vimeo.com/.../261565601

Greetings Troublemakers
...welcome to Trouble.

My name is not important.

In the wake of the recent scandals
that have rocked Hollywood,

corporate media outlets,
academia, amateur sports

and, of course, Washington DC

... the topic of sexual abuse
has become a recurring feature

on the American news cycle.

But while it’s good to see
a handful of powerful men

at least beginning
to be held accountable

for their misogynistic behaviour

... the sexual harassment
and assault of women

is obviously nothing new.

And these recent stories are only
a microscopic representation

of a much more widespread
and systemic issue.

If even famous celebrities aren’t
safe from this type of abuse

... what does that say
about the rest of us?

Sexual violence is
the foundation of patriarchy,

one of the oldest and most
insidious systems of domination

in human history.

This violence takes many forms

from rape
and sexual exploitation,

to the imposition of
misogynistic beauty standards

and gender norms,

to laws and social taboos
that seek to control

women's sexuality,
bodily autonomy

and reproductive health.

Patriarchy is intricately woven
into the very fabric of society;

it is rooted in
the nuclear family

and the ways in which
children are raised differently

depending on the gender
they're assigned at birth.

It is encoded into our language,

and amplified by religion
and popular culture,

helping to shape our
perceptions of the world,

and our place in it.

It plays out in countless
everyday experiences and actions,

forming a self-perpetuating
and self-reinforcing cycle

that is passed down
through generations,

extending its influence
into all spheres of

human activity and behaviour.

But far from accepting
the role of eternal victim,

throughout history, women
have consistently pushed back

against patriarchal systems
of social, political

and economic control.

Today, we are at the
forefront of revolutionary

anti-capitalist and anti-colonial
movements around the world,

in addition to playing
leading roles in resistance

against white supremacy
and police terror,

for LGBTQ liberation,

and against ableism,

carceral psychology and
the prison-industrial complex.

Over the next thirty minutes

we'll highlight some of
the ongoing struggles

faced by women across the globe

and speak with a number
of badass commentators

as they talk about
confronting social taboos,

fighting back against sexism,

subverting systems
of male domination

... and making
a whole lot of trouble.

In a word, I would define
patriarchy as conquest.

Beyond just sort of
everyday prejudices,

it is a system of power
that is institutionalized

in various facets of
our everday life.

A social, economic,
political system

that's rooted in
gender oppression.

The system of
racialized gender regulation

that socially and materially
privileges manhood,

and men... and masculinity.

Trans, queer
and non-binary folks,

and all the things,
behaviours and attributes

that we would associate
with the feminine,

or femininity
is deemed to be inferior.

It's a social system
that establishes,

codifies the supremacy,

the superiority of men in
every sphere of social life

over women.

The struggles of
women across the world

show that there's
a lot of common issues,

such as their under-representation
or marginalization

in cultural, economic
and political spheres.

One of the unifying
characteristics of patriarchy

that is seen around the world
is the imposition of

a gender binary, with
violence committed against

those who do not fit
into the stereotypes

– into the expected
representations

of what is masculine
or what is feminine.

The patriarchal system, as a
system of gender regulation,

revolves around transmisogyny

– which patriarchy
understands as a punishment

of failed masculinity.

Because trans women are not
understood as being real women

but rather as failed men.

And the violence against trans
women serves a twofold purpose.

It allows cis men
to reassert and re-establish

their own sense of masculinity
by punishing trans women

for their own insecurity
about their heterosexuality,

and their attraction to
trans women, which calls

their whole
manhood into question.

And then it also serves
a warning to trans women.

The kind of uniform
experience of patriarchy,

if there was to be one
... because of course

patriarchy is experienced
differently by different genders

and many other identities
that overlap with patriarchy

– but is particularly, the subjugation

especially if we look at
subjugation and inequality

in intimate relationships,

and in the so-called
'domestic spheres.'

So that's one of the ways
in which patriarchy

continues to be so dominant,
and yet so invisible.

Patriarchal relations, the
dominance of men over women,

it's a consequence usually

of a system that
exploits human labour.

And therefore
the control over women,

over their reproductive capacity,
over their domestic work

– it's in fact a goal, at least
of those who control society.

Patriarchy is,
at least in my view,

connected with a class system.

With a system of exploitation
that goes beyond the relations

between men and women.

Economically, the subordination
of women and femmes

plays out in pay gaps
and in the way that

women's labour is undervalued,
regardless of what it is.

And whether it's
in more traditional ways

... if it's curanderas,
or medicine people,

it's typically more women.

When we talk about
the ancestral knowledge

that's passed down
from grandmothers

through matrilineal connections
- that kind of knowledge

is dismissed more often.

There is an appropriation
of the genius of women.

Of the work of women
that men take credit for.

All those clichés about there
always being, y'know,

'behind every great man
there's a woman.'

Like, behind every great woman
there's ten more women

that are badass and that have
worked to uplift each other

and to encourage each other
to find their power

and to find their voices.

Patriarchy ignores all that.

Patriarchy erases the genius
of women throughout history.

It erases the efforts
that we put in

to help our
communities be thriving.

To help our
children be thriving.

I've spoken of 'the patriarchy
of the wage' to define,

y'know, the way
in which capitalism maintains

gender-based hierarchies.

The patriarchy of the wage
says that,

or implies,
the wage relation.

And the fact that capitalism
organizes much of

women's work on
an unpaid basis as being

a fundamental material
condition for the creation

of patriarchal control.

We saw very recently
with the #MeToo movement,

how the issue of harassment
or abuse against women

is something that really
transcends

all class lines
and all culture lines.

It's also important to state
that patriarchy

does not imply that all men
have power over all women.

Take the case of the
United States, for instance.

It's clear that the race relation
has a profound effect

in the definition also

of whose men have power
over whose women.

I think about patriarchy,
not only in the way

that it affects women,
but in the way

that it affects men
in our communities.

It stunts their growth.

It stunts their
capacity for accountability,

their emotional depth.

Their willingness to grow
and to understand

that they can become
better human beings,

more connected
to their spirituality.

More connected to
their purpose in this life.

Especially in
– when folks talk about,

y'know, a revolutionary sense,
there's this stereotype

of having to be hard
and super militant.

And we absolutely need that.

We absolutely need
to defend our communities.

But we also need to be able to
communicate with each other.

And to be reasonable,
and to not default to anger.

In the Book of Genesis,

which just so happens to be
the main creation story

for the world's combined
4.2 billion adherents

of Judaism,
Christianity and Islam

... it's a bit of
an understatement to say that

women don't exactly
come out looking so great.

And if the no-doubt
male authors of this text

are to be believed
... it's all Eve's fault.

Because even after being
granted an earthly paradise

to frolic around in,

this ungrateful harlot
did the one thing

that her benevolent male
God had told her not to do.

And worse than that,
she roped her husband

into taking the blame with her
... even after he gave up

one of his ribs
so that she could be created.

By eating the forbidden apple
from the Tree of Knowledge,

Eve was responsible
for original sin

... and ultimately
the downfall of humanity.

Pretty heavy.

And for thousands of years,

the chief institutions
of organized religion

have done everything
that they could to ensure

that nobody forgot
the awful truth

wrapped up
in this vicious lie.

The Catholic Church
has played a major major role

in terms of fostering a
misogynist conception of women.

The Church had
a tremendous role,

in particular,
in defining women's sexuality

as something sinful.

As something that
has to be controlled.

So the woman
is the great sinner.

The woman is the one
who has to cover herself,

because she is a continuous
temptation for men.

Sexuality is a very intense,
potentially subversive force.

Y'know, but here
I would add immediately

that the concerns of
the Church were also shared

by the political
and legal authorities.

Because particularly in the
developing capitalist system

at the end of the Middle Ages,

y'know, the question of
the control of sexuality,

the control of procreation,
became a strategic issue.

Became a strategic objective.

Those same techniques,

values that were permeated
by a devaluation of women

... were exported.

Throughout colonization,
Christianity used the bible

and its stories
to prove that patriarchy

was the will of God.

The Christian,
Catholic religions

that have been imposed here
deify men.

And deify God as a man.

And they don't have any room
for the sacred feminine.

Colonization needed to
divide and destroy communities

in order to gain
access to land.

And upon arrival,
settlers noticed very quickly

that Indigenous women
often held positions

of power in their communities,

and in their own
governance systems.

And so while there were
generalized attacks

on Indigenous communities,

there were
very specific attacks

aimed directly at
Indigenous women.

Looking back at history,

looking back
at resource extraction

... the ways that all of our
non-human relatives have

been treated and commodified
and stolen and sold

... it seems to me that
people from those religions

don't hold much sacred.

One of the first things they did
was convince the men

in those communities
that their equality to women

was a sign of inferiority.

And this was done
through religion

and a variety
of different ways,

and actually got them
to aid in the process

of removing women from
those positions of power.

The way that
colonizers invaded,

and continue to invade
and destroy

and disrespect
the land that gives us life

... is an extreme parallel
to the ways that colonizers

also inflict abuse
on Native women in particular.

The MMIW movement in Canada

has been an Indigenous-led
response to the crisis of

over-representation of Inuit,
Métis and First Nations women

in missing persons
and homicide cases.

Indigenous women make up
4% of the population,

but 16% of the
homicide rates in Canada.

Deaths and disappearances
of Indigenous women

are often ignored
or mishandled by the police.

The Tina Fontaine verdict

... the recent not-guilty
verdict in that case,

which was pretty devastating

– you see this kind
of thing play out.

And so you see things like,

just before the verdict being
announced, The Globe and Mail

doing an entire front-page
article talking about how

she had drugs
and alcohol in her system

when she was found.

As if that somehow justifies
her being murdered

and thrown into the river
in a sleeping bag.

The European
systems of religion,

of social structures
are all based on hierarchy.

The hierarchies that
are in place now place women

– women of colour –
at the very bottom.

The Jezebel is one of
the controlling images

of Black womanhood
that's grounded in this idea

that Black women are
uniquely sexually aggressive

and uncontrollably
promiscuous,

and hyper-sexual
and animalistic.

And it relates to chattel
slavery in the United States

in that enslaved Black women
were subjected

to sexual violence
by their masters.

Because they were seen
solely as bodies that existed

for sexual consumption and
sexual domination by white men.

This has fed into
a contemporary idea

that Black women
are 'un-rapeable'.

That we are purely sexual
beings that always want sex.

And so when we are
victimized sexually,

we're not understood
as being legitimate victims

the way that white women are.

In Syria you have the rise

of a number of
authoritarian Islamist groups,

which to varying degrees have
placed restrictions on women

in terms of
their participation,

or restrictions on movement
or on dress.

But with Daesh, we saw
these extremes of horror

being committed against women.

The reintroduction
of sexual slavery,

also the policing of
women in the social space

– which was completely
alien to Syrian society.

But I think it's also
important to recognize

that women have been
at the forefront

of countering extremism.

Of course,
in the Kurdish areas

the female fighters of the YPJ
have really captured

the world's imagination
for the courage they've shown

in fighting against Daesh.

In Raqqa you had
an amazing woman, Suad Nofal,

who became an icon
for Syrian revolutionaries

because she carried out
these one-woman

demonstrations against Daesh
for two months.

Every day she was there
protesting against them

and calling on them to leave.

And in Idlib, you've seen
women at the forefront

of protests against Nusra.

I think it's important
to recognize

that many of these women
are religious, hijab-wearing,

Muslim women.

But what they're saying is
that they refuse to submit

to the regime's tyranny,
and they refuse any

other tyranny
that tries to replace it.

And they refuse anyone
who's trying to impose

an authoritarian
agenda on them,

or dictate to them
what they should wear

or what their
social role should be.

According to the UN
High Commission on Refugees,

in 2017 there was
a record 258 million migrants

living in countries
around the world.

This figure includes
almost 26 million people

who are officially
registered as refugees.

And over
the past several years,

for the first time
in recorded history,

a majority of those
forced to make these journeys

have been women and children.

The decision to
leave your home,

and the entire life that
you've made for yourself,

is one that
nobody takes lightly.

Forced migration is
a terrifying flight

into uncertainty and precarity

... and this is especially true
for female refugees

and migrant workers,

who face a specific
set of risks and dangers,

on top of the many
challenges shared

by their male counterparts.

As war,
territorial dispossession,

extreme economic inequality
and climate change continue

to destabilize our world,
humanity sits poised

on the threshold of an era
of even greater levels

of dislocation
and displacement.

And as
this process accelerates,

women will continue to
bear the heaviest burden.

The feminization of migration
is basically the reality

that women continue to be
the most impacted by wars,

by occupations, by militarism,
by climate change,

by forced poverty as a result
of colonialism and neoliberalism.

And that women are the ones
that are primarily on the move.

In the Global South

– in much of Africa,
Latin America, parts of Asia –

what you have
has been a massive level

of impoverishment.

Starting with the debt crisis
in the late 1970s

and then the application
of programs

of structural adjustment,

which are brutal
austerity programs.

Y'know, what you have
across the continents

is a massive pauperization,

which then has triggered
big migratory flows.

One of the biggest myths
is this idea that

the so-called 'west'
and the Global North

is so accepting towards refugees.

The number of people
that even make it

to the Global North
is a fraction.

Most people who are displaced
are displaced, y'know,

within their
countries of origin,

or to neighbouring countries.

The living conditions
of displacement,

the poverty,
the hardship

... these things have
increased domestic violence

for women often
living in camps.

Because men will take out
their frustration on

the women in their families.

I've spent a lot of time
with refugees in Lebanon,

in Jordan and in Iraq.

And in all of those places
I've met women that were

organizing around issues
of domestic violence

or early marriage.

The kinds of racism,
and the anti-migrant backlash

that we're dealing with
all around the world

– we're seeing this in Europe,

we're seeing this
with Rohingya refugees,

we're seeing this
in the Mediterranean,

we're seeing this
in New Zealand and Manus Island,

in the United States
and Canada

... really all over.

Women actually make up
more than half

of the world's migrants and so
women are dealing with that.

And women are also
dealing with

the particular vulnerabilities
of being women on the move,

and facing fortified borders.

So that means that, y'know,
women are really vulnerable

to rape and sexual violence.

60% of women who are crossing
the southern US border

reported sexual violence
at the border.

It's just another
level of something

to be used against you.

Undocumented women who are
in domestic abuse situations,

or who have been
sexually assaulted,

have little to no recourse.

The fear of being deported,

the fear of being
separated from your children,

the aggressive deportation
tactics that are being used

... leaves women
so much more unprotected.

They have to face
years of isolation,

exclusion, including violence.

Because many times
when they arrive

they don't have
all the proper documents,

or their documents
are taken away from them.

And they become exposed

to very brutal
forms of exploitation.

So people are
unwilling to speak out.

People are unwilling
to speak out against

unfair working conditions,

or sexual harassment
by their employers.

Always and forever again,
y'know,

in the interests
of their children.

Of survival.
Of being able to make a life

after being forced
out of your homeland.

Women migrants are also,
again as often being

the primary caregivers
to their children,

are often the ones
who are responsible for

the well-being of their kids
while they're on the move.

Or are dealing with
family separations.

So are separated
from their kids

... sometimes for decades.

And so these are completely
related to patriarchy

in terms of the burden
that women face,

of reproductive labour
and domestic labour

within the home.

If we look at communities
that are still land-based

– so Indigenous communities,
peasant-based communities,

farming communities,

in the vast majority
of the Global South –

we know that women
are on the front lines

of tending to their homes.

To their subsistence-based
economies in their communities

and their villages.

And so when we are faced with,
for example, climate change

– whether it's drought
or flooding,

it's women
who are forced to leave.

Because women are actually
often the primary breadwinners

in communities where
people still are

rooted in the land.

When your entire identity,
and your entire livelihood,

and your spiritual practices
are all land-based,

and you're forced
to leave the land.

When you can no longer
go to your sacred places.

Where your stories
of origin sprout from.

Where your people came from.

The cultural genocide that
happens is immeasurable.

The use of women
to support colonial

or imperialist intervention
is nothing new.

The entire project
of colonization,

of the civilizing mission
that dates back 500 years,

has often used
a feminist logic.

And these kinds of narratives
are possible because,

of course, one of the ways
which imperialism works

is to exclude native voices.

And this is something that
Gayatri Spivak calls

“the very old civilizing logic
of white men and white women

saving brown women
from brown men.”

Women's bodies being
used as a tool in the

regurgitation
of these orientalist

and islamophobic tropes
come not just from states,

but sadly also from
many western leftists

or western feminists.

People go to Syria on
regime-sponsored trips,

and then they come back
and they write articles about

how they saw women
in bikinis on the beach,

or women drinking
alcohol in night clubs.

And the message that
that sends is:

“OK... genocide's okay,
as long as the social and

liberated elite of Damascus
can party in bikinis.”

And it's obviously absurd.

The thing about feminism
is that

it can take on
so many different forms.

And so it is not uncommon
for the state,

and particularly Empire,
to take on feminism

as a putatively
progressive logic.

And we also
see it similarly in

the Prison-Industrial-Complex,

where we're told that
we need more prisons

and we need more cops.

Because we need
to protect women.

I think that it's important
to highlight how Black women

are affected by carcerality
and by state violence.

Black women are incarcerated
at something like four times

the rate of white women.

The criminalization
of Black women

is also indicative of
this idea of a public,

and public safety that
revolves around the threats

to white women.

Which includes all
Black and Brown people.

And so the police
and prisons

and military are part
of an imperial logic.

A part of the carceral state
that uses, often, a feminist

logic to advance
white supremacy,

to advance social control.

It is often said that
revolutionary theory

is the domain of
bearded old white men.

Not only does this myth
invisibilize the countless

theoretical contributions
made by female revolutionaries

over the years,

from Rosa Luxembourg
to Comandanta Ramona,

it also ignores the fact
that during the long period

when men enjoyed the
near exclusive right to have

their ideas published
and debated, women were

busy putting revolutionary
theory into practice.

From Louise Michel,
who held down the barricades

of the Paris Commune while
tending to wounded comrades,

to Lucy Parsons,

co-founder of the Industrial
Workers of the World

and a woman the Chicago Police
once described as

“more dangerous
than a thousand rioters”.

From Emma Goldman,

who once beat Johann Most
on stage with a horsewhip

for talking shit,

to Maria Nikiforova,

the feared Ukrainian
anarchist military commander

and executioner of White
Guards and Bolsheviks alike.

From Kanno Sugako,

who was hanged at the age
of 29 for her failed attempt

to assassinate
the Emperor of Japan,

to Assata Shakur,

who managed to escape the
bowels of the US gulag system

and has now been on
the FBI's Most Wanted List

for nearly four decades.

Not to mention
the countless other women

who've carried out
propaganda of the deed,

rioted, led peasant revolts,
and fought on the front lines

of revolutions
around the world.

And to this day, women
are still holding it down,

taking the lead in countless
struggles around the world,

whether they're those waged
against resource extraction

and the ongoing theft
of Indigenous lands,

the liberation of Syrian
territories from Daesh

and the fight against
Turkish aggression in Rojava,

or the struggle
against racist policing

in the so-called
United States.

I think that any organizing
should be feminist organizing.

I think that if there is
something that's affecting

your community
that you want to address,

it should be
with an anti-colonial,

women-centered,
matriarchal focus.

And so for me
the kind of feminism that

I'm interested in talking about
is not a kind of feminism

that is interested
in social control.

Is not a feminism
that is interested in

who the fuck a CEO is,
or who the next president

is going to be, of Empire.

But it's a kind of feminism
that's based

on liberation, right?

That is anti-capitalist,
that is anti-racist,

and more and more and more.

And that seeks freedom.

Any kinds of feminism

– imperial feminisms
and otherwise –

that seek more control,
that seek more domination,

are the antithesis
of what feminism is about

if we understand feminism
to be a lens of liberation.

I hope that the new
emerging feminist movement

is learning
the lessons of the past.

You cannot imagine to
change the condition of women

simply by shifting
forms of exploitation.

It's very important instead
to understand, y'know,

what are
the structural mechanisms

that allow for
that exploitation?

And this is where
we have to organize.

Feminist projects that
are really exciting right now

are feminisms that understand
the different connections

between all the different
systems that we're living in.

Working-class feminisms,
for example.

Feminisms that center the
experiences of sex workers.

Transfeminisms,
Indigenous feminisms,

Black feminisms,
migrant feminisms,

all of these things
that understand

that these systems
are connected,

and that feminism
is not simply

the advancement of some women
at the expense of others.

I'm also most interested
in feminism that is aiming

to visibilize all the
different kinds of labour

that exists in our society.

We need to learn
from their experiences.

We need to
promote their voices.

And in that way,
we can address some of this

current imbalance
and ensure that Syrian women

are able to speak for
and represent themselves.

Just make a girl gang,
you know?

Everyone should just have

their own girl gang
in their neighbourhoods,

and in their communities.

Our movements
will never be effective

if we don't feel safe in them.

Both anarchism
and Black feminism

are theorizing about the
violence of racial capitalism.

They're theorizing
about the violence

of the American state.

To synthesize the two

into a Black feminist
anarchism, for example,

would be to make
more efficient the racial

and gender
critiques of the state.

And to also racialize
the anti-state

politic of anarchism.

I encourage women
and femme folks

to get involved in
male-dominated spaces

... but go in and
have each others' backs.

And change those
spaces into something

that's more welcoming
and more inclusive

of people of all genders.

And that doesn't necessarily
mean making it less radical,

or taking less
confrontational action.

And it doesn't mean
shifting priorities to

try to prioritize care work
over revolutionary struggle,

or aggressive or
confrontational work.

It means to re-contextualize
those kinds of things

as not in the
realm of machismo,

but as something that people
of all genders engage in.

I don't know that violence
is always the answer,

but I think in some situations
it can be an answer.

And if you're talking about
femicide, rape culture,

sexual violence, the rise
of the misogynist right

... I think that's a situation
in which everything

should be on the table
to at least discuss.

You don't wanna give up your
ability to engage in that way.

That makes you
very vulnerable.

I don't believe
in silver bullets

... or I think there's
a lot of important

and meaningful
work to be done.

That's less about
the specific issue

or area that
you're focusing on,

but more about
how you're engaging with it.

Are you looking at things
beyond just individual actions?

Trying to look at it in
terms of collective responses

... material responses?

Are you looking at
trying to build autonomy

outside of the state?

Are you looking at trying
to build a feminist politics

that isn't just about
petitioning to representatives

or trying to get more
institutional representation?

I think the world
is generally shit.

But I think because
it's generally shit,

the only worthwhile
thing to do is struggle.

And I feel like there's a lot
of really inspiring history

and a lot of
really amazing people

who have fought back
and struggled

in a lot of different ways.

And it's useful to sort of
look at some of

the different things
that they did.

Although there's still
a long way to go

to the abolition of
gender-based inequality,

the past few decades have seen
major advancements

for women around the world.

Each step forward
has been a struggle,

as men of all stripes
have sought to retain

the various manifestations
of power and control

afforded them
under patriarchy.

But today, even many of
these hard-fought victories

are under threat
of being clawed back

by resurgent movements
of male reaction,

authoritarian nationalism
and religious fundamentalism.

From MRAs, who blame feminists

for the many hardships
that men face under capitalism

to the violent misogyny
that has embedded itself

at the heart of the alt-right,

to the religious fanaticism
of Mike Pence

and the Islamic State.

This is no time for us
to rest on the laurels

of our past achievements

... it is crucial that we
continue to deepen and extend

the struggle against
patriarchy on all fronts,

and that we prepare ourselves
for the battles to come.

So at this point,
we’d like to remind you

that Trouble is intended
to be watched in groups,

and to be used as a resource
to promote discussion

and collective organizing.

Are you interested
in starting up

a revolutionary
feminist collective,

or helping to better
incorporate feminist analysis

into your established
organizing projects?

Consider getting together
with some comrades,

organizing a
screening of this film,

and discussing
what this would entail.

Interested in running
regular screenings of Trouble

at your campus, infoshop,
community center,

or even just at home
with friends?

Become a Trouble-Maker!

For 10 bucks a month,
we’ll hook you up

with an advanced copy of the
show, and a screening kit

featuring additional resources
and some questions

you can use
to get a discussion going.

If you can’t afford to support
us financially, no worries!

You can stream and/or download
all our content for free

off our website:

If you’ve got any
suggestions for show topics,

or just want to get in touch,
drop us a line at:

This episode
would not have been possible

without the generous
support of

Carla, John, Devin
and Nikos Pelasgos.

Now get out there,
and make some trouble!