In what context is Itaia born?

We have to understand in general this socialist process or breakdown of militancy that is taking place in the Basque Country. In the generations of parents, some forms of welfare state were developed both in Europe and in the Basque Country. As the standard of living improved, it was not necessary to fight with some cries, which led to depoliticization. Social pacts for the middle classes emerged, leaving the proletariat aside.

In this new post-crisis economic cycle there is a process of proletarianization, we no longer live in that state of well-being. Many new social movements are emerging, the strength that feminism has taken on a global level is evident. However, the tools created are not developed from a class perspective, the interests of the proletariat are abandoned and bourgeois tools are used. We have begun to question these political forms.

Where is the gender issue reflected?

Although it is an offensive against the entire working class, the devalued subject is the woman. If everyone's living conditions get worse, ours get worse.

What is the importance of the class approach in the liberation of women?

Capitalism is a general social formation. It influences a thousand factors using thousands of oppressions. It is understood that the base is economic, but it cannot be understood in that simplistic way. We understand that gender oppression is a precursor of capitalism, but it has turned it into its interests. It is convenient to keep the woman as a devalued subject for maximum performance. On the other hand, he is interested in creating hostility within the working class. During the duration of the system divided into classes, gender oppression cannot be overcome.

And how important is it to address the issue of gender in the labor movement?

Our conscience is part of this bourgeois society. We also reproduce oppression and attacks in the areas of militancy. If we want to build a society that ends with all farms and oppressions, we need to work all of them. Oppression will not be mechanically overcome, but the conditions for that process can only be offered by the socialist revolution.

Why is the subject the working woman?

Gender oppression is determined by the role of women in the production process. This function is a cultural form with women in very different ways, but it affects all of them. On the contrary, by understanding the strategic function of the gender problem, we realize that the subject of struggle cannot be placed in general, but in the question of the proletariat.

What does it affect them to defend these ideas?

Instead of seeing our ideas as a contribution, some understand them as a threat. The consequences of oppression are so terrible that a global awareness of the need to fight has developed. Criticizing that sensitivity has given rise to the impression that we were breaking with that movement, but we did not end feminism, but with its postmodern statements.

Feminism is spreading more and more. What do you think of this?

If we understand it as a movement that is committed to the liberation of women, we can also consider it a feminist. But it is important to understand feminism as an ideology, to analyze the strategies that it has historically developed. In our view, in most cases it has been an ideology that has followed an inter-class strategy.

The struggle of many women also starts to wake up.

This economic and political situation has created the need to respond, has awakened the political conscience of many women and has been a reason to go out into the street. This rise has been assimilated by capital. Today, any feminist and all political parties work feminism. It is a good thing that the passion for the struggle of women has been expressed in the world, but no real mechanisms have been developed to improve living conditions. In order to move forward, we must be able to place this passion in a revolutionary strategy.

What are the keys to liberation?

For the time being, our task is to delve deeper into the investigation of the different phenomena, to analyze the needs of working women, far from an inertia militancy. At this time of depoliticisation, we believe that political education and training are necessary. If we do not have the capacity to know what we are responding to, the political will becomes insignificant.

What are the challenges or desires that you have for the future?

Create mechanisms for the organization of working women in order to improve cultural and social living conditions. On the other hand, within the socialist line, gender oppression will be worked out and new models of relations will be created. Finally, to strengthen the capacities of working women to respond from a political point of view.