Fragment
2. Notes to the contents
Justification
The contents of this book are various and unique. They include is a personal report of the participation in the preparatory brigades from 1 February 2011 and in the conference, as well as a reaction to and a critical analysis of what happened.Because of discontent with the program of the conference (we felt that politics, especially leftist politics, received more attention than women’s interests), we interviewed eleven participants from different countries. This book is written around these interviews.
We couldn’t have known beforehand that the interviews would express such a wide range of viewpoints regarding women’s support groups. In each interview some of this has been elaborated. We get to know Women on Waves (abortion), Women .in Black (non-violent protest against war and violence), Women for Peace, participation in peace marches, women who joined the fight in a civil war or a revolution, women who have been in prison, extra problems of migrant women, Saved Equipment (for economic independence), media, visual art, etc.
The annexes form an important part of the book. They contain the resolutions, voted on the last day of the conference by the delegates from the various countries, and some statistics on the delegates, as well as an extra elaboration on the theme ‘elderly women’. Beside these, there are also two annexes about the Tribunal on ‘Crimes Against Women’ in 1976 in Brussels. These were included because this tribunal in a number of aspects has interests that coincide with those of the World Women’s Conference in Venezuela.
Women’s Tribunal 1976
The interview with Snezana from Serbia, where next year a Tribunal will be organised because of the horrors of the Balkan war for women, led us to the book on the Women’s Tribunal that was held in 1976 in Brussels. It is titled: ‘Crimes Against Women’ and the contents were testimonies of many women. The testimonies were printed in columns throughout the text. These columns mostly correspond with the themes of the World Women’s Conference. There was also room to put forward proposals for solutions, resolutions and proposals for changes.
More than two thousand women from forty countries took part in this Women’s Tribunal. Here the preparation group consisted of an international group, that organized this Tribunal in a year and a half. In each of the participating countries the testimonies, analyses and strategies were prepared collectively.
In annex 5 we treat the Women’s Tribunal extensively, because this could provide an input for the organisation of the next World Women’s Conference in five years. The testimonies of many women and the subjects and strategies are still timely. They also lead to a number of recommendations for the planned conference in 2016 in chapter 7.
In order to place the complete book on Internet, in English as well as in Dutch, we established contact with the authors. Both reacted with enthusiasm to the publication and the book was even sent to us from the US! We also received a special hand-written advice to pay specific attention to the opening speech by Simone de Beauvoir, who said that the Tribunal was the beginning of the radical decolonisation of women!
Towards a ‘Global Feminism’
But this pronouncement by Simone is not the only part of what happened in Brussels that deserves special attention. The reprint of the book ‘Crimes Against Women’ in 1984 is preceded by a new introduction on the progress toward a ‘global’ feminism. We want to pay special attention to it, because of its importance. So we translated the complete text into Dutch and put it in annex 4.
First some important points:
Even in 1984 no attention was paid to the tribunal by policy makers, politics and the press. This impressive event is almost forgotten! This shows once more how women are written out of history as soon as they organize and manifest themselves independently. The importance women attributed to this tribunal can among other things be concluded from the fact that a number of women risked their lives when they gave a testimony, e.g. as escaped prostitutes and as sexual slaves. And this, while there was no way to guarantee their safety after the Tribunal. The Tribunal ascertained what we knew all along, namely how awful the crimes committed against women are. Due to lack of money only few women from ‘poor countries’ attended. This is one of the biggest problems for the organization of a worldwide conference and for the founding of an independent global feminist movement. After the Tribunal in Brussels there have been no independent feminist events that were as wide. There were regional conferences (like the bi-annual feminist meetings of Latin American women every two years) and conferences on certain topics (e.g. on health).
Global Feminism, an explanation, see also page 134
To achieve a worldwide feminism it is necessary to recognize how rampant women’s oppression is – which means to recognize that women are oppressed people, and that this oppression is rampant in every
patriarchal system. To give arguments in support to this hypothesis it is necessary to consider every local event within its local, political and cultural context. By the personal testimonies and their analysis in the form of solutions, resolutions and proposals for change, the Tribunal has contributed to the understanding of both these crucial principles of worldwide feminism. Besides, the
women’s oppression is based on domination of race, class, religion, sexual preference and nationality. We feel these as different formsof oppression. But what we should do is develop a
feminist analysis of these forms of oppression in their mutual coherence. Feminism is then not just a long list of ‘women’s issues’, but a perspective of life. A
definition of feminism is complicated. It is better to start from a changed viewpoint by giving a broad vision on feminism about how individual women can cope with their struggle to control their life and which changes are necessary in the institutions that influence women’s live. This means that we stress the diversity as long as this diversity is not based on domination by a person or group. And what is meant by
worldwide? Nationalism often has to do with the patriarchal domination for control of her territory. But nationalism is also a symbol for the struggle of oppressed peoples against oppression by other countries (colonialism and imperialism) and the worldwide supremacy of international or multinational businesses. Developing a
worldwide feminism is not a luxurious activity for an elite group, but a necessity for effective action. It teaches us that our lives are linked worldwide to each other. It is based on specific local problems and on grassroots organisations, and we will have to put our activities in a worldwide perspective if we wish to work effectively to put an end to crimes against women.
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Thuiswinkel Waarborg