Las Palmas de Gran Canaria/Santa Cruz de Tenerife (EFE) “not one step back” in the fight for real and effective equality for women.
Wrapped by hundreds of banners and posters, men, women, boys and girls have once again taken to the streets in this 8M.
In Las Palmas De Gran Canaria it has been to the rhythm of a batucada, “the necessary cry of feminism”, as one of the posters of the procession pointed out, has called for “the revolution, which will be feminist or not”, because “being a woman does not it’s a feeling”, and in handwritten signs they have called for “to end the feminization of poverty”.
The feminists of Gran Canaria have covered the route from the San Telmo park to the Plaza de Santa Ana “together free and without fear”, as described in one of the posters of this demonstration for International Women’s Day in the capital.
“Education, as the only solution”, they have asked, in a movement that this year follows the motto “Without equality there is no future.” If they close our roads, we open paths!”.
As the spokeswoman for the Feminist Network of Gran Canaria, Nayra Marrero, has expressed, today the feminists are making “a call to attention to the need to unite to work for all people, for real equality”, and in an election year “warn that we are not going to take a single step back, because if they put us in trouble we are going to get equality to break through”, because “there is no other way to live”.
As Marrero has said, “feminism is what we want as a society and we have to find a way to achieve real equality.”
She has celebrated the “great response from the people” in what she has defined as “a beautiful day to hug each other again”, which was something that “we also missed”.
Feminism “is not an easy movement, it requires energy, because we keep meeting people who point us out as enemies”, so “today’s hugs were necessary”.
For the Feminist Network of Gran Canaria “what you have to do is fill the streets” because “nobody represents us the same as ourselves”, and “no man from any party with a banner surrounded by women knows what feminism wants”.
Feminisms “are diverse” and “they cannot represent us without listening to us, and today what we are doing is making ourselves listen.”
In Santa Cruz, around 5,000 people began the march in Plaza Weyler led by a banner with the motto proposed by the 8M Feminist Platform, ‘Feminist Revolution without Borders’.
Before leaving, chants were heard in relation to the distribution of care and support for immigrants shouting “papers for all or all without papers.”
Other banners such as “I don’t go through hoops” and “women against wars” gave way to a multitude of posters made by the population.
“It is not feminism if it is not intersectional”, “today all our voices are not together because from the grave you cannot shout”, “do not whistle at them, they are not dogs” or “sex is not equal to gender” were some of the signs that could be read throughout the journey.
There were also those who covered Shakira’s song with the motto “women no longer cry, women empower themselves.”
Among the chants, classics such as “here we are the feminists”, “the patriarchy is going to fall” or “the feminist struggle continues at all costs” stood out.
Among the initiatives proposed by the organizing association, at the beginning of the demonstration a sign “Calle Feminismo sin Frontera” was also carried in relation to the activity of changing the street name of Santa Cruz for names of illustrious women of the city during this 8M. EFE