Anarcha-feminism and anarcho-machismo in Spain

 

We’ll start with a story that illustrates the sort of thing anarcha-feminists regularly deal with within the anarchist movement in Spain.

It happened at Casa Blanca – a squatted, self-managed social centre in central Madrid. It was a very big building with lots of space, and had more-or-less anarchist politics. It was squatted in early 2010 and evicted in September 2012. Hundreds of different collectives participated in the space.

Sometime towards the beginning of the occupation, a group of womyn asked the general assembly of the building for a womyn’s autonomous space. [This article uses the term ‘autonomous’ as is common among English-speaking activists, but the term used in Spanish is literally ‘non-mixed’.] The assembly said yes to this request, and the womyn started fixing up the space – cleaning and putting in lights etc.

During this time, we put up a poster on the door of the space that said ‘autonomous space – no machistas’ [ie ‘no patriarchs / macho arseholes’]. Someone wrote on the poster underneath ‘nor feminazis.’ That was a sign of things to come.

Continue reading “On the anarcha-feminist movement in Spain”