A manifestation of a thousand colors, representing a feminism of a thousand colors. On March 6, the Fifth Action of the World March of Women of Euskal Herria (EMM), in the bridge of Santiago between Hendaia and Irún, overcame the administrative limitation imposed by the states. "This border is a political border imposed by nation-states, a military structure that reinforces the patriarchal and racist management of our lands," as recalled in the initial concertation.

On 17 October last year, Garazi Goienetxea Diez, paralysed in the organisation, has concluded with a "dignified" the initiative launched in the same place. A total of 300 people met on the bridge, continuing the demonstration launched by dozens of people from the old town house of Hendaia by Irun. In this fifth edition they have sought to make the transnational, border and migratory policies visible and denounced, "as instruments of a racist, colonial, capitalist and heteropatriarchal system, which oppress the lives of both migrants and those in their territories of origin". As it could not be otherwise, by quoting the border, he concluded to collide with the harsh reality of this system: that those who ultimately had a local citizenship could cross the border, while the immigrants who wanted to move from Irun to Hendaia faced the police ban. In other words, the racist and everyday reality, denounced by the EMM: systemic racism and, in this sense, the privileges that suppose whiteness and roles.

In essence, the consultation took into account migrated women who had worked in the organization and were unable to approach the border because of the risk posed by the administrative structure. Special thanks were also given to the groups of racist and migrant women who worked in the organization: "Without them it was impossible to carry out this action of generating cracks of the heteropatriarchal, capitalist, racist and colonial system."

They collected dozens of scarves sewn in different corners of the Basque Country, forming a line of claim: "Below all clouds, above all bridges, prepared feminists! "; "Deconstructing, building bridges"; "We change the lives of wives, without walls, without borders"; "We build borders with actions (des)"; "We build bridges to break borders, decent contracts to employees of our house! "Build bridges in Larrabetzu, building collective responsibility," and dozens of other variants were exposed. With the aim of channelling the anti-racist and decolonial approach, this was the final colossal of the collective reflection that has taken place in recent months. The collective reflection and the local elaboration of this handkerchief has been described by the organizers as “important”, since this participatory process has been based on different local realities.

"Decent lives for all women"

Representatives of the EMM raised the objective of building a movement that would "permanently" maintain the feminist, anti-capitalist and anti-racist struggle. Although they took one step further along this road, nothing concluded with Action V: "The road is long, everything is about to be done," says Goienetxea Diez.

From the border, they pointed out the determination to continue working for a movement that recognizes all the people living in the Basque Country: "Our feminism wants to build a territory that guarantees a dignified life for all the people who live in it." In this regard, the EMM needs to recognise and denounce "structural racism", "institutional racism" and "social racism in standardisation" on the streets.

But both from Hendaia and from Irun, they also highlighted the step of the recognition and acceptance of personal "responsibility": "Destroying the invisible limits is essential. In this sense, we propose to position ourselves as part of this racist structure, assume our responsibility to deal with the causes of violence suffered by migrated and racist women and not be able to deal only with the symptoms".

Goienetxea Diez adds that white feminist Basques are also challenged to invent the path towards anti-racist struggle, “always bearing in mind that we are not the white subjects of this oppression.” For this exercise, the 5th edition of EMM points out that it has left interesting elements: "It has served to channel through the mouths of racist and migrant women what they said", "it has served to define what the border means ... to know where we want to look at migration", etc. For example, it has also served to define the ‘bridge’, the main term of this edition: "Bridges do not mean the same for all migrants, as the bridges that served to connect people have never become walls and do not allow people to pass, where people are discriminated against, stepped down, rejected and even killed."

Redefined the bridge as a ‘bridge wall’, at the end of the manifestation they formed a long line of rags between the ends of the bridge, "collectively and individually, to demolish, desire and dress with a new rumor". Artist Zarys Falcon rounded the message, completing the creation based on the borders.

The Fifth Action had to be completed in a context ridden by the COVID-19 pandemic, which "makes the road very difficult", 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 agents of the Basque Country decided to postpone: "We were told it was an important opportunity to put on the table the anti-racist axis, to have the site that I needed and to encourage people to collective reflection, and so and in the context of COVID-19 we decided to postpone. The people have taken the dynamic with joy, because they needed it as it was said in Durango," says Goienetxea Diez. We recall that at the 2019 Feminist Conference of the Basque Country in Durango, racialized and migrant women of the movement emphasized the need to incorporate a decolonal and antiracist vision into the feminist movement.

During this time of COVID-19, promoted by the logic of isolation and repatriation, the attendees also thanked that the streets were filled with demands and brotherhood, always guaranteeing coexistence and health measures. Proof of this are the steps of laughter, laughter, scream and dance.