They have not waited any longer and have already published the news on the website and in the press of the City Hall, and we have also been able to see the t-shirts that have been made for this initiative. In other words, the opinion of the Equality Council is not valid for this City Hall.

In addition to denouncing the lack of transparency of the City of Ermua, we must also denounce the tricks and tricks it wants to use to neutralize the feminist movement of the locality, trying to occupy our historical space, breaking the unity of action on a date as symbolic as March 8. And that's what they're trying to achieve by organizing this march. The name of the march, "family march", has been quickly corrected, to prevent it from being so ostensible and ridiculous for the attendees.

Historically, we have been the women of the Equality Council, together with the Department of Equality, who have organised the celebration of this day. Now, however, they no longer like to hear our critical voices in the Council, they want to have a free way to organise activities for women, on the basis of a model that we thought had been overcome and that we cannot share.

As in previous calls, on February 14, women, from both the association and the association, met in an open assembly to build the collective between all and all M8. For that day, we agreed on a common programme of actions and demands that we wanted to share at the next meeting of the Equality Council, but, to our surprise, the City Council had already taken the decision, radically stepping away from the proposals of those of us who have a commitment to equality throughout the year and advancing that march in favour of women, but not counting on us. Is this your idea of participation?

We will continue to be organised and this year we will also go out into the streets to call for profound changes in our society. And we will be the ones who will decide in a consensual and participatory way the actions that we are going to take that day in Ermua, because we do not want anyone to organize family marches, or to bow with propaganda and support from a supermarket, and that seems absolutely inappropriate, especially if we are consistent with the allegations we make about capitalist consumption models and against the job insecurity of the women we did on the 2019 feminist strike.

This City Hall does not want to hear the demands of the feminist movement, but it will not be able to make deaf ears to thousands of women and also to men, that we are clear that 8M is women and that we do not need their guardianship.

We know what we want and what we do not. On 8 March we do not want protected marches, or more marches of women copied from other municipalities, or careers that already have room and we protect in other contexts (against cancer, librass, korrika…), because for us that is a day of claim.

Women have no reason to occupy the streets, and we want it to be heard loud and clear. We want an M8 built amongst all, and for this we have set up open assemblies in which we have unanimously agreed that a pledging demonstration will be held on that day, as we have done so far. We do not want an "Ermuakrosa" that dilutes our demands, but a manifestation like women from all parts of the world do, because it is the tool we use historically, because we are fed up with words and institutional photos, and because we do not need to "make a big party and make women absolute protagonists."

We want the City Hall to establish real equality policies, which address the Municipal Ordinance for Equality that has been kept in a box since June 2017, providing it with stable budgets and resources. It seems to us a lie that the mayor undertakes to allocate the money obtained from the sale of his t-shirts to the AMPAs of the educational centers to "carry out awareness-raising projects with childhood in the field of equality". Are you encouraged to participate? This clientelist merchant seems dirty to us, and we do not believe it to be an example of commitment to the development of feminist policies, but a confirmation of the continuous regression we suffer and feel so much in Ermua in this area.

We have already been warned by Simone de Beauvoir: let us not forget that a political, economic or religious crisis will suffice to call women’s rights into question. These rights are never acquired. You have to be on lifelong alert.

We are on alert!

Note:

We invite you to build the March 8 collective with us. Next meeting: Friday, 28 February, 18: At 00 at the Women's Meeting Point.

We also encourage you to participate in all the activities we will organize to celebrate International Women’s Day.

Informative tables in the plaza: from 27 to 28 February, from 18:00 to 20:00. 29 February, from 12:00 to 14:00 hours. 5 and 6 March, from 18:00 to 20:00: 00 and 7 March, from 12:00 to 14:00 hours.