A manifestation of a thousand colors, representing a feminism of a thousand colors. On March 6, the Fifth World March of Women of Euskal Herria (EMM) ended, on the bridge of Santiago between Hendaia and Irun, exceeding the administrative limit imposed by the states. "This border is the political border imposed by the national states, a military structure that strengthens the patriarchal and racist management of our lands," he recalled in his initial speech.

Garazi Goienetxea Díez, the organizer of the initiative, says that on 17 October last year they have given a "dignified" end to the initiative. Some 300 people congregated on the bridge, continuing the demonstration of several dozen people leaving the houses of Hendaye. In this fifth edition, transnational corporations, borders and immigration policies have been highlighted as "a tool of the racist, colonial, capitalist and heteropatriarchal system that tramples on the lives of both migrants and those in the territories of origin". No, with the border quote, there was a clash with the harsh reality of this system: that in the end those who had local citizenship could cross the border, while the immigrants who wanted to move from Irun to Hendaia had the police ban. That is to say, the everyday racist reality, denounced by the EMM: systemic racism and the privileges that bring whiteness and roles in this respect.

In essence, they agreed with the migrated women who had participated in organizational tasks and who, due to the risk posed by the administrative structure, could not reach the border. Special thanks were also given to the groups of racialized and migrant women who have worked in the organization: "Without them it was not possible to carry out this action of creating fissures of the heteropatriarchal, capitalist, racist and colonial system," he added.

They gathered dozens of scarves sewn in different corners of the Basque Country, forming a line of claim: "Below all fogs, above all bridges, prepared feminists! "; "We build bridges, we build bridges"; "We change the lives of wives, without walls, without borders"; "We build borders with (des) actions"; "We build bridges to break borders, decent contracts to our home employees! "Build bridges in Larrabetzu, creating collective responsibility," and you could see dozens of other claims. In order to channel an anti-racist and decolonial vision, this was the final colossal given to the collective reflection that took place in recent months. The organizers have described as “important” the collective reflection and local fabrication of scarves, as with this participatory process they have departed from different local realities.

"Decent lives for all women"

EMM representatives made public the objective of building a movement that "permanently" supports "the feminist, anti-capitalist and anti-racist struggle." Although a new step had been taken on this road, nothing had ended with action V: In the words of Goienetxea Díez, "the road is long, everything is yet to be done."

From the border, they expressed their determination to continue working for a movement that recognizes all the people living within the Basque Country: "Our feminism wants to build a territory that guarantees a dignified life for all the people who live in it," he added. Recognising and denouncing "structural racism", "institutional racism" and "social racism on the streets in the process of normalisation" has been considered essential by the EMM.

But they also stressed from Hendaia and Irun the step each one took to recognize and assume his "responsibility": "It is essential to eliminate invisible borders. In this sense, we propose to position ourselves as part of this racist structure, assume our responsibility to deal with the causes of the violence suffered by migrated and racialized women, and not only deal with the symptoms".

Goienetxea Diez adds that we also have the challenge of inventing the path of confrontation of white feminist Basques with anti-racist struggle, “always bearing in mind that we are not subject to this oppression”. For this exercise, the 5th edition of the EMM states that it has left some interesting elements: "It has served to channel through its mouth what racialized and migrant women had to say"; "it has served to define what the border means... to clarify where we want to look at migration", and others. For example, it has also served to define the ‘bridge’ that was the main term of this edition: "Bridges do not mean the same for all migrants, as bridges that have never served to connect people have become walls and do not allow people to pass, but discriminate, trample, marginalize and even murder people." After redefining the bridges as ‘bridge walls’, the manifestation ended with a long row of scarves from one end to the other of the bridge, “collectively and individually, to demolish, disassemble and wear a new leaf”. The artist Zarys Falcón was in charge of rounding the message, bringing creation to life from the borders.

The V Action was completed in a context rimized by the COVID-19 pandemic, and although this "makes it very difficult" the road, in general, the organizers have "very positively" valued the path taken. At international level, if last year the 5th edition of the EMM was held, the Basque Country officials decided to postpone it: "We thought it was an important opportunity to raise the anti-racist axis, to have the space that I needed and to encourage people to collective reflection, so we decided to postpone it in the context of COVID-19. The people have welcomed the dynamic with joy, as was said in Durango, because they needed it," says Goienetxea Diez. It should be remembered that at the 2019 Feminist Conference of the Basque Country in Durango, the women of the racist movement and the migrants emphasized the need to incorporate the decolonial and antiracist perspective into the feminist movement.

The attendees also thanked that in this time of COVID-19, propitiated by the logic of isolation and return home, the streets will be filled with demands and brotherhood, always guaranteeing coexistence and health measures. Proof of this are laughs, screams, dance steps.

Here is the time when they crossed the administrative border between Irun and Hendaia: