COPENHAGEN: Assessment
Five women from ISIS went to Copenhagen in July 1980 to attend the NGO Forum. Third World women from our team write their own assessment...
Latin American Women's Group, ISIS
More than 8,000 women from all over the world took part in the Forum, an alternative conference to the official United Nations Mid-Decade conference on women, held in Copenhagen Denmark, from 14 to 26 July, 1980. The Forum was organized by a planning committee of non-governmental organizations and ran parallel to the official conference of the United Nations which was attended by representatives of the various governments.
Women from 187 different countries of the world actively participated in the Forum, in workshops, round table discussions and small groups for discussion and exchange of experiences. The topics were extremely varied: abortion, contraception, sexuality, apartheid, discrimination against indigenous women, health, self-help, multinationals and the situation of women, the legal status of women, Arab women, children's literature, women and appropriate technology, women and the new international information order, just to name a few. There were more than 250 workshops. Each person could choose among the various workshops each day according to her own preference and interest.
There were about 500 Latin American women at the alternative conference, some of them living abroad because of the economic and political situations of their countries. The problem for almost all of these women was language. This was a real barrier to communication. Most of the activities were in English and there were usually no translations. This resulted in the Latin American group remaining rather closed in upon itself, not deepening contacts with women from other parts of the world. We are very sorry that this happened, especially as we believe that one of the problems of our movement is the lack of knowledge about the experiences of women elsewhere, both in the industrialized countries and in the countries of the Third World, experiences which depend upon and change according to the social, cultural and political conditions of each region and country. This was, in our opinion, a lost opportunity for an in depth exchange, something that would have been very positive.
We must keep in mind that the term "emancipation" or "liberation" of women may mean different things in different places depending on the situation in which women are living. The path followed by Western women may or may not be a point of reference. The same holds true for the struggles of women in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. And there is no lack of mutual prejudice. In order to break these barriers, we have to share ideas, experiences, feelings and hopes, to know and understand ourselves for the purpose of reaching a more global vision of women's problems.
The Latin American women made their voices heard through the denunciation of the political problems and violations of human rights existing in the majority of our countries, especially in Central America and in the southern cone of South America. There were also voices of hope in those countries where the women's movement has advanced in relation to the popular political process. A very positive experience for us was the exchange which took place within the Latin American group about the work being carried out in the various countries. This was a great help to us in beginning to coordinate our work in the women's movement.
In one of our workshops, each woman talked about the projects women are involved in, in her country. We found especially interesting the work being done for the empowerment of working class women as a way of raising consciousness on the specific problems of women. The problem begins with the huge percentage of illiteracy particularly among the women of Latin America. The idea is to carry out an enormous project of informal education using methods such as pamphlets illustrated with drawings and cartoons dealing with issues of particular concern to women, as well as using slides, films, etc. This is a slow and difficult task but it is being done with great enthusiasm in spite of the many problems, such as lack of money, difficult political situations and so forth.
Another interesting workshop was one in which we discussed the problems of birth control versus population control, abortion, health and health systems. We looked at several specific cases such as that of Chile where the government junta, privatizing the health system, is promoting a policy of an increased birth rate in view of national security. The poor women always suffer most from these policies. They can no longer obtain free contraceptives and at the same time there is no decent maternity care. It is not unusual to find two or three women in labour in the same hospital ted. Most of these women already have an average of five children. The figures given for deaths from illegal abortions were horrifying
This discussion was very fruitful and there was renewed commitment to denounce as strongly as possible these kinds of situations in which the majority of women on our continent are living.
Valsa Verghese India
When I was requested to write an article on my experience at Copenhagen, I just wondered whether it was possible to write a comprehensive account of the circus that was the Alternative Conference at Copenhagen (held between the 14th and 24th of July). There was no one conference, but innumerable conferences going on simultaneously at the Amager University Center as well as at the Police School.
The "Mid-Decade Forum", as it was called, was sponsored by the U.N., and held parallel to the official U.N. Women's Conference at the Bella Center-Copenhagen, to re evaluate the status of women and to adopt a world plan of action for the latter half of the International Women's Decade.
I had mixed feelings about the Copenhagen Conference, and the last day saw me frustrated and yet strangely elated by the whole experience.
The manner in which the Forum was organized left most participants feeling very frustrated and confused. The Amager University Center had only one room equipped for simultaneous translation and even this room could accommodate only a few hundred women. A hopeless situation, when you consider the fact that there were over 8,000 women registered at the Forum. Besides this, the Center areas closed daily at 5 PM and there were no alternative arrangements for meeting in the evenings.
The building itself was vast and had long catacomb-like corridors which left many women feeling totally lost in the absence of any clear signs, or maps of the building. So a lot of precious time was wasted in trying to locate the different workshops conducted, scattered all over the building. Given the fact that one often had to walk many kilometers to go from one workshop to another, unless a person was truly motivated, she rarely made the journey.
It made one angry to think that there were 8000 or more women from all over the world, each one having a wealth of information and experience to share, and yet the available facilities made this almost impossible. In frustration one almost began to harbor a lurking suspicion that the intention was really to divide rather than unite women at the Forum!
One wondered if it could really have been organized by women, when we take into consideration the fact that there was no creche or day-care facilities for children. Or perhaps the women have been so conditioned by trying to compete in a male world that they have become more "male" than men. It was only after much protest and repeated requests — a campaign launched by Chinese women from Hong Kong - that some arrangements were made, and these much later in the conference.
Another black mark for the Forum was the reality of its newspaper "Forum 80". On reading, it is immediately clear that it was brought out by a man and a very biased man at that. In spite of its name it directed most of its front page and half, if not more, of its over-all space, to news about the UN official conference. Many of its cartoons and pictures, and even articles, were disgustingly sexist.
But in spite of all the frustration and confusion it was possible to turn this into a positive experience. By the end of the second day, the initial shock of the confusion slowly began to wear off, and we realized that we had to exert ourselves in order to prevent the ten days from being a total waste of women, we "feminists" had to fight to prevent ourselves from being submerged and marginalized under the prevailing organizational structures. We decided to create a place for ourselves ~ by "we" I mean members of ISIS, along with women from Quest, Manushi, Boston Women's Health Book Collective, Courage, etc. Each of us grabbed our own table, set up a display of publications, and thus created a space where we could meet women.
ISIS and Quest had requested, and been alloted, a room in the "Vivencia" section of the Forum, where feminist groups and organizations could meet and hold workshops. There were a number of interesting workshops. The workshop on the International Feminist Network conducted by ISiS (which coordinates I FN), enabled many of the members from different parts of the world who had been acting as contact persons to meet together (some for the first time) and share their experiences, problems, ideas, and to discuss future possibilities in expanding the movement. There were women from Germany, Japan, Israel, the Netherlands, Belgium, Brazil, Greece, the U.S., India, England, and others.
There was a workshop on Women and Health conducted by Norma Swenson and Paula Doress (two members of the Boston Women's Health Collective). They gave us an interesting account of how their collective was founded -by a group of women who were dissatisfied with the existing medical system in the U.S. and who formed a collective to do something about it. They began to study medical books and journals, and also the medical system, and brought out a critique of the health system. More importantly, they made a great contribution to the self-help movement enabling thousands of women to learn more about their bodies and its problems, learn to diagnose, and even treat female diseases. Theirs is an attempt to reclaim our traditional place in society as healers, and to restore to medicine its original sense of service and humanity. Women from different countries were able to compare and critically discuss the health systems that exist in their own countries. I found this work-shop very interesting and educational. Topics discussed included contraception, maternity care, childbirth, midwives, abortion, self-examinations, women's clinics, etc. Often slides and films accompanied the discussions.
A number of workshops and group meetings were held to discuss the idea of setting up a "women's international press service" and the related question of whether to accept the offer made by the International Press Service — i.e., the use of its teleprinter system by such a women's press service. By the end of the conference no conclusive decision had been made. A committee with various regional representatives was set up, and it was decided to stall a decision until the regional representatives had done some initial work in the region by contacting various women's organizations, journals, and other, mainstream, publications, and discussed the proposal with them in order to discover how viable the proposal was. It was decided that the committee should meet after six months to reconsider the idea. The International Tribune Center in New York offered to coordinate the work.
On the last day there was a very widely attended workshop on "What is feminism?" The workshop clearly revealed the interest felt by a number of women in feminism and the need to clarify the existing confusion and misunderstanding - often fostered and initiated by the male dominated press.
There were other interesting workshops in the same area on women and global corporations, feminist theory and activism, lesbian feminism, health, nuclear power and effects on women and children, and female sexual slavery, to name a few
This just gives an idea of what went on in a single room (capacity 50-80 people) of the huge University complex which sheltered over 8,000 women!
At the same time there were equally interesting workshops and discussions going on in other parts of the building. To name a few, there were workshops on art, on women and development; the African women had a chance to discuss problems specific to them, the women from Latin America had their own meetings; movies on battered women, on health and self-health; panel discussions; political demonstrations, etc.
Most women were faced with the difficult choice of staying in one area with like-minded people and keeping a network, sharing and learning from each other's experiences, and making concrete plans for further action, and co-operation, or - to move around as much as possible and attempt to get a general idea of what was happening. Everyone was tormented with the fear that she was missing something important happening at 10 other places!
I chose more to concentrate in one area and meet and discuss with as many feminists as possible. It was for me heartening to realize that in spite of cultural differences there was so much in common to unite us, to feel the bond of sisterhood, to break the isolation of women and to feel the growing power within us.