Fundraise for ROSA Socialist Feminist Conference

In March, the heart of revolutionary feminism will beat in Vienna!

10 days after International Women’s Day -- 8 March 2023, which is shaping up to be a day of massive struggle around the world -- over 200 socialist feminist activists from all continents will come together in Vienna, Austria, on 18 & 19 March.

Help us fundraise to make this a success. Any funds raised will be used to cover renting rooms and technical equipment, the booking of many long-distance flights for speakers and participants from neocolonial countries as well as to ensure people with less financial means can also participate. ROSA will use any leftover funds in future socialist feminist campaigns.

Contact us to book your spot whether you are already a ROSA member, or someone looking to get active in our urgent struggle: https://linktr.ee/rosainternational

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“Woman, Life, Freedom” - this was the inspiring battle cry of Iranian women and young people as they heroically rose up against the suffocating theocratic dictatorship that has been crushing for decades their aspirations to a free and dignified life. This uprising is part and parcel of the global feminist wave that has raged across the planet for over ten years, from the Slutwalks that started in 2011 all the way to the succession of hard-won victories on the right to abortion in Latin America.

Women and LGBTQ+, young & working people have been at the forefront of many struggles, strikes, protests and revolts globally to resist the oppression, exploitation and extreme violence this system is visiting upon them every day in all corners of the globe. Yet the multifaceted crisis of capitalism, marked by an escalating climate catastrophe, a new arms race and major military confrontation between global powers, the rise of the far-right, the long-lasting effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and a devastating cost of living crisis, as well as the prospect of a potential new worldwide recession, are all threatening to drive us backwards.

The overturning of Roe V Wade despite strong majority support for abortion rights in US society is a serious warning that nothing can be taken for granted as long as this crisis-ridden and oppressive system is left standing, and that as socialist feminists, we urgently need to deepen our efforts to organize the fightback on a larger and stronger footing, so as to convert the instinctive international solidarity that we have seen on display in many of the recent struggles into an effective force for fundamental change.

Ten days after International Women’s Day — 8 March 2023, which is shaping up to be a day of massive struggle around the world — around 200 socialist feminist activists from all continents will meet in Vienna, Austria, on 18 & 19 March, for the first face-to-face international conference of ROSA International Socialist Feminists.

ROSA, and the socialist feminist work of ISA in general, have played a critical role in significant struggles and victories for the feminist movement in several countries over recent years, from the lifting of the constitutional ban on abortion in Ireland in 2018 to making Seattle the first abortion sanctuary city in the US, from successfully campaigning for the conviction of a renowned misogynist for hate speech in Belgium to giving a voice to the deeply censored and repressed feminist campaigners in China and Hong Kong.

ROSA’s international conference will offer a unique opportunity to share the experiences and lessons between activists from all over the world. During this conference, we will hear from socialist-feminists actively involved in building struggles in South Africa, Canada, Mexico, Israel/Palestine, Russia, China, Sweden, and many other countries. Discussions will be a mix of history, theory and action. Speakers will include leaders of the international solidarity movement with the Iranian revolt, trade unionists leading strikes in the care sector, trans rights campaigners, prominent left-wing feminist authors from Austria and India, and many more.

To make it possible, we need your help

However, ROSA International Socialist Feminists is a campaign that doesn’t receive any state or corporate funding — and we intend to keep it this way! We want to build a feminism that is uncompromising in its stand against capitalism and imperialism, and that means politically and financially independent from big business and the capitalist state. We rely instead entirely on the support that ordinary working class and young people are ready to provide to make our work possible, and on the sacrifices of our supporters and sympathizers.

From renting rooms and technical equipment to the booking of many long-distance flights for speakers and participants from the global south as well as financial support to ensure people with less financial means can also participate, organising a worldwide conference of that scale, where we plan to bring together, accommodate and feed over 200 people from all continents, is a huge financial undertaking. That is why we ask you to take a few minutes of your time to make a donation to ROSA now, and help us make this historic event a resounding success. Any contribution, big or small, will be a step further towards that goal.

Your support will, among others, contribute to finance the travel and visa costs of activists from Latin America, Africa and Asia, to secure their —critically important—presence there.

The overall costs for the conference will be around 20.000€. We need your support to help cover those costs and make the conference a success.

500€ - will cover ~1/2 of the costs of a flight ticket for an activist from South Africa to attend the conference

250€ - will cover the visa fees of 2 activists from the global south

100€ - will cover the accommodation costs of 2 activists from the global south

50€ - will cover 500 leaflets

25€ - will cover the cost of a business zoom account to ensure people all over the world can participate online

Thank you in advance for your support and generosity!