Increasing violence calls for collective response of all feminist forces. Requires a
response that exceeded the institutional feminism embodied by the National Collective for
women's rights and could be embodied by the collective "March 8 for all." ----
On March 8 there was, for the world day of struggle for women's rights, two events in
Paris: one organized primarily by the National Collective for Women's Rights (CNDF), the
other by the group of "March 8 for all" which brought together several thousand people
each. It seemed important to us to be present in the street that day, it seemed to us
afterwards that we were taken in an unsatisfactory alternative. As radical feminists and
libertarian we are not satisfied with the current situation.
March 8 so we had to choose between two events. That of CNDF which is composed of several
associations, parties (Left Front, satellites PS, a branch of NPA...) and feminist
organizations whose leaders are part of an institutional and reformist feminism for which
lobbying is elected preferred choice of control. We had not really appreciated beyond the
reformist side slogans, authoritarianism prevailing in unit meetings. The "old guard" is
its place and not let himself shake especially in his conception of feminism, mostly white
and Republican, which goes pretty well with the media and elected officials. We fight for
gender equality but capitalism and respecting the rules of liberal democracy.
Breaking the deadlock
The other event, that of the "March 8 for all" was more radical because it included
multiple processions undocumented libertarians, of antifa, for Palestine, LGBT
associations, sex workers and that a representation of a branch of the NPA. This event has
attracted all these collective meetings because organizations were more democratic and
less exclusionary than the CNDF and they were accompanied by a real field work. Provided
the watchwords of the call were very general and not focused on individual empowerment.
This strategy was chosen to allow the collective consensus and talk about their own
claims. But it does not seem satisfactory as a radical feminism must be a global struggle
against patriarchy and capitalism.
At the head of the manifestation of the "March 8 for all" there was Strass, a union of sex
workers claiming the recognition of sex work as a job like any other. Beyond the debates
that we can have on prostitution, AL being abolitionist, which has been a problem is that
the head of this event a corporatist union is emphasized at the expense of women's groups
fighting for the overall change in the society.
The separation between these two demos which, in previous years, demonstrating together or
attempted to do so, shows how today, the extreme left and the left seem to fight over two
recurring themes: prostitution and Islamic veil. Indeed, for several years that every
March 8, the Strass and veiled women are systematically repress manifestations of CNDF,
forcibly. Thus pushing the collective "March 8 for all", where Strass involved in
organizing this year's event apart from the one organized by the CNDF. But how to reach
beyond this caesura that seems to be widening between these two visions of feminism?
It's time to get out of the impasse and the false divide between particularist and
universalist fight fight. We need to articulate both, and beyond this cleavage in our
claims and our struggles. A bit like FHAR (Gay Front revolutionary action) for homosexual
struggles in the 1970s who would have laughed at us when they saw us down the street to
gay marriage last year on behalf of equal rights while marriage is an institution
retrograde patriarchal domination and heterosexual.
Fight against gender-based violence
Radical feminism is fighting independently against all institutions and fight equally
against systems of domination and exploitation that are patriarchy and capitalism. But it
is more than necessary to fight, when today despite the rhetoric and good intentions,
sexist and misogynist violence, both physical and symbolic, are stronger than ever.
Of feminist AL
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» (en) France, Alternative Libertaire AL #238 - Viewpoint: Two visions of feminism (fr, pt)