redchidgey's blog

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"Smash, smash, smash all the nations
We are the feminist generation
We mess up military bases
We destroy fascist nations
Bombs, Guns and Evolution
We're gonna make a Revolution
We wanna start an insurrection
We wanna find a new direction"
- Protest song at the Autonomous Womyn's Gathering, Wien

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"Festival Red Dawns does not advocate a further polarization of genders or "war of the sexes". Instead, the creativity and the mingling of the participants of Red Dawns question the boundaries we take for granted; the isolating boundaries that separate people regardless of our gender."
- Red Dawns festival website

Back in March 2009, I went to the queer feminist festival, Red Dawns/Rdeče zore in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

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Everyone at Camp GF (Grassroots Feminism) is extremely busy at the moment, reading, writing, thinking, and ferreting for precious examples of grassroots media in Europe, so first of all, please forgive us for falling behind in blog entries.

We wanna share with you some of the places we've been and what we've been up to and how we think about contemporary feminist media. First up is the ZineFest! Red organized at the Women's Library in London at the beginning of the year.

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There's a certain magic that goes with participating in Salzburg's annual Civil Media Unconference, www.civilmedia.eu (and not just because it takes place in the land of the Sound of Music).

We were there talking about feminist zines and blogs, and enjoyed every minute. This radical, participant-led three day gathering brings together media practioners, policy makers, researchers, tech heads, and social change enthusiasts for ongoing discussions and networking around a range of grassroots media concerns (and the programme is pieced together collaboratively online, through a wiki).

Over 100 folks turned up last December and both gums and laptop lids were flapping around the question of "Cultures-Participation-Dialogue". So, we want to know, what makes grassroots media "democratic"?