As a result of CODEPINK’s protection of Maduro government representatives’ occupation of the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, a group which sympathizes with Chavismo, comments on social media insisted on associating this movement by women with feminism. The comments rained in the abusive and exaggerated manner we are already familiar with: “they had to feminists”, “feminists are communists”, “feminists side with dictators because they are feminazis”, “simple resentful people with inferiority complexes”, etc.

We even read of supposedly intelligent people and with many followers, comments such as “the number of feminists internationally who support the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro is already impressive. It makes it quite clear that much of global feminism is more concerned with communism than with women”, “that is the problem with fanaticism”, “feminism no longer exists, only the abortionists that hate men”, “current feminism is cultural Marxism”. (The emotional charge of violence with which the feminist movement is constantly astonishing, which I prefer not to transcribe here – and that for me has two reasons: ignorance – about its history and purposes – and fear of the loss of privileges granted by the patriarchy).

But beyond that, it is disturbing that what leads people to think, almost automatically, that a group of rebellious women who wear the color pink are feminists. The binary logic of patriarchy is once again imposed: man-woman / blue-pink / capitalism-communism / we-them / friend-enemy / etc. There are no intermediates, no gray areas, no nuances. It is the economy of stereotypes. I pigeonhole you to have you identified as a political enemy, so that I cannot think or reflect, or even hear what you have to say.

What is CODEPINK?

The thing is that CODEPINK is not even feminist in its origins. The political objective of their struggles are many (peace, anti-militarism, US foreign policy) but they do not put women at the center as a subject of transformation or empowerment, nor do they analyze gender power relations. They do not seek equal opportunities, they do not fight against patriarchy, nor do they speak about the human rights of women. Therefore, they are not a feminist association.

Searching on Google we find that it is an internationally active NGO, in the USA and other countries, that describes itself as a “peace and social justice movement that works to end the wars and occupations financed by the United States, to challenge militarism globally and to redirect our resources to health, education, green jobs and other activities that affirm life.”

In addition to their focus on anti-war issues, they have reacted against actions of unmanned aircrafts in Pakistan and Yemen; the prison of Guantánamo Bay, for which they hold annual protests in the White House; the Palestinian state, Iran’s nuclear agreement; protests to end the United States alliance with Saudi Arabia; the airstrikes in Yemen, and the executions of their political dissidents, among other issues.

In the 9 principles they declare in their codepink.org, only one, the fifth, mentions diversity and tolerance adding: “We embrace feminist principles of cooperation, problem solving, critical thinking, compassion, analysis and prosecution. We speak against racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, classism, aging and other forms of oppression and prejudice. ” But this is not enough to consider them feminists if we stick to the definition that RSA (Royal Spanish Academy) provides of feminism: “a social movement that asks for women the recognition of abilities and rights that have traditionally been reserved for men.”

Some may appeal to the concept of intersectionality, alluding to the fact that when you address the causes of oppression to women throughout history you find multiple sources of discrimination (age, ethnicity, race, religion, class, etc.), but when the subject of the movement is political, it’s not about women, that’s not feminism.

All this applies to any other women or political movement of the left that has recently spoken out against the supposed foreign interference in the country (Aminta, @IlhanMN, @AOC et al), that in ignorance of what Venezuelan women suffer as a result of the current regime, they grab the flags of the movement to support it (#handsoffvenezuela). But that, I repeat, is not feminism. It is not enough for you to be a woman in a position of power to be a feminist if you do not have consciousness about the gender framework.

Unfounded Judgment

The feminist-woman-is-communist or socialist-woman-is-feminist association, is generalizing, incorrect and invalid because feminism is a heterogeneous movement, not tied to any ideological current. Because wherever there is a woman without access to her rights, regardless of what political tendency she points to, we will be the feminists to point out, denounce and fight for public policies that favor more inclusion and social change. Precisely in Venezuela, feminists have pointed out many times that Chavismo is sexist and anti-feminism in its practices, policies and customs. And against that we revolt all the time.

So to the professional tweeter, I ask you to educate yourself a bit more before posting your usual and irresponsible judgments that detract from the work and struggles that so many serious, professional and dedicated women, from this and many countries, are doing to achieve substantive equality of rights.

Photo: https://www.codepink.org/