Modern societies have progressed thanks to the demands promoted by various social movements. One of the most significant in history has been the feminist movement. In Spain, specifically, it had a major social impact in the 1970s by achieving greater equality in women’s rights, as well as contributing to their public and social recognition. This contribution of the feminist movement was also an important step toward the democratization of our society. Institutions such as the University of Barcelona (UB) supported this movement by hosting the First Catalan Women’s Forum, in May 1976, which was attended by nearly 4,000 women, including Rosa Valls.
However, our history is full of reactionary movements that hinder and prevent further democratization. The strategy is clear: those who lead reactionary movements instrumentalize historically progressive movements—they use their slogans, symbols, and references to achieve individualistic, economic, social status, and/or power-related goals, for example, in the academic sphere.
A reactionary movement consists of actions carried out by individuals and groups that can even drag institutions like UB, which decades ago supported feminism. The impact is highly negative, as it contributes to the opposite goal for which feminist women and men fought. Reactionary movements not only halt progress toward greater equality and democratization of society, but they also represent a regression. This is currently happening in the fight against gender-based violence. “Used and discarded”—that is the goal of opportunistic “feminists” who never participated in the movement before the 1976 feminist forum, who appeared when it became a slogan of their political party, and later to occupy positions of power. In contrast, others like Rosa Valls dedicated themselves to grassroots women’s movements—women who were oppressed not only by men but also by other women of higher socioeconomic status.
The media lynching that has targeted the CREA research network since July 2, 2025, is a clear and current example of the regression caused by instrumental alliances between individuals, groups, and institutions. As of today, and despite misinformation from some media outlets, sources consulted confirm that there is still not a single complaint from any victim against any member of CREA. The complaint comes from lawyers, a fact that top-level legal experts consider a scandalous legal irregularity.
This case is illustrative, as it can be defined as a Contemporary Reactionary Movement against those who were pioneers in scientifically investigating and officially (not anonymously) reporting gender-based violence and abuses of power in the university.
Coordinator of Learning Communities in the Basque Country