Women’s Section of the PCE/ May 16th
The Meeting of the EL-FEM women’s network took place on the 11th-13th of May at the Hall of the Club Náutico in Benalmádena (Málaga). Women from different countries discussed the impact of the crisis on the female population in Europe.

Feminist and Left Alternatives in the Europe of the Markets summarizes well the objective of this meeting which intends to reinforce mobilizations in all the Continent against the cuts affecting the rights and the life quality of women.

After listening to all the speeches we know even better that women are more vulnerable to this crisis as that they occupy the most precarious and worst paid jobs.

The Women's Section of the PCE organized the Meeting of the Women's network -EL FEM- of the ELP, an organization that is formed by political forces struggling to transform and go beyond the capitalist system where both the PCE and the IU belong.

We chose Andalucía because the election results represent the first electoral defeat of neoliberal politics which intend to solve the crisis by sacrificing workers. After that we have seen the defeat of Sarkozy in France and the elections in Greece where the left has gained the second position with a difference of around 80.000 votes from the winning party.

The comrades participating were from the Workers Swiss Party, the Communist Party of Austria, Refundazione Comunista from Italy, the Communist Party of France, AKOA and Synaspismos from Greece, the Left Alliance from Finland, the New Cyprus Party from Northern Cyprus, Die Linke from Germany, the Red Green Alliance from Denmark, United Left from Spain and different federations of the Communist Party of Spain, PCE (Andalucía, Madrid, Cataluña, Pais Valenciano, Castilla León, Castilla La Mancha and Aragón).

Other women were invited such as Tahina Ojeda (researcher at the Institute for development and cooperation of the Complutense University of Madrid) who talked about the struggles and achievements of the Venezuelan women in the context of the revolutionary process; and Alba Teresa Higuera (member of the supporting table for Human Rights of women and peace in Colombia) who told us about the situation of Colombian women in conflict zones; also Vania Martins, the coordinator of the Women's World March.

All together we were about sixty women in the Meeting interchanging and discussing ideas and experiences.

As a result of the discussion a draft proposal for a resolution was produced. It includes the analysis of the situation suffered by women in Europe which is defined by an increasingly serious loss of rights and achievements of the working class which hits women more strongly due to their vulnerability. We shared the idea that women are being pushed back to the traditional domestic role as the Welfare State is being destroyed. Women will have to be responsible for all the work which will no longer be assumed by the State.

This proposal will be discussed by the different parties that form the ELP together with feminist organizations. The resulting document shall be included in the ELP Citizen's initiative which intends to focus and listen to all European citizens who wish to eliminate the dictatorship of the financial markets and achieve a social development based on solidarity and respect of the environment.

The Coordinator of United Left and now Vicepresident of the Autonomous Community of Andalucía, Diego Valderas, as well as Maite Mola, Vicepresident of the ELP, and José Luis Centella, General Secretary of the PCE, also participated in this event.

Cristina Simó
Women's Secretary PCE

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