Mujeres de Negro Madrid

Let's stop wasting money on weapons and dedicate it instead to erradicate gender violence While the expenditure for weapons has increased in Spain year by year since the 90’s because of commitments made to the weapons and defense industries by the Ministry of Defense, the UN has urged the government of Spain to fulfill its international commitments with regard to the issue of gender equality in face of the alarming retrogression in this matter produced in recent years because of discrimination against women both in legislation and in practice. This last 7 November, thousands of women and men from all over Spain demonstrated in Madrid regarding the macho violence that affects women throughout their entire lives. Globally, up to 70% of women experience psychological, economic and sexual violence perpetrated by their partner or former partner. During armed conflict, rape and sexual violence are exacerbated and used as weapons of war, including violence against women of all ages...

Women in Black of Madrid will participate in the March against Sexist Violences that will take place 7 NOVEMBER 2015 at noon The march will depart from the Ministry of Health If you want to accompany us for the demonstration, Women in Black (of Madrid) Against War will be in front of the stairs of the Goya Street entrance of the Prado Museum at 11:45 .................................................................................. As Women in Black against war, we want: ♀ To declare that gender violence affects us all, both men and women, and for that reason, as feminist and anti-militarist women, we join to build another way of seeing the worldo. ♀ To make the voices of women heard to express feelings, needs, proposals and alternatives to latent militarism and war. ♀ To demilitarize our ways of feeling, thinking and behaving. ♀ To disseminate the reality of countries and regions in conflict and the violence suffered therein by women. ♀ To build networ...

Let's stop the war before it begins The area between the Mediterranean, the Black Sea and the Caspian is becoming a powder keg. Because of the entry of Syrian refugees in Turkey and the recent attack in Ankara, this country is in the news, but the authorities appear to not give any importance to the conflict that is developing: the armed conflict between the regular Army and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), in both cases involving party interests, and having the people closeted between the bullets and hate speeches. All this is aggravated by the growing Islamization of the country, which mainly affects women, and the presence of ISIS. Further, tension is also mounting at the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, with bombings, civilian deaths and more hate speeches calling both sides to arms. Women in Black Against War (of Madrid): Demand that these and other conflicts be intercepted through diplomacy before they continue to grow and that international organizations a...

Inmigration is NOT the problem " As a woman, I have no country. As a woman, my country is the whole world ” Virginia Woolf Women in Black of Madrid want to denounce the policies regarding migration of both the European Union and the Government of Spain. In these moments, we want to keep in mind the causes for human displacements, the nature of the wars declared and brought about by our governments in various countries of the planet, clearly for purposes of control and dominion, as well as the policies they carry out in support of governors who do not have respect for human rights. The recent events in southern Europe make evident an inhumane strategy for immigration. The European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union (FRONTEX) promotes militarization of the borders and converts them into a battleground where it doesn’t matter about the victims as long as it is clear that they will not be per...

Legacy of the Balkan Wars 20 Years after the Genocide of Srebrenica Women in Black maintain that all wars have a prior period of preparation, usually based on concealed interests; that wars do not end with a cease-fire and disappearance from the media, and that the greatest part of the quiet work of reconstruction of the social fabric falls on the shoulders of the women. It will soon be 20 years since the end of the wars in the former Yugoslavia, a country in which 21% of the people were joined in mixed marriages and after the peace treaties many did not know to which ethnicity they belonged, a result of wars provoked by nationalism, with a history of partisanship, to form ethnically pure nation-states and the creation of frontiers that separated their peoples. Some 200,000 people died and approximately two-thirds of the population was displaced. Historical buildings of incalculable value were destroyed. Many assaults on human rights were committed, including torture and assassi...

We support the Women's Court of Sarajevo From 7th to 10th of May in Sarajevo, Bosnia, the Women´s Court has taken place to judge the crimes committed during the wars of the Balkans in the 90s. Many women, coming from all the countries of the former Yugoslavia, testified about the war crimes, still impune, for which they asked justice with a feminist approach. The composition of the steering committee shows the women´s unity and solidarity that overcomes the national divisions that appeared after the partition of the former Yugoslavia: from Bosnia-Herzegovina, the “Mothers from the sites of Srebrenica and Zepa”; and the “Women Forum” from Croatia, Kosovo, Makedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia and Serbia. This is, in itself, a great success in a period where Europe is full of arising nationalisms and extreme right forces that divide populations with ethnic and religious lines; in these days, when they try to homogeneize the nations and to exclude minorities and diversity; when eve...

Let's end expenditures for the military The economic crisis that we are still suffering assumes large cuts in all public services. While austerity has been sold to us as the only way, the reality is that expenditures for the military have increased. Although the budgets for the Department of Defense appear lower each year, they systematically enjoy an increase in the middle of the year, in addition to all the military expenditures that are not included in said ministry, such as, among others, interventions abroad that are paid for by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the purchase of weapons financed by the Ministry of Industry. Beyond economic considerations, we are against war, all militarism, because it sustains the established patriarchal order, a system of domination and injustice that does not guarantee just and sustainable human development. We do not believe in armed struggle, because it perpetuates the law of the most powerful. Militarism feeds the normalization of v...

Neither the military or the patriarchal institutions guarantee the security of women The laws and pertinent institutions should guarantee the security of women and girls. In the contemporary context of our country, we see that laws reduce the rights of women and children. As denounced by feminist collectives on 8 March “ after an attempt to impose a reactionary abortion law that the feminist movement stopped, the government approves a reform that attacks the most vulnerable women, the young women, negating their autonomy; it imposes a legislative change, shared custody, which ignores the reality of women who are separated; it imposes a call to the moral and traditional family order, undermining rights that took so long to obtain ”. We also see that the measures for protection against mistreatment are insufficient. Women continue to be assaulted for their sexual orientation and are denied sexual and reproductive rights. Women suffer other types of violence that condition their ...

Speculating with land of the Spanish Ministry of Defense Women in Black are concerned about the ultimate use for the land where the old barracks of the Campamento are located, which is property of the Ministry of Defense. Both the government of the Community of Madrid and the City Council have given permits for the sale, which lacks only the financial agreement with the Chinese businessman Wang Jian. The haste with which the governors of the nation are acting in this matter is highly suspicious. It is a matter, once again, of disregarding social demands and public interest. Thousands of people, especially the young people of the working class neighborhood, had their hopes set on obtaining public housing and better public services as a result of the so-called Operation Campamento . The expectations of the citizens, as is becoming habitual, will be sacrificed in favor of the market and war weapons interests of the present government. Women in Black reject the sale of those lands b...

School Day of Nonviolence Commemorating the 30 January School Day of Non-Violence , remembering Gandhi and the values that he represents, Women in Black, through our feminist, anti-militarist and non-violence ideology express our conviction that in addition to being against violence, one must seek alternatives to learn how to preclude that conflicts result in more violence, rather in more equity and justice for the civil society. We consider that to the end that these changes occur it is necessary to provide this learning in schools and in everyday life. The school children, however, and all the populace see that those in power continue to pursue their need to maintain the privileges of a few, the most favored. This is demonstrated by various realities: the Melilla fence; the people illegally pushed back from Spanish territory to Morocco; the refusal to provide asylum (violating signed international laws); the negation of universal health care to those who are undocumented; the st...