and in particular for the purpose of sexual exploitation—, continues without support from the rest of the parties.