East meets West at socialist feminist
ON NOVEMBER 24-26, the Swedish town of Göteborg was the meeting place for the fifth European Forum of Socialist
Feminists. Over 100 women came from all over Europe, including for the first time an important participation of socialist feminists from Eastern Europe.
The Forum, first launched in 1985, was organized this year by Swedish and Norwegian feminists. It has now become an important annual event where socialist feminists from varied political backgrounds can get together to exchange experiences and discuss common strategies.
International Viewpoint #76 • December 25, 1989
WOMEN'S LIBERATION conference
NATACHA BRINK
TWAS an extremely pleasurable experience to find oneself among more than 100 women at the end of November in a meeting place that is highly symbolic for the Scandinavian women's movement.
The Kvinnofolkhögskolan is a women's institute, and the only parallel school to come out of the women's movement. It is run democratically by teachers and students, and often welcomes refugees. For Swedish feminists it is popular both as a meeting place and a research centre.
That weekend, we had another reason to be happy: attending the Forum with us were Maria from Hungary; Andjelska from Yugoslavia; Natalya, Anastasia and Valentina from the USSR; and Ewa and Yolanta from Poland. The possibility of hearing reports from our different coun tries and comparing our experiences and analyses directly, without going through the medium of official institutions, was truly extraordinary.
Women, first victims of economic crisis
Coming from the countries of so-called "actually existing socialism", these women described a patriarchal society where women are the first victims of the deepening economic crisis. At a time when all these countries are going through profound changes, they denounced the "stagnant" situation of women: "There are so many urgent questions to resolve that women's problems are forgotten!" The women from Eastern Europe also criticized the male chauvinist paternalism of the reformers, and said that they were 22 fighting to set up the first groups of independent feminists.
In Moscow, Valentina, Natalya and Anastasia have set up an informal research group with the following programme: publishing a list of social statistics, which is indispensable for feminist research, notably sociological research: introducing the feminist dimension in general into political life and, to reach this objective, establishing real interdisciplinary collaboration; and, finally, preparing women candidates for the local soviet elections, which involves defining a feminist strategy within the informal groups that already exist. They hope to link up with other feminists in the Soviet Union and plan to organize a first national feminist meeting in Leningrad or Moscow. Influence of Catholic Church in Poland
In Poland, feminists feel as though they are swimming against the tide of the dominant ideology — in particular that of the Catholic Church, which has a strong influence on Solidarnosc - and of the whole of male society for whom "Polish women are far too liberated, to the point where it would suit them to found a men's movement to protect themselves...". In spite of everything, the first public feminist association has been formed. It is very small, with only around 20 women members, explained by the fact that the label "feminist" still appears incongruous over there. They came into the streets to demonstrate in solidarity with American women in their fight for a woman's right to choose [see /V 175].
In Budapest, the first independent feminist group has appeared, while the official, ossified women's movement seems to want to become autonomous. Crystallizing a relation of forces in favour of feminism will be decisive during the transitional period that Hungary is presently going through. The current reforms have affected men and women in different ways, and there is a danger that they will be interpreted as heralding a new period of necessary sacrifices for women in order to improve the economic situation. Women have by and large remained outside of the development of new parties, due to lack of information. Also, they have stayed on the sidelines because they feel the need to protect themselves from a world of politics that they have had a daunting vision of up until now.
Yugoslav women fight for economic survival
Andjelska stressed the passivity of women in Yugoslavia, where the situation seems to be the most blocked, such is the scale of women's apparent resignation. Their central preoccupation is simply fighting for the economic survival of their families in a country rocked by galloping inflation — running at 2,000% this year.
If they were incontestably "the stars" of the Forum, the women from Eastern Europe did not monopolize the conference. They took part in the debates and workshops on the women's work and their current struggles; on the new technologies; on the relationship between the informal and formal sectors; and on the massive reduction of the working week. The largest number of representatives were from the Scandinavian countries and Britain, but nearly every country in Wester Europe was present. In addition, there were participants from Australia and India, and feminists from the immigrant communities in Europe, in particular Turkish women from West Germany and Sweden.
This diversity enriched our exchanges and enabled us — in spite of our different national situations — to take a fresh look at the common aspirations of the feminist struggle. *
The veil of racism is
FRANCE and of well-known figures from the feminist movement, which has also been divided by the issue. This appeal, even if it did not get unanimous support from feminists, proved that the rights of immigrants and the rights of women were not necessarily incompatible.
The Revolutionary Communist League (LCR - French section of the Fourth International) quickly took up a position