Conferences Hosted by INCITE

Anti-Sexism | Feminist Movement | UN Fourth World Conference on Women - Bejing, China | GLBTQ | INCITE | Men's Liberation | Conclusion| Anti-Sexism Sources

In February of 2004, a two day conference was hosted by INCITE and the Community Accountability in Organizations Working Group in Seattle, to specifically address gender oppression. Among the topics discussed were patriarchical political and work environments, sexual harassment, domestic violence, and sexual assault committed against women, girls, and women-identified persons of color within progressive, radical and revolutionary people of color organizations and movement. Goals of this conference included:

1. Demand that progressive, radical, and revolutionary people of color organizations and movements take collective responsibility to address and end patriarchy and gender oppression in all of its forms.

2. Develop community accountability politics, principles, processes and practices around issues of gender oppression, abuse and violence, which can extend beyond gender to address other forms of oppression.

3. Develop community accountability principles and practices which strengthen resistance to the criminal justice system.

4. Integrate gender analysis with an analysis of other systems of oppression, such as, class, race, ethnicity, sexual identity, education, national origin, religion, physical and mental ability or disability, immigration status, language and other factors and extend community accountability politics, principles, process and practices to address and end other forms of abuse and violence.

5. Create new liberatory politics, practices, and politics to unlearn patriarchy, end gender oppression, and promote social justice and liberation for all.

Another conference was held in March of 2005 in New Orleans, where the Treme Community, one of the oldest communities of free Africans in America, hosted INCITE for a three day international conference entitled, The Color of Violence III, which focused on stopping the war on women of color. Among those in attendance were international organizations of women of color workers, organizers, artists, students, and activists. There were three main goals to be addressed at this conference:

1. Examine the various forms of violence against women of color.

2. Mobilize women of color from diverse walks of life to organize around all forms of violence in their lives

3. Share organizing models and build skills to strengthen their grassroots.

The conference provided women of color with the opportunity to come together to develop and share organizing strategies to address the global assault on women of color. Some of the many topics discussed were, stopping domestic violence and sexual violence, reproductive rights, police brutality, the “war on terror,” poverty, violence against bisexual, lesbian, intersex, transgender, and Two Spirit women of color.