Spain experienced a revolutionary movement in 2011 that gave political scientists and socialists from inside and outside the country something to talk about for several years. Thousands of people, especially young people, camped for days at Madrid’s Puerta del Sol asking for greater social justice for all. When a group of women tried to raise a banner in the central plaza of Madrid with the motto “The revolution will be feminist”, the mob came upon them, a young man tore the poster and the cries of “out, out” they ended up expelling them. Your message did not represent 99%.
Today the country lives in the middle of the 8M hangover. All the expectations of the mobilization have overflowed, and it is difficult to calculate the numerical impact of a movement, of some protests and a general strike, which have caught the attention of the media inside and outside the country.
Madrid today: #TimeIsNow # IWD2018 #WomenPower
@justmiguelo # BellezaAlas10 pic.twitter.com/9rOuA7lUEO– Marta García de los Ríos ♀️ (@MartaGRios) March 8, 2018
As is well known by all, the war of figures is that, a war with an exact answer unattainable when we speak of such great magnitudes. But yesterday Spain could have broken a world record: that of the largest feminist convocation in the history of humanity. Little joke. That is why it is necessary to make an approximate calculation to know how many Spaniards took to the streets yesterday. To find out if this country is, as it seems, the vanguard of the movement worldwide.
Analyzing the adherence to the strike
On the one hand we have the figures of the strike-stoppage, which could help us calculate very well the minimum percentage of people who identify with the cause and who would end up approaching some act. We know that CCOO and UGT have given as official figure 5.9 million workers that supported the strike. We also know that the figures of the unions do not usually correspond to the reality of the monitoring of the strike. To put in perspective, in the previous general strike, that of november 2012, these unions estimated the follow-up at 75%, 9 million workers, when the Administration estimated internal monitoring by 52%.
The figures of the monitoring of unemployment by sectors and communities among the civil servants during this feminist strike has been immensely varied, reaching 70% among teachers in Galicia and 1% in La Rioja. It was a general strike and open to both genders, but we must bear in mind that technically discount 50% of the population, the masculine (either because many would not feel identified with the demands, or because they were directly asked not to support it by feminist organizations), to take stock.
Those tracking numbers from between 10 and 25% in the Administration they seem stable enough within the public sector, a much safer workplace than the private one. Women, as we know, tend to greater job insecurity, which also puts much more difficult support the strikes.
My guela also for # 8MarchFeminist Strike # Yoparo8M pic.twitter.com/FpyYlvWigw
– Ángela Terente Pérez (@ Angyther21) March 7, 2018
This was also not a general strike to use by that shyness of the two main unions when calling 24 hours. Claiming the break at 2 hours per shift, as well as appealing to feminist sentiment, conveyed the feeling that the call was a minor matter.
In summary, we do not really know how many people have supported the strike in any of its formulas. Six million women strikers seems an unbelievable number (a million, a million and a half, could be a closer figure). But now we go with the demonstrations.
Quantifying the feminist ocean of 8M
During these weeks El Salto followed up of all the points in which there were events called for this March 8. 123 demonstrations, 192 rallies and 185 actions (Although it seems that some concentrations escaped their count, judging by the comments on the news). The perspective of this plurality of sources already makes us see the difficult magnitude of the count of the monitoring of the strike.
We have collected the attendance figures Delegations, police bodies and convenors of the demonstrations in fourteen of the main municipalities of Spain, which together total ten million of the population of 46 million in Spain, and we have weighted the results. Knowing the monitoring in cities is, in addition, a particularly reliable measure in our country, since the concentration of life in large cities is very pronounced if we compare ourselves with other neighboring territories: our fields are especially depopulated.
For ten of those cities we have directly taken the police figures, but for the four of the most populous municipalities in our country that figure is not enough. As we know, there is usually a huge disparity in quantification between organizers and public institutions.
In Spain, historical protests are not measured in Madrid or BCN, but in provinces. Today’s impressive images in small cities point to social overflow. Huge.
– Isaac Rosa (@_isaacrosa) March 8, 2018
The great demonstrations in Valencia, Zaragoza and especially Barcelona and Madrid, where floods of unquantifiable people appear, allow political wars. It is difficult to accept the figure of the Government Delegation of 170,000 attendees yesterday in Madrid when, seeing the images of the past, they put in million and a half attendees to the march by Miguel Ángel Blanco. The same, if we compare the images of what the Guardia Urbana said yesterday in Barcelona 200,000 people regarding what they tell us when the Diada manifests.
Nor is it credible that there were a million or 1.5 million people in Madrid yesterday, as the regional delegation of the March 8 Commission has said. Nor the 600,000 that were in Barcelona. Faced with impossible figures, we have opted for a stocking pulling down. 500,000 people in Madrid, 300,000 for Barcelona, 100,000 for Zaragoza and 100,000 in Valencia.
Comparing with the percentages of support with respect to the population of the analyzed municipalities of the other cities on the list, they are approximate figures, but perfectly feasible:
|
City |
Protesters |
Population |
Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Madrid |
500,000 |
3,100,000 |
16.1% |
|
Barcelona |
300,000 |
1,600,000 |
18.75% |
|
Valencia |
100,000 |
791,000 |
12.6% |
|
Saragossa |
100,000 |
661,000 |
15.1% |
|
Seville |
100,000 |
690,000 |
14.4% |
|
Malaga |
70,000 |
569,000 |
12.3% |
|
Bilbao |
60,000 |
345,000 |
17.3% |
|
Pomegranate |
50,000 |
234,000 |
21.3% |
|
Vigo |
40,000 |
292,000 |
13.6% |
|
A Coruña |
25,000 |
243,000 |
10.2% |
|
Santander |
22,000 |
172,000 |
12.7% |
|
Gijón |
20,000 |
273,000 |
7.3% |
|
Palm |
15,000 |
400,000 |
3.75% |
|
Valladolid |
14,000 |
300,000 |
4.7% |
As we can see, it gives us a total of 1.42 million attendees in these fourteen cities out of the hundreds of cities where protesters were called yesterday. By a simple rule of three, and transferring it to the 46 million Spaniards, it would give us a final figure of 6,500,000 million people, but it is clearly unrealistic. To correct and round off, at least a couple of things should be taken into account:
-
That many people from other municipalities usually move to the big cities to make more noise (with which the amount of support in small municipalities could be less).
-
That feminism is a movement that could have much more impact in big cities than in rural areas.
Beyond the big cities, the mobilizations in small towns are very symbolic. Can you help me make a thread with photos of mobilizations in the rural world?
I start, these are in Ciudad Rodrigo (Salamanca) # 8MarchFemale Strike pic.twitter.com/OXmtb6CP5n– Cristina Hernández (@Cristina_H_) March 9, 2018
From all this we come to the tracking number that the BBC has officially released, five million people. Five, four, even if there had been three, anyone who attended an event yesterday had the same feeling: the streets were crowded. Some said that they did not remember such mobilizations since the demonstrations against ETA, others that looked like to the rejection of the ETTs in the time of Felipe González. In provincial newspapers the police recognized that there was no such citizen movement for more than 30 years. The 15M walked through the streets of Madrid 100,000 protesters. The 8M has only been five times the largest in the capital.
And then you will say that we are five or six (million)
Five million people. More than 10% of the Spanish population. The figure (even being estimated) shines even more if we compare it, as we were indicating at the beginning of the article, with what the feminist movement has historically been, something generally minority and with which very few people identified.
The United States was breastfeeding last year with its Women’s March. Images of hundreds of thousands of women marching through New York or Washington traveled around the world. Vox and Washington Post they made detailed post-march counts, and the most accurate estimate put the follow-up at 4.2 million. In a country with 323 million citizens. 1.3% of protesting citizens.
So yeah, it seems like Spain has given life to the largest feminist national demonstration in history. Despite everything, we cannot forget that there have been other very important feminist marches in the past, such as that of Hyde Park from 1908 (about 300,000 people), the Women’s March in Pretoria in 1956 (20,000) or the Million Mom March of 2000 (950,000). Not all periods and contexts are comparable, so that, although less secondary, we cannot underestimate the importance of those acts in which the difficulty to go out was much greater.
Which is undeniable, as we are also seeing now with The reactions from the politicians of Spain, is that yesterday’s mobilization was a paradigm shift. Already warned days before Metroscopy82% of Spaniards saw sufficient reasons for the feminist strike on Thursday, March 8. Feminism is an absolutely uncontested force in Spain.
Awesome! You have made history, comrades! Let them join. at the last minute and bad, those who have spent months ranting against the #Feminist Strike It says a lot about the success of your mobilization. And this is just the beginning! #EmakumeokPlanto # 8MarchFemale Strike #March 8 pic.twitter.com/6Y6CPsTZDP
– Andros173 ️ (@ andros173) March 8, 2018
How pretty when you fight, Badajoz. # HuelgaFeminista8M pic.twitter.com/PUVOaS2dsO
– Badajoz Students (@EstudiantesBdjz) March 8, 2018
The Gran Canarian palms pic.twitter.com/9M5123f7Uo
– Ignoto Lugar (@IgnotoLugar) March 8, 2018
Sisters, this is #Vigo via @laurafontanc # 8MarchFemale Strike #AsMulleresParamos #Asmulleresqueopinan @anaisbernal @pardodevera @AnitaBotwin @Latanace @EmmaGasco @TaboadaLucia @meri_varela @DianaLovar @elisabeni @ftabara @inmalopezsilva @garciaaller @BrunaHusky @depo_es pic.twitter.com/DIDv6wyolH
– Ana Guantes (@anaguantes) March 8, 2018
Santiago de Compostela pic.twitter.com/6gFkhGCAZM
– Iria (@iriacure) March 9, 2018
Have a look at the feminist #Murcia on strike # 8MarchFemale Strike pic.twitter.com/KIoce04TID
– Take the square (@takethesquare) March 8, 2018
Another from Xixón pic.twitter.com/Awazvmex3Q
– Xulián (@xuliansf) March 9, 2018
What beauty Madrid overflowing with feminism! Historical # HuelgaFeminista8M. Tremendous empowerment to continue working for a life that deserves to be lived # 8M pic.twitter.com/yJvoh5AQWp
– Clara Vázquez (@clara_vzqz) March 8, 2018
This photo of Carlos Rosillo in @the country to illustrate the day that will change everything. Starting tomorrow, no one will be able to look the other way.# 8M #International Women’s Day # 8MarchFemale Strike pic.twitter.com/t4f6d5ioK7
– Patricia Fernández de Lis (@pflis) March 8, 2018
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