Death of Pepita Carpena

The Centre International de Recherche sur l'Anarchisme (CIRA) of Marseilles sadly announced the death of Pepita Carpena in Marseilles on 5th June 2005. Pepita Carpena was involved with the Mujeres Libres (Free Women) movement.

Pepita Carpena

Death of Pepita Carpena

The Centre International de Recherche sur l'Anarchisme (CIRA) of Marseilles sadly announced the death of Pepita Carpena in Marseilles on 5th June 2005. Pepita Carpena was involved with the Mujeres Libres (Free Women) movement.

Pepita Carpena was born in Barcelona in 1919. An anarchist worker, at an early age she took part in the Spanish Revolution in the ranks of the CNT, the Iberian Libertarian Youth Federation (FIJL) and the Mujeres Libres movement. Franco's victory forced her to go into exile. In Marseilles, she participated in the activities of the CNT and also of the CIRA, of which she was coordinator from 1988 to 1999. Her busy life as a militant was recounted in the pamphlet "Toda la vida", published in 2000 by Éditions du Monde libertaire and Alternative libertaire as part of the Graine d’ananar collection.

based on an article by CIRA(Translation by ainfos)

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In order to spread their message Mujeres Libres had their own magazine and also published numerous articles in the libertarian press. Members of the organisation travelled the countryside on propaganda tours to talk to the women there and also to help establish rural collectives. Pepita Carpena spoke of her experiences:

"We would call the women together and explain to them... that there is a clearly defined role for women, that women should not lose their independence, but that a woman can be a mother and a companera at the same time... Young women would come over to me and say, "This is very interesting. What you're saying we've never heard before. It's something that we've felt, but we didn't know" ...The ideas that grabbed them the most? Talk about the power men exercised over women.. There would be a kind of uproar when you would say to them, "We cannot permit men to think themselves superior to women, that they have a right to rule over them". I think that Spanish women were waiting anxiously for that call."

From the article Free Women of Spain