Women call strike in Chile on March 8

Chilean women, union and social leaders called a Feminist Strike on March 8 to denounce the inequalities and patriarchal violence that prevail in the country.
The March 8 Women’s Coordinating Committee, the December 19 Coordinating Committee, the Territorial feminist network, the Mapuche Women’s Network, the Secretariat of Migrant Women, the Female Journalists Network, and numerous women professional and union associations are among the organizers.

Nuriluz Hermosilla, spokeswoman for the March 8 Women’s Coordinating Committee, after the call to protest was launched on Monday, she pointed out that ‘this mobilization is against the State’s patriarchal violence, extractivist, violent capitalist to the point of abusing and killing us.’

Janela Garcia, from the Mapuche Women’s Network, asked all Chileans to accompany the indigenous people because ‘we do not want to continue under this State that oppresses us’, and demanded the release of the Mapuche political prisoners and people arrested for being involved in a popular revolt on October 18, 2019.

Vesna Madariaga, President of the Association of Officials at the Ministry of Women and Gender Equality, said that the women’s general strike seeks to denounce ‘this Government’s policies to make our working conditions and women’s autonomy more precarious.’

Claudia Hasbun, leader of the National Association of Fiscal Employees, pointed out that public sector workers were working from home during pandemic, and they are currently facing a reform so the Government can make public employment more precarious, thus mainly affecting women.

Meanwhile, Barbara Figueroa, president of the Central Labor Federation, called on all public and private union organizations, in the countryside and the city, to be an active participant in the women’s general strike ‘so that not only women’s voice, but also that of all oppressed people are heard.’