More than 90 feminist organisations from Spain and 12 countries have co-organised the 3rd Abolitionist March to be held this Saturday 8 May. It is promoted and organised since 2019 by Women for Abolition -Women for Abolition, calls for theabolition of prostitution, pornography and reproductive exploitation (uterus for rent). The first edition took place in presence, in the neighbourhoods most affected by prostitution in Barcelona, with the collaboration of French comrades and the survivor Rosen Hicher. A historic day that opened a breach in Spain. There were tensions with women prostitutes protesting on behalf of pimps and with activists in favour of the regulation of prostitution throwing coloured powder as the procession passed through the most confrontational area (as it turned out, paid-for it). But there was also the gratitude of citizenship. The national press, including major TV channels, agencies and newspapers, widely reported the initiative.
The Second Abolitionist March was to take place in the streets of Madrid 9 May 2020, but had to take place virtually because of the pandemic. Despite this, it achieved an unexpected international participation in social networks. This second edition closed with a final congressand held in September in virtual mode. Among the speakers were prominent names such as Julie Bindel, Gail Dines, Janice Raymond, Ingeborg Kraus, Renate Klein, Raquel Rosario Sánchez and Alika Kinan. On that occasion, a debate on the abolition of gender and workcarried out with the collaboration of 29 Spanish and international feminist organisations. In conclusion, the Poster which collected thousands of signatures in support.
The third march, this Saturday 8 May, will have the same virtual format and it is hoped that it will have an even greater international projection. The distance travelled by the 3rd March will be calculated by attributing one kilometre of road for each interaction in the social networks. Also in September this year there will be a Congress with speakers from radical feminism.
WHO ARE THE MUJERES POR LA ABOLICION
"Women for Abolition (Women for Abolition) is a non-partisan collective of women from all over Spain.
We are abolitionists of prostitution, surrogacy, pornography and gender. Through the organisation of conferences and through our social networks, we explain the need to eradicate these patriarchal institutions and practices.
Supported by other collectives, we started the First March Abolitionist of Prostitution and Womb for Rent in Spain. We will continue to promote these kinds of demonstrations in the streets (when COVID restrictions allow it) and on social media in order to achieve the adoption of abolitionist legislation that protects and guarantees women's rights.
We spread feminist theory with the aim that our genealogy be recognised and create a social conscience about the sexual oppression of women and girls worldwide.
Women for Abolition was established in September 2018. We currently have one virtual community of 30,000 people in the following social networks:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MAbolicion
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MAbolicion
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mabolicion
Web: https://mujeresporlaabolicion.org/
III Abolitionist March 8 May 2021
MANIFESTO (in original version here )
III Abolitionist March on prostitution, pornography, reproductive exploitation of women and sex roles.
Women for Abolition calls on the feminist movement and women's civil and human rights organisations to adhere to this Manifesto and participate in the actions.
This is based on the following complaints:
- Prostitution is a form of extreme violence against women and girlsIt represents an international billion-dollar business (in Spain alone it generates profits of more than €5 million a day) that turns women into commodities, through the sexual domination of men over women.
Therefore, prostitution is obviously a patriarchal institution, a practice that violates human rights, reifies and commodifies women's bodies.
The abolition of prostitution is built on theelimination of demand and resolution of what causes it, i.e. sexual inequality.
Criminals in the prostitution industry, pimps and whores, must be prosecuted by law.
We are fighting for the law to consider prostituted women as victims who must be provided with the integral help they need to recover their freedom.
- The Pornography, being filmed prostitution, fits into and grows within the same moral, economic and social framework as the latter:
Pornography not only feeds on the patriarchal relationship of domination/submission, but is its essential condition, without which its construction would not currently be possible.
Pornography 'is real' because its consequences are real, whereby accepting the violence inherent in pornography means opening the door to accepting misogyny in all aspects of women's lives, of
consequence of the normalisation of sexual violence.
In Spain, there are very few instruments to denounce the violence of which women are victims in the world of pornography, because the porn prostitution industry escapes the law, which is indifferent to it (the consumption of pornographic material is neither regulated nor punished), leaving women defenceless.
For all these reasons we demand a abolitionist law of the prostitution system that considers pornography as another aspect of it, fight both and make sure that offenders are punished and women victims are protected.
- A Another aspect of patriarchal domination is the appropriation of women's reproductive capacity.e:
A biological capacity cannot be ceded to a third party because it does not exist without the woman as a whole.
Motherhood is a biological fact whose physical and emotional implications cannot be made the subject of a contract.
The use of women for reproductive exploitation (infamously known as the uterus for rent) is not a technique; we women are not a useful tool for the fulfilment of others' wishes to have offspring who
share their genetics.
̚We also know that The only interest of those who advocate 'altruistic' regulation is to facilitate the registration of girls and boys born abroad by commercial means.
It makes neither legal nor moral sense for reproductive exploitation to be prohibited in Spain while at the same time encouraging the purchase of babies in other countries, allowing the 'legalisation' of the situation of a child who is a product of the crime of human trafficking.
An urgent global prohibition of this practice and greater involvement of international and supranational bodies in defending the human rights of women, girls and boys.
Finally we are opposed to transactivism and its essentialisation of sex roles.
Attempts to justify and naturalise the situation of subordination that we women suffer are nothing more than yet another social tool of patriarchy to subjugate us: sex roles.
Gender is the educational tool that is used to perpetuate and sustain patriarchy through gender roles.
As radical feminists We CANNOT conceive of sexual oppression being conceptualised as something of identity (We do NOT believe in the concept of 'gender identity'. nor do we support the medical/pharmaceutical industry which revolves around the idea that sex roles are something innate).
- With these objectives we therefore call for the III ABOLITIONIST MARCH of prostitution, pornography, reproductive exploitation and sexual roles, online, 8 May 2021 and we expect this action to have an international resonance.
We invite you to sign this manifesto and help us spread it, because this is a fight that needs all our support. You can sign it here:
