Feminist Fightback

Feminist Fightback is a feminist activist collective based in the UK which developed out of conferences in 2006 and 2007. The founders said:

"We’re inspired by the politics of a range of anti-capitalist feminist struggles, and believe that no single oppression can be challenged in isolation from all other forms of exploitation that intersect with it. We are also committed to fighting for a feminist perspective and awareness of gender issues everywhere in our movement – not marginalising ‘women’s rights’ as a separate issue." [1]

Feminist Fightback are part of what some call a “resurgence of feminist activism”[2] in the UK.[3][4] Dean, in particular, refers to a

“growing emergence of forms of activisms such as Reclaim the Night, Million Women Rise, Ladyfest, Feminist Fightback, Feminist Activist Forum, Object and several others.”[5]

However, these activist groups and organisations represent the wide range of political perspectives and interpretations of "feminism". There are key fundamental differences in analysis, theory and approaches to activism. In many ways, Feminist Fightback came in to being, in reaction to perceived limitations in the liberal and/or radical feminism that dominated pre-existing groupings. Linking about back to the debates of the The Women's Liberation, in particular, the collective rejected the notion that feminism is "about a group of ‘experts’ telling other women how to live; or about a handful of rich and powerful women getting to ‘the top’".[6]

The Women's Liberation Movement has been extremely influential on the collective's direction:

"As a new generation of feminists on the revolutionary left, learning from the history of our movement is crucial. We need political mentors. Though some groups today trace their political lineage elsewhere, or perhaps dwell exclusively in the present, for me personally, and in Feminist Fightback, the impact the Women's Liberation Movement made on the British left is a foundational part of our own political heritage.'" Alice Robson, Z-Net.[7]

Anti-Capitalist Intersectional Feminism

Originally describing themselves as "being inspired by the politics of socialist feminism”, Feminist Fightback challenge "trends which grew out of the WLM ... that turned their back on working class women." Rather, as Davies argues, "it is clear from their actions that they are attempting to orient their work towards working class women, they are active in support of sex workers’ rights, working closely with the International Union of Sex Workers and the English Collective of Prostitutes."[8]

Feminist Fightback have a long standing particular interest in Sylvia Pankhurst and the East London Federation of Suffragettes because their feminism saw the struggle of women as part of, not separate from, class struggle. Robson argues that whilst "academia today is keen to theorise 'social movements' such as feminism as being in opposition to class politics, the history of the East London Federation of Suffragettes shows us that there has long been a strand of feminism which connected the fight for women’s rights with the struggle of the working class."[9]

Marxist feminists like, Clara Zetkin and Alexandra Kollontai, have, thus, been very influential on Feminist Fightback with their particular reference to the fight for the inclusion of domestic work within the waged capitalist economy. The ideas surrounding the Wages for Housework Campaign (Selma James, Mariarosa Dalla Costa, & Silvia Federici) have particular significance for the collective in that they challenge capitalism’s gendered division of labour which disproportionately distributes the burdens of reproductive labour on to women - both waged and unwaged.

The collective began to use "intersectional" and "anticapitalist feminism" in place of "socialist feminist' in about 2007- 2008. Ideas of intersectionality had already been developed from the 1970s onwards by Black feminists such as Angela Davis in Women, Race, Class (1981) and the Combahee River Collective - attempting to account for the intersecting oppressions that people face. One of the most well-known statement of interlocking oppressions is Bell Hooks’ description of our political system as an ‘imperialist, white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy.’

Feminist Fightback's 2015 article "Is Intersectionality just another form of Identity poltiics?"[10] (republished on Lib Com Sept 2015) argues that there is no contradiction to between our commitment to intersectionality and the variety of Marxist and class-struggle anarchist currents that continue to influence the group's thinking.

Feminist Fightback 2006 - to the present

The Beginning

Feminist Fightback developed out of a group of student activists involved in network called Education Not for Sale.

In October 21, 2006, ENS women's caucus initiated a feminist activist conference, Feminist Fightback, in central London, which was attended by around 220 people.[11][12][13] The founding statement stated that

"We want a feminism that fights. A women’s movement that is about activism, not just talk; about grassroots campaigning, not just lobbying; about politics, not just about lifestyle choices; and about liberation for all, not just equality for a privileged few." [14]

The conference gave rise to several activist initiatives, including the Torch-Lit March for Abortion Rights (3rd March 2007) which was attend by approximately three hundred people and featured speeches from various women’s rights activists, including Katy Clark, the former Labour MP for North Ayrshire and Arran [15][16][17]

The second Feminist Fightback Conference, held at the University of East London in October 2007[18] was officially supported by a range of organisations - including the National Union of Students Women’s Campaign,[19] the RMT Women’s Committee and the International Union of Sex Workers.[20] Representatives from groups like Central American Women's Network, Women in Darfur, Women's Environment Network, Southall Black Sisters, MPs, student union representatives and trade union representatives (e.g. the Fremantle Care workers in dispute at the time[21]) took part series of talks and debates throughout the one-day event. The conference attracted 300 activists, and led to the founding of Feminist Fightback as an activist collective.[22]

The London Underground Cleaners Dispute

In 2008, Feminist Fightback supported the London Underground cleaners who went on strike over a living wage, sick pay, 28 days holiday, final salary pension, free travel and an end to third party sackings.[23] In July, the collective supported the RMT organised strike by staging a protest outside a Tube station near Westminster in support of the cleaners - which included symbolically dumping rubbish outside St James's Park.[24][25]

Cuts Are a Feminist Issue

Feminist Fightback believe that public sector cuts have a disproportionate effect on female workers:

"We have opened our newspapers each day to litanies of cuts to services - in health care; domestic violence services; universal child benefit; disability benefit; lone parent benefit; pensions; carer's allowance; housing benefit; education; free school meals; and early-years provision, to name only some."[26]

Their article "Cuts Are a Feminist Issue" featured in Issue 49 of Soundings Journal (published online by the New Left Project).

References

  1. ↑ "About Us". Feminist Fightback. Retrieved 2016-04-17.
  2. ↑ Robinson, Victoria (2008). Introducing Gender And Women's Studies. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 46.
  3. ↑ Downes, Julia Downes (2008). Bound and Unbound: Interdisciplinary approaches to genders and sexualities. Cambridge Scholars Press. pp. 181–200.
  4. ↑ Thornham, Helen (2013). Renewing Feminisms: Radical Narratives, Fantasies and Futures in Media Studies.
  5. ↑ Dean, Jonathan (2010). Rethinking Contemporary Feminist Politics. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 162.
  6. ↑ Feminist, Fightback. "Founding Statement 2006". Feminist Fightback. Feminist Fightback. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
  7. ↑ Robson, Alice. "Beyond The Fragments". Merlin Press. Merlin Press.
  8. ↑ Davies, Eleanor. [Feminist Fightback has tried to distance itself from some of the trends which grew out of the WLM, specifically those that turned their back on working class women and those that refused to work with men. It is clear from their actions that they are attempting to orient their work towards working class women, they are active in support of sex workers’ rights, working closely with the International Union of Sex Workers and the English Collective of Prostitutes. "Building a fighting working class women's movement"] Check |url= value (help). Permanent Revolution. Winter 2009: 44–48. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
  9. ↑ Robson, Alice. "Treading in the Footsteps of Sylvia Pankhurst". Feminist Fightback. Feminist Fightback. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
  10. ↑ Feminist, Fightback (Jan 11, 2015). "Is intersectionality just another form of identity politics?". Feminist Fightback. Feminist Fightback. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
  11. ↑ S., Laura (2006-11-03). "The Feminist Fightback begins". Worker's Liberty. Retrieved 2016-04-17.
  12. ↑ Feminist, Fightback. "Feminist Fightback Conference Poster 2006" (PDF). Feminist Fightback. Feminist Fightback. Retrieved 2016-04-17.
  13. ↑ "Feminist Fightback Conference 2006 Agenda". Feminist Fightback. Retrieved 2016-04-17.
  14. ↑ "Founding Statement 2006". Feminist Fightback. Retrieved 2016-04-17.
  15. ↑ "Abortion Rights Protest on 3 March - The F-Word". www.thefword.org.uk. Retrieved 2016-04-17.
  16. ↑ http://www.tcs.cam.ac.uk/assets/downloads/TCS_Volume8_Lent_Issue8.pdf
  17. ↑ "News in Brief" (PDF). The Cambridge Student. The Cambridge Student. Retrieved 2016-04-17.
  18. ↑ Feminist, Fightback. "Feminist Fightback Conference Poster 2007" (PDF). Feminist Fightback. Feminist Fightback. Retrieved 2016-04-17.
  19. ↑ "2nd Feminist Fightback conference, UEL, 20 October 2007". libcom.org. Retrieved 2016-04-17.
  20. ↑ "whatever happened to leon trotsky?: Feminist Fightback - Saturday 20th October 2007". trotskyist.blogspot.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-04-17.
  21. ↑ "Barnet UNISON: Fremantle Care Workers speak at Feminist Fightback conference". barnetunison.blogspot.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-04-17.
  22. ↑ "Permanent Revolution - Gender, race and class - Feminist Conference". www.permanentrevolution.net. Retrieved 2016-04-17.
  23. ↑ Lossifidis, Alex (2008-07-04). "Feminism and the Tube". The News Statesman. Retrieved 2016-04-17.
  24. ↑ "Striking cleaners 'intimidated'". BBC News. 2008-07-03. Retrieved 2016-04-17.
  25. ↑ McCabe, Jess. "Feminists in support of Tube cleaners strike". The F-Word. The F-Word. Retrieved 2016-04-17.
  26. ↑ Feminist, Fightack (2011-12-15). "Cuts Are a Feminist Issue". Soundings Journal. Issue 49 (49). Retrieved 2016-04-17.
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