A Powerful Organizing Team
A group of primarily Central and Eastern European women formed an organizing team for the Contemporary Women’s Issues Workshop in Warsaw, Poland. [See previous article.] Our goals included making sure that the workshop happened; supporting Susanne Langer, the main workshop organizer; ensuring that a workshop in Central Europe would have a team of organizers primarily from that region; and building our group of Central and Eastern European sisters.
At a workshop in Denmark we decided we would work together to make this Contemporary Women’s Issues Workshop happen. For several of us it was not an easy decision—we had some helpful “fights.” In the end we all agreed that being together and building our group was the most important reason to join the team. We also made a commitment to discharge on anti-Semitism as part of our organizing efforts, so we could better welcome our Jewish sisters—including Diane Balser, the leader of the workshop—to Central Europe.
Then we met several times over the next few months on Zoom calls, shared out [distributed] the work, and got closer to each other. This allowed us to do all the administrative tasks as well as ensure that up to twenty women from Central and Eastern Europe would attend the workshop. For some of us it was a relief to be part of this organizing group. But it wasn’t all easy—we had to make and remake the commitment to the work and to being with each other.
I was particularly pleased by the following results of our organizing:
- We were able to welcome women from constituencies that had never been represented at Contemporary Women’s Issues Workshops—for example, Romani women, some women from Russia who led many other women, and younger women from Central and Eastern European countries who were new to RC.
- Our work may have been a factor in allowing our Jewish sisters to show themselves fully during a wonderful Shabbat [Jewish Sabbath] service, and in general to take up the space that is rightfully theirs in Central Europe.
- The women of the Global Majority were particularly prominent and did a lot of leading. Their increasing leadership in our Communities shined through. Perhaps they had more space than usual to “show” because our organizing had made it possible for them to concentrate on their unity and togetherness.
- The workshop was well-thought-about and did well in terms of finances. Susanne reminded the women from Western Europe that their financial position was better than that of their sisters from Central and Eastern Europe and that they could afford to pay more than they had originally promised—and a majority of them did. For me this was an indication that we can do what I’ve always thought we could—transfer some of the wealth from the economic North and West to the East and South.
- We had a number of support groups that focused on the most important issues for women from Central and Eastern Europe rather than (as is often the case) on issues more important for Western European women. One such issue was health, which is a much bigger challenge in our region.
- I was delighted to see the Russian women take their rightful place in this group of powerful RC leaders.
The following are some changes in myself as a result of the workshop:
- I’m noticing the details of sexism a lot more in my life, and most of my sessions since the workshop have been about sexism.
- I’ve had some big discussions with wide world feminist friends about how to address sexism.
- I have worked more closely with some powerful women friends (some of whom know about RC) to take on [confront and work on] big issues such as the fight against antigypsyism (anti-Roma racism).
- I am teaching a fundamentals class of only men and am thinking strategically—I want to make sure that by the end of the class they will understand men’s oppression, sexism, and male domination as mechanisms that make their own lives difficult.
Our group of organizers will continue to meet via Zoom under the leadership of Anna Skvortsova (the Regional Reference Person for Russia). We will continue to support each other as we take on sexism and male domination.
Budapest, Hungary
Reprinted from the RC e-mail
discussion list for leaders of women