Outwrite History Project

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WANT TO WORK ON AN EXHIBITION OF 1980s RADICAL ANTI-IMPERIALIST MEDIA??!! Outwrite newspaper, produced by a collective of women throughout the 1980s, was dedicated to offering news by women, for women. Self-defined as an ‘internationlist feminist’ publication, the paper focused on ‘the development of feminism worldwide’ and an examination of women’s oppressions ‘in the context of imperialism, racism and class divisions.’ The goal of this exhibition is to bring Outwrite’s politics alive in the present, to reflect on its struggles and successes with the aim of igniting future possibilities.

Outwrite newspaper was produced by a collective of women throughout the1980s. Carving new ground, the newspaper was dedicated to covering social justice campaigns from an ‘internationalist’ position critical of imperialism, colonialism, racism, classism and sexism—all from women’s perspectives.

Liberation struggles in El Salvador, South Africa and Palestine, as well
as local campaigns including those of the Southall Black Sisters, Sari
Squad and the King’s Cross Women’s Centre were regularly featured in Outwrite’s monthly reports.

The transnational community Outwrite envisioned and embodied resonates powerfully with the social justice struggles of today. From domestic abuse to No Borders to fighting climate change, our struggles are local and global, each undercut by gendered, racialised, national and class-based oppressions and inequalities.

Looking from the perspective of the present, we will make explicit the
connections between Outwrite’s internationalist perspective and more
contemporary notions of postcolonialism, transnational feminism and
alter-globalisation. We will create a space to consider how ideas that may be called “too new” or “too radical” in the present, can years later become central tenants of political movements.

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