Reorganising theory

from kitchen tables to the streets, from theory to activism

pp. 171-222

in: Zsófia Lóránd, The feminist challenge to the socialist state in Yugoslavia, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

Abstract

The last research chapter tells the story of new Yugoslav feminism's 'second wave", that is the time after 1985. This is the time of new forms of activism and self-organisation, when the lesbian movement became an important ally and source of inspiration for the feminists and when new energies were gained from the women-only groups. The major concepts of the time were again sexuality and violence, and a further crucial theme was women's health. The author here pays special attention to how the new Yugoslav feminists' access to an international feminist movement was growing and how these connections influenced their discourse and actions. She tells the story of the creation of the SOS helplines for victims of domestic violence and argues that the activist work shaped the academic language too. The themes the chapter involves point towards the later anti-war activism of the 1990s as well as the feminists' take on the democratisation, capitalist and other transition processes in the entire region of East Central Europe.