Coordinadora 8M Issues Warning on Backslides and Calls for Unity Against Rising Fascism in Chile

Original article: Coordinadora 8M advierte retrocesos y llama a organizarse ante el avance del fascismo

The Coordinadora 8M held an antifascist feminist assembly on Saturday, November 22nd, at 10:30 AM in the National Stadium Park, addressing and examining the rise of fascism in Chile and its implications for the rights of women and marginalized groups. The event was open to women, gender minorities, and feminist organizations.

The call to action, initiated a few days earlier by the Coordinadora 8M, aimed to collectively discuss the electoral landscape and organize responses to the strengthening of the far-right in the country. The invitation was extended to all those willing to participate and contribute to the development of common strategies.

Within this framework, the organization encouraged voting for the candidate Jeannette Jara and emphasized the need to strengthen local organizations to defend hard-won rights and prevent “debilitating denialism” from taking hold in the country. They also urged replication of similar initiatives in other regions of Chile as part of a national feminist mobilization strategy.

In a conversation with El Ciudadano, Vesna Madariaga stated that more than 250 attendees, including women, gender minorities, children, and feminist organizations, participated in the assembly. She emphasized, “We are organizing actions ahead of the presidential runoff on December 14th, and our call is to campaign to secure the defeat of the far-right by mobilizing for Jeannette Jara’s victory, from a place of autonomy.”

During the assembly, in light of a potential victory for José Kast, participants agreed to prioritize organization and mobilization as a crucial social counterbalance. Additionally, they engaged in a collaborative analysis of the risks posed by the current electoral scenario to hard-won rights and democracy. Based on this, they defined action lines and territorial arrangements aimed at reinforcing the feminist movement in both the short and medium term, regardless of the election outcomes.

«We have the capacity to build the social force necessary to confront the authoritarian and antifeminist project embodied by José Antonio Kast,” they declared.

Furthermore, the assembly laid out a neighborhood and community mobilization plan, “driven by women and marginalized groups; social, union organizations, residents, all working women, the unemployed, migrant women, Afro-descendants, indigenous communities, caregivers, among others, convinced that we must confront fascism together through all strategies and in every space, including at the polls.”

The coordinators pointed out, “The regional and global context shows us that the poverty-and-repression program of the far-right seeks to pit the poor against the poor, offering false promises of security. The far-right targets the feminist movement as one of its main adversaries, placing historical achievements, rights, and the lives of women, children, migrant communities, and gender diverse individuals under serious threat.”

They added that as a coordinadora, they acknowledge that the advance of these sectors exacerbates machista and patriarchal violence, making it urgent to organize and convene this open and antifascist assembly.

Moreover, they criticized the government and its political parties, noting, “Their decision to abandon an alternative horizon and a future-building approach outside of neoliberalism has been one of the reasons the working class cast its vote for fascism: fascist ideas have gained ground with every eviction of homeless families, with each expulsion of migrant mothers in irregular situations, and with every extractivist project in our territories. Stopping this advance requires articulating responses with both short- and medium-term goals.”

Regarding the call to vote for candidate Jeannette Jara, they stated:

“The presidential runoff presents only two alternatives, and one of them – Kast’s candidacy – poses the risk of the far-right and denialist Pinochetism governing Chile. Therefore, we call for voting for Jara and, above all, to organize from the neighborhoods and from the grassroots to electorally confront the far right, maintaining a mobilization process that rolls back positions threatening women, children, and popular sectors.”

They also convened social movements, especially women, to mobilize in order to stop the far-right from assuming power. “Because it is normal to lose an election in democracy, but it is not normal to lose democracy in an election.”

Finally, they called for a march in observance of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, this Tuesday, November 25th, at 6:30 PM at Cerro Huelén.