November 17th 2008—Wish You Were Here

At the AWID Conference, I was struck by the fact that amidst this sea of diversity of women of color from around the world, I was one of very few women of color from the United States and one of an even smaller subset of women from women of color led and focused organizations in the United States.  As I weighed whether to attend AWID or not, I asked around to see about representation, both in terms of attendance and on the programme of 195 sessions, of women of color led and focused groups and I was dismayed by the  didn’t get any affirmative response in the least. Thus, my “wish you were here” reference in the subject line of this post. In fact, I didn’t meet any women from women of color led and focused organizations in the global north at all. That’s not to say they weren’t there, but that there were too few for me to find and/or hear of in all of my explorations there. There was one exception, National Domestic Workers Alliance which was terrific. www.domesticworkersunited.org

Why were the US based women of color led and focused initiatives largely missing?  My opinion is that there were several factors at play, each of which holds equal significance.  One is that the perception of AWID is that it is a white feminist led/dominated space. Two is that, in international forums, women of color in the global north and our issues are often invisible/ignored, even when we are present. Three is the reality of financial constraints for most women of color led organizations in the global north and the dearth of opportunities for sponsorship to participate, compared to those offered to our sistren from the global south.

With regard to points #2 and #3, one tough dynamic is the question of how much space should we be taking up?  With our relatively high rates of poverty, high disease burden, exposure to environmental hazards, etc we have much in common with our sisters in the global south as our struggles are similar. However, for many, the perception is that, generally speaking, compared to our sisters in the global south, we have more opportunities and freedoms. Thus there is a both a conscious and unconscious tendency to sideline our struggles in these global spaces. How do we address this?

1)      We need to identify more opportunities (not that it’s not already going on to some extent) to have exchanges with our sisters in the global south.

2)      We should start submitting abstracts, seeking funding, and presenting at some of these national conferences/gatherings to raise awareness of our struggles and use these as opportunities to build solidarity with our sisters in the global south.

3)      Our organizations need to register with the UN and gain ECOSOC status. Then we need to begin attending UN meetings in New York and view this as a space where we can use the UN system to try to US before a jury of its peers for the failure of the administration to address our concerns.

4)      We should seek opportunities to work in solidarity and joint action with our sisters in the global south to advocate for responsive domestic and foreign policy on behalf of ourselves and our sisters.