International Convening to Understand, Develop, Strategize and Disseminate
“Feminist Vision of Genuine Security and Culture of Life”
Subic Free Port, Philippines
Militarism cannot provide genuine everyday security for people or the planet. The prevailing, global view is intent on “manufacturing consent” for war, promoting militarized responses to disputes, and installing the wider and more fundamental system of militarism, purportedly as the way to achieve “national security.” Such perspective and related practices have and continue to result in devastating impacts on people and the environment. The impacts and burdens are faced overwhelmingly by women in every location.
In the face of increasing global militarization and nuclear threats, there is an urgency to meet in person to develop a fuller shared understanding of the current political context, to craft a feminist narrative of genuine security and a culture of life, and to develop a global strategy for changing the prevailing narrative of the inevitability of war and militarism, which promotes a culture of killing of people and the natural world.
We seek to develop a deeper understanding of the current geopolitics in the Asia/Pacific region, especially relations between the US and China, and to learn more about the current impact of increased militarization and nuclear threats from women in our respective communities. We will update our feminist analysis rooted in situations and experiences of women organizing against militarism. We will create a space for sharing and amplifying the realities of our experiences including sexual violence against women and girls, environmental devastation, and dispossession of land and sea for military purposes.
We are organizing a 4-day international convening of women in Olongapo, Philippines (the location of the former US Navy Base in Subic Bay), 25-28 May 2023. Our goal is to develop a transnational feminist narrative that presents our vision of genuine security and a culture of life where all beings thrive, based on hope, inspiration, compassion, justice, and love. We will use this narrative to challenge and offer alternatives to the prevailing, global narrative that is intent on “manufacturing consent” for war, militarized responses to disputes, and militarism as the way for “world peace” and “national security.”
Our transnational feminist narrative will present our vision of genuine security and a culture of life where all beings thrive, based on justice, hope, inspiration, compassion, and love.
We will organize a global strategy for disseminating our narrative using many methods, including decentralized “teach-ins” and consciousness-raising conversations. Our experiences tell us that giving “correct” information does not necessarily change people’s hearts, minds, and actions. Hence, our narrative will be the starting point for deeper, holistic, location-specific conversations that we believe have the potential for the kinds of changes necessarily to stop the global war machine and move people’s hearts and minds toward genuine security and a culture of life.
We will organize a global strategy for disseminating our narrative that will include decentralized “teach-ins” and consciousness-raising conversations. Our experiences tell us that giving information or telling the correct story does not necessarily change people’s hearts, minds, and actions. Hence, the narrative will be the starting point for deeper, holistic conversations that we believe have the potential for the kinds of changes necessarily to stop the global war machine.
For more information about the convening, please contact Margo Okazawa-Rey mor@sfsu.edu