The Launch

On 12 October 2016, we had the opportunity to launch our theme for 2017 rising. Zimbabwe has been going through difficult times politically and economically. The brunt of these challenges has greatly affected women more than anything else. In wake of this, the launch was premised on building conversation on how women can strengthen their solidarity in this kind of environment. The launch was graced by key activists from the women’s movement and was meant to facilitate a dialogue on historical narratives on solidarity in the women’s movement in Zimbabwe. The presentation was facilitated by a renowned women’s rights activist in Zimbabwe called Rudo Mashamba.

 

Figure 1 OBR Zimbabwe Global Coordinator introducing the theme launch from the official OBR Website to the launch guests.

 

Solidarity for the Women of Zimbabwe

In her presentation, Rudo gave an outline of the historical timeline of how women in Zimbabwe started organising themselves to create learning spaces from precolonial times in the 1920s. She then gave a progression of how women began to develop their capacity to question the ills that were brought in by discrimination of women based on their sex and social experiences as the movement progressed in the post-colonial times. More so, Rudo’s presentation highlighted the importance of women building radical organised solidarity as a way of developing safety nets for women to continue to voice their concerns in as far as exploitation is concerned.

Figure 2 Precious, one of the guests showcasing some of the solidarity messages being collected to mobilise women to rise in solidarity

Figure 3 Solidarity messages on display for the launch

 

The Activist Discussion

Following her presentation, a group of activists who attended the event felt motivated to create structures that are facilitative for building solidarity within the movement. The group made deliberations on how women can continue to organise themselves despite the challenges which they are facing in organising for their work because of the new legal regulations which are making it difficult for them to group themselves. Due to the challenges, the following resolutions were made going forward.

Figure 4part of the group which attended the launch.

 

 

Figure 5 Using film to explain the foundations of the rising for the launch

 

The Revolutionary Resolutions for Solidarity

• Women’s Rights activists were encouraged to build coalitions that shape agency around ending any form of exploitation on women and girls
• OBR Zimbabwe would conduct multiple launches on such a critical theme as it mobilises for the rising for 2017. The next launch is scheduled at
• To document collection of Solidarity messages and share them as widely as possible through the V-Solidarity Campaign.
• Map our radical action in wake of the political disturbances which are hindering women’s organising at the present moment. OBR Zimbabwe should schedule a meeting to discuss how women can make their action much more radical and effective whilst they remain safe in their organising
• It was generally agreed that there is not much action happening within the movement at present and most people agreed that more should be done to motivate women to rise against any form of exploitation.
• OBR Zimbabwe made a commitment to scale up it’s radical action.