Anarchy and contemporary feminisms

At the beginning of the 20th century, feminism and anarchism had a close relationship, to the point of generating a third political and intellectual current, anarcho-feminism – or anarcha-feminism. A century later, this relationship is both stronger and weaker. Stronger because contemporary feminism movements undoubtedly have a libertarian component, in their themes and practices. Weaker because this relationship is rarely made explicit and, both by anarchists and feminists, not fully explored. In feminism, there is a lack of analysis of the historical and theoretical intersections with the anarchist movement, while in anarchism there is a lack of reflection on the inclusion of feminist practices and critiques. Yet, a greater intersection between anarchist and feminist movements is today more urgent than ever. Ecofeminism shows that the climate crisis and the resulting ecological catastrophe are not only attributable to the State and Capital, but also a product of patriarchy, whose desire to dominate the world begins with gender oppression and continues with the natural environment. LGBTQ+ movements and queer theory point the finger at the forms of individual, relational and social oppression based on gender and sexual identity that still persist in our “egalitarian” societies. A century ago, during the rise of totalitarian regimes, personalities such as Emma Goldman, Voltairine De Clayre, He Zhen, Lucía Sánchez Saornil, Noe Ito showed the importance of establishing alliances between anarchism and feminism. Today, we are once again in the eye of the storm of far-right hate politics, aimed on the one hand at reinforcing authoritarian and hierarchical visions of gender identities and relations, and on the other at distracting from the disastrous consequences of the crisis of neoliberalism. It is time to resume the debate, making manifest the intersections that already exist, and committing to create new ones. What does it mean to talk about anarcha-feminism in the 2020s? What practices and theorizations from historical anarchism can be found in contemporary feminist movements? What feminist themes can broaden the horizon of analysis and action of anarchism? What barriers exist, and have existed, to the creation of a closer alliance –intellectual and political– between anarchism and feminism? What kind of places and occasions can today facilitate this dialogue?