#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #USA #US #ANARCHISM #News #Journal #Update - (en) US, black rose fed: Feminism and Organized Anarchism (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 This document was produced by the Brazilian Anarchist Coordinator[Coordenação

Anarquista Brasileira](CAB), a group of anarchist organizations working
collaboratively across Brazil. It is translated and reprinted here with the
permission of our sister organizations participating in CAB. ---- The document
has also served as an anchor point in recent discussions on feminism within Black
Rose / Rosa Negra. We hope that by making this text available in English for the
first time, we can increase its reach and impact. ---- Translation by Enrique
Guerrero-López ---- Our Conception of Feminism from the Perspective of Organized
Anarchism
The women that are part of the organizations that make up the Brazilian Anarchist
Coordinator (CAB) see ourselves as part of a long tradition of anarchist women
that have denounced and struggled radically against gender oppression; therefore,
the exploitation of labor also acquires a particular form for us. We are part of
the many, many anarchist women that, although they have been erased by the
history of those from above, have confronted the violence we face as women head
on; women who have guided new ways of loving and have problematized the bourgeois
family model that is the basis of the system; women who reacted to macho
violence, often coming from their own comrades; self-taught women, who promoted
literacy and imagined a liberating education, who acted in the press by creating
and writing in libertarian newspapers; women who took up arms! These fearless and
unsubmissive women fought against an oppressive system for a dignified and free
life and sowed seeds of liberation all over the world. There are many anonymous
women fighters erased in the history of men. There are many who have gone before
us, many who are not with us. We carry their legacy within us.

This story did not begin with us, and it will not end tomorrow. There is a lot of
violence and a lot to do.

As anarchists, we believe that feminism and the anti-patriarchal struggle, as
well as the anti-racist and anti-colonial struggle, are fundamental strategies to
destroy this system. We understand that power relations are structured in
specific ways, and it is necessary to understand them if we want to destroy the
system of oppression as a whole. We believe in the development of militants that
have an active participation in popular organizations; that develop action
through direct action and direct democracy. In this sense, we advocate a class
struggle oriented and grassroots feminism. Our feminism is a social and
collective struggle. We do not believe in a specialization of feminist struggle,
instead we believe that feminism must pass through all our organizations; that
feminist formulations and methodologies can aim not at individual freedom, but at
the conquest of the freedom of each territory and of each oppressed body.

This is our conception.

What are Our Guidelines?
Historically, anarchism has fought against the various oppressions suffered by
those from below; therefore, it understood that the oppressed went beyond a
restricted class category. By adopting a broad vision of class, anarchism pointed
toward the idea that the oppressions to which we are subjected are structured in
the most diverse ways. Thus, the feminism that we claim as anarchists could not
have as its center only the idea of class, for example. This approach would lead
us to a superficial analysis, in which gender and race would not have relevance,
and therefore we would not be close to the social reality that we experience. In
the end, such an approach would also not be in accordance with our conception of
anarchism.

It is due to analysis restricted to class only that there are, for example,
spaces in the black movement where the question of gender is in the background
and black women are silenced. Or, on the other hand, by not taking up class, we
run the risk of elaborating an analysis separated from the material reality of
the black periphery question, for example. In the same way, there are also spaces
for women where neither class nor race is discussed, and working women and black
women cannot meet, much less identify with the speeches and discussions that take
place there. Or, there are certain spaces where class is central, issues of race
and gender are in the background, and white and non-white women do not feel
comfortable or identified at all.

We understand that gender oppression is correlated with the issue of race and
class, and this is something that changes according to the social and material
contexts in which subjects are inserted. In this sense, the idea of
"intersectionality" serves us as an instrument of analysis of domination, helping
us to understand certain issues. In this sense, we understand that oppressions
are transversal (they cut across and are crossed by other oppressions), being
present in all areas of our lives and society. However, we cannot start from
there and confuse this transversal character with the idea that oppressions are
totally homogeneous or that they are simply a sum of several types of
oppressions. Moreover, we must see social reality as a constructor of oppression
and not as a consequence. At the same time, we cannot think only of questions of
theory or ideology without looking at and understanding how things happen in
practice (and materially), so as not to lose sight of the fact that our feminism
is far from individual liberation or behavior, but is a social and collective
struggle.

Therefore, for us in the CAB, our feminism can only be the "feminism of those
from below," which considers the conditions of gender, race, class and sexual
diversity, understanding that these elements and their power relations go
together to structure the relations of domination that pass through us.

In short, we believe that our feminism, as especifista anarchists, must be a
class struggle oriented, anti-racist, anti-capitalist, non-exclusive (and
trans-inclusive) feminism with a revolutionary perspective aimed at a rupture
with the state.

Critique of Eurocentric Liberal Feminism
As anarchist women who believe in fighting alongside those from below, we have
disagreements with and critiques of Eurocentric liberal feminism. In the course
of its development, liberal feminism has guided individual freedoms, expressing
and defending a view that "we are all equal". In this trajectory, it attempted to
equate women with white, bourgeois men, claiming for them the same rights as him.
Like conceptions of liberalism, this feminism ends up making claims that are
limited to the level of individualism.

Thus, our critique of liberal feminism refers to its advocacy of individual
liberation only, without reflection on class. In this way, it reproduces
capitalist logic when it thinks of women's emancipation only as recognition and
social mobility, for example, within a society that remains unequal. In this
conception, women would have the right to be in the same jobs as men, but when
they are there, the logic of inequality continues to reproduce itself. This
liberal feminism has appropriated concepts and guidelines that are historically
from the popular and women's struggle. It appropriates, in a distorted way, many
concepts to conform to liberal and neoliberal precepts. This appropriation serves
capitalism in many ways. One example is the use of the very idea of equality by
the market, with its mass propaganda, which contributes to the naturalization of
a supposed "equality" that already exists, naturalizing the logics of capitalism
and the state, which remain intact. In this way, the market feeds the false
illusion of equality, preaching as "empowerment" that women can "succeed in big
companies", in State positions, etc., reaching high positions or leadership, in a
meritocratic logic. However, when they are in these positions, they continue to
work for and within the system, without questioning why other women have not
"succeeded", without attributing this inequality to the capitalist system.

This process of distortion also occurred with the concept of "Empowerment", whose
contours were shaped by the work of Freirean critical pedagogy. It is important
to remember that this concept was born rooted in popular movements and was
appropriated in a distorted way by liberal feminism. Therefore, when we speak of
empowerment, we must take it up from its collective root. Only collective
empowerment will make a difference in the struggle of women.

For liberal feminism, a simulated "equality" within the capitalist system itself
is enough. For us it is necessary to overthrow capitalism and the state. And this
is a condition for the construction of true freedom and equality for women. In
this sense, we also note that we must go beyond the Eurocentric character of this
feminism. For this, we take as a reference point the analysis that Kurdish women
are building and their critique of the Eurocentric character that has influenced
the construction of feminism in the world. We need to build a feminism with our
feet on the ground of our own Latin American reality. And this is done through an
understanding of our own history and our own construction as Latin American
women, making use of our experiences and our accumulations, deconstructing and
constructing concepts that are based on our concrete reality.

For a Transfeminism
For us, especifista anarchist women, it is extremely important to advance the
conception of feminism that we want to build at the national level. Therefore, it
is necessary to make it clear that our feminism includes trans people (men and
women). For this reason, we do not identify ourselves with "radical feminism" (or
with a trans-exclusive feminism) because, as anarchists, we advocate the end of
all domination in society. For us it makes no sense to think of a feminism that
excludes the oppressed, those who are being abused and massacred by transphobia,
which permeates our society every day. We need to preserve and defend the
dignity, respect and rights of all people, absolutely all human beings. Of
course, we cannot fail to relate heteronormativity to machismo. This is a factor
that ends up reverberating in the discussion on the construction of family and
work. Therefore, it is important to consider the issue of masculinity as a gender
discussion as well, since we are all affected by it and the way people see it.

Rejecting Feminism that is Exclusive to Women
We also believe that exclusive spaces are important to strengthen people of a
certain social group and that we should understand and respect their needs.
Therefore, we see no problem in having exclusive spaces (we also understand their
strength, importance and necessity) when demands arise in the spaces we build,
but we understand that the movement should not happen only in this way. In this
sense, we also believe that we need to have mixed spaces, because gender is
something that cuts across the reality of men and women, not only women. Men also
feel various pressures from society to perform their masculinity in a way that
common sense has already determined for them hundreds of years ago. So, we
understand the importance of men also having their own spaces for training,
discussion and debate to be able to think of new ways of acting in the political
and social sphere; reviewing the attitudes and vices that the structure of
machismo society makes them reproduce daily, whether in their personal,
professional or political lives. We also have to understand that the inclusion of
cis men is different from the inclusion of trans people. We understand then that
a trans woman, for example, must be inserted in an exclusive women's space and
that a trans man must be inserted in a men's space and both must be accepted in
those spaces.

Advocating the Extension of Social Rights Through Popular Struggle and Direct Action
Considering that women's struggle often needs to go through the conquest of very
basic programs that will remain the responsibility of the State, we think that we
should not abandon these programs, since we cannot wait for the revolution to
conquer basic rights. In other words, we cannot work only with a maximum program.
The social revolution will be built in the daily processes of struggle and
popular power, in the advances and conquests of more policies and rights, as well
as their maintenance.

Women are the first to be neglected, they are the first to be laid off in a
crisis, they are the ones who suffer the most from increases in the cost of food
and the cost of living. As for maternity, the very spaces of reproduction of
maternity end up being appropriated by the State (Pre-natal, day-care centers,
etc.). We place ourselves in the struggle for these basic directives within the
limits of the State because it must be required to guarantee these rights and, if
the State does not provide them, we must take them away, with our own hands and
our struggle. This is how we defend the struggle for housing, day care centers,
humanized childbirth and better assistance in hospitals, education and health,
which directly affect the lives of everyday women.

We are aware that we are making demands of the State while we long for its end.
On the other hand, our position is one of confrontation and not of asking the
State. We confront the State so that it can provide today what is urgent for the
lives of women from below. In this sense, we have chosen to use the term "public
policies" instead of "reforms". What we demand in confrontation with the State is
the viability of public policies that make a difference for women. And it is
always a demand for rights that come through struggle and popular organization.
Along with this, we believe in and seek to sow autonomous efforts by women within
their communities. While the State does not guarantee policies that can provide
the minimum, we must build, support and defend, together with the communities,
self-managed and autonomous efforts that aim to organize collective outlets for
women's lives. Therefore, we must build and show solidarity with the experiences
of collective self-organization of childcare, the possibilities of building
"cooperatives" or cooperative work, which are outlets for the maintenance of
women in their communities. These experiences are processes that contribute to
the construction of popular power, self-management, autonomy and empowerment of
working women and women from below. These are principles that we defend; and
therefore they are also our tasks and responsibility.

Thus, we stand beside women from below in this struggle for basic rights, but it
must achieve revolutionary transformations. In this effort, we advocate for
popular struggle and direct action in the conquest of rights and the advance for
popular power, along with the strategy of Self-Defense, not only in the physical
sense, but also as a collective posture, being thought through, elaborated and
worked on together with our comrades. In this process, we are building daily, in
the struggle, a rupture with the State, capitalism and patriarchy, and the
advance towards the construction of self-organization and autonomy.

Armed with these broad principles and building a feminism based on the
relationship between theory and practice, we stand in the ranks of women's
struggles, as anarchists and feminists! May feminism be a reality for women from
below and may women's struggles grow and spread with militancy, mutual aid and
sisterhood in all corners of the world!

For people's power!

For a life of dignity, freedom and not submissiveness!

Up with those who fight!

https://blackrosefed.org/feminism-and-organized-anarchism-cab/
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