"We need a feminist constitution" – Latest Sports News Today

Barcelona March 8 feminists on strike. Banner slogan: "Ens aturem per canviar – ho tot: vaga feminista!" “Feminist strike: we strike to change everything.’ All rights reserved.Laura Pérez
welcomes us to her office at Barcelona City Hall, which is still covered with
posters from the feminist strike of March 8. On that day, the councillor didn’t
go to work; she joined the 24 hour strike called by the feminist movement
marching on the streets of the Catalan capital alongside mayor Ada Colau. We were
talking to Laura Pérez about the rise of feminism in Spain and her assessment
after more than two years at the helm of the Department of Feminisms and LGBTI.

Pablo
Castaño (PC): How do you understand the sugnificance of Thursday’s feminist
strike and demonstrations?

Laura
Pérez (LP): It was a magical day for all of us who’ve
been involved in the transformative process that is the feminist movement here
in Spain; a moment of collective expression after months of work. It’s been a
turning point, a collective cry of “enough is enough”. Enough of inequalities,
of our issues being minimized, of being left off the agenda. And I think what’s
been achieved is that the political agenda can’t keep looking the other way.
Rajoy will no longer be able to say that this can’t be talked about, that he
won’t get involved.

PC: What
about the role that the unions played?

LP: It was inadequate, particularly on the part of the biggest unions
(CCOO and UGY called a two hour strike while CGT and CNT called a 24-hour
strike, as the feminist movement had requested).

It’s obvious that feminism isn’t a priority for
the biggest unions. Some of the greatest workplace inequalities are those faced
by women working in the care sector, domestic workers. They are subjected to
many abuses which wouldn’t be the case if they were men. If the sector was
dominated by men, this wouldn’t be the situation. Some
of the greatest workplace inequalities are those faced by domestic workers.
They are subjected to many abuses which wouldn’t be the case if they were men.

And this is a struggle that’s being led by
migrant women who have organized in cooperatives and alternative unions, and
who are working to raise awareness about this situation. But I think it’s not a
priority for the main unions. A two hour strike wasn’t enough, and we also
witnessed some male union leaders seeking the spotlight in an inappropriate
way. They didn’t seem to understand that their role was to take a step back on
that day.

They should have been more active in the daily
struggles that fill the squares defending the rights of women in the Catalan
collective labour agreements for cleaners, textile workers and many other
sectors.

PC: After
the success of March 8, what can the feminist movement do to translate this
energy into public policies for women?

LP: I think the movement has already done a lot. This issue is now on the
agenda, and if there’s been legal progress until now it’s thanks to many women
who came before us who, in even more difficult circumstances than today, fought
for our rights and for legal equality, for the law against gender violence,
among many other issues.

I think we’re in a different moment now, perhaps
even a new wave of feminism. First you achieve political, civil, sexual and
reproductive rights. And now I think we’re in a time in which many women who
have broken the glass ceiling and entered into spheres of power are seeing the
limits that still exist.

As the movement reflects on this current stage
the sense is that it needs to keep going, to be consistent. We’ve achieved this
turning point, we’ve filled the streets, the media is talking about it. Now
it’s time to make our demands. We’re here, we’re not invisible, and we’re not
just another sector of the population: we’re 50%. We’ve got to stick together
and keep on defending important issues like workers rights, a national budget
to tackle gender violence and so many others. We’re here, we’re not invisible, and we’re not just
another sector of the population: we’re 50%.

PC: Many
women from the feminist movement are now in parties and institutional politics.
This is a process that has taken place historically, and in other countries as
well, and it usually produces tension. What role should political parties play
in this new stage of feminism?

LP: I feel part of what’s happening, somehow, though obviously I’m not in
a leadership role, because I don’t think there are any in this case.

Feminism isn’t based on the creation of leaders
who the masses follow, but on a collective process, always open to question. But
I do think we’ve played a role because public institutions offer a new site of
action that goes beyond what you can do as a movement. A lot has been said
about tension but I haven’t experienced this in Barcelona.

Yes, I’ve had to take on a new role that is
sometimes uncomfortable, because it doesn’t allow the same freedom you have in
the movement. But it also provides opportunities to add to the work of the
movement. Those of us who come from the feminist movement know how it works and
we respect it; we don’t want to lead it. But we can use feminist public policy
as a tool to collaborate in this process of change.

PC: What
has been the significance of care work in this strike?

LP: The issue of care work has been at the centre of the strike. What
makes this strike different is that we’re saying that we’re going to stop the
world turning because we’re taking on the majority of reproductive work, which
is usually unpaid.

And the data is there: women dedicate more than
twice as much time to care work as men. And this requires us to question the
system. It’s a critique of a system of production that invisibilizes half of
the population. How is anyone going to go to work if no-one does the ironing,
cooks, or looks after the children? I think putting this issue on the table is
one of the great victories of March 8.

Starting this summer, Barcelona will have a
service dedicated to care work. When you, or a relative, are diagnosed with an
illness, or you get old, or you have a newborn, you need care, and that means
you need information. If your mother is diagnosed with Alzheimer you’re going
to have to renovate your home, find a care centre, someone to help. What
working conditions will that carer have? Care is something so everyday, but
we’ve made it invisible so it’s really difficult to create public policy that
people can understand. Care is something so
everyday, but we’ve made it invisible so it’s really difficult to create public
policy that people can understand.

PC: What are the most important
feminist policies implemented by the City of Barcelona since 2015?

LP: There are too many to
mention, but what’s most noticeable is the effect on city staff of our gender
mainstreaming policy. We’ve set up a mainstreaming department that works with
all city departments. Whenever there’s a new plan relating to youth, education,
work, culture… it includes this perspective.

We’ve also revised
our procurement policy to include a gender perspective and included a gender
focus in the city budget. It’s the feminist transformation of the institution.
I like to think that we’re inoculating feminism across city hall, to the point
where the city planners now call us with questions about their projects, to
check that they’re taking gender into account.

Or they’re going to
put up a billboard and they check whether the advert on it is sexist or not. At
first there was resistance but now there’s active collaboration.

PC: Would you say that the
local level is the best for implementing effective feminist policies?

LP: I think it’s the most
necessary level because it’s the closest level of government to the people. I
know almost all of the feminist movements in the city, or the work that they
do, and that’s enriching for my work.

And the fact that
they know the institution is behind them helps them to form networks at
national level. The impact of the “Anti-Sexist Barcelona” campaign by city hall
is so concrete…. you see it in the local festivals, the nightclubs on the
waterfront, the Sónar and Cruïlla music festivals. It can communicate more
directly and fluidly because it’s a local campaign.

But the national
level is also necessary, because the municipal level has its limits in terms of
the laws you can pass. For example, in relation to human trafficking and sexual
exploitation. I take on these cases, and we’ve created a unit to assist people
who’ve been trafficked. This unit, the only one of its kind in Spain,
coordinates the public prosecutor, the judiciary the police, social
services….

We set it up and we
detect the cases but when they reach the courts we don’t have the tools to
protect victims, and this makes them extremely vulnerable. We need a law that
protects victims. We’ve pushed our local competencies to the limit, and
no-one’s done more than Barcelona to deal with trafficking, but we have to call
on other levels of government to take it as seriously as us because the
situation is really dramatic.

Sexist violence is
another issue. We’ve invested 5.5. million euros a year, a million and a half
in housing, we’ve created specific work programmes for victims, we’ve
municipalized the sexist violence services to improve the conditions for
workers. We’re investing more and more resources. But will we be able to end
sexist violence from Barcelona City Hall? We need a national government that
takes it seriously. It’s an issue for the whole of society, not just one city
hall. But
will we be able to end sexist violence from Barcelona City Hall? We need a
national government that takes it seriously.

PC: Do you think that
Barcelona’s feminist policies will last? Would they survive a change of
government?

LP: I’m very satisfied with what
we’ve done but you can’t change everything in four years. There weren’t any
feminist policies in the city hall before.

For example, the
impact of the inclusion of a gender perspective in urban planning, which has
been used successfully in Vienna for years, won’t be felt by city residents for
a few more years.

Our policies on the
care economy or measures to combat the feminization of poverty or to improve
women’s health are long-term policies. On March 8 I was with Ada Colau all day
on strike and people were saying to us “you need four more years”. We’re
creating long-term policies so we’ll need time to change things.

I also think it’s
important that we know that civil society is by our side. One of my main
concerns is to really bed down policies so that they can’t be changed. And that
will be possible thanks to the support of civil society. For example, the
training of city staff, gender mainstreaming policies, and policies with a
gender perspective won’t be easy to dismantle because people have taken them on
as their own. On March 8 I was with Ada Colau all
day on strike and people were saying to us “you need four more years”.

We had to start from
scratch with housing, feminisms… Now there are areas where we’re doing what the
movement asked for. By contrast, I get the impression that the Popular Party
government in Madrid is being left behind, the movement is way ahead of the
current government.

In Barcelona I feel
like we’re side-by-side, moving forward and providing solutions. If only we had
someone in the Spanish government who would respond and propose a feminist
constitution, which is what we should demand right now.

We want a legal
framework to meet our demands. That means, not just a cross-party national plan
to tackle gender violence, but also funding and a new law against sexual
violence. It means a constitution that takes women’s perspectives into account,
that has women, who were excluded from the drafting of the current
constitution, participate in its design. At the moment, civil society is far
ahead of anything that this government is offering.

This interview was originally
published in Spanish in Público on March 10, 2018.