The idea of an international marxist-feminist conference was originally brought into being, and was since then continuously organized, by the feminist section of the Berliner Institut of Critical Theory (InkriT) around the German sociologist and philosopher Frigga Haug. It was held in Berlin (Germany) for the first time in 2015, followed by an increasingly international second congress in Vienna in 2016, and the third one in Lund (Sweden) in 2018 and the last one was held online (from Basque country) in 2021.

The 5th International Marxist Feminist Conference will be held in Warsaw, on 16 – 18 November 2023. This Conference will be organized and funded by: 
transform! europe EUPF https://www.transform-network.net,
along with the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation https://www.rosalux.de/en/ ,
Foundation Iratzar https://iratzar.eus/es/erreportajeak/como-pensamos-lo-que-seremos
and the Fundacja Naprzód http://fundacja-naprzod.pl/

CONFERENCE DESCRIPTION

In a post-pandemic world, further shaken by increasing precarity and military conflicts, gender relations and labour struggles take a sharper, possibly radical, turn. Growing insecurity pushes the responsibility and maintenance of increasing amounts of care work onto those who are traditionally forced to provide it: women, migrant workers, and the poor. Since the 1990s, the precarization of the labour market, reinforced by supposedly post-political narratives, has allowed institutionalised health and care systems to be dismantled, shifting their functions to informal, external networks or already overwhelmed individuals. Our recent experience of lockdown, has further expanded the financial potential of globalised digital-based corporations, making them the new daily reality and core of capitalist production. The ongoing murderous European border regime and the Russian aggression against Ukraine further intensify the sense of insecurity and deprivation. The current backlash takes us decades back, with the anti-gender movements and fascist tendencies combatting women’s and minority rights endangering the future of the next generations. In these transitions, critical feminist analysis and responses become a necessary companion of social diagnoses and reactions, making these largely invisible changes comprehensible and allowing for the articulation of new challenges as well as new forms of resistance. During our conference, we would like to focus on feminist theoretical, political, cultural, and artistic responses to current crises. 

CONFERENCE 5-POINTS AGENDA

1. Dimensions of care and reproduction in neoliberal societies: exploitation of reproductive labour, love power. Reproductive (in)justice: rights, technologies (surrogacy, in vitro, adoption etc), “birth strike”, environment and natality, LGBTQIA+ rights, migration, disabilities, and the nation-states politics.
2. Contemporary capitalisms: digitalization, precarization, externalization of care labour and production, climate crisis, surveillance, and border industries. The body as commodity and battlefield: exploitation, violence, biotechnology.
3. Healthcare and elderly care in the world after pandemic. Privatization of healthcare services
4. Is Intersectionality Enough? – The Actuality of the Thirteenth Theses of Marxism-Feminism – class-race-gender in a Marxist- Feminist perspective today. 
5. Women in military conflicts: Rosa Luxemburg’s forgotten warnings, dimensions of violence. Homefront and the battlefield. Fundamentalist takeovers. Forms and strategies of contemporary resistance: International Women’s Strike, refugee networks and solidarities, unionizing as activism and politics. 

The participation in the International Marxist Feminist Conference is free of charge. Registration required. The final deadline for registration is 31 October 2023.

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE:

Heidi Ambrosch (transform!europe, Vienna, Austria), Elena Beloki (Iratzar Foundation-Awalening Foundation, Basque Country, Spain), Agata Czarnacka (Fundacja Izabeli Jarugi-Nowackiej -Izabela Jaruga-Nowacka Foundation, Warsaw, Poland), Tomasz Kitliński (Freie Universitat, Berlin, Germany), Zofia Łapniewska  (The Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland), Ewa Majewska – Chair (SWPS University), Agnieszka Mrozik (Institute of Literary Research, Polish Academy of Sciences Warsaw, Poland), Katarzyna Rakowska (University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland).

COLLABORATORS:

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE:

Heidi Ambrosch (transform!europe, Vienna, Austria), Jacek Kłopotowski (Fundacja”Naprzód), Małgorzata Kulbaczewska-Figat (Fundacja „Naprzód”), Czesław Kulesza – co-ordinator (Fundacja „Naprzód”), Iwona Lewandowska (Fundacja „Naprzód”), Piotr Lewandowski (Fundacja „Naprzód”).