This is a CTP of initiative: La Via Campesina/ANAMURI (Chile)
This CTP refers to the constitution of the National Association of rural and indigenous women (ANAMURI, in its Spanish initials) of Chile in 1998. Its constitution as an association was made by 56 women from mixed rural organizations.
The decision to create an autonomous organization of women is followed by repeated experiences of gender discrimination in mixed unions, confederations and instances of national coordination on the rural and indigenous issues. Therefore, ANAMURI's mission is to contribute to the integral development of the rural and indigenous women, considering the labor, economic, social and cultural aspects, by stimulating the organization and its strengthening. Their work is based on an ideology that aims to build relationships of equality, considering the condition of gender, class and ethnicity, in an environment of respect relations between people and nature.
Thus, ANAMURI focuses its work on two principles: 1) the struggle for the rights of women (violence, working conditions, social policies, etc.) and 2) sustainable management of the environment. The purpose of this association is to "represent the demands, aspirations and dreams of the various sectors of women who comprise it: peasants and indigenous people, small producers, agricultural export workers, fishermen, seafarers, artisans, children , Popular singers and poets".
ANAMURI has experienced a political process that goes from the identification of women as victims of changes in the agricultural model - in which are mostly temporary workers exploited and violated their rights - towards a proposal in which women themselves are The protagonists of social change. As a result, it went from a political action oriented to the problems of salaried agricultural work towards a proposal for food sovereignty and the crucial role of seeds.
The institutionalization of the association in 1998 marked a milestone in a long trajectory in which many of its founders were part:
"The articulation of the movement emerges in dictatorship ... women are joining the organization, go in search of their partners and then join the organization ... go in search of solidarity ... We were aware and organized, we became indispensable in that historic moment . The men discovered us and we discovered the organization and we liked ... We were born in rebellion, we constituted in rebellion".
The formation of the association was part of a broader national process linked to the recovery of democracy in Chile since 1990 after 16 years of military dictatorship. Thus, part of the process of democratic transition was the emergence of multiple trade union organizations that could channel the needs and demands of different sectors. Among them, the rural organizations stood out. But in addition, in the mid-1990s the State incorporated the gender dimension into its public policies. Therefore, in 1991, the government created the National Women's Service (SERNAM, in tis spanish initials) as an assistance tool that operated transversally in public institutions.
In the early years of democracy, in 1993, indigenous law was also sanctioned, recognizing indigenous peoples as descendants of the first settlers of the national territory and therefore recognizing rights. This recognition explains that ANAMURI establishes this triple identification of its members as women, rural and indigenous.
This process of Chilean history was strongly influenced by what happened in the Latin American context. At the beginning of 1994, the first public appearance of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation took place, raising its rejection of neoliberal policies from the peasant and indigenous perspective. At the same time, the Landless Peasants' Movement (MST, in its spanish initials) of Brazil was organized in defense of the right to land and against agribusiness:
"ANAMURI arises linked to the processes of Latin America, joins the Latin American movement. The ties were stronger with the women of Latin America ... the strength was in the link with Latin America".
It is for this reason that ANAMURI has been part of the Latin American Coordinator of Field Organizations (CLOC) and of the international network Vía Campesina since its inception.
The history of the rural population in Chile is deeply related to what was known as the process of agricultural reform that was implemented between 1966 and 1973, and the counterreform that was applied after the military dictatorship led by Augusto Pinochet.
The agrarian reform was originally promoted by President Eduardo Frei and stipulated a system of redistribution of land to achieve an increase of the agricultural production and to diminish the concentration of the earth. This policy was deepened during the socialist government of Salvador Allende, which accelerated the expropriation process and strengthened the peasants' position.
With the coup d'état of 1973, the dictatorship ended the reform and established a process of restitution of land to its former owners or its sale to private capital. With these changes in the 1980s, Chile's positioning as an "agri-food power" was sought from a model mainly in a model of monoculture, agro-chemicals, degradation of biodiversity, concentration in few companies - many of them transnationalized - And intensification of temporary work.
The recovery of democracy in Chile did not bring about major changes in the unequal structure of land distribution. The status quo imposed by the counter-reform was maintained. Something similar happened roughly with the liberal economic policies that were imposed during the government of Pinochet.
One of the most significant measures promoted by the new government was the sanction of the indigenous law that recognizes the existence in Chile of a plurality of indigenous ethnic groups, whose members are descendants of human groups that have existed in the national territory since pre-Columbian times, They still maintain their own ethnic and cultural manifestations and whose main foundation of their existence and culture is the land. Likewise, the law regulates in detail what concerns indigenous lands, for which it recognizes the existence of lands that are called indigenous and details what they are; Establishes a special tax and registration regime; Provides limitations to domain allocations; And subtracts them from the regime of the indivisibility of the Civil Code, in order to favor their community property.
This CTP was born out of a process of contestation in which the women who decided to found ANAMURI were not satisfied with the treatment and recognition they received in other mixed groups (including men and women). The creation of ANAMURI poses the rural women have their own needs and interests that were not attended by organizations existing until then.
Like other groups that emerged after the dictatorship, they are defined primarily as "women's movement"; Although they are grouped around their gender identity, are not constituted primarily from the feminist claim. However, among the national leaders there is some consensus that the organization is inspired by feminism, and recognize its relevance to understand the reality of rural women. Despite this, there are wide apprehensions about the adequacy and relevance of feminist politics for the peasant world, from here the need for a popular peasant feminism:
"The work in the fields, is part of life say from day to day, getting up at six in the morning, the first thing to do is feed the animals, because that is the early rise let's say To go to feed the animals, then feed if there are men in the house is the men to go to work eh, is followed with a whole day of chores say that orchard or what do I, eh and then eh always In addition to the last one lying down because they have to leave everything closed, and often also women are sexually occupied by their husbands, in many cases raped by their husbands eh and this eh, we are doing a whole theme of peasant and popular feminism , Where what appears most is the issue of violence against them and this issue of sexual abuse of women is an unacknowledged issue, often unrecognized."
The anticipation in this CTP is directly associated to the previous trajectory that the founders of the movement had been developing. Many of them participated in other union spaces and even came from other forms of organization that emerged during the dictatorship. The gender problem had manifested itself since the first years of democracy and is evidenced in the creation of SERNAM by the national government. The incorporation of the indigenous dimension took place after the sanction of the law of 1993.
This CTP was a learning process for the founders of ANAMURI. In particular, they emphasized that they learned to recognize the importance of the organization and the strength it can offer to establish networks with other organizations in the country and Latin America:
“I learned a lot at the side of the men who ran the organisation at that time. I learned the importance of inter-organisational ties and international relationships, and it taught me something extraordinarily important: the value of being Latin American. When you work at that level, you stop being Chilean and become “latina”, which greatly strengthened my formative experience.”
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