A chronicle of Women Meetings 
National Conference of Women: U na unique experience in the world
By Pilar Sánchez *
H an toured the country. Thousands of women each year the star. Silenced by the media, they grew to the 20,000 gathered and grew the women's movement in Argentina. Are much more than a thorn in the government and the reactionary sectors of the Church and so far nobody managed to break them. What are the meetings for all this?
" The first Meeting of Women which is the Chaco I (1998). I do not know what it was a workshop, did not understand why he was in such a place, I sat on the bus with the same people that sold raffle and cakes to go, what they told me I had to do was worse, it was an entity. I went to the meeting as a motorcycle helmet, and I hammered: they broke the hull. And I said `how can it be?" Because I was not a single workshop, I went door to door and each did not speak, but could participate by listening. What I heard was like watching stop life elsewhere in the room, you see how it changes your perspective, how do you change the light at dawn, and when the sun is up? It was another life. "
Thus says Mary F., casually reels off his story, as most of the conversations that take place within 18 hours it takes the bus from Tucuman, which has just completed the 24 th Meeting to Buenos Aires. With alcoholic parents, teenage pregnancy, a boyfriend who was separated, married a couple 14 years older, with another compulsion: the game. In the vortex of addiction that were losing jobs and homes, to touch the marginalization and finally saturate, with two small children in a semi-occupation and semi-destroyed building. Mary was the economic and emotional support the family. Knit, caring kids, cooking and selling bread, moved up four floors and the bottle for cooking, ran the misery and kept a minute. Protected punchy a decent life for their children, and was fighting for "change" to a husband who "wanted." "I came back stronger Chaco, with what he heard, with the potential felt I had, with the hope of working, chatting, someone had offered me the trip, start studying ... I took care of one baby and came at 8, got 8 less room, I lay beside him in bed and said, 'I came from Chaco, listen carefully to what I say: I'll start the Magisterium. In three years, if not changed, you leave this house. 'll Give you three years. " It was like the light in my life. No, like the rainbow. Then came the trip to Bariloche, it was like my head began to open slowly. "
The story belongs to Mary F. Share it with thousands of others the amount of suffering and oppression gender. The account of his experience shows how to extend the meetings on the trip back. And how those three days per year go much further, rooted in the life of each of the participants. As always said one of its greatest defenders, Mary Conti, and was repeated in 2009 in Tucuman: "Something changes in every woman who participates."
What are the National Meeting of Women to constitute experience, unique in the world? What keeps them alive and growing for 24 years? What makes thousands, despite the distances, lack of resources, the crisis, concur challenging the mandate that women should stay at home caring for "their" family? How is it possible to meet and convene, when the mainstream media have been silenced over the years?
Making History
Perhaps recognizing the path made by the meetings, which were appropriate to recall its origins. Back in 1985, a group of Argentine women who participated in the Non-Governmental Organizations Forum in Nairobi, Kenya, during the closing of the Decade for Women (July 1985), again impacted by the injustices related, especially by women from Asia, Africa and Latin America. "In almost all cases above, the subordination of women-at times bordering on slavery - was the common denominator. The memory of this fact, together with observed reality in our country of the almost total absence of women on lists of the various political parties without the ability to access important functions and decision was trigger ", count in the final publication of the First (or" Little Book of Encounter ", below: LE1).
The initiative caught quickly, paid by many factors. Was framed by the global development of women-related issues, from the Decade of Women 1975/1985 UN. Fed on the experiences of Latin American Feminist Encuentros, made in 1981 in Bogotá, in 1983 in Lima and in 1985 in Bertioga. In these two key principles were affirmed in the subsequent history of our Meetings: freedom and performance workshops.
and joins the tradition of struggle of Argentine women. In those years, fresh out of the dictatorship, the example of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo was a milestone in history where many women resisted and fought against genocide and oppression, twinning with silent and anonymous heroes who fought wars since independence. Argentine women were pioneers in the defense of specific rights: the 8 March as International Day of Working Women was commemorated here since 1923 by women socialists and communists. Feminists were further advanced in the complaint of domestic violence.
Finally, other more specific reasons women waved and encouraged the completion of the first Meeting: 1985 was an election year, and the female presence in the lists was very low. Austral Plan Year, the closure of factories and layoffs, a group of women had reached the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires and settled with a hunger strike were the wives of workers at Ford, which occupied the plant for 18 days. Times were also in the government of Alfonsin and his project of "third historical movement", behind which I thought to involve women.
just emerged from dictatorship in 1984, had been established in Buenos Aires the Multisectoral Women, which brought together women from different parties politicians, unions, feminist groups, housewives, professionals, work for specific claims. Convened the March 8 to a great act in Congress, delivered to lawmakers request. Among other campaigns, then fought the change of custody, which excluded women. Many of these women in the Multisectoral will be the first self-summoned, they become "of the Promotion Committee Meeting." There were among them radical, feminist, Peronist, socialist, communist revolutionary communists, women human rights organizations, Catholic, conservative popular developers.
The First National Women's Meeting held on 23, 24 and May 25, 1986, at facilities of the Centro Cultural San Martín, in Buenos Aires. Their organization demanded, symbolic figure, 9 months. At the time of opening the city was in chaos, two political events, taxi strike, inconvenience in transportation. However, a thousand women attended the event. Many of them came from different provinces, and some came from abroad.
The conference was a success, but the 43 pioneers who first called out something that went far beyond: they set up bases of operation made it possible key Meetings continued until today.
The "spirit" that gave body
If we reread the "book" the first meeting, we repeated the words "joy", "enthusiasm" , "hope", "respect." As for the women's language, feelings and ideas are not split: those words also reflect a job offer and a way of dealing with it. That first organizing committee provides operating guidelines for these meetings, will autoconvocados, independent, pluralistic and horizontal, federal and profoundly democratic.
" the Autoconvocatoria was done slowly and with great effort, in all social and cultural levels, for this early commission and the women who were approaching (... ) Everything was realized with a complete horizontal and refrain from any representation. It was a unanimous decision of the organizers, working without a command structure, "explain in LE1. The commission was organized into working committees and general plenary sessions, with only recent resolutions. This is allowed for 24 years, in each of the provinces where the meetings were, dozens of women, the more heterogeneous characteristics, participate, learn and grow with your organization. An organization that is calling, develop the program where to get work, accommodation and food, to find economic resources to process the declaration of national, provincial and municipal levels to facilitate attendance, organize the opening, workshops, activities, rock, up and closing to ensure the functioning of the conference ... all this for an event that has gathered up over 20,000! All Committees came graceful.
From the beginning, too, women fought tooth and nail autonomy, with a golden rule: do not accept any assistance that involves conditioning.
emptying Victims favorite in this society are the words, sought to plurality, horizontal and democracy are not merely recitations, and elected as a form of performance workshops. "We committed to not create situations in which a person spoke and the other had to listen" (LE1, opening remarks). In the workshops, the "heart" of meetings, all have an equal claim to the word: there is no hierarchy, social status, fame, title, age militancy granting any privilege in its use. Each also speaks his own voice, no representation or is represented. " "We've been around women of different political persuasions, from different social sectors. (...) But we have all individually, talking to our own voice "(LE1, closing remarks.)
" here have expressed opinions, ideas and points of view (...) The very fact that the conclusions general are not meeting, but own their own conclusions or synthesis because in some cases are not conclusions but reflections on particular topics of each workshop is an expression of respect for not imposing unique findings of the majority, when these findings are not unique (LE1, Closing Remarks). So in the workshops do not vote: the conclusions recorded the consensus views and the others.
Also in that first time was torn down the barrier between private and public life, including specific issues and politicians, who often stop the struggle of women: "The passage domestic life, understood as the exclusive place assigned to women, to action and organization, understanding that politics is not only the public arena but also covers the field of private, is something that has emerged as a very clear result of some of the conclusions of this meeting, and has much to do with our lives of women "(LE1, closing words).
Continuity and federalism were then a proposal: "... this is not a closure, in the strict sense of the word, but the opening of new meetings in all provinces inside the country" (LE1 .) Dream come true, federalism has expanded the number but also the quality of participation: Meetings voiceless women around the country and, through them, the realities, problems and struggles through it. By ratifying it, from the VII Meeting, held in 1992 in Neuquén, added "progress": blocks and blocks of women of all ages make up a colorful and diverse group, which accompanied by songs, slogans, joy and enthusiasm in every town uncovers event that brings together the issues that concern and fighting spirit.
Hope and Change
insist on the "spirit" of the meetings is tantamount to defending a successful way to find women in Argentina to grow his movement. Does not negate the recognition of the changes that occurred over 24 years, nor the need for new production, the development of this tool of struggle.
So far the first meeting here, the workshops were extended not only by the number of participants but also the issues that touch. Some, like those in question have to do with problems that have worsened dramatically in recent years. During this time, too, thousands of women who remained silent the first few times, they became activists for gender demands. Miles found that the oppression in their daily lives is not a destination, and began to lead the individual to the collective level, to recognize social and political causes. Conversely, many who focused their first battles in the political arena, they discovered a specific problem.
Encounters over the years reflected the impetuous growth of the participation of women in gender struggles, and above all, social, who traveled our country, and its Once validated and helped this growth.
Mary F., our initial rapporteur is a good example to conclude this note. Mary has followed and finished his studies, eventually separated from her husband, who in 2001 was picketing. "It burned tires, but my kids do not missed a meal. I went to the meetings and injected me energy, because in the neighborhood organizing workshops, for example, saw what women did and was exemplary. I taught them to do 40 soy cutlets with two handles, and they taught me to live on two dollars, with dignity and joy. "
Today, she has a job, followed by a tertiary career, she joined a social membership, is proud of his young sons and reset your emotional life. "The Meeting of Women, to me, was meeting the woman I am: they allow you to find. Because you see the courage of others, because my story is not unique, there are hundreds, and when you have this look, you start to see in the eyes of other women. So I'll tell you as openly, because it is hopeful, that is, they can. Is the healthiest thing that can happen: one to have hope that something can change. "
* Journalist.
Full story: Revista La Marea N ° 33. Year 16, Summer 2009 - 2010. ISSN 1851 - 6130
