Sindicato de Amas de Casa de Santa Fe (The Housewives Trade Union of Santa Fe), Argentina
by Isabel Zanutigh, General Secretary, Sindicato de Amas de Casa de Santa Fe
On December 19–20, 2001, hundreds of thousands of people filled the steets of Argentina banging pots and pans in loud protest against the bankrupt economy. The protest was fueled by a decade of government corruption, illegal sales of public utilities and the systematic destruction of industry, which ultimately left millions of women and men without waged work.
Carrying on the "pots and pans protest," the unemployed continue to occupy roads and highways everywhere. The newest addition is the massive presence of women in the street, banging their pots in unity.
Since the December protest, Sindicato de Amas de Casa de Santa Fe (SAC), or the Housewives Trade Union of Santa Fe, has organized its grassroots base of 1,500 members to fill the public squares with women bringing urgent demands for daily necessities such as food and clothing. Founded in 1985 by women activists who identified the need to incorporate non-paid work in the home as a fundamental part of the women's rights movement, SAC is completely independent of any political party. It makes decisions by an assembly, the Red Interbarrial de Mujeres, elected from each neighborhood. Part of the Global Women for Wages Campaign, SAC's members – domestic workers, part-time and full-time housewives, single mothers, grandmothers, teachers, nurses and university students – serve as a public reminder that "every mother is a working mother." Through neighborhood branches in the province of Santa Fe, SAC provides health coverage, free legal and psychological counseling, domestic violence services, and skills and leadership training.
With a $15,000 grant from the Global Fund and support from the World Council of Churches, SAC's grassroots network of women are fulfilling the social responsibilities abandoned by the government.
Devastated by the country's economic crisis, SAC's members came together to fight for their dignity by taking control of the neighborhood health center for victims of domestic violence, shopping collectively for food to get lower prices, and running a neighborhood soup kitchen for more than 200 children. Through public denunciations, the members have exposed government employees who deny subsidies and food parcels to women who refuse to sleep with them. Tenacity and resourcefulness combined with SAC's guidance and commitment have enabled women to survive a national crisis, which has left the majority of the population in poverty. Women are banging their empty pots and pans, calling attention to the emptiness of financial security in their communities. 