Frauenstreik 2019

A time for Revolution

The time is upon us. The Frauen*streik has gone and passed. I can still feel the necessity for change and the urgency for action. As much as the ‘me too’ and ‘body positive’ movements have spurred new interest and understanding in feminist endeavours, we are far from the beginning and nowhere near the end. Anna Tsing writes, “Without stories of progress, the world has become a terrifying place. The ruin glares at us with the horror of its abandonment.”

They were acknowledging the horrors of self that exist within the current capitalist system. Yet the institutional, systematic and social mechanics that sustain capitalist endeavours are reflected in the daily mechanics that limit female presenting bodies in work and social spheres. I keep on asking myself when is the time to get angry and when is the time to sit dutifully and I keep on landing on the same resolution. The time to sit is over, the time to march is now and the strike is coming.

It is spectacular to to see banners, graffiti and installations filling the streets and glittering the corridors of institutions, sidewalks and homes but when do we take the fighting inside?  When do the institutional and corporate changes begin? One of the many purposes of the Frauen*streik is solidarity and resistance but why are we limiting the resistance to an event? Solidarity and resistance can be embodied concepts of change that vibrate and shake the bureaucratic structures to its core.

The revolution will not be televised, it will be polarised, and it will happen. We are finding strength and understanding through marches, strikes and roundtable discussions, but they are pulses of hopes rather than echoes of disintegrating difference. Although not frivolous and far from small, we can take the power, solidarity and hope from the streets into the institutions. We can make a lasting difference, when we set our minds to daily change and refuse to oblige to the structures that we proudly marched against. This is not an easy ask but change never is.   

When we speak, we allow change to breathe and perspectives to be seen. On Friday we marched, we listened, we screamed, we danced, we paid attention to our wants and our future. Now we must pick up our pens, and hold our heads high as we take our march, our stance and our solidarity beyond the picket lines and onto our desks. Change does not happen in silence and change is what we are fighting for. Change for all us.

The time is upon us.

The time is NOW. 

Welcome to making space.