On November 9 2020, RESURJ participated in Solidarity Beyond Borders!, an international conversation hosted by Women for Women’s Human Rights–New Ways and KAOS-GL from Turkey, as part of the the One Day One Struggle campaign by CSBR. The conversation focused on transnational solidarity, feminists and LGBTQI+ struggles against rising authoritarianism, anti-rights trends and rights wing populisms. RESURJ shared methods of organizing and transnational strategies in positioning a comprehensive advocacy agenda for SRHR and LGBTQI+ rights, as well as feminist accountability practices.
Summary from the speech of the intersectional feminist activist Marisol Ruiz Celorio from Mexico:
Although the feminist and LGBTI+ rights struggle progresses with different experiences in different countries, the common problems bring cross-border alliances to the agenda in many countries. The fact that right-wing populism,
which acts in an organized global scale, is gaining power in intergovernmental institutions, thus makes it necessary for activists who fight for rights to determine strategies with a from-local-to-global approach. The Mexican
experience against anti-rights populist movements is centered around four different beyond-border strategies:
- Political Participation: The establishment dynamics of intergovernmental institutions and the strengthening of right-wing populist alliances in these institutions create serious obstacles against LGBTI+’s, feminists and groups in various resistance areas from making their voices heard in these institutions. On the other hand, the fact that feminists who are invited to these institutions are invited just in appearance and that organizational logic
prevents producing a saying is also experienced as another problem. Despite all these obstacles, providing technical and political training on these organizations in order to ensure that especially young activists can produce a say in these areas allows us to overcome the obstacles that occur. The fact that the digital opportunities that develop under pandemic conditions minimize the effects of boundaries ensure that the obstacles to the political participation of young activists are overcome with international solidarity and strategy. It is vital that young activists get in touch with local, national and international institutions and to be get involved in the process. Reaching out to different institutions and groups, establishing bonds and acting together are still valid methods that will strengthen solidarity around the world. - Supporting Community-Based Movements: Supporting movements that produce services for feminist and LGBTI+ communities on a local basis with a beyond-border approach ensures that local awareness is brought to the global level and the acceleration of global awareness. Especially, overcoming the problems experienced by locals in generating funds with international solidarity allows tackling the social problems that occurred with the pandemic.
- Alliances: The fact that right-wing populism, acting globally, has increased its attacks against rights defenders on a global scale due to its economic and political interests, making it necessary for rights defenders to develop alliances against this organized aggression. The joint action of the groups that struggle for rights in different areas of resistance as a general justice and human rights movement emerges as the most important method of stopping this organized attack. The guidance of the divergent experiences and the cooperation created by the union of forces provide a ground to cancel the policies of anti-rights movements trying to divide those seeking rights and justice. Based on the failure to ensure justice on a global scale, human rights violations and especially the criminalizing of young people are re-producing the patriarchy, brings the search for global justice to the point of questioning the justice of the patriarch. It is important to create areas where the alternative community based facility of justice will be provided through alliances. At this point, social media offers very important instruments in terms of overcoming various barriers, institutionalization and public activism. However, it is necessary to discuss the polarizing effect of social media in a multidimensional way, considering the increasing online violence and threats. It is necessary to see that it is liberating and while having many serious limitations.
- Flexibility: Being able to generate only reactive responses to the organized right-wing populist alliance is a factor that reduces the ability to get significant results. The way to increase this ability is through acting together, close cooperation, joint analysis, and developing a common strategy against antirights movements. As we draw this path, creating in-community solutions against the attacks and burnout that directly target activists is also becoming a factor that increases efficiency.
Read the full report at https://kaosgldernegi.org/images/library/solidaritybeyondborders.pdf