The two feminist currents dispute the prominence of the 25N march against sexist violence in Madrid

The organizations that have historically called the march that day have been displaced by a previous request from the 8M Commission

   MADRID, 8 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The two currents of feminism prevailing in Spain will once again march separately next Saturday, November 25, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, with two demonstrations called in the capital.

On the one hand, there is the march called by the Madrid Forum Against Violence against Women, which will take place at 12:00 p.m. between Alcalá and Gran Vía streets, while the second, organized by Commission 8M, will leave at 6:00 p.m. :00 hours from Atocha.

The Madrid Forum together with the Women's Council and supported by the Alliance against the Erasure of Women have denounced this Wednesday that the 8M Commission wants to "break unity" by calling another demonstration on the same day parallel to the "historical" one.

For their part, from the 8M Commission, they have stated, in statements to Europa Press, that they are not going to go into "who has the right to convene and who does not" and have answered that 25N has been coming out for "years" and that this year they have decided to "centralize the claim".

The representatives of the most classic feminism - Madrid Forum and Women's Council - explain that on October 26 they communicated electronically to the Government Delegation in Madrid of their intention to celebrate the demonstration of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence. against Women, along the Gran Vía to the Plaza de España, between 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.

They also assure that that same day the Government Delegation confirmed to the Women's Council that the communication for the 25N demonstration had been presented on time and in the proper manner and that there was no other request for the same schedule and route.

However, they report that, later, on October 31, the Government Delegation announced that the 8M Commission had presented a communication "the same day one minute before" and that, therefore, the demonstration for 25N could not take place. the Women's Council of Madrid at that time and route.

In the opinion of these organizations, the 8M Commission has acted "with a clear intention to boycott the historic and unitary call for 25N" and they add that it is part "of a strategy of those who seek to take control of the social mobilizations of women ".

Along these lines, they affirm that said organization "has disregarded the call for unity in the face of violence against women that was made through the media and whose path had already been communicated by letter from the Women's Participation Council. to hundreds of social organizations, public agencies and institutions".

They also denounce that the 8M Commission has prioritized "interests unrelated to the defense of women's rights and security", instead of conveying to society a "powerful message of unity" and have highlighted that this organization has "never" attended the calls each month of the Women's Council and the Madrid Forum against violence.

Likewise, they emphasize that "some of the most significant leaders of that group (Commission 8M) defend the so-called 'anti-punitivist policies' that, in reality, by encouraging impunity, encourage the violent." In this sense, they assure that these messages "deactivate the response of the victims and the social rejection of this violence." "It is worrying that they are promoted despite the increase in the number of murders and sexual crimes that women are suffering," they add.

Likewise, they highlight that "boycotting the unitary demonstration calls into question the ultimate vocation of those who act in this way." "We will only be able to eradicate criminal machismo through social, political and institutional unity in the face of the barbarism that has cost the lives of too many citizens and has harmed thousands of survivors," they say.

For all these reasons, they call on civil society associations, political parties, city councils, social agents and citizens in general, to join "a massive and unitary mobilization on Saturday, November 25, to confront the great pending challenges in the fight to eradicate this specific violence".

"The important thing is to encourage women to take to the streets and fill the squares to shout 'it's over', to fight for the eradication of all violence against women, cis, trans and dissidents; for the increase of femicides; because of the greater risk of violence suffered by migrant or disabled women; because of the need for sexual education and feminist justice focused on reparation for victims," ​​responds from the 8M Commission.

Last year, both currents already celebrated 25N separately, but it was the movement considered more classic feminism that captured the attention of the main march in Madrid. Thus, under the slogan 'Machismo kills, rapes, exploits and erases women, Enough is enough!', the march started at 6:30 p.m. from the confluence of Alcalá and Gran Vía streets and ended in the Plaza de España. Thousands of people then marched shouting 'Irene Montero, resign'.

The PSOE, including several ministers, attended the demonstration called by these organizations that had already launched slogans against the minister in 2021, such as "You can't see, where is the Minister of Equality", "Our minister is not a feminist", or "Being a woman is not a feeling", the latter in relation to the Trans Law.

For its part, the 8M Commission called for different mobilizations in the capital at the neighborhood level under the motto "In the face of the culture of violence, feminisms are our response." The head of Equality attended the event organized by the 8M Vallecas Commission, to which hundreds of women showed up.

This year, in any case, the celebration happens to fall on a Saturday, a holiday for more people.

Until now, the so-called 'historical' feminists had taken over the celebration of 25N while the 8M Commission reigned in the 8M celebrations, in which the main demonstration in the capital is called by the defenders of a broader feminism. Last year, however, the prominence of the two marches began to equalize since, according to data from the Government Delegation, some 10,000 people attended the demonstration called by the Feminist Movement of Madrid, compared to the 17,000 who attended the demonstration. that of Commission 8M.

In any case, these are figures much lower than those of the years in which the march was unitary, in which up to 350,000 people demonstrated. The spin-off occurred as of March 8, 2022.