Its a Feminist women’s strike. In order to give it legal coverage it had to be officially registered by a Trade Union, in this case the anarchist CGT. But it’s not legal to call a Women’s Strike in Spain, so they went one further and registered it as the first feminist General Strike. Legal and official.

CGT women officially registered the Feminist General Strike

Why is the feminist strike on March 8 different from all the others?

The mobilizations and the strike for International Women’s Day are called in more than 150 countries for a more just and egalitarian society. This is just one of the data that makes this call unique. la página web de la Comisión 8M.



On March 8, International Women’s Day, a new, unprecedented strike was called for, a women’s strike, which shouts to want them “free, alive, feminist, combative and rebellious”. Thus, a call is made to support the stoppages, for all women who can and for all women who do not. But do you know what this feminist strike means and why it is not like the others?

The mobilizations and the strike are called in more than 150 countries, so it is an international strike of women. In 2017, already in several places, such as Poland or Argentina, a movement started in favor of this initiative. Then, in Spain and 57 other countries, stoppages were called between 12.00 and 12.30. This March 8, however, is intended to be extended to the total of the day. The CNT is also actively supporting the Feminist General Strike and has produced a booklet: ”With this guide we want to sort out the many misunderstandings that are being created in relation to the general feminist strike of March 8. Our informative guide clarifies the doubts that arise to the workers called to support the 24-hour strike”.

Who are called to strike?

All women are called to strike. The feminist strike is not a strike to use, not only affects factories, offices or offices: it is a call against any type of violence that women experience as women in order to demonstrate that, if they stop, they for the world. Therefore, it includes them all.

Those who have paid jobs and those who work in their homes or in those of others, who take care of children, elderly people, or dependents, those in cities, those in the villages, those of all origins, to those of all identities. To all of them, this strike invites them to stop, to leave for a few hours to get everything out for society to realize the value they bring.

What does a feminist strike mean?

The 8M strike is feminist because it is not a strike to use, it is not limited to a labor strike. First of all, the 8M is a strike of care, a strike of domestic work, emotional support. The 8M proposes that women stop doing all these activities, so invisible, often unpaid and often they take care of them. It is about showing that, without all that silent work, the rest of the world falls, and it is necessary to put it into value.

The far right ruling PP party will not support the feminist strike called for the International Women’s Day, on Thursday, March 8. The leadership of the conservative party has declared that the strike “is committed to the confrontation between women and men” and labeled it as “elitist, unsupportive and irresponsible”.

The call also implies a consumer strike, that is, calls not to go to buy that day to denounce that the bodies of women are not claims of consumption, and the aesthetic tyranny to which the market submits them.





It is also a labor strike that wants to put on the table inequalities such as the wage gap, the ‘glass ceiling’ – the extra difficulties that women have to reach management positions – the precariousness of women’s work, the reduced days imposed or the feminization of poverty.

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In the same way, all women in the education sector are called to strike to demand “a public, secular and feminist education”.



Who calls it?

It is coordinated by the Commission March 8, which integrates a multitude of feminist groups, and has been working since 2017 – on March 8 of that year and a stoppage of women was proposed for 30 minutes at noon – to bring this initiative to cape.

All the big unions have joined this call, although with different proposals. UGT and CCOO registered a call for partial stoppages of two hours per shift, while CNT and CGT have done so supporting the total work stoppages 24 hours a day. You can choose to join any of the two modalities, although the organizers call a 24-hour strike.

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An important feature of this strike is that it has been promoted and organized from the bottom up, and not the other way around. That is to say, the initiative of the strike has been born first in the streets, in the neighborhoods and districts and has macerated in open assemblies. It has not been a proposal of the unions, but of the feminist movement.

Do I need to be an affiliate to cover the law?

It is necessary that, in order for a strike to be legal, it must be called by the unions. However, once this is done, any person can support it, whether or not it is affiliated. Since the unions can not call a strike for women only, this call also covers men who decide not to attend their job.Like any strike, if you decide to join the strike, this will have repercussions on your salary that day, which will vary depending on whether you perform it partially (two hours) or the full day. It is not necessary to warn in your work in advance of whether or not you will support the strike.

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Can I join the strike as a man?

Legally, men have the right to join the feminist strike. However, the 8M Commission explains that, if men also go on strike, the sense that differentiates the feminist strike from the general strike is lost: to make visible “the gaps” that would remain if women stopped carrying out all their activities. Therefore, the organizers are only summoning the women.

What if I am a man and want to participate?

From the feminist movement it has been recommended that men who want to support the feminist strike do so through other actions, such as covering their colleagues in the workplace or student so that they can not attend, take care of children, elderly or dependents to relieve the women who normally do it, and other methods to make it easier for women to be the real protagonists that day and find the least number of possible obstacles to it.

Will there be mobilizations also that day?

Yes, there are organized marches and mobilizations in the different Spanish cities. In addition, each city, town or district is organizing different activities during the day that can be consulted on social networks and the website of the 8M Commission.

The march to be held in Madrid, and which is expected to have a massive follow-up, as happened last year, will depart from Atocha at 7:00 p.m. and will take a long journey until it ends at the Plaza de España.

Why is it celebrated on March 8?

March 8 is International Women’s Day. This date commemorates March 8, 1909, when 129 employees of the Cotton textile factory in New York were killed when their own owner set fire to the factory while all of them were inside making a protest demanding labor rights. In addition, the color of feminism is violet because, it is said, the smoke that came from that fire was violet, like the fabrics that were there that day. Thus, in an International Congress of Socialist Women in 1910, the communist policy and thinker Clara Zetkin decided to propose this date as the International Women’s Day in honor of the Cotton workers.

más Información

¿Por qué la huelga feminista del 8 de marzo es diferente a todas las demás? Las movilizaciones y la huelga para el Día Internacional de la Mujer están convocadas en más de 150 países por una sociedad más justa e igualitaria. Éste es sólo uno de los datos que convierten en única esta convocatoria.