Almost 60 years separate Matilde and Otília, but the demand for more equality does not choose age, with thousands of women joining in a demonstration organized this Saturday in Lisbon by the Democratic Movement of Women (MDM).
The 8th of March has already passed, but what it represents is maintained throughout the year, because there are “A thousand reasons to fight”, as the motto chosen for the National Women’s Demonstration said, an initiative that the MDM has been organizing for seven years, to show the “strength and unity of women in the defense and conquest of their rights”.
Women (and men too) from various latitudes and geographies held banners and posters, played bass drums and shouted slogans for peace and bread, against the increase in the cost of living, for wage dignity, for public health and school. “Woman, listen, it’s time to fight”, you could hear the megaphone, between the squares of Restauradores and Municipality.
Joining the demonstration surprised the organization, confessed Sandra Benfica.
Speaking to Lusa, the MDM leader stressed that “the 8th of March is not a symbolic date”, but rather a day that marks “the struggle of women for dignified living and working conditions in a contemporary society”.
Before arriving at the final zone of the parade, the demonstration was greeted with applause from the general secretary of the PCP and the general secretary of the CGTP.
To journalists, Paulo Raimundo highlighted women’s “problems”: more unemployment and precariousness, lower wages, more affected by the increase in the cost of living and access to public services.
“Solidarity” with the protesters, whom he praised “their determination”, the secretary general of the PCP stressed that a “completely free and democratic” society depends on equal rights for women and men.
Joining the demonstration gives him “confidence for the future”, in the sense that people will “seize the resolution of problems in their hands”.
Recognizing that “there is a lack of women in all aspects of life”, including in political parties, Paulo Raimundo chose the increase in the cost of living and wage and labor discrimination as the main threats to equality.
A few meters ahead, the general secretary of the CGTP, Isabel Camarinha, recognized that “women workers have many reasons to fight”, underlining that, “in order to have equality at work, there must be a general increase in wages, an end to precariousness, to guarantee rights”.