Hello
[links explaining words like 'social centre' and 'squatting' at the end of this post]
This forum got started on my initiative, and this is the story why:
In 2007 I got involved in a social centre project in Helsinki, Finland. There were immediate conflicts coming up related to topics like 'sexism' 'feminism', and not really any discussion culture existing for resolving the differences.
The squatting scene is very macho, and consequently the dominant culture got to set the standard for how these issues were talked about, meaning: any efforts on my side to create dialogue or to express worries and complaints, were strongly dismissed, silenced or ridiculed, I was even talked about as 'mentally ill'.
There's a heavy denial of the problems with sexism within the project, and me talking about it led to an exclusion from a mailing list and also a two year ban from the house, supposedly to end in December 2010. In a project where people and ideas are ever-changing, the issue of sexism and the exclusion of my concerns - the exclusion of radical feminism - will not be discussed during these two years, because of 10-15 persons taking a mock-decision at one meeting, where I wasn't even given a chance to speak properly.
I've been making a blog (
http://sosiaalikeskus.wordpress.com/) to document this process, and to create a space where I can tell my story without distortion. It's a place where I try to break the silence around the issues of the splits within the leftist social change movements, and show that we still have a great deal of self-reflection and work to do on ourselves before we can create a safer space where it would be possible for everybody to have an equal chance to interact and exchange our ideas and practices on how to make a better world to live in.
This forum is an attempt to make practice out of the ideals that I have on: Consensus culture and conflict-resolution. It's an extension of the blog, to make it more inclusive. The forum is a place where to start discussions, debates and share stories, feelings, thoughts.
The forum is an attempt to create a platform for a community that many of us seem to be in need of.
It's a place where you can express yourself in any way or form you want. There is no such thing as "off topic" in this space.
with love,
milla
social centre:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_centresquat:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squattersexism:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sexism (shit. the wiki article on sexism was quite ignorant on the issue..)
feminism:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminist “The only dream worth having is to dream that you will live
while you are alive, and die only when you are dead.
To love, to be loved. To never forget your own insignificance.
To never get used to the unspeakable violence and vulgar disparity
of the life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places.
To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated
or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power.
Above all to watch. To try and understand.
To never look away. And never, never to forget.”
- Arundhati Roy