IN THE CITIES OF ARGENTINA, colourful non-violent assemblies of women from the poorest neighbourhoods form a regular part of popular protest against corruption in public life and the exploitation of the poor. The escobazo (sweep-out) brings large numbers out on the streets, wearing masks or working clothes and brandishing brooms and feather dusters, symbolically sweeping away corruption in civic life. Women unable to leave their families or work place brooms outside their door in support. Kitchen utensils, tools of the housewives' trade, are pressed into service in noisy impromptu protests against individuals and institutions seen as exploiting and cheating the poor. The first massive cacerolazos (casseroles) protest against IMF and World Bank policies helped to bring down the government in 2001. Pots and pans, which stand for those who do the vital but unrecognised work of feeding and caring, are empty now in many Argentinian households, but they are making a noise all the same. In September 2002, Isabel Zanutigh and Beatriz Marega, of the Red Interbarrial de Mujeres - the inter-neighbourhood network set up by grassroots women's assemblies -and the Sindicato de Amas de Casa, the influential housewives' union, came to Britain from Argentina to tell anyone who would hear them about the predicament of their countrywomen, many living in extreme poverty resulting from disastrous economic failure.

With limited resources, these women organise regular protest actions outside government buildings in Buenos Aires. Many women from outside the capital and even those living in the barrios, the poor suburban neighbourhoods, cannot afford to come and join in. But middle class feminists, who might be expected to support their poorer sisters, largely remain silent, since many occupy positions of some power and influence and are not really interested in the 'losers' of globalisation. For the grassroots women's leaders, they are part of the problem, along with all political parties, government agencies and even social services and the Church - anything representing the 'system' is corrupt and completely to be shunned.

The demands of the housewives' union relate to the position of poor women as total care providers, for their own families and also for their neighbourhoods, a role they perform while trying by any possible means to earn money for food and sustenance. They demand their own old age pension and remuneration for 'housework', including all caregiving activities. Their watchword is "Invest in care instead of killing". As they observe world governments spending billions of dollars on war and armaments, they demand the fundamentals such as access to clean water and health care, to literacy and to protection from violence.

Through their dedicated work, women like Isabel and Beatriz and their colleagues have succeeded in winning some financial support, taking control of the health centre for victims of domestic violence, shopping collectively for food to get lower prices, running a soup kitchen for more than 200 children, denouncing corrupt state and even church employees, and much more. They reject all political parties, having lost all confidence in these institutions, and there is no place for flag-waving or patriotism on their demonstrations - their aim is to hold up their misery before the eyes of the powerful, and to disturb official complacency like a stone in a shoe.

Gillian Collins

Women's Global Strike:
8 March 2003