By Jollene Levid, AF³IRM Secretary-General

Transnational Women Launch New Organization; AF³IRM to Hold Founding Congress and Conference

T wo events will mark the formal historical beginning of AF3IRM (Association of Filipinas, Feminists Fighting Imperialism, Re-feudalization and Marginalization) in Los Angeles, California, this coming September 30–October 2, 2010. 

Fueled by 20 years of knowledge and experience as GabNet, AF³IRM will approve its Constitution and By-Laws, Principles and Program of Action in an invite-only gathering from September 30-October 1st. This will be followed by an open Conference on October 2nd, featuring Prof. Johanna Brenner, author of the seminal Women & the Politics of Class and Transnational Feminism and the Search for Global Justice, as keynote speaker. 

Those interested in joining AF³IRM in its new program are urged to e-mail gabnet@gabnet.org or secgen@gabnet.org for space reservation.  Those interested in joining or covering the open Conference should e-mail af3irm@yahoo.com. 

P rofessor Brenner will be joined by other speakers and panelists from North America.

With the slogan Completing the Journey:  From Nation to Home, AF³IRM begins a discourse on the growing phenomenon of transnational women (52% of the 214-million global migrants are women or more-than half of the 3.1% of the world’s population living outside their country of birth) and its impact on the struggle for women’s emancipation and liberation. 

AF³IRM’s paradigm considers migration to be a “life-changing event” and should be viewed as more than a labor or class problem.  The Conference intends to look at the on-going re-feudalization of poor women of color, who are funneled into the domestic world market globally, and their marginalization as second- and even third-class citizens under imperialist globalization. The Conference will also examine the impact of the phenomenon on the children and grandchildren of migrant women, both those left in the home country and those born and/or raised in the receiving country. 

As a reflection of its updated orientation, the AF³IRM Conference will also examine the feasibility and advisability of trans-ethnic organizing of women.

“Such forward-looking analysis is crucial at this time when proposed laws against migrants and against their children are entering public discourse in the United States,” said Ms. Jollene Levid, lead organizer of AF³IRM and former GabNet Secretary-General. “We must anchor our political work to our territory and establish our sisterhood on the basis of mutual benefit, trust and equality.” 

For Organizing Director Ivy Quicho, the Conference is “timely – for far too long, transnational women have been both perceived and treated as support and supply channels, propping up visions to which they have had little input.”  Ms. Quicho explained she was referring to political agendas created for transnational women versus agendas created by transnational women. “This launch and conference are right in the tradition of GabNet which, in its 20 years, broke new areas – from trafficking to transracial sisterhood to theory-building -- for the activism of women of Philippine ancestry.” # # #

Jollene Levid
Secretary-General, AF³IRM
Email: secgen@gabnet.org
Website: www.gabnet.org

Association of Filipinas, Feminists Fighting Imperialism, Re-feudalization, and Marginalization
(AF3IRM/GABNet)
PO Box 403, Times Square Station
New York, NY 10036