Several days have passed since I attended the screening of Oliva Acosta's documentary Las Constituyentes. And I must admit that I find it hard to forget the voices and words of those twenty-seven women. Admiration and ...
Several days have passed since I attended the screening of Oliva Acosta's documentary Las Constituyentes. And I must admit that I find it hard to forget the voices and words of those twenty-seven women. Admiration and respect overwhelm me.
The example of those deputies and senators who participated in the first democratic Courts after Franco's regime should be an incentive to take up the baton of their work. Their words, the memory of their work, of their struggle, encourage me to consider that we have no right to falter.
Today, when the achievements of years and years of struggle are at risk, of that struggle that they began, it seems essential to reaffirm the commitment of socialists with the values defended by our Constitution. That Constitution in which the twenty-seven constituents participated.
The deterioration of the social character of the State and the contribution of this Government that we do not deserve is shocking, due to its inability to generate employment, the dismantling of public health and education, or the refusal to assume the obligations established by the dependency law.
And if they terrify me with their economic policy, even more so when they intend to legislate on our most intimate rights. The right further to the right of Europe is determined to make women go back to times that we thought were over.
The reform of the Abortion Law proposed by the Popular Party seems more the result of sacristy conversations than the result of a legislative process respectful of the values of this society.
They intend to impose their pious morals on us. They consider women incapable of deciding on their body and their life project. If they could, they would lock us up again in the Women's Section. They seem to yearn for that time when we were destined for sewing and dressmaking courses and regional dance contests, yes, after having finished the housework.
But they are wrong. If in 1977 there were twenty-seven women who represented us in Congress and the Senate, today we are legion who are members of political formations, who occupy institutional and organic positions, who work for others, who run companies, who set up small businesses, who contribute on an equal footing to take this country and our families forward...With the added burden of sons and daughters, the care of our elders, cleaning and so many things that, no matter how much they are shared, many still consider as our jobs.
Today we are more and more prepared. Today we are more and with more desire, because after having lived in freedom it is impossible to go back in the enjoyment of our rights.
Today we are more and they will have us in front of them. We are going to stand up to them in the institutions and in the street. We are going to say no to them. That we control our bodies, that we decide our future.
We have the strength of our ideas, of our convictions and, from now on, with the strength that the example of those Constituents gives us.
*María Dolores Corujo, general secretary of the PSOE of Lanzarote.
