From 8-11 September, the Forum hopes to create a collective space to break silos and join together as we reimagine and build shared agendas for action. Participants will include a diversity of feminist movements with special attention to Brazilian women’s rights activists, peace, economic justice, environmental, and human rights movements, among others.
Traditionally underrepresented or marginalized communities will have a strong presence at the Forum including: young feminist activists; Black and Afrodescendant women; Indigenous women; sex workers; women with disabilities; trans and intersex activists; and migrant activists.
What is the “Movement Sourcebook”
In order to enable meaningful crossmovement exchange, learning, and dialogue, AWID is developing the “Movement Sourcebook” as an accessible and userfriendly online tool that provides the basic information – the “ABCs” – of the diverse range of social movements that will converge at the Forum and beyond.
The Sourcebook will:
- help movement activists and leaders to get a quick overview of the work of their comrades from other movements and struggles
- create an information base for making connections and exploring ways of building greater solidarity and mutual support.
Since the Forum seeks to bring different movements together and encourages them to engage with each other, it is vital that all actors have access to basic information about each movement as a starting point that facilitates and informs their engagement.
We want to hear about your ‘movement’
Please note that for the purposes of the Sourcebook we are focusing specifically on movements, not organisations.
Based on our 2008 study of women’s movements around the world (“Changing their world“) we define movements as sharing the following key characteristics:
- A constituency base or membership that is mobilized and collectivized;
- Members collectivized in either formal or informal organizations;
- Some continuity over time;
- A clear political agenda, including a shared analysis of disempowering social / structural World”)1 conditions and the necessary changes;
- Collective actions and activities in pursuit of the movement’s political goals;
- Use a variety of actions and strategies; 1 Batliwala, S. (2012) Changing their World: Concepts and Practices of Women’s Movements, 2nd Edition, Toronto: AWID
- Engage clear internal or external targets in the change process (i.e. state actors, communities, extrastate actors, warring factions, corporations, …)
Movement-created organisations will also be considered for inclusion into the Sourcebook where they allow the story of the broader movement of which they are part to be told. We understand ‘movement- created’ organisations as formal or informal organizations set up by movements as ways of organizing their members and pursuing the movement’s agenda. They are internal to movements, and have usually come into being after a movement itself reaches a certain stage of development.
Required information
The Sourcebook will gather and provide the following information about each movement:
- When did your movement begin? And what was the “spark” that ignited the movement?
- What injustices / issues does your movement focus on?
- What are the key demands or rights being claimed by your movement? Who are you making these demands to? (e.g., governments, corporations, international bodies, corporations, other actors, society at large) them?
- What are the key ideas and concepts used by / in your movement? And how do you define
- Where is your movement active?
- What are some of your key achievements and gains as a movement?
- What would make your movement stronger?
- How does your movement define solidarity? What would greater support and solidarity look like for your movement?
- Where could people learn more about your movement?
Please note that we might need to edit submissions before publication, since we have a word limit of 700 words, so please try to be as brief as possible. This is why we hope you will provide links where people can read about your movement in greater detail.
To submit your contribution:
- Please respond to the 9 guiding questions set out above in your preferred format. DEADLINE EXTENDED to 1 August 2016.
- Send your submission by writing to sourcebook@awid.org.
Contact us at same address if you have any questions or comments. We look forward to hearing from you.
Source: http://www.forum.awid.org/forum16/posts/call-submissions-awid-movement-sourcebook
