For a Feminism of Sisters of the Land
Sisters of the land,
Yet again, we have taken to the streets to make demands together, to raise our voices, join hands and defend our rights and the rights of our territories.
It has been a year of struggle and mobilization by the Galician people in defense of their lifestyle, water, land and air. As the slogan goes “dende a Ulloa ata a Ría, terra, auga e aire son vida!” (“from A Ulloa to the estuary, land, water and air are life”). Galicia is rising up against an unprecedented aggression from the multinational company Altri’s cellulose plant.
The consequences of this project, if it is completed, would be devastating. Among other issues, the entire Ulla river basin, which flows into the Arousa estuary, would be affected, with terrible effects on shellfish gathering and the fishing sector. The river has united women farmers from the “middle land” (translation of the place name “A Ulloa”) and women of the sea. The former are defending their territory, and the land they work and care for, against an exploitative model and the use of land for monoculture eucalyptus plantations and the latter are concerned about the quality of the water that provides for them, and without which their daily lives are no longer viable.
There was unprecedented media coverage against this project that would devastate and destroy the land. However there are also other, less visible struggles fighting against wind and solar mega -projects, irrigation expansion, industrial livestock facilities, mining, tourism and urban development projects. These interventions perpetuate a misguided idea of progress and growth, and accumulate profit in the hands of the few, in an attack against people and the territory.
Sisters of the land,
We have also taken to the streets together once again for the Palestinian people to show our indignation about the impunity of the genocidal state of Isreal. This impunity that is sustained by our governments. We are not indifferent to this injustice and suffering. We also admire the strength and resistance of the Palestinian people, rooted, like their olives and fig trees, in their connection to the land. It is a source of emotion and inspiration for us.
Sisters of the land,
We live in a wounded territory. The catastrophic flooding this year left pain and scars. It was also a reality check: we must transform this system that is putting us in danger. Climate change isn’t an abstract phenomenon or measured only in degrees, it also translates into our death, forced displacement and destruction.
We saw this image of the bridge of solidarity, with people making their way on foot from the city to the towns that had been carrying brooms and shovels, food and water, boots and utensils for strangers. We recognise that we’re vulnerable and that we have to put life before capital. A life in which communities take to the streets, light fires and cook for each other. But this year, others have been affected by climate events without receiving any media coverage, for example our sisters the day labourers who barely scrape a living in the shantytowns of Huelva and Almeria. The solidarity of society and support of administrations are yet to reach them.
We are moved by the slogan “the people save the people”, but we mustn’t forget that the people we vote for are also part of the people and that the public system also saves the people. There are countless seeds waiting to be reborn in this lands. And that rebirth allows us to envisage other ways of living in which leading a good life with healthy food, decent working conditions and good health have nothing to do with our postcode. A system in which no one is left behind.
Today we want to transmit an inspiring expression from the orchards of Valencia: “ A tornallom”. This is the name given to a form of communal work in which work is exchanged with no money involved. It’s a way of inhabiting a connected land. A way of life that nurtures the ties we have with those who live alongside us, one of the many gestures that build this narrative allowing us to still be here today. It can also allow us to invent ways of living that not only mitigate the impacts of climate change, but also contribute to slowing it down.
Because,
Sisters of the land,
It is women who care, who sustain their families and communities, who face the climate challenges, bearing an emotional and psychological burden that often remains invisible.
Rural women are on the front line of the struggle for a habitable future. We deal with growing ecoanxiety, constant and legitimate concerns about the effects of climate change. This fear, intensified by our direct contact with the land and natural resources, strikes us guardians of the rural environment hard. We are the first to suffer from the changes in natural cycles, droughts, floods and the degradation of the soil.
We live with anxiety, worry, sadness, insecurity, haste, guilt, and overburden, and are often forced to accept insecure jobs that destroy our environment. The system pushes us towards an individual search for survival, fills us with pills and medicalises our lives. Over-medication, self-medication, and medications without follow-up or an end date are not enough to stop us striving to defend our territory, the health of our bodies and that of our threatened communities.
Sisters of the land,
May our land flourish in spite of adversity.
We stand firm in hope and action, because we know that we have the keys to a liveable and sustainable future. But we find ourselves in a critical moment, in which the over-exploitation of natural resources, the privatization of collective goods and the advance of extractivist economic models threaten life on the planet and the social fabric of our communities. In the face of this crisis, we are raising our voices to reclaim and protect the commons, essential for life in our villages, to take care of the forests, pastures, aquifers, rivers, pastures, to protect all forms of life and our own. And to do it from communal lands, which belong to everyone and no one; open lands, without fences, horizontal, lands that welcome and nurture. Lands to be inhabited.
In a world dominated by a system of unlimited economic growth, we are facing an unprecedented ecosocial crisis. To counter this dominant model based on extractivist capitalism, we need a radical transformation in countries of the global North. Degrowth does not mean regression or impoverishment, but a change in priorities: we need to produce less and better; consume less, but with more awareness; live more communally and in balance with our bodies, the ecosystem and the territory.
We want to reclaim time as a time for living, as a way of inhabiting. We do not want to be trapped in this productive, bureaucratized time for exploitation and consumption. We want to promote desire and joy as effervescent and essential politics, from the lived commons, in contact with different realities. We vindicate co-existence, joy and festivity, with space and time to celebrate life, to gather together and to enjoy.
And we are not alone, because we carry the strength of all those who preceded us and of all those who will follow us.
For a feminism for all
For a feminism of sisters of the land
The poster is by Vanesa Freixa. You can download it here.
(*) We continue to use the categories of woman (and sister) because we still consider them to be useful for generating a political impact in the current context, but we are aware that we are diverse in terms of experiences, trajectories, capacities, bodies and identities. The asterisk is intended to represent all this diversity.
This manifesto was translated into English and voiced by Becky Stoakes,. You can listen to it here.
* This manifesto was made possible thanks to the collective work of Blanca Casares, Lareira Social, Leire Milikua, Lucía López Marco, María Montesino, María Sánchez, Patricia Dopazo, Ada and Irea from REAMA Friol, Ana Pinto Lepe from Jornaleras de Huelva en Lucha and Elisa Oteros. Sisters of the land is a manifesto for 8th March that has been promoted since 2018, by María Sánchez and Lucía López Marco.
