Radio Mundo Real

Over 90 countries will participate in the call to a women´s strike to take place on March 8th, International Women´s Day. In Uruguay, the strike is called by the Feminist Coordination of Uruguay, which will organize a mobilization through 18 de Julio Avenue, in Montevideo.

The meeting point will be at Libertad Square, at six o´clock, and then the demonstrators will march to the University of the Republic; there will be artistic events, and carnival comparsas made up by women with 200 drums will join the march. Then the participants will read a statement.

“The strike is not only related to waged work, but to the work carried out daily in our homes, such as washing, cooking, taking care of children or elderly adults”, said Cecilia Menéndez, member of the Feminist Coordination of Uruguay in an interview with Real World Radio.

“The key themes surrounding the strike are linked to double shifts, feminicides and the violence against women experienced daily”, said Menéndez. It involves other issues as well, such as the right of women to decide over their own bodies.

The mobilization in Uruguay takes place in a special context. Eight women have been murdered in 2017 so far. “Misogynist violence is on the spotlight”, warned Menéndez. But the number of feminicides is not decreasing.

The Feminist Coordination of Uruguay was founded in 2014 and is composed of feminist groups and women who are not part of any organization.

March 8th will mark “a day of strike, struggle, resistance and mobilization”, said the Coordination, which also proposes to conduct meetings in the streets and in workplaces, in order to assess the possibilities to change this reality.