14 June – Several thousand demonstrate on Feminist Strike Day – News

  • At the end of the feminist strike day, several thousand people – 35,000 according to the organizers – took part in a colorful rally in Bern in the evening.
  • Trade unions and collectives had called for women’s or feminist strikes in various cities in Switzerland.
  • The demands focused on equal pay, minimum wages and living pensions.

The march was held under the motto “Solidarity, feminist, anti-racism.” The approved march led from the Schützenmatte near the Reitschule to the Kornhausplatz and from there to the Bundesplatz. Several speeches were held there afterwards. The rally, organized by the feminist strike collective Bern, was peaceful. Protests were held with music, slogans and banners such as “We’re always angry” or “Only yes means yes,” as a correspondent from the Keystone-SDA news agency reported.

According to the collective, these messages were intended to draw attention to “exploitative and discriminatory power structures.” Before the rally, speeches and workshops had already taken place on the Bundesplatz in the afternoon, and a choir had sung. According to the collective, the strike day was open to all genders. Men were called upon to show solidarity and “to provide support in the background.”

Also in other Swiss cities

In the city of Zurich, several thousand people came together in the early evening for the feminist strike day: They started the big demonstration after 5.30 p.m. with a loud cry against violence against women. It was “not a radical demand in any case,” it said on posters. They just wanted equal rights, not power, it said on others.

Before the procession with the scream, the feminist strike collective had asked several speakers to come to the microphone on Bürkliplatz. Over the course of the evening, the number of people attending the rally grew to well over 10,000, according to Zurich city police.

Feminist strike groups in other Swiss cities held events and rallies, including in Geneva, Lausanne, Winterthur, St. Gallen and Bellinzona. Several hundred women also gathered in the Vögeligärtli in Lucerne in the afternoon. The main topic of the event was women’s wages and pensions. The main criticism of the strike was the pension fund reform, which Switzerland will vote on on September 22nd. Women in particular would be asked to pay for this, it was said in a manifesto. It was therefore a “rip-off”.

The demands: equality and equal pay


Open box
Close box

On June 14, the non-partisan women’s umbrella organization Alliance F called for “a more committed equality policy for the country: more protection against violence against women and girls, equal pay for equal work” and “better conditions for the compatibility of work and family,” as it said in a statement. There is a need for a nationwide daycare structure and “reasonable parental leave for working mothers and fathers.”

The Unia trade union called for financial and social appreciation of women’s work and for pensions that ensure a living wage. The wage should be at least 5,000 francs per month. Women are being told that their work is worth less. This makes them rightly “angry,” said Unia President Vania Alleva in Bern on the occasion of the women’s strike day.

Several thousand people also demonstrated in Basel. The approved rally started at Theaterplatz under the motto “Our body, our street, our world”. With banners and jukeboxes as well as countless pink and purple flags and balloons, the demonstration moved over the Wettstein Bridge into Kleinbasel.

According to police estimates, between 6,000 and 8,000 people took to the streets in Geneva, and around 18,000 in Lausanne.

source site-72