We are IFOS, IFOS is us

Leidyane Quilombola, MOQUIBOM/Mulheres Guerreiras da Resistência (Women Warriors of the Resistance)
Brazil

Since I started participating in IFOS, I have seen that the struggle of women on a global level is the same struggle that we are fighting in our territories, in our organizations. So in IFOS I felt welcome, and this enabled me to not give up the fight. 

I see that I was born with a mission to break with what my ancestors were unable to break. And I believe that I am doing this, and I am managing to pass this on to my daughter, along with my mother.

I’m not afraid. That’s what brings me to the International Feminist Organizing School, and I can’t accept seeing a fellow woman who’s suffering from violence. 

I understand that the patriarchal system and the capitalist system has been destroying the quilombola territories; racism and capitalism are interconnected. But sometimes there’s a woman who still doesn’t understand that we’re victims of the same system. So I’m fighting because I can’t accept that, because as long as other women are experiencing violence, I won’t feel free.

The feminist school allowed me, through the experiences of other women, to realize that I have to take these experiences, this awareness and encouragement to other women, so that we can get stronger and realize that it’s possible to overthrow the patriarchal system, sexism, and racism. We must come together on a global level, with all women. And that’s why I’m here.

I believe that the struggle will always exist, as it has existed since our ancestors, but we have to believe that creating a territory free of all types of violence is possible. Maybe I’ll return to my ancestors, and I won’t see it. But I also think that maybe I’ll be born again and have the opportunity to return to fight again. I keep going.

María Everarda Tista de León, Vía Campesina, National Coordination of Widows of Guatemala (CONAVIGUA)
Guatemala

From the beginning of our organization, we’ve always analyzed the issue of racism, discrimination, and capitalism. All this is related to the defense of territory: to be free, for everything we want for our lives. We feel connected because we fight around an issue that affects all women in the world. And also because the interaction of women is important — to unify their thoughts, their experiences, and to fight for their rights.

We’re applying the feminist popular education in several ways. We’re applying it to the community experience and situation of women, their ways of organizing women and Indigenous peoples. Because there’s a system that is hard to go at in one go — you have to go step by step, raise awareness, and introduce it so that they can also understand that situation.

Ray’Von Jones, Oakland educator
United States

I’m a person who has identified as a Black abolitionist feminist for quite some time, and that’s something that continues to evolve for me. It’s beautiful to come to spaces like this, because I get to sharpen further what that means to me, but also what that means to people who are in various countries, in different contexts than my own.

What I value the most is the community that we get to build here, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to deepen that.

I’m definitely a dreamer. Some people would say I’m delusional in a way, but I think you have to be a bit delusional to be an abolitionist and to be a radical person, because you have to dream of a world that you haven’t seen or lived in.

I dream of a world where people aren’t working themselves to death, where they have no brain capacity left for dreaming. One of the things that capitalism and white supremacy does is really limit our imagination. I want folks to feel like they have this space and the capacity to dream.

IFOS helps me to sharpen my global perspective and also get clearer on what popular education is. What I’m learning is that we’re still aligning on what that means and what that looks like. Even though we’re in this school, the school in itself is not a final product, it is an experiment.

I’m able to take those lessons into the practice that I have as an educator, and then also bring my perspective. This space is really important to me and I hope to offer back almost as much as I receive.

Dr. Seydi Sarr, African Bureau for Immigration and Social Affairs (ABISA), Black Immigrant Bail Fund
United States

With all these things that are happening, I’m holding how to be at the intersection. Not only are you fighting this oppression as a person — racism, homophobia, gender conversation, economical autonomy, education, access to resources — but also as an organization, because my organization is at the same intersection. 

And knowing that, saying: hey I’m gonna sit a whole week at IFOS, and listen to people talk, hear other experiences. In another life it’s a privilege, because it’s afforded only to people who have everything that they need, and they don’t lose anything. 

For somebody like me, it’s not only sacrifice, but it’s also resistance. It’s saying to the system: I’m going to resist even though I don’t have the means, even though all of this is happening. I still have to be here to elevate my consciousness — to build — because if I’m not here, I cannot build with any other woman. And any other woman is not going to see me. So that’s also part of how we resist the systems, even though I am very aware of the cost of what that means.

Sophie Ogutu, World March of Women Kenya
Kenya

Women have been treated like almost nothing for a very long time. The struggles that women have carried have been long enough. So that is my dream: When can we have that last woman free? 

That’s what we’re working towards. That’s why we are not giving up. That’s why we continue strategizing. That’s why we are organizing. That’s why we continue connecting. That’s why spaces like IFOS are important for us, and that’s why this internationalism that we are building together gives us so much strength and hope — because we must have hope and the strength to continue the fight. We are happy to remain in the march until all women are free!!