Guida Vieira, historical leader of Bloco de Esquerda, laments the death of Conceição Pereira, a “brave and feminist” woman.
As a way of honoring a comrade who has always fought for women’s rights, Guida Vieira dedicates a text to Conceição Pereira, which we reproduce in full here:
“I met Conceição in 1975 when she came from France where she was an emigrant before April 25, 1974. She was 14 years older than me and I always saw her as someone who inspired a great deal of respect, especially when she told me how she went to be a domestic worker in a foreign country and then to become a teacher. Since I was a little girl, I wanted to be a teacher, I saw something inspiring and brave in her.
She came with a great desire to organize the union of domestic workers. He made many contacts and meetings. He went through incredible situations but the Lobys were so strong that they pushed women away from this type of organization. Later, she was one of the great drivers of the existence of the Teachers’ Union of Madeira, and its representative leader at FENEPROF. I don’t think he was ever properly paid tribute to this work.
She helped found the Department of Women of USAM, (Union of Madeira Unions) in 1979, having been elected its leader with other fighting companions of the time where I am included, Assunção Bacanhim and Clarisse Canha. This Department played a key role in negotiating with the Regional Government on things like family planning, full-time school, the network of crèches and kindergartens, homes to welcome lonely and sick people, etc … Undoubtedly, these achievements, which today are all acquired issues, were achieved with a lot of struggle, intelligence and negotiation and Conceição was part of them.
One day in a Project linked to “Memories and Feminisms” I was part of the group that did an interview with Conceição, her life story was so vast and so multifaceted, that we gave her the idea of writing a book with the history of her life that she later edited in 2017.
Conceição also had another characteristic, that of making poems and quatrains. There are many important struggles that women have made in Madeira that she sang them in verses that were included in several works already edited by her and me. We were able to perceive through these verses her sensitivity to, and who, surrounded and worried her. Sometimes he participated in the demonstrations and meetings and days later he returned with the verses he had written, which are of historical value because they corresponded to many real events.
She was also a very cheerful woman, she loved to sing and dance. He made puppets all handmade to make little theaters for the children. When we organized outings and recreational events, she always had ideas and a great concern that was to collect funds, even if it was through rolled raffles. I always had a humble position in relation to money and I know that I helped many people whenever I could.
Since the founding of UMAR, she has been part of its national leadership to represent Madeira. Me and the other companions had a lot of union activity and she was our representative in everything that would talk about the woman. I remember a difficult televised debate, which was about the legalization of prostitution, where she, in a didactic and very serene manner, explained the position of UMAR, and managed to have them listen with respect, on a topic that is still very difficult today. She was a brave woman and she followed a newscast, a woman who was a victim of domestic violence, with a covered face, the first time this happened in Madeira. He became friends with her all his life.
Conceição had a way of being a little rude and sometimes harsh. When she thought that reason was on her side, she did not move anything and closed herself in her ideas, but that never prevented her from participating and intervening, even if it was through the letters of the DN Madeira reader, where she was assiduous and firm to defend her positions. that were contrary to that of most people. She believed that a new world was possible. She believed in the ideas of feminism to reach that world and has always defended them in a clear and direct way.
Conceição fought the capitalist system for considering it to suck the sweat of those who work. He fought the “powerful” the owners of all this because he wanted a different and happier world. I am sure that your ideas will be followed by many feminists who have joined our cause and that in this way it will never die.
I prefer to talk about this woman than the institutional positions that she ran for or won, because they passed, but this woman was really the one who stayed ”.
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