This year, the National Women’s Meeting (ENM) took place in Chubut. This choice was due to the need to bring visibility to the resistance struggle of the native people who have been facing the foreign landowners, to denounce repression suffered where Santiago Maldonado went missing and was then killed, Rafael Nahuel was killed, Jones Huala was extradited, and where Moira Millán is persecuted and prosecuted.
By PSTU-Argentina
Women wearing green handkerchiefs and with many debates filled the ENM. From Struggle Women and the PSTU we participated in the workshops and the spaces of the meeting saying that for the situation of women to improve, we must oust Macri, the IMF and the G 20. We stood for the freedom of our comrade Daniel Ruiz. We demanded the stop persecution of all fighters, like our comrade Sebastián Romero.
In the province where teachers and state employees carried out a strong fight this year, camping and surviving under snow, with strikes and mobilizations of many kilometers, where the Patagonia is Rebel, we went to discuss the need of freedom for prisoners due to fighting. We must all adopt this as our demand in our meeting in Trelew this weekend.
To fight against the hunger budget and the cut in the budget to fight male chauvinistic violence. To fight to sustain our jobs, which we have had a hard time in achieving. To face hunger and the destruction of public health and education that affect our families. For all this we must face this administration’s repression and the first step is free all imprisoned co-workers.
In the demonstration that we carried out for the freedom of Daniel Ruiz and all imprisoned fighters, Moira Millán spoke to us about the obstacles set by justice to resist the eviction of their ancestral lands. He correctly said, “Prisoners will not be freed by legal maneuvers or good lawyers, but by the unbreakable will of the people. We need to overcome fear and stand up, trusting our fight for our dreams.”
Attacks to Women’s Fight
The attempt of the “anti-right” sectors to advance in Argentina also had expressions in this event. From the City Hall, sectors linked to the Church and the administration managed to scare residents and local businessmen. They achieved for the city to great us with many businesses closed, even though due to the terrible economic crisis we are going through, they could have seized the massive attendance to obtain a few extra income.
These same sectors intimidated and attacked female co-workers during the three days. They threw stones and assaulted the schools where the participants were housed. They hit girls who were selling their handcrafts in the plazas. The police left areas alone, where belongings were stolen from participants.
One could smell the repressive police from afar. The gendarmerie, in an unprecedented raid, stopped buses and searched thousands of women in the Argentinian streets. The dogs smelled the bags and the policemen stopped and paralyzed the buses with bureaucratic excuses. To top it all, the joy of the shared struggle, expressed by the youth singing proudly down the Trelew streets, was brutally repressed. With episodes of police violence, undercover agents and violent men hit co-workers. Several co-workers were arrested and were only set free after demanding their freedom in the streets.
Macri, IMF and G 20’s plan will only bring more suffering upon us, so they will enforce it with repression. To fight for our rights, for legal abortion, for the freedom of fighters, it is necessary to defeat repression. We must fight alongside the working people, organizing self-defense and ousting Macri and all international vultures.
A Great Campaign for the Freedom of Daniel Ruiz and All Fighters
