Ayelén Correa Ruau | Network of Media and Communication Collectives (Argentina)
Firstly, I would like to celebrate the holding of this first Women’s Conference, understanding that the gender and intersectional perspective needs to be part of all struggles against imperialism, colonialism, and patriarchy. At the same time, the struggle of women and feminisms must find their own political instruments and mediations for the construction of a society free from oppression based on gender and sex. This means that women and feminised bodies oppressed by capital must also construct new political forms that do not reproduce the sexual division of labour, the binary stereotypes assigned to the masculine and the feminine, verticalism, specialisation, and competition.
Now, I would like to talk to you about the country I come from and where I am currently developing my life experience. Argentina is undergoing a period of neoliberal, neo-fascist, and patriarchal advancement.
It is a bloc of economic, political, and military forces that operates in connection with global techno-feudalism, which is showing another dimension of extractive financial capitalism:
they use communication and information technologies, AI, fake news, social media, and digital harassment to persecute, defame, and stigmatise political activists, indigenous people, feminists, and journalists who defend human rights and territorial sovereignty.
Although history cannot be told by one government alone, since December 10, 2023, an anti-communist, misogynistic, anti-feminist, colonised, and pro-genocidal Israeli-state narrative has been institutionalised in Argentina’s highest state power.
As soon as he took office, Milei fulfilled his promise and began to dismantle the state and all public policies that provided rights for women and the LGBTQ+ community. With the craft of necropolitics, in 2025, Milei’s government defunded programmes for people with disabilities, gutted the health system, and cut the HIV response budget by 76%.
We have already experienced this scenario, which has historical precedents both in Argentina and in other territories: the elimination of essential public policies fundamental to the development of life, economic recession, increased poverty, and institutional repression by the police and other military forces.
In order to control social and popular protest, attempts were made to restrict the right to strike, and an anti-picket protocol was legalised, prohibiting the occupation of public space for protest and enabling arbitrary detention by the police. In addition, cyber-patrolling by the intelligence services targeting members of political parties, trade unions, social movements, and journalists was approved.
Furthermore, Javier Milei’s government denies the state terrorism that was perpetrated in the country between 1955 and 1983. In other words, they justify the forced disappearance of more than 30,000 people and the systematic theft of more than 300 babies from families who were kidnapped or born in captivity in clandestine detention centres, where torture and sexual violence against women were carried out for political and gender-based reasons.
According to Argentine human rights organisations, in the first six months of Milei’s government, key policies for the process of Memory, Truth, and Justice were totally or partially dismantled.
“30,400 comrades present, now and forever! There were 30,400!” We want to know what happened to our sexually diverse comrades who were victims of state terrorism.
In the project for the country proposed by the global far right in Argentina, with the collusion of the government, some political parties, and the media, there is a permanent vindication of military authoritarianism and submission to the United States.
On March 12 this year, Pablo Grillo, an Argentine photographer covering a social mobilisation, was attacked by police forces in Buenos Aires. Seven months later, he continues to face the aftermath in a neurological rehabilitation hospital after a tear gas canister exploded against his head. The protest Pablo was photographing was that of pensioners who demonstrate every Wednesday in Plaza de Mayo, demanding that the government increase pension benefits.
Pablo Grillo’s case shows the extreme nature of censorship and the suppression of freedom of expression. With Milei’s rise to power, journalists and press workers began to be persecuted, criminalised, and detained. As a communications worker and part of the alternative media, I must refer to this.
This context of institutional violence occurs in a scenario where hate speech and fascist rhetoric circulate in different spheres of reality and virtual life, fostering intolerance and the denial of diversity. On September 2, 2022, an event took place that directly affects the situation of women and politics in Argentina: an attempt was made to assassinate the then Vice-President (2019–2023) of the country, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (CFK), the only female president elected by popular vote (2007–2015) that Argentina has ever had. Members of an anti-Kirchnerist group calling itself “Revolución Federal” attempted to assassinate her.
This attack took place in a context of political mobilisation by CFK’s supporters, who remained in front of her house in a show of support during a criminalisation process or what some call “lawfare.” During those days, the hate speech circulating on social media towards CFK and Peronism was very explicit. Meanwhile, media corporations only served to reinforce the idea that diversity cannot coexist. Anti-rights and hate speech are finding expression in political violence.
On October 26, Argentina will hold elections to vote for provincial and national legislators. After CFK, leader of the main opposition party, publicly announced her candidacy for senator, the judiciary ratified a conviction riddled with irregularities that deprives her of her freedom and permanently bars her from running for any elected office. Her political disqualification and imprisonment also represent the expulsion of women from political participation.
More than 100 countries in the world have yet to have a female president. In Latin America and the Caribbean, the outlook is not encouraging. Although in some countries the struggle for gender parity has become law, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Paraguay, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay, and Venezuela are still waiting for leadership that escapes dominant masculinity.
It is not just a question of the political participation of women and feminists; it is about the stigmatisation and systematic violence faced by those who decide to do so.
Milagro Sala, a member of the Parlasur and leader of the Tupac Amaru neighbourhood organisation in the province of Jujuy, in northern Argentina, has been deprived of her liberty since 2016. This is a clear case of the criminalisation of social protest, denounced by international human rights organisations.
No comparison is fair, but Milagro and Cristina face the same violence―that of a system that seeks to nullify the presence of women and of sexual and gender diversity, brown and mixed-race people, indigenous people, and people of African descent in decision-making spaces.
Freedom for Milagro Sala, imprisoned for fighting! Stop persecuting social and grassroots organisations! Stop stigmatising feminism and transvestite activism!
As Verónica Gago says, together with feminists: Milei expresses the structural and conservative counter-offensive to the feminist and popular offensive that has a long historical accumulation but has become widespread in the last decade. It is important to highlight this subjective position: the offensive was ours―that of women and sexual diversity―which we were able to express in the streets through urban mobilisations and in community assemblies in neighbourhoods: no more violence against women, the right to identity for LGBT people, and the socialisation of care work.
In Argentina, the National Women’s Meeting has been held for more than 30 years. Since 2019, it has been called the Plurinational Meeting of Women, Lesbians, and Transgender People of Argentina, recognising the existence of indigenous nationalities and all sexual and gender identities. From there, laws were passed against violence, for comprehensive sex education in schools, and for mainstreaming gender and diversity perspectives in public authorities. A Mental Health Law was passed that ended the pathologisation of diverse sex and gender identities, as well as the Equal Marriage Law, the Gender Identity Law, and the Labour Inclusion Law for transvestite and trans people.
With the conservative and neoliberal counteroffensive expressed by Milei in Argentina, women, feminised bodies, and people from the LGBTQ+ community face a situation of extreme social vulnerability.
In January 2025, Milei participated in the World Economic Forum in Davos. There, he linked paedophilia with homosexuality, which, in addition to being false, represents a homophobic and discriminatory discourse towards sexual diversity. At the same forum, he said that gender inequality does not exist and that the legal concept of femicide, which criminalises gender-based murders, should be eliminated.
In recent weeks in Argentina, we have been confronted with a dozen femicides―hate crimes against women because of their gender. One of the perpetrators, Laurta, was the founder of the Uruguayan organisation Varones Unidos, which is specifically militant against feminism and in favour of hatred towards women and sexual and gender diversity. In this case, there is an explicit relationship between the femicide of his partner and mother-in-law and the political economy of the patriarchy of salary, based on gender domination through the extraction of labour from women and feminised bodies, which are those that hegemonic masculinity can dominate or eliminate through the use of violence.
Stigma and defamation surrounding Comprehensive Sex Education (ESI) exist in almost every country on the continent; the media, churches, and political parties have a clear responsibility in this regard. President Milei has publicly repeated that gender inequality does not exist, ignoring an immeasurable wealth of scientific studies and evidence that prove otherwise.
In addition, legislators from Milei’s government presented a bill to amend the Gender Identity Law. This law, passed in 2012, recognised as citizens all persons who identify with a gender different from that assigned at birth. LGBT groups denounce this violation.
It is important to mention that the transvestite community is fighting for a ‘Historical Reparation Law.’ Being a transvestite in Argentina, Latin America, and the Caribbean means living with a life expectancy of 40 years, having sex work as the only option, and surviving trans-phobia, expressed in exclusion from homes in childhood, systematic violence by the police, and hate crimes in a society that does not recognise its trans-phobia and misogyny.
With this Historical Reparation Law, they are demanding a law that guarantees participation in the design of public policies, community consultation, parity in political participation spaces, investigations into crimes, policies of non-repetition, specialised legal representation, and educational programmes to raise awareness in society.
On June 3, 2025, the 10th anniversary of the first “Ni Una Menos (Not One Less)” march was commemorated. It is a very particular context, where violence and persecution against women and dissidents are on the rise, with strong hate speech. In this context, the women’s movement, feminisms, and trans-feminisms are taking on a leading role in the political struggle for freedom and human rights, in a context of extreme violence and the criminalisation of women and political sex-gender dissidents.
Internationalist solidarity and decolonisation are fundamental to the liberation of women and diversity around the world, respecting the self-determination of peoples and their diversity according to each territory and history.
Finally, taking advantage of the fact that this Conference is being held in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, I would like to celebrate the initiative ‘Acompañarlas’ (Accompanying Them), which is part of the National Campaign for Women’s Rights in Venezuela, which has been calling for: the decriminalisation of abortion in cases of rape and incest in girls and adolescents, the training of health personnel in the management of sexual violence, and the guarantee of sexual and reproductive health services in the public network. Abortion is a public health issue, and the secular state has a responsibility to care for girls. In Argentina, after more than 40 years of organising by women and the feminist movement, abortion was decriminalised, and laws and public policies were created to support the sexual and reproductive health of the population.
“No revolution has ever succeeded without the participation of working-class women”
Joti Brar | Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist)
Comrades, I’m very happy to greet today the founding conference of the Women’s Anti-Imperialist Platform in Caracas. This is a very significant development for our movement and a project that is very close to my heart.
All over the world today, as the global economic crisis becomes ever worse, the burdens on working people are becoming ever more intolerable―and on working women in particular. We know that in general, it is women who bear the extra burden of trying to make ends meet, trying to feed their families, raise their children and grandchildren, care for the elderly, sick, and disabled―often while working two or three jobs just to help their families survive in increasingly difficult times.
And of course, these problems are being compounded by the spread of war across the globe―targeting more countries, more communities, and breaking up more families. Many suffer massacres or are forced to flee as refugees. And this is only going to worsen as the crisis develops and the march into a third world war deepens and spreads across more of the world.
Because of these burdens, many women feel they don’t have time for politics―they’re just too busy holding everything together. But what our movement must help women understand is that it’s exactly because of these hardships that they must make time for politics. It is our politics―the politics of anti-capitalism and anti-imperialism―that can free them from the double and triple burdens they face, and offer them and their children the hope of a decent, peaceful, and cultured future.
History shows us that no revolution has ever succeeded without the participation of working-class women. And when a movement successfully mobilizes them, nothing can stop it. The February Revolution in Russia was sparked by a march of women demanding land, peace, and bread―and their mass participation triggered the events that led to the October Revolution and the building of socialism in the USSR.
We’ve seen the same in China, the DPRK, Vietnam, Burkina Faso, Cuba, and especially Venezuela. I’ve seen for myself how Venezuela’s mass movement for socialism is held together by working-class women in communes.
Venezuela is a powerful example of the strength and significance of mobilized working-class women. I’m sure it’s the communes―and the women who built and sustain them―that allow Venezuela to stand strong against aggression, sabotage, and economic warfare from imperialists.
Despite 25 years of attacks, Venezuela has endured. But the imperialists aren’t giving up―they’re doubling down. They want to destroy Venezuela’s good example and take back control of its oil, especially now that they’re losing their grip in the Middle East.
Venezuela stands firm because of its working-class communities, built and defended by committed, militant women.
That’s why mobilizing women into our movement is essential. We must help them see that our politics offers them and their families a truly bright future.
So comrades, I wish your meeting great success. I wish success to our movement in this time of growing struggle. And I hope to see you all soon.