SOLIDARITY WITH LESBIANS AND FEMINISTS FROM BELGRADE AND CONDEMNATION OF HATE-BASED VIOLENCE
Dear lesbian and feminist sisters,
we strongly condemn the hate-based violence that happened to you in the night from the 26th to the 27th of September 2015 in Belgrade.
Public visibility of brave, open lesbians and their critical activities in the fields of culture and politics are a manifestation of freedom and represent an obvious “social threat”. They are a danger both to the conservative mainstream milieu and far-right groups that are trying to censure us, to silence us and to eliminate us from public spaces.
Furthermore, we condemn the broad social context that is fertile ground for the spread of homophobia, patriarchy and capitalism. With the dispossession of people in all segments of life, the latter produces mass poverty and even larger class differences, which inevitably leads to a rise in neo-Nazi and other similar groups, as well as religious fanaticism that divide people into “Us” and “Others” by spreading hate and violence. Their single aim is to stop freedom-minded, critical-thinking people from acting upon their endeavours.
Lesbian and feminist sisters, we would like to express our profound solidarity and offer our full support .We wish that you draw strength from the rich feminist methods of empowerment developed in the past decades of our struggle for rebuilding ourselves and our communities. We hope you can regain your inner strength and peace and catalyse your rage into further struggle.
Our power will not be reduced, our solidarity not crushed and our freedom not restricted!
In solidarity,
Lesbian Feminist University, Ljubljana, 5th of October 2015
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IZJAVA SOLIDARNOSTI Z BEOGRAJSKIMI LEZBIJKAMI IN FEMINISTKAMI TER OBSODBA NASILJA IZ SOVRAŠTVA
Drage lezbične in feministične sestre!
Najostreje obsojamo nasilje iz sovraštva, ki se vam je dogodilo v noči s 26. na 27.9.2015 v Beogradu.
Vidnost pogumnih, avtiranih lezbijk na javnih prostorih ter njihovo kritično delovanje v poljih kulture in političnega sta manifestacija svobode ter očitna „družbena nevarnost“. Nevarna sta tako konzervativnemu mainstreamu kot skrajnim desničarskim skupinam, ki nas poskušajo cenzurirati, utišati in odstraniti iz javnih prostorov.
Poleg tega obsojamo tudi širše družbene razmere, v katerih se razraščajo in utrjujejo homofobija, patriarhat in kapitalizem. Slednji z razlaščanjem prebivalcev na vseh področjih življenja množično producira osiromašene ljudi ter zaostruje socialno razslojenost, kar vodi v porast neonacističnih in podobnih skupin ter verskega fundamentalizma, ki ločujejo ljudi na “Prave” in “Druge” s pomočjo sejanja sovraštva in nasilništva. Končni namen je en sam: zaustaviti svobodomiselne, kritično razmišljajoče osebe, njihova prizadevanja ter aktivnosti.
Ob tem naj vam, lezbične in feministične sestre, izrazimo globoko solidarnost in vso podporo. Upamo, da boste v svojem okolju deležne dragocene feministične skrbi in opolnomočenja, ki je bilo v letih boja razvito tudi za reprodukcijo nas samih kot aktivistk. Želimo vam, da ponovno zgradite notranjo moč in mir ter svoj bes usmerite v nadaljno borbo.
Ne bo jim uspelo zmanjšati naše moči, razdreti solidarnostnih vezi med nami in omejiti naše svobode!
V solidarnosti!
Lezbično-feministična univerza, Ljubljana, 5.10.2015