A co-founder of the ground-breaking Ni Una Menos feminist movement and activist for marginalised communities within Latin America, Professor Cecilia Palmeiro is a renowned scholar, writer and thinker.
In a brief interview to mark International Women’s Day, the 48-year-old campaigner discusses her activism and the importance of collective action demonstrations and advocacy – especially in the wake of President Javier Milei arrival to office.
How you consider your role or position within the global feminist movement and the International Women’s Day March in general?
I have been part of the Ni Una Menos movement since 2015, and I'm particularly interested in the collective creation of the world we want to live in, especially from the perspective of the emancipation of the artistic imagination from the realm of art.
Since 2017, together with my comrade artist and writer Fernanda Laguna, we have developed the High on the Tide (“Mareadas en la Marea”) project as an archive of feminist avant-garde, a book and an itinerant exhibition. The project aims to cultivate a herstory from below and from the south, to inspire women and feminised identities to join the cause of a feminist revolution.
As a member of a prominent organisation, is there anything you consider as your biggest motivation that drives this movement for you?
My biggest motivation is the eradication of violence and inequality at all levels.
Argentina has long suffered from machismo rhetoric. With such rights and values being normalised by the government, do you see a potential uptake in femicides? Do you think it is already a prominent factor?
Yes, there is an increase in violence against women and femicides allowed by the government's rhetoric and economic, labour, and financial violence.
Some believe the new government’s usage of anti-feminist rhetoric will create a new status quo in Argentina. Where do you see the future of Ni Una Menos and the feminist coalition that created it going? Will there be more of a fight, struggle, more opportunities for unity?
It's difficult to foresee the future in this context, but feminism is and will be a space of resistance and social transformation. One of the claims of this edition of the International Feminist Strike [also staged on March 8] is ‘Todas unidas jamas seremos vencidas.’
What would you want people against or for this movement to understand? What is the message you have for feminist coalitions and the Argentine government right now? What comes to mind?
The message I would like to convey is that feminism is a liberating struggle for all, and that collective action serves the purpose of concrete transformation of society.
Another life and another world is possible. I hope this International Feminist Strike helps women and dissident subjectivities organise against the global neo-fascism we face today. The message of this strike is that we will not pay for the crisis that the government is producing.
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by Sophia Jafferally
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