JASS (Just Associates)

Through political dialogue, debate, stories of feminist organizing and collective visioning, this workshop analyzes and explores strategies and agendas for building women’s movements across geographic borders, and boundaries of power and privilege constructed by race, class, age, sexuality, nationality and ability. In addition to US stories of gender-justice organizing by women activists, the workshop engages with sisters from Indonesia, South Africa and Honduras who will share their organizing experiences in the face of religious fundamentalisms, racism, xenophobia, poverty and political repression, detailing the ways they mobilize feminist resistance and democratic alternatives from the ground up. This workshop: • Facilitates lively, collective political analysis to connect different women’s struggles. Neoliberalism and religious and social conservatism have shape-shifted patriarchy, shaming and dividing women, inside and outside social justice work, making our struggles invisible and individualized but at the same time creating new opportunities for connection, shared visions and joint action. • Creates space for dialogue and learning about feminist grassroots organizing – looking at multi-pronged strategies within shifting contexts e.g. shrinking government capacity to serve women’s rights; increased gender violence, insecurity, sex/sexuality taboos; militarization; economic insecurity. • Explores issues, experiences, agendas common to activists in the US, Latin America, South East Asia, Southern Africa, and other parts of the world at the USSF as the basis for future collaboration. • Strategizes across generations and cultures to define how and why to build cross-movement, cross-border alliances among women. It draws from the experiences of JASS and others in mobilizing effective local-to-global solidarity.

Through political dialogue, debate, stories of feminist organizing and collective visioning, this workshop analyzes and explores strategies and agendas for building women’s movements across geographic borders, and boundaries of power and privilege constructed by race, class, age, sexuality, nationality and ability. In addition to US stories of gender-justice organizing by women activists, the workshop engages with sisters from Indonesia, South Africa and Honduras who will share their organizing experiences in the face of religious fundamentalisms, racism, xenophobia, poverty and political repression, detailing the ways they mobilize feminist resistance and democratic alternatives from the ground up. This workshop: • Facilitates lively, collective political analysis to connect different women’s struggles. Neoliberalism and religious and social conservatism have shape-shifted patriarchy, shaming and dividing women, inside and outside social justice work, making our struggles invisible and individualized but at the same time creating new opportunities for connection, shared visions and joint action. • Creates space for dialogue and learning about feminist grassroots organizing – looking at multi-pronged strategies within shifting contexts e.g. shrinking government capacity to serve women’s rights; increased gender violence, insecurity, sex/sexuality taboos; militarization; economic insecurity. • Explores issues, experiences, agendas common to activists in the US, Latin America, South East Asia, Southern Africa, and other parts of the world at the USSF as the basis for future collaboration. • Strategizes across generations and cultures to define how and why to build cross-movement, cross-border alliances among women. It draws from the experiences of JASS and others in mobilizing effective local-to-global solidarity.