GOAL REACHED & FEMINIST CARAVAN READY TO GO !!!!!

Thank you so much to all of you who supported this beautiful dream that will start in just a few weeks! We are very grateful and happy to see that there are so many people who believe in change, who believe a better world is possible, who believe in women and who dear to dream together. :-)

This money will help us increase the reach of the caravan and make it more inclusive and powerful. If you want to keep supporting us materially, you can keep sending us your contributions directly to our bank account:

MONCREDITCOOPERATIF.COOP

FR76 4255 9000 6941 0200 3557 333

Thank you, thank you & thank you !

Love,

the caravan dream team

Women who are FED UP with racist, sexist, classist, fascist, violent, misogynistic, militaristic and capitalistic colonial patriarchy are making her story!

We want to build solidarity and sustainability of women's struggles and movements across the European continent in order to also make links with women’s struggles globally.

We intend to start from March 8th until October 17th, 2015 - as the World March of Women - to link grassroots feminist movements, struggles and resistances in a Feminist Caravan.

The Caravan will begin in the East of Turkey, Kurdistan, and travel North, West, East and South to end in Portugal.

Our aim is to bring visibility to our various political, economic, cultural and social struggles and resistances as part of the World March of Women's 4th International Action.

When

From 8 March to 17 October 2015.

How?

During the Action, a high number of feminist events will be organized at the local, national and regional level. In the places where national coordinations of the WMW exist, the activities around the caravan will be organized by them or with their support. We are working in alliances with various women groups, progressist organisations, collectives and networks. The Caravan will make links between these women and these struggles, collecting memories, priorities and strategies, spreading info about Women's resistances. The events will be diverse and multiple, as are our alternatives, and as are women in Europe.

The caravan will consist in several vans/cars, but we plan to complete some streches on bicycles or walking, depending on the number of women participating at each stage, on the local organization and on our energies. We hope to meet a lot of women on the road, a lot of resisting people who will host us for an evening and/or join us for a few stop-overs. Together we will share our realities, our utopias and our strategies of resistance. Our scope and the number of women who will take part in this great experience depend on our resources, and this is what makes your support so crucial!

Where?

Our 8 months trip will begin in Kurdistan, Turkey, with a big Opening Event organised by the Kurdish women movement and the Turkish Coordination of the WMW for 8th of March.

Then we'll take the road through Greece (Thessaloniki) end of March, to the Balkans (april), to Italy and Switzerland (May).

Then we'll cross north of France (June), Belgium and Germany (July) and stop in Poland for an International Feminist Camp (August).

We'll return South through Hungary and Austria to Roma, Italy (August), then cross south of France, and go to Catalunya, Bask Country and Galicia (September), to arrive in Portugal for another big Closing Event on the 17th of October.

Why?

BECAUSE there are too many oppressions dividing women and women's struggles world-wide and we must connect our struggles, demands, realities and strategies across the local, regional and global spheres!

BECAUSE there are not enough resources available to us as women to learn our HERstories of oppression and resistance, and we must document our own lives in order to resist together!

BECAUSE we must make visible alternative ways of life and resistances against capitalism and patriarchal reality created by women, saying high and loud that Another World is possible.

BECAUSE poverty, xenophobia, racism, increased loss and dispossession of our rights, austerity, and the rise of fascism make women's lives unlivable, and we must connect these intersecting oppressions in order to link and strengthen our resistances and liberation struggles .

BECAUSE our diversity is our strength. We must continue to work in solidarity, communicating our feminist alternatives to the world and to the sisters of our movement, building our networks and strengthening our alliances and our feminist political practices.

                            **No one is free until all women are free!**

In resistance to patriarchal violence, often perceived as natural and legitimate, and further aggravated by inequalities of class, race and nationality we intend to build a feminist solidarity-based economy, one that alters existing patterns of production and reproduction, distribution and consumption, in addition to recognizing and appreciating domestic and care work as crucial to the sustainability of human life.

We connect women's struggles with the struggle for food sovereignty. We declare that women's self-organization is our strategy for strengthening women as political actors and building a global force in alliance with social movements that share our anti-capitalist and anti-patriarcal fight for a society based on the values of freedom, equality, justice, peace and solidarity.

What do we need the money for?

We need your help to have a powerful caravan, to be able to reach many women in many countries and to develop different kinds of collective resistance. With the money raised, we will be able to cover the costs of transportation and living for the women who will travel and live in the Caravan (mostly food & gas).

All money raised will permit us to kickstart the Caravan in order to have more women join the Caravan at different moments on the road, and to have the possibility of a bigger international feminist women’s space inside the living Caravan.

Our budget is 40,000 Euros, which is why we are looking to exceed the amount we are asking for here and find more ways to raise funds. The 12,000 we are asking for initially will help kickstart the Caravan and it is the crucial first step you can be a part of by helping us reach our goal!

When are we going to send you the rewards?

The majority of the rewards will be sent during the caravan, as we pass through different countries and as we make them. The calendar for 2016 will be sent after the end of the caravan, but before the end of the year.

We are cool about rewards and may have other things to propose that we'll find on our way : )

Who is the World March of Women?

The World March of Women has been active in the women's struggle since 1998, marching to eradicate the root causes of violence and poverty in women's lives.

The strategies we use are based on discussions and international alliances, reaffirming ourselves through resistance, confrontation and the construction of alternatives to the patriarchal, capitalist, racist, lesbophobic and colonial model.

The Caravan will use our realities as women across all age, race and class difference to connect and link women resisting against misogyny, austerity, fascism, patriarchy and all forms of violence against women, including poverty, in Europe.

We intend to build women's alternatives in the face of an increased imposition of militarist and masculinist reality, so that we may all live more dignified and peaceful lives. We affirm “Another World is Possible!”.

A few links if you want to know more about us:

World March of Women
Marche Mondiale des Femmes
Marcha Mundial de las Mujeres
Young Feminists Summer Camp/ Campamento de verano de jóvenes feministas/ Campement d'été de Jeunes Féministes

Help us spread the word and encourage others to donate!

We intend to make some of our resistances visible, and to inspire and be inspired by women’s strength and resistance confronted with a conservative, racist and sexist backlash. We'll collect memories and produce documentation and knowledge from our experiences, making them available via social networks, blogs, radio shows, theatre, pictures, films, etc.

Share your ideas!

We want to avoid as much as possible a capitalistic world and to find alternative ways of living, through networks of solidarity, material support (food, place to camp, old fourgons, etc.). If you have any ideas, contact us!

We will keep you updated about the life in the caravan and the events organized on the road through our website - which will be ready in February -, social networks and a monthly newsletter that will be sent to you and to anyone interested. The documentation produced during our journey will be published and shared on the web, so that anyone can acces it and benefit from it!

Check Femvan !