Today, Tuesday 21^st of August, the third Marcha das Margaridas, organized by the National Confederation of Agricultural Workers of Brazil (CONTAG), was officially launched in Brasilia, on the site of the Expoparque. Some 12 thousand women were present to open this demonstration, along with an international delegation of over 50 supporters, including the IUF.

She went on to say that many things had changed since the last Marcha das Margaridas, and she reminded everyone that on the previous edition, the women had had to overcome a lot of obstacles within their own unions in order to organize, and she pointed out that not everyone had understood the importance and need for women to mobilize in their own space.

“We can’t afford to lose sight –Foro warned- of the fact that our mission here is to revolutionize Brazil’s labor movement, because no other movement today could do what we’re achieving here, gathering in one single action dozens of diverse organizations, in a display of unity in diversity never before seen. That’s what all us women are doing here, and CONTAG is playing a decisive role in this.”

“I take this opportunity to address the government authorities present here today to stress that the country needs an agrarian reform, we need to have access to land; and we want them to go an tell the President –she continued- that we want to leave here with the assurance that we will have updated productivity indexes published and available to all, we want to leave here knowing what policy will be adopted to address the violence that rural women are suffering, with the certainty and the guarantee that rural women will continue to be covered by the social security system, and we want to leave with a more clear idea of the measures the government will take to further support a sustainable rural development model based on agro-ecology, to be able to confront the agricultural model of investments based on the massive use of transgenic seeds. Through this March, as well as through other actions we plan to undertake, we will clearly demonstrate that the kind of country we want is a country where there is no inequality between women and men.”

Lastly, Carmen Foro closed her speech by announcing that “Brazil will never be the same again after this Marcha das Margaridas”.

For her part, Luisa Mele, on behalf of the IUF, pointed out that women workers throughout the world were accompanying this unique March whose deep significance and content will give them all something to reflect on, and concluded by saluting rural women workers and the Marcha das Margaridas.