At the demonstration we leafleted with our invitation to the Wages Duee Lesbians (WDL) event at the Women Centre the following Friday, which also included the Dykes on Strike "Lesbianas en Huelga" info. We also had our new banner.

The demonstration was interesting as the first two thirds were political groups and organisations and the last third the trailers of the bars and the businesses. The press said we were 150,000, which was a gross exageration or a tipo, it was more like 30-40,000. A group of lesbian and gays, many of whom are anarchists, blockaded the plaza at the end of the demonstration for half an hour, not letting the trailers and businesses enter. They were wearing the two pointed hats of the Spanish Revolution but in pink and black (not red and black). They chanted "we are not for sale" and had placcards "we won't forget Stonewall" and "no to the pink peseta", and something about "globalizing sexuality".

We spoke to Roser Veciana who was on the podium and at the front of the demonstration. She is the Green councillor who has funded the stage for the Global Women Strike event both years. She also has called for an inquiry into the police violence at the anti-World Bank demonstration, July 2000. We mentioned Gay Shame event in New York in the US (it denounces the commerciality of the Pride events) which she was delighted to hear of and said that was also her concern as to whether the businesses would take over here. The anarchists were also delighted to hear about Gay Shame but said they prefered the name "Gay Rage"

The statement read out at the end of the demo attacked the press' portrayal of lesbian and gay people as only being the body beautiful stereotypes, - it said we are also immigrant people without papers (it didn't mention mothers). It also demanded the press make visible the responsibilities of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund etc., for "promoting unique heterosexist thinking and the elitist gay model, and the widening division between lesbians and gays in the South and the North".

It was a delightful event with about 45 people attending. Many were non-lesbian women of the centre including older women, immigant women, women with their husbands and children and some of their friends. There were 12 dykes from Barcelona a couple of single women who'd picked up the leaflet, plus various other lesbian & gay friends. A neighbour who runs the local bar and is from the same village as one of the women from Wages Due, also dropped round. A young woman recently arrived from Lima, Peru came (but she didn't want to speak to one of the centre women also from Lima, probably worried about being outed, as she had joined her parents here).

People really joined in in preparing everything, there was plenty of food and drink.

At around 9.30pm we had a small presentation of the centre, the groups at the centre, WDL, the worklist (which describes some of the extra work lesbian women have to do dealing with and confronting discrimination), and the Global Women’s Srike. We also spoke of the support of Francesca Martín (socialist MP) and Roser Veciana (both had also been invited) in supporting the Women’s Centre and the Strike. Some of us spoke and others helped out with the taping and taking photos. It was followed by playing the video of the Strike advert in Spanish (which received applause) and then we had the video "If walls could talk" (three lesbian stories including Vanesa Redgrave, Sharon Stone, Helen Degeners ...etc). People were pleased to chat and mix, with only the late leavers watching the video. It was clear that the non-lesbian people who came were delighted to be at an event at the Women’s Centre and the mixed atmosphere was great!