#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #ANARCHISM #News #Journal #Update - (en) awsm.nz: Call for Papers - Burning the Ballot: Feminism Meets Anarchy

 A Special Issue of Coils of the Serpent: Journal for the Study of Contemporary

Power ---- Guest Editors: Tammy Kovich & Adam Lewis (Canada) ---- Anarchism's
engagement with the question of gender is at once ambiguous and contradictory.
Historically, the anarchist response to the "woman/sex question" was mixed.
During the period of ‘classical anarchism' (1840-1939), women took on active
roles in anarchist movements - they were active in anarchist organizations,
publications, and projects across the globe. They took part in uprisings,
rebellions, and revolutions, as well as in the work of day-to-day anarchist
organizing, propaganda, and more. While many (though not all) rejected the label
of feminist, they nonetheless spoke out against sexual subordination and called
for the emancipation of women with the overthrow of all forms of social,
political, and economic hierarchy. At the same time, many others were at best
ambivalent to the idea of sexual equality and at worst outright hostile to it.
Frequently credited as the founding father of anarchism, Pierre Joseph Proudhon
(1809-1865) was an outright misogynist who spoke out against the idea that women
could (or should) ever be anything other than wives and mothers, and claimed that
the only option available to women outside of the family was prostitution. Sonn
in his study of the early anarchist movement in France describes the
pervasiveness of an "anarchist antifeminism" (2005: 32). Similarly, Gemie in his
historical survey of anarchist political culture across North America and Europe
notes the prevalence of "anarcho-sexism" (1996: 417). During the period of ‘new
anarchism' (1940-1990), emphasis on the politics of everyday life grew and an
explicitly feminist strand of anarchism emerged. Under the banner of
anarcha-feminism, efforts were made to integrate radical feminist and gay
liberation ideas into anarchist movements. Most recently, the period of
‘contemporary/post-anarchism' (1990-present) has been marked by an emphasis on
incorporating queer struggles and developing a distinctly queer anarchism.
Against this backdrop, anarchism's relationship to feminism has remained strained.

 From the so-called first-wave of feminism until our present moment, anarchists
have been considered both ally and adversary. In the early days of the women's
movement, some anarchists were active participants and a few even claimed the
feminist label. Chinese anarchist He-Yin Zhen (1884-1920) exerted considerable
influence and wrote extensively on women's liberation. She spoke out against
prominent male intellectuals, critiqued the nationalism of a burgeoning Chinese
feminism, and discussed feminist struggle as "the beginning and outcome of a
total social revolution that would abolish the state and private property to
bring about true social equality and the end to all social hierarchies" (Liu et
al. 2013: 7). In Puerto Rico, Luisa Capetillo (1879-1922) was a pivotal figure in
both anarchist and feminist movements respectively. She organized women workers,
published pamphlets and books on gender equality, and infamously made waves when
she dawned a pair of trousers to stroll the streets of Havana, becoming "the
first Puerto Rican woman to wear pants in public" (Romeu Toro 2013: 178). In
America, Voltarine de Cleyre (1866-1912) developed an anarchism that was
inextricably connected to an analysis of sexual inequality. She publicly
identified as a feminist, and in her own words became an anarchist because of her
"anger at the institutions set up by men" and her "disgust with the cramped,
subordinated circle provided for women" (cited in Marsh 1978: 540). While some
anarchist women openly allied themselves with feminists, many more vehemently
rejected the label and were at times hostile to the women's movement. Somewhat
ironically, one of the few anarchist women to be given considerable attention by
feminists - Emma Goldman - was intensely critical of the women's movement during
her lifetime. While Goldman centered considerations of gender and sexuality in
much of her work and contributed to related discussions in both anarchist circles
and society at large, she frequently criticized feminists' pursuit of suffrage
and more or less saw the women's movement as a bourgeois endeavor incompatible
with revolution.

In the years following the ‘classical period' of Goldman's time, particularly
over the last 40 years, it has become more and more common for anarchists to ask:
what can anarchism learn from feminism? The political culture, language, and
practice of contemporary anarchism (while by no means free from sexism,
queerphobia, or transmisogyny) draws from and is influenced by the theories and
practices of feminists. Further, there is also a growing chorus of anarchists
arguing for deeper engagement with Indigenous feminisms and political
interventions, and their particular forms of resistance to settler colonialism,
capitalism, the state and patriarchy (Warburton 2016). Given the ongoing nature
of settler colonial dispossession in places like so-called ‘North America', this
raises some questions as to how to situate anarchism and feminism in such a
context. Recent work on anarcha-Indigenism takes up some of these questions and
explores the ways that exchange and dialogue can occur between anarchism,
Indigenous resistance/resurgence practices and feminism (see e.g. Hall 2016;
Affinities 2011).

However, the flip-side to anarchism's interest in feminism is largely not true
and it is rare for feminists to ask: what can feminism learn from anarchism?
Anarchism and by extension anarchists are rarely included in feminist discourse.
Contrary to those who see anarchism and feminism as an obvious match (Kornegger
2002), Ferguson notes that "anarchism has had trouble finding its place in
feminism" and "a steady diet of demonization and ridicule of anarchy has not
encouraged historians of feminism to take anarchism seriously" (2021). At the
same time, Warburton (2016) cautions, however, that anarchists might need to
confront the difficult question of what, if anything, anarchism might bring to
Indigenous feminism in particular, given Indigenous feminism's own theorizations
and oppositions to the state and domination. The potential for more direct
anarchist influences on feminism remains a question that needs more explicit
discussion. All feminisms, after all, are not created equal. This Special Issue
of Coils of the Serpent sets out from the premise that despite its shortcomings,
anarchism has much to offer feminism and is worth being taken seriously and
explored in greater detail.

We invite contributions on topics such as (but not limited to):

- Anarchist contributions to anti-carceral feminism

- Anarcha-feminism in the age of girlboss culture

- Anarchist critiques of the state and/or hierarchy and feminist engagements with
electoral politics

- Anarchist analyses of institutionalization, cooptation, and/or recuperation in
relation to feminism

- Gender abolition, anarchist struggle, and feminist futures

- Anarchist perspectives on the politics and pitfalls of "inclusion" and/or
"representation"

- Women, queers, and trans radicals in anarchist history

- Anarchist theorizations of gender, struggle, and liberation

- Anarchism, feminism and the ongoing context of settler colonialism

- Gender struggle, illegality, and anarchism

- Discussions of the body, sexuality, and/or desire within anarchism

- Sex work and other types of gendered labour and anarchism

- Gender, militancy, and street politics

- Intersections and exchanges between anarchist, Indigenous, Black and Women of
Colour feminisms

- Anarchy 101 for feminists

- Anarchist approaches to struggles for reproductive justice

- Prefigurative and everyday practices of feminism and their influence/importance
within anarchist cultures of resistance

Please send an abstract of approximately 500 words and a short bio to the editors
Tammy Kovich and Adam Lewis (tkovich-research@riseup.net and
adamlewis.research@gmail.com) by 1 December 2021. Abstracts should include a
title, topic outline, and information on the kind of text (essay, statement,
scholarly article) as well as the approximate length of the planned text.
Submissions can be in the form of a traditional journal article, but this is not
a requirement. Submissions can also be more activist-oriented, of a personal
nature, and/or experimental. The editors will get back to you by 1 January 2022,
and full articles will be due 1 June 2022. Please read the journal's submission
guidelines: https://coilsoftheserpent.org/submissions/

References

Coulthard, G.S., J. Lasky, A. Lewis, and V. Watts (eds.) (2011).
Anarch@Indigenism. Special issue of Affinities. .

Ferguson, K.E. (2021, March 10-12). "Lost Comrades of Emma Goldman: Anarchist
Feminist Assemblages from the Paris Commune to the Spanish Revolution." Paper
presentation. Western Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Portland, OR,
United States. .

Gemie, S. (1996). "Anarchism and Feminism: A Historical Survey." Women's History
Review 5.3: 417-44.

Hall, L. (2016). "Indigenist Intersectionality: Decolonizing and Reweaving an
Indigenous Eco-Queer Feminism and Anarchism." Perspectives on Anarchist Theory
29: "Anarcha-Feminisms." The Institute for Anarchist Studies, 81-93.

Kornegger, P. (2012). "Anarchism: The Feminist Connection." Quiet Rumours: An
Anarcha-Feminist Reader. Ed. Dark Star Collective. Oakland: AK Press, 25-35.

Liu, L.H., R.E. Karl, and D. Ko (eds.) (2013). The Birth of Chinese Feminism:
Essential Texts in Transnational Theory. New York: Columbia University Press.

Marsh, M.S. (1978). "The Anarchist-Feminist Response to the ‘Woman Question' in
the Late Nineteenth-Century." American Quarterly 30.4: 533-47.

Romeu Toro, C.A. (2013). "Luisa Capetillo, Anarchist and Spiritualist: A
Synthesis of the Irreconcilable." Without Borders or Limits: An Interdisciplinary
Approach to Anarchist Studies. Ed. J.A. Meléndez Badillo and N.J. Jun. Newcastle:
Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 177-84.

Sonn, R.D. (2010). Sex, Violence, and the Avant-Garde: Anarchism in Interwar
France. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press.

Warburton, T. (2016). "Coming to Terms: Rethinking Popular Approaches to
Anarchism and Feminism." Perspectives on Anarchist Theory 29:
"Anarcha-Feminisms." The Institute for Anarchist Studies, 68-76.

Related Link: https://coilsoftheserpent.org/

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