The Role of the Feminist Movement Participation during the Winter 2012 Mobilisations in Romania

Abstract

Feminist activism is only at an early stage in Romania, yet feminist activists have been able to mobilise mass street protests over the past few years. By looking at the 2012 mobilisations in Romania, this essay aims to understand how feminist movement participation affected the dynamics of these protest events. It is argued that feminist activists have drawn attention to some of the current difficulties faced by women in bringing to the fore alternative voices and messages and resisting patriarchal modes of mobilisation.

The research for this essay was conducted during my MA at Université Libre de Bruxelles.

Notes

¹ Football supporters participated from the beginning at the University Square protests to support Raed Arafat. The gendarmerie associated the violence during the first week of protests with football supporters who ‘set fire to the flags and, after breaking the windows of a florist, threw pieces of glass towards the gendarmes’ (‘Romania in a 7-a zi de proteste. VIOLENTE in Piata Universitatii: 5 raniti si 40 de retineri. VIDEO’, stirileprotv.ro, 19 January 2012, available at: http://stirileprotv.ro/stiri/actualitate/mitingul-usl-si-protestele-de-la-universitate-scot-in-strada-un-numar-mult-mai-mare-de-jandarmi.html, accessed 17 October 2017.

² Strikes that are not approved by a trade union.

³ The data come from the World Values Survey 1981–2014 time series. See World Values Survey 1981–2014, available at: http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org, accessed 6 October 2017.

⁴ Salaries in the public sector were cut by 25% and pensions by 15%. VAT was increased by 5% and there were additional budget cuts to education, health, and social assistance.

⁵ The Association for the Defense of Human Rights in Romania—the Helsinki Committee (APADOR-CH) registered numerous complaints about gendarmes abuses in Bucharest and some of these cases are presented on their website. Abuses concerned people being loaded into police vans and brought to the police station where they were detained. This happened after those who were stopped and searched presented their IDs and could be identified. See, ‘De ce o banală identificare se lasă cu privare de libertate?’, APADOR-CH, available at: http://www.apador.org/publicatii/proiect/files/de-ce-o-banala-identificare-se-transforma-in-arestare/index.html, accessed 11 October 2017; ‘Narcis Iordache: M-am opus amprentării și fotografierii’, APADOR-CH, available at: http://www.apador.org/publicatii/proiect/files/narcis-iordache-m-am-opus-amprentarii-si-fotografierii/index.html, accessed 11 October 2017.

⁶ The signature by the EU and many of its Member States of the Anti-counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) entailed a wave of protests all over Europe. A protest against ACTA was organised on 11 February in different cities in Romania, including in University Square in Bucharest. The protesters considered that the agreement could affect fundamental rights such as privacy and freedom of expression.

⁷ One such organisation was Centrul pentru Dezvoltare Curriculara si Studii de Gen, Filia (Center for Curricular Development and Gender Studies, Filia), which published a declaration entitled ‘Centrul FILIA este present la protestul din Piata Universitatii. De ce?’ (‘FILIA Centre is present at the University Square Protests. Why?’). After the discussions that took place during the General Assemblies Filia officially withdrew from participating in the protests as an organisation, leaving the possibility for its members to participate individually. More information about the organisational participation of Filia Centre at the 2012 protests can be found in ‘Revista presei de gen’, Feminism Romania, 16–22 January 2012, available at: https://www.feminism-romania.ro/presa/revista-presei/723-revista-revista-presei-16-22-ianuarie-2012-sp-1392421415, accessed 12 October 2017.

⁸ During the University Square mobilisations, protesters gathered in General Assemblies, once or twice a week, to discuss their (potential) identity, the guiding principles of the group, and strategies to attract and mobilise people.

⁹ Situated knowledge is a concept coined by Donna Haraway (1988) to express the way in which objectivity, as one main principle of positivism, was transformed into feminist objectivity. Feminist objectivity is about limited location and ‘situated knowledge’, referring to the fact that only a partial perspective promises objective vision (Haraway 1988, p. 583).

¹⁰ There were approximately 20–30 feminist activists who participated in the winter 2012 mobilisations whose claims were related to gender and sexuality or feminist. Most of them were either informally networked or were affiliated with three feminist groups or organisations, as follows: the Feminist Reading Circle (Cercul de Lecturi Feministe), an anarchist, radical, informal, and non-institutionalised feminist group connected to the Alternative Library Collective; the Front Association, initially a feminist group that built-up and manages the website Feminism Romania (available at: www.feminism-romania.ro) but later became a formal organisation in order to obtain official authorisation for arranging Slutwalk Bucharest in 2011, together with other groups; and the Centre for Curricular Development and Gender Studies, or Filia Centre, a feminist organisation specialising in research and activism and with links to the Masters’ programme in Gender Studies at the National School of Political Science and Public Administration (SNSPA). The Filia Centre was ‘created in 2000 in order to develop gender studies at academic level, so that they contribute through expertise and epistemic authority to strategies of emancipation in Romanian society’. See: Centrul Filia, available at: http://centrulfilia.ro/istoric/, accessed 5 October 2017.

¹¹ ‘NGOisation’ is the process by which external funding contributed to the consolidation of certain organisational forms, such as formalised and professionalised groups (Jacobson & Saxonberg 2013) working on advocacy or service provision (Guenther 2011). This follows Tarrow and Petrova’s (2007) notion of the presence of a transactional activism characterising post-communist countries.

¹² For details of the 2012 protest, see: ‘De 8 martie luptam’, Feminism romania, available at: https://www.feminism-romania.ro/presa/stiri/766-de-8-martie-luptam, accessed 12 October 2017. For the 2011 mobilisation see, ‘Vrem reprezentare, nu doar flori si martisoare!’, Garbo, available at: http://www.garbo.ro/articol/Social/7229/Vrem-reprezentare-nu-doar-flori-si-martisoare.html, accessed 12 October 2017.

¹³ For details of Slut Walk Bucharest see, ‘Marsul Panaramelor/SlutWalk Bucuresti’, Feminism Romania, available at: https://www.feminism-romania.ro/presa/stiri/608-marsul-panaramelor, accessed 12 October 2017.

¹⁴ For details about the protest see, ‘Protest, vineri, 25 noiembrie, stop violentei asupra femeilor’, Feminism Romania, available at: https://www.feminism-romania.ro/presa/editoriale/662-protest-vieneri-25-noiembrie-stop-violentei-asupra-femeilor, accessed 12 October 2017.

¹⁵ The feminist protest in Târgoviște was organised on 11 August 2012 as one of the actions organised during the Camp of Young Feminists of Europe of World March of Women that took place in Moroieni, Romania. The declaration of the group denounced a migration system that allows some people to move freely and imprisons others in their territories, poverty resulting from the capitalist, racist, imperialist, and patriarchal system, and the poverty and violence that affect mostly certain women, such as Roma women, women belonging to cultural minorities, young women, lesbians, trans and queers, elder women, and many more. The declaration can be found on the blog Young Feminist Camp, available at: https://youngfeministcamp.wordpress.com/2012/08, accessed 5 October 2017.

¹⁶ Collective action frames are ‘action-oriented sets of beliefs and meanings that inspire and legitimate the activities and campaigns of a social movement organization’ (Benford & Snow 2000, p. 614). Oppressive frames refer to those action-oriented ideas and understandings used by social movements that are based on beliefs that help maintain and reproduce racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, transphobia and ableism, and that objectify and devaluate the subjectivity of those who are subjugated within these systems of injustice. An intersectional resistance to oppressive frames responds to complex configurations of social inequalities such as the interrelation and interaction between interlocking systems of oppression.

¹⁷ Such critiques distinguish between economic stratification and general social stratification and emphasise the need to widen the perspective on stratification by including, along with the dimension of inequality expressed in terms of differential access to and control over economic resources, the dimensions of autonomy, understood as freedom to make life choices and freedom of movement and power in the sense of participation in decisions concerning the specific group (Ferree & Hall 1996).

¹⁸ ‘The Price of Austerity—The Impact on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality in Europe’, European Women’s Lobby (EWL), 15 November 2012, available at: http://www.womenlobby.org/EWL-publishes-report-on-impact-of-the-austerity-measures-on-women-s-rights-and, accessed 3 September 2017.

¹⁹ The National Agency for Equal Opportunities between Men and Women (Agentia National+a pentru Egalitatea de Sanse intre Femei si Barbati—ANES) was disbanded through a government emergency ordinance No. 68 on 30 June 2010. See, ‘OUG 682010 privind unele masuri de reorganizare a MMFPS’, Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Protection by the Romanian Government, Official Journal No. 446, 1 July 2010, available at: http://www.mmuncii.ro/pub/imagemanager/images/file/Domenii/Egalitate%20de%20sanse/OUG%2068-2010%20privind%20unele%20masuri%20de%20reorganizare%20a%20MMFPS.pdf, accessed 12 October 2017.

²⁰ A total of 19 NGOs and five academics from across the country signed a letter of protest related to the abolition of ANES. The letter was submitted to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Labour. Moreover, five female Romanian MEPs appealed to the European Commission regarding the ‘abusive decision’ taken by the Romanian government to disband the institutional frame for gender equality, child rights, and the rights of persons with disabilities (Sarbu 2010).

²¹ In 2009 in Romania the gender gap in pensions was 32%. The gender pay gap in the public sector was 12.3% and 4.6% in the private sector. See, ‘The Gender Gap in Pensions in the EU’, Directorate-General For Justice, European Commission, 2013 available at: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/gender-equality/files/documents/130530_pensions_en.pdf, accessed 7 October 2017. The gender gap in pensions in 2010 was 32% and in 2012, 31%, according to ‘Gender Gap in Pensions in the EU. Research Note to the Latvian Presidency’, European Institute for Gender Equality, 2015, available at: http://www.eige.europa.eu, accessed 7 October 2017.

²² The Alternative Library is the initiative of an informal group with the aim of sharing information and serving as a venue for discussion on initiating social change. The website of the Alternative Library and additional information about the group can be found on the blog ‘Biblioteca Alternativa’, available at: https://biblioteca-alternativa.noblogs.org/despre-biblioteca/, accessed 5 October 2017.

²³ RI, member of the Feminist Reading Circle, Bucharest, 10 April 2013.

²⁴ This slogan makes reference to the fact that the government always finds financial resources to restore kerbs, for example, that are already in a good condition, but they do not allocate money for much needed services such as kindergartens whose number has dramatically decreased after the 1990s.

²⁵ IC, member of the Front Association, Bucharest, 30 April 2013.

²⁶ ER, Filia Centre, Bucharest, 14 April 2013.

²⁷ In its gendered version, this slogan became ‘Ale, ale, ale ale ale, cetățene indignate, vor să fie respectate’ (‘indignant female citizens want to be respected’).

²⁸ Frame resonance refers to the ‘“fit” between frames and audiences’ previous beliefs, worldviews, and life experiences’ (Williams 2004, p. 105). Thus, whatever frames social movement actors use, they must ‘resonate’ if audiences are to respond (Williams 2004).

²⁹ CL, member of the Feminist Reading Circle and Alternative Library collective, Bucharest, 16 April 2013.

³⁰ Claudiu Crăciun is a lecturer at the National School of Political Studies and Public Administration and ex co-president of the Green Movement–Democratic Agrarians party (Mişcarea Verzilor–Democraţi Agrarieni) in Romania. He was one of the most vocal and visible figures during the University Square mobilisations in 2012 and was identified as a leader by the mainstream media (Mungiu-Pippidi 2012).

³¹ The Alternative Library appeared at the initiative of an informal group, with the aim of sharing a series of materials meant to contribute to the development of critical thinking towards the world and the society in which we live, while also serving as a site for discussion on initiating social change. It is organised according to the principle of participation and non-hierarchy. It represents an autonomous, non-profit project, based on the voluntary contribution of those who want these kinds of spaces to exist, develop, and remain independent of European or any institutional funding. See the section ‘About the Library’, Alternative Library, available at: https://biblioteca-alternativa.noblogs.org, accessed 12 October 2017.

³² Slutwalk Bucharest was organised on 6 October 2011, as the Romanian version of the transnational movement of the same name. Women and feminist activists called for an end to rape culture and blaming victims of sexual aggression. Participants held carnations in their mouths as part of their tactical repertoire.

³³ CL, member of the Feminist Reading Circle and Alternative Library collective, Bucharest, 16 April 2013.

³⁴ BE, Bucharest, 22 April 2013.

³⁵ ER, Filia Centre, Bucharest, 14 April 2013.

³⁶ ER, Filia Centre, Bucharest, 14 April 2013.

³⁷ ER, Filia Centre, Bucharest, 14 April 2013; RI, member of the Feminist Reading Circle, Bucharest, 10 April 2013.

³⁸ ER, Filia Centre, Bucharest, 14 April 2013.

³⁹ TS, member of the Feminist Reading Circle, Bucharest, 14 April 2013.

⁴⁰ RI, member of the Feminist Reading Circle, Bucharest, 10 April 2013.

⁴¹ RI, member of the Feminist Reading Circle, Bucharest, 10 April 2013.

⁴² ER, Filia Centre, Bucharest, 14 April 2013.

⁴³ Discussions on the online platform of the University Square protesters, [email protected], after the group broke apart.

⁴⁴ ER, Filia Centre, Bucharest, 14 April 2013.

⁴⁵ CL, member of the Feminist Reading Circle and Alternative Library collective, Bucharest, 16 April 2013.

⁴⁶ Although all the feminists were contesting patriarchal relations, not many addressed heterosexism and heteronormativity. For example, AN was one of the few interviewees who clearly emphasised heterosexism as a generalised attitude at least in some specific groups with extreme-right links. Also, the view of capitalism as an oppressive system was mostly held by the feminists associated with the Feminist Lecture Group, the Alternative Library, and Common Space, and was not ideologically supported by other feminists.

⁴⁷ DA, member of the Filia Centre, Bucharest, 15 April 2013.

⁴⁸ TS, member of the Feminist Reading Circle, Bucharest, 14 April 2013.

⁴⁹ CL, member of the Feminist Reading Circle and Alternative Library collective, Bucharest, 16 April 2013.

⁵⁰ RM, Bucharest, 25 April 2013.

⁵¹ There are still many Roma families and Roma women who do not have documents in Romania and who cannot exercise any representation-related rights nor access redistribution rights, including basic healthcare.

⁵² CL, member of the Feminist Reading Circle and Alternative Library collective, Bucharest, 16 April 2013.

⁵³ ‘Petru Zoltan. Claudiu Crăciun, liderul din Piaţa Universităţii: “Traian Băsescu ţine prizonieră o întreagă societate”’, jurnalul.ro, 24 July 2012, available at: http://jurnalul.ro/special-jurnalul/interviuri/claudiu-craciun-liderul-din-piata-universitatii-traian-basescu-tine-prizoniera-o-intreaga-societate-619124.html, accessed 8 October 2017.

⁵⁴ ER, Filia Centre, Bucharest, 14 April 2013.

⁵⁵ RO, feminist activist, Front Association, Bucharest, 10 April 2013.

⁵⁶ CL, member of the Feminist Reading Circle and Alternative Library collective, Bucharest, 16 April 2013; ER, Filia Centre, Bucharest, 14 April 2013.

⁵⁷ CL, member of the Feminist Reading Circle and Alternative Library collective, Bucharest, 16 April 2013.

⁵⁸ CL, member of the Feminist Reading Circle and Alternative Library collective, Bucharest, 16 April 2013; ER, Filia Centre, Bucharest, 14 April 2013; GO, Filia Centre, Bucharest, 23 April 2013; TS, member of the Feminist Reading Circle, Bucharest, 14 April 2013; RI, member of the Feminist Reading Circle, Bucharest, 10 April 2013; IC, member of the Front Association, Bucharest, 30 April 2013.

⁵⁹ IC, member of the Front Association, Bucharest, 30 April 2013.

⁶⁰ CL, member of the Feminist Reading Circle and Alternative Library collective, Bucharest, 16 April 2013.

⁶¹ NA, member of the Front Association, 19 April 2013.

⁶² ER, Filia Centre, Bucharest, 14 April 2013.

⁶³ GO, Filia Centre, Bucharest, 23 April 2013.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alexandra Ana

Alexandra Ana, PhD Candidate in Political Science and Sociology, Scuola Normale Superiore, Istituto Di Scienze Umane E Sociali, Palazzo Strozzi, Piazza degli Strozzi, 1, 50123 Firenze, Italy. Email: [email protected]