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<font size="1"><a href="https://www.thetricontinental.org/newsletterissue/15-2020-coronavirus-femicide/">https://www.thetricontinental.org/newsletterissue/15-2020-coronavirus-femicide/</a></font>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Femicide Does Not Respect the Quarantine</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">April 9, 2020</div>
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<p>
<span><a href="https://www.thetricontinental.org/es/newsletterissue/15-2020-coronavirus-feminicidio/"><span>Español</span></a></span></p><div id="gmail-attachment_17744" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><img src="https://www.thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Shehzil-Malik-Women-in-Public-Places-2012..jpg" alt="Shehzil Malik, Women in Public Places, 2012." width="950" height="426"></p><p id="gmail-caption-attachment-17744" class="gmail-wp-caption-text"><span>Shehzil Malik, Women in Public Places, 2012.</span></p></div>
<p>Dear Friends,</p>
<p>Greetings from the desk of the <a href="http://thetricontinental.org/">Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research</a>.</p>
<p>Days, weeks, months, an indeterminate amount of time as the world
seems paralysed by the journey of SARS-CoV-2. The lack of certainty
increases the anxiety. This virus, as Arundhati Roy <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/10d8f5e8-74eb-11ea-95fe-fcd274e920ca">writes</a>,
‘seeks proliferation, not profit, and has, therefore, inadvertently, to
some extent, reversed the direction of the flow [of capital]. It has
mocked immigration controls, biometrics, digital surveillance and every
other kind of data analytics, and struck hardest – thus far – in the
richest, most powerful nations of the world, bringing the engine of
capitalism to a juddering halt’. Lockdowns have now become almost
universal, the planet more silent, the birdsong richer. Arundhati Roy’s
cautionary ‘thus far’ is significant as the virus makes its circuit deep
into zones of extreme deprivation, into the slumlands of Dharavi
(India) and Cidade de Deus (Brazil).</p>
<p>A major United Nations <a href="https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/sg_report_socio-economic_impact_of_covid19.pdf">report</a>
with the hopeful title ‘Shared Responsibility, Global Solidarity’ says
that the global pandemic ‘is attacking societies at their core’. Social
and state institutions have been so hollowed out in many parts of the
world that they are simply not capable of managing either the health,
social, or economic crisis. The International Monetary Fund’s Managing
Director Kristalina Georgieva <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2020/03/23/pr2098-imf-managing-director-statement-following-a-g20-ministerial-call-on-the-coronavirus-emergency">said</a>
that there is no possibility of economic recovery before 2021. We are
in April 2020; it is almost as if the entire calendar year of 2020 has
been cancelled.</p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_17717" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><img src="https://www.thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Eileen-Agar-The-Autobiography-of-an-Embryo-1933-34.jpg" alt="Eileen Agar, The Autobiography of an Embryo, 1933-34." width="950" height="416"></p><p id="gmail-caption-attachment-17717" class="gmail-wp-caption-text"><span>Eileen Agar, The Autobiography of an Embryo, 1933-34.</span></p></div>
<p>One thing seems to have united a range of people: total bewilderment
at the failure of the bourgeois order, and a significant shift in the
belief in the ‘free market’ to properly allocate resources. Even the <em>Financial Times</em> <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/7eff769a-74dd-11ea-95fe-fcd274e920ca">takes</a> this view:</p>
<p><em>Radical reforms — reversing the prevailing policy direction of
the last four decades — will need to be put on the table. Governments
will have to accept a more active role in the economy. They must see
public services as investments rather than liabilities, and look for
ways to make labour markets less insecure. Redistribution will again be
on the agenda; the privileges of the elderly and wealthy in question.
Policies until recently considered eccentric, such as basic income and
wealth taxes, will have to be in the mix.</em></p>
<p>Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the UN Under-Secretary General and head of UN Women, <a href="https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2020/3/statement-ed-phumzile-covid-19-women-front-and-centre">wrote</a>
recently that the global pandemic ‘is a profound shock to our societies
and economies, exposing the deficiencies of public and private
arrangements that currently function only if women play multiple and
unpaid roles’. This is a sharp statement and bears serious reflection.</p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_17753" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><img src="https://www.thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Shia-Yih-Yiing-Miss-Nature-2016..jpg" alt="Shia Yih Ying, Miss Nature, 2016." width="457" height="640"></p><p id="gmail-caption-attachment-17753" class="gmail-wp-caption-text"><span>Shia Yih Ying, Miss Nature, 2016.</span></p></div>
<p><em>Health care workers.</em></p>
<p>Almost three in four essential frontline workers – from medical personnel to medical laundry workers – <a href="https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/311314/WHO-HIS-HWF-Gender-WP1-2019.1-eng.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">are</a>
women. It is one thing to bang pots and pans to celebrate these
workers, and another to accept their long-standing push for
unionisation, for higher wages and better working conditions, and for
leadership in their sectors of work. Almost all administrators in the
hospital field globally are men.</p>
<p>In India, the weight of any health care emergency is borne primarily
by the 990,000 Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) workers, by the
Anganwadi or childcare workers, and by the Auxiliary Nurse Midwives.
These workers – almost entirely women – are severely underpaid (their
low salaries often held for months on end), undertrained, and are denied
even the most basic worker protections (they are treated as ‘honorary
volunteers’, a ludicrous category deployed by the government). Last
year, ASHA workers were involved in a cycle of struggles to improve
their employment conditions; apart from small victories here and there,
they were largely disregarded (for more on this, see our interview in <a href="https://www.thetricontinental.org/the-only-answer-is-to-mobilise-the-workers-an-interview-with-k-hemalata-president-of-the-centre-of-indian-trade-unions/">Dossier no. 18</a>
in July 2019 with K. Hemalata, President of the Centre of Indian Trade
Unions). During this pandemic, it is the ASHA and Anganwadi workers who
are going house to house checking on families, doing so without basic
protection (such as masks and hand sanitizer). These are the frontline
public health workers who are now being rhetorically celebrated, but who
are not given the basic protections of unionisation, of job security,
and of adequate wages.</p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_17726" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><img src="https://www.thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Mo%CC%81nica-Mayer-Primero-de-diciembre-1977..jpg" alt="Mónica Mayer, Primero de diciembre, 1977." width="950" height="713"></p><p id="gmail-caption-attachment-17726" class="gmail-wp-caption-text"><span>Mónica Mayer, Primero de diciembre, 1977.</span></p></div>
<p><em>Reinforced gender roles.</em></p>
<p>Two years ago, the International Labour Organisation published a <a href="https://www.ilo.org/global/publications/books/WCMS_633135/lang--en/index.htm">study</a>
that showed that women perform 76.2% of unpaid care work – three times
higher than the rate for men. The ILO found that ‘attitudes towards the
gender division of paid and unpaid care work are changing but the “male
breadwinner” family model remains very much engrained within societies,
along with the women’s caring role in the family continuing to be
central’. This is the undisputed situation during ‘normal’ times; in the
time of the pandemic, this structural inequality and these cultural
biases become a torment.</p>
<p>Aspects of care work that had been lightened by the institutions and
structures of society are now shut down. Schools are closed, so children
are at home with pressure for them to be home-schooled; elders are not
able to meet each other in parks, so they are to be entertained and
tended to at home. Shopping is more onerous, and cleaning is more
essential – all tasks that evidence suggests fall on the shoulders of
women.</p>
<p><em>Violence against women.</em></p>
<p>Before the CoronaShock, on average 137 women across the world were
killed by a family member every day. This is a shocking number. As Rita
Segato <a href="https://www.revistadelauniversidad.mx/articles/9517d5d3-4f92-4790-ad46-81064bf00a62/pedagogias-de-la-crueldad">put it</a>,
not only have incidences of violence against women increased in
frequency since the CoronaShock; they have also increased in their
cruelty, as neo-fascist ideas of female subordination eclipse more
enlightened ideas about women’s emancipation. In Argentina, the slogan <em>el femicido no se toma cuarentena</em>,
or ‘femicide does not quarantine’, clearly points to the violence that
has been inflamed by the global lockdown. In every single country,
reports come in of increased violence against women. Support lines are
overflowing, shelters cannot be reached.</p>
<p><img src="https://www.thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/20200407_Rita-Segato.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="600"></p>
<p>In Trento (Italy), the prosecutor Sandro Raimondi declared that in a
case of violence against women, the abuser should leave the home, not
the victim. The Italian Confederation of Labour <a href="http://www.cgil.it/coronavirus-cgil-bene-procura-trento-in-caso-di-violenza-domestica-trasferire-maltrattanti/">said</a>,
‘Confinement at home because of the coronavirus is difficult for
everyone, but it becomes a real nightmare for women victims of
gender-based violence’. Such creative approaches against violence
against women are necessary.</p>
<p>The Coordinadora Feminista 8M of Chile has produced a <a href="http://cf8m.cl/">Feminist Emergency Plan for the Coronavirus Crisis</a>. This plan – which resembles in some elements the <a href="https://www.thetricontinental.org/declaration-covid19/">platform</a>
created by the International Assembly of the Peoples and
Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research – has four essential
elements:</p>
<ol><li>Develop strategies for collective feminist mutual aid. Build
solidarity and mutual aid networks that fight against individualism and
respect social distancing. First, conduct surveys of neighbourhoods.
Second, build teams to care for children. Third, mobilise health
professionals to assist the community.</li><li>Confront patriarchal violence. Build a mechanism to react
collectively to cases of violence against women. Produce
neighbourhood-based emergency plans for women and children to leave
dangerous situations, such as by the creation of emergency phone
hotlines and by the opening of shelters.</li><li>Call for a general ‘strike for life’. Strike against all productive
activities that are not oriented around health care; defend the right to
stay at home during the pandemic and produce a system of remuneration
for those who are carrying out the various forms of labour – such as
essential and often invisible care work. Demand safe working conditions
for essential workers, particularly in the professions of healthcare and
transportation.</li><li>Demand emergency measures that put our care first, not their
profits. Life is priceless; therefore demand paid medical leave, free
childcare, house arrest for those who are in prisons, freezing of prices
for basic goods and sanitary products, planned production for social
needs (rather than for profit), compensation for <em>all</em> caregivers
(formal and informal), free quality health care for all, suspension of
debts and dividends, free access to water and electricity, and a
prohibition against the firing of workers.</li></ol>
<div id="gmail-attachment_17708" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><img src="https://www.thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Cecilia-Vicun%CC%83a-El-Paro_The-Strike-2018..jpg" alt="Cecilia Vicuña, El Paro/The Strike, 2018." width="950" height="594"></p><p id="gmail-caption-attachment-17708" class="gmail-wp-caption-text"><span>Cecilia Vicuña, El Paro/The Strike, 2018.</span></p></div>
<p>Each of these points is utterly intuitive, being useful not only in
Latin America but across the globe. But this Emergency Plan is only – as
the Algerian poet Rabi’a Jalti puts it in <em>Shizufriniya</em> (Schizophrenia) – one street; there is always that other street.</p>
<blockquote><p><em>I have become two streets.</em><br>
<em>One looks over the apricot tree and narcissus,</em><br>
<em>And the morning of poems.</em><br>
<em>It enters the sea of language.</em><br>
<em>And the other</em><br>
<em>Is he whose name is hung on the horizon and the colour of bread,</em><br>
<em>Whose face has fenced in all directions,</em><br>
<em>Whose breaths have sealed all circles.</em><br>
<em>It nearly chokes me.</em></p></blockquote>
<p><img src="https://www.thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/20200403_AbM-Solidarity_16-9.jpg" alt="" width="950" height="534"></p>
<p>It is that street that chokes which has led the local government in Durban (South Africa) to forcibly <a href="http://abahlali.org/node/17059/">evict</a>
shack dwellers. Because we were thinking of the other street, Arundhati
Roy, Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Yanis Varoufakis, and I wrote this <a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2020/04/03/solidarity-with-shack-dwellers-in-south-africa-statement-from-arundhati-roy-naomi-klein-noam-chomsky-vijay-prashad-and-yanis-varoufakis/">objection</a>.
It is along this other street that people hunger for land, not only to
build their homes but also to farm them. From South Africa to India to
Brazil, hunger drives land hunger.</p>
<p>In our latest publication, <a href="https://www.thetricontinental.org/dossier-27-land/">Dossier no. 27</a>
(April 2020), ‘Popular Agrarian Reform and the Struggle for Land in
Brazil’, we show how this land hunger motivates a struggle not only for
land, but for social transformation. Our São Paulo office writes that at
the core of this struggle is ‘the refashioning of social relations –
including the reconstruction of gender relations and the confrontation
of machismo and homophobia, for example – and the demand for access to
education in rural areas at all levels’.</p>
<p>We will be sharing more about the struggle for land in next week’s newsletter, which you can subscribe to on our <a href="http://thetricontinental.org/">website</a> in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi, French, Mandarin, Russian, and German.</p>
<p>Before CoronaShock, while you read this newsletter, two femicides
would have occurred somewhere in the world; during CoronaShock, the
number is higher. This <em>must </em>end.</p>
<p>Warmly, Vijay.</p>
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