In the feminist movement there are many views and they all agree on the need to achieve gender equality. But the perspectives and battles to be fought differ in each social reality. Popular feminism makes vulnerable women visible and at risk considering that poverty, by itself, can increase evils such as violence, sexual exploitation and human trafficking. The chances of escaping from these scourges decrease as we move away from the most powerful sectors.
Two piquetero leaders, Silvia Saravianational coordinator of Barrios de Pie-Libres del Sur, one of the organizations of the opposition Piquetera Unity (UP) and dina sanchez, spokesperson for the Darío Santillán Popular Front and assistant secretary of the pro-government Union of Workers of the Popular Economy (UTEP), are well aware of this weakness of the most vulnerable women. Both belong to politically opposed organizations but when one is asked about the other, both praise each other, because they feel united in the fight.
single women
Dina Sánchez came from Peru at the age of 15 and is the mother of 2 children. She went to the Frente’s picnic area because she was alone “with one hand behind and the other in front.” The boys had to eat. Everything got complicated when her eldest son became addicted and disappeared for days. In the Front he found refuge, “I had a ‘companion’ who helped me”. So she started working collecting garbage. “She was a mother, head of the household, her father did hers. He thought that the problems were mine, that if something happened it was because I did not try hard enough, ”she says.
Their situation is similar to that of most vulnerable women. “Poverty has a woman’s face,” she synthesizes. They come to social organizations because they are alone with their children, they don’t have to feed them and they feel accompanied. They can go out to work and their children are cared for in spaces for recreation, education, where they all collaborate.
But the leap from grassroots activism to leadership was not easy. The most complicated thing was his entry into the senior staff of UTEP, where he is the dissident voice. Directed by Esteban Castro and accompanied by men of political weight such as Emilio Pérsico, Daniel Menéndez, Juan Carlos Alderete and Juan GraboisDina says that “it was a fight, he was a ninguneo. What happens with male colleagues is that they love the camera, the photo, the microphone”. But in the popular economy, the majority are women, so “enough of being behind,” she says.
He also blames the media for being “macho and patriarchal”. They always look for a man. In the acts the women are usually below, carrying parades. She prefers to be in the march with the compañeras “because it is the only way that the militancy does not become detached from the bases, from the reality that they live.” The struggle with the male leaders persists. “With the character that I have, I screw it up, I don’t shut up and bitch on the networks and then the media begin to call. The colleagues get angry, but I tell them ‘you did it like that and I’m horny and I go out on the net, that’s it, get angry’”, she says.
Guilt and competition
Silvia Saravia agrees that popular feminism represents its own realities. The woman is generally in charge of the children, without economic resources, without access to health or education, without being able to “eat well” and with the impossibility of getting out of situations of violence. Popular feminism separates from other feminisms, for example, on the issue of legal abortion. They agreed that they are not in favor of abortion, but that it be legal because it allows medical assistance and the possibility of accessing information. This position was questioned by other sectors, but “that is popular feminism and it is where another way of seeing things is recreated.”
He considers that men in poverty are also victims and are frustrated by not being able to fulfill the mandate of being a provider. They withdraw into the neighborhood and can’t stand the woman leaving the house. This often leads to situations of domestic violence. “Many compañeras justified leaving their houses to picket, to the dining room, because if they don’t the plan falls apart. It was a justification for his partner, who told him where are you going? ”, he explains.
“The situation of putting the issue on their shoulders, the concrete daily resolution, made many find a certain independence, even financial, because they collect the plan, go out, beyond that later they return and they shit them with sticks”, explains Saravia. Getting out of this situation is almost impossible without the organization that supports them.
As for the political leadership, the situation is still complicated. The driving was always assumed by the men, because the women themselves ran, reproducing what happens in society. Saravia says that guilt assailed her and even the demands of her own children when it was his turn to coordinate his organization. “You care more for others than for us,” she sums up.
There is a very strong devaluation of the role of women discussing politics in the piquetero movements. Despite the fact that in organizations they are two thirds, this issue is made invisible, especially by the media, which they always look for the voice of men. “As Alberto Fernández said, one can never say that machismo is over,” she concludes with a laugh.
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