Mujeres Libres: anarchopheminism and subjectivity in the spanish revolution

Abstract

Starting from the issues raised by feminist theoreticals Rosi Braidotti and Elizabeth Grosz, I try to think the experience of anarchist militants connected to the Mujeres Libres group during the Spanish Revolution between 1936-39. Radical in its contestation of class and gender power, the group brought together more than forty thousand affiliates throughout Spain, created training courses, day care centers, health posts for women and “La Prostitución liberations”, and published a feminist magazine. Considering this broad political experience, documented in Spanish libertarian newspapers, thirteen numbers of Mujeres Libres magazine and autobiographical reports, I inquire if and how anarchofeminism practiced by them created a specific way of existence, more integrated and humanized; if and how can it operate in the sense of re-updating the political and cultural imagination of our time. Michel Foucault's conceptual operators and problematizations about the production of subjectivity are fundamental references in this approach.