#FeministischKämpfen (#fightingforfeminism)
2020, the state of things are well known
Capitalism exploits the vast majority of people without mercy. But women* are particularly affected because this whole system is built on our unpaid work. In Germany, men own 50% more assets/capital than women*, worldwide as much as 99% of total. Some of the reasons for this are that women* receive less money than men* for the same work and, due to the predominant role concepts, they are mostly forced to do unpaid, unappreciated care work. To maintain this system, capitalism structurally makes use of women* and tries to gain control over them and their bodies.
Physical self-determination continues to be subject to attacks, for example by the state regulating and controlling the birth of children. The fact that abortions are criminalized and that a neutral clarification of this is punishable by the paragraphs §218/219a, and that doctors who nevertheless inform about it are sued, are only some examples of many. They are sued by fundamentalist Christians who run their own, supposedly serious, counselling centres. For their purposes they spread fake news and horror, especially during their vigils in front of “Pro-Familia” (a counselling center where everybody who wants to get an abortion needs to go). Their goal is to demonize and intimidate people with the desire to abort. With that they are in direct ideological kinship with other backward-looking sexists.
Religious fanatics*, the AFD, the extreme right and conservatives are forming alliances worldwide to propagate the racial/folkish image of the traditional family and by that racism, sexism and homophobia. Fascist tendencies are always based on aggressive anti-feminism and patriarchal delusions. The resistance against that unites us as women*. As long as women* and queers of colour, black women* and Muslim women are made invisible in feminist debates, becaise they are affected by overlapping discriminations, as long as the racist thought patterns of the white dominated society are not consistently fought, there can be no womens* liberation.
The sexist reality of women* and queers* ranges from objectifying slogans and sexist jokes to sexualised abuse of power. A tip of this patriarchal turd are so-called pick-up artists who train each other to manipulate women. The results are trained sexualised assaults, but rape and femicide are also part of the sad reality in Germany. All this happens all the time – in public, at work, in relationships and at family gatherings. The bourgeois, white family, man and woman married before God, with the patriarch as head of the family, is still the most privileged form. What could threaten this image, such as lesbian desire, trans-identities and people with many sexual partners* is particularly exposed to stigmatisation and violence.
But worldwide there is determined resistance against patriarchy. There are struggles for feminist spaces and women* live and figt for feminist utopias. For years now, activists in Berlin have been successfully fighting against the eviction of Liebig34, a queer-feminist house project. Throughout South America large quantities of women* are taking their struggels to the streets and the Rojava Revoulution is being built by women* and defended with their lives. These and countless other struggles that resistant women* fight every day are examples of a growing international feminist movement that can resist attacks from all sides!
Feminsism embraces and unites so many things that are impossible to mention in one text and there are endless ways to fight for it: It can mean resisting everyday sexism or mutual support among women* and passing on strategies to take back self-determination. Also the transformation of the cityscape and the collective appropriation of public spaces in which you would otherwise not feel comfortable are some options. But also making problems and antifeminist actors visible and tackling them, as well as developing a mindful attitude by taking responsibility for sexist and racist behaviour are very important.
We want the time around the women’s* fighting day, the 8th March, in particular, to be empowering and very expressive . In doing so, we fight togehter and create our own public sphere, in which a sexist and racist press, police and judiciary do not determine which ways of fighting are legitimate. What feminist struggles mean to us, how they are expressed in our way of working together and against whom they are directed and in what way, we alone determine! We give space to our anger, emotions and dreams and discuss, learn and criticize each other in solidarity. We will do cross-action press and public relations work and we’ll create a common public platform for all actions, texts, artworks, expressions of solidarity, and whatever you can think of. What does #FeministischKämpfen mean to you? Form girl gangs and reach out to others, make actions and your everyday struggles visible, show solidarity and get active!