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, the fourth one was held online (from Basque country) in 2021 and the last one was held in Warsaw in 2023

The 6th International Marxist Feminist Conference will be held in Porto (Portugal), on 21 – 23 November 2025. 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

 At a time characterised by militarism, in which the far right and fascism are on the rise and gaining power, violence – material and symbolic – is becoming widespread and normalised, threatening our lives and taking away our rights.

We need to resist and respond to these dark times. We do not abandon the project of a just life for all and that is why we mobilise to build an anti-capitalist feminist project. We summon intelligence, imagination, solidarity, sharing and ways of collectively producing knowledge and action as tools of resistance and of combating all forms of oppression and inequality.

This conference seeks to be part of the answer. It therefore wants to join forces, share knowledge and ideas, weave networks of solidarity and restore hope by taking and claiming the floor. Daring to build a common project – feminist, anti-racist, decolonial, anti-capitalist and ecological – is the challenge we face.

We have defined three axes of debate for this conference:

• Decolonise bodies and reclaim them as self-determined territories, through fighting all oppressions that alienate, commodify and objectify them.
• Decolonise territories by denouncing and combating the processes of violent occupation, appropriation, and expropriation, as well as the processes of dehumanisation and death.
• Decolonise practices by critically reflecting on and transforming ways of doing and thinking.

To think, reflect and transform ways of life, renewing Marxism as an analytical and transformative tool, through multimodal articulations between the political, the economic, the social and the cultural; between the public and the private; between the local and the global, in the most diverse contexts is our challenge.

Our aim is to create international networks and strengthen webs of solidarity so that our coming together signifies resistance, hope and a commitment to the present and the future.

This conference will welcome a variety of methodologies and formats for participation, because they reflect the diversity and complexity of the responses that have been trialled and which have contributed to the re-signification of politics and the emergence of new political subjects. A paper, a video, a performance, an artistic intervention, a workshop, conversation circles, theoretical reflections, or practical experience – all contributions, in your own name or on behalf of a collective, are welcome.

CONFERENCE AXES

1. Decolonising bodies
   Critical analysis of global practices of colonisation, i.e. objectification, commodification, exploitation and violence against our bodies, and debate and definition of common strategies to counter such forms of colonisation.
   a) The appropriation of women’s bodies in war and peace, in the global North and South;
   b) The role of religions and fundamentalisms in the colonisation of bodies and thought;
   c) Anti-feminist and anti-LGBTQIA+ campaigns and resistance;
   d) The capitalist appropriation of care and the urgent need to reframe the concept of labour;
   e) Sexuality as resistance: practices and narratives that reclaim pleasure and desire;
   f) Art as a disruptive practice and dialogue to reclaim free and self-determined bodies
2. Decolonising territories
   Critical analysis of feminist theories and practices of decolonisation. What proposals do you have for reconfiguring interpersonal and institutional relations, cities and urbanism, regions, countries and the land?
   a) Feminist analysis of populist discourses, anti-migration policies and war;
   b) The relationship between patriarchy and Islamophobia; femonationalism and the instrumentalisation of feminism;
   c) Feminism as an anti-militarist praxis that promotes a just peace;
   d) Art as a disruptive practice and dialogue in the occupation and resignification of spaces;
   e) Architecture and urbanism as feminist, anti-racist and decolonial political tools;
   f) Feminist experiences and representations in urban public spaces;
   g) Ancestry and learning: cosmologies and knowledge of women from indigenous peoples;
   h) Ecofeminism as practice of caring for the Earth and bodies, based on women’s knowledge and experiences.
   i) The construction of memory: the transformative movements of territories led by women and ethnic and national minorities.
3. Decolonising practices
   Critical analysis and reflection on the insufficiency of liberal feminism as an emancipation project. Critical analysis and reflection on the importance, difficulties and need to affirm anti-capitalist feminism as the proposal for global transformation. How to build an anti-capitalist, decolonial, ecological and anti-racist/anti-fascist feminism? Which paths to collective emancipation?
   a) Possibilities and limits of liberal feminism;
   b) Marxist feminism as a tool for analysis and transformation;
   c) Strategies of inclusion and diversity;
   d) The contemporary working class: rebuilding identities, communities and solidarities in times of precariousness and the dematerialisation of labour;
   e) Critical identity and intersectionality as tools to fight liberal individualism;
   f) Educational, cultural and artistic practices for feminist, queer, decolonial and anti-racist transformation.

Submissions of works:

We invite you to submit a description of the work to be presented at the Conference with title, author(s) and a short bio/affiliation as text file (up to 450 words), audio file or video file (preferably no longer than 5 minutes).

Please indicate which of the axes and category(ies) the proposed work should fit into.

If special requirements – in terms of space, technical specifications or other – are necessary for the presentation of the work at the conference, please specify this when submitting the proposal.

Please send your proposals, preferably written in English, Portugese or Spanish, by 8th March 2025 to: [apps@marxfemconference.com]

The participation in the International Marxist Feminist Conference is free of charge. We invite individual papers and panel proposals. We also invite literary and artistic responses and feminist theory/practice contributions.

We will try to provide some costs of the speakers (travel and accommodation), please signalize your interest in such support.

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE:

Heidi Ambrosch (transform!europe, Vienna, Austria), Samara Azevedo (Coletivo Andorinha, Lisbon, Portugal), Elena Beloki (Iratzar Foundation-Awakening Foundation, Basque Country), Sandra Cunha (Feminist in Movement/Feministas em Movimento – FEM, Portugal), Nadia De Mond (Casa delle Donne di Milano/Non Una Di Meno, Italy), Lígia Ferro (Institute of Sociology of the University of Porto/ISUP, Porto, Portugal), Ana Cristina Pereira (University of Minho, Braga, Portugal), Paula Godinho (Faculty of Social and Human Sciences – Nova Lisbon University, Lisbon, Portugal), Tainara Machado (Institute of Sociology of the University of Porto, A Coletiva, Porto, Portugal), Ewa Majewska (Professor at SPWS, Warsaw, Poland), Catarina Isabel Martins (Centre for Social Studies – University of Coimbra/CES-UC, Coimbra, Portugal), Gabriele Michalitsch (Professor at the University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria), Tatiana Moutinho (transform! europe, Porto, Portugal), Conceição Nogueira (Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences of the University of Porto, Porto, Portugal), Cynthia de Paula (Casa do Brasil, Lisboa, Portugal), Andrea Peniche (A Coletiva, Porto, Portugal), Catarina Ramalho (A Coletiva, Lisbon, Portugal), Beatriz Realinho (Faculty of Social and Human Sciences – Nova Lisbon University x, Lisbon, Portugal), Maria Manuel Rola (Centre for Studies in Architecture and Urbanism – Porto School of Architecture/CEAU-FAUP, Porto, Portugal), Sílvia Roque (University of Évora, Évora, Portugal), Shad Wadi (Centre for Social Studies – University of Coimbra/CES-UC, Lisbon, Portugal), Barbara Zach (Social Worker, KPÖ, Vienna, Austria).

CONFERENCE’S TIMELINE

• Deadline for submissions: 8 March 2025
• Registrations will open in March 2025
• Notification of acceptance of the proposal: 31 May 2025
• Programme release date to be announced before Summer break