CONFERENCES AND EVENTS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
These pages bring information on some of the many conferences and events going on in the women's movement worldwide. Send your reports of past conferences and notices of upcoming events to Isis International for inclusion in this column.
1984
February
CONFERENCE OF ASIAN WOMEN RESEARCHERS
February, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at the Asian and Pacific Development Centre, to discuss the state of research on women in the region and networking among women's groups. For more information, contact the Asian and Pacific Centre for Women and Development (APCWD), PO Box 2224, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
April
IRISH WOMEN'S CONFERENCE
6-8 April, Dublin. Ireland. Over 600 women came to discuss the fight against sexism and the British occupation of Northern Ireland. Poverty was the theme of several workshops covering social welfare, housing, unemployment, women in prison and other areas. Health was also an important issue. The discussion in the largest workshop on Feminism and the National Question was heated and brought out the sharp differences on this issue. A report of this conference is in Spare Rib 143. June 1984, 27 Clerkenwell (lose. London ECl. England.
AFTER THE SECOND SEX: NEW DIRECTIONS
5-8 April. University of Pennsylvania. USA. Several hundred women came together to commemorate the thirty-fifth anniversary of the publication of Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex. Thirty-seven workshops covered topics ranging from socialist feminism to aging, racism, a lesbian perspective on Beauvoir, women and ethics. Off Our Backs, May 1984, carries an extensive report of this conference. Address: 1841 Columbia Road NW, room 21 2, Washington DC 20009, USA.
GENDER JUSTICE
Second National Conference on Women's Studies.
9-12 April, Kerala University, Trivandrum, India. Workshops on Women, Law and Legal Studies; Women's Work and Employment; and Women in the Political Process. Organized by the Indian Association for Women's Studies (lAWS) this conference brought together more than 500 women from the women's movement all over India. See the Work column for a report on tiie workshop on Women's Work and Employment.
For more information, contact lAWS, c/o Centre for Women and Development Studies, B43 Panchsheel Enclave, New Delhi 110 017, India.
WOMEN'S WORLDS: STRATEGIES FOR EMPOWERMENT
Second International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women. 17-21 April, Groningen, the Netherlands. Gains made throughout the last decades are currently endangered by economic problems worldwide; women are increasingly aware they must empower themselves, personally, socially and professionally. Sponsored by University of Groningen (Holland), Dutch Association of University Women (Holland), American Psychological Association (LISA), International Sociological Association, University of Oldenburg (Fed. Rep. of Germany) and others, this conference was attended by several hundred women.
May
IMAGES OF THIRD WORLD WOMEN
10-15 May 1984, Amsterdam. Netherlands. Transnational Institute. This workshop brought together about 30 women from Third World and industrialized countries to discuss issues of the portrayal of women in the media, the experience of colonialism and imperialism, racism, sexuality and class, the selling of Third World women, and strategies for action. The workshop participants are producing a book on these issues.
For more information, contact Wendy Chapkis, Transnational Institute, Paulus Potterstraat 20,1071 DA Amsterdam, Netherlands
WOMEN AND HEALTH DOCUMENTATION CENTERS IN EUROPE
1.5-18 May, Bologna, Italy. See Health pages for a report on this workshop.
THE HEALTH OF THE COMMUNITY BEGINS WITH WOMEN'S HEALTH
FIRST REGIONAL MEETING ON WOMEN AND HEALTH IN LATIN AMERICA
28 May - 2 June, Valle de Tenza, Colombia. See Health pages for a report on this conference.
PRESERVING WOMEN'S HISTORY: ARCHIVISTS AND HISTORIANS WORKING TOGETHER
3-31 May, Smith Collage, Northampton, Massachusetts, USA. Workshops on National and international data bases and archives, organizational and institutional archives, non-traditional sources, documenting lesbian history.
For more information, contact Virginia A. Christenson, The Sophia Smith Collection. Smith College, Northampton MA 01063, USA.
June
SIXTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTING A NATION AL AND INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM FOR WOMEN
Using the 1985 World Conference of Women as a Spur Toward Our Own Permanent News Network.
1-3 June, Washington, DC, USA. Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press. Plenaries with panels of representatives from the United Nations and the US feminist press. Workshops on launching a women's news/ information exchange through audio, print and visual media (including satellite teleconference). For more information contact Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press, 3306 Ross Place, NW, Washington DC 20008, USA.
INTERNATIONAL FEMINIST BOOK FAIR
7-9 June, London, England. Organized by the Feminist Book Fair Group. More than a hundred publishers from over twenty countries came to the Fair to display and sell feminist books. They came from Australia, Canada, France, India, Italy, Ireland. Japan, Sweden, Norway, the USA, the United Kingdom and other countries. Events included forums and workshops with feminist writers from many countries reading from their writings. One evening was focused on Lesbian Writers and another on a Celebration of Black and Third World Women Writers. The final day of the Fair included a discussion of Different Concepts of Women's Liberation Internationally. The Book Fair Catalogue has articles about feminist publishing in India, Scandinavia, the USA and Zimbabwe and about women's printing in Britain. It lists 277 feminist books. Available from the Book Fair Group, Room 306, 38 Mount Pleasant, London WCl, England. Price £1.25 plus 50p postage.
WOMEN AND FOOD PRODUCTION: CANADA AND THE THIRD WORLD
15-17 June, Ontario, Canada. Sponsored by the Women and Development Working Group of the Canadian Council for International Cooperation (CCIC), this conference brought together workers from international development organizations. Canadian and Third World resource persons and agricultural workers. Issues discussed were Payment and Recognition, Occupational Health and Safety, Land and Capital, Technology and Training, Cash or Subsistence Food Production. For more information, contact CICC. 450 Rideau Street, Ottawa, KIN 5Z4, Canada.
BLACK AND IMMIGRANT WOMEN CLAIM OUR RIGHTS II
Women Count Count Women's Work.
16-17 June, London, England. Organized by Housewives in Dialogue. Conference Coordinator, Wilmette Brown. Workshops on women's waged and unwaged work. Black and White women in Europe and women in the Third World, sexism, racism, poverty. For more information, contact Housewives in Dialogue, King's Cross Women's Centre, 71 Tonbridge Road, London WCl, England.
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON LESBIAN/GAY HEALTH
16-19 June, New York City, USA. Sponsored by the National Gay Health Education Foundation, the conference emphasized Third World, international and lesbian health concerns. For more information, contact Fern Schwaber, Suite 1305, 80 Eighth Avenue, New York, New York 10011, USA.
STEERING OUR COURSE: FEMINIST EDUCATION IN THE 80s
24-28 June, Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA, National Women's Studies "Association. To celebrate»women's scholarship and achievements, and to discuss Feminist Education; Feminist Research in the Humanities, the Social Sciences, the Natural Sciences; and Feminist Practice and Theory.
For more information, contact Women's Studies Program, Voorhees Chapel, Douglass College, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903.
July
WOMEN'S TIME, WOMEN AND TIME
6-13 July, Agape, Prali, Italy. An International women's camp held at the Agape Ecumenical Center in the Italian alps. Languages used are English. French, German and Italian. Agape holds a women's camp every summer.
For more information, contact Agape, 10060 Prali, Italy. Tel: 0121/841514.
WOMEN AND LABOUR CONFERENCE
13-15 July, Brisbane, Australia. Women's activity in the political and economic spheres - the labour of women in the public and private spheres and the search for reasons behind the limitations placed on the nature and value of women's work in the public sphere.
INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL AND MEETING ON REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
22-28 July, Amsterdam, Netherlands Organized by the International Contraception, Abortion and Sterilization Campaign (ICASC). See the Health pages for information about this conference.
August
1985 AND BEYOND
The African-American Women's Political Caucus is holding a National Conference entitled 1985 and Beyond, 8-11 August 1984, in order to mobilize African-American women to develop an African-American perspective for the 1985 World Conference on Women in Kenya; strengthen solidarity among women of Africa and the African Diaspora; and develop a national action plan to implement conference outcomes in local communities. Workshops and panels will cover international issues such as Women Under Apartheid, Liberation Struggles, Peace and Development and a wide range of African-American issues including the Feminization of Poverty, Media Images, Discrimination in Work and Education, Health, Housing, Political and Cultural Mis-education. Angela Davis will give the keynote address. There will also be a concert and a celebration of Solidarity with Women of South Africa and Namibia.
Contact:
Salima Siler Marriott, Morgan State University, Cold Spring Lane and Hillen Road, Baltimore, Maryland 21239, USA. Tel (301) 444-3282.
October
THE VALUE OF WOMEN'S WORK
Second International Women's Seminar, 14-19 October, Salzburg, Austria, Institute for Study in Salzburg. The importance of paid and unpaid women's work in the future economic structure of the world. Seminars: Women in the Family, Women in the Working World, Formation of Strategies, Women's Work in International
Opinion Leading. Contact: Institut fur Studien in Salzburg, Johannes Filzerstrasse 26/56, A-5020, Salzburg, Austria. Tel: 0662/238095.
November
NEW COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY
November, Bombay, India. Indian Federation of University Women's Associations. Women and Technology: appropriate technology, new communication technology. How can university women help? Contact: IFUWA, Devonshire House, 3 Westfield Estate, Bhulabhai Desai Road, Bombay 400 026, India.
INTERNATIONAL - STRATEGIES FOR ACTION
Isis International and the International Coalition for Development Action are planning an international workshop to be held in November 1984 on Women in Development: From Theory to Practice. The workshop will link up women in the women's movement and in development action and education organizations. Together we will try to move beyond criticism and theory of women in development policies. We will try to devise strategies and concrete action plans from a feminist perspective which can be starting points for discussion at the Nairobi NGO Forum,, so that the activities around the Nairobi Conference and Forum are not just a winding up of the Decade for Women but an opportunity for women to build and strengthen networks and ways of working together. Not everyone -will be going to Nairobi, of course, and so we will be publishing the workshop's ideas for strategies and action as a book. Please send us your ideas and suggestions and we will be happy to send you further information about the workshop. Write to:
Isis International, via Santa Maria dell'Anima 30,00186 Rome, Italy
or
ICDA; rue des Bollandistes 22, 1040 Brussels, Belgium.