Mending the Fabric of Life:
Integrating Feminism into WSF Caracas
 

Gwyn Kirk is an activist and women's studies scholar who co-founded the East Asia-US-Puerto Rico Women's Network Against Militarism. She co-authored Greenham Women Everywhere, and co-edited, Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives.

The World Social Forum in Caracas, Venezuela, January 24-29, 2006 provided glimpses into a huge continent where visionaries -- from indigenous people to presidents -- are full of practical ideas, drive, desperation, and hope for change. Everyone's World Social Forum (WSF) is different. We each thread together all we were exposed to in an intense immersion experience -- the snippets of conversations, the slogans and signs, the mini-history lessons folded into talks and presentations, the translators' apt phrases, information passed in leaflets or plastered on walls as posters, stickers, and graffiti.

I remember the smiles and laughter as thousands of Forum participants crammed onto the Caracas subway (free to us) en route to the opening march and rally; the rafter-raising soccer-stadium atmosphere of President Chavez's two-and-a-half hour presentation to Forum delegates; the clear sounds of flutes and ocarinas played by musicians from Peru as they threaded their way through honking cars in downtown traffic; the bands on the outdoor stage playing late into the night. All this was laced with the high-energy buzz of thousands of people from every continent, excited to be there, brim full of visions and opinions, and hungry to share them with others.

The Forum's potential as a space for people to exchange ideas and information is very powerful, whether through the formal program of talks and presentations (with the frustration of so many marvelous things packed into the same time slot), or by bumping into people at meals, in the street, in the hallways, or the line for the bathroom.

This "marketplace of ideas" also sometimes seemed diffuse, unstructured, and lacking in political purpose or direction. At times it was simply a marketplace, as vendors from Ecuador and Colombia sold their craftwork alongside Venezuelan booksellers with left-wing literature, and the many stalls heaped with T-shirts, caps, buttons, and other paraphernalia immortalizing the unofficial icons of the conference: Simon Bolivar, Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, and Hugo Chavez.

I wanted to learn more about Latin American women's organizing, which arises out of experiences of colonial repression, continuing economic exploitation, and the entrenched role of sexism and machismo. Women have organized for the right to vote, for access to land, and for redistribution of wealth. Mothers and grandmothers have denounced human rights violations committed by military dictatorships and have demanded to know the whereabouts -- and the fates -- of family members who have "disappeared."

Women are working to mend the fabric of family and community torn by military regimes, destabilizations, and civil wars. They are dealing with social and cultural disintegration caused by foreign debt crises and structural adjustment policies, and long workdays with no job security that take time and energy away from their sons and daughters. They are also involved in struggles against authoritarianism and for increased democracy -- nationally, locally, and within their own organizations.

Latin American women came to the World Social Forum in large numbers -- representing local women's groups, national organizations, and international coalitions -- and also as members of labor unions, human rights organizations, groups of farmers and peasants, poor people's groups, anti-racist organizations, environmental groups, and indigenous communities.

Some talked Marxism; others talked equal rights; still others came from the background of indigenous worldviews. They all talked about opposing violence in its myriad forms -- personal violence against women and children, which has increased under globalization at home, at work, and in public places; the violence of an exploitative economic system; and violence caused by narco-trafficking, gangs, and heavy-handed military and police interventions.

Many speakers celebrated this new moment in Latin American history with six left-leaning presidents and the defeat of the FTAA last November. Women from Venezuela spoke proudly about the Bolivarian Revolution's emphasis on health and education, considered a social debt owed to the people; the food program that feeds thousands of needy people each day; the reduced price of staples that ease women's everyday household budgeting; and the alliance between Venezuela and Cuba whereby 20,000 Cuban physicians and health technicians are currently living and working in poor Venezuelan communities in exchange for oil. [Editor's note: leftist and anarchist critics of "Chavismo" held an Alternative Social Forum in Caracas at the same time, claiming that the Chavez government controlled the agenda at the larger WSF.]

Alicia Muñoz, an organizer of rural indigenous women from Chile, spoke of women's political participation since winning the vote in national elections in 1949, women's role in sustainable development, and the difficulties they face currently as Chile has signed bilateral free trade agreements with the European Union and the United States.

Mona Vasquez, a Mayan spiritual leader from Guatemala, spoke of the medicinal uses of plants and the crucial importance of intellectual property rights. She emphasized that 200,000 people had been killed in the civil war that split families and communities. Some were in the "self-defense" forces, while others were in guerilla forces. In the aftermath it's very difficult, she stressed, to resolve community conflicts among former enemies. Women from Colombia also emphasized the many ways that militarism affects their daily lives, as illustrated by the banners they carried at the opening march: "We Want to Live without Violence," "For the Demilitarization of Land and Life," "Women Risk Our Lives for Life."

Indigenous women spoke of the need to go back to cultural and economic roots, interpreting ancestral wisdom for current circumstances and challenges, balancing spiritual and material aspects of life. Guatemalan women discussed the possibility of drawing on Mayan cosmologies to portray Catholic-rooted anti-abortion laws, which cause the deaths of so many women, as a colonial legacy. I heard women from Brazil speak of reproductive rights, open sexual options, and the right to live alone, with others, or in community, without fear of violence. Women from all these countries spoke passionately about sustainability, restoring Mother Earth and giving back nutrients, using both organic fertilizer -- and prayers.

In a large evening plenary, Margarita Lopez-Maya, professor of history at the Central University of Venezuela, held up indigenous movements (in Bolivia, Ecuador, among Zapatistas in Mexico, and the landless movement in Brazil) as making a critical contribution to transforming power relations on the continent. Typically, she argued, social movements have seen states as something to resist.

Now new movement-state relations are emerging in Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil, and Argentina based on people's assemblies, collective deliberations, and principles of reciprocity that can transcend the neo-liberal state. Social movements, however, came into being to defend their rights against the state. As such, she warned, it may be difficult for movements to work together -- a point taken up by many other speakers, who called for dialogue and debate among people of very different experiences, cultures, analyses, and strategies.

Despite all their political insights and organizing experience, women's role in the Forum still seems somewhat tentative and marginal. Cándido Grzybowski, one of the WSF founders from Brazil, said as much in an early presentation. He noted that there were relatively few women speakers in the large plenary sessions. He mentioned the machismo of the Forum culture and organizing, and made a plea for much greater diversity, for the Forum to create a new culture that sees diversity as strength. "How do we incorporate economic, cultural, and political diversity into leftist movements?" He concluded, "If human beings are at the center, we will be able to confront the market."

In a panel organized by a coalition of women's organizations, including La Red Latino-Americana de Mujeres Transformando la Economía (Network of Latin American Women Transforming the Economy), La Marcha Mundial de las Mujeres (World March of Women, see page 14), and Diálogo Sur-Sur LGBT (South-South LGBT Dialogue) speakers addressed the need for diversity and inclusiveness directly. Anna Luz, a speaker from La Marcha Mundial, pointed out that the Forum has accepted that feminism isn't a token issue but needs to be part of the wider WSF perspective.

Nevertheless, Luz continued, it's not easy to get gender equality in social movements or the wider society. We want a change of focus in social movements, recognizing that people start from different places -- indigenous people, those from the African diaspora, homosexual people. We want to build synthesized visions from our different identities. There was a debate about diversity among socialists, she said. Women were involved in it but men took over. Women's stories have to be heard. Women often support social movements but are not in leadership roles. Women's organizations have made some changes in this. We will get equality if we respect diversity.

I want to see the WSF deepen its commitment to embody diversity. Many movements have struggled with this issue for decades and have wisdom on which we can draw. A World Social Forum that seeks to be more inclusive needs the consciousness that this is a priority. It will take people from many networks to identify others who should be invited to participate, and fundraising to ensure that those who need financial support get it in a timely manner. It will mean giving much greater visibility to young people, farm workers, and poor people. It will mean many more translators -- not just for language but also for concepts and culture. It will mean a different way of doing things with less emphasis on formal talks and more creative ways to make connections among people and issues -- less academic conference, more gathering.

http://www.afsc.org/pwork/0603/060318.htm