January, 2009
** Feminist energy galvanised! **
Greetings dear feminist RebELLEs!
Already three months have passed since the first Pan-Canadian Young Feminist Gathering. 511 young women and young feminists from all regions of Canada, between 14 to 35 years of age, met to deepen, Mobilize, network, energize, and deepen the roots of the young feminist movement across Canada. We should be proud of our collective success and to have made history in the feminist movement in Canada and in Québec.
In the present context of rising anti-feminism and Right-winged ideology in the economic, moral, political and religious spheres, we should be proud that we have made our mark on the political and social landscape: that we stated out loud that feminism is alive and well among the younger generation and that our struggles are far from over. Today, we are renewing our contact with you, young feminists, to continue to organize our struggle and face the challenge of TAKING ACTION!
In this section, we update you on the SPIN-OFFS OF THE GATHERING (February 5th, 2009)!
- Information and call to organising decentralised Pan-Canadian young feminist actions on March 8 2009 in your area!
- Information on the Pan-Canadian Evaluation Meeting of the Gathering
- New stuff on the Waves of Resistance website! www.rebelles.org
- The DVD of the Gathering
- The distribution and use of the RebELLEs Manifesto
- Workshops on the rise of the Right...in progress
- Provincial and regional mobilisation...what is happening in your area?
- 2010: the G8, the Olympics and the World March of Women
- Towards a 2nd Pan-Canadian Young Feminist Gathering???
Already excited… so please read the following!
*** SPIN-OFFS of the Pan-Canadian Gathering ***
1) Pan-Canadian Decentralised Day of Action of Young Feminists on March 8
Girls, it's time for action, to make heard our diverse and determined voices, to distribute our Manifesto, to shake the established patriarchal order. Ready, on your mark, organise your action!
During the plenary on the strategies of struggle against the rising of the Right, the participants in the Gathering choose one common time to take action. We decided collectively that on March 8, 2009, young feminists across the country would organize feminist actions against the rise of the Right, or participate in organised actions by bringing their analysis and promoting the Manifesto of young feminists.
We will soon send an email specifically on the March 8, with a specific call to action and tools to support you in the organisation of your decentralized local, regional or provincial/territorial actions.
We would also like to know if you have already started organizing actions in your area, since the Gathering. If so, how is it going? If not, what would you need to support you in your organization/mobilisation efforts for these actions? In order to show our feminist solidarity across Canada, we need you to let us know what you are organising for March 8 and inform us if you have any particular needs, etc. Knowing what is happening elsewhere is inspiring for all! Send us an email on your action at mobilisation@rebelles.org !
To know more on the March 8th National Day of Action
Download organizational tools for the actions
2) Pan-Canadian Evaluation Meeting
View the full report on the Evaluation and Follow-Up Meeting of March 2009.
Further to an event of this magnitude uniting so many strong feminist voices, it is important to have a collective assessment of the event and not solely an evaluation by the organizers. The huge success lies in the fact that we constructed it together and the evaluation falls upon all of us! To do this, the team of 'Waves of Resistance' is organizing a Pan-Canadian evaluation on March 27, 28 and 29. Like the Consulta that happened last May 2008, this meeting will be a retreat. The meeting, open to two delegates per province and territory, between two to four First Nations representatives, as well as the members of the organizing committee, in order to evaluate this event and the first actions that follow. The organizing committee will assume the transportation costs of one representative per province or territory as well as two First Nations representatives. The meeting will also include discussions on political and strategic perspectives to structure a Pan-Canadian network of young feminists. We will also be evaluating the strength of our young feminist movement and identify ways to reinforce and facilitate the organization, at the national level, of common actions, centralized or decentralized.
Who will be at this meeting? This will be up to the participants to designate their representatives in each province or territory when they hold their provincial Gathering of the Pan-Canadian evaluation. We will be sending you more information soon on all of this. However, we encourage you to start planning your provincial/regional meeting/assembly! Don't miss the opportunity to participate in the consolidation of the lively forces of young RebELLEs!
3) New Stuff on the Waves of Resistance website – a new platform for mobilisation!
The website was first made for the organisation and mobilisation for the Gathering. At the Gathering, young feminists decided that this website will become a platform for young feminists in Canada that would permit young women to stay in touch and enrich their respective struggles. We are done transforming the website into an interactive space for reflection and discussion (forums and blogs), of information sharing and analysis (putting tools, articles, photos, videos, etc. on line) and coordination of actions (posting calls to action, invitations to support a local or regional campaign, petitions, etc.) for young feminists in Canada. The website will be an important tool for our movement and to organize the Pan-Canadian Decentralised Day of action on March 8 2009.
4) DVD of the Gathering
Yes, ladies, there will be a DVD of the Gathering which will include:
- A film on the first Pan-Canadian Young Feminist Gathering 'Waves of Resistance'
- A mini 'Making Of' the organisation of the Gathering, with images of the Consulta last May and interviews with the organisers
- Photos of the Gathering
- The Manifesto in all its different versions possible
- All relevant documents produced by the organising committee
- And other all bonuses!
The DVD is expected to be ready in April.
5) The distribution and use of the RebELLEs' Manifesto
The 'Manifesto of the Pan-Canadian Young Feminist Gathering' is our political tool. For us, it is a tool for identification as well as mobilisation and consciousness-raising. The Manifesto introduces who we are, as young feminists, what we are fighting against, what we are struggling for, the world and communities we dream of building together and the gestures we will make to get there.
We will soon have a poster of the Manifesto that will be distributed across Canada... launching will be before March 8!
In the meantime, we will be inviting you to distribute it and to use it as largely as possible... It can be used as a popular education tool, to open up discussions and analysis; as a tool for mobilisation; it could be published in local papers or newsletter of your organisation... It could be used as a rallying point around which actions can be organised in the name of ideas of the document; we can ask organisations to endorse or support it, etc.
a call to action and unity of the diversity of 'RebELLEs'!
We have already largely circulated the English and French versions of the Manifesto, on our website, on the RebELLEs list and in all our networks. The Manifesto was already posted on various websites and published in the magazine 'À Babord.' The Manifesto was send to all the groups' members of the World March of Women, in more than 50 countries around the globe. It will also be distributed during the World Social Forum that is opening soon in Brazil…
We hope that the Manifesto will be used across Canada, in our feminist networks, as well as in grassroots organisations and national unions; at feminist actions or to educate our friends, colleagues, mothers, brothers, etc. about feminism. (Find the Manifesto attached and at www.rebelles.org).
6) Workshops about the Rise of the Right
We invite everyone to use the facilitation guide for the workshops on the rise of the Right prepared by the Gathering for organising workshops for young women (and the less young) around you! The battle is far from over and we need to solidify our analysis. We are counting on you!
We are soon putting in place an online tool on our website to let us share our different responses to the questions from the workshop. This will help us progressively improve and widen our analysis about the rise of the Right.
Download the tools and facilitation guide on the rise of the Right
7) Provincial and regional mobilisation...what's happening near you?
As planned we will be soon sending you a list of email addresses of all participants to the Gathering from your province or territory. We hope that this will be another tool to help you organise a network of young feminists in your region and to get in touch with each other. An email will soon be arriving!
8) 2010: the G8, the Olympics and the World March of Women
Numerous mobilisations have been announced for 2010! It is up to us to participate in the organisations of these actions from a feminist point of view, or organise a feminist action among them... Be alert! There are probably young feminist around you who would be interested in organising actions/demonstrations/events against the G8 in Ontario, against the Olympic Games in British Columbia, or for the World March of Women in Québec in 2010 and elsewhere across Canada! To be continued...but above all, to be organised! Initiatives are welcome!
9) Towards a 2nd Pan-Canadian Young Feminist Gathering?
Unanimously, the participants of 'Waves of Resistance' wanted a second Pan-Canadian Young Feminist Gathering. The organising committee clearly indicated that it would be interesting if it took place in another province or territory. This will be without a doubt, a hot topic of discussion at the evaluation meeting in March 2009 where provincial mobilizers will be called to share the fruits of discussion that they had with the young feminists in their province or territory. More information to come after the evaluation meeting! But until then, don't hesitate to share your ideas with us!
To write to us: info@rebelles.org!
We love to hear about what you're thinking of, organizing, dreaming of... of just to say hi!
