Tamara Funiciello (32) likes to insult. After the Bernese SP councilor complained at a demonstration about the “white, rich, old men” after losing the AHV vote, she also received criticism from her own party. At the time, she was responsible for the failure of the better pension reform in 2020, her group members accused. And in western Switzerland it is said that the SP should “declare war on the rich, not the old whites”, some of whom cannot make ends meet. In an interview with Blick, Funiciello now comments on these allegations.
Mrs. Funiciello, from what salary and from what age are people “rich and old” in Switzerland?
Tamara Funiciello: You are rich in Switzerland with a salary of CHF 250,000 or more per year. As for age…some people are old by the time they are 30! But I’m not sure if this question will take us any further.
I can put it differently. Why did you declare war on white, rich, older men?
Not me. I was talking about a declaration of war. I am concerned with the following question: who decides and why? The people in power in our world are usually rich – and mostly white, old and male. But in a democracy, the power should be everyone’s. Unfair inequalities must be identified to eliminate them.
Why not just attack the rich, as suggested by your Valais party colleague Valentin Aymon? Why men, white and old? There are also women who voted to raise the retirement age for women…
This would mean that only social class influences living conditions. How then can it be explained that women earn CHF 100 billion less than men for the same number of hours worked per year? Because gender, skin color and age also have a direct impact on living conditions. Left feminism hurts because it calls these privileges. Saying what it is is the foundation of left-wing feminism and left-wing discourse in general! And if my party colleague had heard my entire speech, he would have known that I also criticized right-wing women.
Don’t have any privileges?
Compared to others, as a white cis woman, I have privileges that a black trans person does not. I am a lesbian white woman with a Swiss passport, a mother who is a cashier and a father who is a manual worker. I can’t change that, but I can choose to show solidarity with people who experience other forms of oppression. That calls for a certain amount of self-reflection. And you have to be interested in the difficulties that other people may have, simply because of who they are and where they come from. That makes the world a better place.
Do you understand that white men were offended by your speech?
We are currently talking extensively about the difficulties of being a white man while neo-Nazis simultaneously attack a children’s drag queen show in Zurich and no one moves. If you are not male, not white, not rich, not cis-gender or straight, you experience violence just because you are who you are. That is a statistical fact.
They fight against any form of discrimination. But if you target such a specific demographic, aren’t you reproducing the mechanisms you’re exposing?
Men are not discriminated against because they are men. I will gladly repeat this 45 times: No one is physically attacked because it is a white, old and rich man, I can assure you that. In contrast, 430,000 women have already been raped in Switzerland and every week and a half a woman dies within her own four walls as a result of violence from her partner or ex-partner.
Is there a gap in the SP between the trade union wing, for which the labor movement is a priority, and the feminist, anti-racist and transphobic wing?
no The vast majority has understood that we as SP take sides against the top, against oppression, against violence and injustice. And very specific. Our crèche initiative shows this clearly. This would be funded by the wealthy but benefits middle and low income people and women. Making the class struggle a top priority means going back to the left ignoring the diverse realities defined by gender, among other things. Being a woman means experiencing a different reality from men in life and at work. The first step to change that is to recognize it. I don’t really care if 50 percent of CEOs are women. My fight is with the cashier who doesn’t earn enough, who has migration experience, who is a single parent.
The SVP is trying to force the fight against “awake madness” as the subject of the election campaign. Aren’t you playing into her hands with such radical views?
What is “wake madness”? When it comes to wanting security, rights and a good life for all people, I’m awake. The point is that women should no longer be killed for being women, that equal pay should be paid for equal work – is that so absurd? And then you get mad because I’m mad if we don’t move forward? Anyway, I’m tired of smiling like a good girl.