RF2013 Programme is available!

Register here.

From the Conference Website.

The aim of this conference is to re-build a radical feminist movement and support the re-emerging interest in radical feminism among women.

We will:

■ Raise awareness and increase understanding about radical feminism
■ Increase networks and connections between Radical feminists
■ Improve activist skills and knowledge among attendees

We are committed to building a strong and vibrant women’s liberation movement and a community of women of all ages and from diverse backgrounds. It is important that we meet as often as we can so that we can build solid relationships and plan for strategies to build a free and safe future for all of our sisters in the female class. We have hope that we can make positive changes for women through the development of a committed movement of women all over the world.

WHAT IS RADICAL FEMINISM?

Radical feminism goes to the heart of female oppression by naming male domination and violence as being responsible for women’s subordination.

OPPOSITION TO GENDER ROLES

Radical feminists believe gender roles are harmful to women. We seek freedom from “femininity” and “masculinity”. Gender only exists for the benefit of men, as a class, at the expense of women, as a class.

THE FOCUS OF RADICAL FEMINISM

Radical feminism names, and brings attention to, all forms of male domination, violence and control, including:

■ Women’s exploitation, degradation and torture within prostitution and pornography,
■ Sexual violence towards women and the way this is culturally normalised,
■ Compulsory heterosexuality as an institution which oppresses women
■ Ways in which women are controlled and harmed by gender roles

WHO IS THIS CONFERENCE FOR?

We welcome radical feminists and those women who want to learn more about radical feminism. It is women-only because we believe that we need to organise autonomously in order to fight for our freedom from patriarchy. We aim to make the conference a safe space for female victims/survivors to talk about multiple experiences of male violence and oppression. We need women-only (female) spaces to do that. We will actively promote radical feminism and radical feminists.

We are revolutionaries, fighting for social change, and overthrowing current patriarchal systems. We want a radical alternative to both right wing, biological determinist and post modern versions of “genderism”. In other words, we oppose the promotion of gender roles as “natural”, inevitable, desirable, innate, or exaggerated performances of “femininity” and “masculinity”. We believe that gender is a destructive hierarchy, which harms women and needs to be abolished. We also oppose the the multi-billion pound sex industry. We disagree with “identity politics” which is counter to our goal of abolishing gender and male domination. The language of identity politics re-enforces patriarchy, even though sometimes people use the language of revolution to push these male centred ideologies. This conference will explore radical feminist critiques of all these oppressive aspects of patriarchy and promote alternative ways forward.

COMMITMENT TO HUMAN RIGHTS

We support the human rights of all people to live free from violence or verbal abuse. We support the existence of laws to ensure those rights are protected. We support the rights of all groups who are disadvantaged within society to autonomously organise. Although we support rights and freedoms for all, this conference will be focused on the liberation of all females.