This presentation shows the work of the women's peace anti-militaristic and anti-fascist collective Women in Black from Belgrade (Serbia), with a focus on the activities of creating archive of this group. I will analyse how feminists opposed politics of militarism and nationalism, during the past 30 years, working on constant alarming the Serbian society, but also on permanent peace education. The continuous archiving of texts, videos and photographs from every street action, every visit to the place of a crime, every workshop or meeting of the Women in Black network, as well as writing appeals, announcements, reports and books, have built a network of alternative knowledge. In the introduction to her book Agnostic Mourning - Political Dissidence and the Women in Black, Athena Athanasiou says about this group: "They all never tired of letting me know that their collective and dissident mal d'archive was all worth it.” The presentation will discuss how to build a movement of all those whose voice remains on the margins of a society that will not take responsibility for war and crimes? How violence from the battlefield spills over into post-war society? How can the feminist movement fight peacefully against the militarism with the help of art collectives and related activist groups? These and numerous similar questions will be answered through the presentation of the activities from the Women in Black archive.
Image: 20th anniversary of Women in Black, Republic Square, Belgrade, Serbia, 2011
Women in Black (Serbia) is a feminist, antimilitarist peace organization founded in Belgrade. On 9th October 1991, the group began a public nonviolent protest against the war in Yugoslavia; the Serbian regime’s policy; nationalism; militarism and all forms of hatred, discrimination and violence. The founders of the group are: Neda Božinović, Staša Zajević, Jelka Kljajić Imširović, Lina Vušković, Lepa Mlađenović, Gordana Radosavljević and Daša Duhaček. Since 1991, they have organized more than 1500 protests, most of which took place in Belgrade's streets and squares, but also in other cities of Serbia and Montenegro, throughout the former Yugoslavia, many cities of Europe, and around the world. Antimilitarism and non-violence are their political choices. Women in Black reject military power and the production of arms for the killing of people, of human working nature, and for the domination of one sex, nation, or state over another. They speak out for the recognition of difference, for reciprocity, respect for nature, and for development in accordance with the needs of the civil population as opposed to those of the civil and military oligarchy and their national interests. As a group WIB have made visible nonviolent resistance to war, sexism, nationalism, in short, all aspects of violence towards and discrimination against women and all those people different ethnically, religiously, culturally, sexually, ideologically and built a women's solidarity network, peace coalition and alliance against all patriarchal political control over women, against ethnic homogenization, independent of all state and ethnic borders and divisions. WIB Serbia have initiated the International Network of Women in Black and have since organized ten meetings and we are active members of a number of international peace networks. WIB have demanded a permanent confrontation with the past, accountability for war and war crimes, trying all those suspected of war crimes in the Hague tribunal. The group has sought a confrontation with both the moral and political collective responsibility, through street actions, appeals, petitions, campaigns, attendance at commemorations, seminars and conferences. Over the years, the group has produced a women's alternative anti-military history and recorded the other into history by means of extensive publications; organized permanent peace education through seminars, workshops, courses about feminism, pacifism/antimilitarism, nonviolence, interethnic/intercultural solidarity, reproductive rights, and alter-globalization. The group has received a number of international recognitions including The first Millennium Peace Prize for Women from UNIFEM, the UN Development Fund for Women and have been nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize.