Lesbians, Gay Men and Neo-liberalism

national | miscellaneous | news report Sunday October 13, 2002 13:20 by Graziella Bertozzo - Azione gay e lesbica Firenze info at azionegayelesbica dot it Via Manara, 12 - Firenze 39-55-671298

Verbal statement of the meeting for organization work-shop ESF

A Verbal Statement of the meeting will be written and, after its revision, will be sent to all subjects who could be interested to share this path, with an invitation to join the next meeting that will take place on Saturday the 19th of October in SMS Andrea del Sarto Via Manara 12 Florence at 3 p.m. Every group will promote the meeting through its own contacts also among foreigners, in particular European and from the Mediterranean area, who could be interested to participate to the ESF.

Verbal statement of the meeting
“Lesbians, Gay Men and Neo-liberalism”
28th of September 2002

The Meeting “Lesbians, Gay Men and Neo-liberalism” took place on the 28th of September 2002 in Florence: It was promoted by Azione Gay e Lesbica, aiming to share a consideration about the influence of Neo-Liberalist Globalization on gay men, lesbians and their movements.
All the people who recognize the Porto Alegre Charter and, specifically, who share a critical view of Neo-liberalism, and consider its bad effects on their own lives, were invited to discuss the subject.
The Meeting was drawn also as a preparation of a specific workshop that Azione Gay e Lesbica proposed for the European Social Forum that will take place in Florence on November.
Several men and women, individually or belonging to associations, were present to the meeting. In particular there were activists from the following associations:
Antagonismo Gay, Bologna and Torino (Turin)
Azione Gay e Lesbica Firenze (Florence)
Circolo Gay e Lesbico Pink Verona
Circolo lesbico Drasticamente Padova (Padua)
Glo Milano (Milan)
Centro Studi GLBT
Other associations, although not present, has declared their interest to the meeting:
MOS Sassari
Associazione Gay Roma (Rome)
Circolo Mario Mieli Roma
Open Mind Catania
Azione Gay e Lesbica presented its own experience at the interior of Firenze Social Forum as well during the National meetings of the Italian Social Forums. The general structure of the European social forum (Florence 6th-10th of November) was presented:
General conferences about theme-areas in the morning, seminars in the afternoon and in addition self-run workshops that won’t be included in the Official Program.
A Demonstration whose theme will be “Opposition to war” is fixed on the 9th of November in the afternoon.
It was specified that the Program Group of the ESF approved a seminar, as an internal activity of the Social Forum, whose title is “Let’s care for the future: Lesbians, Gay Men and Transsexuals in the project of Social Europe”.
Differently, the proposal of Azione Gay e Lesbica is the realization of a self-run workshop, open to the people who share a critic remark to neo-liberalist Globalization. This workshop should discuss in particular the situation of lesbians, gay men and their movements in the present neo-liberalist global context.
A gay activist of Azione Gay e Lesbica presented the document that the associations had elaborated about this subject before to summon the meeting (Lesbians, gay men and Neo-Liberalism) http://www.fse-esf.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=6 and a lesbian activist presented the document (No time for mimosas) of the Collettivo 8 marzo of Florence, http://www.collettivo8marzo.firenze.net/ a group formed by lesbian and straight women, (among them some activists of Azione Gay e Lesbica) that analyses general women’s situation in Neo-liberalism, as a starting point for a reflection about the situation of lesbians.
During the meeting many other documents were presented, that all the different groups will decide whether to subscribe or not.
In particular Monia Dragone presented an appeal to the participation to the European Social Forum that some gay association of Portugal have just signed. All the documents can be requested to the different groups, while the appeal can be requested to Monia Dragone (moniadragone@inwind.it).
The meeting continued discussing many subjects about the specific and general matters of the Gay and Lesbian Movement. We talked about the right to asylum for lesbians and gay men who live in countries that are particularly at risk. We discussed about the necessity to promote the participation of gay men and lesbians from other European countries that aren’t yet members of the European Union. We outlined the necessity to reflect about the relation among the Gay and Lesbian Movement and Immigrants. We referred to the necessity to face (as gay men and lesbians) subjects like school, war and, in particular, the subject of work, considering that we can’t forget the discriminations that lesbians, gay men and transsexuals suffer in the workplace, and that we can’t forget their bigger difficulties to find a job; we discussed what relation exists and/or can exist among the Gay and Lesbian Movement and the Movement of Movements, but we also questioned the meaning of “antagonism”, and the sense of the integrationist movement and the meaning “giving value to the differences”. The trans subject emerged and we led to a discussion about its presence at the inside of the Gay and Lesbian Movement, giving evidence to the need to build alliances.
Wee faced the need to put in contact our different languages, to give a shared meaning to words like “representation”, “globalization”, “rights”. We talked about the distinctions in the Gay and lesbian Movement to share a path, and we fixed two points: opposition to war and opposition to the Bossi-Fini decree. We talked about Lesbians and Gay men in the EU, considering that this specific theme will be discussed in the Seminar of Arcilesbica.
After an useful discussion about this and other subjects we proposed the following effective activities, to be included in the November social forum, which were approved by general agreement:
1) Constitution of a Lesbian, Gay and Trans section during the Demonstration against the war that will take place in Florence on the 9th of November.
2) Organization of a self-run workshop (Lesbians, Gay men and Neo-Liberalism) during the days 8th-9th of November in a place, possibly in the center of Florence, that Azione Gay e Lesbica will have to find and whose themes will be collectively defined during the next meeting. In the meantime every association and every single person will produce reflective and operative proposals, about the shared themes, ermerged during the meeting, aiming to define a common platform to present during the ESF.
3) A Verbal Statement of the meeting will be written and, after its revision, will be sent to all subjects who could be interested to share this path, with an invitation to join the next meeting that will take place on Saturday the 19th of October in SMS Andrea del Sarto Via Manara 12 Florence at 3 p.m. Every group will promote the meeting through its own contacts also among foreigners, in particular European and from the Mediterranean area, who could be interested to participate to the ESF.