It was to be a Feminist women’s strike, at work and in the home. In order to give it legal coverage it had to be officially registered by a Trade Union, in this case the anarchist CGT and CNT. But it’s not legal to call a Women’s Strike in the Spanish State, so they went one further and registered it as the first feminist General Strike. Legal and official.  Helped by hundreds of women’s collectives, women journalists and social media the strike snowballed amazingly to over 6 million women.

photo: 3 anarchist women after legally registering a General Strike.

by Julius Gavroche      main text from autonomies  with thanks

This year’s call for a global women’s strike to mark the 8th of March women’s day was expressed in protests throughout the world.  But it found no greater resonance than in the Spanish State.

The call to strike was already in itself a radical gesture, to move beyond the ever so often tepid parades of slogans for equality of rights.  However useful such moments may be, their political limitations are profound.

In the Spanish State, the strike call was made in the name of feminism: March 8th was to be a Huelga Feminista, under the rallying cry of “If we stop, the world stops!”.  And if Spain did not come altogether to a stand still, tens of thousands protested during the day and roving pickets closed roads, public transportation services, shops.  Public and private sector workers (teachers, journalists, care workers, cleaners (las kellys) and so on) struck.

Originally called by radical labour unions (the CNT, CGT, among others), along with hundreds of feminist collectives and other political groups, its extraordinary resonance finally forced Spain’s larger labour unions (the CCOO and the UGT) to join, with their membership contributing to a two hour afternoon labour stoppage involving some 6 million people. (El Pais 08/03/2018).

 CAN YOU describe how the strike was organized? What were the most important organizations?  …..THE STRIKE began to be organized in August and September of 2017, a time during which many feminist collectives in the Spanish state met to analyze the feminist movement and the situation in which it was operating and to assess the potential for organizing a strike on March 8, 2018, following the strike organized by feminists in Argentina in March 2017. …YOU CAN read the strike’s manifesto here. Continue reading “6 Million Women Reclaim their Power: The1st Feminist General Strike”