“We stand for \'yes\',” said Ana Felicia Torres of Costa Rica. “We say yes to life, to human rights, to public services…education, health, housing.” While the women’s movement is actively opposing the ratification of CAFTA in Costa Rica - the only Central American nation party to this agreement not to have yet approved it - Torres emphasized that women are equally active in the search and defense of alternatives.

One of three speakers who addressed the theme “Women in Resistance to Neoliberalism” on Friday morning at the Latin American Network of Women Transforming the Economy conference which took place August 2nd and 3rd in Quito, Torres is part of the Alforja Centre for Research and Publications and Mesoamerican Women in Resistance. The three presentations echoed the urgent need for struggle against the neoliberal economic model in order to advance rights for women, while highlighting women’s creative search for more just and life-sustaining models.

“We know with certainty that if this agreement is approved,” said Torres, “that the possibilities of advancing more equal rights between men and women in Costa Rica will be lost.” Torres notes that although the women’s movement has made gains for greater political representation for women, such as in the national legislature, the economic gap along gender lines remains a primary issue.

The struggle against CAFTA is also bringing women together from diverse sectors, said Torres. They have been coming out in strong numbers, such as on January 26th when women made up a large part of the 80,000 who demonstrated in San Jose.

Torres is convinced that Costa Ricans are going to set a new trend for the rest of Central America where four other countries have ratified CAFTA. “We’re going to defeat this agreement,” she said, anticipating success in the upcoming October referendum. “The no vote will win, and, if “the no” doesn’t win, we’re going to win in the streets.”

As part of this effort the women’s movement is forming strategic alliances with other social movements, such as labour. However, Torres says, while they’re together in the streets their common ground doesn’t extend to women’s rights. “We’re moving in the same direction,” she said, “but we still have a long way to go in order to ensure that the Costa Rica we want to construct is the same for all.”

Maria Argelia Butrón from Mexico further emphasized the “active resistance of women to create alternatives” specifically discussing feminist efforts within academia and civil society organizations to develop “an ethic” for alternatives to the neoliberal economic model. Butrón is part of the Gender and Economy Network of REMTE and said this research is taking place at a moment in which the neoliberal economic system is in crisis and also undergoing an active process of reevaluation.

Referring to the World Social Forum process, she affirmed that “another economy is possible,” but that this is better understood in practice and that theoretical foundations need to be deepened. She says that their work as feminist economists complements that taking place in other areas of study such as Social Economy research.

Having surveyed the range of definitions being explored for alternative economic models, Butrón elaborated on “The Social and Solidarity Economy” and “The Economy for Life.” She stressed that a truly radical proposal would value subjectivity while challenging individualism based on the idea that “the fate of the other is also my own fate.” Amongst additional key criteria she said that “the body must serve as a starting point…as the source of the basics for life,” and mentioned “a fierce defense of human rights.”

Agenda of anti-neoliberal struggles

Rosa Guillen, from Peru and also part of the Gender and Economy Group of REMTE, spoke passionately about the current agenda of women’s anti-neoliberal struggles. She described how this has been recently characterized by struggles against the WTO, the FTAA, and free trade agreements, fuelled early on by the fight against NAFTA in Mexico. Women’s struggles for agro-ecology, the environment and food sovereignty have also been essential and ongoing focal points, in addition to themes related to labour, peace and demilitarization.

Today, Guillen noted that women’s role in “the defense of water as a source of life” is an important point of resistance as they recognize transnational attempts to recolonize Latin America. Recalling women in Bolivia, El Salvador and Brazil, she specified how in the case of Peru this is not just a struggle against private control over water but also against contamination resulting from the rapidly expanding mining industry.

With regard to food sovereignty, she said, “this isn’t just resistance to the neoliberal model of globalization and free trade, it’s also a proposal that articulates our world view and restores and maintains the natural environment, while defending our ways of life which are also the foundation of our cultures, customs and social relations.” This has added pertinence, she added, given growing interests in agro-fuel production.

Peace and demilitarization remain central to their agenda, she added, highlighting the critical issue of the criminalization of social movements. “We are seeing that there are no limits for this form of aggression and we have to struggle for the right of expression and mobilization.”

However, she notes, “we have allies and we have had allies.” Democratic routes for social movements are opening up in certain countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador. In certain cases, governments are also taking strong stances neoliberal proposals such as the FTAA.

She concluded by outlining upcoming mobilizations beginning with demonstrations against the transnational re-colonization of Latin America in early October, followed by the World March of Women on October 17th. In January 2008, organizers of the World Social Forum plan to take the forum beyond debate to a global mobilization. While on May 26th in Lima, demonstrations are being planned to oppose European Union free trade negotiations with Latin America and the Caribbean following from which a parallel Summit will take place, bringing forward charges against transnationals while featuring debates, seminars and other actions.