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Principles of Good Work for an Activist Collective

Feminist Collective
Yosh
March 2020

The text contains reflections on work in the public sector, in particular in the team of “Feminist Workshop”. The activity under analysis is based on flat and self-organizing methods, as well as the principle of "practice what you promote." The following principles flow from them and should help the activist collective to exist harmoniously and sustainable. I wrote them for a discussion in activism, which I am terribly lacking, to comprehend our activities and to form guidelines for the future. Also, this set of principles is aimed at reducing the pressure of productivity on people, which is carried out by external factors (such as competitive culture, conditions of economic instability, donor requirements, expectations of relatives), at least within the team. Read the full text in Russian.

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The Unwomanly Face of Chechnya

Feminist Collective
Elena Smirnova
February 2020

This documentary essay conveys the author’s thoughts and feelings regarding the homophobic campaign that developed in Chechnya since the beginning of the 2017. It tells about that place, or that empty signifier, that was assigned to women in the coverage of this tragedy, and about the personal experience of the author as a volunteer of an association in France supporting LGBT+ refugees from the North Caucasus. Read the full text in Russian.

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Lines from Seamstresses` Life

Feminist Collective
Mariia Lukianova
Rina Winter
October 2019

Our conversation has two tasks. One is to show the awareness of our own privileges: we work in a horizontal structure according to a scheme reducible to the formula “on ourselves”.  Another certainty of this mutual interview is that even in our format there are problems of sewing labour in Ukraine (and in other countries). We decided to talk with each other to make the work that consumers rarely think about more visible. And all this – only from our own experience.

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What Is New in My Backpack

Feminist Collective
Mariam Agamian
November 2018
In Ukraine, racism is usually discussed in comparison to other countries, primarily as a contrast. And it is mainly white experts who do all the talking. It appears that denying racism today is a sign of one's good manners. There is even a golden collection of arguments. Presumably, “we don't have racism, because everyone is white here,” “racism does not exist here because we did not have slavery, Ukraine did not colonize anyone but was colonized itself,” “technically, it's not even racism, because this is a matter of class, not race,” “if whiteness is about access to privilege and wealth, then everyone is racialized in Ukraine” and so on. (The full text is available in Ukrainian).
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A Ballad of Pride

Feminist Collective
Lesia Pagulich
July 2018
What does it mean to be proud and free and to keep fighting against dehumanization and attacks on racialized and poor populations, to keep resisting the groups that want to decide whom and where to live, denying the presence of the marginalized groups in public space? What does it mean to talk not only about sexuality, when people’s lives depend on many resources (such as health care, housing, education, transportation, etc.), while access to these resources is being increasingly limited? Is it enough to “include” a certain group in the demonstration without addressing the issue of redistribution of the resources in the society? How will we think of pride if the Pride’s agenda takes a strong stance against the anti-Roma pogroms in Ukraine and against pathologization of trans and intersex people? How then will we imagine solidarity and coalitions that are based on mutual support? After all, this is a "tradition" of Prides. (The full text is available in Ukrainian.)
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Women's or Feminist Event: What Happened to the March on 8 March 2018

Feminist Collective
Daria Popova
March 2018

Feminist marches on 8th of March have been held at least since 2010 in Ukraine. This year, however, the organization of the event has gained massive criticism from inside feminist communities. Daria Popova rethinks the current situation and raises difficult questions. How did it happen that the march was captured by several resourceful NGOs and foundations? Why were the grassroots feminist activist initiatives excluded? How does the focus on the massive participation in the march depoliticize it and leads to silencing of urgent problems? What is the connection between neoliberalism, NGO-ization of resistance and depoliticization of feminist movement? How is feminist resistance against nationalism and neoliberalism possible here and now? (The full text is available in Ukrainian).

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The Failures of Successful Transition

Feminist Collective
Fritz von Klein
May 2017

Every time I keep an eye on Mom while applying black enamel on my nails - I am wondering whether she thinks that I made a mistake and want to get back but don't confess. Or she considers me being stuck between genders as if genders were gangways. And I don't look at Mom when applying coloured enamel. Because either I don't apply the coloured one, or apply but remove immediately and get the black back: an anxiety for the identity turns out to be stronger that desire to experiment. Every time I tell that now I have difficulties to get acquainted with someone and the transition made me - trans*gay - lonely so badly, I feel my shame and condemnation or compassion of others: oh yes, trans*people are always lonely and no one needs them. As if I ought to be a model, happy person; so, if I am not one, then my transition is a lie, a fiction and a self-delusion. (The full text is available in Russian.)

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Don’t Forget Foucault

Feminist Collective
Halyna Herasym
May 2017
Those, who fantasise about the almighty gay lobby, are always eager to point out that homosexuality was excluded from the ICD and DSM “not in light of any scientific evidence but rather under the influence of the LGBT-community”. This claim, however, is far from being true: there had been at least forty years of the research prior to homosexuality being excluded from ICD. Nevertheless, my point is this respect is that we should be concerned less with the question of how homosexuality was excluded from ICD and DCM, but more with that of how it made to the lists in the first place. (The full text is available in Ukrainian.)
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From the Editors of Feminist Critique: On the Launch of the Journal’s Website

Feminist Collective
Maria Mayerchyk
Olga Plakhotnik
December 2016
"Feminist Critique" is a feminist journal. We consider feminism to be a political positionality and methodological toolkit that are specifically sensitive to power relations and inequalities. As the recent international events show, we still do not have an effective language to grasp political realities. Feminist Critique is our attempt to establish a platform for creation and development of such a language (or, to be precise, languages). "Feminist Critique" is a queer-theoretical journal. We seek to problematize universalist and a-historical claims and ways of thinking, binaries and normativities. Instead, we call on heteroglossia, the transgression of neoliberal, progressivist, and triumphalist frameworks. The first publication of our journal is a translated excerpt from The Queer Art of Failure, and this is not a coincidence. We consider it to be a pivotal text for our project because Eastern Europe does lag behind, not successful and not progressive enough for the dominant "Western eyes." But we can ask in Halberstam's vein: What if we question the very logics of progress and success, or, at the very least, show its historicity? (Available in Ukrainian, English, Russian).