The most oppressed, the women, are the ones who have risen on this strike. And the movement that has worked most in recent years to sew the network of militant peoples and mobilize the street has managed to channel the anger of an increasingly complicated society in their daily lives: The motto “Long live the feminist struggle!” (and in Basque) is the one that has shouted 200,000 people the most. The 8M has been shown to be the most transversal struggle that currently exists in Euskal Herria, as it has gathered in the street most parties that practically do not vote. The old feminists who, year after year, have lived that day on the street defined the strength of the moment with the words “historical” and “turning point”.

This year, the Feminist Movement has launched a very demanding tool that can further influence the coming years: Strike, thus curbing in practice the capitalist and patriarchal society, obstructing at the same time all its bases: production in the workplace, care at home, consumption in the market and the field of thought and study. This form of struggle directly affects every citizen for a whole day in their living conditions, which gives such a revolutionary power to strike: from the men and women who have never thought about these issues to the men and women who feel “progressive” in the world of ideas, going from speeches to the exact and simple practice, all have found themselves powerless, the mirage of equality has evaporated, we have been left with their political vanity.

The force of “chaos”

Are you going to go on strike or not? The debate has been opened between the citizens of every corner of the streets of all the peoples. The key to making the strike an instrument of demanding struggle has been, in this first year, the “chaos” charged with political meaning: that only one claim has been made, “we women will plant”, and that no solution has been given to the problems that this liberates. Every citizen and agent has had to seek answers to the questions, problems and contradictions that have arisen. This has meant working on very different practices to respond to the basic objective: How do we make women's work visible in all areas? But as strong as the response of each agent has been the basis that has been debated to achieve this concrete practice, the reasons that have been worked out, the sense that each one has given to its actions, the politicization. This strike has put every agent into thinking and strategically undertaking from their side.

This ideological work has, to a large extent, focused on the mobilizations convened both in the morning and in the afternoon. This year’s M8 has been a day of struggle that has had nothing to do with the previous Women’s Days, in which messages of happiness were shared with the purple carnations as tiny as empty. And this year the concept of M8 has been the struggle of the workers who have transformed and filled it with content and that has had nothing to do with M1 Work Day becoming a party.

“Building a feminist Basque Country”

All the mobilizations heard very direct and forceful messages, and the people who have followed the work of the Feminist Movement in recent years have united each of these demands with a comprehensive political approach. "We are not in a mere protest. We are based on political proposals. Let's build a feminist Basque Country! They will not stop us until we can build a feminist Basque Country!” was that message the final message of the event that brought together most of the population after the demonstration in Bilbao. The discourse that the transformative left would sign worldwide is the one that the 8M Strike has socialized that day: With such a marked capitalist and patriarchal system, with data on the reality of its damage and with the integration of whole political approaches to achieve a good life for all. To this we must add that in all the capitals and peoples of Euskal Herria, the Basque Country has been the axis or one of the most important languages, and that it has been precisely defined what is the “our” field that must be built from feminism, the Basque Country of seven territories.

Since 8M it has become evident that the word “borders” to refer to the struggle that Feminism brings is an antithesis. “The base” is what Feminism places in dance, the “base” of current life, of the world, of the system, of the people (of what we have or what we want to build). It has never been a “border.” The “Ertza” or “center” is the place that other agents (the strongest being the media and political parties) give to the Feminist Movement and the issues that this movement raises. But that, in itself, is more of a problem for the media and for political parties. At this point, the Feminist Movement, with such clear political approaches and messages, has achieved a transversality of 8M that has broken the attachment of citizenship to the political proposals of any other agent.

“This has only just begun”

The feminist strike has been the opposite of the other strikes: ordinary strikes have made them general and a very high percentage of workers have stopped working in practice that day. But it is a small part of that working class on strike that has been actively involved in the mobilizations.

The 8M strike, in this first year, has been very plural in terms of calls, but what has prevailed in the workplaces has been the stoppage of a few hours. The number of people who have in practice carried out strikes in each area has been much lower than the number who have been mobilised on the streets. As the general and total support attitude it has achieved in the citizens, the challenge for next year is as follows: How do we get a general strike in practice, in employment, in education, in consumption and in care? Since the same M9 of this year there is an even stronger M8 that will put us back to dance our daily lives. The Feminist Movement has become even stronger following this mobilisation and has been confident that it will take advantage of the opportunity opened to it next year. Next year’s strike is not going to surprise anyone, and everyone is going to put their tools into practice even more.