Growing Strong
A bou t Wo co WoCo, the Women’s Collective, is an autonomous (this means open to everyone who is not a cis - man) activist space on campus. We are an anti-capitalist space that sees the way society is set up as unequal and unfair. We want to fight for the oppressed in society. For a world that treats everyone equally, where you are not discriminated based on your sex or race or wealth. With this framework we fight around issues that directly affect uni students, but also show our solidarity with social justice issues that affect the world we live in.
WoCo identifies as intersectional feminists. This means we see all issues of oppression as connected. Intersectionality is to see how different oppressions are related and how they all affect individuals and communities. Intersectionality is to see how all oppression benefits the ruling capitalist class. It is one thing to be a woman, another to be a woman of colour, another to be a working-class woman of colour. People who have more intersections of oppression have more to struggle against and more to fight for. But everyone who is oppressed has an interest in fighting against the capitalist system. To be an intersectional feminist is to reject the history of white “girl boss” feminism, which has sold out Women of Colour for a seat at the table. It is not enough to sit with men and help rule this unequal system.
where we can rely on our neighbours and government to care for us. Instead of spending billions of dollars on ways to survey, oppress and punish our most underserved (i.e. the poor, the homeless, and Indigenous communities), governments should be spending money on prevention and rehabilitation. This money should be used to fund things like mental health services and drug harm reduction programs. WoCo sees that if resources were spent on helping people instead of policing them, our world would be a better place. We also see that the way to get this world is not through voting in various politicians who just listen to lobbyists, but to protest. We are an activist grassroots group and see progressive change happening on the streets. We have to force our politicians to listen, and the only way to do that is to make noise.
WoCo is also for prison abolition. Prison abolition encompasses not only the belief that prisons should not exist but an understanding that the criminal justice system under capitalism only exists to benefit the wealthiest amongst us. Particularly in the feminist movement, we have seen the disastrous effects of relying on the state and the police to legislate and protect women. For example, Indigenous women make up only 2% of Australia’s population but 34% of women in prison. We cannot look to the violent state to protect us. Abolition is not just about the dismantling of the criminal justice system, as important as that is. It is also about building communities 05
