Luiza Tonon | “This is a culturally significant exchange of experiences”

1 year ago

Our correspondent Belén de los Santos interviews Luiza Tonon from the Democratic Women Movement of Portugal, during the second day of the Anti-Fascist Youth & Students World Congress. teleSUR

Transcript

00:00We go now with Belén, our special omba in Caracas, for more details on everything that

00:05has been happening in this International World Youth and Student Anti-Fascist Congress.

00:11Hello studios, exactly.

00:14We continue here in Caracas as the Youth Anti-Fascist Congress is underway in the Venezuelan capital.

00:25And the delegations are here.

00:26This is the second day of the Congress.

00:29Some of the panels are already underway as the delegations from different parts of the

00:34world are discussing, debating, bringing their own experiences on very relevant topics to

00:42really, first of all, understand the world we are living in, and second, just share the

00:48different experiences from different territories and also think of a common agenda and common

00:54strategies to really tackle those challenges and think of the way in which a better future,

01:02a better world order can be built.

01:04And that is what is happening here in Caracas.

01:06The topics go from discussing the environmental crisis to discussing the possibilities of

01:13young and popular organizations around the world.

01:16And also, the women and gender topic is also one of the main pieces of debate.

01:23This has been for the past decades, of course, one of the most relevant topics, but in this

01:29case, it's being analyzed in an international and also an anti-capitalist perspective for

01:36the women's movement around the world.

01:38And we are now joined by Luisa Danon.

01:41She is from Portugal and she is from the Democratic Women Movement from Portugal.

01:46So, first of all, welcome, Luisa.

01:48Thank you for joining us here in Tell Us Your English.

01:52It's a pleasure for us to have you here.

01:55And I would first like to ask you about your first impressions.

01:59It's your first time in Venezuela, right?

02:01Yes, it's my first time in Venezuela.

02:03I arrived here this week and I've been finding it wonderful, wonderful, wonderful people,

02:11very sympathetic, very warm and receptive.

02:14And also, it's very important to say that it has nothing to do with what has been told

02:19in my country, in Portugal.

02:21People tell many lies about Venezuela, that it's too violent here and people don't have anything.

02:29And I've not seen that at all.

02:31I've just been loving it.

02:33It's a beautiful city.

02:34It's a great opportunity to meet more people and to see the resistance, the political culture

02:39here from Venezuela, that it's a big example to us in Portugal.

02:44Right.

02:45And of course, the question about the media campaign against the sovereign countries around

02:52the world is one of the key topics here as well, because of course, that is the impression

02:57from many of the delegates that are visiting, not only Venezuela, but sometimes Latin America

03:02for the first time, moving out of their own countries for the first time.

03:06So it's really good to know the in-person experience from this country on the one hand.

03:12Also, I imagine that you've been talking to delegates from all over the world and asking

03:17them about their experiences, what is going on in their countries.

03:20So it's a very big learning process.

03:23And I would like to ask you, yesterday was the first day of discussions, of panels.

03:29You come from a women's movement in Portugal.

03:33So what was that like in the exchange of ideas?

03:36What were some of the main topics in that area?

03:40How was the exchange of visions with delegates from all over the world?

03:44What's your perspective?

03:46I would say it has been also fantastic.

03:49Since arriving here, I've been talking every time to people from all the continents.

03:53And as I'm from the women's movement, I always ask about the women and the situation in their

03:58countries.

03:59But here, yesterday, it was very important that we had a whole discussion dedicated only

04:04to gender and women.

04:06And I was invited there to be talking about the experience of my country and my movement.

04:12That was great.

04:13But it was even better to listen to many people from Latin America, many women from Venezuela

04:18as well, and other countries in the world, to tell their experiences.

04:22Also, the struggle and the rights for women in all these countries.

04:28So it was very rich.

04:30We stayed almost three hours there, just exchanging experiences.

04:33And it has been great.

04:35I feel like even more strong now to my struggles in my country.

04:39And surely they feel the same to their countries.

04:42And it's very important to be solidary, to strengthen this solidarity towards all the

04:47women of the world.

04:49We learned very much, and it's great.

04:51Well, that is really amazing to hear and to see.

04:55We see people exchanging experiences.

04:57We see people exchanging their flags, their fighting symbols.

05:02And that is really, it can appear a superficial thing, but I think that it speaks to really

05:09the exchange and the solidarity that is being built with someone that you are talking with,

05:14sharing an experience.

05:15So it's really good.

05:17And I would like to end by asking you, what is the situation in Portugal in terms of the

05:23women's movement?

05:25What are your key struggles?

05:27And have you been able to share and learn from other experiences during this congress?

05:32Sure.

05:33We see that Portugal has lived 48 years under a fascist dictatorship, as many Latin American

05:41countries.

05:42And that dictatorship was very misogynist and hated women.

05:47Women had way lower rights than men.

05:49And just because many women were in the anti-fascist struggle, and together with all the people,

05:55all the working class, they made a popular social revolution in 1974.

05:59And after that, things changed a lot.

06:02What proves, we think, that the social organization of the working class can really change the

06:09world.

06:10But now, we live in a capitalist country, that's Portugal.

06:13It's one of the poorest countries in Europe, so we have many struggles due to the low wages.

06:19Women get less paid and usually are in lower paid professions.

06:24And we fight a lot in some rights, that women can be mothers if they want.

06:30And this should not be a heavy thing.

06:33They should have free public education for babies.

06:36And this doesn't happen right now in our country.

06:39It's a struggle to us to have free and public service to children care in our country.

06:48We are always in the streets talking to our women to be strong in the trade unions, to

06:55fight for bigger wages, to have also better times of work, because some women do work

07:01a lot, have two or three jobs, and this is too much.

07:05We see that women suffer a lot.

07:07And we also are in the struggle against violence against women, because Portugal is overall

07:13a very safe country, but the most reported crime is domestic violence.

07:19So, we have to tell women to be aware of that and don't fear to denounce that.

07:24So, it's one of our struggles.

07:27And mainly now, we say a lot about anti-imperialism, to support Palestine, to support Cuba, to

07:33support Venezuela, and women to stand with peace against all the wars, against all the

07:38violence.

07:39These are also very important to us.

07:41And that's why it's very important to us to be here.

07:44Thank you very much.

07:45Thank you, Luisa.

07:46It's our pleasure to have you, truly.

07:49That was Luisa, our comrade from Portugal, bringing some of the information and reality

07:55in the women's movement in that country.

07:58And really, that is just a little bit of what this Congress is all about.

08:02Not only the topics that are being discussed, but also learning from the reality in each

08:08country, because one of the keys in the international attempt to unite the different movements

08:15from different countries has to do with learning about what's going on and also finding that

08:20there's a lot of common ground, that there's a lot of shared history, even with people

08:25from far, far away in the world.

08:28And that is what is happening.

08:29The exchanges are being made.

08:31And a lot of comrades are realizing that the same struggles are being fought in different

08:37territories, and that means that there's a lot of people for them to learn from, and

08:43also a lot of road to walk together.

08:47So that is what is happening here.

08:49We will continue to bring you all the information from the Anti-Fascist Youth Congress in Caracas.

08:54Now we go back to you.

Luiza Tonon | “This is a culturally significant exchange of experiences”

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