Politics and Poetics of Strike in the Postsocialist and Postcolonial Encounter

On International Women’s Day in 2018, women from over 50 countries around the world participated in a 24-hour strike to draw attention to ongoing gender inequality, discrimination and violence. By (re)turning to March 8 as a day of striking, the International Women’s Strike has made visible the potential of feminist movements to think and act otherwise (Gago et al. 2020). The International Women’s Strike assembles feminist experiences, struggles and mobilizations across different geographies and temporalities.

A feminist strike troubles distinctions between formality and informality, employment and unemployment, paid and unpaid labour, productive and reproductive work, or migrant work and work done by nationals (Gago 2018). It recognizes and includes rights claims, lived experiences and spaces inhabited by those who are made invisible by these binary distinctions. As such, a feminist strike provides a critical lens through which we can explore material and immaterial connections between radically different bodies, conflicts and territories and assemble diverse politics and poetics of struggle, protest and liberation across space and time. This workshop continues the conversation about politics and poetics of a feminist strike and the emerging feminist internationalism from below from the perspective of a postsocialist/postcolonial encounter. The workshop hopes to explore existing and possible postcolonial/postsocialist encounters through practices, experiences and struggles of a feminist strike. By postcolonial/postsocialist encounters, we refer to the intersections of postcolonial and postsocialist experiences, imaginaries, and legacies, including elements outside of these intersections and the challenges that arise from them (Koobak et al. 2021).

Organized by:

Judith Naeff
Senka Neuman Stanivuković
Ksenia Robbe

Programme

21 March, 16:00: Discussion of "Strike a rock", dir. Aliki Saragas-Georgiou (Online)

7 April: Keynote, two panels and roundtable (Academy building & online)

8 April: Screening & discussion Who is afraid of ideology? Part I, II and III' (2018-2020) dir. Marwa Arsanios, two panels and keynote (Academy building & online)

Registration

To register for on-site (places limited) or online attendance, please email m.grisko student.rug.nl before March 25.