Over the last few years, the Spanish state has seen the most powerful feminist demonstrations in its history on International Women’s Day, with millions filling the streets in many cities. These were coupled with strike action taken by millions of students and workers.
Along with other factors, like the pay gap between men and women or the precarious working conditions affecting especially women, the most important reason for these protests has been the unbearable gender-based and sexual violence affecting women in the Spanish state, and also in solidarity with women in other countries suffering the same oppression, especially in Latin America.
According to the official figures, since 2003 more than 1000 women have been killed by their partners or ex-partners, 49 of them this year alone. Every day there are three rape cases reported to the police, but the estimation is that only 20% of attacks are reported. We have also seen in the Spanish state, how the judiciary system treats rapists light-handedly and humiliates the victims.
The best-known case in this regard is the so-called “Wolfpack rape case”, in which 5 men were found guilty of raping an 18-year old girl in the summer of 2016. Before the rapists were finally convicted, the victim and, by inference all women, suffered humiliating treatment at the hands of the judiciary and mass media. The victim was spied on by private detectives, on the order of the rapists’ lawyer, and the subsequent “report” was accepted as evidence by the court. But even worse, the first sentence was not for rape but only for the ‘less serious’ crime of sexual abuse, and an insulting sentence of only 9 years in prison for each rapist. To add insult to injury they were still able to walk free and lead a normal life while the court considered their appeals.
The appeal resulted in a conviction for rape and a 15-year sentence to each rapist. This was not the result of appealing to a higher court with a better knowledge of the crimes suffered by women, but because of the demonstrations in front of the court judging the case and in the rest of Spanish state by thousands of women, along with a surge of the feminist movement as a whole.
Unfortunately, the “Wolfpack rape case” is not an isolated incident, but only a very publicised example of the misogynist, racist and reactionary nature of the justice system and the whole of the state apparatus in the Spanish state. This is the same system that says to women that if you did not suffer violence during the act — that is, if you were not physically hurt or killed — you were not raped; or that allows perpetrators of gender-based violence to see their children, a lever used many times by men to continue abusing or threatening their victims. But this is also the same system that indiscriminately harasses and imprisons migrant workers, that has treated the 8 young people of Altsasu as terrorists because they were accused of participating in a pub brawl against 2 police officers, and has given the Catalonian political prisoners longer sentences on average for organising an ‘illegal’ referendum than it gave those responsible for attempting a fascist coup in 1981.
The “Wolfpack” rape case, clearly shows that we can gain victories if we struggle and fight back with mass action including strikes and demonstrations. We need to continue fighting against gender-based and sexual violence, and we need to engage the whole of the working class, not only women, in this struggle. The feminist strikes, included two general strikes by sections of the organised working class, on International Women’s Day 2018 and 2019, show the way forward. But when the main trade union federations only called for token stoppages on those days, they caused a lot of confusion about the right to strike. We need to extend the feminist assemblies to every school, college, university and workplace, to be able to organise a stronger labour strike next year, which can stop production and show the real potential of the working class.
All this is necessary to fight against gender-based and sexual violence and all types of oppression against women and LBGTQ people. First of all, we need non-religious, progressive, LBGTQ inclusive sexual education that can teach about equal relationships between boys and girls and consent in sexual relationships among other issues.
We need to replace the whole judiciary system in Spain, which was inherited from Franco times with a democratic system which includes the election of judges and control by the working class. A system which will give real justice to women and all working people. The monarchy also needs to go, along with the privileges of the capitalist class of what we call the regime of 1978, and we need to replace it with a real democracy, including taking decisions about the economy through democratic ownership and management of the economy.
