The time is ripe for even more feminism!

Dear feminists, friends and comrades, the Care Revolution Network and the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, together with other initiatives and groups, are planning a major international "Feminist Festival" for September 2019. Feminist struggles have been the most powerful movements in recent years, advocating for far-reaching social change and a better future for all. Across national borders, they have succeeded in protesting against sexualised violence as well as precarious working conditions, against discrimination as well as for reproductive justice, for equal access to healthcare and social infrastructures as well as for the revaluation of care work. They are vocal and diverse and represent an alternative to authoritarian neoliberalism and global right-wing populism. The protests of recent years have transcended the limitations of liberal feminism by fundamentally criticising capitalist conditions and have also managed to reach hundreds of thousands of people who were previously not active on the left. In the course of the anti-Trump protests in the USA, it has once again become clear that left-wing feminism must be unconditionally anti-racist. And local attempts to instrumentalise supposed "women's rights" for right-wing and chauvinist propaganda also show how necessary this is in order to counter the right. But the differences between women*, queers* and trans* must also be the starting point of our common struggles. The history of women's movements has taught us that otherwise we re-produce social marginalisation. In the current protest movements, we are taking the first steps towards a truly intersectional feminism, towards a common practice, a practice that makes unity in difference possible. To achieve this, we need places for joint debates and mutual learning from one another. To create such a space, we want to invite you to an INTERNATIONAL AND PLURAL FEMINIST FESTIVAL in the autumn. Such a gathering is only as powerful as its participants: That is why we want to invite many people to participate in the planning right from the start. There will be several meetings at which initiatives and individuals can get involved to varying degrees, pursue ideas, design spaces, suggest speakers or even just join in the discussion. The festival will be a place of much discussion in many languages. But we don't just want to talk. There will be space and time for training and skill-sharing, we want to connect with older feminist practices of 'self-awareness' and learn about feminist health as well as transformative organising. Different forms of artistic and cultural contributions will also be a central part of the programme - we want to watch films together and discuss them, there will be stages for music and spoken word and: we want to dance together! If all goes well, this Feminist Festival will take place from 12 - 15 September 2019 on the grounds of the Zeche Zollverein in Essen. The first PREPARATION MEETING is on 26 JANUARY FROM 12-5PM, at the Refugio in Lenaustraße 3-4 in 12047 BERLIN. Please register by 20 January at the following e-mailan:barbara.fried@rosalux.orgWe look forward to your coming and helping to organise, your current preparation group from the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, the Netzwerk-Care-Revolution and the Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie e.V.