STITCH Helps Women Open Spaces for Justice in Their Lives

After a slow, bumpy ride on a dirt road that winds up through the lush mountains outside of Guatemala City, I arrived in San Pedro Sacatepéquez. I was on my way to meet UUSC's Economic Justice partner STITCH and the members of its Labor Advisory Group -- women who are organizers, former and current maquila (or factory) workers, and members of agricultural unions from Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador. This group acts as the sails and rudder for STITCH's work in Central America, and they had already been holding their meeting for several days when I arrived. I was invited to attend the last part of the meeting, when the Labor Advisory Group discusses its strategy for the upcoming year.

When I stepped into the meeting room, I encountered something unexpected. To ward off the cool mountain air, a fire was chewing on some logs in a big stone fireplace. There were candles lit on the mantel, and soft, lyrical music was wafting through the wood-smoked air. Although I'd never met any of the members of the Labor Advisory Group, nor STITCH's Guatemala City staff, I instantly opened up, ready to listen.

I tossed my shoes into a pile of sneakers and sandals at the entrance and began walking around the room to see what the women were working on. The first thing I saw was a collection of flip-chart papers taped up around the room, expressions of the work the women had been doing in the days before my arrival. Each chart detailed examples of accomplishments the women had achieved in their unions as a result of their involvement with STITCH.

Over the last three years, UUSC has supported STITCH to develop a Women, Labor, and Leadership project, which has culminated in the completion of a training curriculum for women unionists in Central America. The curriculum has four modules -- Gender, Globalization, Women's Leadership, and New Directions in Unionism -- each with multiple chapters that address the unique challenges faced by women workers, that offer strategies and analyses of power, and that expand women workers' ability to address and overcome violations of their rights. STITCH used an extremely thoughtful, participatory process to develop this curriculum, continually incorporating feedback from members of the Labor Advisory Group, who field-tested modules with their fellow women union members.

The most exciting aspect of this curriculum is that it strengthens women's understanding of their rights and boosts women's confidence so much that they take on positions of leadership in their unions. In some cases, they've formed women's committees within their unions and have even ventured out to form new unions. The charts spoke volumes...

We have a deeper understanding of our rights as women in both the labor and private spheres.
We have learned how to plan and give a workshop.
In our lives, as women, we value ourselves and have more confidence.

I walked around some more and began chatting with women who were working in small groups on artistic murals that depicted their vision for future years of work with the curriculum. STITCH plans to launch union schools, which will grow out of a process in which members of the Labor Advisory Group bring what they've learned about women's rights, labor rights, and popular-education methodology back to their own unions and communities. The ripple effect will generate new possibilities for women's groups within their union structures, as well as for advocacy around women's rights provisions in the unions' collective-bargaining agreements.

Using flowers, branches, and pine needles that the group had gathered from a meditative walk through the surrounding mountains, they built an altar -- a practice rooted in Mayan tradition -- to help center their work and impart a spiritual presence to the meeting. Then, they carried out a number of participatory activities, infused with ritual and symbolism, which clearly served to build mutual support and commitment among the women to help them tackle the difficult work ahead. Many of the exercises focused on supporting the women in leaving their fears and obstacles behind and bringing positive energy into their new phase of work.

Although what I encountered was a bit unexpected, it wasn't surprising. It was right in line with the reputation that STITCH has for doing its work in an innovative, gender-focused, and participatory way. STITCH recognizes that acknowledging the spiritual aspect of working for social justice and human rights entails an understanding of our wholeness as people. As part of an interdependent web, we must bring spirit into our work in order to sustain and propel ourselves as we confront injustice. And this must all be rooted in our everyday experiences, with an approach that allows women to begin opening spaces for justice in our lives as a whole -- at home, in the workplace, and in our communities at large.