BIWOC* Rising: Anti-imperialist Feminisms in Diaspora in Germany Now | Lou, Roro & சுசீலா Susheela

In this episode (recorded on 3 March) new host Nine Fumi Yamamoto-Masson sits down with guests Lou (German-Sudanese feminist and community organiser), Susheela (diasporic Eelam Tamil Marxist feminist filmmaker, researcher, and political educator), and Roro (Palestinian culture worker and writer) to discuss principles, contexts, and praxis of what anti-imperialist feminism means for them as diaspora folks in Germany/Berlin who are also workers, artists, organisers.

Sharing their experiences, insights, and wisdoms passed on from family, community, comrades, and elders, they discuss why feminism must be intersectional and anti-colonial.

All have different backgrounds, trajectories, and praxes, but are united in community, DIY spirit, community love, and are driven by the shared firm conviction that liberation will come, that freedom is a constant struggle, and that our liberations are bound up with one another's.

They discuss internationalist feminist solidarity and mutual struggle against interlocking patriarchies and systems of power and oppression also within our own communities, against casteism, for queer liberation, and the urgent necessity of dismantling imperialist feminism and capitalism. They talk about how to challenge tokenism and strategies of disruption in the face of intensified repression against anti-racist and anti-colonial expression and organising in Germany and beyond, and dissect tools used by the state and capitalism to contain the threat that the Other poses to the structures of power, such as state arts & culture funding, respectability politics, carrots and sticks.

A discussion about resistance, the power of intersectional solidarity, the uses of anger – and about hope.

Photo by சாகித்தியன் சந்திரகுமார் (Saahithyan Chandrakumar)