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BY JASS

In Guatemala, when an Indigenous-led, broad-based people’s movement mobilized for 106 days to defend democracy and achieved a peaceful transition of power, we took notice.

We had to—many of the Mayan women leaders and organizations on the front lines have been our allies for decades. They’ve been slowly building the collective power that filled the streets and plazas following Guatemala’s presidential election in August, right up to the historic inauguration of a popular president in January 2024.

As JASS, we knew right away that what they’d done and how they’d done it– unseating an authoritarian ruling elite through a massive nationwide mobilization in defense of democracy – held deep lessons for Guatemalans and for everyone who supports democracy.

So in June along with our partners, the Nobel Women’s Initiative and the Rigoberta Menchú Tum Foundation, we organized the “Women for Peace and Democracy in Guatemala” #WPD2024 delegation, which included JASS Executive Director Shereen Essof, Nobel Peace Prize laureates Jody Williams and Rigoberta Menchú, and feminist peace activists and defenders from Canada, the US, Mexico and Honduras. The delegation met with Guatemalan women – Mayan, Xinca, Garifuna, Afrodescendent and mestizos – land and water defenders, political prisoners, Mayan ancestral authorities, members of Congress and the nation’s president and vice president.

A statement presented by women representatives of 24 civil society organizations summed up the spirit of hope and challenge that we saw firsthand:

In Guatemala, the newly elected progressive government presents a historic opportunity to address the issues faced by women and their impact on our communities… We celebrate our victories and the resilience of countless women who have fought for profound changes. As opportunities arise, we also prepare ourselves to confront challenges and ensure that our voices are heard.

Guatemala’s old regime is fighting with a vengeance to hold on to its privilege and control. JASS and our partners are supporting women and their organizations in this phase of building a new country, with full rights for women, Indigenous peoples, youth and all sectors of society, especially those that have most suffered under colonial and neocolonial rule.

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Sharon is a human rights activist with extensive advocacy experience. She was the head of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) South Africa’s Dr Neil Aggett unit, which provides programmatic and advocacy support for MSF’s regional activities. Sharon is currently head of LHR’s Refugee and Migrant Rights Programme. Photograph credit: Shiraaz Mohamed

What significance or value did the recent elections in South Africa hold for activists?

It’s such a good question. I think the very sentimental response would be that we fought for a democratic dispensation in South Africa. We come from a repressive regime where there was no democracy. What we did was to fight for a constitution that enshrines values of respect for dignity, respect for human rights. The Constitution is very powerful if we can mobilise and unite and educate ourselves, to hold the government to account, any government. The elections are an important part of democracy, but it’s not the only part. Where we are at the moment, as civil society, people involved in struggling for social justice and for transformation, we haven’t mobilized enough to hold our governments accountable.

How can feminist agendas be prioritised and advanced in the post-election period in South Africa, particularly through community mobilisation efforts?

Never before has there been such a heightened awareness or knowledge around a feminist agenda. Just a very simple thing like the consideration of the use of pronouns has shifted consciousness in terms of a very binary world, dominated by the word ‘he’ where you see it in religion and in law, it was always the default. That is a reflection of consciousness, especially amongst young people who’ve enforced that level of thinking and I would make a parallel with our struggle to fight against racism, in our struggle against the apartheid regime. So that’s, like the starting point.

A lot of work has been done to get us to this point, but I think that whatever ‘we’ are defined as ‘we’re’ very fragmented at the moment. We are struggling to build solidarity and to build coalitions. I think that’s where we are failing when it comes to building community structures, building at the community level building at grassroots level because, at a higher level there are organizations that have built and led campaigns and mobilised, whether it’s around legislative change, or whether it’s around dealing with discrimination or dealing with various forms of hate crimes or rape as a weapon.

Most of the movements or structures that exist are very focused on separate issues. We were struggling to work in solidarity.

What’s missing, is the glue that will bring us together and hold us together in solidarity – we have to ask ourselves, what is the lever of power? We located that in the trade union movement, in fighting against apartheid but we’ve not been able to locate that lever of power that was able to unite us and be a strength in standing up against the state.

What are the expectations and hopes for womxn and communities facing challenges or resisting injustices following the recent elections in South Africa?

The current times are very bleak moment in our history, in South Africa, in Southern Africa, and then globally. The developments in Gaza have really exposed the limitations, the bias, the failure of the multilateral structures that have been set up. It’s exposed, the extent of the power, the might of the US, its military strength and how much it’s invested over the years in military power. There’s no such thing as international human rights, it really exposes what an extremely divided world we live in.

I feel very positive that with the opening up of the democratic space. I feel like we need to now get our act together about building solidarity and building accountability structures, in communities. Above all, I think there is a very desperate want for a better word, popular education, and countering disinformation and xenophobia, and hate speech against women. And so that’s our challenge, can we find ways of building alliances and unite on things that we know we can win?

How do you foresee the future of feminist activism and movement building both in South Africa and in the broader region, considering ongoing challenges and opportunities?

I think that we are in a state where we know something has to be done. I feel like there’s not a desperation, but a level of urgency. I feel quite positive. Given the times we are living in, I do feel like people have been forced to get a wakeup call about what’s happening in the world. And I think that there’s been a significant mobilizing around the climate crisis, which will be an injection.

We got to have a strategy on what would unite us. It sounds simplistic, but if you think of all the struggles, whether it’s the feminist struggle, or the struggle against xenophobia, it’s predominantly the working class, the most vulnerable, that are bearing the disproportionate brunt of those ills or injustice or discrimination.

I think that we have to strategically formulate, the Freedom Charter was such a strategic intervention. It was the thing, the rallying call that mobilized people and united people. Similarly, we need to think beyond our specific issues on what would unite us. Imagine if we built a movement of anger against the corporate, against the multinationals against private sector for its role in the injustices of inequality of the conditions that women live under, we could find a way to include our slogans on just the call for a wealth tax in the region. So that’s the second strategy – we cannot just work within national borders anymore. I feel like that’s what will unite us. And it will do away with a lot of the walls that we built as civil society, between each other and between movements and between sectors. Those walls have to be broken down and it’s not going to be by just sitting around a table and talking. It’s going to have to be through mobilizing on the ground on something that we all support in taking our cause forward.

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In March 2023, Essy joined JASS’ Feminist Movement Building School (FMBS) in Nairobi, Kenya. As the Executive Director of the Initiative for Equality and Non Discrimination (INEND), Essy began organising around LGBT issues after the post-election violence of 2008. Nearly two decades later, in the wake of multiple African governments re-criminalising the existence of LGBTQI+ bodies, Essy had been struggling with the fractured and exhaustive nature of LBTQI+ activism and movement building. 

The FMBS featured 50+ participants from 20 LBTQI+ organisations from Malawi, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda, and South Africa. The purpose of the school was to use feminist popular education methodology to build a collective analysis of the current socio-economic and political realities impacting LBTQI+ movement building and organising. Most importantly, it aimed to bolster pan-African solidarity to counter the domino effect of legislative change across the continent.

Essy found renewed energy, sharper strategy, and solidarity at the FMBS. In particular, the school deepened her understanding of power and power analysis. JASS’ power analysis demonstrated that one’s own movement and other movements across Africa do not need to challenge every power holder—that a more strategic approach could bring alignment internally and transnationally. Essy brought this power analysis back to INEND to develop their next strategic framework and focus on where they need to dismantle oppressive power. 

“Now we meet and we say, where is the power? Where do we need to reduce power, and where do we need to increase power? What do we need to concentrate on?”

Where are the grudges?

Essy shared that one thing that was really transformative from the school was the opportunity to have a space to address conflicts with fellow activists. In a context where the LBTQ+ movement is spreading thin because activists feel exhausted from fighting for so long and being so under-resourced [financially but also in terms of human resources], political spaces that allow activists to reconnect in their struggles are vital for the sustainability of movements. 

“That space helped me learn how to approach issues [with fellow activists], and allowed people to make their feelings known, or even my feelings known. Sometimes, we hold grudges that we don’t even know exist. And now we need to allow ourselves within the movement to be able to work together to fight outside.”

Where are the mechanisms?

INEND also received support from JASS through its solidarity resource mechanism, which supports organisations financially alongside deep feminist movement building work. INEND used the solidarity resourcing mechanism to provide training on advocacy strategies to seven other LBQ organisations that make up the “Our Voices Count” consortium. 

“So we decided [INEND] that we have this funding that’s for movement building, and we’re building this big, huge, huge movement. We have a Whatsapp group, and we said INEND can support this [advocacy] training. And we got someone to take us through the training on CSW, African Commission, Universal Periodic Review processes, and many other processes that LBQ women can be part of.” 

After the training, Essy witnessed people participating in the consortium and elevating their activism by connecting to regional and international human rights mechanisms. One of the organisations that is a part of the “Our Voices Count” consortium engaged in CSW by organising a parallel event and participating as panellist. Essy recognised that, even though it was a small solidarity resource grant, the fact that it was completely flexible actually impacted more than one organisation.

The school and solidarity resourcing served to build a shared political analysis of the region, strengthen organisational strategies, and  provide a space for collective care. Expanding organising and transnational solidarity amongst LBTQI+ groups in Southern and East Africa, the school helped activists like Essy feel revitalised and supported.

The FMBS integrated many practices from JASS’ Heart-Mind-Body approach which, facilitated by a practitioner on-site, enabled activists to name and recognise the deep hurt that homophobia inflicts in their bodies, and further give space to collective care and protection strategies.

The context however remains risky for LBTQ activists. In discussion with the participants, JASS will continue to provide partners like INEND with more spaces for collective care and protection strategy strengthening through their Heart-Mind-Body approach.

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Km. 148 is a nodal point on the Interamerican Highway that connects the Indigenous villages along the shores of Guatemala’s world-famous Lake Atitlan. For weeks, the crossroads was a center of Mayan resistance in the longest and most powerful mobilization in defense of democracy in the nation’s contemporary history. At roadblocks, occupations and demonstrations across the country, Guatemalans, coordinated by Guatemala’s Indigenous peoples, put their bodies on the line in defiance of a ruling elite that refused to give up power after losing the Aug. 20 presidential election.

Some 500 people from the department of Sololá gathered at Km. 148  daily to blockade the critical transportation route, demanding the resignation of the nation’s Attorney General and the judges who led efforts to block the inauguration of Bernardo Arevalo. Arevalo came out of nowhere as the only progressive candidate and son of a former president to pull off a surprise win against the group in power known as the “Pact of the Corrupt”. 

For Debora Quiacain, an Indigenous activist from San Pedro La Laguna, a Tz’utujil Indigenous town nearby, the Km. 148 roadblock was life-changing. “I felt so happy to see that the whole population was there with the same purpose, and that the peoples had united at a transcendental moment in history,” she says, recalling those days with a smile. 

Debora explains how the Indigenous Mayoralty of Santa Lucia Utatlan coordinated the actions. Womxn shouldered most of the logistics – they provided food, coordinated transportation, encouraged participation, and attended to the wellbeing of those present. Not only did all four major Indigenous groups in the country unite, they also united many others —students, workers, feminists, local residents, poor neighborhoods from the urban periphery —behind their leadership and extensive organizing structures.  

Across the country, he ancestral authorities of the powerful K’iche’ organization, the 48 Cantons of Totonicapán, took the lead, and in big cities and rural caseríos of no more than a few families, Guatemala’s vast network of Mayan communities activated and mobilized to the call. The Indigenous Mayoralty of Sololá played a leading role especially in Debora’s region, and local Indigenous organizations took turns  coordinating a permanent presence in front of the Public Ministry, where the Attorney General Maria Consuelo Porras orchestrated efforts to overturn the election. On one of the days, Mayan womxn -known for their beautiful weavings- set up their looms in front of the barred building, to “weave justice”.

“It’s now or never”- An Indigenous Call to Action

The emergence of a powerful and united Indigenous movement to defend the vote and oust the corrupt and authoritarian leaders surprised even its leaders. Why now? 

Debora notes that the people were fed up with the status quo. “We were so sick of a congress that approved millions of dollars of loans to themselves, ministers that forcibly displaced our communities, a Minister of the Interior who used power to criminalize our people. And we could see how the Congress supported all this and the President and cabinet too, and in the judicial branch we didn’t have a justice system that protected us or that found in favor of human rights. And we saw how together they were consolidating control, locking it in, to achieve the complete co-optation of the state.” 

The structures of the state power exposed themselves as they openly sought to betray the popular vote. “This was the catalyst–when they had the nerve to go so far as to eliminate the election. That’s a dictatorship, imposed from within state institutions… so the [Indigenous] authorities stood up and said ‘Ok, we’ve got to pull together; it’s now or never’.”

This rejection of the ruling elite also combined with a new hope, sparked by a progressive party that rose to power on an anti-corruption platform. 

Debora has long been an activist, as part of the collective of her community Tz’unun ya’. She says that her activist experience, and in particular, her participation in JASS’s Alquimia Feminist Leadership School helped her to understand the forces of power behind the corrupt leaders, identify key moments and support organizing for a mass mobilization.

JASS-organized gatherings of womxn land and territory defenders have also been key in strengthening Debora’s  capacity as an organizer. “The exchanges increased my knowledge, links, alliances and even the power to see mechanisms and strategies for action that we were able to share and strengthen together,” she notes. 

So when the time came for action, she felt prepared.  

“JASS has been an organization that has encouraged me and provided me with tools and knowledge regarding hidden powers and the oppressive system
we live under– In Guatemala, in Latin America, and at the global level, “ Debora explains. “In this process of defense of democracy, thanks to these lessons and tools we can easily identify who are the actors that are violating rights and threatening democracy in Guatemala.”, she says further.

Victory and the Long Road Ahead

After 106 days of public pressure, the people won –  Bernardo Arevalo and Karin Herrera were sworn in just after midnight on January 15. Their first stop as president and vice president was to thank the organizations of Indigenous peoples.

The celebrations lasted until dawn. The people celebrated the sheer relief of having banished a plundering and repressive regime from power. They celebrated the hope of a new balance of power. And they celebrated themselves—an Indigenous-led movement that will go down in history as a textbook example of non-violent resistance. 

Debora has no illusions that the new president will resolve the injustices built up over 523 years of colonialism. “We know that there won’t be a change from one day to the next, because it will be progressive, and at least in the legislature, we still have rightwing parties that are very strong, so change and the policies that Bernardo announced in his campaign promises will come little by little.”

But some things have already changed. The historic mobilization of 2023 demonstrated the strength and leadership of Mayan organizations and shifted the relationship in Guatemalan society between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. It also seems to be shifting gender relations within the Indigenous movement–in recent elections of Indigenous authorities, more womxn were elected, a sign of recognition for their role in the mobilization and their capacity for leadership. 

For Latin America and the world, Guatemala went from being a warning of advancing authoritarianism to being an example of what the people can do when they decide to fight for their democracy. For indigenous people everywhere , the Mayan peoples of Guatemala, like Debora, have become the example of the power of ancestral organization.

Debora concludes: “One of the most wonderful lessons to come out of this is that when we Indigenous people make a commitment, it’s decisive.. To see the results we achieved– that the inauguration even took place– teaches us that as Indigenous peoples we are a strong population and that  this unity can lead us toward a truly plurinational state. But it also leaves lessons learned and future actions to continue to build alliances.”   

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Nurfianalisa, a local community organizer, is a member of Solidaritas Perempuan-Anging Mammiri and the young women’s alliance Forum Aktivis Perempuan Muda (FAMM Indonesia). FAMM  is a network of 380 young women, formed following years of participating in JASS Southeast Asia’s regional leadership schools. She is part of the Bugis ethnic community, the dominant tribe in Makassar. Together with the fishing community, Nurfianalisa has been challenging and protesting against the project as it poses a serious threat to the livelihoods of the people in the region. Nurfianalisa, explains –

“The community faces the impending reclamation of a port. They were never consulted when this project was proposed. Their lands and ocean are being exploited and they stand to lose their houses and incomes. 

Who benefits from this “development”?

With the land reclamation in Makassar, womxn in the fishing community stand to lose their means of sustenance. Womxn play a key role in the community – they catch and process fish, and repair nets. Thousands of families in the fishing communities have already been displaced by the land reclamation project. Thousands more are set to be displaced soon. There have been deliberate attempts on the government’s part to push back and use trumped-up charges to criminalise womxn and community members who have been protesting against the port project. Through online platforms and media, the community is now being portrayed as poor, backward, and “anti-development”.

Despite targeted efforts to weaken womxn’s organising by the government and contractors PT Banteng Laut and PT Boskalis International Indonesia (a subsidiary of Dutch-based Royal Boskalis Westminster) community organisers such as Nurfianalisa are trying to spotlight the damaging impacts of an extractive model of development and seeking intervention from the National Commission on Violence Against Women in conflict resolution and safeguarding womxn’s rights.

What are womxn up against?  

Womxn in Indonesian society face multi-layered challenges. According to Nurfianalisa, there are two things that are important to highlight. One is the patriarchal culture, which thrives on controlling womxn in terms of the social, political, and religious aspects of their lives.

“There are a lot of conservative groups in Makassar that are opposing women’s struggles and a lot of our protests are being stopped by these conservative religious groups. They always oppose us,” added Nurfianalisa. 

 Another key challenge that womxn encounter in their everyday lives is the extractive capitalist system. The “political elites and oligarchs”, as she calls them, consolidate power in the political sector in order to dominate natural resources and capital. The long line of ongoing and planned extractive industry projects in the name of ‘development’ – like this land project – are creating economic conditions that are counter to the well-being of communities and land. Many of the government regulations are aligned to favour investors and not the communities.

“They do not understand or they choose not to understand that the national resources that they exploit are part of our lives, part of the lives of womxn. They only see these resources as something that can be transacted or exchanged,” says Nurfianalisa.  

She also observes that politics and religion have been politicized and mobilized by those whose interests are served by this kind of “development and investment”.

“Patriarchy and capitalism have infiltrated all aspects of our lives. Capitalism does not stop at the national level, but they collaborate at the international level. So, our enemy is a colossal power. How do we strengthen ourselves to go against this colossal power knowing the violent ways that they can push us back?” asks Nurfianalisa.

How do we challenge extractives?  

Nurfianalisa recently participated in the “Follow the Money” workshop on challenging extractivism in Indonesia, organised last November by JASS Southeast Asia and FAMM Indonesia. This face-to-face process was a continuation of previous workshops started in 2022 that aimed at strengthening the analysis and organising strategies of FAMM Indonesia and its members around the issue of extractivism.

At the workshop, young womxn members of FAMM Indonesia from across several provinces in the country shared their stories and identified patterns in policies, plans, and environmental impacts within the extractivist projects they had been confronting in their communities. The workshop also guided them in mapping investment chains and the actors (investors and enablers) to be able to then review their organising strategies.  

According to Nurfianalisa, a key takeaway from the workshops is using power analysis  to better understand the ways in which extractive industries work and who and what is driving and enabling them.

“Usually, the focus of discussions on extractivism is on the impact analysis on womxn. We do not typically focus on analysing the actors behind the impact. At the moment, things that we observe are still at the surface level only. We need to focus on going deeper into what and who is actually hidden, which is how the power analysis can help. This is what really helped me and my community members because we did not have this understanding earlier. Developing this understanding has been transformative for us.” says Nurfianalisa.

Post workshops, Nurfianalisa has shared the knowledge and power analysis with the coastal community and her colleagues at the Solidaritas Perempuan-Anging Mammiri.

“Knowing the people behind this project is crucial. This way, in our campaigns and in our advocacy, we can pinpoint the exact target and organise around them,” adds Nurfianalisa.

Womxn and local fishing communities in the area have organised to physically prevent sand mining on multiple occasions. And although the Makassar land reclamation project has entered the final stage of development, Nurfianalisa has identified small victories from the community. 

“The fishing community has shown a lot of courage in standing up against the big contractors and the government. They never stopped raising their voices despite the resistance faced from the government. I think there’s something powerful in organising in this manner.”  

The Power of Numbers

Nurfianalisa and her community recognise the need to build strong resistance strategies and a united community.

“It is important to see that we have huge power because we as womxn leaders and organisers are the majority and what we are up against is the minority. They may have power over capital, authority, and politics. But as activists and WHRDs, we need to know and see that there are a lot of things that we can do. These people dominate and have power over politics to discriminate and to take away things from womxn, so we need to strategize on how we can use our collective power to counter them,” says Nurfianalisa. 

When asked why are there womxn who are not fighting for their rights or or participating in the people’s struggle for land and life, Nurfianalisa explains:

“Because they are not aware. They do not have access to tools and information on what their rights are. But upon understanding their rights, womxn will be able to raise their voices in the defense of our territories and livelihoods.”

The JASS workshops on challenging extractives has not only been instrumental in providing the methodology and tools to challenge large-scale extractive projects, but also creates a space to foster leadership and organising skills in the community.

“As womxn, we need to be united. And we need to cross the line created by our family and society and surroundings. Additionally, how we build dialogues and discussions within our families is also important. After meeting with womxn from the fishing communities, I talk to my family about my experience and I try to build their understanding and empathy. Slowly, they understand my line of work and understand that what I’m doing is not something bad but crucial for our future,” concludes Nurfianalisa.

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Can you tell us about yourself? Can you describe the work that you do in RWDN?

My name is Sharifah Shakirah. I was born in Burma. At the age of five, I had to flee my country because of the decades-old persecution of Rohingya people by the State.  I was living in Malaysia until recently, and resettled in the United States (US) in 2019. 

The 2012 crackdown in Myanmar saw many Rohingyas trying to leave the country while many others were killed. During this time, I was giving a lot of interviews to the international media to bring attention to what was happening with my community. 

In 2015 and 2016, the ongoing persecution also saw many womxn and girls being killed and subjected to physical and sexual violence, detention, and trafficking. As a Rohingya womxn, I felt that we needed a womxn’s organization to provide support to Rohingya womxn and girls. That is how our organization, the Rohingya Women Development Network (RWDN), was established in Malaysia. It was the first Rohingya womxn-led organization as well as the first refugee womxn-led organization in Malaysia. 

Presently, the RWDN is an international network led and informed by Rohingya womxn. The US provides us with the opportunity to access freedom, rights, and education. However,  we still need support and systems for the larger Rohingya community. On the ground, our organization works to extend socio-economic support to womxn and girls. We want to become self-sufficient as a community. We are currently working in Malaysia and the US to strengthen and develop the Rohingya community through education, skills training and advocacy.

What are you fighting for? What are you fighting against? 

The genocide against the Rohingyas is ongoing in Myanmar. Our people have been trying to escape the persecution, the violence, and trying to seek refuge wherever possible. Unfortunately, countries like Malaysia, Bangladesh, India, and Indonesia do not recognize the refugees in their country. This means that there are no rights or State’s support for the Rohingya refugees.  

As an organization, we try to provide support to address the needs of the community. The Rohingya people have trauma from the violence they have seen or faced. We are trying to return home, return to our land. Nobody wants to live in a country where we feel that we are not welcomed. We want to go home. We need to continue speaking up, wherever we are. Even as we fight for justice, we see our communities, our homes destroyed. 

What are the main demands of the Rohingya women?

We seek freedom for ourselves. We demand justice for womxn who are being used as a weapon. We want our rights to be recognized and to be treated as equals in our country Myanmar. We want education for our children and for ourselves. We want to have the opportunity to study, to be able to speak, and to be empowered.

We want to be heard. We want to be equally involved in all decision-making processes, because we are victims of genocide. At the same time, we want to be respected for who we are. We do not want to be abused in our own home. We don’t want to be taken advantage of  by being a womxn or a girl in our community.  We want to be respected and seen as equal to other human beings. 

What is your message to fellow Rohingya womxn? To all the womxn of Myanmar?

My message to my fellow Rohingya women is to not give up. We have demands. We have things that we want. But first, we need to know who we are, how beautiful we are, how capable we are, and how strong and brave and resilient we are. With that, we cannot give up, because if we give up, everything will be destroyed. We have to be tough and believe and know that we are capable of it. We need to put ourselves first and love ourselves first. Many of us think that we are the last priority, and we are only made to stay in the kitchen and take care of the kids. But being a woman and a mother and living in the community, I know we are much more than that. 

Second is that we have been using our strength for our family. We have to recognize that we are the warriors behind our family, our community, and our society. Let us not let people misuse us. Let us not let people take advantage of us. Let us not let people exploit us. Let us be who we are, the strong warrior. Let us fight forward. We know that we are more than just genocide survivors. We are more than just refugees. We are more than just a mother or a wife. I want my fellow Rohingya women to recognize this strength that we have. We are the backbone and the warriors of our community. We need to really believe in that.

My message for my sisters in Myanmar, to all our ethnic sisters, is that we need to be there for each other. Let us not let anyone, any men, divide us. They make us feel hate for each other. We are people who give love, and we care. These are the characteristics that we have, and we should show those characteristics, the love, the kindness, to each other. Let us see each other as the same sisters from our country. We have to join hand in hand to end this violence happening among us. We need each other.

What is your message to the international community?

I want the international community to open their eyes and see what is happening to us. We need help, we need services, and we need aid. Without your help and solidarity, the fight that we are fighting is not going to be successful.

Education is the long term solution for our community. We want to be empowered. We want to be taught how to ask for our rights, rather than being told what to do and what not to do. We want to be able to make our own decisions. Education is the only thing that would allow us to  recognize our rights and use our  voice in the battle we have been fighting for decades. 

Solidarity is very important. Everyone needs to understand our situation. There is a lot of propaganda against the Rohingyas. You need to hear from the Rohingyas themselves. We are the victims. We’ve been abused. We’ve been persecuted. You need to hear the truth and share our story with whomever you know, because the world needs to know what is happening. The genocide is taking place in Myanmar, and it needs to stop. Everyone needs to take action – small or big. It’s all needed.

I hope that you will see a refugee in your country as equal to others. That you see them as humans, at least, and that they are capable. No refugee, no Rohingya, goes to a country to take away other people’s opportunities. Our country kept us out. They were persecuting us. They forced us to leave. This is why we went  to another country to protect our family—to find shelter and a safe space. But we would like to contribute as much as we can to your country. Please allow us to do that. Accept us. Welcome us. 

———–

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The Philippines, alongside many other countries in Southeast Asia has become a battleground for soft power wars between the U.S. and China. Audrey and her ancestors have been intentional collateral of these “development” projects for generations. As a womxn from an Indigenous Peoples community, she has been at the forefront of violence all her life, resisting development projects such as the Chico Dam. 

In recent years, Audrey has strengthened her approach to political activism by engaging with JASS in multiple ways including through feminist popular education processes, transnational solidarity building, solidarity resourcing and most recently through engagement in JASS Southeast Asia’s flagship program “Follow the Money.” Follow the Money (FtM) is a core strategy and approach to challenging extractives in the region, and an expansion to the activist toolkit Behind the Scenes of Extractives: Money, Power & Community. The process brought together community leaders of Innabuyog, a regional alliance of indigenous women’s organizations in the Cordillera region, to map where the money of four major extractive mega-dams are funded from and to find links across these resource mobilizers. 

Follow the Money 

The FtM process that was led by JASS in 2022, brought together Audrey alongside 20 other community leaders to find links in the investments of these mega-dam projects. The investors turned out to be offshore and not even located in the Southeast Asia region. 

While community leaders are working on local strategies for challenging these mega-dam projects, JASS discovered through the FtM process in Indonesia in 2023 that the investors of a mining project were the same as the mega-dam project in the Philippines. This set the scene for a transnational movement to challenge extractives in the region, with Audrey at the helm of the movement in the Philippines. 

Solidarity with other Indigenous Peoples 

Audrey deeply understood the purpose of long-term feminist movement building because of the Cordillera region’s history of resistance. The people of Cordillera are known for their actions against the government and World Bank in the 1980s to defend against development aggression. Her motivation to continue this type of resistance is what led to the formation of Innabuyog, where Audrey is the Secretary General.

Women must keep themselves perpetually organized to keep forwarding the rights and welfare of Indigenous women.

Audrey’s decision to work with JASS on Follow the Money to co-create and contextualize the four mega dam projects in the Cordillera region has shifted the strategic approach in which she and the Indigenous people of Cordillera have been organizing their resistance. Audrey shared –

We were able to deeply understand the connection of issues, who are involved in the projects in our ancestral domains, and where we will focus our efforts in the campaign.

As a result of this strengthened approach of Innabuyog and other organizations in the region, Audrey was able to set collective agendas alongside her communities to strengthen Indigenous women’s demands for basic rights. 

FtM was an opportunity for the collective movement building for Audrey where JASS has provided solidarity resourcing among other strategic capacities to systematically address the multitude of ways that womxn and Indigenous Peoples lack basic services, are silenced through violence and continue to face extraction of their natural resources. 

Audrey shared that despite the ongoing “development” taking place in the Cordillera region, it remains one of the poorest (in terms of access to basic needs) parts of the Philippines. Being part of JASS’ feminist popular education processes helped her deepen her political analysis – and gave her an expanded definition of what gender-based violence is in her region. The violence that the Indigenous people face in Cordillera is so much more than domestic and family violence – it is the increased militarization, coupled with sexual abuses committed by soldiers and police officers all while receiving minimal state support, access to public services and mounting debt. 

JASS and Audrey began their relationship at a national gathering of women four years ago, where Audrey had shared the experiences of the Cordillera women. Audrey then joined the transnational solidarity movement of Indigenous Land Rights Defenders through the South to South exchange, held virtually.

It is important to participate in gatherings and spaces where we can further amplify our issues, and share knowledge and experiences with fellow Indigenous womxn, with whom we share the same issues, the same oppression, and the same fervour in struggling for self-determination.

The post Let Our Rivers Flow Freely: Resisting Extractivism in the Philippines appeared first on Vuka News.

Last year, Malaika – a sex worker activist who is a part of JASS’ feminist circles in Zimbabwe along with other sex worker activists raised concern and challenged police inaction when one of the sex workers was killed. She had joined JASS’ feminist circle – a gathering of women who collectively strategise around issues they face everyday – in 2014, after being hospitalised as a result of intimate partner violence. She was encouraged by another activist she came across who was a part of JASS’ feminist movement building support and strengthening work in Harare.  

Being in a feminist circle with other activists and sex workers encouraged Malaika to talk about the injustice faced at the hands of the police. As a collective that had been working together for years, Malaika and four others from her circle recorded a video narrating the failures of the police, specifically, their failures to extend protection to sex workers against violence. The video went viral on social media. The police responded aggressively; they picked up the five women from their home and took them to the police station. Malaika shared –

As activists, we are now brave enough to speak out, and when we did, we suffered backlash from the police who came and picked us up from our homes and took us into the provincial office for questioning.

Reclaiming our power 

Malaika and four other other women found themselves subjected to a gruelling day of interrogation with each woman being interviewed separately. Despite not having prepared in advance, they shared similar responses with the police officers and they found ways to reclaim their power: 

We held on to our power by declining to sit on the chairs that the police offered us. We sat on the floor. It was our own way of retaining our power.

Later, Malaika was able to activate her safety network and get access to legal counsel through JASS’ support which led to their release. This was possible because the feminist circle – integrating both collective care and safety –  had measures in place in the face of threats and had a safety network/ protocol established. 

Through this experience, Malaika and the four women came to a powerful realisation – that collectively they possessed inherent power. They discovered  –  that the police, wary of negative publicity and exposure on social media, were receptive to their demands. The police even shared a direct contact number with Malaika for instances when their concerns were not addressed or cases were not handled well at the local police station. 

Strength in Solidarity

Since then, there has been another demonstration of collective power from this circle, using their new negotiating power with the Provincial Police Office. Recently, a young child passed away. The women in the circle noticed the significant delay in the state’s removal of the body, exposing ongoing corruption in the state institutions. The circle convened and called the provincial police officer with their complaint. The police immediately organised the access to the burial rights and Malaika and her circle reflected on their power as activists.

We are now like a referral point of writing notes for other women who need to go to the police for services. When the police officer reads that it is Malaika or any of the other sisters, they take immediate action.

Since joining one of the JASS feminist circles in Zimbabwe, Malaika views herself differently and is able to to stand up, speak out and lead in her community, both as a sex worker and as an activist. She recalled how in the last few years, she has felt a shift in her dignity, self-esteem and wellness. Working with JASS has helped Malaika feel more confident in encouraging other women to stand up for their own rights, particularly as survivors of violence. Malaika continues to share the knowledge and power she has gained with other women in her community. Now her home is a refuge for other sex workers who she stands alongside when they report violence and if their case gets seen by the court. 

I have also noted that in my community women are now engaged in several initiatives. We developed a habit of sharing whatever we heard in spaces created by JASS with other women in the community.

Malaika joined the JASS circle in Zimbabwe in 2014, where feminist popular education methodology was used to reflect on building individual and collective power, as women and sex workers. Malaika was also a recipient of the Mobilisation Fund, that helped her to build economic alternatives in the form of small business during COVID-19, when she could not leave home to conduct sex work. 

The post Refusing to be Silenced: Confronting Injustice in Zimbabwe appeared first on Vuka News.

106 days running – from the first days of October 2023 until January 15, 2024 – a large part of the Guatemala population was in the streets and in the communities, claiming their right to resist the imposition of the classist, racist and corrupt regime that has been exercising visible and invisible power for years, and calling to respect the popular will in the 2023 elections.  

Guatemala’s history is marked by the Spanish colonial invasion and a State inherited from colonialism that has been dominated by military dictatorships and authoritarian regimes. The Peace Accords signed in 1996 after 36 years of internal armed conflict recognized the existence of Guatemala’s four peoples – Maya, Xinca, Garifuna and Mestizo – in a nation where at least half of the country’s population is of Mayan origin. According to the Historical Clarification Commission promoted by the UN and the Catholic Church’s report of the Project for the Recovery of Historical Memory, also known as “Guatemala: Never Again” (which cost the life of then Archbishop Juan Gerardi Conedera, assassinated three days after presenting the report), the war left more than 200,000 people murdered, more than 90,000 disappeared, more than 300 villages completely razed, multiple crimes of sexual violence and murder of children among others, with long lasting consequences that still affect the population.

The 2023 presidential election was marred by multiple and constant attempts by the so-called Pact of the Corrupt—made up of certain economic elites, government officials and members of organized crime–to hold on to power after the unexpected triumph of the Semilla (Seed) party, formed mostly by academics and progressive activists. 

The actors linked to corruption in the Pact of the Corrupt rejected the election results and continued to make every attempt to block the transition, particularly by manipulating “legal” means through the Public Ministry and the Constitutional Court to stage their opposition to the results. Using a justice system co-opted by corruption, they launched a series of direct attacks against the Semilla party and continuous attacks against the newly elected government, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal and all forms of opposition. These attacks persist to this day.    

The Pact of the Corrupt launched repeated attempts to prevent the president and vice president who won the elections democratically on August 20, 2023 from assuming power on January 14, 2024. In this critical situation, in late September 2023 indigenous authorities of Sololá and the 48 cantons of Totonicapán called on the Guatemalan people to rise up and demonstrate in the streets and in front of the office of the Public Ministry. Gradually, indigenous authorities from other territories throughout the country joined in under the slogan of defending democracy–a democracy that, paradoxically, has brought little or no benefit to the historically impoverished indigenous, rural and urban majorities.

 On January 14, the date scheduled for the inauguration, the ceremony was delayed for hours–to the point that several dignitaries attending (including the King of Spain and the President of Chile) had to leave before President-elect Bernardo Arevalo and Vice President Karen Herrera could take office.  Members of the Pact of the Corrupt in congress tried to prevent the inauguration up to the last minute, despite the embarrassment their actions caused among the population and the international community. These moves pushed the ceremony late into the night. They were only stopped when another group of congressional representatives burst into the room where they were meeting to try to stop the inauguration of the president and vice president through the use of clearly illegal arguments. 

Finally, the official ceremony took place. Afterwards the new president and vice president went to meet with the resistance and indigenous authorities in front of the Public Ministry to thank them and publicly acknowledge their support for democracy. They arrived at the Central Plaza around 3:00 a.m. on the 15th, where a crowd had gathered since early afternoon to celebrate the victory of a new progressive government. However, since months before and during the entire period of mobilization following the election, the most consistent demand of the organized resistance was the resignation of Attorney General María Consuelo Porras and the prosecutors colluding with the effort to repress resistance and attack all forms of opposition to the previous government.

The new democratically elected government finally succeeded in assuming the presidency of the country thanks in large part to popular mobilization and the overwhelming support of a large part of the international community. Today the  government continues to face a permanent siege disguised as legality by a justice system that refuses to respect the will of the people.  Attorney General Porras remains in her position, with the support of economic elites and conservative sectors of the country and continues to direct a daily and permanent onslaught against the new government and against all sectors that struggle to end corruption and fight for equal rights.

The strength of the Resistance

Regardless of the outcome of this complex and still unresolved political process, the people’s Resistance and mobilization marked a political, social and cultural milestone in the recent history of the country. It provides important lessons about popular mobilization and political culture that have been examined by analysts, social movements and organizations of many different types, and that deserve to be understood and reflected upon in our own political practices.    

What was it that made these mobilizations powerful enough to define the course of events at this juncture and change the history of Guatemala? For years (with a brief hiatus in 2015 when the population massively rallied to demand the resignation of then-president Otto Pérez Molina who was later imprisoned for corruption cases), different sectors of the Guatemalan population–notably women and their organizations and indigenous, mostly Mayan, organizations–spoke out about inequalities and corruption in the country, but with the constant fear of repression. In many cases, they carried out low-profile or rapid protests, often limited to the most organized sectors of civil society, in a racist context internalized by the State and broad sectors of society  Never in recent history have we seen and experienced a mobilization that, although it had its epicenter in the resistance staged in front of the Public Ministry in Guatemala City, had a strong and organized presence throughout the country.

Indigenous authorities– of Guatemala’s formally recognized Indigenous Mayors’ Offices and those whose legitimacy stems from their history of service to their communities and ancestral practices– said “Enough is enough!” and called on the people to mobilize. They marched to the capital city to stand in front of the office of the Public Ministry and demand the resignation of the Attorney General and respect for democracy, symbolized at this juncture by respect for the citizens’ vote.

The citizens (not surprisingly, mostly men, but also many women who spoke out powerfully and took on leadership roles throughout the country) put forth and sustained some basic principles that deeply imprinted the whole resistance process and made a difference in the political ethics of social mobilization:

We fight for democracy, not for a political party.
We call for the solidarity of all people, of all peoples; the resistance rests on that solidarity and not on external financing (as groups and figures close to the Pact of the Corrupt asserted).
Every contribution is welcome and valued–small or large.
Our resistance is peaceful and non-violent–we respect public spaces. 
There is no lesser or greater task–everything adds up, every task contributes.
We are diverse and we have differences due to our particular history in each place, in each territory.  We accept and recognize those differences and what unifies us as peoples at this historical juncture.
Authority and leadership comes from representation and is nourished by the demands and orientation of our communities and peoples.  That’s why ongoing consultation is central to this struggle.
Commitment is the engine of this resistance.
We respect the different spiritualities and practices of all people and groups that seek justice.
We are always open to respectful and open dialogue with all people and all sectors.
We recognize the value and contributions of the four peoples that inhabit this country.

The call to concentrate resistance in front of the Public Ministry and in the different departments of Guatemala drew in authorities from different territories, people and groups from historically marginalized neighborhoods of the city, social organizations, church groups of different denominations, women’s and feminist organizations, organizations of diversity, peasant organizations, academic institutions and individuals, student groups, and organizations from the public sector, academic institutions and individuals, student groups from the national university and private universities, peasant organizations, youth groups, all kinds of artists, individuals, health workers, and members of many social organizations. Children came with entire families at times of peak mobilization, or when their own work and activities made it possible.  And families and individuals brought food, clothes, and quilts throughout the period from October to January so that those who stayed overnight could ward off the often piercing cold of the winter nights. 

It was heart-wrenching to see so many people and groups from different communities move into the capital city, often en masse, using their own scarce resources, sleeping on the ground or on donated mattresses that were always insufficient. The kitchens in the different territories became the epicenters to nourish the resistance for everyone who came from far away to build resistance in the cities. Tortillas, tamales (at Christmas and other times), beans, bread and coffee flowed freely and people who couldn’t camp out fulltime in the resistance arrived to contribute something to it.  There were also demonstrations from many sectors–particularly striking was when thousands of market vendors demonstrated in solidarity, closing the markets for several days in protest–a totally unprecedented event in the country.

In early October, due to the lack of response from authorities and ongoing threats to prevent the electoral process from respecting the majority vote, the indigenous authorities of the 48 Cantons and Sololá and leaders of the four peoples of the country (Maya, Garífuna, Xinca and Mestizo) called to set up points throughout the country to restrict the passage of vehicles. They called on the entire population to join the demand for democracy.  

At many points, people and organizations congregated and maintained the “blockades” day and night.  Although there were isolated incidents of repression and physical violence by anti-riot police and groups of people linked to economic elites and organized crime, the response of the population was surprisingly massive in solidarity with the resistance. Many waited patiently to be able to transit on the highways, with delays that in some cases were only about 15 minutes and in other cases stretched into hours, or even days.  

In the collective kitchens and individually in different parts of the country, the resistance shared food with bus and truck drivers. Even the police forces that were deployed at all points participated actively. They refrained from exercising physical violence against the people gathered at the points and also received food donations. This cost the then-Minister of the Interior, Napoleon Barrientos, his job,. After he refused to comply with the order to repress the population, he was fired and imprisoned.  

Artistic expressions (music, painting, dance, and poetry, among others) enlivened the gatherings at many points throughout the country and in the capital city. Young people from neighborhoods and communities, many of them women, took the mike to speak directly to the police forces and the people gathered around about the meaning of their citizen rights, the treaties and laws that protect human rights, and the precarious living conditions for the majority of the population, including public servants and police, etc. 

After some time, understandably, the “blockades” caused wear and tear on the population that had to transit the highways and transport products, although mechanisms were established at some points to ensure that sick people, people with urgent needs, small scale food distributors and ambulances could circulate freely. After about two weeks, the indigenous authorities called to suspend the sit-ins and continue the concentrations in other points of resistance in the country.  

But the experience of the blockades had an important impact on the economic and political elite. Not only did it demonstrate the strength of the popular mobilization, but it also had an economic impact that showed that these actions could affect the accumulation of wealth. This opened up formal dialogues, facilitated by the Organization of American States and other organizations, which obliged certain powerful entities to formally open up to dialogue, including then-President Alejandro Giamattei. The dialogues ultimately did not modify the positions of the most economically powerful sectors of the country, and much less, as is still evident, of the Pact of the Corrupt spearheading efforts through the judicial branch– the Constitutional Court and especially the Public Ministry,   however, the uninterrupted pressure, along with intense lobbying and direct relationships with the international community by very diverse social actors (including some business sectors) and in particular by the ancestral authorities, made it possible for the president and vice president to take office in the pre-dawn hours of January 15. 

Overcoming the challenges

The organized resistance was not, of course, free of tensions and contradictions.  Differences regarding the scope of the transformations that the country required, leadership struggles, inherent cultural contradictions in urban and rural areas, and patriarchal behaviors did not disappear by magic. But in a country with such an internalized history of racism and discrimination, the native peoples stood up with all their dignity and wisdom as an example of leadership that bases its authority on the mandate given to them by their communities.  Amid all the differences, they managed to build solidarity and agreement, make visible oppression and racism, demonstrate the ability of women to speak out in solidarity and caring, and express the human hope for a life in dignity.  

To paraphrase a poem by Otoniel Martinez, Tenderness won another battle.

 Below is a shortened version of a text written by an artists’ collective that was distributed at points of the resistance and described by one of the members as “collectively owned.”  At various places and moments, this text was read and chanted by the people and groups present at the resistance.

We are here

For those who will be born when we are no longer here… We are here!

For those who are no longer here… We are here!

For our parents… We are here!

For all our grandchildren… We are here!

For the (US) intervention in 1954… We are here!

For the dispossession of collective lands… We are here!

For every victim of the genocide… We are here!

For every disappeared person… We are here!

For the blood of Gerardi… We are here!

For (names of Guatemalan poets, writers)… We are here! 

For the trade unionists who they threw into the sea… We are here!

For the teachers who were disappeared… We are here

For the writers who never kept silent… We are here!

For the artists who taught us to fight… We are here!

For (names of former Guatemalan democratic presidents, human rights defenders, assassinated human rights defenders)… We are here!

For all the poor people of this rich country… We are here!

For those who were killed in the looting… We are here!

For the renal patients of the IGSS (Social Security)… We are here!

For the criminal contamination of the La Pasión river… We are here!

For all the excluded… We are here!

For the dozens of people who die every day… We are here!

For every child who dies of hunger… We are here!

For the women who are raped… We are here!

For each and every migrant…. We are here!

For the massacre of Alaska… We are here!

To keep the memory alive… We are here!

Because we don’t want to feel fear anymore… We are here!

Because we have hope… We are here!

Because we are born…. We are here!

Because we want to be worthy of our volcanoes.

FOR ALL THE WOMEN OF THE WORLD… WE ARE HERE!

The post How a People’s Resistance Movement Changed the Course of Guatemalan History appeared first on Vuka News.

Tiwonge Gondwe, a prominent woman leader of Our Bodies, Our Lives (OBOL), boldly states, “I have crossed the lines of breaking the culture of silence in my family, community, and society.” Comprising over 9,500 women from all 28 districts of Malawi, OBOL is a movement that mobilizes communities in the fight for equitable healthcare and economic security for women living with HIV.

Tiwonge’s journey with OBOL began almost 16 years ago. There from the start, she recalls when she connected with JASS, “When we started mobilizing and organizing women and girls in our area in 2006 [Rumphi district in the Northern region], people were saying that it will not work because it has never happened in their life and that when women are together they usually fight. This pained and made me feel powerless. But after participating in the feminist movement building processes organized by JASS, I started feeling powerful. I built my power within to challenge this stereotype of undermining women and built power with OBOL members to work hard and build a strong movement by sharing skills, knowledge, experiences, and capacity.”

The beginning

In 2007, even with the substantial increase in funding for HIV/AIDS-related initiatives in Malawi to combat the AIDS pandemic, HIV infection rates continued to rise. Although awareness of the impact on women—especially poor, rural black women—grew, their voices and leadership were missing from public discussions. There was a notable absence of a women-led agenda or any organized movement by HIV-positive women.

In response, JASS started organizing safe spaces for women to delve into the pandemic’s effects on their lives—share experiences, identify common challenges, and develop collective solutions. In 2008, Tiwonge and other women in her community observed changes in their bodies resulting from the widely-used antiretroviral treatment (ART) at the time, called D4T. This treatment contained stavudine, an outdated drug that caused numerous severe side effects, including visible physical deformities such as shrunken buttocks, loss of fat in the face, arms, legs, and buttocks, and prominent veins in the limbs.

“The ARV package in Malawi is rotten pie,” Tiwonge noted at the time, “And it is the women who are eating the biggest chunk of that rotten pie because we outnumber men in population and also in infection statistics.” These deformities caused stigma and shame and affected women’s sense of beauty, fertility, and sexuality.

Starting with “our bodies, our lives”

Over time, Tiwonge began to realize that her body matters and that by activating the power within and building solidarity with other women, they can change their situation. In her own words, “It was JASS who came in and asked us what was burning in our hearts, and then we started addressing the issue of deformation from ARVs. JASS has taught us how to put our voices together for collective action in order to name and shame the government, as well as to lobby for better quality ARVs. We wanted our dignity back.” Equipped with more confidence and skills, Tiwonge went back to her community to mobilize the women in her district to raise their voices.
For Tiwonge, the disparity of the discrimination she and other women experienced in her community was no greater than with her own husband’s family due to her HIV status and the fact that she was a widow:

“When a husband dies and the woman is left behind, there is a syndrome of saying that maybe the wife should be allowed to wear only one cloth [or change of clothes],” she begins. “The family will choose the color that she has to wear and sometimes she must put a white mark on herself to show that she has lost a husband, and she must wear [those] same clothes for a year to show that she is in deep, constant mourning.”

This cultural tradition in Tiwonge’s community is one that demands that widows isolate themselves as a sign of fidelity and ‘proper’ mourning, “She has to eat on separate dishes—no one except the wife has to do this, and I began to ask myself why?”

Tiwonge did not allow discrimination to discourage her. Instead, she confronted her father, who was also the village chief, about the issues affecting women and widows, including their lack of land ownership due to gender. Through her persistence, she was able to secure a piece of land to build a home and a small-scale farm.

Tiwonge’s activism did not just stop with her own situation—she decided that she wanted to fight with other women to make even bigger positive change: “I believe in collective power. When you use collective power effectively it enables you to engage with duty bearers and you don’t fear. It empowers you when you are talking, and you feel that there is nothing that can hinder you.”

Mobilizing collective power

Following a five-year organizing and leadership-training initiative supported by JASS and the Malawi Network of Religious Leaders Living with or Personally Affected by HIV and AIDS (MANERELA+), and the Coalition of Malawian Women Living with HIV/AIDS (COWHLA), the OBOL Campaign for Better ARVs was launched in 2012. Since then, our sustained movement building support and accompaniment have positioned HIV-positive women in the leadership of transformative health solutions for all. OBOL has upended stigma and exclusion from economic and political participation due to HIV status, replaced outdated and harmful medicines, educated health care providers and traditional leaders about HIV and sex, found common cause with religious leaders, and built a network of 30 activist hubs in every district of Malawi.

Women from OBOL are now an unstoppable force, embodying an alternative vision, narrative, and politics to address the structural drivers of exclusion, economic precarity, and discrimination. Through their organizing hubs, they ensure the continued implementation of health gains while mobilizing new rounds of political action and advocacy for basic needs and access to land.

In the past three years, OBOL women have successfully established 74 cooperative food gardens in 30 hubs and counting. These gardens feed their families and lay the foundation for further organizing around alternative economic strategies for secure livelihoods, better nutrition, and improved health.

For Tiwonge, there is still more to be done. She concludes, “My message for other women who are crossing the line is that don’t relax, keep on creating safe environments and fight injustices together! Leave no one behind, nothing for us without us, let’s raise our voices!”

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This is the time to fly, to create, to investigate, to listen, to refresh, to reinvent together.

Twenty plus years ago, JASS was born! Determined to go against the grain and create a movement-oriented alternative to the NGO model, our founders named us Just Associates – with a logo to communicate the double meaning of humility with strength, given our deep commitment to liberation and justice.

As we wrap up 2022, we look forward to celebrating our journey with you – where we have come from, all we have accomplished, and where we need to go. Like all journeys, milestones invite reflection and learning. It is in this moment that we have both invited bold questions and conversations about what is needed from a global feminist movement strengthening organization in these times and unleashed bold imaginings of what that future could look like for JASS.

We engaged over 140 people from our larger community to help us review our feminist movement building (FMB) work as well as our organisational vehicle. We have emerged from this process with a refreshed picture of who and what we are, what we have learned, what we need to leave behind, and more importantly, what we need to carry with us into the next chapter of JASS.

We are inspired, challenged, and immensely grateful for the opportunity to, in the words of the review team, “sit on the ground and listen … draw conclusions and make strategic choices to better position the organisation for this new era …”

I am proud to share what we have learned and how this will shape our organisational and strategic direction moving forward.

Our political roots and commitments are in the majority world. JASS grew from deep roots in liberation struggles and movements in the majority world and specifically in Southern Africa, Southeast Asia, and Mesoamerica. Today, we remain deeply linked to activists on the frontlines of crises and at the forefront of change: Indigenous women, land defenders, sex and garment workers, young women, LBTQ+ activists, HIV+ women. Our staff, advisors, and Board are from these very communities, which strengthens political trust and our ability to provide relevant movement accompaniment over time.

Our shared political project affirmed: FMB is the heart of our work because we believe that the movements women build come from the change they want, and that the change women want is made possible by the movements they build. Our feminist movement strengthening takes the form of sustained work with community-based activists, organizations and networks, to support and develop effective movement leadership, alliances, and strategies. The foundation of our approach is feminist popular education (FPE) – a practice of collective learning and political development that catalyzes feminist leadership, political clarity, alliances and action. While we develop and adapt a variety of FPE methodologies to speak to specific contexts and needs, all processes begin with women’s lives and experiences of power and inequity. This builds common ground and shared analysis – a foundation for the organising, solidarity, collective power and resources needed to support and sustain movements.

Our thought-leadership is as relevant as ever: JASS recognizes the power of knowledge in contributing to transformation and change. Since our inception, our cutting edge analysis, tools and publications have been a core offer to the world. Our work on power – both understanding it and transforming it – informs all our approaches to change. Our power analysis framework is widely used in different movement spaces and has influenced how organisations and funders think about and respond to critical issues of our time. Staying true to our roots as a go-to-resource on the latest thinking and analysis from the majority world, we plan to incubate and generate new kinds of knowledge from practice that can influence debates, policy and funding priorities, as well as harness art and popular culture to help shift narratives as a key part of movement work.

JASS is bigger than a team of staff, we are a community of practice: Our greatest asset has always been who we are: a diverse community of multi-regional, multi-generational and multi-cultural activists, scholars and popular educators with an extraordinary combined base of political experience and knowledge. Since the beginning, this community of practice has contributed their brilliance to the thinking and strategies that guide our work, enabling us to be much more than a staff. In our next phase, we will reactivate the vital role of this community to enrich and guide JASS’ work.

Less is more, … and strategic: The enormous impact of Covid, and the intensified crises and demands on JASS, our staff and partners’ brought questions of pace, care (heart, mind and body), and organisational infrastructure to the fore. Strengthening JASS requires deliberately cultivating an organisational culture that is both impactful and sustainable – strategic, creative, focused, and affirming. As we move into greater alignment and integration across JASS, we are committed to strengthening and refining our organisational ecosystem and structure so that it is both decentralised and agile, but also highly collaborative and interdependent, anchored by more distributed leadership and streamlined information flows that allow us to fully step into our power and potential to meet the demands and opportunities of this time.

We end the year energised and excited for our next steps. Join us in 2023 as we celebrate where we have been, where we are, and where we are going. We would not be JASS without you. Here is to the next 20 years!

Shereen Essof,

Executive Director, JASS

The post It’s been 20 years together, what’s next? – JASS appeared first on Vuka News.