Defiance and Protest Against Intensifying Violence and Patriarchy Against Women

“These are times of war, sisters… These are times of crisis and emergencies. They are killing us, they are raping us, they are forcing us to give birth, they are condemning us to death for not obeying.” Words that resounded in Mexico City’s Zócalo [main downtown plaza] in the November 25 protest around hate crimes against women. And there was no shortage of chants about the patriarchal system responsible for this: “This is going to fall. We are going to knock it down.”

Ten women a day on average are murdered in Mexico, with more than 90% of the cases unsolved, while the forces of “order” are dedicated to their repression of protests against this horrendous wave of violence. The same thing happens, no matter which party is governing. This is due to something deeper, to a system, the patriarchal, macho, male supremacist system which, now, is predominantly capitalist [in Mexico]. The horrors generated by this system can be ended, but to achieve this, a revolution will be needed.

Behind the figures are thousands of lives cut short. Like Mariana Sánchez, a 24-year-old medical intern assigned to a rural clinic in Nueva Palestina, Chiapas. Shortly after arriving, she was harassed by a fellow doctor who even forced open the door to her room and tried to grope her while she slept. She filed a complaint for harassment and sexual abuse with the police and also reported this to the director of the clinic, requesting her transfer and even trying to resign, but no one paid any attention to her.

She spoke to her mom on the phone for the last time on the last Thursday in January. She was distraught, she talked about harassment, and she was urgently trying to leave the clinic. By the next day, she was found dead, a victim of murder. The authorities rushed to declare this as a supposed “suicide” and to remove the evidence, burning the body, in flagrant violation of their own laws. They also lied, saying they were unaware of any complaint about sexual harassment and abuse. All of this is completely unacceptable and criminal.

Intense protests have forced the authorities to open an investigation into the murder, but it is not certain that justice will be served even in this blatant case. In so many other cases throughout Mexico, the same story of indifference or frank collusion by the authorities of all electoral parties is repeated, at the same time that they keep unleashing repression against people who protest so many misogynistic, women-hating crimes.

In Cancún, the police open fired on the protest of about 3,000 people on November 9, 2020 against the femicide of Bianca Alejandrina Lorenzana Alvarado, known as Alexis. Two protesters and two journalists were shot and wounded. One of the injured journalists refuted the lies of the authorities, “The police never fired into the air... [it was] like they were hunting us down.”

As the police attacked, they shouted, “Now these fucking women ain’t gonna be worth a rat’s ass.” They also savagely beat up and kicked people. They sexually assaulted the detained women, such as María Elena, who reported that, in addition to repeatedly hitting and kicking her, they rammed their fingers up her vagina. Defiantly, she exclaimed: “They beat me lot and I am angry because we were sexually assaulted. Even so, they are not going to stop us. This was my first march and now I will march much more.”

All authorities at all levels, from different political parties, denied their responsibility and tried to blame each other for the attack. Mexican President Manuel Andrés López Obrador tried to deny that the National Guard had participated, despite the fact that they actually formed a barrier to hold back part of the protesters and help the police in their aggressions. Although he criticized this blatant attack, he has encouraged the aggressions by denouncing other protests against misogynistic crimes as provocations by vandals instigated and exploited by “conservatives.”

Furthermore, all authorities have promised an investigation, as they always say, “that gets to the bottom of things,” but in fact they have not even wanted to examine the physical evidence of the people shot.

Other recent incidents of repression have occurred, among other places, in:

* León, Guanajuato: Repression by police with extreme violence and sexual groping against women who protested, in August 2020, the sexual assault of a young woman by the same police;

* Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua: The police violently attacked a protest around the attack in León, gender crimes and crimes against the LGBT community, with a toll of 28 women and eight men arrested, severely beaten and without access to their lawyer. The protesters said, “The police protect monuments, advertisements and walls, but not me; they rape me.”

* Tijuana, Baja California: The police brutally beat women who were demanding the right to abortion on September 28, 2020, and put the detainees in unofficial vehicles without license plates and without informing about their whereabouts.

* Ecatepec, State of Mexico: The police violently evicted an occupation of the Human Rights Commission of the State of Mexico (COHEM), in addition to attacking journalists on scene. When they went to demand reports about their sisters who were forced into unmarked pickup trucks, the officers fired tear gas, and threw steel bars and benches at them that they ripped off the street.

* Mexico City: In addition to trying to stop several protests by means of aggressive encapsulations, jets of fire extinguishers and tear gas (although the authorities deny these were used), 11 women have been called to appear under indictment for alleged crimes for the simple fact of having been present at the demonstrations or of having favorable posts on their Facebooks.

It is no coincidence that the same pattern of impunity for horrendous misogynistic crimes and exemplary repression of people who are demanding an end to such barbarism is repeated, regardless of location or electoral party. This is not simply about bad authorities, this is about a whole system of patriarchal oppression of women, male supremacy and machismo. Basically, this is not a situation of the authorities “not doing their job.” This is their job, as representatives of the system, which is to defend the system that cannot do without the oppression of women.

Women's March

This is a system of oppression that permeates every aspect of society, from inequalities, machismo and beatings in the family (which have increased a lot with the pandemic, although the authorities try to deny or downplay this reality); through the ordeal of harassment, discrimination and contempt at school and work; to the deadly pandemic of femicides, disappearances and rapes, as well as the multi-million dollar industry of trafficking in women and girls, and of prostitution and pornography in society as a whole.

The growing rebellion and protest of women has exposed the incessant machista violence and the hand of the state in committing and covering up these crimes and is unleashing the repudiation of male domination and “traditional” patriarchal morality. This is part of the growing insurgency of women internationally that nurtures hope and demand for radical change. This has raised the question of what kind of radical change is needed.

The fight for certain reforms in the current system is necessary and possible, such as the right to abortion or the struggles to demand justice in cases of femicides and other crimes. With struggle, it has been possible to wrench out sentences against some murderers. Thousands of other murders remain in total impunity, and no women escape the patriarchal relationships and ideas that attack, humiliate and degrade women.

To put an end to the oppression of women, it is necessary to sweep away the entire patriarchal system and the current capitalist system which needs it and supports it in a thousand ways.

The oppressive patriarchal system is so present in every aspect of society that many people doubt that it can be eliminated. But science has shown that oppression of women has not always existed. In the early days of the human race, people lived for millennia in groups in which women participated equally. The subjection of women to men and the patriarchal family was accompanied by the emergence of classes, the exploitation of some human beings by others, which continues today in the capitalist form, in which a few big capitalists and imperialists exploit and oppress the vast majority of humanity.

The bases exist in today’s oppressive society for a very different and much better society: A socialist society as a transition to communism, the abolition of all forms of exploitation and oppression and the emancipation of humanity.

The fury of women in their millions has enormous potential to drive this radical revolution to liberate women and all human beings. The recent and inspiring awakening, protests and rebellion of women in Mexico and around the world are the first waves arising from a deep sea of fury and hatred against what it means to be a woman in this macho and patriarchal society. The fury of women must be unleashed even more as a powerful force for revolution.

Let’s now forge a movement for revolution that promotes and lives the values that will guide the future revolutionary society, fighting all forms of oppression and emphatically rejecting all forms of contempt, discrimination and harassment of women. With everyone, and particularly with men, you have to insist that either you are part of the solution or you are part of the problem.

Let’s fight for a new society not only with full legal equality for women but also with a profound struggle to

overcome all “tradition’s chains” embodied in traditional gender roles and divisions, and all the oppressive relations bound up with this, in every sphere of society, and to enable women, as fully as men, to take part in and contribute to every aspect of the struggle to transform society, and the world, in order to uproot and abolish all relations of oppression and exploitation and emancipate humanity as a whole.

This is in the words of Bob Avakian, the architect of the New Communism.

A new and much better world is struggling to be born from the rancid belly of the society in which we live. It takes the courage, determination and struggle of everyone to open up this new revolutionary dawn. Get in touch with us.

Long Live International Women's Day!

Break the Chains! Unleash the Fury of Women as a Mighty Force for Revolution!

Aurora Roja
Voice of the Revolutionary Communist Organization, Mexico

Download PDF in flyer format (Spanish): DIM2021.pdf

Download PDF in reading format (Spanish): DIM2021_texto.pdf

auroraroja.mx@gmail.com | http://aurora-roja.blogspot.com

In many parts of the world, women took to the streets to repudiate the patriarchal system, on the occasion of International Women’s Day.

In Mexico, there were demonstrations in almost every state. Everywhere, fed up, outraged and furious women demanded an end to femicide, sexual violence, enforced disappearances, harassment, beatings, and degradation against women—all products of this patriarchal and capitalist system. They also demanded the right to legal abortion.

In Mexico City, women expressed their outrage with great creativity. Since the day before, the barriers that protected the Palacio Nacional [the seat of the executive branch of the Mexican government] were painted with huge letters “Victims of feminicide” and then more than 2,000 names representing the tens of thousands of murdered women. For hours women arrived one by one and in small groups, some with flowers, to write the name of a woman or girl who no longer appears, or who was killed by her boyfriend, husband, by a policeman, or some stranger.

Names of victims of femicides, disappearances, and other causes, on the barrier around the Palacio Nacional.

They covered the ugly gray wall more than two meters high with the names of the stolen lives and fighting slogans. That wall was a symbol of the power of the state that has covered up feminicides and rapists, and whose own agents have committed many of these crimes, no matter which political party is in power at any level. This was one more grievance, which thousands of women turned into a powerful condemnation of male supremacy. The fence in front of the cathedral read “Get your rosaries out of our ovaries.” At night, on the walls of the Palacio Nacional, enormous slogans were projected, including “Mexico Femicide” and “Legal Abortion Now.” These actions were the prelude to March 8.

On March 8, thousands of women marched from the Monument to the Revolution to the Zócalo [main downtown plaza] in Mexico City. Almost from the beginning of the afternoon, small and large contingents, or groups of women, were heading out for the Zócalo. Perhaps there were more than 50,000 people, although the authorities talk about 20,000. Throughout there was an atmosphere of joy, sisterhood, indignation, and fury. These expressions could be seen and heard for almost the entire length of the march. The slogans were shouted with joy and fury: “Not One More, Not One More Woman Murdered,” “The Oppressive State Is a Macho Rapist,” “Listen, Women, This Is Your Fight,” “This Was Not Suicide, This Was Femicide.” There were posters of all colors held high with the same slogans and others such as “I am the voice of those who are no longer here,” “They sowed fear in us, we grew wings,” “If they touch one woman, all of we women will respond” (lines of Vivir Quintana’s song), as well as “Enough already with your fucking cynical government full of impunity.” Likewise, the protective barriers were painted with “Femicide State,” “It is not going to fall, we are going to knock it down” (in reference to patriarchy), “Not one more woman murdered, not one woman less missing.”

Names of victims of femicides, disappearances, and other causes, on the barrier around the Palacio Nacional.

There were also performances such as “Un violador en tu camino” [A rapist in your path], women ballet dancers in front of the barrier that surrounded the Palace of Fine Arts, women singing the song “Live without fear” that inspired chants from those who were listening, a group of women dancing and singing “Bella Çiao” with a contagious enthusiasm among those people who were listening and watching. In sum, a wide variety of creative expressions against all the horrors that women experience. And the participation of young girls accompanied by adult women, men who also accompanied their daughters; contingents of indigenous women. The participation of victims of rape or harassment demanding justice was notable, as well as relatives of victims of femicide and forced disappearance, who in many cases have been mobilizing for years to demand justice, punishment for femicides and the presentation alive of their disappeared daughters. 

Some contingents, especially young women, dressed in black and hooded, were “encapsulated” by the police for a long time, to try to prevent them from advancing to the Zócalo, but they were able to break out of the encirclement in a strong onslaught against the shields and gases used by the police, and thus they were able to continue their march.

Thousands of young people arrived and congregated in the Zócalo, very lively and also enraged when they found those large metal barriers, which the [Mexican president Andrés Manuel] López Obrador government erected in response to this beautiful demonstration. A provocation that screamed “No!” to the powerful outbreak of fury demanding justice and liberation. This could not contain the fury of the young women, in the face of so much indifference, impunity and complicity of the state, defender of a system that due to its nature, needs to maintain this oppression of women.

The marchers at the barrier around the Palacio Nacional. Photo: Ariadna Ortega

Many young women, who took turns at times, managed to knock down part of the barriers encircling the Palacio Nacional. It was a furious battle that lasted perhaps four hours, where the majority of women and some men kept trying to tear down other barriers. They did not succeed because from within the police, or perhaps the military—since you could not see inside—were throwing tear gas and spraying with fire extinguishers. Hundreds of young women were banging with whatever they could all along the barriers. As hundreds more supported them, they chanted a variety of slogans, especially “The López Obrador government is a macho rapist,” “They are afraid of us, they are afraid of us.” They did not stop expressing their joy for all the compañeras who kept trying to knock down other parts of the barriers.

This really was a defiant attitude, overflowing with hatred of oppression, by thousands of women who with a lot of justice and right, repudiate everything that they experience, and who yearn for all this to end, that they can live as human beings, and not as objects which can be degraded and discarded whenever. This represents an enormous potential for radical change and a totally different world.

The outrage expressed by the authorities who condemned the “violence” of the protests is totally hypocritical. What really outrages them is not just a few graffiti, a few broken windows, but the fury of women who no longer accept patriarchy and its hate crimes. You never hear such outrage from the authorities over the ten femicides a day [in Mexico], the countless disappearances, rapes, and abuses! This clearly demonstrates their heinous role as defenders of this criminal patriarchal and capitalist system!

Banner: “Unleash the fury of women as a mighty force for revolution!”

To get rid of this system, a whole revolution is necessary, which will make it possible to put an end to all the horrors that this system generates. As the banner carried by we communists and the compañeras of the Francisco Villa Popular Front-Independent says, “Unleash the fury of women as a mighty force for revolution!” The leaflet “State Repression Against Women Fighters and Crimes Against Women Go Unpunished — What Kind of System Does This?,” from the Revolutionary Communist Organization, Mexico, was also handed out.

Even with the pandemic, we salute everyone who was in the streets on International Women’s Day throughout the world, and throughout Mexico. The just rebellion of women who no longer let themselves be mistreated, and who rather go out in society to fight to demand another world, represents a hope for all those who hate oppression and yearn to live free. And this is also a challenge to take your place in the fight for the emancipation of women and all of humanity.

As Bob Avakian, architect of the new communism, has pointed out:

The whole question of the position and role of women in society is more and more acutely posing itself in today’s extreme circumstances—this is a powderkeg in the U.S. today. It is not conceivable that all this will find any resolution other than in the most radical terms and through extremely violent means. The question yet to be determined is: will it be a radical reactionary or a radical revolutionary resolution, will it mean the reinforcing of the chains of enslavement or the shattering of the most decisive links in those chains and the opening up of the possibility of realizing the complete elimination of all forms of such enslavement.

Download this article in Spanish in PDF format:
March 8 torrente vs patriarcado.pdf

Aurora Roja
Voice of the Revolutionary Communist Organization, Mexico

auroraroja.mx@gmail.com | http://aurora-roja.blogspot.com