On Saturday, on the bridge between Irun and Hendaia, the Women’s World March of Euskal Herria began the Fifth World Women’s March with the motto “Resist to live, on the move to transform!”. To action. It aims to carry out a series of acts to denounce the role of transnational corporations and borders in the colonial racist system and to highlight “the violence that the West exerts on the territories and people of the South”.

About 200 women have gathered at the border between Gipuzkoa and Lapurdi to denounce the violence that occurs around the borders of the Basque Country. “This border has been imposed on us by the National States and divides Euskal Herria; by the way, it reinforces the ‘Fortress Europe’. That is why we have come to make it visible, to denounce the violence that occurs around this border. But what's at its base? Racist and colonial migration policies,” they read.

“Above all the bridges! There are no limits! Not transnational ones!” is the motto of the action that has been launched in Euskal Herria. Attention has been paid to the bridges, so the limit in the form of a bridge has been chosen to start the action, also taking advantage of the time of reading them: “We believe that bridges have not, nor have they today, had the same meaning for all migrants. Because if they were ever to relate, they have now become walls, which impede people’s passage and cause discrimination, oppression, marginalization and death.” In this sense, the bridge walls have declared the need to crack them.

In Saturday's action, scarves have been used to draw cracks in the walls of the bridges with this purpose of breaking bridges. The initiative launched on 17 October will take bridges throughout the journey that will become a symbol and go from people to people until 6 March is put to an end at the same point of departure. It is also necessary to ensure the participation of peoples and the objective of action.

Call to Hausnar

The Women's World March of the Basque Country, through a march that will go through the peoples, invites the citizens to participate in the initiative. Based on the reflections made by the migrated and racist members of the anti-racist and feminist movement, it encourages people to observe migration from a decolonial perspective. In this way, through this exercise, it is intended to sew the proposals and actions that have been put on the table through the bridges and scarves of the peoples to cause cracks in the racist, colonial, capitalist and heteropatriarchal system.

The starting point for reflection has been the World Women’s March itself: “We must question and denounce transnational corporations, borders and migration policies as tools of the racist, colonial, capitalist and heteropatriarchal system. We must also reflect on the privileges on which the well-being of Europe is guaranteed and on what role and responsibility we have in this logic: What would you do if your country were invaded by foreign companies, contaminated by water, devoured by forests, persecuted by activists and killed? What do you think of the millions who are engaged in arming the limits? Under what conditions do migrants work in Basque households?”