This year 8-M, International Women's Day, will be marked by the pandemic.

Following the recommendation of the Ministry of Health to avoid the mass demonstrations of previous years, feminist groups have planned events with limited capacity, controls and security.

In Madrid, two feminist platforms with hundreds of organizations each call separate events for that day with a maximum capacity of 500 people, the limit set by the Madrid Government Delegation.

Different feminists and prominent politicians have also said publicly that this year it's time to stay home.

This 2021 they have not called for a strike either.

The Minister of Equality, Irene Montero, and different members of her team, will not attend the demonstrations.

"We refer to the health authorities," explains a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Equality.

The first vice-president of the Government, Carmen Calvo, said this Friday: "I will participate in all possible formats that do not put health recommendations at risk [...] I will participate in those imaginative telematic forms."

"It will be the first time since I turned 17 that I did not go to a demonstration on 8-M but this year I am staying at home," feminist journalist and writer Nuria Varela, author of

Feminism for Beginners

, has told on Twitter

.

“There are probably few things that sadden me more than not being able to go to the 8M mani.

It will be one of the few times in my life that I don't do it ... but you can leave it for me at 499, no, I'm not going ”, Marisa Soleto, director of the Fundación Mujeres, also pointed out on Twitter. .

It will be the first time since I turned 17 that I did not go to a demonstration on # 8M but this year, #mequedoencasa # 8MVirtual on the networks, on the balconies ... let's celebrate the #DiaInternacionalDeLasMujeres respecting the measures in #pandemic

- Nuria Varela (@NuriaVarela) February 25, 2021

Thematic concentrations

Feminist organizations in the capital have planned low concentrations.

The 8M Commission, the main promoter of the feminist strikes of 2018 and 2019, has planned concentrations in four squares of the capital, with a maximum capacity of 500 people and a specific claim issue in each place.

In Sol they will remember the care, the precariousness and the importance of public services;

in Cibeles, there will be a protest against violence;

in Ambassadors, it will allude to anti-racism and dissidence and in Atocha to the "planetary emergency."

“We will place special emphasis on decentralized actions in honor of all the work they have done this year against the pandemic in neighborhoods and towns, through neighborhood networks.

We will also do it to maintain security ”, explains Syham Jessica Korriche, spokeswoman for the commission.

Explain that the squares of the concentrations will be fenced and that the capacity will be controlled from within, as well as the distribution of gel and the request that no one remove their mask.

This year's motto is

In the face of social emergency, feminism is essential

.

• Album of memories of my first 8-M

"We are not going to call a demonstration this year," explained Ana Sánchez de la Coba, a member of the Madrid Council of Women and of the other large platform that organizes events around the international women's day, called '8M Feminist Movement from Madrid'.

It is a space made up of 350 women's organizations "to fight against discrimination and sexist violence that we have been appearing because of the fact that we are women," he said at a press conference on Thursday.

For March 8, they will call a "controlled concentration" that will restrictively apply the criteria set by the Government Delegation in Madrid.

This second platform, whose motto is

Feminist women fighting for equality between the sexes

, has planned a rally with 250 people in the Plaza de Callao, also in the center of Madrid.

The square "will be surrounded with fences so that there is no doubt that the feminist movement controls, respects and will follow the recommendations," according to Sánchez de la Coba.

The organization is similar to the one launched by the Catalan Government on the occasion of the Diada.

Participants must send an email to participate to the address movimientofeministademadrid@gmail.com until full capacity is reached.

Among the events prior to 8M, they have planned an online meeting with the political parties in Congress, to which they have not invited Vox: “We do not believe that they are valid interlocutors, because they are denying the evidence of each and every one of the claims that the feminist movement is exposing ”.

Competing claims

The two platforms have common demands, such as asking for more support from women in the face of the emergency that the pandemic has meant for workers or victims of sexist violence.

But also differences in draft.

This year, the main one is related to the proposals for trans and LGTBI laws that the Ministry of Equality has launched and that for '8M Feminist Movement of Madrid', imply "laws to erase women, which erase the concept of sex as a category legal, in statistics, as an indicator of health, in sports and in other aspects relevant to women's lives ”, according to Lola Venegas, of the Alliance against the Erasure of Women.

The 8M Commission is in favor of both laws.

The government delegate, José Manuel Franco, said Wednesday that "absolutely there will not be" a major feminist protest in the capital.

A spokesman for his team has indicated that to date 45 requests for a demonstration or concentration for 8-M have been communicated, the majority in Madrid capital.

It remains to be seen what will happen in the rest of Spain.

In the last three years, according to official data from the Government Delegation, the demonstrations in Madrid brought together 170,000 people (2018), 350,000 (2019) and 120,000 in 2020.

Despite the fact that the announcements of mobilizations made by feminist organizations appeal to very restricted concentrations and with security measures, the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Ayuso, said this week that 8-M is "the day of the infected woman ”.

The controversy that took place last year after the authorities allowed demonstrations in Madrid for International Women's Day just a week before decreeing the confinement still lingers.

“About 8-M is still spoken in terms related to the pandemic in an abusive way.

The far right proposed that this date be commemorated for the victims of the covid, a new insult, ”Carmen Calvo pointed out this Friday, referring to Vox's request that March 8 be declared the day of the victims of the covid 19 The director of the Center for Health Alerts and Emergencies, Fernando Simón, said when asked about the security issue: “I would not like anyone to bother but it is not the same to be under an Easter step of 2,000 kilos transported by many people than to be in a demonstration of 500 people where people can spread out and keep their distance ”.

"The risk is low, but avoidable"

The risk of a demonstration in the open air, if the safety distance is kept and those present wear a mask, is quite low.

As Fernando Rodríguez-Artalejo, professor of Public Health at the Autonomous University of Madrid points out, during the first wave in the United States there were many protests in the streets due to police brutality and very few infections were documented as a result of them.

However, Artalejo adds, "it is an avoidable risk."

"We have not yet closed the third wave and there are many patients in hospitals, so the situation advises to be extremely cautious," he explains.

In the opinion of this expert, the problem comes from the fact that the playful nature of these marches can lead to relaxing the security measures.

And, above all, what happens around: "It is very possible that after the march there will be social gatherings, one goes to eat at a restaurant, and there is a greater risk there."