A-Infos (en) Brazil, OSL, Libera #182 - LET'S LAUNCH OURSELVES INTO THE FIGHT AND VICTORY WILL BE OURS - MARIA ANTÔNIA SOARES (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Born in the state of São Paulo in 1898, Maria Antônia Soares was a 
member of the Young Idealists Women's Center and was active in various 
libertarian movements in the early 20th century, along with her 
siblings, Primitivo Raimundo Soares and Maria Angelina Soares. The 
following article was published in issue 16 of the newspaper A Luta in 
1916, when Maria Antônia was 18 years old. The transcription is from the 
book "Unidas nos lancemos na luta: o legado anarquista de Maria A. 
Soares," published in 2021 by Tenda de Livros - research by Aline 
Ludmila, Beatriz Silvério, and Samanta Colhado Mendes.

Still the woman...
Wife and mother, she found herself forced to leave home and seek ways to 
contribute to the family's livelihood because her husband's earnings 
were too meager. Daughter and sister, she felt the need to support her 
elderly parents, rendered useless for work because they had used more 
strength than they had, and her younger siblings, still too young to 
support themselves.
Necessity forced her to work excessively in factories, anywhere, in 
short, where she could earn the bread that was lacking at home.
The capitalists saw this as an excellent way to increase their income 
and gave her what she asked for, reserving for men the jobs that 
required greater strength than women possessed, and also the places 
where she could influence the moral destinies of people, claiming she 
was incompetent for it. We see, therefore, that today women are 
shamefully exploited, and that men are forced to work for a salary more 
paltry than ever before, under penalty of being left without work, which 
for them means the most horrible misery.

When we consider our situation carefully, we conclude that we have only 
two paths to take: to remain inactive and inevitably roll along until we 
reach the most shameful state of baseness and misery, or, without fear 
of the consequences that may arise, to launch ourselves into a resolute, 
relentless struggle until we conquer the rights bequeathed to us by 
Nature and which were usurped from us by a parasitic class that knew how 
to take advantage of our weakness. I have observed that when one of us 
women offers an opinion, or lends our support to some act of 
emancipatory propaganda, there is no shortage of some idiot (I consider 
it so) who lets a mocking smile appear on their lips, and sometimes even 
goes so far as to verbally express, through nonsense, the contempt that 
the woman's actions inspire in them.
I recognize that those who do this are either extremely ignorant or 
hypocritical, and in either case, they can only deserve our compassion.
To remedy this malaise, it is imperative that all men and women take 
energetic action on our part, which will bring, as an immediate 
consequence, improvements to our economic condition.
Men and women suffer the same needs, both are exploited by the same 
class, the capitalist class, and since they suffer the same yoke 
together, it is only right that they also seek to destroy it together. 
The need for a strong union between the starving of both sexes is 
palpably felt, a total union of strength and feelings, which will 
transform the miserable, defenseless slaves into a phalanx of brave men, 
ready to fight and win.
Only unity and education can elevate us morally to the level of rational 
beings.
It is time for men and women to stop living separated by a dam of 
prejudices and selfish concepts, which achieve nothing but the misery of 
humanity.
The action of the united working class, free from prejudices of race, 
nationality, or sex, will make us forget the life of slavery we have 
lived to this day; which we will remember only to curse it.
It is up to us, women, to begin the liberating campaign, because our 
martyr souls, which from the beginning have suffered the degrading 
outrages of the most infamous social organization, Our soul is the most 
deeply wounded, and the more thirsty for love and justice, the more 
willing it must be to reach those sublime sources from which true 
happiness emanates.
We will encourage our brothers and sisters, and they in turn will offer 
us the valuable contribution of energies in which supreme strength resides.
Let us, therefore, launch ourselves into the struggle with our hearts 
full of faith and hope; and victory will be ours.

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