(en) UK Britain, Anarchist Federation ORGANISE! #84 - Report
from AFem 2014 -- Anarcha-feminist conference in London 19th October
2014
In October 2014, about 400 people gathered in London, the day after the Bookfair, to
attend AFem 2014, the first of what the organisers hope will be a series of international
anarcha-feminist conferences. ---- Participation ---- Of those attending, the vast
majority were individuals and people working in collectives, either as anarcha-feminists
or activists around gender-oppression issues. There were also formal groups from the UK
including Anarchist Federation, Solidarity Federation, the Sex Workers’ Open University,
and the Feminist Library. We were excited that many came from outside the UK and those
represented by groups included the Workers Solidarity Movement (Ireland), Black Rose
(USA), International Workers Association (Poland). Strong contacts had developed between
the AF and Black Rose, and we worked with the Solidarity Federation and IWA Poland on a
meeting with them about the workplace.
From the International of Anarchist Federations of which the AF is a member, the Italian,
German-speaking, French-speaking federations, and of course the Spanish, who contributed
so much to the meetings they participated in, plus the Federation of Anarchist Organising
(Slovenia/ Croatia) were all represented. By Skype, an Iranian in exile, an American from
Black Rose, and an individual from La Alzada in Chile participated. Individuals included
those from USA, Canada, Ireland, Germany, France, Holland, Sweden, Poland, The Czech
Republic, Brazil, and Australia.
Reflections and reports
On our blog and social media (facebook) sites you
can find links to reflections by organisers and write-
ups of meetings that took place on the day and
follow-up documents. They include reports by/about:
Accountability processes
Black Rose (Los Angeles and Chicago,respectively)
Disability meeting
People of Colour
Safer Spaces
Sex Workers’ Open University
We are still deciding what to do in the future. The
organisers would almost all identify as social
anarchists, are great comrades, and the AF certainly
wants to work with them again. But we don’t feel able
to do something that big in the UK again soon as was
it too much work for only a few people. In practice
we had about 20 organisers, with others helping with
practicalities on the day, and while this number may
not seem so few, we had not worked together before
and had to spend a lot of time establishing structures
that were both helpful and equitable. We were working
for many hours each week, which was tiring, used
up work or holiday time, and other anarchist work
suffered. Some people even moved to the UK from
abroad especially to help organise the conference!
We also had a lot of shit to deal with, and although
we are glad that the feedback has been almost all
positive, we had a large number of issues leading
up to the day and on the day, including rape-
apologism, transphobia, anti sex-work difficulties,
ageism, Islamophobia, racism, sexism, even more
rape-apologism, and some just plain nasty people
at different times. In general terms this did not
spoil the whole event, but it did affect some of the
organisers very badly. We felt that some people were
behaving as though they owned anarcha-feminism,
particularly some who have been in the movement
or many years, and the struggle against this attitude
took its toll both prior to the event and on the day.
Due to the pressures and stress placed on the
organisers we will have to build in a support
structure for ourselves to support a future event.
Money, money, money
Putting on such a large and diverse event does not
come cheaply. We spent around £3500 altogether
on publicity, building hire, travel costs, childcare,
and so on. Much of this was raised via a website
and through donations from organisations. However,
it is too much to ask organisations to give us this
money every year. As a result of these difficulties,
our intention is to use our contacts to help smaller
events set up and to initiate them ourselves.
What is the legacy of AFem 2014?
There have been events and meetings that have
spun off from AFem 2014 or have been made more
feasible because of it. As mentioned above, Black
Rose (LA/Chicago) wrote a large internal report and
are now running a series of regional speaking events
that are both report-backs on AFem in particular and jumping-off points for discussion and
debate about the definition and practice of anarcha-feminism more broadly. Some of them
are moving to Chile to work with La Alzada. Also in the USA, Black Rose Portland is
working on a large booklet about accountability processes.
Here in the UK, local anarcha-feminists now have a stronger network and new groups have
been set up in some towns, e.g. Bored of Patriarchy in Bristol. Many anti-authoritarian
feminist groups have associated themselves with AFem, which you can see on our social
media site. In addition, the Peace News Camp held a connected meeting on trans issues;
anarcha-feminist meetings have been held at regional book fairs and anarcha-feminism is
being introduced into broader feminist events more confidently, for example Reclaim the
Night and Ladyfest.
What we should/could have done, but didn’t.
There are probably many things that we should have done differently. We did not address
disability issues as well as we could have, for example, we did not provide hand-outs in
large print. Neither did we address cultural appropriation well enough in advance. There
are lots of issues here. For example, some People of Colour do not like white people
wearing dreadlocks, but should the organisers tell people how to style their hair? This is
a matter for further discussion and learning. Also, it transpired that there was a need
for a quiet space, and a space for people who wanted to talk or resolve conflicts. Whilst
Food not Bombs cooked for us on the day, they were not able to feed everyone.
Despite the difficulties, it was
a very positive event and is, we
hope, a turning point for anarcha-
feminism within our movement
and within wider society.
An AFem 2014 organiser and AF
member
Visit the blog for more information
about the event and specific
reports:
afem2014.wordpress.com
