When I decided to relaunch Confabulous from its old incarnation (i.e. a personal blog, infrequently updated, few readers) into its new incarnation (i.e. a group blog, more political in its orientation, updated daily by a secret cabal of highly trained feminists, with a powerful global audience of cackling readers), I was motivated by several factors. One of them was a despondency over the state of the Canadian women’s movement–or women’s movements, more accurately.
Now, I know that there is a lot of political organizing going on in this country, and a lot of it is being done by women. Probably one of the most exciting things that’s happened recently is the meeting of the RebELLES last fall (that’s their logo on the left, there, BTW). Over 500 young women gathered to organize an array of “decentralized actions.” I’m really looking forward to seeing what else these women come up with and supporting them along the way.
Online, there is a lot of good stuff–especially as the F-Word Awards over at A Creative Revolution demonstrate. Schmutzie Pickles, April Reign, the Unrepentant Old Hippie, and Renee at Womanist Musings continue to churn out some solid stuff for your inner agitator to groove on. And don’t forget Shameless Magazine, both the online and print versions. Never did a group of young women make such a professional, solidly-written, gorgeously designed magazine.
Moreover, a lot of the organizing that’s getting done is taking feminist values into account. For example, a lot of CUPE locals have worked to bring on board policies of diversity in decision-making positions and are fighting for trans rights in the workplace. And I know that in various communities all across the country, people are getting together to agitate for their rights–gender-based, ethnically-based, ability-based, geographically-based, class-based, sexuality-based rights. Unfortunately, I will never know about most of these actions, partly due to my own failure to dedicate time to consistenly read progressive publications, and partly because of the current, fragmented nature of political organizing.
I know that Courtney E. Martin’s article a few weeks back–remember the one where she announced that a single feminist movement was dead and that was all right–was timely and true and relevant. So don’t worry–I’m not about to start lamenting the current fragmented nature of political organizing. I’m not going to get nostalgic on your ass.
What I am going to suggest (starting on Monday with a week-long series of posts) is that we are actually in a very unique historical period where there could be a new style of women’s organizing, one that moves beyond fragmentation, but does not even attempt to revive old concepts of “sisterhood” or a single notion of “woman.” I’ve been thinking about this since reading Madama Ambi’s piece over at Fem 2.0 and echoing her call here. It’s something that Max Dashu calls multi-issue solidarity. And it’s what we’re going to be discussing at Confabulous all next week, starting on Monday. (And hey, if you want to be sure to be a part of the discussion, go on up to the top of the page and click “Subscribe” so that you’ll be notified any time we put up a fresh post for you to respond to).
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Very cool Sabine! I look forward to learning more about the real world implications for this concept of multi-issue solidarity.
Sabine–what an excellent overview. I also love “multi-issue solidarity” and kudos to Max for that. You know what’s hard for me? Seeing how much consciousness there is online, how many thinkers and leaders there are, and yet when I put out the call, hearing just a few voices respond to my fervor…my ardor, as a friend called it. I’ve had a few younger, newer feminists ask me how I keep up the struggle and although I have a few answers for that, I think it’s also important to be able to say, hey, I’m feeling so alone! I’m feeling so frustrated! Can’t we get this revolution in full swing and take advantage of an unprecedented opportunity to restructure? Patriarchy is coming apart at the seams! Richard Rodriguez of PBS did a wonderful essay on this last week. I immediately went to their website to share it, and it was only available as a podcast, which, frankly, bummed me out.
So, at the same time that I am united with the struggle, I want to be able to say that IT’S HARD! It’s hard to pour your energies into making something new come into being and then hear your own voice echo back at you. Whatever you are doing in the movement, whether organizing or donating time/energy/skills or training new leaders or raising consciousness on your blog–whatever it is–it’s hard. And it’s harder for some than for others. I just heard from a friend of mine who’s going through a very tough economic time, her baby has been sick for months, and as she put it, somebody left her a warm message of “die nigger die” next to her regular parking spot.
I implode hearing that. I absolutely implode. She is such a trooper, a single mother with so much to say about her experiences as an AfricanAmerican woman and the choices she has made. These are the voices that really matter to me, and these are probably the women that are the most stressed in their day-to-day lives. So…it’s hard…it’s hard…and it’s never going to stop being hard, sisters. I know you don’t want to hear that from me, believe me, I know. I know we all hold in our minds a vision of a far more just world, that if we only trudge a little further, we will discover just over the hill, just beyond that rainbow, just like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz and her motley crew were overcome by the resplendence of The Emerald City.
But, that’s not the river we’re in. It’s gonna be hard coming together, it’s gonna be hard figuring out how to do multi-issue solidarity, it’s gonna be hard facing grim realities and ridicule…and failure. But, at least here’s a little bright spot, in my view! I am not afraid of failure! Never have been, don’t know why, but I am immune to what people think of me, and by this time of life have failed so many times in so many creative ways that I’m impressed with my resilience, my stubbornness and my genius at learning from mistakes. The greatest compliment anyone has ever given me was to tell me that I have “the guts of an artist.”
That’s a true statement. An excellent observation by someone who knows me reasonably well. I am united with this work and I can’t shake it; I see myself in a long line of feminists who have already passed the torch to me…and I have miles to go before I pass it off and rest…
Great blog! I love it! And great idea to open up this discussion. I’ve been talking a lot with young feminist activists across the country who are interested in figuring out how we can organize together and cooperate as feminists without reconstructing the same oppressions that we have seen within previous incarnations of the feminist movement while also representing the diversity of issues that women are fighting for.
I’m super interested in hearing more next week!
RebELLEs was an amazing event simply because for young feminists across the country, it is hard to see that we are not alone especially when you’re not in an urban centre/university city and debates were provoked everywhere that weekend. It will happen again, but this time in Winnipeg and should be great again!
Thanks, all, for your comments. I feel like Confabulous is in the big leagues now, with women from 4 very important blogs commenting on this! Hurrah!
Karine–I really want to stay on top of what the RebELLEs are doing, and Winnipeg is, historically, a very fitting place for the next meeting. I’d love to attend. I also checked out Je Suis Feministe (though admittedly, my French is a bit rusty) and I’m really excited by what you’re doing with your site. I’m so glad we’ve connected!
Amanda from the august Antigone magazine–whoo! I’m so glad to have you as part of the discussion. And your comment is a great reminder that all over the country, the continent and the world, women are gathering, going, “Gee, I’m not happy about ‘X’. What can we do about it?” Glad to have you here.
MadamaAmbi–It is hard. It is. And you’re right that it’s a reality we need to accept. There’s no point in wishing otherwise because I think we’re wasting energy if we do. Part of the trick in dealing with it, I think, is like that line from that Leonard Cohen song: “There is a crack in everything/That’s how the light gets in.”
And Courtney Martin! Thank you so much for stopping by. I’m kind of in love with the blogosphere tonight. And totally dug the video about “The Notebook” by one of your contributors at Crucial Minutiae. I haven’t even seen the damn movie but I loved her heartfelt willingness to be a total cheeseball. Thank you for being here!
Okay, well, now I have to go solve the world’s problems so that I can post the solution here tomorrow.