It is fantastic to see that this space is filled with such energy, voices, experience and actions carried out by women and for women. Feminising the city, feminising politics means also re-appropriating these spaces and making them our own, feeling that they are ours, because women are the ones who make the city, the ones who through seen and unseen work keep this city going.

I am very happy to be here at this Premi Maria Aurèlia Capmany 2016 prize giving.

These prizes were created in 1987 to recognise, promote and give visibility to all the initiatives that you work on towards the empowerment of women in the city of Barcelona and wear the badge of an exceptional Barcelona woman, one among many, Maria Aurèlia: author, politician and unashamedly feminist- as being a feminist can only be something to make you proud, proud to fight for universal equality and gender justice.

These are prizes awarded on 8 March, a day for action and recognition: International Women’s Day. The work of women, whether paid or unpaid, through double or triple shifts, is what keeps the world going, it is what keeps life going.

Many congratulations to all the prize winners and participants, the event organisers, to Laura in her role as director, to the whole direction team, because the task always involves team work, and it makes me think of the motto of this year’s prize. 

From Barcelona City Council, we want to work closely with you, with the organisations, in a cross-cutting way, so that gender justice is reflected across all areas of life: the economy, health, education, public life and care work. By placing an emphasis on the single mothers, migrant women and refugees, like many who have spoken here today, who have come to live in our city from other countries, and residents of Barcelona who have been going through a very difficult situation during this time of crisis.

8 March is a day for action and recognition of all the struggles that women go through to confront a patriarchal society that divides us and dehumanises us, it is one of the most everyday insubordinations, but no less risky- some can cost us our lives, even the movements of solidarity and resistance woven between women to demand global gender justice.

To speak of feminism is to speak of solidarity, of networks and politicisation of everyday life, that’s why the prizes and 8-March actions this year are based on the motto “weaving networks for gender justice”. 

Weaving nets has always been a woman’s work that today can still be seen on many beaches around the world. We weave nets that are used to guarantee our safety and subsistence, but also, for the simple act of coming together, we weave symbolic nets from the shared affection and solidarity that come from recognising that in spite of the different forms of oppression, we share the same struggle. 

These same networks of solidarity, love and hope that our grandmothers wove, are the ones that today many women accompanied by other men continue to weave on the beaches of the Aegean Sea, on the roads of Europe, in the squares of many cities, because that is how we bring life into the world, how we continue to guarantee it.

For this reason, we cannot remain silent when today we have just learnt that European governments have decided to block the passage of refugees, many of them women and children, fleeing war, famine, rape, poverty, abuse and violence perpetrated mostly by men in other countries.

If the governments of Europe are incapable of defending their own fundamental values, if the governments of Europe continue to deny the basic human rights of refugees, if they continue to protect wars, bombings and rape, the women of Europe know what the path is that we must take, the path of disobedience, of weaving networks. 

Our networks are far more resistant than their tanks, than their controls, their stupid and racist rules. 

Our networks began to be woven by the American abolitionist women who created the underground railroad to ensure the escape of the slaves, continued by pacifist women in their protests against the war and help to deserters, and we will continue them, because they have no right to do what they are doing, no government has the right to place itself above human rights, no government has the right to turn the survival of people into a commodity.

For this reason: we will disobey again, we will fight again, we will weave again and we will win again. Because the feminist struggle is global and knows no borders. Because the feminist struggle is the fight against sexist and patriarchal violence against women for the mere fact of being women. For this reason, we are called to take to the streets and the squares for the demonstration that will take place today at 7 pm in Plaza Universitat and to continue weaving networks of resistance, solidarity and above all life, a lot of life, because feminism is the struggle of life and joy against death and cruelty.

Many thanks!