Women’s Liberation 2014

Photo from the social at the 1974 conference, from the women’s liberation music archive‘s website.

This conference will  be held in Glasgow on Saturday the 19th and Sunday the 20th of July but it will commemorate the 1974 women’s liberation conference held in Edinburgh.

40 years on, we will come together to reminisce, to celebrate our achievements and the fact we are still here, and to look to the future.

We envision a return to a politics of women’s liberation – moving from single-issue campaigns drawing on feminist ideas to a women-centred revolutionary movement. The Edinburgh conference gave rise to the sixth demand of the WLM – ‘ An end to all discrimination against lesbians and a woman’s right to define her own sexuality’ and therefore there will be two sessions specifically focusing on the activism and community of lesbian feminists then and now.

There will be workshops, talks, exhibitions and an evening event with an open stage and then disco on one floor, and a quieter space to talk to one another on the other floor.

There will be a few plenaries and lots of workshops including:

On the Problem of Men: Challenging fathers’ rights movements and their impact on women and children- by Lynne Harne

Building Lesbian Feminist Politics and Community with Julia Long

Race and feminism:building solidarity among women – a workshop with Jennifer Kim

Prostitution – legal perspectives and the Nordic model by Gunilla Ekberg

Exploring lesbian feminist activism through the years – a workshop with Elaine Hutton

The nature of oppression for mothers under patriarchy – a workshop with Angela Soudjoukdjian

Women’s bodies, objectification and racialised misogyny – a short presentation and discussion

Women, trauma and recovery – women’s mental health and the way we strive to recover from trauma including women’s sector support, consciousness-raising and feminist therapy

Engaging women in state politics, and a look at the independence debate through a feminist lens – a workshop

Creating a women’s culture – archives, art, writing, music – a workshop and an exhibition. There will also be a small library in a quiet space.