A-Infos (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #7-26 - March 8: Squares of Struggle and Solidarity (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

What new things could we say in this March Lotto? ---- The urgency of 
the moment in Italy regarding "gender issues" (as if these could be 
separated from the rest...) seems to be represented by the Bongiorno 
amendment to the bill on sexual violence. ---- The amendment, which 
reverses the basic concept of the new bill from consensus to dissent, 
revealing the patriarchal nature of its reasoning, illuminates the issue 
of sexual violence through the sole light of communication between 
peers, knowing that "violence is an exercise of power, a form of 
oppression and control, a way to silence women," as Di.Re writes, and, I 
would add, marginalized, racialized, and blackmailable individuals in 
general.
The fear is that there could be a flood of retaliatory complaints, false 
accusations against many unfortunate individuals, guilty of not having 
asked for or realizing they were having sex with someone who didn't want it.

By introducing the concept of dissent, a victim of sexual violence, if 
they report it and are unable to demonstrate that they resisted 
effectively enough, in a manner that is unmistakable, may themselves be 
liable for criminal charges. For example, they might say: "My lady, he 
is your husband, if you were freezing[a phenomenon of immobilization in 
response to a dangerous situation], if he told you it was your marital 
duty and you were unable to escape, if the children were over there and, 
in order not to scare them, you bit that pillow and let it happen... 
we're sorry, but we can't proceed. Bring some emergency room reports. 
Then we'll move forward."
There are many examples. It has been written in many quarters that this 
amendment overturns the "gift" that Meloni and Schlein gave to "women" 
in Italy on November 25 of last year, when they jointly voted in the 
Chamber of Deputies on a bill amending Article 609 of the Code of 
Criminal Procedure. It was believed that the time had come to adapt the 
Code of Criminal Procedure to the Istanbul Convention, which Italy 
signed 13 years ago, introducing the concept of consent and defining it 
as "free and current" to leave no room for doubt, should there be any. 
And clearly there was a need.

There have been demonstrations and demonstrations against this new 
version of the Bongiorno bill approved by the Senate Justice Committee, 
and there will be more in an attempt to influence the Senate vote, which 
the government has cleverly postponed until after the referendum "on 
justice."
Now, it's obvious that when a country entrusts its "progressive" side to 
the judiciary, it has a problem-in my opinion, a very serious one-in 
interpreting its general direction.
The judiciary executes the laws by interpreting them, and interpretation 
is always influenced by the political and social culture of the moment. 
Laws are themselves products of power relations; they express their 
systematization. Justice codes are the result of continuous 
stratifications and modifications.

Laws set boundaries, creating a framework within which to operate, and 
it is also for this reason that movements should be very careful about 
what they ask for, because they might see their wishes granted. In this 
regard, Law 194 comes to mind, which is not coincidentally called 
"Regulations for the Social Protection of Maternity and the Voluntary 
Termination of Pregnancy." This law effectively established a medical 
practice, conditioning it, and is now being applied with all its 
retrograde power through conscientious objection and the presence of "no 
choice" associations in hospitals, strengthened with ad hoc funding 
promoted by the Meloni government.
Despite this, it will be important for the Bongiorno amendment not to 
pass. In fact, recent rulings already took consent into account in 
matters of sexual violence; reality almost seems to demonstrate that 
it's better for nothing to change about Law 609.

What happened to the "gift bestowed upon women"? What seemed like a 
concession, reached with a bipartisan agreement, is now becoming a 
weapon of the patriarchy.

The point, however, is that I'm not at all surprised by this about-face.
The claim, which I've read from many quarters, that with the Bongiorno 
bill the right has "betrayed women" is, in my opinion, completely 
baseless. This is a right-wing government, a fascist government, which 
does nothing but assert its own political line: security decrees that 
target migrants and supporters; laws that increase penalties for simple 
acts of passive resistance; promotion of eviction campaigns surgically 
designed to target the opposing side; school guidelines that celebrate 
the Greco-Roman and Christian West as the cradle of culture. And, along 
with all this, cuts to public healthcare, especially the healthcare that 
should guarantee independent choices about one's own body, and basic 
general healthcare; all in favor of the private sector, which is 
absorbed through "agreements" or in any case facilitated thanks to the 
absence or severe deficiencies of public services. Thus, for example, 
counseling centers disappear rather than double in number; they are 
systematically emptied of their original function, and with them 
disappears support for understanding and caring for one's sexual system, 
as well as support for new parents.

From schools to healthcare to criminal law, the model is always the 
same: that of tradition based on family, homeland, and the Christian and 
Catholic religion.
And as always, throughout human history, in times of economic crisis, 
governments-one might say, rulers in general-offer the same bitter 
solution: rigidity, a return to tradition (things were better when they 
were worse), internal or external war, or both, to keep discontent and 
poverty under control.
The economic crises of the capitalist system are partly a necessity and 
partly an accident, but what they always do is consolidate the 
structures of power, the institutions that guarantee its survival. This 
also applies to the so-called state capitalism of certain countries in 
the former Soviet Union.
In these situations, one element remains central at various latitudes: 
the control of bodies, and especially of reproductive bodies, which, 
moreover, due to their "nature," are recognized as caring bodies, the 
bodies of care.
And Federici says it very well in "Caliban and the Witch": a fundamental 
element of capitalism, of capitalist accumulation, and of the profit 
mechanism that is its constitutive and consequent element, is the 
failure to recognize care work, service, and feminized labor, performed 
unpaid by women.

For these many national and international reasons, I'm not surprised by 
the moves of President Meloni's government, which, moreover, is keen not 
to represent the gender assigned to her at birth in institutions, given 
that she has chosen the masculine pronoun for her role: how ironic, 
given the battles against school aliases that her Minister of Education 
and Merit wages in schools!
What amazes me, however, are the movements that oppose this legislature, 
which always seem to be far removed from the real world, paying little 
attention to building bonds of solidarity with those who work and endure 
the constant harassment and blackmail of the labor market.
21st-century capitalism thrives on those who work 24/7, those who work 
nonstop, and the social services of large cooperatives or agencies that 
manage, for example, retirement homes, residential care homes, family 
homes, caregivers, domestic workers, etc., and who win contracts at the 
lowest possible price by providing precisely those personal services 
that mostly employ women. Today's capitalism thrives on the continuous 
opening of shopping malls, non-stop catering, and call center services. 
All of these jobs were open on Sunday, March 8th.

And so, when I think of March 8th, I think of the power of the protest 
that has developed since 2017 with the first strike called for by the 
transfeminist and intersectional movement NonUnaDiMeno and brought to 
fruition thanks to the support of grassroots unions.
I think of the power of those words of struggle that uncovered and 
continue to uncover, without compromise, the violent and patriarchal 
structure of the "best of all possible worlds," denouncing feminized, 
underpaid, exploited, and constantly blackmailed labor, denouncing the 
gender gap, but also the privilege of those who can afford to do other 
things because there are those who clean, care, and look after. If I 
think of all this, then Lotto Marzo continues to have a powerful 
meaning, a day on which to express my struggle and my solidarity.

Argenide

https://umanitanova.org/8-marzo-piazze-di-lotta-e-solidarieta/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Subscribe/Unsubscribe https://ainfos.ca/mailman/listinfo/a-infos-en
Archive: http://ainfos.ca/en