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‘they’re talkin’ bout a revolution’: feminism, anarchism and the politics of social change in the global justice movement

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Feminist Review

Abstract

Despite the proliferation of works on the ‘global justice movement’ (GJM) in recent years, surprisingly little has been written on the intersections between feminist and anarchist strands within this ‘movement of movements’. In an effort to rectify this gap in the literature, this article seeks to explore in what ways and to what extent anarchist and feminist renditions of revolution, within the context of the GJM, are conceptually compatible and thereby potentially politically reinforcing. In order to ascertain the degree of convergence between these two radical projects, in the first part of the article I examine what each camp is fighting for and against and whether their struggles for social justice are ideologically consonant. In the second part, I turn my attention to the types of practices being enacted and defended by these two activist constituencies and ask how they see their respective revolutions being brought about. What notions of social change are at work here and are their political practices, and the different temporalities sustaining them, reconcilable? After arguing in the first two parts of this article that anarchism and feminism are more compatible than is often acknowledged and that the considerable synergies between feminist notions of social justice and social change and anarchist conceptions of revolution merit far more attention than they currently receive, I end the piece by reflecting on some of the points of tension that still militate against merging their respective political imaginaries. I do so in an attempt to identify what I see as the conditions of possibility for a more integrated, mutually collaborative feminist anarchist revolutionary politics.

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Notes

  1. Anarchist FAQ Editorial Collective (2010) What do anarchists mean by ‘social revolution’?, J.7.4, 6, http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/the-anarchist-faq-editorial-collective-an-anarchist-faq-11-17#toc66, last accessed 16 September 2013.

  2. It is important to note that this label is contested and that many activists prefer to describe the ‘movement of movements’ in which they participate in as ‘anticapitalist’, ‘antiglobalisation’ or ‘globalisation from below’.

  3. See also Epstein, B. (2001) ‘Anarchism and the anti-globalization movement’ Monthly Review, Vol. 53, No. 4, monthlyreview.org/2001/09/01/anarchism-and-the-anti-globalization-movement, last accessed 9 September 2013.

  4. This article draws on, among other things, the arguments developed in my co-authored book with Catherine Eschle (Eschle and Maiguashca, 2010), which sought to empirically trace and theoretically reflect on the origins, grievances, aspirations, practices and identities of what we called then ‘feminist anti-globalisation activism’. Undertaken between 2003 and 2005 in France, India, the United Kingdom and Brazil, our research involved participant observation, document analysis and seventy-eight semi-structured interviews with eighty-five activists from sixty women’s organisations.

  5. LoveKills Collective (2009) ‘Love is a perverted feeling …: An email interview with the anarcha-feminist LoveKills Collective, from Romania’ Grassroots Feminism: Transnational Archives, Resources and Communities, 23 March, http://www.grassrootsfeminism.net/cms/node/161, last accessed 31 December 2012.

  6. Hukku, C. (2010) ‘Some thoughts on anarcha-feminism’ Shift Magazine, No. 7, http://anarchalibrary.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/some-thoughts-on-anarcha-feminism-2010.html, last accessed 31 December 2012.

  7. Guest, K. (2011) ‘Feminism and anarchism: towards a politics of engagement’ in A Collection of Essays on Feminism and Sexism in the Anarchist Movement, Zabalaza Books, http://zabalaza.net/2011/03/08/8th-of-march-commemorating-the-international-day-of-struggle-for-womens-liberation/, last accessed 6 July 2013.

  8. Shannon, D. and Rogue, J. (2009) ‘Refusing to wait: anarchism and intersectionality’ Anarkismo, 11 November, http://anarkismo.net/article/14923, last accessed 6 July 2013.

  9. Graeber, D. (2007) Revolution in reverse, Infoshop News, 16 October, http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=2007graeber-revolution-reverset, last accessed 6 January 2013.

  10. Ibid.

  11. Epstein, B. (2001) ‘Anarchism and the anti-globalization movement’ Monthly Review, Vol. 53, No. 4, monthlyreview.org/2001/09/01/anarchism-and-the-anti-globalization-movement, last accessed 9 September 2013.

  12. Esmond, J. (2010) ‘Anarchists in the global justice movement – review of “direct action: an ethnography” New Socialist: Ideas for Radical Change, 11 February, http://www.newsocialist.org/webzine/analysis/109-review-of-direct-action-an-ethnography, last accessed 9 September 2013.

  13. People’s Global Action (PGA)—Hallmarks, http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/en/, last accessed 30 January 2013.

  14. Hukku, C. (2010) ‘Some thoughts on anarcha-feminism’ Shift Magazine, No. 7, http://anarchalibrary.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/some-thoughts-on-anarcha-feminism-2010.html, last accessed 31 December 2012.

  15. PGA—Hallmarks, http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/en/, last accessed 30 January 2013.

  16. Graeber, D. (2007) ‘Revolution in reverse’ Infoshop News, 16 October, http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=2007graeber-revolution-reverset, last accessed 6 January 2013.

  17. Anarchist FAQ Editorial Collective (2010) ‘What do anarchists mean by “social revolution”?’, J.7.4, 7, http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/the-anarchist-faq-editorial-collective-an-anarchist-faq-11-17#toc66, last accessed 16 September 2013.

  18. Epstein, B. (2001) ‘Anarchism and the anti-globalization movement’ Monthly Review, Vol. 53, No. 4, monthlyreview.org/2001/09/01/anarchism-and-the-anti-globalization-movement, last accessed 9 September 2013.

  19. It is interesting to note that according to Graeber the anarchist tradition of direct democracy can be traced to feminist and Quaker organising of the 1970s. Graeber, D. (2007) ‘Revolution in reverse’ Infoshop News, 16 October, at http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=2007graeber-revolution-reverset, last accessed 6 January 2013.

  20. This is not to say that there are no anarcha-feminists active within the GJM, but simply that they tend to gravitate to and operate within other political arenas such as the People's Global Action (PGA) Network, which, in the main, have received less scholarly attention.

  21. Arguably, anarchism as a movement has a longer and more-established pedigree in Western and Eastern Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States, although it has been increasingly garnering support in the South over the past decade and in particular in the current context of the so-called ‘Arab Spring’. See Bamyeh, M. (2011) ‘Anarchist, liberal and authoritarian enlightenments: notes from the Arab Spring’ Jadaliyya, 30 July, at http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/2268/anarchist-liberal-and-authoritarian-enlightenments, last accessed 30 December 2012.

  22. World March for Women (WMW) Declaration 2013, http://www.marchemondiale.org/actions/2013/declaration/en, last accessed 8 March 2013.

  23. Graeber, D. (2007) ‘Revolution in reverse’ Infoshop News, 16 October, http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=2007graeber-revolution-reverset, last accessed 6 January 2013.

  24. See foodnotbombs.net, last accessed 24 September 2013.

  25. Indymedia (2005) ‘Blockading the G8: personal accounts’ Indymedia, 13 July, http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/liverpool/2005/07/318213.html, last accessed 19 August 2013.

  26. Anarchist FAQ Editorial Collective (1996) Are all anarchists revolutionaries?, J.7.1, 3, http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/the-anarchist-faq-editorial-collective-an-anarchist-faq-11-17#toc67, last accessed 16 September 2013.

  27. Hodgson, T., ‘Towards anarchy: the revolution is now’, http://flag.blackened.net/anarchynz/therevolutionisnow.htm, last accessed 24 September 2013.

  28. Trapese Collective (2005), http://www.trapese.org/, last accessed 10 July 2013.

  29. Shannon, D. and Rogue, J. (2009) ‘Refusing to wait: anarchism and intersectionality’ Anarkismo, 11 November, http://anarkismo.net/article/14923, last accessed 6 July 2013.

  30. Volcano, A. and Rogue, J. (2013) ‘Insurrections at the intersections: feminism, intersectionality and anarchism’, libcom.org/library/insurrections-intersections-feminism-intersectionality-anarchism, last accessed 10 July 2013.

  31. Barker, M. and Heckert, J. (2011) ‘Privilege and oppression, conflict and compassion’ The Sociological Imagination, 15 September, http://sociologicalimagination.org/archives/6520, last accessed 16 September 2013.

  32. Graeber, D. (2007) ‘Revolution in reverse’, Infoshop News, 16 October, http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=2007graeber-revolution-reverset, last accessed 6 January 2013.

  33. Ibid.

  34. Shannon, D. and Rogue, J. (2009) ‘Refusing to wait: anarchism and intersectionality’ Anarkismo, 11 November, 5, http://anarkismo.net/article/14923, last accessed 6 July 2013.

  35. Wright, C. (1994) ‘Anarchism, feminism and the individual’ Social Anarchism: A Journal of Theory and Practice, No. 19: 6–7, http://www.socialanarchism.org/mod/magazine/display/5/index.php, last accessed 16 September 2013.

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Maiguashca, B. ‘they’re talkin’ bout a revolution’: feminism, anarchism and the politics of social change in the global justice movement. Fem Rev 106, 78–94 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1057/fr.2013.36

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