Autonomous Feminist Womyn’s Gathering

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April 9 – 14, 2009 · Vienna, Austria

“At the beginning of 2008 about 70 women and lesbians from different countries, from both
autonomous feminist and mixed organised backgrounds, came together at Freiburg / Germany,
because “we are also in our countries involved in struggles against a patriarchal, capitalist and
racist system.” (from the summoning letter to the Freiburg gathering). In the end it was clear to all
who had participated: the time had been too short, the interest in each other too strong – there was a
wish for further gatherings. And that’s what we are having now.

What we want from this gathering
We want to meet feminist women and lesbians from different countries who are involved in
struggles against sexism, racism, homophobia, capitalism, fascism and patriarchy. We want to have
an exchange on radical-feminist theory and practices and discuss perspectives and possibilities of
action. At the same time we want to pass on and extend our practical knowledge in workshops and
carry out actions on-site.

Who we are
We are an organisational group consisting of seven feminists who are active in both women’s and
lesbian contexts and mixed organised groups. We come from different backgrounds as far as our
political experience, life and work contexts and ages are concerned. What we share is our
understanding of ourselves as parts of the Autonomous Women’s Movement and our considering an
independent and separate organisation of women as an indispensable feminist necessity. The
seperate organisation of women is a political expression of and means of struggle towards the
subjectivity of women and again and again an important source of inspiration for our feminist
analyses. And it is a practice shaping our relationships to each other as women. At the same time we
consider the exchange with the protagonists of other feminist approaches and forms of organisation
as important.

How the gathering will function
The gathering is self-organised, which means that all participants are asked to contribute actively.
This can happen in various ways: by preparing workshops, actions and discussions, by sharing our
skills, by taking part in discussions, by translating, cooking, cleaning etc.

Topics
The women who took part in the Freiburg gathering would like to continue dealing with topics such
as “The her-story of the women’s movement and present-day patriarchy”, “Feminist counterpublic”,
“Breaks, continuities and common grounds between radical feminism and queer
feminism”. Another idea is to take up again the topics discussed at the recent gathering in Italy:
violence against women, hetero-sexism, racism, precariousness and economy etc.“

Cilck here for more details.

(Please note that this event is different to the radical feminist gathering suggested in my previous post, this is still a work in progress

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