Women of Europe Study Room in Exile Event 27 July 2016 Liverpool The Institute for the Art and Practice of Dissent at Home
From left to right: Annalaura, Niamh, Lorena with baby Gabriela, Zoë with baby Tom, Lena, Gergana and Zoe, photo by Sid. Women of Europe gathered Annalaura from Italy, Gergana from Bulgaria, Kathrin from Germany, Lorena from Spain, Niamh from Ireland, Sidsel from Denmark, Zoe from Greece, Zoë from the UK. The event was chaired by Lena from Croatia. The gathering took place in the aftermath of the EU referendum. At the call of Annalaura, the women watched Rosi Braidotti’s address at the European Parliament on 27 March 2013, or as Braidotti calls it, her ‘love poem to the European Union’ prior to the meeting. The email invite was sent to all the participants on 17 June. The UK referendum on EU membership took place on 23 June 2016. “The EU referendum is approaching. I am deeply saddened by Jo Cox’s tragic death. I am voting ‘remain’ but I am not enthusiastic about it at all. I’d rather abstain, but don’t want hate to win. I feel I want to be out of it all. I am from Croatia, but I am also British (so therefore can vote). I dislike being identified by my nationality – I was born a Yugoslav, which no longer exists. None of it makes sense to me. It feels strange to identify you all by your EU countries. I needed to frame this email and event. Euro 2016 football cup is on, I wonder if this is all fixed, if the referendum was decided to be on now when national pride is running high. Croatia is playing Czech Republic right now. My Facebook feed is full of nationalistic pride and joy – ‘be proud’ is their slogan. I am rather unnerved. Gary’s off to Greece on Friday 24th – the day we find out if UK are in or out of EU. He's attending Performance Biennial called 'No Future'. Whilst he's away, I thought to organize a conversation with you all, Women of Europe, about your sense of belonging here, and your feelings about the result of the referendum.
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You are all migrants from EU countries to the UK, for various reasons you have ended up in Liverpool. I assume you all to be privileged migrants – just like me. We are others, but we are not that othered... or are we? What are our degrees of otherness? Why think like this at all? I invite to join me for a conversation about Europe and belonging in the Study Room in Exile, part of the Institute for the Art and Practice of Dissent at Home, 55 Kemp Avenue, L5 6QG on Monday 27th June at 7 pm - after the weekend of reflection on the result. Bread, cheese and wine will be provided. Bring some of your country’s delicatessens, if you wish. RSVP - and if you know anyone else from EU country, which is not represented here - I thought it would be performative and awkward for one person from each country to attend this gathering carrying the burden of national representation - please bring them along (but let me know beforehand so I can organize bread, cheese and wine). Love Lena”
6:30am 24 June 2016 – Lena’s Facebook post and email Farage talks about the victory for the real, ordinary and decent people. He is followed by David Dimbleby on BBC: ‘Well at twenty minutes to five we can now say that the decision taken in 1975 by this country to join the common market has been reversed by this referendum to leave the EU. We are absolutely clear now that there is no way that the remain side can win.’ Crushing crushing decisions with immense consequences. £ is at 30 years low, 1985. 48% of people did not want this to happen. Unprecedented, one journalist says. Wales wants to leave, Scotland wants to stay. Gary’s off to Greece for Performance Biennial, No Future. He’s gone. He’s left the UK. One of the first people to exit the country, he texts. I have five sleeping children in the house, one of whom is French, Pierre, from Bordeaux. I was dizzy on the wine he gifted to us last night. Liverpool is at 58% remain. Doesn’t feel very reassuring. Is this the best the European Capital of Culture can do? Someone on my Facebook feed says that the UK ‘took the plunge into the political unknown’. Seismic moment, a fresh Labour politician says. We are far away from some kind of anarcho communist utopia, is my reply on Facebook. Another friend wonders about autonomy. Yes, yes, in principle. Not on these terms. ‘And did those feet in ancient time’ by William Blake comes to mind. Jerusalem. It is all anti immigration sentiments and no clear plan. Cameron is still to address the nation. I need to wake up the kids. Pierre is off to Llandudno for a day trip. Neal will be angry, Gabriel quietly sad and disappointed. Blue Coat school voted 83% in favour of remain. Sid won’t mind. I am set to spend the day with James, in his terrible twos, no sleep and extreme feelings. Unwelcome.
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Individual Cartographies After (re)watching Rosi Braidotti’s address at the European Parliament on 27 March 2013, Lena asked Women of Europe to talk about their own personal cartographies, and ways of belonging. What is your answer to ‘where are you from’? Do you mention your hometown, your city, your region, your country, your continent? Braidotti understands locations as methodological tools in the work of feminist theory and practice. Do you identify as European? What is your personal imaginary of Europe, and what is our social one? What can be said about the British imaginary about Europe? Are we dealing with the corpse; have we gathered for the funeral? Far right is on the rise, far left also wanted Brexit. Can we reimagine the Left (yet again), can we reimagined the Brexit for ProgrExit, as Paul Mason’s Guardian article invites us to? Why do we need European Union to fight fascism; shouldn’t we just do it ourselves? That fight might as well start in taxis. There’s that moment when you open your mouth and become othered. Taxi drivers seem to be quite important for the sense of our identities. As for Lena, to the question where are you from, she’d answer Dubrovnik. When growing up, she doesn’t remember school lessons encouraging the school children to think of themselves as European, but as a part of NonAligned Movement, which sets out ambitions towards more global understanding of the world. Lena only became European when she became British in 2010. Lorena, who is currently working with Migrant Artists Mutual Aid, felt privileged to be among a group of African and Asian women and see her own sense of European elitism disappear. Yet, whilst understanding all its limitations and borders, Lorena still feels connected to the European dream. She was devastated about EU referendum result because of her personal family history. Her mother is from Holland and had Jewish parents, her father is from Spain and his father was a general during Franco’s regime. Her post on Facebook following the result reads: I was born in Spain to a Dutch mother from Jewish parents who suffered the horrors of the 2nd world war and a Spanish father who grew up as part of La Falange during Franco's regime. They met in France which is also were I met Ben. Ben's grandfather was an English mathematician who worked as a code breaker at Bletchley during the 2nd world war. I always felt that being married to an Englishman and living in what felt like a very tolerant and culturally diverse England was in some indefinite way my little contribution to the healing of my family's history that would have a positive effect on my children's lives...Fuck.
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Zoe grew up in Greece in the 80s and 90s and embraced being and feeling European. The concept of European identity was strongly embedded in her education and personal development as a citizen. She appreciated ability to travel, mobility and learning of different languages and cultures. As a teenager she participated in many cultural exchange programs in Italy and France. Her decision to undertake her postgraduate studies in the UK, was part of a stronger notion amongst her family and peers that studying and living in a different European country will enhance her personal and professional experience. For Zoe, the EU died a year ago, once she got panicked phone calls from her family in Greece telling her to get ready to support them because they will be bankrupted alongside the whole political discourse around Greece in crisis, austerity and the role of the EU politics in it. EU seems like a great concept/dream until the moment of financial crisis. EU is great as long as the economy is great. What happens to solidarity and helping each other in times of crisis? It seems that these concepts are currently missing from any political discourse around our relationship with EU. This emphasis on the financial/capital benefits has driven the EU referendum campaign. The relationship between UK and EU was always complex and intensified during the campaign. She noted that her foreign friends had noticed that England never felt comfortable with a sense of belonging to EU. The results of the referendum confirmed this observation. Annalaura is interested in our personal imageries of Europe. Born in 1977, being a European, gave her an alternative to being an Italian, which was patriarchal and religious, a place where women are considered 2nd class citizens. She admitted to great sadness in relation to her nationality. Mobility of bodies and not just goods allowed her to express and find herself in different locations, and find her own path in performance studies (as opposed to being stuck in a room and depressed in Italy). She wondered about sovereignty, individualism, fixations on boundaries and a state of self. Why is Britain still a monarchy? Annalaura’s emails in the aftermath of the EU referendum result 6:29am 24 June 2016 So here we are, all strangers, to ourselves and others... Yours, A
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9:25am 24 June 2016 Tidal shifts are rippling through me as I lived through the 'dream' of an Union, the firm resistance to political and social separatism, and the wilfulness to survive the horrible past of colonialism all the way to fascism and nationalism. The spectre of war and human disintegration were still hovering and people stood up and said: 'never again, let's stick together'. Now what's left of us? Indeed, what remains as we are now unbelonging on earth, without direction or map; stranded. Yours, A Kathrin reflected on her GDR childhood, the idea of communist brotherhood, insistence of always looking back, feeling guilty for fascism, and under the mantra that it should never happen again. She felt that was a weird way of being a child. The Berlin Wall came down in 1989 when Kathrin was 13 and she was catapulted into the next phase, wonderful reunited Germany, which was never her place. Europe was an alternative. Her husband is Spanish; her children were born in Wales and England. She doesn’t want to be pinned down to a specific place or nation; she wants the openness and ability to go wherever she likes. After Brexit, she felt she was attacked personally, bruised and battered, as if someone had beaten her up.
Zoë kind of expected it to happen, the mistake was made when they said they were going to have a referendum. Right wing press has been Eurosceptic for decades. Whilst the image of technocrats and bureaucrats sitting in Brussels makes it difficult to argue for EU, what hurts is the idea that 17 million people actively do not think of themselves as European. Zoë says she is European, and in the past she never had to think about it, and now she does. She makes sure people know she speaks other languages and not just English when abroad. There’s a huge sense of embarrassment about being British abroad. British passport used to be the best passport in the world for being allowed into other countries. Now if you are British but want to be European, there will be no place to go – can’t leave to go and live in another European country. EU referendum was also about class, and disenfranchisement of the working classes due to the British embrace of neoliberalism. On taxi drivers, she also feels judged the moment she opens her mouth. She sounds too much a part of educated middle class metropolitan Britain – the kind of Britain voted out by Brexit. She started her account with a nightmare she had: her 4 month-old baby Tom was attacked by fascists. There was foam, costumes, and police.
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Sidsel announced she was happy to be identified as both European and Danish. Her Dad was a part of Danish negotiations for the EU members, her path in European citizenship is not a typical one; she lived in Brussels. On Friday, she felt something had been taken away from her, something split open. She became split. She stayed up all night. She wants to be European. She wants to be able to be anywhere. Now, she can’t neither vote in Denmark nor in the UK (except for European and local elections). She felt she was falling apart the next day, but she didn’t expect that kind of pain. She feels European. Niamh spoke about Ireland being colonized at the periphery of Europe and in alliance with America and Australia. Niamh spoke of Ireland as always seen as second class to England. EU referendum result didn’t come as a surprise. There’s a residue in the English psyche about English having a superiority complex. England has always been beyond it all, with no acceptance of euro. Once the Empire started shrinking, Britain joined EU, but it was never for real, it was for power. Niamh’s kids have Irish passports; they, as a family, will be fine, but ultimately for Ireland, Brexit is really bad news in terms of economy. What will happen with the common travel area? Will the movement of people between Ireland and Britain remain fluid? Niamh was disappointed but not surprised. When asked about a possibility of Irish reunification, she thought it impossible; there’s too much of a loyalist presence. Do you feel European? Yeah, I do. Gergana was devastated that she couldn’t vote. She has been living here since 2004. She could have got a British passport, but the cost is over £1000. She is a love migrant. England was a neutral love zone for her (coming from traditional Bulgarian family) and her Indian boyfriend. England was a place they could love each other, England with its people and its tolerance and its values. It is in England that at the age of 38 she could have ballet lessons, whilst these were not available to her in Bulgaria at the age of 10 (it was already too late). Brexit affected her to the point she couldn’t speak nor function. There was a profound disbelief. It reminded her of communism and the time when her family had to give up all of their land. She remembers the time she was not allowed to travel, and yet she always wanted to cross the borders, to get to the unknown. Gergana asked if democracy is a process by which large majorities of people get swayed by politicians. She talked about how personally, for her, coming to the UK had been an investment and she’s had some good luck, but also some bad luck. Being an immigrant you have to forget about lots of things, there’s always a corpse and loss, but also a birth of something new. She uprooted the children to live here, and yet this is now not an open country that she wanted to live in. She felt British as well as European.
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Discussion We all agreed that the referendum wasn’t really democratic, as all the residents in the UK weren’t allowed to vote. We agreed this was one of the first acts of exclusions in the supposedly democratic process. Someone said it was always going to be close, so even if Remain won, she realized that so many people don’t have the same imaginary as her. We wondered how to talk to each other, where there’s so much hate. How do we move from thinking: it’s us against them. Someone remembered challenging someone in a conversation about immigration: ‘Are you talking about me?’ ‘No, not you, you are a very nice person.’ Can we call 3% - 4% difference democratic? We observed that 10 richest areas voted Remain and 10 poorest areas voted Leave. Whilst we felt uncertain and scared about the Brexit consequences, we couldn’t help but also sense it as an opportunity. We must unlearn our own metropolitan European logic; we have been conditioned not to see creativity and cleverness of ‘others’, of ‘underclass’ we cannot engage with. This is an opportunity for collective compassionate suffering. Is it possible to bypass the logic of how we are. Can we truly encounter others? This was an anti-economic vote. Things can’t get any worse, not for ‘them’ (yes for ‘us’). There are people in this country who are left out from a vision of the future. As for FTSE and £, they go up and down. Financiers will make money out of this new situation. ‘Markets are volatile,’ we keep hearing, this is a sound-byte. This referendum created two nations and two classes; this was a class war. Metropolitans are on one side, who’s on the other? Yes, 17 million others. But, the metropolitans have disappointed as well. Liverpool voted only 58% Remain, European Capital of Culture; London gave us 1.5 million Leave votes, Scotland 1 million. Sheffield and Birmingham went onto the other side. In Cambridge every fourth person voted Leave. Boston, we never heard of before, boasts 78.7% Leave vote, but there are only 22 000 people there who voted Leave. Old people wanted to Leave, young wanted to Remain. However, young people took Europe for granted and lots of them didn’t show up. This referendum empowered voters; they no longer had to vote for someone, they voted for themselves. This was an anti-austerity vote and yes, votes were misdirected. But Europe isn’t only about financial union. Europe is also about ethics and laws and responsibility for one another and workers’ rights. Would it be any different if living wage was made compulsory? Why are there segregated groups in Britain? Why are there laws that allow firms to employ just one nationality? Why is there lack of integration? Now, Brexit will deliver more neoliberalism, more of what people actually voted against. Narrative is always on the winning side; the British say that fascism can’t happen here. But are the seeds not here already?
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Who will have to think about consequences? Will the Article 50 be invoked? Whom shall we rely on? Our universities’ Vice-Chancellors, who write emails to members of staff? Lawyers? MPs, who apparently need to take a vote, before deciding to invoke Article 50? What’s legally binding? Was there Plan B? What were politicians and think tanks doing? Apparently some German finance minister drafted a report with a plan. Could we have it, please? Have schoolchildren discussed this? The Blue Coat school had a debate, 83% voted Remain. Facebook became our place to feel connected. In our discussion we kept returning to the idea of ‘residents’ and not citizens. Could we ever feel nationalistic? Could we be nationalistic when thinking about energy and ecosystems? Electricity and water should be nationalized. Rails need to be renationalized. What happened to those debates? Why has the word ‘public’ become offensive? We remembered Kilburn Manifesto and its fight for language and different kind of values. We talked about different European countries. England has been a space where to learn politics, where to meet activists and anarchists, where to get engaged. In Spain it was forbidden to be political; it was a place where you can only be pro-capitalist. There were always hierarchies: a German friend had much more sophisticated understanding and way of engaging with society. In terms of sophistication and political engagement, being Spanish felt like being at the bottom of the pit, And now, people who voted Remain occupy those sophisticated positions, looking up at Europe. How can we deal with that? What about the Greeks? There was ‘us’ looking over ‘there’ last summer. The Greek question was never about European identity, but about finances and anti-austerity measures. The Greek question was the time when Europe showed no solidarity. We realized that Brexit is also a source of great pleasure for many nationalists across Europe. So much depends on the lottery of geography: if you are born working class, you protest, you want some social mobility, you demand: give me more. What about those citizens in non European countries who have to face questions of survival and become refuges? Why aren’t they allowed to demand mobility? Vote Leave was not exclusively white, many immigrant families also voted Leave. Farage’s wife is German. We wondered about the doom and gloom of the political left, which is currently in the state of despair. Labour should take to the streets and reassure people. Show some solidarity. Instead of gathering together and looking ahead, individual political interests prevail. Why are we so limited in expanding our imaginary, why can’t we let our imaginary to include ‘something else’? Is Corbyn our only hope? And why is Corbyn considered hard left, loony left? Is his own publicity failing? Why doesn’t he write a weekly column? Where was Labour’s big statement on Friday? They knew it was going to be tight either way. Was Corbyn pro Leave? And if he was, and Britain voted to Leave, this was his opportunity to reappropriate Leave vote, to tell it as it is, to understand Leave voters. Should we form a political party of Europeans, a political party that will speak for us? European nurses were acknowledged in the campaign, NHS workers were acknowledged, but not academics. Oh, Britain that offered hybridity and different sense of identities, which wasn’t readily available elsewhere! What if everyone from EU disappears? Our lives would thin out. But what about people who don’t have EU nationals in their lives? So many places with not so many EU immigrants voted Leave. Fear is much more acute than the reality. We talked about Boris a bit, but that’s irrelevant now. Tories always get together; they know how to come together, how to unite. As for the Left and
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Labour, there were even disagreements between the two brothers, David and Ed. We are living in the times where everything seems possible: Trump in USA, a sense of things to come... European history is tied with the history of fascism and therefore we get paralyzed because of our fear of it. We are in a state of shock. We are blinded by fear. We are attentive to any new racist and antiimmigration attack. Whilst it is good to be attentive and fight fascism whenever we sense it, we must be able to realize that this fear is also preventing us from seeing any other alternative. Can we think differently? What’s the alternative? Why is it that people only understand political issues that have to do with ‘economy’ – by which they mean their own financial situation? Why is it that we are only allowed to strike for our pay? Why was Europe not imagined as a place of social justice and human rights? Europe was killed as a space of solidarity because of Greece. Nobody said so. Why was there no talk about that? We need solidarity, for fuck’s sake. Where is this fucking solidarity? Why doesn’t anyone pick up this vocabulary? Why doesn’t anybody talk like this? Why isn’t anyone on the street giving free hugs? As artists and academics, we are still not losers. People who work in the arts and academia have a set of capacities. They are entrepreneurial; they can operate; they are freelancers; they are a part of precariat; they are living on their wits. People who voted Leave, might have really felt lost. We are not there yet. So how can we address neoliberalism and inequality? How can we change the narrative together? We are split within ourselves, and with our co-workers. We know some people who voted Leave. So, ok, we did it, okay, let’s hug and move on. Can we become a beacon for justice away from EU? We all share the same vulnerabilities, let us remember that and not get stuck in our little countries. Climate change disappears from the picture for a moment, but there was a hailstorm in Cambridge, floods in London, pouring rain in Liverpool. The gods were angry. Corbyn is incredibly honest which works against him. People want a clown, yeah, yeah… His list of things that need addressing included ecology, environment and social injustice. His call to shift and refocus, give us hope. He hasn’t resigned. He might win. What are we to do? Write a little manifesto. We have our title: What Remains? MANIFESTO
From left to right: Lorena with baby Gabriela, Annalaura, Niamh, Kathrin, Zoe, Lena, Gergana, Sidsel, Zoë with baby Tom.
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