Several thousand people, about 6,000 according to the Barcelona Urban Guard, participated this Saturday in the center of the Catalan capital in the demonstration on the occasion of 25N, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and Girls.
The march, promoted by the Noviembre Feminista platform, started after 18:45 headed by a banner that included the slogan of the call: “25N. Enough Masculine Violence. It’s over! (25N. Basta de violencias machistas. ¡ It’s over!)”.
The demonstration started from the confluence of Avenida Diagonal with Paseo de Gràcia, whose central section is occupied by the protesters, and ended in Plaza Universitat, where a manifesto was read followed by parliaments of women from territories such as Palestine or Ukraine and a musical performance.
The motto of the demonstration has adopted: It’s over! proclaimed by the players of the women’s soccer team after the non-consensual kiss of Luis Rubiales, then president of the Spanish Soccer Federation, to the player Jennifer Hermoso, and during the march slogans such as “Not a little peck, It’s aggression.”
“They are not dead, they are murders” or “La nit és nostra. Cap agressió sense resposta (The night is ours. No aggression without response”) are some of the slogans chanted by the protesters, who have demonstrated in a climate festive, with batucada groups encouraging feminist demands.
Sources from the organization, for their part, have assured Efe that the mobilization has been higher than last year and, although they have not given participation figures, they have considered the participation figure to be much higher than that estimated by the Urban Police.
The feminist entities calling for the mobilization appeal in the manifesto that was read at the end of the march to confront “the various forms and expressions of sexist violence” and call for “overthrowing the capitalist, heteropatriarchal, racist and colonial system.” “to build a society” in freedom, without sexist violence and with dignified lives.
These entities also defend moving towards a more just, equitable society free of violence in all its aspects, “from murder and violence within and outside the couple, to institutional violence, through vicarious violence, attacks on migrant women and racialized, sexual and digital violence, as well as the oppressions suffered by people with dissident gender identities.
The Feminist November platform also demands in the manifesto that was read at the end of the march “public policies, sufficient resources and means for everyone in the system of protection and recovery from sexist violence in all administrations; various protocols and circuits that they take into account that sexist violence hits differently” or the repeal of the immigration law, among other demands.
The demonstration brought together various representatives of different Catalan political parties. The Minister of Equality and Feminisms, Tània Verge, recalled that so far this year, sexist violence has claimed the lives of 14 women in Catalonia and has denounced the “reactionary wave” against the equality policies promoted by the extreme right
In statements to journalists, Verge pointed out that in the regional governments in which the extreme right participates, equality departments are closed and resources are cut to fight against sexist violence, and he has called not to take “one step back” in feminist politics.
On behalf of Junts, its president, Laura Borràs, has defended the need for this mobilization to “denounce all forms of violence against women”, from the most visible to the most invisible, and to support the victims of all of them, he also said at the beginning of the demonstration.
“We must also work to isolate, denounce and eradicate those more subtle, more daily, more deep-rooted forms of violence that are part of our lives,” said Borràs, who declared: “We will not let them corner us and trample on us.” .
The ERC deputy Raquel Sans, for her part, has highlighted the Government’s commitment to “eradicate sexist violence” and has appealed for everyone to “get involved in this fight” and to also put an end to sexist violence, also of a type “invisible”.
The organizers have called on the protesters to wear Palestinian scarves in solidarity with the women of Gaza and the West Bank, as an explicit condemnation of the “genocide” in Palestine, and some of the protesters have worn this garment and some Palestinian flags have also been seen. .
“Violence against women is a global pandemic that crosses all borders and cultures. In the context of armed conflict, Palestinian women are doubly victimized, suffering sexual and gender violence, and greater exposure to poverty and vulnerability” , also states the unitary manifesto.
