Feminist Initiative

Countering the boomerang Effect

Votes have been counted in Sweden. Feminist Initiative (F!) did not reach 1% in the Swedish elections to Parliament on Sunday 17th September. They got 37,346 votes, 0.68%. Now it is time to analyze the results. Can we call it 'defeat'? I think it is too much a word for a political party born just a year ago. Taking into account not only all the in-built problems for the so-called 'Other' parties in the Swedish political and electoral system, but the way the media chose to ignore F!, or how tight the polls predicted the result for the right and left blocks...we can do no more than understand the outcome.

I am worried about the consequences for the feminist movement in the Swedish society. It can be considered normal not to reach the parliament the first time a new party sets out to do it. The Green Party in Sweden was created in 1981 and they did not reach Parliament until 1988. But there is an essential difference between ecologism and feminism: the patriarchal nature (or the 'masculine domination'). Yesterday, the Dagens Nyheter (the most important newspaper here) joked in its headline: Inget feministiskt initiativ i regeringen, tack!, meaning: 'Feminist Initiative in government: No, thank you!' And, on top of that, the text in the article had nothing to do with F!, but with the fact that there was a woman talking against parity in government. The right alliance are fighting about it. Now they say government has to be 'natural'. You know what it means. They are now dividing the cake among the four parties in the alliance. They are not comparing people´s resumees to see who is more capable. That is not the patriarchal way. The patriarchal way is one that excludes women as much as they can. But they call it 'selection of the best ones.'

They have needed to fish deep down into the ranks of the youth organization to find an unexperienced woman willing to say that she is against parity and in favour of the natural way...Another woman in the right wing manifested against that opinion. And this is what the newspaper finds interesting. A woman against another woman and a good reason to mock F!

The Green party never had to face things like this. This episode shows the patriarchal reaction at its best.

What is certainly clear in Sweden is that there is a Feminist party.This is a fact. Now a new stage begins, two years and a half for the European elections, four years for the next Swedish elections. A lot of work to do. Four years to discuss, train, organize, influence politics, join up new people. Feminists will have a political party prepared to listen all those voices that traditional parties ignore, no matter how feminist they claim to be. Those parties will be now more careful. Or maybe not, let´s see what happens.

It is clear also that an international movement in favour of total equality is needed. Right now it is only an idea, with no faces, name or form. Many feminists are convinced that we have to jump into it. As Gudrun Schyman says, Feminist Initiative is not only Swedish, it happened that it was born in Sweden, but it has universal claims. The feminist movement has always been, and will always be, international. There are many women, old and new feminist to count on, with all their life experience, with all their knowledge. And many men, too, fed up with being part of such an ex-clusive club...

I will let you know what happens next...

María

Feminist Initiative Campaign

We found these campaign materials, very funny and much to-the-point...We dont know very well the right translation, tho people helped us a lot...Just enjoy a bit of humour and sharp remarks....

starting by...

If you need a break from patriarchy, relax and come to F! stand at Brunnsparken.

Left alliance or Right coalition. We bet 100 kr that the Prime Minister will be a man.
What about getting more power for women?             

 

Sublet sweet sublet,
what about safe housing for everybody?

 

For men who complain that they always have to pay: Vote for F! and women will have better possibilities to be able to pay as well.
What do you think about equal pay?

Women and immigrants do not have secure jobs.
What about immigrant women?

Men should be able to work at home. What about changing nappies and taking care of children?
What about individualized and non-transferable parental leave for both parents?

All the parties say they are feminist. Funny, isn’t it?
What about a bit of commitment on feminist issues?

 

For us everybody is the same: homosexuals, transsexuals, heterosexuals or christiandemocrats.
What do you think about it?

Equality ceiling

The Feminist Initiative (F!) experience is interesting for several reasons that can be summarized in two: the first one, because just the coming into life of a party that can imagine and demand total equality in the parliament is an effect of how far they have reached in the equality field in Sweden. The second one, because it shows that there is also an equality ceiling in Sweden, just in the top floor of the world equality building.

When F! came up into the public realm, all the other parties hurried up to say that they were feminist as well. And as a matter of fact, seen from other European countries, they are all immensely feminist. Further more, the system is immensely egalitarian.

Women are not trapped by the economic dependence on their husband's income, or forced to choose between paid work or motherhood. Social rights are based on citizenship. Every child is entitled to a public day-care centre, paid according to their parents income level, never more than 100€/month.

Resources to protect women from men's violence are huge, so that no woman is forced to keep on living with a violent man because she depends on his income. The public system welcomes you, defends you and supports you economically, as long as it helps you to find a job.

The Swedish alternative to fight against women's trade and prostitution is so effective that the number of prostitutes in Sweden is no more than 1,500. Even more, 80% of the Swedish population is in favour of the 1999 prostitution act which protects prostitutes as gender violence victims and criminalizes the client as an agresssor. To sum up, the status of women in Sweden is much more "equal" than anywhere else in the world. Can we ask for more?

Just a look at the most elementary data shows us that reality is not as "equal" as it looks. Income difference persists, women work part time and in the most unsecure jobs, they take care of children most of the time and they do most of the housework. Many of them have retirement pensions upon which it is difficult to live. As Gudrun Schyman says, "the system did not change in its patriarchal basis. Whereas women depend on men in other countries, in Sweden they depend on the public system".

The three goals that F! prioritizes are written on their best-known sign: ‘100% of the income, 50% of parental leaves and 0% violence’. But those goals are basically shared by all the political parties. And they know how to implement them, as well. What happens is that the feminist debate looks exhausted. None of the traditional parties is talking about equality in this campaign, further than the rhetoric lines about it. There is not a single proposal to go deeper into equality. And, in Sweden, it is about time to take a jump into equality, a serious one, but it seems that there is no will for that. "Society is not ready", politicians say. However, thousands of people supporting F! seem to prove them wrong. They have left their old parties or they come fresh into politics for the first time, moved by this new political alternative.

Even women within traditional parties, who have been claiming more equality and the parental leave individualization reform for years have been silenced by the official leadership who does not want to discuss about these issues. Will these women vote F!?

The  media, after writing extensively about all the scandals they could find about F!, are silent about them. The problem for F! now is that they need to remind people of their taking part in this campaign.

There is an equality ceiling affecting F! as well. They are hidden by this silence pact the establishment keeps about the newcomers.

But the wheel of history cannot be stopped. Sweden has got such a level of equality that many people can see how it will be to live in complete equality. Not only gender equality: F! talks about a society where power groups do not rule over the rest. In the medium and long term there is no doubt that this party will build up itself to a solid future. But now they need 4% of the ballot, the minimum required to enter parliament according to the Swedish law.

On 17th September we will see what happens. It is not easy, but we are all working for it.

Get the champagne bottles ready!

María

Inside the campaign

Feminist Greetings from Sweden!

We came here to be able to tell you what is happening in these first elections to Swedish parliament where, for the first time, a political party with a feminist program is taking part. We came to observe what is happening, what the proposals are, the welcoming, the resistances... We want to know which is the treatment the media dispense to them, the expectations and results, the changes and reactions a party like this can raise.

We came here to know and to write about the herstory, brief and intense, so far, of Feminist Initiative, or, as they say here, F!: Feministiskt Inititativ.

Talking about F! means mostly to talk about their best-known representative, Gudrun Schyman.

She is a first rate political character in the national scene, about which we will talk more in this blog. Up to now, it is enough to mention that her charisma is the main reason for the media interest about F!. But there is much more in F!, other people to talk about, other candidates and other campaigns to pay attention to.

At the beginning, the political strategy of F! has been focused on the Swedish parliament, Riksdagen, where 349 seats are disputed in 29 constituencies for a 4-year period. In order to participate in the allocation of seats and achieve representation in the Riksdag, a party must obtain at least 4 per cent of the votes in the entire country or 12 per cent in a constituency. The system is design to prevent small party representation within parliament.

There are 7 parties represented in the parliament, and two members without party affiliation, because they left their parties since the 2002 election. One of them is Gudrun Schyman,who left the Left Party (Vänsterpartiet) in 2003, after 10 years as their leader, in which the party increased their votes from 6%, in 1994, to 12%, in 1998.

Parties are organized around the two traditional blocks, right and left. The right coalition is formed by the Moderate Party, the Liberal Party, the Center Party and the Christian Democrats. The left alliance is composed of the Social Democratic Party, the Left Party and the Green Party.

How can F! fit in this political scenario, since it is a party non based on the traditional right-left division, but representing feminism and equality?

But...as they say in F!:
Left Alliance or Right Coalition?
We bet 100 krones that the Prime Minister will be a man!

Priya