The women’s movement reverberates across Mexico

Once again, the women’s movement has been making headlines across Mexico. This time after a militant protest shocked the media and the political establishment. On August 12, images of angry women destroying the glass windows of a police station were broadcast by mainstream media outlets and shared widely on social media. The media sought to sensationalize the protests and to mobilize public opinion against an insurgent feminist movement.

The protests came about after a series of reports which accused police officers of raping a teenage woman in the Azcapotzalco neighborhood of Mexico City. Upon hearing of this police rape, many other cases came to light and feminist collectives called for a national day of protest which took place on August 15. The protest resonated across Mexico and saw demonstrations and actions in large and small cities outside the capital. The protesters were even more enraged after the new Morenista mayor of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum, called the women provocateurs arguing that their actions sought to provoke the use of force by the police.

However, the popular indignation in the movement, and the large protest on the 15 of August forced Sheinbaum to apologize to the women’s collectives and forced the city government to publicly re- commit to reduce violence and rape against women in Mexico City.

The following interviews were conducted by Héctor A. Rivera for Puntorojo Magazine with Melisa and Osmayra, two organizers of the feminist movement in Mexico City and the state of Michoacán, respectively. They discuss the rise of a new militant feminist movement, its demands and challenges ahead.

HAR: The protests against police rape in August 15 took place in more than twenty cities of the country. This is exceptional since protests usually only happen in Mexico City. Do you think that the recent protests are a turning point for the feminist movement in Mexico?

Melisa: More than a turning point, these protests are the result of the organizing that has taken place over the last five years in Mexico and internationally as well. The upsurge of feminism across Latin America and its demands to de-criminalize abortion are an important catalyst. There are also particular issues which affect the region but Mexico more than elsewhere, especially the issue of femicides but also gender violence which has generated a lot of indignation which has brought women out into the street. The case of “La Manada” in Spain was also a wake-up call for women everywhere. So after decades of being at the margins, the feminist movement has finally seen broader engagement and larger protests. So more than a watershed this is an accumulation of frustration, women are fed up with the lack of justice, the incompetence of the authorities, and the fact that state can’t even guarantee women’s safety.

The movement has grown over time and since 2016 we’ve seen broader marches that go beyond the organized left, especially with the protests of the “Violet Spring” which were a series of protests against machista violence, sexual harassment, and femicide. The call by the International Women’s Strike (IWS) of 2017 also mobilized women across the country. Not all our mobilizations were ‘strikes’ but we still had a marked presence in small cities. Sure, there was a criticism around the IWS because the initiative came from “the outside”, from countries in the global north. But we saw it as an opportunity to link issues of gender violence with class issues and in this sense, it was a successful initiative. What these protests have shown is that there is a new accumulation of forces, which is different than before because it had been a very atomized process. Feminist organizing spaces would rise and fall when specific cases came up and the waves of activity would come and go.

However, over the last couple of years we’ve seen the feminist movement grow through the efforts of autonomous women’s collectives on the university campuses. We’ve seen the rise of feminist colectivas (which are women only spaces) and colectivos (mixed spaces) which have a lot of creativity, motivation and courage. Sometimes they are not linked to previous movements so they don’t have a memory of previous struggles—which have been many. But on the other hand, they are a very positive new dynamic element of the feminist movement which is fed-up of with the awful conditions of women.

HAR: The new government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) has argued that he will help usher in a new age of prosperity for Mexicans dubbed the Fourth Transformation (4T). How do these police rapes clash with the new government’s narrative?

Melisa: The August protests didn’t come from nowhere. The new government came in with a promise of transformation and we have seen a lot of changes at all levels of government. However, we also see the continuation of the same neoliberal policies from previous governments. In addition, this government has further militarized the country bringing out the new National Guard into the streets. We think that this is a strategy to whitewash the military institutions which had been de-legitimized in previous governments because of their role in repression. AMLO has constantly sought to rehabilitate the National Guard by saying that it’s “the people in uniform”. But we don’t buy it. AMLO’s government has made it clear that women’s issues are not a priority.

From the beginning AMLO was clear that he would focus on economic development and gender issues were not on the agenda despite being the country with the most femicides in the region. Under his regime of “republican austerity” there have also been cuts to social welfare programs that many women relied on even for survival. For example, in the first months of government we saw cuts to shelters for battered women and daycare centers. These cuts have come without a real strategy to address the issues and it shows us that the state will turn its back on these problems. Meanwhile, across the country there is an ambiance of social explosion since there are many popular demands that have gone unmet by the new government. In the case of women this is more obvious because much of the feminist movement has kept its independence from AMLO's government. It has kept an independent momentum because the movement has refused to be co-opted.

A lot of women have not signed off on AMLO’s “Fourth Transformation” (4T) because they haven’t seen results. For us, no matter who is in power, be it MORENA, the PRI, PAN, or whichever party, the women’s movement will continue to demand justice for women and for an end to  femicides and disappearances. There are a host of other demands around abortion and women’s health that have not been addressed. In fact, none of these demands are part of the 4T, and there are no policies to guarantee a life free of violence for women. Thus, the recent protests reflect the demands, the energy,and the internal dynamics of the new feminist movement. This is the first time we see such a social explosion of militancy and rage in which women express that frustration by breaking glass windows and setting police stations on fire. We had seen stencils, graffiti, stickers, and other actions but what we saw on the 12 of August is something new. We also see a diversity of women in the streets, along with different levels of organization and consciousness in the new generation that has joined the movement.

HAR: What is your take on the coverage of the protests by the mainstream media and what are the next steps for the movement?

Melisa: Well, what I’d like to underline is that the protests of August 15 brought out women beyond Mexico City, and these women came out to protest the role of the police, the army and the National Guard in their locality. So, the issue of rape by the police isn’t an incident isolated to Mexico City. These cases outside of the capital must also be brought to light and must be put at the center of public attention. Of course, what the mainstream media did was to single out a few instances of broken glass in Mexico City and to mobilize public opinion against any woman that identified as a feminist. This turned into a media lynching to target all feminists, whether in the movement, at work, or in the home. It didn’t matter if you were at the protest or not, every feminist was automatically singled out and blamed. Claudia Sheinbaum’s declarations really “put the cherry on top” and stigmatized any woman that had participated in the protests as a provocateur, only helping the media lynching.

But after the mass marches on the 15 the government was forced to take on a different route and has begun to organize discussion meetings with feminist organizations. We will see if these discussions are genuine or if they only include government-aligned feminist groups. Often the government gets legitimacy by enrolling mainstream feminists in its initiatives, but these groups often don’t represent anybody. But if these new spaces are genuinely democratic forums for the feminist movement then it could be useful to organize interventions to forefront the genuine demands of the movement. In the past many organizations have tried to lobby the government and many feminists have sought the institutional route. Important things have been achieved this way, but the real challenge remains: can we get public policies that are actually effective? These roundtables might be an opportunity to grow the movement so we must participate in them and use them to push our demands.

HAR: Over the last couple of years we’ve seen a surge of feminist activity outside of Mexico City. What does this look like on the ground in a state like Michoacán?

Osmayra: Most recently, here in Morelia we organized a pañuelazos on August 8 in response to the call for solidarity from Argentina, where women have been taking to the streets to de-criminalize abortion. So, in the collective that I belong to, Marea Verde Michoacán (MVM), organized this solidarity rally where we use green bandanas and we take over a public space to put forward our demands. Besides pañuelazos we have also supported other feminists who have been able to put forward legislation to de-criminalize abortion in the state. This has been organized together with Antonio Martínez, the only state representative that supported this initiative. Outside of the capital city of Morelia there have also been symbolic actions in small cities like Uruapan, Zamora, Zacapu and Pátzcuaro.

However, it hasn’t been easy to organize here. In many respects Mexico City is more progressive, but here there is a lot of harassment and stigma towards feminists. There are a lot of threats coming from the internet. For example, most recently one of our compañeras from MVM was singled out at a protest after a video of our march circulated on social media. A man identified her and on social media he threatened to rape her and to mutilate her. We have reported this case to the authorities and have a plan of accompaniment for the compañeras so that she isn’t alone. These types of threats usually emerge after we demand the de-criminalization of abortion, but not when we protest other issues. So, this issue in particular has brought out violent threats against us.

HAR: What does the feminist movement look like in Michoacán? Who are the main actors?

Osmayra: We believe that the feminist movement has made an important breakthrough. For example, the protest we organized on March 8 was historic in many respects and brought out more than 300 women of different political currents. This year’s march is the culmination of the efforts from the call of the International Women’s Strike from back in 2017 and since then we’ve been organizing in broad networks that have accumulated a number of collectives and have spurred many actions. Together with autonomous feminists and compañeras from the zapatista movement, we have put our energies organizing with and supporting the actions of the feminist colectivas on university campuses. I think that the main actors can be divided into institutionalized and independent feminists like those of us in the colectivas.

With the arrival of AMLO, many long-standing feminists were co-opted and entered into the state-created “Women’s Institute” and have been towing the government’s line. Eight months into AMLO’s Fourth Transformation have shown few results and some of these women have begun to leave these official spaces. But overall you can identify a generational rupture with the new and the older feminist movement since most of us organizing are from the new generation.

HAR: What are the challenges facing the movement and what are the plans for the movement in the future?

Osmayra: There are several challenges we face. The first is for the movement to grow outside of specific university departments where the colectivas already have a presence. For example, we have been trying to break-through in the university dorms. However, the student dorms are organized by student groups that are Stalinized and that argue that the women’s movement is “bourgeois”. These student associations have tremendous power, but they don’t want to become involved in women’s issues because they consider us divisive. So, it’s an ongoing struggle at the universities.

The other challenge we face is to take the movement outside of Morelia, to other municipalities. In this respect we have made some progress and previously isolated feminist collectives have begun to form a state-wide network. Sometimes we connect with progressive groups, for example in Zacapu we got connected with an LGBT advocacy group and with them we were able to organize a meeting about de- criminalizing abortion. We didn’t expect many people to show up but to our surprise the meeting was well attended. We have also begun to work with indigenous women in Cherán and Pátzcuaro and through an organization called EMAS (Equipo de Mujeres en Acción Solidaria) we’ve organized roundtables that address specific issues of women’s violence in indigenous communities.

Lastly, in the city of Zamora some of the compañeras have also begun to organize small demonstrations in the main square of the city. Again, though small, these actions are no longer as atomized as before. As for future activities, we have a few days of action planed at the end of September to coordinate an international pañuelazo day of action in solidarity with the compañeras from Argentina. The days of action will feature activities that will forefront the demands of the movement against femicides and gender violence, the de-criminalization of abortion, and other activities.

HAR: Thank you for your time and hard work, much love and solidarity from puntorojo and we will continue to follow your events and share your demands on social media.