Rival marches hit Madrid and Barcelona as trans row splits feminist movement on International Women’s Day

[IwantToRetire]

COMPETING marches have split Spain’s feminist movement for the second year running, with two separate demonstrations hitting both Madrid and Barcelona on International Women’s Day.

The divide — centred on whether trans women should be recognised within feminist spaces — saw opposing groups march simultaneously through both cities, each claiming to represent the true feminist cause.

In Madrid, the Comision 8M set off from Atocha under the banner ‘Feminist Antifascists — We Are More’, embracing trans-inclusive politics alongside demands for better rights for domestic workers, affordable housing and reproductive rights.

At the same hour, the rival Movimiento Feminista de Madrid marched from Cibeles under the slogan ‘Neither veiled, nor exploited, nor prostituted’ — explicitly opposing the inclusion of trans women and calling for the abolition of prostitution.

The same split played out in Barcelona, where the trans-inclusive Assemblea 8M marched from the Jardinets de Gracia while the breakaway Moviment Feminista de Barcelona set off separately from Placa Catalunya, opposing the trans law and calling for the abolition of pornography.

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Article continues at https://www.theolivepress.es/spain-news/2026/03/08/rival-marches-hit-madrid-and-barcelona-as-trans-row-splits-feminist-movement-on-international-womens-day/

(Posted as much for info as discussion. Wonder is there will ever be rival marches in the UK.)

It's always good to hear about any pushback in Spain, the Women's Libbers there have a tough fight on their hands, best of luck to them. ✊

Yes indeed. And really positive to see that there is enough committment to express themselves publiclly on the streets.

There were quite a few marches around the UK but most have been coopted by local councils as some sort of community event, or left / trade union solidarity events.

I think that's because it's not as important to us as a culture as it has become to some country's. It often seems like a trend over here, one that's been hijacked for sure but as most people don't pay that much attention to it, it's gone unnoticed.

I sometimes wonder whether the recent histories of certain European countries help explain their wholesale embrace of this far‑left gender ideology. Spain lived under genuine fascism, not the imaginary “fascists” conjured up as bogeymen over here, but they never fully confronted that legacy. Because of that they might have gone out of their way to embrace the opposite, and it's got way out of hand. Germany, of course, has a history of fascism, and although they did face it head on, the result seems to be a deep, almost paralysing fear of anything that might resemble it. In overcorrecting, they’ve granted the contemporary left extraordinary cultural and political leeway, and ended up creating a left now just as bad as the Nazi's.

I don't think we carry the same historical baggage around fascism in this country, which has protected us from some of the worst excesses of this ideology. It’s also enabled us to fight back. Not that it’s been easy, women here have paid a heavy price, personally and professionally, to carve out the space needed for real pushback. I think pro‑women feminists in much of Europe face a steeper climb than we do, so it's always good to hear that they're fighting back.

I think La Manada rape case helped bring feminist issues into the press in Spain triggering huge feminist protests and pushing feminist discourse on rape, domestic abuse etc into the mainstream Because of the culture many women feel strongly about standing up for themselves .

I'm not sure what you mean when you say "just as bad as the Nazis"?

I'm quite tired now, and am not sure I think women organising marches as feminists is because of their country having a facist past.

I think it is true that many european countries have a far greater tradition of marches and "solidarity" than we have in the UK.

Will have to think it over!

These women are really brave. In previous years they have faced police voilence.

In Istanbul, despite ban, thousands march for Women's Day
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/istanbul-despite-ban-thousands-march-210240730.html

Not sure why the image doesn't display or does MNHQ have to check every graphic now?

Pelicot joins Paris march as rallies across world mark International Women's Day
https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20260308-in-pictures-international-women-s-day-rallies-around-the-world

Thousands march in Dublin for International Women’s Day 2026
Sarah Creighton Keogh
Speeches at Barnardos Square began with chants led by Ollie Bell, co-founder of Trans and Intersex Pride Dublin, energising the crowd before the march set off through the city centre.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/thousands-march-dublin-international-women-130629702.html

Dear MNHQ please let this image of these brave women in Turkey be displayed!

By that I meant they're a dictatorship, the implementation of this ideology in Germany has come with a whole raft of law's that can and do punish people for wrong speak.
I don't think I suggested that the fight back was because of the fascist past, just the reason why this extreme left ideology has taken hold is because of the country's past, they were so determined they weren't going to be far right anymore they've swung too far left.
The woman standing up to be counted are very brave, I never expressed anything that would suggest I was in anything but awe of their actions and fully supportive of they're struggles. I wish them all the success in the world. ✊

I think you’re right, this logic makes sense given their past experience of fascism and their strong left leaning. I’m not sure about their bundling of other policies like reproductive rights, prostitution, pornography and workers rights though - I think they’re all better dealt with separately as they’re all complex and don’t really align with issues of men wanting access to the ladies loos.

Just to lower the tone (politically) this sort of fuzzy feminism seems to be a very British (or is it just english) way of performing believes.

Have seen posts on facebook that suggest when a few women in response this years Million Women Rise was being advertised posted comments asking is MWR was trans inclusive. No indication of what those asking thought but just asking for clarification.

More than a few asked and were never replied to.

Now it seems they have gone back through the facebook page and deleted these requests for information.

And someone who did ask, saying guidelines for women's groups was to be open and honest, now finds she is blocked from MWR facebook page.

I think it shows disrespect for women they encourage to attend with emotive messages about violence against women, but dont think they deserve to be treated as equals.

Might as well call it Million People Rise if it's open to men as well, which considering how they've dodged the question sounds likely. Something else we've had taken off us by other women. 😤

I was at the Barcelona march and participate in a feminist group. The two marches, the “official” one and the feminist one, have much more disagreement than just the trans issue. The official one (and much larger one, sadly) is branded as being about breaking stereotypes, and has a lot of messages about legalization of prostitution, prostitution as a choice, etc. Unsurprisingly if you look at the photos there are a lot of men attending. And their main slogan was “Transfeminism and anti-war”. The focus of local government sponsored marketing was flimsy “anti stereotypes” nonsense as if that is the biggest issue facing women in Spain.

The feminist march has clear political goals: abolition of prostitution, proper statistical reporting of femicides, enforcement of anti-surrogacy laws, support for migrant women, generally anti-religious, equal pay, decent sex education in schools that highlights the damage done by pornography and sexual violence etc. It’s an explicitly left wing and anti-racist movement. Trans bs is a small part of it.

The slogan of the feminist march was “Women fighting: enough violence and exploitation!”

And actually I spoke to a lot of young women at the march who disagreed with me on gender crap, but were very clear on why they’d come to the feminist one despite that. They understood that the sexual violence they face was based on their biology and that they wanted to protest with rage, not just attend some “women are great” party.

I honestly think one of the worst things about gender ideology is the hijacking of feminism to divert all attention to men and away from these way more important issues. This is International WOMEN’S day, so why should we focus on seedy men? Yes it’s a big issue but very far from the biggest issue.

So I strongly disagree with you that these issues should be dealt with separately.

Here are some photos if you’re interested :)

Thanks for the post, it's good to hear from the front lines, I hope you march had an impact because the narrative of the 'offical' omnicause one sounds more like an anti woman march. The 'trans' bs maybe a small part of it but it's what has hijack the women's rights movement and until the infiltration by the seedy men has been put to an end, women won't get anywhere with highlighting all the issues you mentioned.

The Socialist/Left wing movement in Spain itself has been deeply divided on this issue....with half of the current socialist government set against gender Self id. ( quite different to the socialists here). The Socialist/Sanchez government only retained power by forging alliances with extremist parties, and the Conservatives have vowed to repeal the law when/should they should next be elected.

In Granada, there is always a huge March and inevitably the unions , the liberal feminist groups and the so called “transfeministas” take the main route. The abolicionista group gets bigger every year and maintains its own block, reading a separate manifesto in a separate space. Attacks from the TRAs have happened, and this year lots of graffiti saying terfs out etc. I still really hope for the day when this day does not include men of any identity.

@Ramblingnamechanger - I'm not sure what The abolicionista group is, but it sounds encouraging that it's getting bigger every year, hopefully because the stupidity of a 'transfeministas' is becoming obvious to more and more women.

I was with a woman on Sunday who had been at Million Women Rise. There were men who say they were women. She said they seemed to go when they realised they were not getting attention. I don't know the woman very well so didn't get loads of info. But she did ding the same one liners in that WRN Derbyshire match they attended. Woman power or something. Seems quite pointless and meaningless.

The WRN Derbyshire approach seemed to be join the men inclusive match at the back with their own banners.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5502246-wrn-derby-report-on-iwd-2026?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

The WRN Derbyshire approach seemed to be join the men inclusive match at the back with their own banners.

That has always been MWR policy in the past. ie men knowing they are men but saying they want to support women are asked to go to the back of the march.

The problem this year (and may have happened in previous years) is that the organisers would NOT say what their position is.

Partly caused by a post earlier this year implying they were trans inclusive. Then that post disappeared.

I think one of the problems is that in many european countries IWD was sort seen to be part of left, union politics. So for many they have just stuck with that.

According to feminist folklore, back in the 70s when women's liberation was getting underway, there were negotiations between the WLM groups and the TU about organising events for IWD.

And when women were saying men shouldn't be saying what should or shouldn't happen, one of the male TUs said, "try not to think of me as a man, think of me as a trade unionist"!

And I think this presumed "ownership" of women's rights still persists.

Not forgetting that until Women's Liberation IWD had not really been a feminist event. It was about saying for 364 days of the year men will discuss, negotiate and strike about work issues, but on one day of the year we will acknowledge women as workers.

Or worse still in the USSR IWD was when men gave women red roses to recognise they were women on IWD, but didn't give them the day off, or offer to take over the domestic tasks for the day.

So as with so much else in less than 50 years, the advances that Women's Liberation made to focus on women's issues from women's perspective has been lost.

Its not just the trans issue, is that again it is men telling women what they should say or think.

TWAW is only as sucessful as it is because it is built on the ingrained male attitude of MRAs that women are second class citizens.

Thanks to those who have posted about being on the marches.

Its good to hear from those who are part of events rather than relying on news reports which too often dont really convey the real issues.

Well, here's a rather different example of what happens when men take part in IWD marches!

https://needtoknow.co.uk/2026/03/11/man-kicked-out-of-feminist-march-when-his-ex-confronts-him-over-unpaid-child-support/