Women of the world weave bonds of solidarity!
In only 7.5 months we will organise our third WWC and we want to let you know that the preparations of the 3rd WWC are going well and have truly started in Tunisia and on the 25th of November also in other countries.
Of course we are still in a difficult situation with the COVID pandemic that is still roaming the world. On the one hand we don’t know how the situation will be in September and it will (perhaps) make it difficult for women who would like to participate to come to Tuni-sia. But we will prepare all necessary health measures. We have to be careful and protect participants and hosts.
But like we said during the preparation of the 2d WWC in Nepal after the major earth quake: Together we can do it!
We have a great task ahead of us. Let us work together as a team to make a success of the 3rd World Women’s Conference!
How can we together realise a really internationally organised World Women’s Conference of grassroots women that is financed independently ?
I. Principles of the World Women’s Conference of grassroots women
In each country the women’s movement has a different history and character. We try to respect all differences. The WWC has binding principles for working together. It is organ-ised on a non-partisan basis (i.e. not exclusively related to one party), democratic and financially independent.
- The WWC is based on two pillars:1. The General Assembly with a maximum of 5 delegates from the militant women’s movement of the respective countries. It discusses core issues of the situation and struggles of women and decides on its results based on the principle of consensus.
2. The mass program for all women and other participants with workshops on political and social issues, culture, sports, theatre, music, other creative activities, information stalls, food and drink stalls etc. - The conference will be prepared and conducted in an international process of dis-cussion and organization by the coordinators, hosts and participants on the basis of equal rights, without any form of discrimination and on a non-partisan basis.
- The preparation of the World Women’s Conference is organized in the individual countries, in the continents and regions and in 2022 in Tunisia.
It is coordinated and organized worldwide by the elected coordinators from the continents/regions together with our Tunisian hosts. For the preparation of the 3rd WWC two extra coordinators will be elected from the hosting continent – they can both be from Tunisia. - Both pillars stand next to each other. The coordinators have to decide upon the pro-gram and that means that we have to decide if the pillars and all activities take place at different times or at the same time. Both is possible. Some of the highlights of the mass program are a demonstration or rally, cultural nights organised by the conti-nents/regions, the workshops and the final plenary session.
- The conference is open to all (grassroots) women and makes special efforts to have girls/young women participate. Also other participants are welcome. Fascists and reli-gious fundamentalists, as well as representatives of aggressive organizations and be-haviour which are hostile to women are excluded from the conference. The conference realizes a democratic culture of debate.
- Each and every woman and organization makes efforts to mobilize their international contacts and friends for the conference and to take over responsibility together to make the conference a success.
- The conference finances itself independently through diverse initiatives and activi-ties and gratefully accepts donations that are given without reservations and condi-tions. The conference organizes a service to ensure the health and security of the participants and the events.
- The women’s movement in each individual country must as a principle organize and finance its work, trips, accommodations and translation itself. The international organisational committee IOC sets up a fund to support the participation of delegations from the poorest countries in soli-darity and promotes international sponsorship.
- II. The organisational process
In every continent, region and country there are two main tasks:
a. To take responsibility for the worldwide process of the organisation of the World Women’s Conference, including the organisation of the continental and regional con-ferences;
b. To start a national process to bring women together, to organise and strengthen the women’s movement in every country in the preparation of the WWC.
The tasks for the coordinators include a.o.: - The preparation of the contents and the course (process plan, agenda) of the World Women’s Conference.
- The preparation of the General Assembly, contents, practicalities, agenda, trans-lation etc. (we have to decide which coordinators/continent/region will take responsi-bility for this.)
- The organisation of the workshops (we have to decide which coordinators/ conti-nent/region will take responsibility for this)
- Discussion about the other components of the mass program and how they can be organised.
- For the practical organisation of the World Women’s Conference we will set up an IOC, an International Organisational Committee:
– to support the preparatory committee/hosts in Tunisia in the practical organisa-tion of the WWC.
– communication and publications (banners, posters, t-shirts etc.)
– registration
– website and Facebook
The participants are responsible to book there accommodations by themselves. The Tunisian Preparatory committee could make a list of possible accommodations, which can be published on the website.
The continents/regions of Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, Middle East should se-lect members for the IOC. To come to work, the IOC needs decisions from the coordi-nators. - We have to discuss by what date each country has to tell the Tunisian hosts how many people from each country are coming and – if possible – who are coming.
- We have to discuss how we proceed with country reports for the General Assembly. It would be good if the country reports could be submitted a few months before the conference, so that they can be translated and can be used for continental and re-gional reports to be made by the coordinators of each continent/region.
- International Brigade: at the last two conferences we won volunteers to support the preparation of the WWC in the respective countries. For instance: translators, women who helped with the registration, people that helped at the airport, people that helped in the office etc.
Actually on January 30 we should discuss what we expect from the WWC of grass-roots women and then we can make a list of all the tasks that we have to fulfil.
III. Organisation of continental and regional conferences
In Europe last year we organised a digital European Conference. So that is one possibil-ity. Another possibility is that we organise continental/regional conferences during the World Women’s Conference. In Nepal we organised an African Conference just before the WWC.
IV. Finances
A financial plan and budget have to be made. To be able to make this financial plan we will have to know what the approximate costs will be of the venue, the translation equipment, the office in Tunisia etc. The main costs have to be clarified.
As you know it is our task to organise the finances for the WWC, because there isn’t a fund! We agreed to be self-supporting and to rely on ourselves. So we will have to dis-cuss the finances at the World Meeting. The first WWC cost 300.000 dollar, the second WWC was cheaper, but it is clear that we have to raise funds and we’ll have to discuss the fees for the participants and for the delegates.
The fees won’t cover all the costs, but we have to decide about them. At the first two conferences and the theoretical seminar there were different fees for women from Europe (higher) and for the women from the Asia, Africa, Middle East, Latin America.
The participants as a principle have to pay the fee themselves for the trip to Tunisia, for sleeping accommodations and food etc.
V. Preparatory meetings
1. A zoom meeting of the coordinators will be organised on 30 January. We will send a proposal for the agenda, but please send us your ideas and proposals too.
2. As discussed on the 27th of November a delegation (Suse and Halinka) will visit Tunisia from 3–6 February to meet with the Tunisian friends who are preparing the WWC in Tunisia and getting women and women’s organisations together. There we will discuss the tasks for the preparation of the conference, we will meet with women of some of the organisations that take part in the preparation of the WWC and we will take part in the
first congress of the Tunisian women’s organisation Latifa Taamalah.
3. In March or April we could organise another Zoom Meeting of the coordinators
4. In April or May we propose to hold a World meeting of coordinators in Tunisia.