More than 40 years ago, feminists among Marxists in many countries spoke out. They criticized the concept of labour that was then commonly used in Marxism, they criticized value theory, views on domestic labour and the family, the way of dealing and interacting with each other and with the nature around us, on the economy and wars, visions of the future and the urge for liberation.
They triggered passionate debates – their criticism wasn’t totally ignored. But the work they have carried out on an international scale is far from complete. For some decades feminist Marxist debates subsided because neoliberalism, stumbling from one crisis to another, had brought other issues into focus.
In March 2015, we intend to pick up the threads. Many of those voices – and many who have since joined – will come together at a congress in order to investigate what has been left undone. We will discuss successes and defeats as well as new projects with the intention of finding out together what has been gained so far, what we need to continue working on, what new issues are on the agenda, and how we can bundle our energies to achieve worldwide resonance to our demand to intervene.
What remains as fundamental as almost half a century ago is that socialist feminists join forces internationally.
Participants among others: Erica Burman (England), Cynthia Cockburn (England), Helen Colley (Canada), Gabriele Dietrich (Indien), Hester Eisenstein (USA), Zillah Eisenstein (USA), Tucker Pamela Farley (USA), Ann Ferguson (USA), Harriet Fraad (USA), Barbara Fried (Deutschland), Catherine Hoskyns (England), Montserrat Galceran Huguet (Spanien), Martha Gimenez (USA), Heidi Hartmann (USA), Frigga Haug (Deutschland), Katja Kipping (Deutschland), Ece Kocabicak (England/Türkei), Karen Kramer (Deutschland/USA), Birge Krondorfer (Österreich), Elisabeth List (Österreich), Ruth May (Deutschland), Shahrzad Mojab (Canada), Mechthild Nagel (USA), Shirin Rai (England), Nora Räthzel (Schweden), Adrienne Roberts (England), Saskia Sassen (USA), Veronika Schild (Canada/Chile), Sarah Schulman (USA), Terri Seddon (Australien), Lynne Segal (England), Tove Soiland (Schweiz), Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (USA/Indien), Daniela Tepe-Belfrage (England), Lise Vogel (USA), Katharina Volk (Deutschland), Gabriele Winker (Deutschland), Uta von Winterfeld (Deutschland), Nira Yuval-Davis (England).
Team: Frigga Haug, Ruth May, Mario Candeias, Julia Dück, Barbara Fried, Katharina Pühl, with Gabriele Winker and many others.
Organized by Feminist Section of the Berlin Institute for Critical Theory and Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung with Participation of transform! europe and SDS.Die LINKE.
Conference languages: German, English
Programme
Friday, 20 March 2015
10:00
Arrival
10.30–10:45
Opening with | Eröffnung mit Katja Kipping
10.45–11:15
Introduction | Einführung
Frigga Haug: Gender Relations are Relations of Production. Marxism-feminism a Challenge. Shifting problems, changing frames and how to go on
11.15–12.00
General debate
+ + Lunch + +
13:00–15:00
Workshops 1–3
1 Female Proletariats
2 Conflicts on Agency
3 Feminist Theory and Feminist Movements I
+ + Coffee break + +
15:30–17:30
Panel 1: Learning from History | Aus der Geschichte lernen
+ + Dinner + +
19:00–20:00
Book Launch: Marxism and Feminism
20:30–21:00
Luxemburg Lecture by Saskia Sassen: What do we see when we go back to ground level – detheorize, in order to re-theorize?
Open end:
Talk, Drinks and Music in the Luxemburg Lounge
Saturday, 21 March 2015
9:00–11:00
Panel 2: Critique of current feminisms | Kritik gegenwärtiger Feminismen (Intersectionality 1)
+ + Coffee break + +
11:30–13:30
Panel 3: Interventions | Eingriffspunkte (Intersectionality 2)
11:30–13:30
Workshop 4 + 5
4 New Materialist Feminism I
5 Feminist-Marxist Analysis of the Care-Sektor
+ + Lunch + +
15:00–17:00
Workshops 6–9
6 Relations between Humans and Nature
7 Neoliberalism, Politics and Education
8 Activist Feminism against neoliberal Authoritarianism
9 Feminist Theory and Feminist Movements II
+ + Coff ee break + +
17:30–19:30
Panel 4: Towards a Human Society | Perspektiven einer menschlichen Gesellschaft
17:30–19:30
Workshop 10 New Materialist Feminism II
+ + Dinner + +
20:30–21:15
Luxemburg Lecture by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak: One Limit of Marxist Feminism
Open end:
Talk, Drinks and Music in the Luxemburg Lounge
Sunday, 22 March 2015
10:00–10:30
+ + Bread Rolls, Coff ee and Tea + +
10:30–12:30
Feminism and the organizational Question: Which Strategy? A debate | Feminismus und Organisationsfrage: Welche Strategie? Eine Debatte
+ + Lunch + +
13:30–15:30
On Re-Foundation of Marxism-Feminism | Zur Neubegründung des Marxismus-Feminismus
Workshops and panels are presented as building blocks for a collective manifesto
15:30–16:30
Conclusions. Perspectives for international networking | Fazit und Perspektiven internationaler Zusammenarbeit