[Badgirlz-list] Report Women's Forum from ESF prep meeting i…

> Hi all,
>
> what follows is the report from the ESF preparatory
> meeting held
> in Berlin on the 26th and 27th of May and of the
> meeting for the
> Women's Forum held on the 26th.
>
> For the Berlin NG cell, Diana McCarty, Rutvica
> Andrijasevic, Nicole Wolf and
> Bettina Knaup attended the meeting. All of us came
> for the Women's
> Forum planning, while Rutvica attended part of the
> work on the 26th, and
> Rutvica and Bettina a part of the ESF session of the
> 27th too.
>
> Concerning the general information about the ESF, I
> will be very short.
> The meeting passed in negotiating the topics for the
> plenary sessions of
> the ESF that are called Axis. There are 5 of them
> and it is best you look
> them up on the internet since the list is 1.5 pages
> long. Just for orientation
> purposes, each axis has 6 points and the axis are as
> follows:
> 1. Against war, for a Europe of peace, justice, open
> to the world
> 2. Against neo-liberalism and against patriarchy,
> but for Europe of social and
> democratic rights (here there is one 'women/queer'
> topic; point 5. Women
> and Men:
> legal equality and real equality. Against sexual
> division of labour, and
> for the
> freedom of women in society; and point 6. The
> struggles of lesbians, gays
> and transgendered people for their rights and the
> affirmation of their
> identities.
> For another world that junks the old morals and
> stereotypes)
> 3. Against the logic of profit, but for social
> justice, ecological
> sustainability and
> food sovereignty
> 4. Against the process of commodification and for
> democratic Europe of
> information, culture and education
> 5. Against Racism, xenophobia and exclusion. For
> equality of rights, a dialogue
> of cultures, and a Europe that accepts immigrants,
> refugees and asylum seekers
> (here point 5. Immigrant women, migration and
> globalisation. The right to
> citizenship and policies that accept women settling
> in a new country. Women
> as victims of trafficking, sexism and sexual
> persecution)
>
> Then there is a section Strategies (I did not really
> understand what it
> means), and
> here n.6 Feminism and social movements (there is 6
> Strategies in total).
>
> Concerning the general ESF work, it is really a
> matter of presence,
> insistence, and repetition. One has to be there,
> take to work, walk
> to the mic, make her/his point over and over again
> until it is included in
> the program. In fact, the first day the axis were
> presented, they delegates
> commented, and then the comments where included on
> not, and then the
> next day the 'new' list of axis was presented,
> discussed, and explained why
> some changes got accepted and other not. If the
> rejected delegates
> wanted to discuss the matter further they could do
> so privately (outside of
> the
> general forum) with the FAC delegates. The general
> impression from the
> various interventions is that there is a strong and
> unresolved tension between
> the leading French group (and probably some other
> alliance of which I am not
> aware) and those groups that identify as part of
> social movements. In fact,
> it became clear that contrary to Florence, the
> social movements were pushed
> into background, the emphasis on 'action' is nearly
> eliminated and the primary
> focus is on using ESF as a Forum of discussion and
> debate. To make it more
> clear, it is not clear if the final demo will take
> place at all since this
> would
> give the impression that the ESF is too
> action/intervention
> oriented. This tension can also be seen in the
> programme which many people
> complained that excludes social movements, not only
> due to the proposed
> themes but also due to the language which many said
> to be too academic, while
> we agree with Diana in calling it too administrative
> instead.
>
> The next meeting for the preparation of the ESF is
> in Genova on the
> 18-19th July; while the final one is contested among
> 3 candidates: Poland,
> Sweden, and Turkey and will take place in September.
> It became clear that
> it is crucial to be present at those meetings, and
> make one's voice heared.
> Therefore, I propose we think in advance and see who
> could go and do this
> task for the September meeting especially.
>
> I have talked with Nadia lately and asked how one
> proposes speakers for the
> general ESF and I will follow up on that since I
> would like to have NG
> intervention
> on trafficking and also open the space for one of
> women from Feminist Review
> Collective to talk in the plennaries. It might be
> that we have to link them
> with national groups, but that is to see. I was told
> that any of our proposals
> will be back up --if and when necessary-- by Women's
> World March.
>
> Women's Forum
>
> There is no agreement about the name. Some women
> called it 'Women's action
> day', some Women's Assembly ...
>
> There were about 80 women present from different
> countries. I do not
> have the exact info on that but I could cut and past
> it is here from Nelly's
> report. The meeting was scheduled for the evening of
> the 26th and it
> lasted 3 hours. It was introduced by Nelly (France)
> and chaired by Nadia
> (Italy). The idea was to give word to all those
> would like to speak for 2.5 h
> and then have 30 min to decide how to procede. The
> general question for
> discussion was the idea of Women's Forum i.e. if
> delegates present thought
> it to be a good idea (or not) and what issues would
> they like to see
> discussed.
> A number of women brought their points fwd and those
> were approximately:
> un/employment, poverty, migration, islam, security,
> leadership, peace/war,
> education: mostly in terms of alfabetization (only
> NG spoke of higher
> education),
> EU Convention (among which free choice and freedom
> of sexual orientation),
> sexuality and body (in terms of sexual harassment,
> forced prostitution,
> abortion),
> mobility, race and colonialism. As Diana put it,
> there was quite a bit of
> input that
> went in a similar direction to what we hope to
> achieve. There was generally an
> emphasis on a need for greater solidarity among
> women, developing networks,
> and it was lamented the absence and not interests of
> feminists.
> The latter point was quite problematic, since Nelly
> kept on repeating that
> she does
> not want Women's Forum to become a feminist ghetto.
> This does not seem to me
> a best was to get feminist to participate. On the
> issue of feminism, it is
> imp to
> stress that there was quite a total lack on feminist
> positions. Most women were
> coming from women's groups working around women's
> rights not from a
> feminist perspective, while others were affiliated
> with political parties
> or with
> movements of globalized resistance which lacked
> again the feminist focus.
> The same goes for the issue of sexuality in terms of
> gay/lesbian/queer/trans:
> this topic was raised only by Italian delegation and
> not voiced by any one
> else.
> The issue of race idem: only a black woman from Pan
> African Women's Liberation
> Org talked explicitely in terms of race, slavery,
> colonialism and
> neo-colonialism.
> She also spoke explicitely as a feminist. The issue
> that was raised more often
> was that of migration, in terms of rights, mobility,
> community, education,
> employment. As a result, a separate mailing list was
> created for those
> delegates who were interested in working on issues
> of migration
> (i put my name on).
>
> While i think it was a good start and quite
> important to hear what various
> delegated
> would like to hear discussed, I wish the meeting
> could have been more
> productive.
> There is a problem of organization and decision
> making, I think. Instead of
> leaving
> the floor open and starting from scratch, it would
> have been more effective to
> come up with a document, on the basis of the
> previous Bruxelles meeting, and
> open it up for discussion and change. In this way
> the work that has been done
> previously would become transparent, as well as
> progress made. There would also
> be evidence of the work done in the Berlin meeting.
> In fact, the impression is
> that various delegates spoke, various themes where
> put forth, but it was not
> clear if there will be a summary of it or not. If
> not, maybe there was no
> need to
> propose topics for 2.5 hours. In relation to this,
> another point needs to
> me made.
>
> The last 30 min where supposed to be used to discuss
> how to continue
> working. Since there was not time to do so, a number
> of women from
> the French scene (lead by Nelly), said how we will
> proceed but none of
> this was said as a proposal and then discussed.
> These included:
> - all delegated will go back to their countries and
> work on national
> basis. From there on, they will post national
> proposals on the mailing list
> (to be
> established). The problem with this is that is gives
> huge advantage to Italy
> and France who already have formed national
> initiatives bringing together tents
> of groups.
> - the forum is momentarely scheduled to take place
> in one big space
> (a circus school, it seems) that can hold 1700
> participants.
> This is in St. Denis, while the option of Bobigny
> also
> came up (seems in relation to space). There is also
> a mensa or similar.
> The strange this here is that it seemed quite
> obvious from delegates
> interventions that there is a need for workshops and
> discussion venues,
> so it does not really make sense to confirm that the
> event will take
> place in a single space.
>
> Impressions and proposals:
>
> The general impression was lack of organization and
> preparation. However,
> there is also a quite clear consistency of thought
> and intent coming from
> the French group which is best discernable in terms
> of their insistence
> always on the same topics. The issue that needs to
> be put on the agenda
> is the process of decision making and transparency
> cos it is not really
> visible where and by whom certain decisions are
> taken. It is important
> to stress that feminists modus operandi and
> perspectives are in minority
> so far. There is emphasis on it (at times), but it
> cannot really be said that
> many feminist are present. We might perhaps talk of
> feminist legacy but not of
> feminist interventions. However, there seems to be a
> gap or perhaps a lack
> of transmission of knowledge/working together
> between feminist
> reflection/action
> in Europe in the last decade, and some women running
> and participating in the
> Forum. This is a crucial point to reflect and
> perhaps one to organize
> a workshop about: feminist genealogies and
> oppositional projects.
>
> The communication channels are not open yet. I also
> had the impression
> that the French and Italian are indeed moving on
> national basis and
> national arena seems the one where things are put
> forth. This might
> be a disadvantage for NG since we operate
> differently. We need to
> think thought this. Nicole suggests that since the
> working practices
> seem to focus on national groups, it would be quite
> important to link
> up to some women on that basis (even though NG works
> differently of
> course) - it could just be a way to use their
> organisational paths to
> bring some issues forward we find crucial; apart
> from it being anyway
> interesting and necessary to link with some women we
> encountered.
>
> It is not clear how the work will proceed. I am not
> sure that there will be
> much
> work being done before July. There is a strong doubt
> that there will be
> space to
> negotiate the topics actively. In case this happens,
> the Berlin cell had
> the following
> proposal: we think that for the NG it is most useful
> to focus on 1 big
> panel to be
> done in the women's forum - meaning one event that
> will bring forth our
> feminist
> visions and work. We have important things to say,
> feminists to invite to make
> a contribution, and it would be pity if we would not
> go for it. So, we
> think that NG
> should opt for 1 topic to which to give central
> visibility and try to push
> to have
> decision power over that panel (this all in case of
> course if there happens
> to be
> no discussion generally on what topics). This does
> not mean we do not do other
> things on the side: we do, of course. These do not
> fall out. Crucial remains
> organization of 'direct' action/interrrruptions. To
> summ up: we have to go on
> thinking, organizing, and starting reflecting what
> we want to say/do.
>
> Sarah had also the proposal that we intervene in the
> mailing list so that we
> get our voices heard and our idea through. All this
> to have some impact
> on how things are done but keeping in mind not to
> waste too much energy
> on the general women's forum but to go for our
> vision of feminist
> action/thought
> and work towards that. this would mean that we need
> to divide the tasks
> among ourselves -who intervenes within what
> mailing/physical space--
> as that we continue to think through the topics to
> address.
>
> At one point we have to see how many of us (here I
> intend NG at large) will
> be involved in the ESF and are willing to take up
> different tasks. No use to
> overburden ourselves and then go nuts.
>
> I have kept an eye on possible contacts for us and
> those are some:
>
> - Brice Monnou (a Black migrant woman from Paris)
> organizing the migrants
> mailing list. One of us needs to get absolutely in
> touch with her?
> Elsa parhaps? It would be interesting to link them
> Punto di Partenza, and
> Respect in a session on migration and labour
> "brice monnou" <forim@???>,
>
> - an Iraqui/US woman living in Germany from Attac
> who said interesting
> things on Islam and women. sarah, maybe you could
> contact her and
> tell her short that she met me in Berlin, about NG,
> give her the webpage,
> tell her about that action in Bruxelles about the
> veil initiative and see
> what comes out. Diana liked her a lot and the woman
> is full of energy:
> Magida Shehadeh assertpeace@???
>
> - there is a guy organizing a youth camp. so if
> anyone is interested contact
> Oscar Meyes oereye@???
>
> - Gill Hubbard from Globalized Resistance
> gh77c@???
>
> - Marianne Ballé Longo; she is the one from
> pan-African Women's Lib
> Org. She is here in Berlin and I will follow up on
> that.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>


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