Young Women in the WMW – European experiences

First, I would like to thank the Brazilian Coordinating Body for their hard work that gave us such a warm welcome and has allowed us to enjoy the intense experience of being here, in São Paulo, as well as the International Committee for having given me the opportunity to speak to you today, for their concern for the situation of young women in the March and for thinking that it made sense for the experience of young women to be shared by one of us.

I was asked to speak about youth and the March, from an overall, global perspective, but this is really very difficult, because we not have not yet had much opportunity, as young feminists, to work together, between our different countries and regions of the world, so I will be sharing the European experience with you, in particular. For nearly three years now in Europe, new dynamics have developed among young women in the March, with the organization of young feminists’ camps, in particular, held annually over the past three years. So I am going to speak about the situation of young women in Europe, to reflect on the news ways that we have found to organize and attempt to expand the movement and ties between young feminists in different countries. I hope that, even if my presentation focuses on Europe, it will be able to serve as a mirror for young (and less young) women and lesbians in Brazil and other countries, for their discussions of the integration of young women in the movement, the inclusion of all women, and the revitalization of our activist strengths.

Society in Europe is different than in Brazil. I have been very impressed to see the strength of the movement here and to see so many active, strong young women working together to fully demonstrate the collective force of organized women. In Europe, our movement is not as massive or youthful, and the members of our societies are much older, which means, on the one hand, that there are few youths among us and, on the other, we are considered to be “young” for much longer than here. Yesterday, I met a young Brazilian woman from Bahia, who was surprised that I am active in a group of young women and asked me how old I am. It’s true, I am 31 years old, but, in Europe, I am considered young: my life is that of a young woman and, in the world of activism, I am considered to be a young activist. But let me reassure you: our young feminists group includes many women much younger than me!

So, as I was saying, there are few youths in the general population in Europe. The experience of young women in Europe must be understood from within the new context of the major economic, ideological and political transformations that have been occurring in recent years. The reality in Europe is an attack by the financial markets and capitalism, an ideological backslide and a return to traditional values, and an attack on democratic practices that allow the people have their say on social organization and political decisions. In Europe, we are experiencing a crisis of the social-democratic model, which, although imperfect, at least ensured a minimum amount of solidarity, between the generations, the social classes and between nationals and foreigners. This solidarity meant high taxes, a retirement and unemployment protection system, and public services including free or inexpensive education, a well-oiled public health system, public transit and more.

But that model’s day has come and gone, and neoliberal attacks on Europe are leading to austerity policies, the privatization of our common goods, the destruction of our social rights, and an explosion of inequalities. I could go on and on about the policy of destroying our public services, but I was asked to focus on the subject of youths, not to mention the fact that I believe you are, in reality, all too familiar with those neoliberal policies that we are now discovering in Europe, but which have long been common practice in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

It should, however, be specified that this reality is not exactly that of all of Europe but, instead, pertains chiefly to Western Europe. In Eastern European countries, which were communist regimes up until some 20 years ago, there has never been any social democracy. Social rights existed in another form until the fall of the Soviet bloc and other communist regimes of Europe, when capitalism arrived, wrapped up in a promise of freedom for the people, and it has been running rampant in those areas ever since. The cultural, political and social division between “Western” Europe (including Greece and Turkey) and formerly-communist Eastern Europe seems to be one of the major issues that should be part our thought process on how we mobilize in Europe. These differences are, in fact, also visible in the organization of our social movements, with very little presence in Eastern Europe, where young people find themselves starting new struggles, without being able to rely on the dynamics of organized social movements, whereas in Western Europe, there is a wide variety of existing organizations, unions and political parties. These organizations, including the women’s movement, are, however, dominated by the activists of the 1970s, some of whom are now retired, but who remain active and carry with them the history of our struggles, over the past 40 years. As young women, we benefit from both this knowledge, and from the past analyses that many women work to keep alive in feminist and lesbian archives, but also concrete practices for our struggles, existing support structures, alliance-based political cultures, etc. At the same time, we need to find our place in our movements, and power struggles are often in play. There is not always a sense of trust between the generations.

Let’s now go back to the concrete situation of young women in Europe, because I think this will explain both the reasons and the ways that we can organize, both in continuity with and separately from the earlier generations.

We are undoubtedly the first generation to know that we will not live as well as our parents. We find ourselves in a situation in which we are losing the rights and opportunities to build our lives autonomously, as women:

•    Access to a university education and to training is becoming more difficult, as the economy deteriorates. This education is now paid for by means of student loans, which must then be repaid, despite the fact that it has become very hard to find a job and a stable income.
•    Access to housing is also very difficult, because it is so expensive, so that many young women continue to live with their parents (until the age of 25, 30 or even 35) or become dependent on men.
•    Access to employment is very difficult for young women, with a rise in exploitation, and underemployment being almost the only opportunity that young people have to obtain any revenue, as well as massive unemployment, plus an increase in situations of sexual and moral harassment, and the encouragement of prostituting conduct, both in and out of the actual sex industry. As a result, young women find themselves obliged to accept jobs in which their bodies are sexualized, like hostessing and sales work, where they are required to wear ever shorter skirts and ever lower-cut tops.
•    These difficulties in finding employment have led to substantial migration by young women in Europe, an exile they suffer in an attempt to build a living. There is also a difference between young European women, who have rights because they come from a European country, and the many young women come from Africa, Asia or the Americas, who have real problems gaining access to rights and immigration documents, placing them in situations of great difficulty, as well as immigration policies that are becoming more and more unjust and strict (which is also true for young Romany women).
•    As young women, we are also seeing some of the basic rights won by our elders being called in to question, such as the right to abortion. The history of Europe, in relation to the fight for that right, is very interesting and chaotic, but we know, through substantial work on the subject with young feminists from Europe, that attacks against the formal right to abortion, like actual access to the operation, are real, manifold and supported by a variety of types of arguments (economic, religious and nationalist, in particular), in nearly all of the countries of Europe.

In this context, we are fighting to uphold our rights, not to win new ones, and it is obvious that this is changing the shape of our struggles. Our concrete experience of this reality pushes us to try new things, whether these be survival practices, shows of solidarity, or means of organizing ourselves. For example, we do not have access to our own housing, so we take on roommates, which gives new meaning to the concept of community living. Our highly uncertain and precarious situations also prevent us from campaigning as activists, as our elders were able to do on a much greater scale. Combining multiple jobs and studies, or living in situations of precarious work, often prevents young women from embarking on even medium-term projects, since we do not know what will happen from one week to the next.

As young women, with these new experiences in resisting oppression – an oppression that is currently growing and intensifying – it is our responsibility to share our visions and our activist practices with each other. We need to work together, taking advantage of our different experiences and realities, to explore new forms of resistance. Just as black women, indigenous women and lesbians were, at some point, able to make their voices heard within the women’s movement, and have contributed both theoretically and practically to feminism, we, too, need to speak about our lives, our analyses and the practices that we have developed as a result.
For nearly three years now, we have been creating new, autonomous dynamics among young feminists in Europe. We have held three Young Feminists’ Camps: in France in 2011, in Romania in 2012, and the last in Portugal, just a few weeks ago. The possibility of coming together with other young women living in Europe has allowed us to share our own concrete realities, to be able to reflect on our resistance and our solidarity, from a political standpoint.

Of course, at the beginning of the camp project, we highlighted the importance of social and political changes in Europe, and the fact that we need to organize at the European level, given that it is the continent, as a whole, that is under attack. We also wanted to strengthen the WMW in Europe, and it is true that this has led to new dynamics within the European Coordinating Body, new ideas for common projects, and more young women involved in certain National Coordinating Bodies, as well as at the European level.

What were the principles we established at the start?

•    First was the idea that we wanted to take the time to get to know each other, to be able to build our struggles together, so we decided to hold the camp for a full week, giving us the time to create personal ties that would be strong enough to last. We wanted to camp together, cook together, enjoy nature, learn to respect it, eat local products, eat vegetarian or vegan (for those who wanted to), and so on.
•    Next, we wanted to be non-mixed, because many feminist movements in Europe are mixed-gender and include a number of men. So, living for a week, just among young women, was a real discovery and a highly motivating, truly transforming experience for many of us.
•    Lastly – and perhaps most importantly – self-management and a flat hierarchical structure, with general assemblies held each evening, the continuous division of all of the tasks (as far as possible), collective definition of the program at the start of the week, etc.

Over the past three years, we brought together young women from some twenty countries (Armenia, Austria, Basque Country, Belgium, Catalonia, Estonia, Finland, France, Galicia, Germany, Italy, Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Switzerland, Turkey and United Kingdom, plus migrant women living in those countries but from different places, with their own knowledge and experience, many of them Brazilian, as well as those whom we were able to invite from other continents – from Brazil, Chile and Quebec). Many of the young women have since told us that the camp changed many aspects of their lives, because it created a turning point in their feminism, and also in their personal investment as activists, including in mixed-gender movements. Some of them decided to go back to school or change jobs, some left their boyfriends to escape from a violent situation, others finally accepted their lesbianism, and still others found new strength to launch vital local struggles.

The young women from the three countries that have hosted the camp built their skills up, while strengthening their local collectives and gaining important experience in empowerment, but also in budgeting and planning an entire meeting. Although the camps were not truly “mass” events (with 40 to 70 participants, depending on the year and on available funding), they did have a tangible impact on our lives as young women and young feminists.

In the ways that we organize, I feel we are torn between different models. For example, there is tension between the more or less classic political struggle (when we focus our combined energies on building formal networks, writing political manifestos, preparing demonstrations, etc.) and hands-on experimentation with alternatives (when we focus our combined energies on testing new practices ourselves, a non-hierarchical structure, the pursuit of full inclusivity for all women, practices that nourish us and help us grow, in particular, and so on). I won’t say that the two are completely contradictory, but it seems to me that there is still some tension there, maybe between the ideas of “doing right by oneself” and “being effective.” It is important to understand that the camp’s spaces of relative peace are extraordinary, given that we live in the daily grind, in which we are merely subjects, who do not choose, but are merely taught to obey. The choice of opting for self-management and women-only participation transformed how we live and how we see ourselves within the world. The love we share for one another strengthens us, both individually and collectively.

In Europe, social movements are not mass movements. They are often divided and fragmented, and they are not very appealing to youths. No doubt, this is partially due to their inability to integrate young people into their traditional structures, but also the development of an individualistic ideology, in which everyone looks out for themselves and their families, first and foremost. The movements that have rallied many people in Europe in recent years include the Indignant, especially in Barcelona and Madrid, which was, precisely, based on personal involvement, without the use of traditional activist structures. In addition to the Indignant, who have been both numerous and highly visible, many other struggles shared points in common, with struggling people distrustful of political and union organizations, and occasional rallies in which collective living took on greater importance, etc. This has occurred in Portugal, Romania, Bulgaria and, most recently, in Turkey this summer.
The challenge facing social movements today is knowing how to respond to these multiple and drastic attacks on the people. It sometimes feels like they are always moving more quickly than we are, and when I say “they,” I mean the capitalists, the politicians and those working against the autonomy of the people. Just think of that crazy example of the Greek Prime Minister’s announcement at 5 PM one day that public television was going to stop broadcasting and be dismantled, its employees laid off, and so on, at midnight that very evening! How do we respond to attacks like that?

In truth, these are dictatorial practices, completely in line with the criminalization of social movements, the use of arms against the people during demonstrations, the arrest of activists under anti-terrorist laws, etc. All of this is occurring in parallel to the rise of the far right and of the fascist or neo-Nazi groups that have taken over the streets in various countries. In France, this was seen in a very unexpected way, with the re-mobilization of the right wing this year, supported by hundreds of thousands of people demonstrating against gay marriage and in favor of the traditional family unit and the “complementarity” of the sexes. Ideas and practices, be they popular or State-driven, racist, anti-Semitic, xenophobic, or other, are also very worrisome. Sexism and racism seem to mesh together, in a shift toward an increasingly fascist ideology.

And we, who are troubled by this rise in fascism, know that we need your experience and your help, to understand how we can, strategically, resist it. Because, if we look back to past experiences, such as feminist and lesbian voices during the rise in fascism in Europe during the 1930s, we know that the right-wing dictatorships to which Latin America was subjected in the 1970s and 1980s are undoubtedly closer politically to what the neoliberal model might accept today. We also need solidarity because we are living in a globalized world. If fascism comes to power in Europe, just as if the Islamist fundamentalists that Souad mentioned yesterday were to come to power in the Arab world, that would have an impact around the world, which is why it is of concern to us all.

So there you have it. The situation is not brilliant, and we have not emerged triumphant, because there is a tremendous amount of work yet to be done. But it is true that the young feminists of the March in Europe have managed to create new momentum, with new possibilities, and that there is real motivation there to continue.
There is also a real interest in expanding our struggles, with spaces that will, through collective feminist or lesbian practices, allow young women to become feminists and to free themselves from a growing sense of alienation. There is a stake in offering young women in Europe opportunities to join the struggle to change the world, and also to change their own lives. Because the exploitation of women – in its traditional and, perhaps, to an even greater extent in its newest forms – relies on a misogynist ideology, on the hypersexualization of women and girls, on rape culture and on the impunity of perpetrators of sexual violence. In the face of all this, we owe it to ourselves to build a culture of strength, of solidarity between women, of autonomy and of the right for women to defend ourselves verbally and physically from any violence done to us.

We need continuity: many of the practices that we apply today are not of our own creation; they come from the women’s movement and from lesbian movements. We need to take ownership of them, for ourselves, by using them in new ways that are better suited to our real lives, and we need to improve our understanding of our history. We require the transmission of collective memory and experience, and of creativity, to revitalize and redefine our feminist struggles.

At the latest camp this year, the word that excited us the most was “utopias.” Our eyes all shone as we thought about how to extend our feminist spaces of solidarity, learning, respect and love, between us. There is much work to be done. We need to have trust between us, as women, but also to feel trust in us, as young women or young feminists, from the older generation of feminists. As was said at the camp this year, “We have the right to make mistakes, too,” even if the situation is dire. In any case, we need creativity, the creativity of each and every one of us. This will mean taking risks, more so now than ever, and at a time when this will not be so easy to do. This will mean stepping out of our comfort zones as activists. And this will mean being able to use what has already been built up by the women’s movement, in order to conceptualize and develop our struggles.
We are hard at work on this, already. Thank you.