In the United States, recognizing
International Women's Day would imply recognizing a long history of workers' struggle that official history books have done their best to repress--like the tragic fire in the Triangle Shirt factory and courageous marches of
seamstresses and other women workers. So it's just not done. But here in Mexico City, in certain circles people greet you with a hearty "Congratulations!" on March 8 (if you're a woman) and events and articles take stock of women's gains and losses over the past year.
That's what happened today at a ten-year anniversary conference of
Enlace. Enlace describes itself as "a strategic alliance of low-wage worker organizations in Mexio and the U.S. engaged in campaigns for economic and social justice." Through a network of allied organizations on both sides of the order, they do training sessions on labor rights and organization, alliances and strategizing.
On the panel for International Women's Day, Bertha Lujan, a longtime labor activist in Mexico City and currently Secretary of Labor for the "legitimate government" of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, outlined the accomplishments of Mexican women in representation in unions, the legislature and other leadership positions. Although there have been real gains, the rightwing government of President Felipe Calderón and the National Action Party (the PAN, by its Spanish intials) poses a threat to those gains. She went on to mention the major challenges in four actions: encouraging affirmative action programs to mandate percentages of women in leadership positions, increasing the visibility of women leaders, offering trai
ning programs for women leaders and activists and developing policies for gender equity and publicizing them.
After the panel a professional theater group called "Costureras de sueños" of "Seamstresses of Dreams" presented a play called the "Maquila Monologues" (A great play on the "Vagina Monologues"). It began with a steamy dance number parodying the sexy ads that major brands like GAP, Tommy and Levi's use to sell their clothes on the U.S. market.
In the next act, the four actresses transformed from models to factory workers (see above picture). In expertly choreographed movements against a factual narrative, they portrayed conditions within the factories where the clothes are made: the pressure of production quotas, tyrannical floor bosses, pulmonary diseases and other sicknesses, weekly wages of less than $50 for 12-hour days, black lists for workers who protest or attempt to organize, toxic substances, and sexual harassment.
The play is based on extensive interviews with women workers, especially in Tehuacan, Puebla--the "jeans capital of the world" where young, often indigenous women are trapped by poverty and necessity into working in sub-human conditions that deny them their basic rights and dignity. Through the deft combination of personal testimonies and professional staging, the troupe conveyed the reality in offshore plants. Globalization for these women workers is summed up in the line: "The world is as large as the rage I feel."
Women workers in one factory in Tehuacan, Vaqueros Navarra, finally overcame harassment and intimidation to vote in favor of an independent union with the "Sept. 19 Seamstresses Union" last November 23rd. When they came back to work after an unpaid holiday, they were told that the factory had been closed permanently. This is a common tactic of plants that can move freely in search of a cheap, submissive labor force. Labor battles for basic rights too often end in joblessness, indeer a system where the contractors act with impunity. Women workers who dare to speak up are punished for their bravery.
International Women's Day cannot be a celebration until conditions like those described above become merely a reminder of a dark past. Women workers need broad and active solidarity from global justice activists and consumers to make that happen. Think about the real story behind the jeans you put on this morning, and the lives of the women who stitched the fashionable label on the pocket.
This year, as every year, International Women's Day is an opportunity to celebrate the courage of the women who fought for their rights and those who continue to do so, while at the same time recognizing that we have a long way to go. We can only get there together, making the cause of the women who suffer the brunt of the inequities of this system into our own.
To read more and find out more about what you can do, see:
To contact the women of the Maquila Monologues for a possible showing, email Inti Barrios at xindeku@yahoo.com.
You can view a clip of the play (in Spanish) at
http://videos.eluniversal.com.mx/paginas/videosdet2491.html.
Related article from the Americas Policy Program:Mexico City Seamstresses Remember: Two Decades of Aftershocks from Mexico's 1985 Earthquake at http://americas.irc-online.org/am/2875
