A-Infos (en) Italy, FAS, Sicilia Libertaria #461 - Intersectionality, a Model for Reuniting Struggles (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Anarchist movements, despite their heterogeneity, have always promoted 
solidarity among struggles and unity against all powers. This 
theoretical principle, however, faces significant obstacles in 
translating into effective, coherent, and lasting practices, especially 
in contexts where the urgency of specific needs can lead to the neglect 
of broader, more transversal thinking. Thus, while in theory anarchism 
embodies the very struggle that is all struggles, in practice it often 
tends to alienate these demands from one another.

Currently, on a global level, feminisms demonstrate the strength and 
most stimulating content to re-enact these principles and transform them 
into concrete practices. Intersectionality, far from surprising and 
unprecedented, is the contemporary and most complex formula for this 
unification of struggles, which, despite itself, has proven to fuel 
profound inconsistencies and a centralized thought process, often 
creating divisions within movements. This, for example, is why women, 
between 1964 and 1970, began practicing their withdrawal from mixed 
groups as a form of political affirmation. This gave rise to the 
specific struggle framework of the all-female circle, which remains 
persistent today. This was a response to the failures they experienced 
when standing alongside comrades who, failing to recognize their 
pressing needs as central, ended up marginalizing them, preventing their 
universalization in collective struggles (Siviero, Fare femminismo, 
2024, p. 82).

Today, intersectionality concretely means that one person's struggle is 
truly everyone's struggle, that demanding a space for expression is 
"fighting for everyone's space[...]that is, it doesn't just imply 
appearances, but the concrete presence of objective and subjective 
differences. It is this presence that has the power to establish 
dialogue, without which every struggle can die in mere destructive and 
self-destructive violence" (Tiburi, The Contrary to Solitude, 2020, p. 
67). It means training thought, even before action, in a militant 
empathy that does not underestimate individual and collective needs and 
that is capable of maintaining a necessarily local approach and a global 
vision.

In various parts of the world, this intersectional sentiment, which has 
proven to be a human instinct even before a political construct, has led 
to the formulation of contagious and replicable practices. This is the 
case, among many, of the sex strike, which has seen particularly 
significant moments in circumstances such as that of June 24, 2011, when 
three hundred Colombian women from Barbacoas announced a three-month 
sexual abstinence with the aim of obtaining paved roads to stop the 
massive deaths of women giving birth, unable to reach the hospital; as 
well as in the Philippines to end conflicts between clans; in southern 
Turkey to secure public water networks; in Kenya, Togo, and Liberia to 
address political issues and wars.

The same driving force underpins the creation of boycott networks, which 
daily attempt not only to take concrete action but also to counter the 
oppressive rhetoric about the ineffectiveness of this practice. A 
significant example, given the current relevance of the issue, is the 
international BDS campaign, calling for boycott, divestment, and 
sanctions for the rights of the Palestinian people.

From this domino effect of intersectional struggles emerges the 
position that more than any other seems to suggest practices of direct 
participation: internationalist anarcha-feminism. It is based on the 
urgency of considering the struggle against patriarchy as a struggle 
against the ideals that underpin and nourish the state, capitalism, and 
imperialism, starting from the awareness that feminism means addressing 
the markers of oppression of social class, gender, race, and sexuality, 
and that one struggle inevitably leads to others. But even more 
symbolically, it means that anarchist feminisms present themselves as a 
solid springboard for a new paradigm of militancy in which a plurality 
of movements can be realized, drawing strength and inspiration from this 
heterogeneity and this tireless mutual aid.

For such a network of united struggles to truly operate, it is necessary 
to reject ideals, methods, and tools that represent compromise and a 
persistence in the status quo. These ideals, instead, must be rejected 
in favor of alternatives that can be pursued every day, both 
individually and through direct membership in groups. Abstentionism, in 
its various forms, not least that related to the practice of voting; the 
subversion of the dynamics that force individuals to succumb to 
marginalizing values and models; the sabotage of war; the massive and 
radical boycott of everything that reifies the state, patriarchy, and 
capitalism; the ongoing and transversal solidarity of struggles through 
affinity groups; the absolute desertion of all forms of violence and 
oppression; the withdrawal from places, contexts, and lifestyles of 
consumer society through practices such as self-production, barter, and 
horizontal self-education.

To counter the defeatism and despondency that are rampant in the common 
sentiment, it is necessary to reaffirm the possibility of using these 
tools daily and their ability to change dynamics, minimizing the scope 
of contradictions and impotence. So, thinking and acting 
intersectionally means continually asking ourselves what we can do when 
we're caught in any relational dynamic, or when we're forced to be 
someone's client and a consumer of something, intersecting struggles for 
the needs of other subjectivities, how to do all this, who to be while 
doing it, what language to choose, how to stand alongside others. It 
means always feeling like an agent of a political act, one that calls 
upon others and that is connected even with things and people that may 
be very distant, but nonetheless sustainable. It also means practicing 
understanding direct participation as always possible and progressive, 
so that small gestures and actions can add up to those of others, 
strengthening each other and creating connections that can free 
struggles from annihilating self-referentiality and the disintegration 
of practices, which is increasingly evident as the global landscape 
becomes more dramatic.

Désirée Carruba Toscano

https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/
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