A conference titled “We will blossom because war cannot uproot our roots,” jointly organized by the “Women Weaving the Future” network and women’s movements in Latin America, has begun in Bogotá.
The gathering, which follows the World Women’s Conferences held in Frankfurt in 2018 and Berlin in 2022, brings together participants from the Abya Yala continent, as well as representatives of Indigenous peoples and movements across the continent. More than 400 delegates are attending the conference, which brings together collectives, movements, and representatives of continent-wide confederations, from Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, Haiti, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay, as well as from Kurdistan, Europe, Turkey, Canada, and Australia.
Following nearly a year of preparations, the conference has drawn strong interest and wide participation. The organizers gave priority to Indigenous peoples, feminist movements, social movements, trade unions, environmental movements, and alternative media collectives.
During the conference, which will continue until 15 February, women will discuss the destructive policies of colonialism, patriarchy, and capitalism, as well as how social resistance grounded in women’s freedom can be organized. The conference aims to define a common line of struggle and a future perspective for the resistance of Indigenous peoples, social movements, and popular feminism. The program will continue with three sessions to be held with the participation of all delegates, followed by workshops lasting one day.
The conference is dedicated to Alina Sanchez, Berta Cáceres, Rosa Luxemburg, and Sakine Cansız.
The gathering began on the evening of 11 February with a ritual led by the spiritual leaders of the Mapuche, Quechua, Lenka, Aymara, and various Indigenous peoples. Each people took part in the ceremony wearing their own colors and traditional dress, and the Kurdistan delegation also joined the ritual in traditional attire.
The official opening of the conference will take place on 12 February at 08:30 local time with a cultural performance. Following the opening, a current situation assessment analyzing the attacks of patriarchy, the state, and male domination across the continent will be presented. After the analyses to be delivered by representatives from Mexico, Honduras, Kurdistan, and Feministas Abya Yala, the first session will begin.
First session: Colonial policies and the struggle for defense
The first session, titled “Colonial policies and attacks in Abya Yala and the struggle to defend land,” will address extractivist policies, including the exploitation of natural resources such as mining and oil, as well as mental and bodily exploitation and the practices of states, multinational corporations, and paramilitary forces.
The panel will be moderated by a representative of Movement for Water and Territories (MAT – Movimiento por el Agua y los Territorios). Nadia Umaña from Congreso de los Pueblos-Colombia (Peoples’ Congress of Colombia), Jalisco from the “Un Salto de Vida” movement in Mexico (A Leap of Life), and representatives of Unión Comunera from Venezuela (Communal Union) will assess the consequences of the attacks in their respective countries.
Under the subheading “The resistances that have emerged in response to these attacks and the links between them, the forms and methods of these struggles, and their common ground,” Carmen Álvarez, speaking on behalf of OFRANEH from Honduras, and Aveline Rochel, speaking on behalf of CONAIE from Ecuador, will take the floor.
Under the heading “How can an alternative system be built in response to these attacks without falling into the traps set by the state?”, Berivan Khaled from Kongra Star and Roseli Finscue from Proceso Mujeres of the Council of Indigenous Peoples of Cauca (CRIC- Consejo Regional Indígena del Cauca) will speak.
Attacks and resistance targeting women and land
The session titled “Corpo territorio de las mujeres (Women’s body-territory)”, which will begin at 14:00, will focus on attacks targeting women and land, as well as the forms of resistance developed against these attacks. The panel will be moderated by Adriana Guzmán from Bolivia. Speakers will include a representative of Feministas del Abya Yala, Bertita Zúñiga Cáceres from the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH–Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras), the daughter of the murdered Berta Cáceres, and Mariyam Fatihi from the Free Women’s Movement of Kurdistan (KJAR–Koma Jinên Azad a Rojhilatê Kurdistanê).
The panel will address attacks targeting women, state policies, and the criminalization of women’s struggles. Presentations will examine femicides and other forms of violence experienced by women within the family, in society, in the sphere of political struggle, and in the workplace. Alongside identifying the problems, the session will also discuss the forms of resistance practices developed by women in response to these attacks.
Bringing women’s colors into the resistance
The third session, titled “Bringing women’s colors into the resistance,” will be held in a roundtable format. The session, which will unfold around three main themes, will address the steps that need to be taken to strengthen women’s organization, as well as the obstacles, opportunities, potential, and needs in this field. Drawing on the commonalities and differences among struggles, the session will foreground the goal of weaving a democratic confederalism network.
The session will be jointly moderated by the Women Weaving the Future network (Kadınlar Geleceği Örüyor) and Women of the Sixth (Mujeres y la Sexta).
Under the heading “The alliance between patriarchy, the state, colonialism, and capitalism,” the discussion will focus on how this structure can be exposed and what kinds of knowledge frameworks are needed. In this section, Vanesa Mendonça from Popular Struggle (Luta Popular) in Brazil, Vidalina Morales from the Association for Economic and Social Development (Asociación de Desarrollo Económico Social–ADES) in El Salvador, Vanesa Jeudi from the Union of Women for Reconstruction (Union des Femmes pour la Reconstruction–UNIR) in Haiti, and Dengir Güneş, speaking on behalf of the Kurdish Women’s Movement (Tevgera Jinên Kurdistan), will take the floor.
Under the heading “How women’s knowledge and tradition can be transformed into a powerful basis for resistance,” presentations will be delivered by Machi Betiana from the Sacred Territory of the Lake (Lafken Winkul Mapu, Mapuche), Lolita Chávez from the Council of K’iche’ Peoples (Consejo de Pueblos K’iche’ – CPK) in Guatemala, Sleydo from Canada, Avelina Rogel from Mother Wisdom (Mama Sabiduría) in Ecuador, and Dîrok, speaking on behalf of Jineology, the science of women (Jineology) from Kurdistan.
Under the heading “Making autonomous organization a fundamental principle,” Julia Rodríguez from Communards Between the Mountain Ranges (Komuneras Entre Cordilleras) in Colombia, Claudia Torres from Women of the Sixth (Mujeres y la Sexta) in Mexico, Lourdes from the National Federation of Peasant, Artisan, Indigenous, Native and Salaried Women of Peru (Federación Nacional de Mujeres Campesinas, Artesanas, Indígenas, Nativas y Asalariadas del Perú – Fenmucarinap), Jiyan Doğan from the Free Women’s Movement (Tevgera Jinên Azad – TJA) in Kurdistan, and Claudia from the Women’s Movement for Dignity and Peace (Mujeres MODEP – Movimiento de Mujeres por la Dignidad y la Paz) in Colombia will share their assessments.
Workshops in eight thematic areas
On 13 February, under the heading “Toward the World Democratic Women’s Conference,” the path toward the democratic confederalism of women worldwide will be discussed based on the outcomes of the panels. The second day will then continue with workshops organized under eight different themes. In the workshops titled Self-Defense, Democratic Confederalism, Communal Economy, Health, Culture and Arts, Education, Communication and Alternative Media, and Jineology, participants will collectively discuss how to strengthen alternative forms of organization developed at the local level.
As of 18:30, a solidarity economy corridor and a culture and arts event will be held.
On 14 February, the results of the workshops will be evaluated. Each workshop will present to the delegates the outcomes it has reached through its designated spokespersons under three main headings: transforming devastated life back into its own meaning, shared agendas and the difficulties experienced in local practices, and the search for solutions to weave the future.
On 15 February, the conference’s final declaration will be submitted to the approval of the delegates. This will be followed by a gathering at a peoples’ market featuring the cultural motifs and products of each people. The conference will conclude with a cultural event.
The conference can be followed live on the YouTube channel Women Weaving the Future (@womenweavingfuture) or listened to via the live stream at stream.radios.red:8000/radio8.mp3.
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