İSTANBUL - İrem Gerkuş from Women Strong Together, who participated in the International Women's Conference from Turkey, said that she promised to create common areas of struggle for women against colonialism, racism and labor exploitation and to make solidarity permanent.

 

The 2nd International Women's Conference, organised by the Women Are Weaving the Future Network with the motto "Our Revolution: Liberating Life" was held in Berlin, Germany, on 5-6 November. 800 women from 41 countries, especially the Kurdish women's movement, attended the two-day conference.

 

A call was made in the final declaration of the conference: “As women, we become 'xwebûn', 'ourselves', rejecting the names given to us and our lands by capitalism, colonialism, and patriarchy, and we take new names for ourselves. We are now in the time of women. All women who yearn for a different life outside the current system of exploitation join our network and join the common struggle on the basis of the 'Women's Revolution'".

 

İrem Gerkuş, a member of Women Strong Together, who attended the conference from Turkey, shared her impressions.

 

Stating that many subjects such as the nation state, wars, occupations, ecology, the class that creates the patriarchal mentality, nationalism, Sociology of Freedom and Jineology were discussed in the conference, which lasted for two days and consisted of 5 sessions, Gerkuş said: "About 800 women attended the conference and translations were made in eight languages that the conference was full of enthusiasm. The participation of the indigenous peoples, which we call Latin America and who were under American colonization, was very high. There were participants from Spain, France, Philippines, Yemen, the Middle East and Europe. In this respect, I can say that it was a very comprehensive and transnational conference.”

 

'WE SPOKE ABOUT THE REVOLUTION'

 

Pointing out that there are in-depth discussions on the labor exploitation of women, which is at the center of the struggle, Gerkuş said: “The invisible, unpaid labor of women and the economic crisis were discussed. At the end of the second day, there were some workshops. One of these workshops was the forcing of women to migrate, their removal from their land and the related problems. Regarding these problems, it was focused on which paths women should follow strategically in their struggle for freedom. It was discussed how to defend language and culture and how to build an anti-fascist bloc in the women's struggle. In short, we talked about the revolution, not the miracles. As women living in different countries, we discussed how we can share this struggle and especially the forms of organization against colonialism.”

 

EFFECTS OF THE KURDISH WOMEN'S MOVEMENT

 

Emphasizing that the Kurdish Women's Movement made great contributions to the construction of such a great solidarity network, Gerkuş said: "The European foot of the Kurdish women's movement has a great role in the establishment of this solidarity network. The network of organisations that continued there and the way they made policy together was very impressive. Apart from that, it was very impressive to hear firsthand about the territorial struggle and feminist struggle experiences of women from many different countries within the borders of their own country.”

 

AGAINST COLONIALISM AND RACISM

 

Pointing out that one of the other important workshops of the conference was the discussion of colonialism and racism, Gerkuş said: “Colonialism and racism are among the issues that women are most exposed to. The possibilities of living by everyone living their own culture and without being influenced by another dominant culture in their own uniqueness were discussed. In order for this to happen, it was promised how to build it on the basis of racism, anti-colonialism, ecology, education, health, language and culture, and to take steps to fight against it. We will see how this will happen and what we can do in the coming period.”

 

MA / Esra Solin Dal