January 2024
13th International Meeting of the World March of Women:
popular feminism to transform the world.
Norma Cacho
Member for the Region in the International Committee
Member for the Region in the International Committee
From October 6 to 12, the 13th International Meeting of the World March of Women occurred in Ankara, Turkey, where 128 feminist activists from 65 territories met to advance vital and critical reflections for our movement. Amid a context of multiple crises that put the lives of women, people, and dissidents at risk, after a pandemic that is a reflection and deepening of these crises, in a geopolitical rearrangement on our continents where the right is advancing, It was essential to meet, again, in person to revitalize our political commitments and the essential internationalist solidarities.
The International Meetings are spaces for dialogue, debate, and interregional reflection, where the political synthesis of the different regions that make up the movement comes alive. They are also spaces for political definition of the channel and power of our bets and articulations. They are also democratic spaces for decision-making, both at the level of movement structure and political action, which set the course of our movement.
The World March of Women is also an anti-patriarchal and anti-capitalist movement, deeply anti-colonial since we are convinced that the systems that oppress the lives and bodies of women, peoples, and dissidents support each other, making their impacts more lacerating in our bodies and territories. For this reason, internationalist feminist solidarity against wars and colonial occupations is one of our most important flags. Simultaneously, in the days that we were holding the Meeting, Israel's occupation and colonial war against the Palestinian people intensified its military and genocidal offensives, the result of which, to date, more than 25 thousand people were murdered and thousands of people injured and missing.
Solidarities were evident at various moments of the Meeting; the misticas became living denunciations of colonial occupation and the vindication of popular power!
Just as important was being transparent about the contexts of our territories. After sharp and heated debates, we defined the motto and meaning of our VI International Action: “We march against wars and capitalism, for popular sovereignty and well-being.” thus embodying one of our essential demands, which manifests forcefully against colonialism and for the ratification of the collective power of the people and, particularly, of women. The VI Action must be a demonstration of mobilizing, popular, articulating, and powerful force in the face of the fascist scenarios we face. It must also be a permanent process of political formation, which allows us to strengthen our epistemic constructions as a global movement, which will enable us to show our anti-capitalist, anti-patriarchal, and anti-colonial resistances, but, above all, which demonstrates the practices, already underway, of other possible worlds for women and peoples.
In Mexico, we look at these International Meetings as opportunities to renew our feminist reflections, fueled by our territorial commitments but allowing us to have an articulating and global perspective. Likewise, it is an opportunity to link debates with colleagues from other continents, enabling us to see ourselves in synergy and identify challenges, especially in articulating global action processes from our diverse feminisms.
Building from a collective perspective, which has political meaning at the local level, implies strengthening our capacities to decenter ourselves and look at other realities like our own. That is a hallmark of the feminist internationalism of the World March of Women.
The International Meetings are spaces for dialogue, debate, and interregional reflection, where the political synthesis of the different regions that make up the movement comes alive. They are also spaces for political definition of the channel and power of our bets and articulations. They are also democratic spaces for decision-making, both at the level of movement structure and political action, which set the course of our movement.
The World March of Women is also an anti-patriarchal and anti-capitalist movement, deeply anti-colonial since we are convinced that the systems that oppress the lives and bodies of women, peoples, and dissidents support each other, making their impacts more lacerating in our bodies and territories. For this reason, internationalist feminist solidarity against wars and colonial occupations is one of our most important flags. Simultaneously, in the days that we were holding the Meeting, Israel's occupation and colonial war against the Palestinian people intensified its military and genocidal offensives, the result of which, to date, more than 25 thousand people were murdered and thousands of people injured and missing.
Solidarities were evident at various moments of the Meeting; the misticas became living denunciations of colonial occupation and the vindication of popular power!
Just as important was being transparent about the contexts of our territories. After sharp and heated debates, we defined the motto and meaning of our VI International Action: “We march against wars and capitalism, for popular sovereignty and well-being.” thus embodying one of our essential demands, which manifests forcefully against colonialism and for the ratification of the collective power of the people and, particularly, of women. The VI Action must be a demonstration of mobilizing, popular, articulating, and powerful force in the face of the fascist scenarios we face. It must also be a permanent process of political formation, which allows us to strengthen our epistemic constructions as a global movement, which will enable us to show our anti-capitalist, anti-patriarchal, and anti-colonial resistances, but, above all, which demonstrates the practices, already underway, of other possible worlds for women and peoples.
In Mexico, we look at these International Meetings as opportunities to renew our feminist reflections, fueled by our territorial commitments but allowing us to have an articulating and global perspective. Likewise, it is an opportunity to link debates with colleagues from other continents, enabling us to see ourselves in synergy and identify challenges, especially in articulating global action processes from our diverse feminisms.
Building from a collective perspective, which has political meaning at the local level, implies strengthening our capacities to decenter ourselves and look at other realities like our own. That is a hallmark of the feminist internationalism of the World March of Women.
We will continue to march for a free Palestine!
