Hello friends,
We are very excited to share with you a collaborative event that APC is
planning with Mamacash, CREA, FRIDA, UAF, Astraea and AWID.
The convening is to unpack and to understand how has the internet
affected feminist movement building - what are some of the new dynamics,
actors, ways of organising, as well as challenges. And also to have a
very specific track on unboxing and hacking digital security from a
feminist movement building framework, so that we can locate this work
for stronger and more resilient networked activism.
Please do apply. The deadline is: 8 Sept 2017. More details below. And
help spread the word!
Application form: https://www.apc.org/limesurvey/index.php/931275/lang-en
==============================================================
MAKING A FEMINIST INTERNET: MOVEMENT BUILDING IN A DIGITAL AGE
Port Dickson, Malaysia. 3-6 October 2017
==============================================================
On April 24th 2016, more than 70,000 tweets through multiple hashtags
coalesced into the largest street protest across multiple cities in
Mexico against gender-based violence. In India, Dalit women are
foregrounding their realities on the agenda for change, forging
political kinship between movements and distances by deftly employing
social media and art in their strategies. In South Africa, university
students across the country organised one of the largest post-apartheid
movements under the banner #FeesMustFall to tangibly shift the discourse
in the privatisation of post-secondary public education and addressing
structural and systemic inequality.
In all of the cases, the movement building happened through lateral and
diffused organising and collective imagination, co-creation and action
by multiple nodes in a vast network of agents for change. What these
stories demonstrate is the shifting terrain of our movements, and the
fluidity of spaces for our political acts of expression, occupation,
re-territorialisation, solidarity and resistance. Internet technologies
have become stitched into the landscape of our organising and politics
of engagement. However, this landscape is rapidly changing, with new
opportunities, horizons, possibilities, and also challenges.
********
WHAT
********
To respond to this emerging reality, the Association for Progressive
Communications is collaborating with Mamacash, CREA, FRIDA, Urgent
Action Fund and Astraea to organise a 4-day convening to bring together
actors who are differently located within movement building work to
reflect, question, imagine and create by asking ourselves and each other:
● How is movement building in a digital age expressed in different
locations?
● What are the connective junctures of shared concerns, needs and learnings?
● What must we pay attention to as backlash and attacks occur in the
different spaces we occupy?
● How do we strengthen safety and agency in the face of online
gender-based violence, censorship and surveillance?
● How do we engage with the internet through a politics and practice of
feminism?
● How can we imagine and make a feminist internet one that is supportive
of the resilient and strong movements, and that is both a site of, and a
space for our activisms?
We are inviting the participation of activists and actors who are
differently located in the social justice landscape to bring valuable
perspectives, knowledge and experiences to:
● Deepen the understanding of how the digital landscape has affected
feminist, women’s rights, sexual rights and intersectional movement
building work;
● Strengthen the capacity of feminist, women’s rights, sexual rights and
digital security activists to respond to emerging challenges and threats;
● Engage in the creation of collaborative ideas and strategising between
different actors on how to make a feminist internet and a feminist world
that can contribute towards building strong and resilient movements.
********
WHO
********
● Are you a feminist, women’s rights, sexual rights or internet rights
activist?
● Are you curious about how digital platforms and internet technologies
have affected and impacted on how we organise for change? Whether this
be new actors, strategies, issues, dynamics, threats, challenges or
opportunities?
● Do you have experience in strengthening and building movements? Such
as developing community-based strategies, organising cross-movement
convenings or campaigns, mobilising resources to support emerging or
intersectional issues, or strengthening networks in organising?
● Do you organise or engage in trainings for and support the
strengthening of women’s rights, sexual rights or feminist networks and
communities on digital security or safety?
● Do you share our vision of locating our activism and work towards
creating change through movements? And, do you do this formally or
informally through collectives, coalitions, social media, organisations,
or as a node that connects between several different issues-based movements?
********
HOW
********
If you see yourself reflected in most of the questions above, please
apply by filling in this application form by 8 September 2017:
https://www.apc.org/limesurvey/index.php/931275/lang-en
Join us in unboxing and re-imagining movement building in the digital
age, and to make a feminist internet that is threaded through our
collective work for change.
For further information/questions: sekoetlane
apc [ punto ] org (sekoetlane[at]apc[dot]org) or erikaapcwomen [ punto ] org (erika[at]apcwomen[dot]org)
http://feministinternet.org/en/MakingAFeministInternetMovementBuilding