In December 2019 we held our annual men’s workshop for the Euskal Herria/Basque Country Region. For thirty years we have held this annual workshop on the liberation of men, led by Xabier Odriozola, the Regional Reference Person for Euskal Herria/Basque Country.
HISTORY OF THIS WORK
We made a chart on which each man wrote the year that he first attended the annual Regional men’s workshop. Thanks to this exercise, we were able to have perspective on the variety of men’s RC liberation experience in our group. We were also made aware that the current workshop was the consequence of the relationships and systematic and constant work over thirty years.
SUPPORT BETWEEN ANNUAL WORKSHOPS
During the 2018 men’s workshop Xabi proposed (again) that the men form five support groups consisting of an experienced leader and three men, and that these groups meet four times—in winter, spring, summer, and autumn—prior to the 2019 workshop. We did the same thing at the 2017 workshop—forming five support groups that met until the 2018 workshop.
Men who participate in a workshop can thus be directly connected with other men throughout the year and can arrive at the next workshop with that connection, which makes the workshop group work much easier (since we arrive with much less disconnection). At least four support groups have met between annual workshops. Men can maintain relationships with those with whom they had a special and close connection during the previous workshop.
GROUP WORK AS A BASIS
During the first day of the 2019 workshop we met in the support groups that had formed in 2018 and had met throughout the year. On the second day we formed new support groups with new leaders, and these were to be our groups throughout 2020 until the 2021 workshop.
During the workshop we met at least ten times in support groups as well as two times in paired Co-Counseling sessions. The support group leaders met with Xabi during breakfast and dinner. He shared his perspectives, made proposals, and listened to us about our work. We shared how we saw the workshop going. He emphasized the importance of our leadership role—that we led our group members to work on the issues he raised in the workshop classes. Without this, the workshop would lose power and effectiveness, since the usual tendency is to avoid uncomfortable topics and where we feel confused and lost. And it is precisely those topics that will make us advance the most, individually and as a group.
DEMONSTRATIONS AND SUPPORT GROUPS AS A WORKSHOP STRUCTURE
The workshop consisted of presentations of the key ideas of men’s oppression, by means of demonstrations with different men, followed by work in support groups. Each demonstration sought to show the influences that have constructed the oppressive version of masculinity.
The demonstrations gave us practical clues about how to work personally in sessions on each of the issues, and the support group gave us a space to work on it.
Two of the most complicated areas of men’s oppression were demonstrated by means of panels, and five men participated in each panel.
As a result, we had the opportunity to listen to all the men in the group on one topic or another. This allowed us to understand that all men are affected by the same issues, although each one is affected in a particular way. This gave us a global perspective on our sexism and the oppressive version of masculinity that had been imposed on us and how our individual difficulties come from the same root that we share as a collective.
INCREASING PARTICIPATION OF MEN
The oppression we men suffer especially affects the following areas: the repression of our feelings and the discharge process, the difficulties in creating and maintaining close and committed relationships, and our discouragement and surrender in terms of fighting for our own liberation. The workshops are designed with this reality in mind. They seek to keep us united, in contact, not alone, discharging, and with concrete practical resources for our sessions on our liberation as men.
The above explains why we have a Regional RC Community in which half of us are men. The workshop structure has worked; in fact, we are growing in number. New men have stayed in RC Communities because they have had a man and a support group they trust that have accompanied them closely in their process. Thanks to these workshops, they are able to broaden their base of trusted men and resources.