Invitation - Folder

All-European Autonomous Feminist Womyn’s Gathering
April 9 - 14, 2009
Vienna, Austria

What we want from this gathering

As a continuation of the all-European Womyn’s Gathering which took place at Freiburg/Germany at the turn of the years 2007/2008 we are organising this follow-up gathering. We want to meet feminist women and lesbians from different countries who are involved in struggles against sexism, racism, homophobia, capitalism, fascism and patriarchy. We want to have an exchange on radical-feminist theory and practices and discuss perspectives and possibilities of action. At the same time we want to pass on and extend our practical knowledge in workshops and carry out actions on-site.

The gathering is self-organised

All participants are asked to contribute actively. This can happen in different ways: by preparing workshops, actions and discussions, by sharing our knowledge, by taking part in discussions, translating, cooking, cleaning etc. Self-organisation means that we as women take herstory into our own hands to bring about solidarity, freedom and justice for women. Self-organisation also means that we create structures on both the small and the large scales, which each of use can help to shape. And self-organisation means that we are sharing the work that has to be done for organising our everyday lives.

Who is organising the gathering?

We are an organisational group of feminists and mostly lesbians who are active in Women/Lesbian contexts and some of us also in mixed groups. We come from different backgrounds as far as our political experience, life and work contexts and ages are concerned. What we share is our understanding of ourselves as parts of the autonomous women’s movement and our considering an independent and separate organisation of women as an indispensable feminist necessity. The independent organisation of women is a political expression of and means of struggle towards the subjectivity of women and again and again an important source of inspiration for our feminist analyses and feminist resistance. And it is a practice shaping our relationships to each other as women. At the same time we consider the exchange with the protagonists of other feminist approaches and forms of organisation as important.

The structure of the gathering

see Program 

Rooms / Spaces

There are several rooms for workshops to take place simultaneously. At the bar of the women’s centre it is possible to exhibit pictures. In another room films can be shown. There is one room dedicated to remembrance and remembering, which you can shape according to your ideas, for example, in memory of women who lost their lives in their struggle for liberation, who were murdered on the grounds of sexist violence or who have not survived sexist violence, who chose to commit suicide or who died from an illness … and who accompany you in your memories.

Content

The gathering wants to take up feminist struggles, experiences, analyses, dreams and visions. We want to reflect social conditions and destabilise relations of violence and exploitation.

Are you dealing with any of the issues we consider important and would like to prepare an input on it? (see: Ideas and Content). Are there other issues you would like to discuss at the gathering?

Some workshops are already being planned. If you want to do a workshop or wish to initiate a discussion, please send us your concrete suggestions. When preparing your input, please consider that time and space is required – for discussions, perspectives from different countries, translations. Cooperation in workshops between women from different countries would be cool. Through the homepage it is possible to establish contact in advance. From the end of January 2009 the workshops which will take place will be online.
In the evenings there will be the chance for an exchange of experience between women from different countries – each country will have about 30 minutes for a presentation – on the political situation and on feminist structures and resistance. There is also great interest on our part in special workshops for girls and young women, migrant women, women of colour, lesbians. (Should you like to offer such a workshop, please state this explicitly in your concrete suggestions for the workshops). There will also be space for women to meet up for spontaneous discussions and exchange.

Party for Women/Lesbians

On one evening there will be a big party. Bring your feminist music! The first hour of the party will be reserved for an open stage of resistance with a microphone provided. We are looking forward to listening to and to singing along with feminist songs of resistance, which you sing at demonstrations and during actions. For that, please send your texts by e-mail beforehand (in your own language and in an English translation), we will copy them and make them available to women at the gathering.

Demonstration and Actions

On one day we will organise a rally or a demonstration and / or decentralised actions, for example, against racism and sexism. Please bring your experiences, ideas and suggestions.

Ideas and Content

Here is a list of ideas concerning the inputs, which we find important and which we are engaged in:

• The herstory of the women’s movement/s
• In which ways do younger and older women experience patriarchy today?
• Women’s projects / Women’s institutions and the autonomous women’s movement – Women’s projects as feminist structures, disconnection as a consequence of professionalisation and management?
• The herstory of the women’s movement/s and the generations – different and common experiences, conditions and struggles
• Breaks and common grounds between radical feminism and queer feminism
• Feminism and women with children
• Masculism and the movement for fathers’ rights
• Liberation from relations of violence
• Feminist strategies against sexist violence and structures
• Experiences with and aims of confronting offenders/making direct actions
• Sexist violence and media publicity – with respect and dignity
• Feminist counter-public – how and where can it be experienced, what are important aims, how do women, lesbians and girls become visible in it?
• The herstory of Red Zora
• Women in militant resistance
• Enemies of women’s reproductive rights; Reproductive technologies; Population policy
• Prostitution as a sexist power and violence relationship - and service and work within patriarchy
• Feminist analyses and critique of pornography
• Trafficking in women, sexist slavery, racism, poverty and migration
• Information on the world conference of “grassroots women” in Venezuela 2011
• Where do women take the power to fight for changes amidst existing patriarchal structures?
• How can women live their own sexuality in a society permeated by sexualised violence?
• Sex as a sportive activity versus sexuality as expression of love and is there something in between?
• Discussion of concepts of “romantic love”
• The distribution of roles in lesbian relationships
• The body, images of the body and beauty norms
• Forms of relationships, networks and collective ways of living
• Lesbians are organising their old-age life
• Homophobia, the situation of lesbians and the lesbian movement in Eastern Europe
• The images of women in the course of history
• Matriarchal forms of society
• Interfering and joint action – against everyday and state racisms
• Self-organisation of migrant women and women of colour
• Anti-racism as participation instead of integration
• Strategies against the appropriation of sexist violence for racist baiting and for the legitimation of wars
• Solidarity with women’s movements in other continents
• Armament and militarization in the EU
• Strategies of resistance against militarism and war
• The history of the NATO and “modern” warfare
• Feminist anti-fascist remembrance and resistance today in different countries
• Male rites create fascist elites – right-wing student fraternity, old boys’s networks, the military
• Resistance against religious fundamentalists and clerical fascists
• Feminist analyses of economy, patriarchy and capitalism
• International and gendered division of labour and exploitation
• Food, seeds, self-sufficiency in the context of the globalised economy and genetic technology
• Neo-liberalism as producer of poverty and creator of elites
• Class struggles of women
• Housework as gendered division of labour and exploitation of women and the new society of “female servants”
• Dealing with class differences amongst women
• Basic income and minimum wage – what do they mean for women?
• Precarious working and living conditions – militant self-examination and possibilities of resistance
• The Gift Economy according to Genevieve Vaughan
• Women’s housing endowment and tenants’ syndicate
• An economy of solidarity
• Practical workshops: building with wood • welding/metal work • electrical work • computer safety and surveillance via mobile phone • DIY sex-toys • creative writing • dancing • painting • theatre and performance • female clown workshop • making radio programmes • video-workshop • women seize the megaphone

Location

The FZ – the Autonomous-Feminist Women’s/Lesbians’/Girls’ Centre – in Vienna will be the meeting- and communication space as well as the place where the meals are taken and where most of the workshops are held. Under »Directions« you can find information on how you get there. The FZ is a space by and for women, lesbians and girls only (boys are welcome only up to the age of 6).

The communication room has got wheelchair-access, the other rooms are not accessible in that way. Yet, if you need assistance for mobility in the rooms, we will be glad to organise it in a common effort. Some rooms and plenums will be non-smokers’ zones, the workshops according to agreement beforehand. If possible, please leave your pets at home.

Food

The preparatory group will organise the shopping for food as well as the recipes for the meals. Supper will be a vegan meal, breakfast and snack will be offered also in vegetarian varieties and with meat. Cooking, cleaning and other tasks will be undertaken in small groups in which all the participants should join.

Accommodation

Places to sleep will be provided in women’s and lesbian projects, in a mixed autonomous centre and in left spaces, communal households and private flats. Please bring your sleeping bag and mat with you. If you require a bed, please let us know when you register. If required, we can also give you the addresses of B&Bs.

Childcare

There will be a crèche in the neighbourhood of the FZ. Workshops and plenums are planned to take place without children, because for women and lesbians, both separate spaces and time for each other are important. Girls and young women from the age of 12 upwards can take part in the gathering. The food for the children and childcare are free.

Translations

We are looking for women who will translate during the gathering, in the workshops and plenums. If you can imagine doing that, please let us know at registration.

Costs

Your contribution to the gathering is between 30 and 100 euros (including food and sleeping spaces in projects and private flats), ad libitum. If you cannot pay this fee, you are welcome nevertheless. We ask women with a sufficient regular income to pay the upper limit or more, so that we can redistribute. The fee has to be paid by each participant, no matter if you prepare a workshop or take part in discussions or not. There is no remuneration. The fee will be used for covering the expenses for food, material, visa (for participants from Eastern and Southern Europe and Turkey) and for possible rents of rooms. In addition to that we would like to facilitate a travel allowance for those who have got a long way to travel and cannot afford the costs for the journey.

Account for Donations

We try to organise financial means and subsidies in advance. If possible, also organise financial means in your towns/cities or political structures for your attending the gathering. If you want to donate to the gathering, there is an account for donations.

Account holder: Höllinger K.
Bank: BAWAG, BCN: 14000
Account number: 02510076640
Iban: AT 051 400 002 510 076 640
Bic: BAWAATWW

Registration

see Registration

Footnotes

The double axe – also called labrys – was found during excavations in Crete in the second millennium BC, among others. In her/history and in mythology it is attributed to matriarchal societies and the amazons. Since the 1970s, womyn (feminists and lesbians) use the double axe as their symbol in some countries.

Women/Lesbians is a political term used in the autonomous women’s movement (among others in Austria and Germany) standing for the visibility of lesbians in the feminist movement - for opposition to heterosexism, which regards woman as mere appendix to man and as his subordinate; - for the importance of lesbian existence, of friendship and relationships between women, for all women and for feminism. From Italy we also know the term “feminists and lesbians”. In the English language feminists use the political term “womyn”

The All-European gathering is a cross-continental gathering. It is opposed to exploitation, the borders and the military “order” which is established by the economical and military power of the EU.

Download: Folder (PDF)

First Invitation

All-European Autonomous Feminist Womyn’s Gathering
April 9 - 14, 2009
Vienna, Austria

At the beginning of 2008 about 70 women and lesbians from different countries, from both autonomous feminist and mixed organised backgrounds, came together at Freiburg / Germany, because »we are also in our countries involved in struggles against a patriarchal, capitalist and racist system.« (from the summoning letter to the Freiburg gathering). In the end it was clear to all who had participated: the time had been too short, the interest in each other too strong - there was a wish for further gatherings. And that’s what we are having now.

What we want from this gathering

We want to meet feminist women and lesbians from different countries who are involved in struggles against sexism, racism, homophobia, capitalism, fascism and patriarchy. We want to have an exchange on radical-feminist theory and practices and discuss perspectives and possibilities of action. At the same time we want to pass on and extend our practical knowledge in workshops and carry out actions on-site.

Who we are

We are an organisational group consisting of seven feminists who are active in both women’s and lesbian contexts and mixed organised groups. We come from different backgrounds as far as our political experience, life and work contexts and ages are concerned. What we share is our understanding of ourselves as parts of the Autonomous Women’s Movement and our considering an independent and separate organisation of women as an indispensable feminist necessity. The seperate organisation of women is a political expression of and means of struggle towards the subjectivity of women and again and again an important source of inspiration for our feminist analyses. And it is a practice shaping our relationships to each other as women. At the same time we consider the exchange with the protagonists of other feminist approaches and forms of organisation as important.

How the gathering will function

The gathering is self-organised, which means that all participants are asked to contribute actively. This can happen in various ways: by preparing workshops, actions and discussions, by sharing our skills, by taking part in discussions, by translating, cooking, cleaning etc.

Topics

The women who took part in the Freiburg gathering would like to continue dealing with topics such as

• The her-story of the women’s movement and present-day patriarchy
• Feminist counter-public
• Breaks, continuities and common grounds between radical feminism and queer feminism

Another idea is to take up again the topics discussed at the recent gathering in Italy:

• Violence against women
• Hetero-sexism
• Racism
• Precariousness and Economy, etc.

Additionally, we want to make space for an exchange on the feminist structures in our respective countries.

Which discussions and practical workshops are important to you?
If you want to hold a workshop, send us your concrete suggestions, please.

Contact

We are looking forward to seeing you in Vienna in spring 2009.

Download: Invitation (Word) Invitation (PDF)

Organization

You want to help making the Autonomous Feminist Womyn’s Gathering a success?
We welcome any support.

Here are a few possibilities:

• Participate in the organising group in Vienna
  The meetings take place weekly at the FZ, 2nd floor
   
• Activate your local feminists
  Tell your friends, hand out folders, link to us on your website, organize fundraising events (e.g. for traveling expenses) etc.
   
• Translating
  We are still looking for translators, who are able to translate the folder into Albanian, Armenian, Czech, Georgian, Kurdish, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian or Slovak.
   
• Interpreting
  We require interpreters, who are able to interpret at workshops and plenums during the gathering.
   
• Donations
  We need funds for advertising and information materials, visa and travel subsidies, food, infrastructure, etc.
   
• Donations in kind
  The following is needed at the gathering: writing and painting material, cleaning agents, toilet paper, towels, feminine hygiene products, video projectors, laptop, tools, food and beverages.
   
• Lift-Share
  You travel by car and can give one ore more participants a lift? see Lift-Share
   
• Help on-site
  Wee need women to help before, during and after the gathering: set-up and take-down, technics, cleaning, etc.
   
• Accommodations
  You can offer accomodation in Vienna to one or more participants during the gathering? see Accommodation

Contact & Account for Donations