Feminist general strike for care work in the Basque Country - An event report

On 25 November, the event group of the Care Revolution network, in cooperation with Solidarisch Sorgen e.V., organised a presentation followed by a discussion on the feminist general strike in November 2023 in the Spanish Basque Country, including the Basque-speaking areas of Navarre, because we believe it is important that this action is not forgotten.

The speaker, Raul Zelik, is a journalist and author, has many contacts in the Basque social movements and reported for Neues Deutschland before and during the strike. He showed us pictures of the strike on 30 November 2023, which already demonstrated what was special about it: the entire action was initiated by the feminist movement, took place in large and small towns and was also carried into the factories. The demands were drawn up by a feminist alliance and adopted by the participating trade unions. Raul Zelik's information on this evening was helpful in understanding how this dynamic, which is almost unimaginable for local conditions, was able to materialise:

The feminist movement in Spain in general and in the Spanish Basque Country gained a lot of strength from 2018 onwards, when there were three years of major 8 March strikes sparked by femicides - an issue that was very aggressively politicised in Spain and also carried into the mainstream media. The Basque independence movement, which has also opened up to other issues of social emancipation and is represented in both rural regions and cities, is also significant. Overall, according to Raul Zelik, the Spanish left sees itself more clearly as feminist than the German left: gender issues are not discussed separately from "economic" issues, even in the labour movement. This was also an issue in the strike: how you are provided for as an old person, how much time you have for your children, these are just as much economic issues as your wages - and therefore just as rightly the subject of a strike.

After all, the very fact that political strikes registered by trade unions are legal in Spain is a major difference. The Basque labour movement is particularly keen to strike: the general strike in November 2023 was the twenty-sixth since 1979. The trade unions themselves are also organised differently in Spain than in Germany; there is not one dominant trade union federation, but different trade unions with different political orientations. In addition, there are regional trade unions in the Basque Country (ELA and LAB), which tend to be to the left of the social democratic and former communist trade union organisations UGT and CCOO and are at least as important as these in terms of numbers.

The general strike focused on a series of demands, which included, for example Placing care facilities, which have been privatised on a large scale, in the hands of the state or cooperatives. Strengthen the rights of migrant care workers, including those in private households, including regular contracts and a right of residence that is not linked to the workplace. Reduce paid working hours with full wage compensation. A minimum pension of €1,080 for all. Extension of custodial powers beyond the nuclear family. In interviews, the topic of 'care for the elderly' was often placed at the centre, but the majority of demands were directed at care work in general, as paid and unpaid work.

Another demand centred on support for organic farming. This latter demand points to two things. Firstly, the movement behind the strike was not only urban: a small farmers' association also called for the strike, which meant that a flock of sheep was sometimes involved in road blockades. On the other hand, the feminist movement in Spain and the Basque Country has a strong eco-feminist orientation: The strike's motto "denon bizitzak erdigunean" - "the life of all at the centre" - definitely also meant non-human life, as documents from the strike coordination show.

The strike organisation began in February 2022 with a feminist plenary meeting in Gasteiz/Vitoria, from where demands were formulated and the strike planned. From February 2023, some trade unions supported the strike. Raul Zelik explained, also in response to astonished questions, that the Basque regional trade unions often have feminist secretariats that became part of the strike organisation and served as a link between the feminist movement and the trade union. From the summer of 2023, there were many district and company meetings in which the strike objectives were discussed and participation was mobilised. In the end, over 1,500 works councils called for the strike; participation in the strike was within the usual range; the speaker spoke of a turnout of around 20%. The largest participation was in the public sector, but strikes also took place in industry, e.g. in the VW and Daimler plants. Again and again, strike reports show that this rather average participation and the discussions that took place beforehand were a real success for such a "remote" topic.

One question following the presentation was: What did the strike actually achieve? The answer: The fact that strong street actions go hand in hand with a not insignificant strike participation, that connections between feminist movements, trade unions, farmers' and pensioners' organisations are established and tested, is in itself a result that should not be underestimated. The fact that municipalities governed by left-wing parties are looking for collective care solutions, e.g. through public care facilities, the support of cooperatives of care workers or multi-generational houses, is not simply a consequence of enforced strike demands. However, it is linked to a shift in care debates and more public attention, for which the strike was seen as significant.

The situation of migrant care workers was comprehensively included in the strike demands. However, the speaker mentioned that migrant self-organisations criticised the fact that they were not sufficiently involved in the organisation of the strike. The language barrier also played a role here: the Basque left is still strongly characterised by the issue of independence; speaking Basque at meetings is part of its self-image. At the same time, many migrants only speak Spanish; openness of participation and the political-cultural self-image came into conflict. However, according to Raul Zelik, the Basque trade union LAB in particular is very keen to involve migrant workers, even if they are not union members.

Bottom line: As participants, we were able to learn a lot about the power of a strike that unites the feminist and labour movements, even if it is not yet the strike that paralyses everything. The participants were also able to learn about the planning and lead time that went into organising the general strike. Conversely, the event showed that the many discussions, joint organising and joint action contribute to anchoring feminist, care-political demands in society, a step towards the "and" in "feminist and workers' movement" becoming superfluous at some point.

The Spanish motto of the strike revolucionar las cuidados para cambiarlo todo - revolutionising care (work) to change everything - ultimately means what we also mean by care revolution.

An event report by Matthias Neumann.

The first two images are taken from the strike organisation's website https://denonbizitzakerdigunean.eus/. The third image comes from the Basque Wikipedia page https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023ko_azaroaren_30eko_Euskal_Herriko_greba_feminista_orokorra, is by Asier Azpilikueta and is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. It shows a strike demonstration in Irunea/Pamplona.

There was an informative article by Raul Zelik on the strike in Neues Deutschland: https://www.nd-aktuell.de/artikel/1178317.baskenland-feministischer-streik-nicht-nur-bessere-arbeitsbedingungen.html