We want everything

Good evening and thank you for your invitation. This is the first time I come to Finland and I am delighted to discover this country so unique!

Thanks to SKP for organizing debates on women’s rights. Nothing justifies the inequalities that persist between men and women in the 21st century. There is no reason that over 50% of the world population is still discriminated because of their sex. Nothing justifies the violence and humiliations suffered by women.

My name is Anne Sabourin. I am 30 years old. I am a member of the French Communist Party for 10 years and the Executive board of the Party of the European Left for 2 years. I hold a Master of Political Science and I have almost 8 years of professional experience.

I’m not saying this to tell my life.

I say this for two reasons.

The first is to tell you that you can be a young woman and claim high level of responsibility, while aspiring to a fulfilling personal and family life. I even think that the feminist slogan of the 21st century should be ”we want everything!”

A truly modern society must allow women to have everything!

And the second reason is to emphasize that even being graduated, competent, available… even in an environment where human emancipation is at the heart of concerns, even not being in a precarious situation, the sexism, masochism, discrimination exist and the fight for equality is a daily struggle.

To summarize: a European thirty year old women in 2015 can thank feminist of yesterday but can not lower the guard and must build the feminist movement of the future.

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I’ll give you some figures on women’s reality in France and point in two feminist battles of the current period.

In France, in the previous century, many advances have been made by the struggle of women.
The French women won the right to vote in 1944. It’s very late. In 1925, the French Communist Party presented women in elections, then the elections were canceled. It was strong actions, especially in the industrial towns.
After World War II, the unity government between the Communists and the Gaullists set up social security and public services to enable women to free themselves from household and education tasks. Social security, in particular the system of public nurseries, today still allows a rate of return to work after childbirth very high in France, unlike Germany.
After an extremely hard fight, where women who took position in favor were insulted and abused, the right to abortion was introduced in France in 1975, following the “movement of 331 sluts”. 331 women who publicly said they aborted illegally, showing dangers of illegal abortions for health.

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Today in the polls, the feeling of being equal is very strong among young people. But it is misleading.

At work, inequalities remain very strong: 25% wages remain unequal for equal skills (except in the public sector), 83% of part-timers are women, 80% of wages below the minimum wage are women. The laws are not respected by employers. I welcome the campaign launched by the Party of the European Left for decent work for all. This is probably the question that is the least discussed in the public sphere. Contrary to popular belief, this is what women talk less, as if they had incorporated the idea that often justifies inequality for bosses: ”women have family constraints, not men”.

The violence against women is increasing. One woman dies every 3 days at the hands of her husband. There are 80 000 rapes per year. Only 10% of women go to justice, and 1% of rapists are judged. There is the issue of justice, but today the emergency in France is to develop shelters for women who leave their husbands. Because if we do not take care, they sometimes return home or in even worse situations, up to prostitution.

If we leave the French case, the level of violence against women is increasing in the world because of wars and atrocities of jihadist groups. Rape remains a weapon of war and remember what was done by fools of the Islamic State to Yezidis young and pregnant women. So peace is a feminist struggle.

In politics: There has been a parity law requiring political forces to present as many women as men in the elections. But women account for 26% of parliamentarians and the highest responsibilities are reserved for men: there has never been a female President of the Republic, only one woman First Minister, and between 86% and 95% of local authorities Presidencies are occupied by men. In truth, if we really want equality, we need greater demands for political parties, but especially free up time for women.

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Finally, the question of public services is a key issue because it is the collective response that allows individual emancipation.

This is why I believe that the first urgent feminist struggle is the struggle against austerity.

The French health minister has announced 22,000 job cuts per year for 3 years in the public health system. This means closures services and whole hospitals. In France 130 abortion centers were closed in the last 10 years. Women’s health is in danger.

It’s the same logic that is destroying all public services: there is less space in nurseries, less nursing homes so taking care of children and the old persons is back on the shoulders of women. And this bring them home and gradually excluded from work. This excludes them also because public jobs are highly feminine. So when making cuts, destroyed jobs are women’s jobs. And austerity is also declining social benefits to the most vulnerable and failover of thousands of women in poverty. This is what we found in the countries of southern Europe, women are hardly hit by austerity. This is one reason why the government of Syriza was elected to end the policies that can only lead to tragedy.

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The second priority battle I would like to highlight here is the need to defeat the conservative offensive in Europe. Most of this offensive is based on a reactionary discourse on family to question the right of women to control their own bodies and to choose motherhood. The caricatural example is Gallardon law aimed at banning abortion rights in Spain. This example also shows us that if we mobilize, we can win.

In France, nobody thought that such a law could, in the 21st century, to be presented in a parliament of a European country. We were discussing the effectiveness of the right to abortion in light of closing public services, but the thirties like me realized that we were not protected against such huge regressions. Maybe one day, we could not choose our maternity, at the right time with the right person, in the right conditions. The rich could go abroad. The others, the vast majority would fall over underground, with the danger of death.

When a right is under attack in a European country, it is attacked throughout Europe. In France, at the same time you could hear Marine Le Pen, the leader of the extreme right, tell about a public radio that abortion is used by women as a ”contraception” and not a hard decision and a medical act leading to multiple effects on the body and human psychology. Abortion is still banned in Malta, Poland and Ireland. The European Parliament rejected the Estrela report on ”health and reproductive rights” which provided that ”quality abortion services are rendered legal, safe and accessible to all in the context of public health systems of the Member States including non-resident women.” In Hungary the Orban government, allied with fascist Jobbik has integrated naturalistic theories of the pro-life in the constitution. In Belgium and Switzerland, citizen referendums were based on a question: ”Should public health pay for abortions? ”. As if it were whims or the consequences of irresponsible behavior of women! What we say Belgian and Swiss case is that the battle for women’s rights to control their motherhood is inseparable from the struggle against austerity. The dogma of the reduction in public spending attacks the only model capable of ensuring access for all to rights, that is a public health system with adequate structures and funding to cover 100%.

At that time, the EL has launched a European campaign in time for safe and free abortion in Europe. We recalled that it was a fundamental right not to be restricted by religions or social conditions. We affirmed our rejection of fundamentalism and austerity and the need for a revival of public services. We have highlighted two principles for convergence of the rights to the top: the ”non-regression clause” which would not go back to an existing law in a country; and ”clause of the most favored European” that would take as convergence target the highest level of law in the country. We have a very feminist European party.

Finally, I give you a rendez-vous in Paris on 30 and 31 May for a big ”European Forum for alternatives” where the issue of women in Europe of course will be the topic of specific workshops. We invite all political forces, social movements, trade unions reject austerity to come and work together to find solutions to the crisis and to change Europe.

There is no solution without women. Women are the solution!

Thank you for your attention and I hope to see you in Paris.

CPF