Communication and activist literacy for social change in feminist movements

Abstract

This chapter addresses the role of communication and information practices in recent feminist activism. Specifically, it analyses the case of the 8M women’s strikes in Spain and Portugal in 2019 to gather potential lessons for the non-profit sector and activism in the field of feminisms and diversity. It adopts an activist communication perspective, based on the concept of “cultural efficacy” (Nos-Aldás, 2020), which refers to the shared premise that the core cross-cutting responsibility and main long-term aim is transformative communication above the private or management needs of movements and organizations. On the methodological level, content and discourse analysis is applied to the websites that coordinated the Iberian 8M strikes, using cultural efficacy criteria to discuss how they contribute to the movements' communication and activist practices. The results indicate that there are points in common between feminist activism in Spain and Portugal. Both communicative experiences share discourse traits focused on activist literacy, to trigger collective action for global social justice. They advocate enduring transformation with a nonviolent, transgressive and intersectional approach, enhancing recognition of previous struggles and inspiring alliances. Simultaneously, particularities of each country’s movement are seen in their messages. Police violence in neighborhoods, for instance, stands out as a cause for protest in Portugal, whereas efforts to bond with broad alliances and international networks are salient in Spain.