07/12/2023 | Writer: Selma Koçak
11th International Feminist Forum, organized with the theme “War, Social Reproduction and Construction of the Feminist Agenda”, hosted Prof. Dr. Silvia Federici.
11th International Feminist Forum was held online with the theme “War, Social Reproduction and Construction of the Feminist Agenda” on November 9.
The forum was opened by Aylime Aslı Demir of Kaos GL Association and moderated by Prof. Dr. Zeynep Gambetti. After introducing Prof. Dr. Silvia Federici, Gambetti began with the following quote from Federici and gave the floor to the speaker:
“We have to figure out what it means to do something positive. The first thing that it means is breaking out of isolation. Struggle means connecting with other people, not confronting the system and the pain and suffering in your life alone. That you feel that you have some protection. There’s the idea of generating a new emotional affectivity, going beyond the suffocation and loneliness of the nuclear family. Acquiring new knowledge, acquiring new lovers, not only in the sexual sense, but in people that you care for and that give you strength…”
Federici began her speech by saying that the Feminist Forum meeting was very valuable in breaking out of isolation:
“There are two things I want to talk about tonight. One is what is going on? What about Israel’s war against the Palestinian people? If you look at the whole history of capitalism, you see genocide. Even though we know all this, we are surprised, we are shocked. Because in this way, when the destruction of human life is fed upon lies, it becomes difficult to understand what is happening in Gaza and in Palestine in general. But it’s happening in front of everyone’s eyes. What are we all against? What is happening in Palestine is going to affect the Palestinians first, and then it is going to affect all of us. Secondly, what kind of feminist organisation and movement should we create so that we can stand against it, continue and see what kind of tools we have.”
Federici said that in the course of her reading during the Israeli attacks on Palestine, she also revisited her own articles on war, revolution, feminist organizing, globalization and reproduction in the early 2000s:
“Palestine actually has a symbolic meaning, we consider this process on a world scale. The whole process is linked to the spread of capitalism and the creation of new colonies and new forms of capitalism. Some populations are seen as dispensable. Some of them pave the way for the most intensive forms of exploitation. When there are institutionally differentiated human beings at the highest level, some will be called ‘human’ and some ‘non-human’, and the ‘non-human’ will be open to all kinds of exploitation. It is important to see this in order to understand what is happening in Palestine.
There was a wind of revolution in the 1960s and 1970s, if you remember. If we look at the late 70s and early 90s, we see a capitalist effort. This is how a global debt crisis was created, completely artificially. Countries had to open their doors to all the colonialist companies. Agricultural production was transformed. Only export-oriented production was possible in the use of land. All of these processes became a matter of common knowledge. In fact, within a short period of time, there has been a resurgence of colonialism, and today there is talk of new forms of colonialism. We are now talking about new forms of colonialism. In this form, everyone works for another country. The economy is organized accordingly, without taking into account the needs of the local population, despite the fact that they are subjected to incredible exploitation. Thousands of people have had to leave their land and face an uncertain future.”
Federici underlined that the word “Palestine” is symbolic because it represents the lives of millions of people, and that with the war going on around the world, we will face a continuous war and tighter mechanisms, and continued with the issue of what feminists can do:
“We know that today the possibility of nuclear war is on our doorstep. We have to start a very massive and very big struggle. It is important to build common ground between these movements. It is necessary to put aside certain differences and act by looking at the real centre of these struggles. The feminist movement has a very important and unique role, we need to dispel the clouds in the movement.”
Unfortunately, since the mid-70s, when the feminist movement could have been a very powerful social force, when it could have led us to change, it has been subjected to massive institutional interference. Now we need to stop this capitalist violence and create a new social logic, a new way of being socially engaged. We have to do these things. We have to see how there is a link between ecological struggle and politics. Huge sections of the population are losing their right to live on their own land. Like the Kurds, like the Palestinians. That is why we have to create a different kind of vision of reproduction.”
After Federici’s speech, the 11th International Feminist Forum ended by reading out the participants' contributions and answering as many questions as the time allowed.
Tags: human rights, women, life
