The acceptance of neoliberalism is crumbling in Europe. This is the message of the referendum in France. It has opened the chance to think of Europe in a new way from a women’s perspective and to construct it differently from this point of view.

40 women from 10 countries coming from 12 member or observer parties of the European Left Party have sketched steps towards a Europe with a woman’s face. They are all part of EL-fem, the women’s network of the European Left Party, in which there work, at this point, 100 women from 12 European countries.

The women’s assembly of the First Party Congress of the European Left on October 7 in Athens will take place under the heading “Women – Movements – Power. Patriarchy and the Left”. Into this plenary and the subsequent Party Congress on the topic: What kind of  Europe do we want?, EL-fem will introduce the following initiatives:

• a feminist manifesto on the strategy of Marxist Feminists in Europe and in the European Left Party;
•  a motion under the title Building blocks for a feminist Europe, which should be integrated into the lead motion;
• a motion on the statute, which will integrate the claim of the PEL to be a feminist party into all the relevant articles of the statute and which will state in the preamble: “ELfem is a feminist political subject, which works within the EL and organises itself autonomously and horizontally. EL-fem builds up relations with feminist movements, with women’s networks and organisations and associations and  with all women, who are struggling for women’s rights and peace.”