WORLD WORLDWIDE ITALY news journal UPDATE - (en) Italy, FDCA, Cantier #24: Subjectivity and self-determination: - the LISA Women's Centre (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 The Women in Gender Association was born in 1995 from a group of women

committed since 1993 to the defense of law 194 and of free and
responsible motherhood, questioned by the centre-left government of the
time. ---- On the territory and from below ---- One of the first
objectives that we set ourselves as a collective of women was to find in
the area where we live, the IV Municipality of Rome, today III, a place
that would give visibility to the our history and our subjectivities.
The ambition has been and remains to be able to intertwine class
contradiction and gender conflict.

Our activities were characterized by the choice of self-determination,
contrast and denunciation of patriarchal power, which we then practiced
with an action of "civil disobedience" by occupying a long-abandoned
space in the working-class neighborhood of Vigne Nuove in November 1997,
in the north-eastern suburbs of Rome. The occupation was fully
successful thanks to the commitment and solidarity of many women, both
individuals and associations, willing to support us and share with us
the nights on the ground, the lack of water and electricity, the visits
from the police, the enthusiasm and desire to succeed while respecting
mutual differences, maintaining and building common initiatives together
with the feminist movement.

Escape violence together

Therefore, moving from a feminist collective to an Anti-violence Center
- the LISA Women's Centre, which stands for Freedom, Internationalism,
Subjectivity, Self-determination - required a notable effort and
commitment: fortunately many of us already had training in welcoming
women who have suffered violence that they have been able to pass on to
others.

To date we have been trainers in our courses of dozens and dozens of
women who have approached us with the desire to share and do something
concrete together, in many cases becoming volunteer operators/activists.
The work done in schools with educational seminars and combating gender
violence is very important for us.

Male violence against women takes many forms and modalities, although
physical violence is the easiest to recognize. There is no profile of
the typical woman who suffers violence. We provide  free telephone
listening, personal interviews,  legal advice and information on their
rights (e.g. termination of pregnancy, access to social services, etc.)
to all women who need help. Confidentiality, secrecy and anonymity are
always guaranteed to all women. All activities are carried out by women
who combine their personal/professional knowledge and skills with
specific training on gender violence.

Self-financing and not self-referentiality

However, there were many questions we asked ourselves. How can we manage
to remain autonomous and independent without risking a metamorphosis and
becoming one of the many non-profit "enterprises", thus distorting the
original purposes and principles? How can we not distort ourselves in a
"service" activity by practicing and maintaining an idea of support and
solidarity for women in difficulty and promoting gender awareness? How
to be a place that is not self-referential but open to contribution and
discussion with other women driven by the same objectives?

And one last but no less important question. How can we pay the costs of
this beautiful place of ours while keeping our activities free?

The answer was the choice of self-financing, a decision shared by all
which provides for a monthly subscription fee for each person based on
their income. Again by shared decision, no comrade will be able to
support themselves through work deriving from projects presented to
local, national or European institutions. Furthermore, any project
presented for public funding must always meet the aim of preventing and
combating violence against women.

Walk listening and asking

For twenty years we have been committed to respecting the equal dignity
of thought of each one, deciding together on what to do without majority
or minority criteria but with the practice of discussion and mediation.

The danger of self-referentiality is far from us: our guarantee is the
diversified composition of the group that interweaves personal,
therefore political, stories, which walk by listening and asking,
feeling part of a common history, that of the women's movement. In the
time of the most unbridled individualism we resist sexism, fascism and
racism.

Our last word shouted in the streets around the world is and will remain
the same: if they touch one they touch all.

We thank comrade Gianna Urizio, activist of the LISA Women's Center and
our reader.

To find out about the Centre's activities: https://centrodonnalisa.it.

http://alternativalibertaria.fdca.it/
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