Quito, Ecuador: Women’s and feminist organizations ratified on March 2, 2023, the call for a feminist strike. It is not a stoppage like the national strike in June 2022 but a claim for International Women’s Day. The Conaie assured that it is not the beginning of a mobilization.
“It is a feminist strike because women are going to stop our work so they can see what it feels like to work without the work that women do,” explained Micaela Camacho, representative of the Transfeminist Assembly.
“We do not want to question only the Government, but a society that is complicit in the violence that we experience, that we have been fighting against all governments, including the current one,” she pointed out.
The objective is to claim “with dignified rage” the origin of March 8 in the face of the precariousness of life and violence. 2022 closed “with 332 femicides and nine of them are transgender women” in the election period, the demands of women were instrumentalized for the campaigns of political parties that reproduce violence, Camacho questioned.
For these reasons, among others, organizations will demand inclusive policies. Its representatives have yet to be called to dialogue with the current Government.
Connie participation
The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie) is one organization that joined the feminist call. Its vice president Zenaida Yasacama clarified that the organization’s women who fight against the Government’s neoliberal policies would participate in Quito.
“It is important to clarify to the public, we are not starting a mobilization, they are misrepresenting (…). It is with the purpose of claiming and demanding the constituted rights. We women are going to come together to make our voices heard,” said the indigenous leader.
Some of the demands are a dignified life, health, education, and a budget so that the assassination of the leader Eduardo Mendua does not go unpunished. Yasacama said that a claim of unconstitutionality of Executive Decree 604 would be filed on March 8. The document issued an instruction for the application of the pre-legislative consultation.
non-partisan women’s march
Sinchi Gómez, from Trenzando Feminismos, rejected any attempt to proselytize the call and march on March 8.
“It is not our demand for the dismissal of the Government, but we do mobilize against the policies that it has been establishing in the country and that affect us in our lives directly,” Micaela Camacho clarified.
The organizers reiterated that it is a single march in which, in addition to Connie, other sectors, such as the Unitary Front of Workers and the Popular Front, will participate.
Route of the feminist strike
On March 8, there will be sit-ins and marches in all the provinces with their route. The demonstration in Quito will be concentrated from 4:00 p.m. in the Plaza Indoamérica of the Central University.
They will tour ten de Agosto avenue and take breaks at the Caja del Seguro and the Central Bank of Ecuador to express their demands. They will not arrive at the Historical Center but will return along Gran Colombia Avenue and stop at the National Assembly.
