In March 8, women from over 30 countries went on strike to protest the economic forces that put them at a disadvantage around the globe. In the US, the measure was spearheaded by the leaders of the January 21 Women’s March on Washington, including civil rights and women’s liberation titan Angela Davis, who penned their call to arms in a letter in The Guardian.

In it, they pointed to Argentina’s Ni Una Menos (Not One Less) collective—the face of Argentina’s feminist movement—as their inspiration for embracing a feminism for the 99%. On the other side of the globe—el culo del mundo, as Argentines endearingly call their homeland—Minici, an academic, and the dozen other founders of Ni Una Menos, were thrilled, if slightly bemused.

“The fact that the American girls want to oppose capitalism is a triumph,” Agustina Paz Frontera, a poet and essayist, told me. “It’s incredible. Here in Argentina, it’s hardly radical to be anti capitalist, it’s something we feel all the time.”

“Knowing that a group of activists in the US read our literature and believe in it makes us proud,” Florencia Alcaraz, a journalist, added.

A motley crew of artists, journalists and academics with an anti-capitalist bent and reverence for anarchist shakers of yore, the women behind Ni Una Menos can be thought of as a cross between Gloria Steinem, Joan Jett and guerilla fighter Juana Azurduy. To them, the link between financial empowerment and female autonomy has always been clear.

Minici traces her feminist roots back to Argentina’s financial crisis in 2001.

“Back then, we were a country in which people were going hungry, and women were the hardest hit,” she explained. She’d always been involved with workers’ unions and was alarmed by how the economic downturn and wage gap made women more vulnerable to financial instability and domestic abuse.

Paz Frontera began her own brand of activism in 2005 after a friend, Florencia Pennacchi, disappeared, most likely sold into human trafficking. Police conducted a half-assed investigation before quickly giving up, leaving Paz Frontera and her friends to pick up the slack (in vain: Pennacchi was never found).

Alcaraz, on her end, was galvanized by the media’s macho tone and perspective. After a neighbor was shot by her boyfriend in 2002, she was appalled that headlines read, “He killed her out of jealousy.” “We all knew he was a violent guy. You know this stuff when you live in the barrio, everyone talks about it. You hear the screams,” she said.

E’ morto Antonio Pennacchi, scrittore “fasciocomunista”

Non sono mai stato un grande fan di Antonio Pennacchi, però devo dire che a piccole dosi ho apprezzato molte sue idee (quelle nei romanzi, perché le esternazioni pubbliche mi hanno lasciato molto perplesso) e lo stile asciutto della sua prosa. Continue reading