“He who enters has the task of taking others.” Those were the words spoken by one of the I Vote Black coordinators, Monica Oliveira, during the Northeast Black Women’s Meeting – Smearing Parliament, which took place on the floor of Parliament this Friday. Esuda Faculty of Science, Recife Center. Bringing together 36 of more than 50 candidates assisted by the project in the Northeast, the meeting discussed the importance of black women’s representation, not only as a quantitative factor, but also as a means of implementing policies to combat racism. The event is an initiative of the Black Women’s Network of Pernambuco and Casa da Mulher do Nordeste as part of the Black Women’s Project to Spaces of Power.

In an audience filled with candidacies of black women, social movements and supporters, voices jumbled together, chanting the same thing: denigrate the political scene with anti-racist women candidatures. Even though they make up 28% of the Brazilian population, black women are still underrepresented in these areas of power. In 2020, these women accounted for only 2% of the National Congress, according to the National Household Continuous Sample Survey (Pnad) conducted by IBGE, which is a reality according to which the “Eu Voto em Negra” project, which operates after the 2020 municipal elections, aims to eradicate.

“The idea is to strengthen the candidacy of cis and transgender black women so that we can expand our presence in parliament and in the executive branch,” explains Monica Oliveira. “In our understanding, this stage is especially aimed at strengthening the presence in the legislature as a step towards the executive,” he adds. Media training, communications services, political and technical training are some of the jobs offered by Eu Voto em Negra to women who have been referred to promote these candidacies in an election year “more challenging” than 2020, according to Monika’s assessment.

“We are approaching the fourth year of Bolsonaro’s rule, so there is a resurgence of various forms of violence such as racism, misogyny, LGBT phobia,” he emphasizes. “All this set of violence that affects women, especially the black population.”

candidates

In an effort to circumvent this scenario, several black women from nine northeastern states committed to anti-racism have come forward to run for seats in the legislature and executive. As part of a collective mandate, Pretas sang Bahía, candidate for the state of Marcia Minister (Psol), who also ran for councilor in El Salvador’s 2020 municipal elections, says she recognizes the difficulty of entering places that are normally inaccessible to women like she is. , but even though he didn’t win the contest that year, he reiterates the importance of not giving up. “We cannot refuse to fight, we send a signal that we are ready to take these positions,” he said.

In the same stance, Crisiel (PT), Maranhao’s state candidate, classifies the meeting as a “very symbolic moment” and an exchange of experiences in search of reinforcement. “It’s a very happy and very symbolic moment to bring together so many black women’s candidatures at a time of so many failures in the country, we’ve come to reaffirm our fight,” she says.

Pernambuco federal candidate Robyonce Lima (Psol), who is part of the first collective mandate (Juntas Codexepoutadas) elected to the Legislative Assembly of Pernambuco (Alepe) in the 2018 elections, says there is a need to expand on achievements and regulate national politics in view of the onset of conservatism in country. “We need more and more women in politics to vilify these spaces, to tie our plans to gender and race,” she comments. “We need to change this story, we will have a transvestite, a black bench in the Federal Chamber after 200 years of Brazilian independence. This is a historical reparation.”

letter of commitment

During the meeting, the political project announced by the women present was presented with a signed letter titled “Black Women of the Northeast Smearing Parliament” consisting of 13 commitments read by Monica Oliveira. While citing small gains in representativeness in institutional policy, the paper highlights points that need to be considered and worked on.

Photo: Tylynn Barrett / DP Photo

“We want a democracy that goes beyond voting every two years. We want democracy, which means not only the right to speak, but also the right to be heard and jointly shape the direction of the country,” the excerpt from the letter explains.

Commitments that recognize black heritage, place political spaces at the service of the fight against racism, strengthen alliances with anti-racist organizations, and build on the principle of collectivism were some of the agendas presented.