A radical and dynamic women's movement THROUGHOUT the dramatic ups and downs in the mass struggle in the Spanish state over the past 12 years, the feminist movement has remained a permanent radical force. The following article explains its dynamism and staying power.
portant role.
With the campaign for the right to abortion that began in 1979, women turned this totally taboo subject into a political question of the first importance. Many political forces have supported this campaign, but not the PSOE or the social-democratic union confederation, the UGT. Feminist ideas have advanced, as have women's consciousness and the idea that the state has an obligation to respond to the demands of women.
Abortion shunted off to the private sector
The law partially decriminalizing abortion that the PSOE government approved on July 5, 1985, only covered cases of rape, malformation of the foetus and dangers to the health of the mother. On the other hand, it included an obligation to set up "evaluation committees" in hospitals to examine requests for abortions when the women had gone through all the administrative and bureaucratic barriers, to see if they they really met the three conditions. A so-called "conscience clause" was also adopted
A year and a half after it went into force, the uselessness of this law has been officially recognized. It has enabled only 0.2% of women who wanted abortions to have them legally, while 65,000 have had to have back-street abortions.
The government found itself obliged to approve a royal decree on November 21, 1986, whose main point was to authorize private clinics to perform abortions. In this way, the public health services were relieved of the responsibility for offering this social service. At the same time, the content of the law has been upheld - that is, abortion continues to be a crime. It has been decriminalized only in three very specific cases. Around the same date, on the basis of this law, a Madrid judge ordered the arrest of 39 family-planning center workers. Nine of them were jailed on the charge of performing illegal abortions.
As in the initial period of the law, when the government accused doctors of making the statute inapplicable by interpreting it in a restrictive way, the question is rebounding now against the judicial branch. But both doctors and judges can act with impunity, basing themselves on the social-democratic law.
On December 13 and 14, 1986, a tribunal was held in Madrid to denounce the attacks on the right to abortion. It was organized by the Coordinating Committee of Feminist Organizations in the Spanish state. Some 3,000 women from the various regions attended. The tribunal was made up of 11 women from feminist organizations. Nine witnesses appeared, women between the ages of 17 and 60, who had tried to have abortions in very different circumstances.
The tribunal's judgement summed up the demands that the movement had put forward in its campaigns. After some consid-
JUSTA MONTEROS JICTA MONTEROC T HE BEGINNINGS of the feminist movement appeared in the last years of the fight against the Franco dictatorship and for democratic freedoms, which lasted until about 1975. It was a movement that assumed a very political form from the outset. And it was to see its hopes, struggles and its fundamental demands shunted aside by the policy of social pacts practiced by the parliamentary political forces.
This is why all the women's organizations called for rejecting the new constitution. In this political process, the movement was to play an important role through its constant, active and intransigent fight for the rights of women (who did not have the right to vote at that time), for the decriminalization of adultery, legalization of contraception, a divorce law and the right to a job. Based on these objectives, the feminist organizations took form, and the movement acquired a real political and social space and - not least important -political and organizational independence.
This was not an easy process in a society where institutions devoted to keeping women in a subordinate role, such as the Church, wielded great weight, where patriarchal values were official doctrine and where there was no tradition of feminist struggle.
The coming to power five years ago of the social-democratic Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) modified the political situation. Many hopes arose in various sectors of the society. But in the feminist movement, reality, and the gravity of the abortion problem, dispelled them. We had been fighting too long in unfavorable conditions simply to stop the fight because of the government's declarations of good will. The movement chose to fight on its own ground — in the streets — to win legalization of free abortion on demand. It organized mass demonstrations with very clear 12 objectives: "Women must decide. Free abortion on demand." International Viewpoint • February 22, 1988
Clearly, the PSOE had to take on a movement that was creating problems for it, an active radical movement in which it had practically no presence. It took a very aggressive attitude, striving by every possible means to marginalize the movement politically and socially. At the same time, it sought to create a more moderate alternative, based on sectors of women linked to reformism. It wanted establishment feminism to expand its role, and serve as an intermediary between women and the administration.
Social democrats set up
Women's Institute
The creation of the Women's Institute (a body under the Ministry of Culture) was part of this policy. Its activity was limited by two factors. One was its links with the policy of the PSOE, which it defended either passively or actively. The other was its lack of independence and of any real weight in the administration. Despite all this, it is a useful mechanism for the government, inasmuch as its activity makes it possible to promote a social consensus on the need for formal equality between men and women. It is in the PSOE's interest to do this in order to cover up real inequality and protect men's privileges.
All this has led the social democracy into a head-on clash with a movement whose struggles are aimed at overthrowing the economic and social order, which is the only way to achieve real changes in the lives of women.
The feminist movement is working on many questions, everywhere where patriarchal oppression manifests itself. For many years, the movement's efforts have been concentrated on the fight for the right to abortion. This has shaped its present form, and to a large extent its political role. Even though today the movement has diversified, this question continues to play an im-
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DESEA of de erations on the kind of sexist, male chauvinist and reactionary society in which women live, it concluded with a verdict that accused the government of being directly responsible for the death of nine women, victims of back-street abortions after the law went into force, and of yielding to the pressures of private doctors who calculate their moral and ethical principles in terms of pesetas.
The private doctors were accused of being responsible for the trials against women, and of refusing them information on sexuality and contraceptive methods. They were accused of performing abortions in their private clinics for gain, while they refused to perform them in the public institutions.
For all these reasons, the tribunal condemned the Ministry of Justice; all the members of the government; all the institutions of the PSOE administration involved, by commission or omission, in crimes against women's right to chose; the General Council of Doctors; judges who enforce laws contrary to the rights of women in the most brutally misogynous way; and members of the repressive forces, the Guardia Civil and the National Police, faithful defenders of the patriarchal order.
All of those thus convicted were condemned to a series of penalties that involved "being brought by force before a judge, who will read aloud the medical history and sexual habits of the convicts, thereby violating their right to privacy... suffering the same tribulations and anxieties as women when they are forced to go from pillar to post searching for somebody who can help them free themselves from an unwanted pregnancy... experiencing terror, pain and even death because of abortions performed without regard for their health and their lives."
The sentence was greatly applauded by the 3,000 people present. There is still a long and difficult road ahead to get free abortion on demand. After the private clinics had been in operation for a year, social pressure has diminished. Today, the feminist movement's right to abortion committees are collecting figures in order to to make concrete revelations about the problem. The question is not resolved. Thousands of women have to go abroad for abortions — many of them let the deadline for having an abortion here go by because of the lack of information.
A woman's right to work
Few abortions are carried out in the public sector. They are being performed in apartments. Many women fall into the hands of doctors who demand 100,000 to 200,000 pesetas [about $875-1,750] to perform an abortion. In the most "honest" clinics, the price is 30,000 pesetas [about $264]. Young women still have no recourse.
From the outset, demands concerning wage labor have been one of the Spanish women's movement's main concerns. But, contrary to what has happened in the case of abortion, it has not managed to make the right to a job a central political question. There are three obstacles to this - the situation of the labor market, the attitude of the union leaderships and the organization of women.
SPAIN
In the Spanish state — for political and social reasons - women started coming into the labor market later than in the rest of Europe, and the economic crisis arrived before this process was completed. The crisis has hit women hard, driving them out of the labor market. Paradoxically, in recent years women have been more integrated than men in economic life — that is, in the black economy•
Today, 700,000 people work in their homes. Some 70% of them are women, 25% under 25 years of age, and 44% are housewives. But working at home is not the only activity in which women predominate. It is also true of marginal jobs. In any "feminine" industries, a large part of production is now done outside the legal economy. For example, 35% of shoes are produced in the black economy. In Catalonia, in textiles, 30% to 40% of production takes place in this way.
Savage increase in exploitation
This kind of work involves a savage increase in the level of exploitation. The bosses save all or a part of their contributions to social security. For their part, the working women are denied the right to a decent and steady job and wage, to say nothing of the better working conditions won in the "legal market."
The dispersion and isolation of the women working in this black economy handicap them in organizing and fighting. Uniting these women and seeking unifying demands for the various industries is one of the objectives of the Women's Secretariats of the Workers' Commissions, the main union confederation. It is led by the Communist Party, but has a strong class-struggle trade-union opposition.
However, dispersion and isolation are not the only problems. In the days of action organized by the Workers' Commissions' secretariats, the unions' positions needed to be clarified. They must recognize the need for policy changes, because the situation we are experiencing today is the result of pursuing a policy of social pacts and consensus.
"You can't say that you are against the growth of part-time jobs, against non-legal work and at the same time negotiate or accept — as the unions are doing — reconversions, factory closures, layoffs, family wages, the pressures on women. All these measures result precisely in swelling the ranks of workers in the home and in sweat shops."
Not only have the union leaderships not maintained a consistent position of defending women's rights, but when conflicts have arisen they have supported male privileges. We have the example of the Hunosa mines in Asturias. Although women raised a demand to work as helpers in the mines and overcame all the obstacles, including 13 and overcame all the obstacles, including the medical ones, none of the 14 women February 22, 1988 • International Viewpoint
SPAIN who met all the conditions got a job.
These women waged a vigorous campaign to back up their demand for these jobs, gaining a broad hearing in the media. They had to stand up to enormous pressures and insults — "The mines are not made for women; They'll lose their femininity in them; Protests are growing among miners against the hiring of women" and so on. The miners refused to work alongside women.
### Campaigning against sexual harassment
The Women's Secretariat of the Workers' Commissions, the Women's Collective of Mieres and the Feminist Association of Asturias organized a big campaign in defence of a woman's right to work. They also fought to get the union to take up this fight, as it has done for youth, among others. But the UGT made an official statement against bringing women into the mines: "This is not the best sort of work for women." It even went so far as to distribute anonymous leaflets to incite unemployed men in the region to prevent women from going into the mines on their first day.
The women won, and along with them all women, because they established that all the women, even those working outside the mine, would be considered part of the enterprise.
In addition to the two questions of abortion and the right to work, the movement has participated in other struggles. It has had a very diversified activity, enabling it to offer new perspectives now that the fight for the right to abortion is no longer so central. 14 International Viewpoint • February 22, 1988
In 1988, more effort will be put into the campaign against sexual harassment, under the slogan "No harassment without a response. " This question has been taken up on several levels - from themes that permit mobilizations with precise aims, such as opposing attacks and rape, to questions that require more explanation, such as pornography and prostitution.
The main objective of these campaigns is to give women self-confidence so that they can rebel against individual harassment. They are also aimed at fostering a social conscience rejecting such practices, which involves exposing all open and veiled harassment against women. This means denouncing such harassment by the media, by publications, and through policies of subsidizing magazines with a clearly sexist content. It also calls for concrete measures, such as women's shelters set up by the administration, change in the divorce law, as well as among other things denouncing the institution of the family. At the same time, it is necessary to demand that the state recognize the right of women not to suffer harassment, while not placing any confidence in the state or its laws.
Likewise, specific collectives are working on questions such as sexuality, health, education and so on - "Women for Health," the "Collective for Schools Favorable to Girls," the "Lesbian Feminist Collective." In the smaller cities and villages, the whole group takes up all the questions according to the priorities it sets. In the big cities, there are specific commissions for every theme, a coordinating committee to decide on campaigns and their objectives, as well as general questions that affect the entire movement, and organizational debates.
Such diversification in organization has made it possible to bring together more women, to establish closer links with other sectors of society, and in the last analysis, to broaden the activity and the influence of the movement.
The existence of a coordinating committee of feminist organizations throughout the Spanish state, which has been functioning for nearly ten years, has made it possible to make progress toward achieving unity on the principles and objectives of the movement, on central campaigns and on tempos of work. This unification has been reflected by a strengthening of all the organizations.
In the last two years, we have seen an important development — young women coming into the feminist movement, and the formation of women's groups in the high-schools and neighborhoods. In Euskadi and Catalonia, gatherings of young women have been organized.
### Young women organize
"Consciously or unconsciously, we give priority to work in the study centers and streets as the only way to start working as young people, because today we cannot base ourselves on any previous experience that might offer a model. Recently, thanks to better coordination and greater numbers, we have done better work. We have had to respond with force against harassment against young women and in the referendum on NATO. In the first case, we organized a big street demonstration and also debates and discussions in educational establishments. On the second problem, we intervened with our own discussions of anti-militarism, with rallies in the high schools and by organizing a demonstration in front of the Star arms factory in Eibar [a Basque-speaking industrial city]."
Subsequently there was the upsurge in the student struggle, making the greater participation of women's collectives possible on other questions, and stimulating a greater awareness by women of their problems.
In many places, there are already organizations that have been functioning for more than two years. In others, they are barely starting to take form. The perspective today is to maintain specific young women's organizations so that they can coordinate both with each other and with the rest of the movement.
The women's movement has a lot of work ahead of it. In the general political context, the situation is hardly easy. But in confronting the future it can rely on major experiences and organizations that have maintained themselves over all these years and which are firm in their objectives and in their fighting spirit.
There are real limitations in this movement, but the constant concern that exists for broadening and extending it provides a good starting point. *
T • HOUSANDS of women demonstrated on October 30, 1985, demanding that Pinochet get out. These women were united despite differences of class and political opinions. They had decided that they should join in a single opposition front in order to confront the dictatorship more effectively.
Some political parties demanded that their women members follow the line of their organization and not that of the women's movement. Many women refused to obey these orders and decided to stand by their call for the demonstration, which ran up against severe repression by the police. Although many women were arrested even before they got to the site of the demonstration, the action was a success that had a major impact on the population in general.
These women, like thousands of others throughout the country, were demanding not only democracy, but a new type of democracy. Today, as before, their protest is going further than other types of protest that are taking place throughout Chile. The new type of democracy that they are demanding would mean the end of oppression and exploitation based on sex, class or sion and exploitation based on sex. class or race differences.
Their slogan, "We want democracy now, in the country and in the home" is part of a big campaign that is being waged to try to raise consciousness on this question. Almost every day, a new form of public protest arises demanding the end of the tyranny that has been established in Chile since 1973. The women's struggle today is part of this, the product of a long political process that began well before the coup.
Since the beginning of the century, women have participated in political life in accordance with the social classes to which they belonged. Around 1900, two women's movements arose. Although they existed simultaneously, there was absolutely no link between them. One of them was a feminist movement very much influenced by the European and US women's movements. Its main demand was around education.
History of the Chilean women's movement
In 1919, this movement transformed itself into a political party called the Feminine Civic Party, one of whose main objectives was to fight for for women's suffrage. At the outset, it was made up mainly of women from the upper classes. In the 1920s, many middle-class women started joining in the struggle. This was a result of the rising educational level, which was achieved mainly thanks to the feminist movement.
The other women's movement was made up of working-class women. It did not have any special name. Those involved in it fought within the political parties as members of the workers' mutual aid societies that existed at this time, or as wives of