For the first time in Spain, there will be a 24-hour women's strike. Will the country survive? And Lanzarote? The answer is yes, but a yes based on:
1) Many women still don't know we're stopping.
2) Others know about the strike but don't understand the reasons why we support it, or they don't fully share them.
3) Many of our life partners don't know how to accompany and support us.
The truth is, I didn't have much information about the strike until I started researching (I'm a natural defender of critical thinking, and I only achieve it through unbiased information), but now that I understand it, I decided to follow it because many of its demands are valid and necessary, even in our Lanzarote paradise.
This is the objective of this entry: we all must understand it, since in every corner of the planet there are activists and anonymous women who want to make one thing clear: "Without us, the world stops." We are half of the population, we are a fundamental axis of society, and every day we have more influence in the global economic network, so we can affirm and demonstrate that without our contribution, the world stops.
How was the strike conceived and what does it aim for?
This strike began to take shape after the World Women's Strike promoted from Argentina last March 8th. You may not know it, but in 2017 Spain held a symbolic half-hour strike that did not get union support, but was supported and promoted by many women. In Lanzarote, it had little impact, although I remember some women wearing stickers informing that they were on strike despite picking up their children from schools because the truth is that male support was minimal.
This time, the strike will be promoted by 177 countries and everything suggests that the impact will be greater, even on our island where the 8M Lanzarote platform that promotes it has already been established.
There have already been strikes of this type worldwide. In Iceland, for example, on October 24, 1975, 90% of women went on strike and completely paralyzed the country, demonstrating their worth.
This strike is in itself a process, a process that will serve to establish in society the debate of what would happen if women do not produce, if we do not care, if we do not consume...
Let's not forget that the crisis led us to female impoverishment and the management of the crisis by governments ended up finishing this situation. The current economic model has generated the dismantling of the welfare state and many women had to assume more domestic and care tasks and in many cases abandon paid work and studies.
Women are in all areas of life and therefore our demands touch every pillar of society. There are many reasons and demands that have forced to organize this strike and we run the risk of getting lost among them all.
In this entry I will break down only some of those objectives, more than anything to not get lost among so much information. I will refer to those that I believe are more visible in Lanzarote.
- Claim for the fulfillment of the rights of all women worldwide. There are countries where today women cannot vote, cannot choose their partners, cannot enjoy their sexuality, etc. Day in and day out we fill our mouths talking about these cultures (to criticize them in general) so the day has come to take action, don't you think?
- Claim real and effective equality between men and women. In this aspect, we don't need to look outside since if it were fulfilled in our country, it would not be necessary the existence of a law that regulates, for example, the electoral quotas among other things.
- End the wage gap and labor discrimination against women. The female unemployment rate increased, to which we must add the wage gap that our country holds because the jobs historically performed by women have a lower economic compensation, women usually work part-time to take care of their families and have more difficult access to positions of power. Does this situation sound familiar to the women of Lanzarote? Let's stop complaining and act...
- Defend the dignity of domestic work and ensure that family care tasks are remunerated. A few days ago I learned that in Germany women and men who stay at home taking care of their families are paid because it is considered that they perform a job that the State would otherwise have to take care of by launching more nurseries, more social services, etc. And here what? On the island, the struggle of the Kelly's is booming, who are precisely fighting to revalue the cleaning work and, of course, we support them. So, how not to also support all those women who perform cleaning and care work for free despite knowing that we don't even contribute to obtain a retirement when they have to take care of us?
- Highlight the double burdens we bear: According to the latest surveys, women perform 26.5 hours a week of unpaid domestic work and to this we must add the 40 hours we work outside our home. Think about what would happen if one good day we decided to forget about those almost 27 weekly hours and dedicate them to ourselves! I'm already imagining my life in the spa, the beach and surrounded by books! What a pleasure...
- Achieve a "public, secular and egalitarian" education. It doesn't need much explanation but I would like my children to understand, for example, the relevance of many women from their history books and not only on special dates. Is it too much to ask?
- Make gender violence visible in a comprehensive way. Let's assume that not only Hollywood actresses suffer harassment, that here we are also harassed in the workplace and other areas. Let's not only comment in private the fear we feel that night alone in the street.
It is a legal strike that has been registered by the unions in the Ministry of Labor. CNT, Confederación Intersindical and CGT support the 24-hour strike while Comisiones obreras and UGT have made official their support for the two-hour strike in shifts (from 11:30 to 13:30 and from 16:00 to 18:00). Clarify that to support it you do not have to be affiliated to any union.
The strike has been publicly supported by well-known faces such as the singer Rozalén. Podemos, Coalición Canaria and Izquierda Unida support the 24-hour strike, PSOE the two-hour strike and Ciudadanos and the Partido Popular do not support the call. Of other political groups I did not find allusion, perhaps they have not yet found out...
What measures will be taken? How do I support it?
The effects should be noticed in all spheres of life. That is why this strike is called in the labor field but it is also a care, consumption and student strike.
The labor strike consists of not performing paid work and spreading this action and its reasons in your workplace.
The care strike consists of making visible that daily unpaid work in our homes and is the most conflictive of all, since many women do not have who replaces them, but we have something very developed thanks to the years of experience in this field: imagination, let's use it: Let's organize some minimum services with the men of the environment, let's leave everything ready the day before, etc. In my case my children will support me and have decided that that day they will eat a rich cold pizza that dad will prepare before leaving for work. I already imagined the chaos that will reign that day and trembled, but I decided that I will turn it into a teaching.
As for the student strike, it is proposed that if you are a student you decide between not attending your school or taking advantage of that space to discuss the reasons for the strike. If you are a teacher, do not attend classes.
The consumption strike implies forgetting about shopping on that day, making a "conscious and sustainable" consumption throughout the month of March so that a relevant economic loss is noticed and not consuming feminine hygiene products or those taxed with the "pink tax". In my case, I do the latter every day of my life. Pay more because the blade is pink? They take us for ... (Finish the sentence yourselves).
There are also ways to support it if you can not support it for whatever reason:
- Attending the mobilizations. In Lanzarote there will be an information table that will be open from 11 to 20 hours in the Parqué Ramirez Cerdá and a concentration is called at 18 hours in the same place.
- Hanging aprons and any other element from the balconies to make visible the care work (I will move half of my kitchen to the balcony that day. Mental note: look for the flanges)
- Spreading the strike and organizing yourself.
- Putting on a purple garment, if it is an armband better.
I'm a man, what do I do?
Above all, keep in mind that the strike is theirs. Legally, men are not prevented from joining the strike, and in many cases they should join if their partners decide not to perform their care work.
In addition, you can get involved in the provision of minimum services, covering the work done by women.
There are many ways for men to contribute to the success of the call:
- If you are a father, take care of your daughters and sons.
- If you are a friend, offer yourself as a babysitter.
- If you are a co-worker, offer to cover your partner.
- If you are a boss, give the day to the women who work with you.
- If you are a teacher, do not take attendance that day.
- Spread the event and encourage many more women to join
The Association of Men for Gender Equality (Ahige) has shown its support for the strike and has asked all men to collaborate with the strike: "Men must give support, coverage, accompaniment and collaboration to allow the participation of women. And especially we must inform ourselves about the reasons for the strike and reflect on the structural inequality they denounce, and thus get involved individually and collectively to end it"
And now that we are informed, will we support the strike? My decision is made and the entry that will come out that day on the blog was written today and scheduled to be published that day because I join the strike.
