FEMINIST LETTER NO 23
To all feminists
We are now launched into the election year. The first party leader debate was a predictable elaboration of political position from which equal rights issues were conspicuously absent with one single exception (the Left Party). Ear-splitting silence, you could say. The responsibility for the silence lies somewhere. Someone must be responsible for breaking it.The year 2006 is the year when the people in Sweden for the first time will be able to vote for a party that intends to place feminist issues at the top of the political agenda. There will be a feminist alternative. The year 2006 is also the year when the women’s movement celebrates the centenary of the massive petition for the right of women to vote, besides being the 30 year jubilee of the petitions that put a stop to the proposal for new legislation on sex-related crime in 1976. Last Wednesday the spokeswomen for F! presented a report that spotlighted these two important jubilees in the history of women’s efforts to strengthen their rights.(The report, “En historisk chans!” is to be found on the F! website www.feministinitiativ.se).
So the Feminist Initiative picks up the baton passed on to us and continues the good work. Our first task of the year is to begin collecting the signatures necessary for registering the party name. 1500 names are the minimum requirement, but there will be many more. Newcomers to the political scene need to be resourceful, not least in finding funding. In order to provide a solid foundation to an election fund we have had a special certificate of support prepared for distribution. Along with the certificate there is a signed and numbered poster by the artist, writer and cartoon illustrator Joanna Rubin Dranger. She has illustrated the story of Snow-white. It is exclusively designed for the Feminist Initiative and will be sent to you against the payment of 1000 crowns at the postal giro number 40 57 53-5. Just write “certificate” along with your contribution and add the name of whoever is to receive it. When I read in the paper of the 150 million crowns that today’s parties in parliament will be spending on the election campaign I can’t help thinking that it will be a refreshing challenge to enter an election campaign with a virtually zero budget. Knowledge and creativity have always been the hallmark of the women’s movement!
And now to a completely different game. When Swedish national team players were accused of sexual assault against a woman last year, the headlines loomed large. A practically unanimous sporting world declared the whole affair a scandal. One or two sports journalists dared to utter what everyone knows to be true, that this is the normal way of behaving; we just don’t talk about it. Storms blow over, as we all know. That which should be radically changed, just carries on as part of every day routine. I wonder, as do many with me, what picture people generally have of the link between men, matches and macho ethics. I haven’t heard of a single man who has been the victim of sexual assault or harassment from a female member of a national team.
The world championship in football is drawing closer. Sweden will be playing in Dortmund, Berlin and Cologne. There is a rush after tickets. The sports pages in the papers are full of advice about the best way of getting to the games and ways of having fun between matches. A world championship in football is a popular event – now there will be a jolly good excuse to celebrate, a jolly good excuse to grieve (should things go wrong). What the pages remain silent about, and which is not very jolly, is that men can also get themselves a quick fix between, or after the games. Whether one wants to celebrate a victory or comfort oneself for a defeat, there will be women’s bodies available. The host country ensures that this will be the case. Germany prepares a slap-up meal/spread/ of newly built mega-brothels housing up to one hundred prostitutes at the same time. There will be a super market too. “Performance boxes”, car-port type compartments, fully equipped with condoms and pay machines for snacks. People are working hard to further establish the notion that men’s sexuality is uncontrollable. Men need immediate satisfaction, otherwise maybe, otherwise they might commit rape or murder … who knows? As usual, women’s sexuality is non-existent.
Protests are now growing among women’s movements in a number of countries and the unrest has also reached the EU Parliament. Last week the Parliament sent out a call to bring an end to the sex trade and strong concern was expressed over the fact that there is still no harmonisation within the legal systems of the member states as to appropriate sentences for this type of crime. In spite of changes in legislation and political statements to the effect that trafficking women is to be a top priority issue, there is no concrete evidence of success. On the contrary, trafficking in human beings is the criminal activity that is growing faster than other forms of organised crime. Every year between 600 000 and 800 000 people, mainly women and children, are smuggled across national borders as part of the sex trade, the slave trade of our time.
Before Christmas I asked a question in Parliament addressed to the ministers responsible for gender issues and for sports. Their answers were like an echo in space: “We condemn!” – adding - “ It is up to you as well!” Of course the ministers condemn these operations, anything other would be unthinkable. But after their condemnations, everything just goes on as before. I wonder, how is it possible to carry through activities in preparation of criminal activity quite openly, something which in turn will lead to what the ministers themselves in an article called “a slave trade unworthy of our times”? The ministers of the EU and the powers that be in the world of sport, appear to be blind and paralysed by inactivity.
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Last Thursday at question time in parliament I took the opportunity of asking our minister of justice, Thomas Bodström about this. What measures are he and his colleagues in the EU initiating to hinder these preparations for criminal activity. Was he prepared to take any initatives? The answer, naturally, was that he condemns what is gong on and seizes every opportunity of explaining Swedish views on both trafficking and prostitution. As for taking the initiative to put the issue on the political agenda and get some real action, the answer was rather more vague, but not without interest.
“Austria now holds the presidency and, as I said, I will also approach the subject in connection with the Austrian presidency. We (the ministers of justice) will be meeting in a few weeks time and that will be a suitable occasion to raise these issues. That is the way things work: Sweden can take the initiative at such meetings, for example under the paragraph “other questions”. We are not permitted to decide on the agenda covering the usual issues, but we have a splendid opportunity of introducing new topics …”. (quoted from the parliamentary minutes).
So now we must follow up this promised initiative and insist on a clear report as to who said what and what will be the outcome of intervention. I promise to report back on this issue. Until such time as the meeting of the ministers takes place, I am convinced that the minister of justice would feel he was staunchly supported in his work if he felt he had a strongly voiced opinion behind him against the sex trade in preparation for the World Championship. In Sweden as in Europe. The address is
Thomas Bodström, Justitiedepartementet, 1013 33 Stockholm, Tel: 08-405 47 28. E-mail to Thomas Bodström can be sent via the government’s website, www.regeringen.se
There are also an increasing amount of protest at the international level and there is now an appeal to sign. You will find it under catwepetition.ouvaton.org
The initiative originates with the European section of the organisation Coalition Against Trafficking/Trade in Women(CATW), contact address catwe@free.fr .
The responsibility for the silence lies somewhere. Someone must be responsible for breaking it.
So sign the petition and write to the minister!
Gudrun
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