International Solidarity with Feminist Struggles - Collective Zine Making (practical)

No one is truly free until everyone is free

We are PYRA (Politicise Your Revolutionary Anger), an anticapitalist, antifascist, antiracist, abolitionist, decolonial, queer, trans and feminist collective based in Utrecht. We reject the capitalist systems that exploit and commodify bodies, especially those of women, non-binary, trans* and disable folks. As a feminist collective born from shared experiences of non-belonging in western Europe. Our ultimate goal is collective liberation through the fall of capitalism, patriarchy and heteronormativity.

Pyra: py.ra [pyrä] = fire (as a means to kill)

The ancient greek term pyr was equivalent to fire. Pyr has several empowering connotations, from its power to burn things to ashes, to its purifying and transformative properties to create. Over time, pyr transmuted into a feminized form: pyra. This change was deeply connected to oppression and destruction. It came to signify not just any fire, but the kind that was used in the pursuit of creating the ideal governable subject. The stake, compose of piles of wood, became the exemplary form of public punishment and execution to foster social complicity, particularly against insubordinate women. This shift in meaning reflects the history of how Western societies have viewed and treated those deemed different or threatening.

Simultanioulsy, pyra became widely viewed as ammunition - as the people’s way of revolting, fighting back and reclaiming the power of the fire used against them. Pyra’s abivalence reminds us of our capacity to reposses. While Western intersecting systems of power use fire to impose, steal, colonize and destroy, the same fire came a tool of resistance. Our name honours the oppressed peoples who were silenced, marginalized and murdered for their power and knowlege. Today, inspired by fiery revolution, we ignite a new flame, fueled by the principles of anticapitalism, antifascism, transfemininism and decolonization.

Burn the master’s house

Our feminism represents the deep anger we feel for grave systemic injustices. Anger is traditionally ascribed to masculinity; something to be imposed on non-cis-male subjects. Historically, we are taught that emotions are a sign of weakness, instability and fragility. Normative feminism overemphasizes the purpose of love and calmness - we aspire to reclaim rage as a political tool. By politicising this feeling we acknowledge that anger stems from oppressive systems and we convert it into revolutionary practices and radical change. Anger is initiating. Anger is power. Let’s politicise our revolutionary anger: join us in this fight.

Let the flames that ones consumed us now fuel our revolution

For this festival, we want to host a collective zine making session. The purpose of this event is to collectively discuss feminist solidarities, especially in connection and preluding to the International Working Women’s Day on the 8th of March. Our aim is to create a space for people to gather and share perspectives on feminist solidarity and struggles worldwide, and provide a means to express these contemplations in a creative way. While doing so, we will centre anticolonial, antifascist, antiableist, anticapitalism, transfeminist, queer feminist, and hard-left thought to actively oppose the liberal, white feminist, and gender essentialist cooptation of 8M. The collective creative output will finally be compiled into a zine which can be shared and distributed in our communities.

To acomodate the different ways of creating art, PYRA will provide materials, but bringing more supplies - such as paint, paper, articles, newspaper artciles, pencils, brushes, ... are more than welcome!

This workshop is FLINTA* (women, lesbians, intersex, non-binary, trans- and asexual people) focused, in order to center the voices of those most affected by patriarchal violence. Cis men are welcome to participate, but we expect them to be aware of the space that they take up and be proactive in creating an environment where everyone feels enabled and comfortable to share their perspectives. Swerfs, terfs and zios NOT welcome.

@pyra.collective on Instagram