#6 Feminist Movements Challenging Political Transformation

04 November 2021, 6 pm CET

Contemporary feminist movements in recent years have developed significantly worldwide in ways that speak to their revolutionary potential – including within authoritarian contexts. How can their theories, political content, and organizational forms – from grassroots collective activism to organized strikes – effectively bring about the political transformation and social change needed in our patriarchal societies? What are their demands and visions for the future? What are the difficulties in realizing these visions? What will sustain – and not limit – the movements’ more radical visions? What is the importance of acknowledging how discrimination is forged at the intersection of gender, race, class, sexual orientation, religion, and more? 

While neoliberal feminism has become part of the dominant discourse and can often serve the continuation of capitalist market rules, we will reflect on whether feminism should ultimately imply a global indictment of capitalism. How has the concept of “work” evolved in recent years? How can feminism describe and grasp the recent crises emerging from the impact of pandemic restrictions, unequal access to vaccines, and climate justice? How can we support postcolonial feminist approaches that address structural injustice? Together with our guests, we will discuss how human rights can be leveraged without reproducing gendered violence or reinforcing patriarchal systems of oppression.    

In this 6th online event of our series “Human Rights in Times of Crises: Resistance and Concrete Utopias,” we are happy to host two highly recommended guests. Marta Dillon is a journalist, writer, and lesbian feminist activist, as well as one of the founders of the #NiUnaMenos grassroots movement in Argentina which campaigns against gender-based and other forms of violence. She also works closely with Veronica Gago, author of “Feminist International – How to Change Everything” and has spread the concept of feminist strikes across Latin American countries. Our second guest is Magdalena Baran-Szoltys, scholar and co-editor of the book “About Demands. How Feminist Activism Succeeds,” who is active in the All-Poland Women's Strike Movement and the protests against the Polish abortion law #czarnyprotest, as well as in Frauen*Volksbegehren, a non-partisan referendum movement demanding equality for woman in Austria. The conversation will be presented and moderated by Wolfgang Kaleck, ECCHR General Secretary.

Guests

Marta Dillon

Marta Dillon is a lesbian feminist activist, journalist, writer, and documentary filmmaker.  In the grassroots movement #NiUnaMenos and the Ni Una Menos collective, Dillon campaigns against gender-based and other forms of violence since their foundings. She also fights for justice against the genocides committed during the last dictatorship in Argentina – therefor she works with the HIJOS organizations, a human right group that built a popular path of justice in the '90 and the early's 2000.

Magdalena Baran-Szołtys

Magdalena Baran-Szołtys is a literary scholar and post-doctoral researcher at the Research Center for the History of Transformations (RECET) at University of Vienna, Austria. Her work focuses on inequalities and transformations in East Central Europe. She played a leading role at the Frauen*Volksbegehren, an Austrian, non-partisan referendum movement demanding equality for women in Austria.

Wolfgang Kaleck

Wolfgang Kaleck founded the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights with other internationally renowned lawyers in Berlin in 2007. As a lawyer, he represents whistleblower Edward Snowden, among others. Kaleck has also published numerous books.