O Ano De 1975, Foi Eleito Pela Organização Das Nações Unidas/ONU, Como O Ano Internacional

UNIVERSITY OF CAMPINAS /UNICAMP

THE FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF CEARÁ

THE FORD FOUNDATION

FINAL RESEARCH REPORT

The Ceará Council on Women's Rights (CCDM)– Can there be dialogue between the Women's Movements and the State?

Prof. Gema Galgani S. L. Esmeraldo/UFC

Collaboration: Magnólia Azevedo Said/ESPLAR

Research Assistants: Flávia Regina Matos Pontes/UFC

Maria do Socorro de Aráujo/UFC

SUMMARY

1.INTRODUction...... 3

2. the state of ceará - The Social and Political background...... 5

2.1. The rise of the urban social movements and subsequent developments...5

2.2. The Political Scenario - New ways of practicing politics...... 7

2.3. The Feminist and Women's Movements - Origin and specifics.......

2.3.1. The public expression of the NGO's ......

3. THE NATIONAL AND STATE COUNCILS - A PLACE OF CONGRUITIES AND CONTRADICTIONS

3.1.The State Council on the Feminine Condition - CECF São Paulo: the forerunner

3.2. The National Council on Women's Rights/CNDM – Origin, achievements and challenges. 25

3.3...... The Ceará Council on Women's Rights/CCDM - an experience in debate

3.3.1. The Women's Movements and the CCDM - the two sided coin of party politics

3.3.2. CCDM - Paths and trends

3.3.3 The Government - CCDM relationship: Consensus or consent?

4. by way of conclusion

5. Bibliography

6. Annex......

1. INTRODUCTION

The year 1975 was chosen by the United Nations as International Woman’s Year. This date is celebrated by women from different parts of the world who take full advantage of events and functions held in its name, speak out against their inferior status and fight against oppression and inequality, with the emancipation of women as their ultimate goal.

1975 provided a suitable opportunity for reflecting on, channeling and announcing the changes in attitude which had characterized women's behavior since 1960. It also prompted the founding of numerous organizations which have encouraged women to think and express their indignation at a macho, patriarchal, and male-dominated society.

In Brazil, women joined multifaceted movements, becoming involved in struggles to restore democracy, the fights against the high cost of living, for better living conditions and work related rights, to affirm differences and for the exercise of citizenship. This national mobilization placed Brazilian women once and for all in the public and political world.

The process of democratic transition, initiated by the Military President, General Ernesto Geisel towards the end of the 70s, coincided with the proliferation of grass-roots movements, the consolidation of an opposition, the resurgence of the Left, the reformulation of opposition politics and an increase in the pastoral activities of the Catholic Church, despite ongoing repressive policies.(SOARES, 1994: 12). Political parties on the left again moved close to the emerging social movements in order to build political support and representation, among these were the Women's movement[1] and the Feminist movement..

In the course of 1981, debate within the different political parties as to how the campaigns for the 1982 elections should be conducted, affected both the women's and the feminist movements. Certain groups considered it important that feminists should be included in political parties to bring the debate for inclusion of women's issues in the political platforms and for women to run for office. Other groups were of the mind that the priority should be the activity of the movements around specific women's issues, thereby preserving their autonomy.

For ARDAILLON (1989: 05), two tendencies were to form the basis for the main discussions aired around the time that the CECF was founded. One, denominated "socialist-feminist", defended the struggle for the emancipation of women as part of a more general agenda for the radical transformation of society. Another, called “radical feminist”, called for an autonomous movement, explicitly concerned with defending women's interests. The existence of these currents in Brazil was to be the cause of controversy among academic feminists. ALVAREZ (notes) disagrees that these tendencies were manifested in the Brazilian context, asserting that the “radical feminism” of the United States never had a large expression in Brazil or in the rest of Latin America. Souza-Lobo(1991: 211) also identifies liberal feminism as a phenomenon in the United States.

A significant and influential group of women from the São Paulo women's movement, identified with "socialist feminism" joined the PMDB (Partido do Movimento Democratico Brasileiro, formerly MDB - Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement) and brought the debate over the demands of the women's and feminist movements into the party, showing the need to create a governmental policy that incorporated interests specific to women.

The idea of opening democratic spaces and influencing public policy led a group of women associated with the PMDB to submit a proposal to the 1982 candidate for state governor of São Paulo, Franco Montoro, for the formation of a State Council on the Feminine Condition(Conselho Estadual da Condição Feminina/CECF). With Montoro’s triumph at the polls, the women set about working on a draft proposal for the creation of the Council, which was signed in April 1983.

The positive outcome of the CECF, together with the political activity of the PMDB feminists, and pressure by the women's movement helped create similar councils in other states, such as; Paraná, (1985), Rio Grande do Sul (1986),Rio de Janeiro, Ceará (1986), Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Norte and Alagoas.

In 1984, women from São Paulo led by the State Deputy Ruth Escobar (elected in 1982 by the PMDB on a feminist platform), organized a non-partisan commission and produced the Women's Letter (Carta das Mulheres)for Tancredo Neves, candidate for the presidency of the Republic. This document, among other demands, called for the creation of a National Council on Women's Rights (Conselho Nacional de Direitos da Mulher/CNDM) or a Ministry for Women’s Rights. They also hosted a seminar entitled Women and Politics (Mulher e Politica),which was attended by around five hundred women, representative of all the states in the Federation, and which produced a document expressing women's chief demands, which was subsequently submitted to Tancredo Neves. The CNDM was founded in 1986 with the purpose of promoting policies at the national level to guarantee equality of rights and opportunities for women.

The formation of Councils was not new to the country. As far back as the 1930s, councils had sprung up aimed at setting up participatory decision-making mechanisms in sectors of social policy. Nevertheless, in Draibe’s opinion(1998: 05) the formidable councils on social policy were the product of democratization, of the new 1988 Constitution, as well as both governmental and societal initiatives which had followed soon afterwards. The author identifies as many as 25 Councils in Brazil, of which only four had been established before 1980, eight were created from 1980 to 1989, seven between 1990 and 1994, and six after 1995.

According to DRAIBE (1998: 01), the council structure is one of the strongest inflections in the Brazilian system of social policy. In molding them in such a way, the councils on social policy institutionalized, during the phase of the consolidation of democracy, new mechanisms of expression, representation and participation of the interests forged by the social movements from the first hours of democratization. (...) Nourished by the same social energies that propelled the movement for consolidation of democracy, the council format molded a substantial part of the new fabric of life under democracy, offering an alternative expression for the "pure forces" of the earlier social movements.

In the 90s, the Councils assumed different forms based on the administrative models adopted by the different political parties. There are substantial differences for instance, in the administrative approach of the “petistas” (Members of the Partido dos Trabalhadores or Workers’ Party),which was characterized by its commitment to consider public policy regarding women's rights as an integral part and even a priority in the consolidation of the democratic project that it defended for public management. Moreover, it was understood that this question should permeate all the instances of government.

With a view to knowing and analyzing a scenario for dialogue between Civil Society and the State to identify whether a public space created through the participation of the feminist and women's movements, had de facto been constituted into forums for the broadening of democratic state management and to strengthen the learning and consolidation of a "culture of rights" through the effective exercise of citizenship (Dagnino, 1999), we develop in this paper an analysis of the relations that were developing and consolidating among the CCDM, the feminist movement, the women's movement and some NGOs in the state of Ceará, as an experience in widening the democratic space in the country.

The CCDM was created in 1986, based on the combined mobilization of the women's movements in Ceará, with the support of political parties on the left, the social movements and the PMDB congressional members. Its aim was to promote measures and actions in favor of the exercise of women's rights, while ensuring women's participation in the social, political, economic and cultural developments of the country.(Art. 1º. Law No. 17.170, of April 4, 1986).

The experience of the CCDM in the state of Ceará provides elements which allow us to make a critical analysis of the variations in institutional design, the visions of participation and representation, and the political forces that supported and occupied these spaces, influencing their potential to broaden the democratization of state management and to promote equality between men and women or to channel in a domesticated way, women's participation and influence on the definition of policies that would construct gender justice. Another element important to an understanding of how the Council operated in its institutional form and in relation to civil society refers to the influence exercised by the political parties, and specifically the conception of the relation of State to Civil Society by the Governments of Tasso Jereissati and of Ciro Gomes, important personalities on the national political level from the PSDB, the Party of the Brazilian Social Democracy (Partido da Social Democracia Brasileria).

The present study is divided into three parts. The first deals with the emergence of urban social movements within the state and their relationship with the political parties; the construction of the political scenario in Ceará beginning in the 80s, announcing changes that had been brewing and would shape the political culture dominant today in the state and the rise, concepts and actions of the feminist and women's movements and of the NGOs. The second item reconstitutes in a general form, the genesis of the first State Council, of the National Council, and in a more detailed way the rise of the Ceará Council on Women's Rights CCDM and its tendencies, analyzing its trajectory, relations with the State, with the movements and parties, projects realized and present challenges. The third item presents reflections on the Council experience as a space for public democratic management, and reflects on its present potential and limitations.

2. THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL SCENARIO OF THE STATE OF CEARÁ

2.1. The rise of the urban social movements and subsequent developments.

In the 1950s, Ceará endured one of its worst droughts on record which resulted in successive waves of rural inhabitants descending on Fortaleza, the State Capital. These people demanded water, housing and jobs. With the support of certain sectors of the Catholic Church they began a struggle for the legalization of the land they occupied. In 1962, they led a mass march to the center of Fortaleza to protest frequent threats of eviction in the neighborhood of Pirambu, where the largest slums (favelas) were concentrated. The mobilization led to the expropriation of two areas.

Beginning in 1964, with the installation of the Military Regime, the Church reoriented it activities in the neighborhoods around the struggles for immediate needs such as electricity, water and transportation. It was precisely these “immediate struggles” led by the Church, which defined the neighborhood or bairro movement at the height of the repression (BARREIRA & BRAGA, 1991: 61).

From the mid 60s and throughout the 70s, the neighborhoods became the focus of popular mobilization. The intense migration from the countryside to the city prompted the residents of the neighborhoods to call for the legalization of ownership of the lands they occupied and for the installation of essential services and infrastructure. The occupation of a large area on José Bastos (Avenue) in 1978 led to severe repressive action by the police. The movement received the explicit support of bodies such as the Bar Association/Ceará Section (Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil/Seção Ceará), the Brazilian Institute of Architects, (Instituto dos Arquitetos do Brasil/Seção Ceará), the Association of Sociologists (Associação dos Sociólogos), the Central Directorate of Students (Diretório Central dos Estudantes/DCE), the Archdiocese and opposition politicians linked to the MDB(Movimento Democratico Brasileiro)[2].

The events at José Bastos introduced three new axes to the neighborhood movements, their relation to the State, to the left political parties and to the first inter-neighborhood social organization. The first relationship resulted from new forms of State intervention in the neighborhoods and slums, when it created low income housing programs and drainage projects, involving the population; the second refers to the politicization of the struggle, beginning with the association members joining political parties and with political party leaders becoming active within these movements; the third axis refers to the formation of the Union of Communities(União das Comunidades), which became the main rallying point for future struggles in the neighborhoods. Whereas in the 50s and 60s, it had been the Church that was the entity that had most strongly supported the urban social movements, in the middle of the 70s, this role was taken over by the Communist Party (PC), and more specifically by the Brazilian Communist Party (PCdoB) which began to give direction to the urban social movements.

1981 witnessed the holding of the first Congress of Neighborhood Associations (Congresso de Entidades de Bairros), where deliberations took place regarding the creation of a Pro-federation Committee (Commissão Pro-Federação), supported by parties on the left such as the PCdoB, PCB and MR-8. The Federation of Entities of Neighborhoods and Slums of Fortaleza (Federação de Entidades de Bairros e Favelas de Fortaleza) (FBFF) was founded in 1982, and its first board of directors was predominantly from the PCdoB.

It was the PCdoB that headed the most important struggles for housing and land, participated in the struggle for amnesty and joined the Women's Movement for Amnesty MFPA (O Movimento Feminino Pela Anistía) with some of its members holding important leadership positions. However, it was among the movements for housing that internal conflict among members of the PCdoB[3] broke out over the nature of the support to be given to the Homeless Movement (Movimento dos Sem Teto) in its occupation of vacant land on the avenue José Bastos. A group connected to the Party’s Central Committee believed that the struggle should be abandoned for fear of severe reprisals, while a dissident group defended the radicalization of the struggle. This led to a split in the Party in 1980. This group led by Rosa da Fonseca and Maria Luíza Fontenelle founded the Revolutionary Communist Party (Partido Revolucionário Comunista) (PRC), which joined with other groups to form the Workers' Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores)(PT), in Ceará in 1983.

The PRC now became known as the Revolutionary Workers’ Party (Partido Revolucionário Operário)(PRO) (a tendency of the PT). In 1984 it led a movement, the Campaign against Hunger (Jornada de Luta contra a Fome) which included several associations and slums, leading to the resurgence of the Union of Communities (now) of Greater Fortaleza (União das Comunidades (agora) da Grande Fortaleza), whose objectives were to condemn the state of hunger and unemployment and which rallied large demonstrations calling for employment generation projects(frentes de serviço).

From that moment on the neighborhood and slum associations were split between the two existing bodies: the FBFF and the Union of Communities of Greater Fortaleza, which received direction from the PCdoB and the PRO, respectively. These parties enacted political projects which differed in terms of their core doctrine. The PCdoB defended the building of alliances with progressive segments of society, negotiation and participation in the State apparatus with a view to changing it. The PRO stimulated the total autonomy of the movements and worked "with its back turned" to the State. It had a Marxist understanding of social organization and defended class struggle, confrontation with the State and taking power by revolutionary means.

It is important to emphasize the strong influence of the left political parties and the participation of their leaders in the diverse urban social movements, that were inscribed in the history of Ceará, starting in the 70s. These activities seem to signal the need to strengthen and legitimize the emerging political parties in the eyes of civil society, after the political opening. The relationship was maintained in the 80s and 90s with the same objectives.

2.2. The Political Scenario – News ways of practicing politics

The end of the 70s was also marked by the organized action of civil society against the authoritarian Brazilian State. It was a struggle which united differences, because its central premise was the fight to recover a democratic State, freedom of social and political expression and political rights.

Brazilian civil society manifested itself in two grand action fronts: one of unification around national and general issues (democracy); the other around class interests (land struggles, housing, water, sanitation).

The first grouped the political leadership of the center and the left, national business entities, professional organizations, emerging social movements, sectors of the Catholic Church in public demonstrations devoted to democratizing the Brazilian State. This unity was temporary and specific. In the mid 80s, with the conquest of freedom of the press, the free organization of parties and elections, the alliances gradually came undone to guarantee the affirmation of the specific interests of each segment of civil society, expressing differences and divergences regarding the political project Brazilians so desired.