Precarias a la deriva

Precarias a la deriva, meaning “Precarious Women Adrift”, is a project affiliated with La Escalera Karakola, a social centre in Madrid. It emerged in the wake of the general strike on 20 June 2002, organised in protest against a government-imposed reform to unemployment benefits. The strike had a wide-reaching impact as it encompassed various issues, including opposition to the organic law on universities and protests against the Iraq War.

The Precarias a la deriva project was born out of the need to communicate the strains and pressures of these women’s working and everyday lives. It serves as a means of collective and creative resistance against the exploitation and intimidation they face at the hands of the neoliberal system. At its core is a desire to work together to create an alternative way of living. The group’s actions highlight diverse yet specific situations reflecting the realities of precarity, which offers certain benefits, such as the accumulation of knowledge, skills and work/life experiences, but also has negative consequences, including vulnerability, insecurity, financial hardship and social defencelessness.

One of their first actions took place during the general strike on 20 June 2002. Using the question, “What’s a girl like you doing in a strike like this?”, they organised a picket-survey aimed at gathering women’s perspectives on their working lives, whether they were striking or not.

Precarias a la deriva’s working method strives to move beyond the usual experience-sharing circles typical of associations and collectives, embracing a more dynamic and cross-cutting approach. Their derives, or “drifts”, are expressed through photos, recordings and written accounts, offering testimony to how participants live, think and feel in relation to issues affecting them. These include time (as it pertains to the stress and overload caused by fast-paced living), space (as many members are migrants), income (which is shaped by financial instability), hierarchies, relation and care networks, risk and the fact that all these factors impact the body, and the positive aspects and moments of joy that emerge in spite of difficult circumstances.