Women's Seminar 2021

1. Date and length of seminar

The seminar will be held online only over two weekends 10/11 July and 17/18 July. The plenary sessions will be held 14.00-17.00 Central European Standard Time (CEST) to allow maximum participation over our different times zones. You can check what this means for you here: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

2. Languages

The seminar will be held in English/French/Castilian with simultaneous translation. It may be possible to also schedule language-based discussion groups if comrades are available.

3. Participants

National organizations are invited to propose participants from among the comrades leading their women’s work. There is not the same restriction on numbers as for a seminar in Amsterdam. However, questions of representativity, geographical balance and permitting a real discussion will have to be taken into account so although we will not at this point fix a limit we may have to later. Attending the seminar is a political task, therefore we ask organizations to ensure collectively that the comrades designated are available to attend each session and are free from other tasks (such as caring responsibilities or militant tasks) to do so.

4. Seminar programme

The four themes for discussion are :

1. What do we mean by the strategic role of the autonomous women’s movement as a political subject, how is this expressed in its action?

2. Why and how are we transinclusive?

3. Difficulties in forging united fronts in the women's and feminist movements (ultraleftism; intolerance; cross-class alliances, how?

4. What alternatives to combat violence against women: institutional de-patriarchalization, self-resolution of conflicts, preventive / punitive laws against violence?

The organizing group is proposing a standard structure for each session - although we will readjust if it doesn't function. This will be:

15 minutes introduction

15 minutes for short questions/remarks

60 minutes discussion in language groups (Castilian/Spanish, English, French)

10 minutes break

15 minutes report backs from groups (3 x 5 minutes)

55 minutes plenary discussion

10 minutes conclusions

Because the time is limited so is the number of contributions. Therefore we ask all organizations to prioritize within their delegations which comrades will ask to speak on which day - some have already done this.

Please read

Guidelines for participants [1]

Before the meeting: guidelines for Zoom meeting [2]

We recommend comrades (re)read our major resolutions:

Socialist Revolution and the Struggle for Women’s Liberation (1979) https://fourth.international/en/world-congresses/535/50

Latin America: Dynamics of mass movements and feminist currents (1991) https://fourth.international/en/world-congresses/53

The New Rise of the Women’s Movement (2021) https://fourth.international/en/international-committee/666/299

READINGS

Contents Point 1 in Point 1 Women’s seminar July 2021 + Feminism for the 99%, Thesis 2

1) Presentation of the topic “What do we mean by the strategic role of the autonomous women’s movement as a political subject, how is this expressed in its action?”

2) Extracts of 1979 resolution Socialist Revolution and the Struggle for Women’s Liberation

3) Audre Lorde "Age, Race, class and sex: women redefining difference” from Sister Outsider.[3]

4) Veronica Gago, chapter 6 “The Feminist International” from Feminist International: How to Change Everything (Verso 2020)

5) Feminism for the 99%, Thesis 2 (pdf)

Contents Point 2 in Point 2 Women's seminar July 2021

1) Presentation of the discussion “Why and how are we trans-inclusive?“

2) Arya Meroni “Marxism and the oppression of trans people”

3) Sophia Siddiqui “Feminism, biological fundamentalism and the attack on trans rights” [4]

4) Contributions from Marabunta (Argentina)

Contents Point 3 in Point 3 Women's seminar July 2021 + Mandel 1, Mandel 2, Mandel 3 + Undivided Rights

1) Presentation of the topic: Difficulties in forging united fronts in the women's and feminist movements (ultraleftism; intolerance; cross-class alliances, how?

2) Excerpts from FI World Congress texts (1979, 1991, 2021) on our methods of struggle, specifically alliances

3) Excerpts from Ernest Mandel, Revolutionary Marxism Today, on united front (3 separate PDFs)

4) Section: “Conclusions: Creating alliances, creating politics of intimacy” from the article “Which ‘Mountain’ Must Feminism Climb?: Challenges for Feminist Alliances between Migrant and Autochthonous Women 's Groups in the Basque Country”

5) Abridged version of the article about Latin American feminist indigenous women’s world view and political proposal of community feminism: “Acercamiento a la construcción de la propuesta de pensamiento epistémico de las mujeres indígenas feministas comunitarias de Abya Yala” (Constructing the proposal of epistemic thinking of indigenous community feminist women of Abya Yala)

6) “From Social Reproduction Feminism to the Women’s Strike”, by Cinzia Arruzza, final chapter of Social Reproduction Theory. Remapping Class, Recentering Oppression, Tita Bhattacharya, ed. (1816 words)

7) Chapter 2, “The Political Context for Women of Color Organizing” of the book Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organize for Reproductive Justice, which details the struggle of abortion rights in the U.S. by women of color. (ENGLISH ONLY so optional) separate PDF

8) Selected presentations at the March 2019 conference “Feminist Alliances” (ENGLISH ONLY, no subtitles available and therefore optional): a. Chiara Saraceno: [5] b. Mieke Verloo: (until 2:02:00) c. Q&A Session: (until 2:48:00)

Contents Point 4 in Point 4 Women's seminar July 2021

1) Presentation of the topic: What are the alternatives for combating violence against women: institutional depatriarchalization, conflict self-resolution, preventive/punitive laws against violence?

2) Rita Laura Segato The War on Women, 2016. Excerpt from Chapter 6: “Five feminist debates. Themes for a divergent reflection on violence against women”