How do Domestic Worker Organizations in Madrid Demand a Right to the City?

This past week, I interviewed two women from my organization, Servicio Domestico Activo, as part of a mini-biography I’m planning to put together for their blog as my final project. Even though I have been to many of their meetings and events at this point, and have also had individual conversations with the members, I always learn something new or end up revising my views (and even biases) about domestic work. One of the things I learned from these two particular interviews is that unity is an essential part of Sedoac. Sometimes it may seem as if it is only a few people who are doing all the work and that everything would disintegrate were they to quit the organization. However, the reality is that even if it is true that the directive takes care of all the logistics, Sedoac still needs the rest of its members to fight for their cause and to just share their struggle. One of my interviewees explained that what brought her to the organization was realizing that she needed to be around other women who share her reality and who she can learn about how to change this reality with. I think that this is a sentiment that is shared among all the other domestic work organizations as well. They may have different perspectives on how to do things and this is why they are in separate organizations. Nevertheless, they know they need to come together during crucial points such when congress reviews el Convenio 189 every year and when they have to organize important events such as the International Congress. In fact, El Grupo Turin was precisely created so that the presidents of the different organizations can meet to plan such events. Additionally, every time these organizations receive a large amount of funds, or if they are being considered for a long-term study on domestic work, they are almost seen as a single group. For instance, there is a book being written about the migration stories of these women and it is funded by the Caixa Bank. This bank, in turn, gives funding to the organizations both separately and together. While I have been here, Sedoac has used this money to have a self-defense class and a movie night. All the organizations decided to use the funding to have an end-of-the-summer trip to a river outside of Madrid.

Nonetheless, one way in which Sedoac could do a better job in working together to include more people in their fight for labor rights is to make their events more inclusive. My faculty advisor pointed out to me that Sedoac never announces their meetings or events online and the only way I myself found out about them was by being added to their WhatsApp group chat. Believing that there is strength in unity and numbers to accomplish a common goal, I think, has to do a lot with making things accessible to as many people as possible. This makes me think about how feminism is a good concept in itself but it was not necessarily good for everyone until someone recognize that it needed to become intersectional. In the same manner, I think that demanding a right to the city, in David Harvey’s words, means to attempt to include as many people as possible who may benefit from achieving this right.