Solidarity-Building with Anti-Extractivist Struggles in the World March of Women in the Macro-Norte Region, Peru

This paper seeks to address the theme of the session by presenting and discussing research results on recent evolutions and challenges facing mobilizations in the World March of Women. We document how, since 2011, the World March of Women has been forging solidarities with the struggles of non-feminist others in the Macro-Norte region of Peru as part of its process of movement building. We also show how, in this process, the struggles against extractivism in which peasant and indigenous women are involved have been actively redefined as “women’s struggles” and as congruent with the popular feminism of the March. These developments are important for feminism as they are contributing to expand the political platform and priorities of the March beyond the more classical feminist issues (women’s poverty and violence against women) it had initially embraced at both the local and transnational scales. Taking on struggles against extractivism as a new priority is also posing challenges for feminist mobilizations, among which is the ability of popular feminism and of the March to integrate more intersectional perspectives. In particular, we highlight how, in our case study, the March has engaged in solidarity building with the anti-extractivist struggles of the indigenous community of Canaris while both naming and eliding indigenous difference to the benefit of an analysis centering neoliberal capitalism. The paper draws on data collected in 2015 as part of Anabel Paulos’ doctoral research on convergence spaces in Peru and of Dominique Masson’s broader research project on solidarity-building around food sovereignty in the World March of Women.