South Feminist Futures was present at the 36th Plurinational Meeting of women, lesbians, transvestites, bisexuals, intersexuals and non-binaries, in Furilofche/Bariloche, Argentina on October 14th-16th. The agenda was crossed by the struggle for the territory of the indigenous peoples as the central axis: the Mapuche community, the native peoples of Jujuy and the whole of Abya Yala.
In the Assembly of Feminists of Abya Yala, we shared our struggles for bodies and territories free of violence from LAC to Kurdistan and Palestine. The importance of the plurinational and the construction of solidarity in such a hostile international geopolitical context.
More than 70,000 feminists participated in the massive march that closed the meeting with the firm conviction to fight for a 2024 “without right-wingers and racism, always in the streets”. The next venue for the meeting will be Jujuy – the land of rebellion, organisation and struggle against the repressive advances of the right-wing forces.
About the Event
In 1985 a group of Argentinean women participated in the Closing of the Decade of Women in Africa. They returned to the country with the need to convene themselves to deal with the specific problems of Argentinean women. That is why in 1986 they started the meetings and never stopped.
What are the meetings?
They are unique spaces in the world. They are massive and bring together more than 100,000 women, lesbians, transvestites, transvestites, transsexuals, bisexuals, intersexuals and non-binary women, who – regardless of our condition or social sector – come together from different parts of the country.
In three days, we held workshops, cultural and artistic activities, marches and interventions in which we debated the injustices, problems and concerns that affect us all, concerns that affect us on a daily basis. In the same way, we found spaces and ways to organise ourselves.
Through meetings and years of history, we have won laws, and set up networks and campaigns that encourage us to fight against the inequalities of our patriarchal society inequalities of our patriarchal society.
Their success and growth is based on the following pillars that characterise them:
Self-convened, autonomous and self-financing, pluralistic, plurinational, federal, democratic and horizontal
Why this year in Bariloche?
Indigenous peoples and territorial conflicts in Patagonia. The Argentine state consolidated its foundations on the basis of the genocide of the indigenous peoples who inhabited the territory. Both the configuration of subjectivities and the conceptualisations of space are permeated by racism, gender and ethnic marginalisation, and this is represented today in concrete practices: discrimination, evictions, differential access to land and unequal treatment in judicial processes.
In October 2022, in Bariloche, a violent eviction operation against the Lafken Winkul Mapu community of Villa Mascardi, carried out by the Unified Command of Federal Security Forces, took seven Mapuche women and children into custody, simply for defending their territory. They were deprived of their liberty, for a cause that can be released from prison until 9 June 2023, the date on which, after the intervention of the Dialogue Table for this conflict, a conciliatory agreement was reached before the courts, in which the ceremonial space is recognised as a sacred site of this community and it is hoped that the criminal action will be eliminated, as long as the agreement is complied with.
📣 A year after the eviction, the Mapuche women are still demanding:
👉🏾 That the agreement signed with the national government be fulfilled.
👉🏾 Real and effective handover of the territory.
👉🏾 Reparation for the damage caused
👉🏾 An end to the persecution and criminalisation of the Lof Lafken Winkul Mapu.
Also the immediate release of Jessica Bonnefoi Antimil, a young member of the Lof Lafken Winkul Mapu community, who has been detained in inhumane conditions since 11 August and is now being held in house arrest.
The collective indignation at the political arrests of Mapuche women led to the mandate of the two meetings held in San Luis, both in October and November, to decide that the venue for the 2023 meeting would be Bariloche, also proposing the unity of the women’s movement and dissidents.
Feminist and plurinational agenda
In the framework of territorial articulation, the Organising Committee of the 36th Plurinational Meeting of Women, Lesbians, Transvestites, Trans, Bisexual, Intersex and Non-Binary Women participated in a meeting convened by Mapuche political prisoners and visited the Mapuche Lof Inalef Coronado, located in the Mallín Ahogado area, among other regional actions. On both occasions, the women and dissidents present expressed the critical situations they were going through.
The Lof Inalef Coronado is fighting for its territory in the face of real estate and forestry interests, as well as the advance of foreign ownership of the land. The women of this community and neighbouring communities are constantly harassed and violated by those who have vested interests in their territory. The state’s failure to guarantee their constitutionally recognised rights ends up, as they say, keeping them imprisoned in their territory.
We know that police violence falls most heavily on indigenous communities, the poor and migrants, and even more so on women and dissidents belonging to these groups. In the face of these unjust situations, we recognise that nothing changes without organisation. That is why we have come together to fight against the feminisation of poverty, for specific official statistics, and for public policies that reverse these situations of inequality.
See more about the event: https://www.encuentroplurimujeresydisidencias.com.ar/
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