IUSY Feminist Working Group Meeting 2021

OVERVIEW

What: Feminist Working Group Meeting 2021

When: 15-16 April

Where: Zoom online platform

Age: 18-35 years                                                                                                               

Registration Deadline:  12 April, 12:00PM CET

Concept 

Every year, IUSY Feminist Working Group brings together young activists of IUSY member organisations to engage in a dialogue on common struggles and obstacles, and work together to come up with strategies to enact political and social change within our organisations and beyond. 

This year, Feminist working group meeting will take place on the 15th and 16th of April under the topic “That’s enough! Let’s build feminist organisations”.

Young feminist activists continue organising across movements in an intersectional way, locally, nationally, regionally and globally even in these difficult times of pandemic. Regardless of the work and continuous fight by many feminist organisations and networks, we continue facing discrimination in our organisational structures, lack of support in political and economic empowerment and in participatory decision making processes. 

In this year’s working group meeting, we want to get down to the essence of how we walk the walk and not just talk the talk in our quest to build an international socialist/social-democratic organisations that are feminist. By deconstructing old narratives, being critical, sharing good practices and highlighting topics such as intersectionality and gender discrimination within organsations, this meeting will give participants the tools and skills:

  • to acknowledge, define and share the main problems among our organisations 
  • to have the space to acknowledge and share best practices for continuous work
  • to build a network of feminist activists and a chance to be a part of the feminist working group

Thus, the main goals of this meeting are: 

  • to acknowledge, define and share the main problems among organisations;
  • to acknowledge and share best practices and achievements for continuous work;
  • to continue building a network of feminist activists;
  • to give tools and raise awareness about gender discrimination within organisations;
  • to engage young feminist activists within the working group, across the different regions. 

What can you expect? 

We will get together for 2 days (about 2.5 hours per day) in an informal and formal settings. This means we will have a space to talk, to share, to support and to act. 

The meeting will start either at 1PM CET or 2PM CET. The time will be confirmed as soon as it is possible taking into account the different time zones.

More details on the programme will come soon and all registered participants will be informed of the technicalities and the content of the meeting. 

The meeting will be held online on the Zoom platform. It will be in English and without any participation fee. 

It is important to remember that our events are safe spaces and that we are mindful and respectful towards each other.

Who can apply

This activity is aimed towards the activists of IUSY member organisations. Please note that it is required that the participants stay for the whole duration of the activity and also to contribute to the working group after the meeting.

Participants should:

  • Belong to IUSY member organisation
  • Be aged 18-35
  • Have been active/working/studying in the field of feminism/feminist movement 
  • Be willing to continue to work and be active in the field of gender and feminism 
  • Availability to contribute to IUSY activities in future

How to apply

To apply you must complete the following this form or copy/pasting the following link https://forms.gle/ZMhZ8BGpj4vwRtNe6 by 12 April, 12:00PM CET.

Contact information

Should you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact the coordinator of the project at the IUSY Secretariat:

Gohar Ghandilyan 

IUSY Project Manager

EMAIL: gohar.ghandilyan@iusy.org

Phone: +43 699 135 32 960

IUSY Statement on the protests in Thailand

The youth-led protests in Thailand is an inspiration to youth movements all over the world, as they seek to take back power from government leaders who were part of the military dictatorship and the monarchy.

The recent protests on Tuesday called for King Maha Vajiralongkorn to give up control of royal wealth, which the protesters argue comes from taxpayers’ money. The protest movement has demanded for the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha who led the military junta before the new government was formed, the creation of a new charter, and reforms in the monarchy.

The protesters have been met with brutality from state forces and masked assailants. More than 50 people, including children who’ve joined the protests, have been injured and hospitalized from gunshot wounds and tear gas inhalation on the November 17 protests. Renowned activists have also been summoned on November 25 for violating an archaic lese-majeste law, which could throw opposition leaders to prison for 15 years for offending the members of the monarchy. 

As socialists, we support people’s movements in the struggle to fight for freedom, democracy and equality across the world. We believe that people should have democratic control over politics and the economy rather than a wealthy few. In the case of Thailand, the dissolution of the opposition party Future Forward Party, the dominant control of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha over the government, and the undue protections for the monarchy from criticisms run counter to democratic principles.

The members of the International Union of Socialist Youth call on the Thailand government to cease the use of excessive force against the protesters and stop criminalizing dissent. The criminalization of criticisms against the Thai government and the monarch have no place in a modern democracy, where people should be free to express their opinions without fear of repression.

We stand with the people of Thailand in their calls for accountability from the government and for their struggle to bring back power to the public.

Webinar: Women* and Social Movements

Date: 28 June, 2020

Time:  13:00 CEST 

Register in advance for this webinar:

https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_gycZiOtASFK8nJPmvB8tFw

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Agenda 

13:00Welcome and introduction by Ana Pirtskhalava, IUSY Secretary General 
13:10-14:10Panel discussion 
Giulia Daniele, researcher and guest assistant professor at the Centro de Estudos Internacionais of the Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (CEI-IUL). 

Marta Musić, co-founder of the Global Tapestry of Alternatives, one of the organizers of the World Social Forum on Transformative Economies and currently works as a consultant for FRIDA 

Moderator: Ana Pirtskhalava, IUSY Secretary General  
14:10-14:30 Q&A
 14:30 Closing 

About speakers

Giulia Daniele

Giulia Daniele is currently a researcher and guest assistant professor at the Centro de Estudos Internacionais of the Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (CEI-IUL). She completed her Ph.D. in Politics, Human Rights and Sustainability under a co-tutelle agreement between the University of Exeter (UK) and Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies (Italy) in April 2012. Since 2005 she has conducted fieldwork research in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Israel and Tunisia. She also acquired useful experience with her involvement in the International Election Observation Mission for the Palestinian elections in January 2006, in the international cooperation project called EPIC (European, Palestinian and Israeli Cities for Health and Social Partnership) sponsored by the World Health Organization in December 2006, and when she was a research intern at the Office of the Vice President of the European Parliament in Brussels in Autumn 2008.  Her main research interests broadly cover the following fields: Middle East politics (focusing on Palestine/Israel), women’s political activism in the Middle East and North Africa, social movements, gender and feminist studies, conflict resolution and ethno-national narratives. Her first book is entitled Women, Reconciliation and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: The Road Not Yet Taken (Routledge, 2014).  

Marta Musić

Marta Musić is a queer, decolonial, feminist activist-researcher from ex-Yugoslavia.  Her work as a transnational movement organizer mainly consists of building bridges between struggles, movements and initiatives and creating networks of solidarity between them through spaces of exchange, learning and collaboration. She is a co-founder of the Global Tapestry of Alternatives, one of the organizers of the World Social Forum on Transformative Economiesand currently works as a consultant for FRIDA | The Young Feminist Fund. Inspired by these processes of articulation of alternatives – she dedicates her PhD Thesis to exploring the Zapatista concept of Pluriverse (a world in which many alternative worlds fit) from a decolonial feminist perspective as a way to generate new ways of theorizing and fostering alternative economic systems that can ensure the sustainability of life whilst decolonizing knowledge and power. You can read some of Marta’s publicationsabout feminist movements against the G20 in Argentina here: 

  1.  https://systemicalternatives.org/2018/10/09/neither-victims-nor-entrepreneurs-the-feminist-mobilizations-against-the-w20-in-buenos-aires/
  2.  https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/democraciaabierta/argentina-g20-and-mobilisations-against-it/

Context

The world today faces a multitude of crises. Countries are dealing with the COVID-19 global pandemic and are bracing themselves for economic repercussions, and this critical situation has made the world witness to worsened issues of state repression, racism, and inequality. Various social movements have become increasingly prominent, such as the Black Lives Matter movement and the Hong Kong Democracy protests.

The growing progressive movements present essential perspectives on grassroots empowerment and solidarity across cultures and identities. These events amplify and further push the intersectionality of struggles such as class, race, and gender into global public discourse. 

With this, as socialist feminists, we recognise the integral role of women in building and sustaining movements and society as a whole. On top of carrying multiple burdens and struggling against systems of patriarchy in everyday life, women of all classes and identities are undeniably part of these massive movements for justice and democracy.

This webinar on “Women* and Social Movements” is part of webinar series on Intersectional Feminism organized by the IUSY Feminist Working Group. 

This webinar aims to open international discussions on feminism and its relevance to social movements with the objectives to discuss the intersectionalities of movements and emphasize the significant role of women* in social movements around the world.