On International Women’s Day, March 8, millions of women around the world protested in marches, strikes, and rallies. In Rome, Non Una di Meno (Not One Less, a reference to the movement’s resistance to femicide and sexual violence), adapted to public health restrictions imposed on public marches by assembling a flash mob on the steps leading into the Piazza di Spagna with participants standing a full meter apart. The Guardian newspaper reported on Turkish refugees heroically attempting to break the xenophobic ban on immigrants by the Greek government and its EU backers, clapping to honor the women and children who marched to demand asylum.

Without a doubt, Latin America was the epicenter of the mobilizations. Women in Argentina and Mexico turned out by the hundreds of thousands in marches on March 8 and in national strikes the following day. In Argentina, the focus was on legalizing abortion in the country, and in Mexico women protested gender violence. The Mexican government reports 3825 women met violent deaths last year, while incidents of femicide have rocketed by 137% in the last five years.

In Chile, aerial views of Santiago showed demonstrators as far as the eye could see. The goal was to use the March 8 mobilizations to launch a new wave of national resistance to austerity and rule in the interests of the rich. A large women’s conference in January in Chile drew women from many countries and led to an important “Transborder Call for a Feminist Strike on March 8 and 9, 2020.”

A link to the call for a Feminist Strike is below:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1f-fg139LM3cTP4CNmZ77J2UwUmlOw5pH