Ni una menos


Ni una menos is an Latin American fourth-wave grassroots feminist movement, which started in Argentina and has spread across several Latin American countries, that campaigns against gender-based violence. In its official website, Ni una menos defines itself as a "collective scream against machista violence." The campaign was started by a collective of Argentine female artists, journalists and academics, and has grown into "a continental alliance of feminist forces". The movement regularly holds protests against femicides, but has also touched on topics such as gender roles, sexual harassment, gender pay gap, sexual objectification, legality of abortion, sex workers' rights and transgender rights.
The movement became nationally recognized with the use of the hashtag #NiUnaMenos on social media, title under which massive demonstrations were held on June 3, 2015, having the Palace of the Argentine National Congress as a main meeting point. The protest was organized after the murder of 14-year-old Chiara Paez, found buried underneath her boyfriend's house on May 11, beaten to death and a few weeks pregnant. A viral phenomenon which extended to countries such as Uruguay and Chile, it managed to congregate around 200,000 people in Buenos Aires alone. On June 3, 2016 the multitudinous demonstration took place once again throughout Argentina's most important cities, under the new slogan #VivasNosQueremos ; the march was also replicated in Montevideo, Uruguay and Santiago, Chile. A #NiUnaMenos march also took place in Lima, Peru on August 13, 2016, with thousands of people gathering in front of the Palace of Justice. Newspaper La República considered it the largest demonstration in Peruvian history.
On October 19, 2016 the Ni una menos collective organized a first-ever women mass strike in Argentina, in response to the murder of 16-year-old Lucía Pérez, who was raped and impaled in the coastal city of Mar del Plata. It consisted of a one-hour pause from work and study early in the afternoon, with protesters dressed in mourning for what was known as Miércoles negro. These protests became region-wide and gave the movement a greater international momentum, with street demonstrations also taking place in Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and Spain. A week later, a protest also took place in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, which has been considered "yet another clear sign that Ni una menos has become a rallying cry for the region." On March 8, 2017, Ni una menos took part of the International Women's Strike. The strike was spearheaded in the United States by the leaders of the Women's March on Washington, who in a call to arms letter in The Guardian pointed to Ni una menos as an inspiration.
In 2016, Argentine scientists Julián Petrulevičius and Pedro Gutiérrez named Tupacsala niunamenos, a dragonfly species found in La Rioja, after the movement. The genus Tupacsala was chosen in honor of Túpac Amaru II and Milagro Sala's organization named after him.

Origin

The collective takes its name from a 1995 phrase by Mexican poet and activist Susana Chávez, "Ni una muerta más", in protest to the female homicides in Ciudad Juárez. Chávez herself was assassinated in 2011, moment in which the phrase became a "symbol of struggle". The first protest organized by Ni una menos was held in Recoleta, Buenos Aires on March 26, 2015, and consisted of a reading marathon, performance art and screenings; the catalyst of the event was the murder of Daiana García, found dead in a garbage bag on March 16.

Criticism

The movement has been criticized by some journalists, especially since 2017, for some of its demands, such as the freedom of Milagro Sala.