We must go to the streets and strengthen the fight!
The light rain and harsh cold last Wednesday (8) in Buenos Aires did not keep people from filling the May Avenue and the surroundings of the Argentinean Congress, where the senators discussed the bill to legalize abortion. Around 2 million people participated in the demonstration throughout the day.
By: Erika Andreassy, Women’s Commission, PSTU
A sea of people, women’s movements, political and social organizations, class organizations, women and men of all ages, particularly student youth, stood with their green handkerchiefs in the neck and amazing will to fight, showing the power of mobilization.
On the meantime, unlike what had happened in June, when the Chamber of Representatives due to pressure in the streets adopted the bill, this time, the lobby of the conservative sectors managed to stop the bill in the senate. The Catholic Church, the Evangelicals, and the authorities of the Macri administration, like Vice-president Gabriella Mechetti and the Buenos Aires governor, Maria Eugenia Vidal, led these sectors.
The result was no surprise, but the voting in the senate does not put an end to the subject. On the contrary, the Macri administration is referring to decriminalization of abortion in a penal code reform, which will be presented shortly. Not because he is in favor of legalization of abortion, which he speaks openly against, but as a way to answer the process of struggle that began and to attempt to channel the movement through institutional paths.
The green wave in favor of legalization was capable of mobilizing broad female and youth sectors, but it also managed to impose in the political and social agenda the subject of abortion, previously considered a taboo. Not by chance, the eve before the voting, all one could hear were people debating and expressing their opinions about the legalization of abortion, in the streets, in the communication means, the social networks, etc. The counteroffensive carried out by the Church and the conservatives throughout the last month and a half to revert the victory in the Chamber of Representative expresses how the debate took hold of the country.
We need to continue mobilizing
The celebration of the so-called pro-life sectors, symbolized by the color blue, does not equal a crushing defeat of the movement in favor of legalization of abortion. It does mean, however, that we cannot trust the bourgeois parliament and the institutional path to achieve our demands. Nor can we trust the good will of the Macri administration and his support base, just as we cannot trust the sectors opposing to the government today, including Kirchnerism.
Cristina Kirchner was always against legalization of abortion. During her administration, she refused to set the subject in the agenda, and if she changed her vote and supported the bill now was because she saw the strength of the movement and was calculating its influence in the next elections. These bourgeois sectors are not interested at all in the fate of the thousands of working and poor women who die or suffer consequences from clandestine abortions every year, otherwise, abortion would have been legalized a long time ago.
Only in the streets, through mobilization, we will be able to impose the legalization of abortion. In no way should the movement be limited by the parliamentary or electoral calendar, as some sectors defend, particularly reformism. Women must continue mobilized. It is time to go back to the streets and strengthen the fight for legal, safe and free abortion.
On the other hand, it is necessary for the working class to join this fight through its labor and union organizations. The legalization of abortion is a matter of vital interest for working women because they are the main victims of clandestine abortion. In this sense, the role of the CGT and CTA union bureaucracy is sad. They refuse to organize the workers and push this struggle. They do not call for a stoppage, nor do they support the movement or open the discussion among their rank and file. Once again, they fulfilled a detrimental and treacherous role because considering clandestine abortion as a crime poses the lives of working women at risk.
Our Fight is International
The discussion in Argentina awoke the interest of many and generated solidarity around the world, particularly in Latin America, where 90% of women do not have access to legal and safe abortion.
On one hand, representatives of countless women movements and political organizations participated in this historical day. Coming from Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia, among others, they hoped the adoption of legal abortion in Argentina would open path to legalize abortion in other countries. On the other hand, there were also demonstrations and mobilizations in support in other countries, showing the fight is not just of Argentinean women, but also of all Latin American women.
The PSTU and the International Workers League (IWL-FI), just as the CSP-Conlutas and the Women in Struggle Movement (MML), helped to push this struggle in Brazil as part of the solidarity demonstrations that took place in our country. A delegation of ours also travelled to Argentina to help strengthen the 8A along the Argentinean PSTU and Struggle Women (Lucha Mujer).
For women’s lives: legal, safe and free abortion, now!
