Globalization, Militarism, and Women's Collective Action

Introduction

Feminists and women's groups have long been involved in peace work, and their analyses and action have contributed much to our understanding of the roots of conflict and the conditions for conflict resolution. The activities of groups such as Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), Women Strike for Peace, and the Women of Greenham Common are legendary, and their legacy lies in ongoing efforts to "feminize" peace, anti-militarism, human rights, and development. At the Nairobi International Women's Conference in 1985, women decided that not only equality and development, but also peace, with its dark side of war, were their affairs (Pietila and Vickers 1994). As the Development Alternatives with Women in a New Era (DAWN) statement expressed it, "Where is the rationality, not to mention humanity, in a situation where nuclear missiles can go from Western Europe to Moscow in six minutes, while the average woman in Africa must walk several hours to fetch water for her family?" (Sen and Grown 1987).

Since at least the 1980s, feminists have recognized the connections among development, equality, peace, and human rights. The Nairobi International Women's Conference took place in the midst of the crisis of Third World indebtedness and the implementation of austerity policies policed by the World Bank and the IMF (International Monetary Fund). Feminists were quick to see the links between economic distress, political instability, and violence against women. As Lucille Mair (U.N. Secretary General for the 1980 Copenhagen Conference) noted after Nairobi:

This distress exists in a climate of mounting violence and militarism . . . violence follows an ideological continuum, starting from the domestic sphere where it is tolerated, if not positively accepted. It then moves to the public political arena where it is glamorized and even celebrated. . . . Women and children are the prime victims of this cult of aggression. (as cited in Bunch and Carrillo 1992, 71)

Despite the long existence of WILPF and other groups that have worked to enable women to be considered legitimate participants and provide women's perspectives on peace, very few of the norms that guide this area reflect their contributions. This is in contrast to international norms regarding human rights (where feminists have made tremendous gains) and, to a lesser degree, on social rights and justice (through the feminist critique of structural adjustment and the neo-liberal economic agenda). Peace and security issues remain masculine, guided by patriarchal and capitalistic interests.

And yet, there are initiatives underway that may affect politics as usual. Women around the world are insisting that their voices be heard, on the streets, in civil society organizations, and in the meeting halls of the multilateral organizations. Since the 1980s, when women activists formed networks to work more effectively on local and global issues, transnational feminist networks have engaged in dialogues and alliances with other organizations to make an impact on peace, security, and conflict resolution. For example, in an important initiative, South Asian feminist networks and the Pakistan-India People's Forum for Peace and Democracy created linkages in civil society across the region's most divisive and dangerous frontier. Despite the initial resistance within the Forum to feminist analyses of the connection between sexism and war, this analysis was eventually accepted unanimously (Amrita Chhachhi as cited by Waterman 1998). And we have all heard about the historic women's peace petition presented to the U.N. in October 1997. That petition, a non-governmental initiative that had 150 organizational co-sponsors from around the world, demanded that all governments of the world transfer a minimum of five percent of their military budgets over the next five years to health, education, and employment programs.

For the remainder of my remarks, I will focus on initiatives in the Mediterranean region, an area rife with conflicts and security interests, but also a region with a growing presence of feminist activism.

Women's Groups, Peace Action, and Democratization

Israel/Palestine, Cyprus, Algeria, Lebanon, the Balkans. These are...