Transnational Feminisms Building Anti-Globalization Solidarities

Abstract

This is a comparative study of two transnational feminist networks at the World Social Forum and their distinct patterns of alliance-building with non-feminist entities on the anti-globalization terrain. The work identifies two distinct modalities, that of ‘dialogues across difference’ and ‘coalition-building’. Both are underpinned by discourses of intersectionality and transversality and feminist approaches to coalition-building across difference developed in the 1980s and now being brought to bear on the broader social field of anti-globalization struggle. I argue that practices and theories of solidarity are being remade in this new context with attendant transformations for feminisms and social movements more generally.

Este es un estudio comparativo sobre dos redes feministas en el Fórum Social Mundial y sus diferentes tendencias de la creación de alianzas con entidades no feministas en el terreno de la antiglobalización. El trabajo identifica dos modalidades distintas, la de ‘los diálogos a través de la diferencia’ y la del ‘desarrollo de la coalición’. Ambas se sustentan bajo planteamientos de interseccionalidad y transversalidad y acercamientos feministas al desarrollo, a través del desarrollo de la diferencia en los años de 1980 y ahora puesto en práctica en el campo social más amplio de la lucha por la antiglobalización. Sostengo que en líneas generales, las prácticas y las teorías de solidaridad se han reconstituido en este nuevo contexto con las transformaciones consecuentes para los movimientos sociales y feministas.

本文是关于世界社会论坛中的两个跨国女性主义网络及其在反全球化领域内与其他非女性主义实体构建联盟的不同模式的比较研究。本文确定了两种不同形式，即“跨越差异对话”和“建立联盟”。关于交叉性、横截性和女性主义跨越差异构建联盟的方法的论述都强化了这两种形式的存在，其中女性主义方法发展于20世纪80年代，现在被用于推动更广泛领域的反全球化斗争。我认为，女性主义和更普遍的社会运动随之发生了变革，在这一背景下，两种形式的实践和理论一致得以重塑。

이것은 세계 사회포럼에서의 두 개 초국적 페미니스트 네트워크와 반세계화 지형에서 비페미니스트 단체들과의 독특한 동맹 형성 패턴에 대한 비교 연구이다. 이 연구는 ‘차이를 가로지르는 대화’와 ‘동맹 형성”이라는 두 가지 양식을 찾아낸다. 그것은 둘 다 교차성(intersectionality)과 횡단성(transversality)의 담론에 의해서 뒷받침 되고, 차이를 가로지르는 동맹에 대한 페미니트스 접근은 1980년대 발전했다. 이러한 접근은 지금은 더 광범위한 반세계화 투쟁의 사회영역에 영향을 미치고 있다. 나는 페미니즘의 변형과 좀 더 일반적으로 사회운동의 변형이라는 새로운 맥락 속에서 연대의 실천과 이론이 다시 만들어지고 있다고 주장한다.

Keywords:

• feminism
• transnational feminist networks
• World March of Women
• Articulación Feminista Marcosur
• World Social Forum
• anti-globalization
• solidarity
• coalition-building
• transversality
• intersectionality

Acknowledgement

The author thanks Dominique Masson, Pascale Dufour, and two anonymous reviewers for their invaluable comments on earlier drafts of this paper.

Notes

I am using the term ‘anti-globalization terrain’ to invoke the idea of a transnational social field rather than a discrete movement that can be conceived as separate from the transnational feminisms under discussion.

By the mid-1990s, the rising tides of both neoliberalism and religious conservatism were making the UN far less hospitable for feminist policy initiatives. At the same time, many feminists were increasingly skeptical about the efficacy of international agreements in concretely improving the lives of women.

These were: Akina Mama wa Africa; CLADEM; REDLAC; Women Living Under Muslim Laws; WIDE.

Pensamientos únicos refers to unitary modes of thought that exclude the possibility of alternatives. In the discourses of the WSF, neoliberalism is the paradigmatic form of unitary thought against which the slogan ‘another world is possible’ is directed. The WSF Charter and its supporters oppose all such forms of hegemonic knowledge through a through-going affirmation of multiplicity—a formulation convergent with Sandoval's notion of differential consciousness and differential social movement.