Anarchism, Feminism and Anarcha-Feminism

Reflections on London AFem 2014 & Social Movement Work Today
Hosted by Black Rose – LA

Saturday, Feb. 7th, 4:00pm
131 S. Rampart Blvd., Los Angeles, CA

With:
Romina Akemi, Black Rose Anarchist Federation / Federación Anarquista Rosa Negra
Inger Flem Soto, La Alzada, Acción Feminista Libertaria (Chile)
Lorenalia Mans, Frente De Organizaciones En Lucha (Argentina)

Followed by socializing and music (and maybe more).

Facebook page for event.

Last October the Black Rose Anarchist Federation sent a delegation to London to participate in the first international Anarcha-Feminist conference (AFem). Participants from around the globe discussed defending and expanding reproductive rights, experiences with accountability processes, and struggles against state repression — to name a few. However, these discussions were often very difficult, tense and confusing, because, even at an anarcha-feminist conference, there was no agreement or even basic debate on what anarcha-feminism means.

Both feminism and anarchism contain many contradictory currents within them. Slapping two such contradictory ideologies together with the weak glue of a single hyphen does not magically create a single new unified ideology. Instead, anarcha-feminism contains many different perspectives within it. In order to better understand our diverse perspectives on doing feminist organizing within social movements, we need to shine a light on those differences and have an honest discussion about what anarchism means for us, what feminism means for us, and what anarcha-feminism means for us.

We need to be asking questions that push us to come to terms with what anarcha-feminism really means for us, and what it means for our work in building social movements. Questions like: What are the challenges the working-class women face today? How can we make working-class issues central to feminist organizing? What would it mean to escalate feminist struggle on our own terms instead of trailing the coat-tails of liberal feminism? How can we expand the struggle for reproductive rights by taking the offensive instead of defensive strategy?

This report-back and discussion will offer reflections on the AFem 2014 conference. It also seeks to start a dialogue about bringing feminist practices into our organizing. Over the last few years, we have participated in social movement activism from the Occupy movement, Keystone Pipeline blockades, low-wage worker struggles, feminist attacks on rape culture, and the re-emergence of an anti-police brutality movement. With our understanding of anarcha-feminism, what have we learned from these struggles? What obstacles have we faced? How can we move from being activists to being organizers, and start constructing lasting building blocks instead of running in circles? What do we offer as anarcha-feminists in terms of ideas, organizing, social relationships, and strategic goals?

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This event is hosted by the Black Rose Anarchist Federation / Federación Anarquista Rosa Negra, which is a nationwide anarchist political organization focused on building popular power for social revolution. Black Rose is affiliated with Anarkismo, an international network of anarchist organizations in the platformist or especifista tradition.