Tue 1 Nov, 7pm
SPACE Mare Street
The Feminist Duration Reading Group focuses on under-known and under-appreciated texts, movements, groups and struggles. It meets on the first Tuesday of every month, at 7pm, at SPACE in London Fields, and is open to all.
This meeting of the Feminist Duration Reading Group, on Tuesday 1 November, focuses on the Icelandic women’s strike of 24th October 1975. Through readings from Marie Elizabeth Johnson’s chapter on this mass withdrawal of female labour – in which 90% of women participated, bringing the country to a standstill as schools, shops, nurseries and fish factories shut down or ran a half capacity, while men performed caring and domestic labour – we explore the contemporary potential for a gender strike. We also consider how a radical gesture of resistance can be reframed by the more cautious language of celebration.
The session is inspired by the current project ‘Speculations for a radical, feminist strike: workshop and experiment,’ which reflects on the Icelandic women’s action, forty years later. Informed by anti-work politics and practice, project researchers Valeria Graziano, Lynne Friedli, and Holly Pester ask, is a gendered strike is still necessary (and/or possible) for trans and cis-gendered women and non-binary people today?
Together we will read sections from ‘Kvennafridagurinn,’ chapter six of Marie Elizabeth Johnson’s 1984 PhD thesis Women in Iceland.
The Feminist Duration Reading Group focuses on under-known and under-appreciated feminist texts, movements, groups and struggles. Started at Goldsmiths, University of London, in March 2015, since July 2015 the group has been hosted by SPACE. The group meets on the first Tuesday of every month, at 7pm, and is open to all.
We will read out loud, together, on the evening. Please bring copies of the reading with you.
For a copy of this month's reading or if you would like to join the Feminist Duration Reading Group, please email firstname.lastname@example.org
Now You Can Go
The Feminist Duration Reading Group on 1st December was the first in the Now You Can Go events series exploring feminist art, theory and activism that took place across The ICA, The Showroom, SPACE and Raven Row in December 2015.