Latest addition to French publisher Nada’s ‘Little Classics of Anarchism’ series, Neither God nor boss nor mari presents the French translation of a selection of texts from the Argentinian newspaper The Voz de la Mujer (1896-1897), considered the first libertarian publication written by and for working women.
These writings are accompanied by a rich iconography composed of period photographs and illustrations taken from various publications associated with the particularly active militant circles in Buenos Aires at the beginning of the 20th century.and century. Among these images stand out the remarkable etchings by Abraham Regino Vigo documenting workers’ struggles. This editorial approach helps to give the story and the chosen subject a sensitive character.
The brief adventure of The Voz de la Mujer, which has only nine numbers, is no less significant. Indeed, notorious figures from the women’s rights movements have contributed to it, such as Virginia Bolten, of German origin, in addition to making others known, such as Pepita Gherra. The latter is also credited with the entire writing of certain issues. The articles chosen and translated by the academic Hélène Finet, who also signs the preface, are distinguished by their diversity: collective editorials, polemical exchanges, foreign contributions and poems. Likewise, a wide variety of tone characterizes them, from humorous to bloodthirsty.
Running through the work, the frequent calls for violence against the authority of the institutions testify to the harshness of the living conditions then imposed on the workers. Already, sexual exploitation is bluntly denounced by the newspaper’s contributors, who are indignant at the attacks suffered daily by women of all ages, both in factories and workshops and in the domestic sphere.
“Barely pubescent, we are the target of the lustful and lustful gazes of the ‘stronger’ sex, whether they belong to the exploiting class or to the exploited one”, notes Carmen Lavera in a text entitled “Why are we partisans free love? “. In this context, at the confluence of economic and social enslavement, as Hélène Finet points out in the preface, prostitution appears as the last resort for impoverished women who are tormented by hunger.
Still topical nearly 125 years after their publication, the series of editorials selected for the booklet testifies to the virulent reactions of the anarchist milieu to the publication of The Voz de la Mujer. While the movement was engaged in the fight for the end of all oppressions, the conception of a two-speed freedom betrayed by the critics of the periodical was strongly denounced in terms that could be those of today: “It must, oh! false anarchists that you are, that you understand that our mission is not reduced to raising your children and washing away your filth and that we too have the right to emancipate ourselves and to be free from any form of tutelage, be it social, economic or marital. »