The World March of Women and the World Social Forum - Evaluation of the current situation - September 2007
The World March of Women has played an active part in the World Social Forum since the beginning of the process. We participate because it is a privileged space to renew our desire to change the world and to create alliances with other social movements. We have participated in the WSF International Council since the very first meeting, we took on responsibilities in the committees for the definition of themes, and we have participated in the organizing committees. The WMW, through the National Coordinating Bodies or the International Secretariat, has organized workshops, panels and actions on topics that vary from one Forum to the next, as well as women’s assemblies, etc. The WMW took an active role in the Youth Camp and in the Social Movements’ Assemblies (declarations, organization, coordination, etc.) and even more so in the creation and maintenance of a World Network of social movements. The March has been present in all WSFs and many regional and national Forums.
In 2005, we compiled a document in
which we registered our participation in the WSF. Several women shared their
experiences of participation in the Social Forums and asked pertinent questions
about the future and the form we will give to our participation in this
process. Since then, another two Forums have taken place and this has led us to
resume, in a more systematic way, our reflection on the meaning of our
participation in the struggle against globalization and the creation of another
world.
What the WSF brings us as feminists
and what we bring to it
The Social Forum is a new space to
occupy, and it is this that we have been doing since its inception. As
feminists of the WMW, we want the analysis of patriarchy to be etched at the
very heart of the questioning of neoliberalism and imperialism. It is necessary
to recognise that this objective is ambitious and probably difficult to assess
globally. We know that our presence has allowed increasing visibility of the
struggle of women and our resistance. We have created political and strategic
alliances with certain social movements, undoubtedly a major triumph. However,
it is also true that our participation in this process created many
frustrations, ranging from the lack of recognition of the importance of
feminist analysis in the construction of another world, to the absence of
feminists or women in panels. Several women have underlined the double task
that we have: to be present to disseminate our struggles and our alternatives,
and the constant need to defend our vision against the sexism from the left or
the right which is very much present in the WSF. And so we ask ourselves the following
question: How could the forum better
respond to our objective? What changes should be proposed? Should our
expectations, our contribution and the activities we organize also change?
Should we rely more on the construction of specific alliances with social
movements, as we have done during the Nyéléni Forum process?
The WSF is also, for several
feminist groups, a place to build alliances among us. For several years, a
group of regional and international networks[1]
organized two days of discussion before the WSF, called the Feminist Dialogues.
These groups, probably consciously, left aside the March for the organization
of these events. Only once have we participated a Feminist Dialogue as the WMW
- in Bombay, 2004 - when we sent delegates of the IC.
Several feminists who participate in
the WSF process judged these Feminist Dialogues as elitist[2]
and unsuitable for what we want to achieve ‘on the inside’ of the Forum
processes. On the other hand, several women and groups have asked us why the
March is not present at these events, because our absence prevents the creation
of bridges to increase the visibility of feminism inside the WSF. During the
last WSF in Nairobi, the organizing group of the Feminist Dialogues gave the
impression that they were the "representatives"
of feminism inside the WSF. As for us, we organized a march according to the
March’s particular characteristics and more than one woman did not understand
why there were two separate events for feminists.
This leads us to assess the type of
leadership and alliances that we want to create, or take responsibility for,
compared to other feminist groups involved in the WSF or in the social
movements World Network, and more generally, women who participate in the
forum.
For example, should we openly criticize the Feminist Dialogues and let it be widely
known of our refusal to participate, or demand that these events are organized
in another way? Would we want to organize an Assembly of Women with other
feminist groups, as women of the WMW in Europe have done in several Forums? Do
we want to develop a strong partnership with specific networks and organize
joint activities during the WSF with, for example, the CATW (who have already
approached us), the Women in Black Network, REMTE (with who we already work),
etc?
Our principal criticisms over the
years
Over the years, we have expressed
various criticisms around the way in which the WSF has evolved and is
organized. Such criticisms were presented at the meetings of the International
Council but we have to take them on board as members of the International
Committee of the WMW and discuss solutions that we can propose. Here are our
main criticisms and concerns:
- The WSF’s Charter of principles is so broad that it
allows the adhesion of groups that have opposing ideological view points,
such as around the issue of abortion. We cannot hope to build a better
world and at the same time allow space for hatred and misogyny in the WSF.
- The size of the Forum became its worst enemy. We have
watched an increase in the participation of the WSF, from a few thousand
to ten of thousands and hundreds of thousands…. The success of the WSF
must be evaluated in terms of its capacity for mobilization and adaptation
to the realities and the struggles of the movements of the country where
it takes place.
- The WSF must be seen as a tool and not as an end in
itself. It does not replace grassroots movements, but complements them.
- The methodology must be at service of the WSF and not
the other way around. The methodology should also be evaluated and revised
in terms of the desired objectives. The idea that there is "a single
method" WSF is contradictory to the necessity of reflecting on the
particularities and the resistance of peoples local to the place where it
the WSF is organized.
- The frequency of the WSF contributes to the
diminishment of the impact of the mobilizations and requires so many human
(activist) and financial resources that the Forum could actually begin to
be a handicap in changing the world. The WSF only makes sense where there
are local or national struggles, sites of construction of grounded
alternatives. The participants of these struggles can better recognise and
encourage each other if the pace of the Forum does not hinder action
itself.
- Convergence needs to be at the heart of the WSF, and
not a ‘supermarket’ of ideas and egos. We need more interaction between
movements to live out our alternatives, to discuss them, to integrate them
into our praxis.
- The challenge of real inclusion of feminist analyses
and the representation of women as subjects of the struggle against
globalization in this context is immense. There is no recognition, inside
the International Council or in the methodology, of the present power
relationships. The REMTE and the WMW have already proposed an equality
policy but it has never got off the ground.[3]
- There is a blatant lack of coherence between the
organization of the WSF and our social transformation objectives. The
commercialization of the event and the presence of anti-choice groups,
etc, are frustrating factors that must be tackled.
The International Council
The International Council (IC) was
created in 2001 after the 1st WSF. At the time, the Brazilian
Committee invited approximately 100 organizations and some individuals to
participate in it. The Council's mandate is to ensure the organization of World
Social Forums and to develop and strengthen the processes of these Forums. The
WMW has a seat in the council and had participated in all meetings (more or
less twice a year). There are 6 commissions in the Council (Expansion,
Communications, Methodology, Content, Finance, Strategy) and 3 working groups
(Facilitation, Action 2008, Evaluation). The members of the IC are invited to
participate in the committees and groups. The Working Groups are temporary and
change every year in relation to our working objectives.
The Facilitation Working Group will
be converted in the next few months into a Liaison Group in order to transform
itself into the entity that will coordinate the work of all the Commissions and
Working Groups and be responsible for the organization of meetings of the IC.
This year, there is a transformation under way to change the IC’s way of
working. The Liaison Group will come together between meetings, the Working
Groups or Commissions will also carry out their own meetings and the IC meeting
will serve as a point of reference and to give guidelines. In principle, these
transformations should improve performance, but as we have not yet worked
through the substantial differences between us, it is difficult to believe that
they will resolve the tensions.
That said, in the last meeting of
the IC, we were able to agree that during the coming year (2008) we will carry
out a reflection on the strategy that represents the WSF in its struggle
against neoliberal, patriarchal and imperialist globalization. This discussion
will also lead us to discuss the frequency, place, etc of the WSF after 2009.
We have several questions to answer:
Do we want to be part of the Liaison
Group of WSF (which means asking a member of the WMW to be available for
approximately 30 days per year for this function)? How do we ensure that the
discussion around strategy is a process that includes the greatest possible
number of women of the WMW? What mandates will we give to our representative in
the IC?
The International Network of Social
Movements
This World Network of social
movements was created in 2003 and is another tool to amplify alliances between
social movements through analysis and common actions. The network meets
together primarily during the WSF where it organizes an Assembly of Social
Movements. Since last year there has been an attempt to create other moments
for meetings with the aim of strengthening ties and developing a common agenda.
There was a seminar in Brussels in September 2006 and a meeting in Rostock in
June this year to discuss our objectives and form of operation. In Rostock we
formed a Facilitation Group consisting of representatives of international and
regional networks (around 20):
International networks /
movements:
Via Campesina, World March of Women, CADTM, Jubilee South (2 people per network
from different continents), Campaign Anti-Wall, Our World is not for Sale.
National networks /
movements (1
per group)
America: Continental Social Alliance, COMPA, Global Justice
Network, Poor People’s Economic Rights Campaign
Asia: Focus on the Global South (2 people), India Social Forum
(1 people)
Africa: Indaba Movement (1 person)
Europe: 2 people.
This group's goal is to
facilitate exchanges between social movements and, particularly in relation to
26th January 2008, stimulate the involvement of the maximum possible
number of groups. Despite the existence of this facilitation group, however,
the Network continues to be fairly inactive and without a genuine work-plan.
Assuming that we need to act together in order to overcome ‘empty’
declarations, we need to assess if the World March of Women could propose an
action that could stimulate the Network and allow us a certain leadership. What could we propose to strengthen the
Network (possibly in terms of 26 January)? Should we assign two women for 30
days a year, one to accompany the IC of the WSF and the other the World Network
of social movements?
[1] FEMNET
(African Women’s Development and Communications Network), Articulacion
Feminista Mercosur, Akina Mama wa Africa, CLADEM (Comite de America Latina y
Caribe para la Defensa de los Derechos de las Mujeres), DAWN (Development
Alternatives with Women for a New Era), Isis International-Manilla, INFORM (Sri
Lanka), National Networkof Autonomous Women’s Groups (India), REPEM (Red de
Educacion Popular entre Mujeres de America Latina y Caribe), Women Living Under
Muslim Laws, Women in Development Europe.
[2]
Read Janet Conway’s article.
Last modified 2007-11-13 07:26 AM
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