Global Feminism, Plural Leadership
http://alainet.org/publica/femlead/en/

Final Lap Towards the World Conference

Irene León

Intolerance is the order of the day in the governmental preparations for the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and other Related Forms of Intolerance: while the United States threaten to boycott the event if there are continued attempts to equate Zionism with racism; the first plenary of the third preparatory meeting in Geneva, after a tie in votes, resolved not to accredit the International Lesbian and Gay Association, which did want to have a direct participation in the event, proposing that discrimination due to sexual orientation be considered as a form of intolerance.

In any case, what remains clear at this stage is the weak commitment of governments to find real solutions to the challenges posed by the issues raised by the World Conference.

Meanwhile, civil society acting in this field in the global arena, is still not giving its all; in the midst of an unclear articulation process, there is a predominance of specific sector or thematic lobbies, which with their formality and cautiousness, obviously do not seduce the media and, through them, public opinion and decision makers.

With only a few days to go to the World Conference, while governments delay resolving on strategic issues: reparations, consequences of colonialism, eradication of discriminatory structures, and others, thus postponing the production of outcome documents and the hopes of those affected; among NGO's the world documents (necessary tools for a coordinated lobby) are also still being drafted and global strategies are still to be designed.

However, it is evident that the richness of this latter process resides in what has been accumulated with respect to acknowledgement of diversity in the regional outcomes which, although some consider it more discursive than practical, still express a maturation of ethical approaches and the emergence of new visions of citizenship. An example of this is the explicit aim of focusing the issues as a whole from a transversal gender perspective, which has been manifested in most sectors and in regional processes.

In the case of the Forum of the Americas for Diversity and Pluralism, an NGO preparatory event, which is the case we are most familiar with, the documents produced, as a whole, include proposals for the eradication of racism, xenophobia, homophobia, gender inequality, in brief, of all forms of discrimination and intolerance. This would be of special interest for further analysis, as it must be noted that the sectors convened by this process have been perceived as reticent towards "new" issues. Nevertheless, their discourses prioritize focusing on diversity.

The emergence of this inclusive discourse is a central element to design feminist strategies to influence the WCAR, insofar as they are in line with present issues of the movement and thus constitute bridges, both for strengthening a gender perspective in civil society as a whole, and for the development of inter-sector and intersectional initiatives.

This also includes the possibility of a medium- and long-term interaction, in the approaches and actions as regards unresolved common issues, such as the complex North-South relations, the alternatives to the dominant trend in the globalization process, the sustainability of proposals of diversity, and others, as mentioned by participants in this exchange.

In addition, an important aspect of this process has been to bring forth pending issues, such as the viability of diversity and its inclusion in the feminist movement itself, an issue that depends both on the real empowerment of those subject to multiple discrimination and on the joint will to turn this into more than a conjunctural issue.

In a context where the perspectives of new actors have been manifested -in some cases, moving the ground under a supposed sense of unanimity that supported so-called specific causes- an auspicious basis for the development and sustenance of a global feminism built on the basis of respect for singularities becomes evident.

However, for this to take shape, a previous matter still to be undertaken is an analysis of power relations in all spheres, from that deriving from reordering of powers inherent to the globalization process, to the internal readjustments necessary in the development of the movement, its inclusive discourses and its priorities.

In that sense, we can start capitalizing on the visibility of the political contents until now managed as exclusively social, whose solutions have been perceived, to a large extent, as resolvable through aid programs. Such is the case regarding racial discrimination and xenophobia, which until now have been treated by institutions in a manner virtually isolated from geopolitics and history.

The experience of the feminist movement and its leaders in the global sphere and in putting forth proposals to the United Nations, can contribute to the inclusion of contents and to unblock present debates on logistics, predominating in Preparatory Meetings; thus promoting the formulation of more precise and forceful political strategies from civil society. In other words, there is a possible and necessary space for a leadership of proposals, initiatives and creativity, in the global sphere.

Without expanding here on the importance of strategies to influence governments, already expressed in this electronic exchange, nor on intersectional proposals developed by women in this process, we would like to emphasize instead the need to develop visibility actions, that express in a creative way the non-conformity of civil society in view of the apathy of governments, many of them disoriented at the impossibility of trusting the market with the eradication of historical problems, that –mainly, and in multiple manners- affect women.

The use of communication resources, both to call attention of the media and to shake the inertia of influential movements, which remain silent on the issues of the Conference, would make it possible to broaden solidarity and lobbying networks.

Finally, in addition to valuing the mass of ideas that have flowed in this electronic space, as well as the recommendations to continue a more in-depth discussion of these and other specific cases, we would like to invite all of you going to Durban to create a live space there, on the issues posed in this exchange, and continue building plural and global feminist leaderships.