Nearly two decades into the 4st century, we are witnessing a strengthening of the feminist movement globally, which some thinkers call the Fourth Wave of Feminism and others consider a new feminist revolution. This renewed vigor arises in a context where policies that roll back rights and ideologies that dismantle utopian ideals have also been gaining strength, fueled by media manipulation that even induces mass support. However, Latin American and Caribbean feminisms are not simply reactive to the advances of the right wing; their trajectories are broader and stem from accumulated historical thought and action. There is a strong projection of ideas, analyses, and political practices that include genealogies stretching back centuries of struggle and resistance, as well as an articulated presence within the processes of seeking structural transformations in our countries and the region.

With the progressive hegemony the region experienced over the last two decades, unique conditions arose for the advancement of feminist thought and movements, combining convergences, critiques, and tensions with various government policies. The search for a post-neoliberal transition—in a global context where, on the contrary, this agenda expanded and entrenched itself, wreaking havoc even in the Global North—fueled unprecedented proposals for systemic change. Faced with the return of neoliberalism, feminist movements have launched mobilizing actions that today have translated into initiatives with global reach and impact, such as the March 8th strike and the "Ni Una Menos" (Not One Less) marches across the continent. The massive outcry against gender violence and femicides was a major fissure that facilitated the movement's emergence from its ghetto.

This stage in Latin America, in which the right wing is regaining hegemony, is marked by new phenomena that combine with old resources of oligarchic power. Manipulated elections, "soft" coups, and attacks on democracy using tactics such as post-truth and lawfare have revealed their progressive impacts since around 2015. The political map of Latin America has been changing, not without resistance, and it is debated whether they will be able to maintain their hold on power.

In our region, right-wing religious fundamentalist movements, very specific interests of de facto groups that aspire to use political power for their benefit, local alliances with global forces, middle classes frightened by popular power and a hypothetical destruction of family and institutional stability, widespread extractive and consumerist culture, and also disenchantment with progressive left-wing popular governments, made possible the seizure of political power by right-wing governments that strive to build a reactionary social base.

The use of fear as leverage for certain political positions is a very old strategy. And among the specters conjured up to frighten people are "gender policies," "populist social policies," and "gender ideology," which are accused of being capable of destroying the "family"—a paramount value for most of our societies—and of destroying institutions, economic growth, and productive capacity.

Currently, we are witnessing a systematic and virulent attack on critical thinking in its most transformative forms, linked to fundamentalism and neoconservatism, the apparent weakening of the United Nations, an assault on the very notion of human rights, and on everything that signifies the expansion of rights and the inclusion of human groups in citizenship, increasing privileges and distancing large sectors of society from lives worth living. There are parts of humanity that are considered valuable, and in contrast, an increasingly numerous and multi-localized disposable humanity.

Today, violence of many kinds is perpetrated against those who are vulnerable and have been historically excluded and marginalized socially and economically (women, racialized people, the poor, and others), because it serves to punish rebellion and because it supports exploitation. Thus, the gaps widen: the poor, women, Indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples, migrants, the elderly, people with disabilities, and sexual dissidents continue to be condemned to this world. And in the current moment in Our America, they are also blamed for what are labeled as trends that undermine social stability and economic well-being.

Confronting the "left" in power and its "ills" is the unifying discourse of the new right, which came to power through various means, not all legal or legitimate. The main ills are the rise of popular movements, their diversity, and their demands for expanded rights and justice, as well as the equitable distribution of wealth and well-being. New political models are presented as the continued face of the popular uprising and social movements that brought "corrupt and authoritarian politicians" to power. Reinstitutionalization, reform in every sense, and class reconciliation are the most frequently used narratives.

The political leadership of post-neoliberal left-wing governments bears significant responsibility for the resonance these narratives achieve, having underestimated the significance and impact of corruption. Government complicity with corrupt public works schemes, the obscene enrichment of shadowy figures linked to power, capital flight, and hidden accounts in tax havens held by businesspeople and politicians fueled social unrest and the desire for a change of course. (Hernán Ouviña and Mabel Thwaites Rey, 2018) This is not to deny, of course, the ongoing undermining of trust and hope carried out through communication channels and activism promoted by restorationist interests and funded by international organizations.

The rise of the far right is not exclusive to Latin America and the Caribbean. It is clear that in the US and Europe, reactionary populisms have taken hold, advocating anti-gender policies, xenophobia, racism, and attacks on the social gains of the working class. Immigrants are the primary target of their attacks, but so are gender policies, especially laws against gender violence, abortion, and same-sex marriage, advocating for a more traditional family model. For example, Trump established the Global Gag Rule, which prohibits foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) receiving US healthcare from providing legal abortion services. There is also an instrumentalization of gender, for example, in cases of gender violence by Matteo Salvini in Italy, who blamed immigrants. Incidentally, these same arguments were used in our region by Lenin Moreno in Ecuador.

Radical and intertwined feminisms confront this global and regional right wing by forming an international movement that has been strengthening, articulating diverse experiences and forms of struggle, with a massive presence in the streets and in relation to other social movements.

In the recent history of Latin America and the Caribbean, the first decade of this century gave rise to a series of movements that, as a reaction to the decade of neoliberalism and its resulting impoverishment, spurred widespread social mobilization within a context favorable to progressive governments. This context also saw the development of the most recent stage in the genealogy of Latin American and Caribbean feminism, characterized by a reaction against the hegemonic liberal feminism of the 90s, which coexisted with a less visible socialist feminism in many countries of the region. These new feminisms present themselves as dissident, opposed to neoliberal policies, and are decolonial, anti-racist, and anti-patriarchal. From the year 2000 onward, feminist movements have experienced a revitalization of activism and an explosion of feminist diversity.

Our feminisms have become a new political agent, a force that challenges crucial issues that partisan politics has so far ignored: the body, love, desire, sexuality, motherhood as a choice and not an obligation, the right to abortion, women's poverty, the economy for the sustainability of life, women's participation and their effective rights, but above all, it challenges social transformation and the depth and scope of emancipation.

Feminism, as a social movement and as critical thought, has made significant contributions to the processes of deconstruction and confrontation with hegemonic knowledge and power structures. From its inception, it has constituted itself as a space of resistance, of questioning practices, and of ethical alternatives to dominant models. Latin American and Caribbean feminisms represent a commitment to another possible world, a proposal for other worlds, a vindication of a utopia, defined as anti-patriarchal, anti-capitalist, anti-colonial, and anti-racist. These adjectives not only characterize these feminisms but also refer to the intertwining of oppressions, defined as intersectionality. Latin American and Caribbean women experience gender oppression intersected with class, ethnic, territorial, colonial, and heteronormative oppression.

Feminism, as an emancipatory process, also requires learning from its own processes. Therefore, it is a significant challenge to generate pedagogical and self-directed learning tools, from within the social movement itself, that allow for the systematization of learning experiences from and for feminism. Learning from these processes, through collective and autonomous methodologies, not only allows us to record and generate a collective memory of struggle, but also, through its dissemination, makes visible and allows us to share the diverse organizational and educational strategies conceived and implemented by the various communities—autonomous, partisan, social, cultural, and community-based—that are currently thinking about and building feminisms. Feminism needs to learn from other feminisms: from those that envision utopias for the present, impacting daily life and our ways of living together, and from those that project utopias for the future, establishing as a fundamental principle the eradication of the heteropatriarchal system, as well as the promotion of the autonomy of women and sexual minorities in any social project.   

In this context, Latin American and Caribbean feminisms resist colonization, promoting emerging processes generated from communities, from grassroots organizations, from the struggles of anonymous leaders who renew hope and set in motion, under precarious conditions, political resistances and mobilizations that generate displacements and transformations in the daily lives of women, but also put the establishment and its institutions under tension.

The main purpose of the Working Group is to analyze feminisms, as critical thought and as a movement, in their theories and analyses, in their demands and proposals, in their achievements, in their failures and in their political strategies, in the current moments in Latin America and the Caribbean, highlighting their contributions to collective social emancipation, in the contexts of power disputes that intersect in our region.

Latin American and Caribbean feminisms have contributed, and continue to contribute, much to the struggles for social transformation; they are the clearest guarantee that such transformation will actually occur. In this vein, we aim to highlight the innovative political practices that feminisms in the region have developed, as well as their resistance and struggles, in situations where a hostile environment becomes a stimulus for women's organizations. For example, in Brazil, countless formal and informal groups have been created to protest, organize, debate, learn, and support women during a brutal attack on their rights. We also consider it necessary to showcase strategies employed in other contexts, where feminist disputes are instrumentalized to bolster political positions and actions in various spheres.

Feminist movements are developing a powerful campaign to occupy public spaces throughout the region. Massive marches and sit-ins have taken place in several countries, and in others, the presence of feminists making demands and carrying out various actions is now commonplace. They have also burst onto the media scene to challenge hegemonic narratives and confront violence. We believe this is leading to political and social reconfigurations, as well as changes within the movement itself, which must be analyzed in their evolution and consequences. What kind of modifications are occurring in strategies and collective imaginaries as a result?

Based on a pluralistic and democratic conception, feminisms propose a different way of doing politics. Feminisms propose a different way of interpreting reality, denouncing denied or excluded problems, making women visible in their experiences of oppression but also in their contributions to society, denaturalizing the patriarchal systems of violence in which they have historically been socialized, and proposing alternative forms of expression and political mobilization. Resisting the brutal attack on social reproduction, women have entered the political arena with their positions, their strength, and their strategies. Given that other transformations have failed, the challenge now is to avoid repeating old practices. The demands of the feminist struggle are, in essence, demands for women's citizenship rights, but a diverse and inclusive citizenship that recognizes those who have been oppressively invisible. The feminist movement, emerging and becoming visible in the occupation of public space, and as an instance of collective action of protest and proposals, brings with it new challenges to respond to the changing realities of our region.

In theory, we aim to account for and discuss the most recent developments and productions of Latin American and Caribbean feminist critical thought, such as new theoretical reflections—transversal and intersectional—on understanding phenomena of race, territory, sexuality, class, and generations. Our focus includes the contributions of decolonial, Indigenous, Afro/Black, autonomous, popular, and community feminisms, ecofeminism and feminist economics, LGBTI perspectives, feminist liberation theology, and peasant feminism. We will also engage with the viewpoints of activist, academic, and institutional feminisms.

We consider it important to uncover the conceptual frameworks that still underpin and perpetuate gender oppression in much of the intellectual work of our region, and to confront resistance and discrimination within research communities. It is also about fostering connections, encounters, and exchanges between the knowledge built through activism within diverse feminist movements and institutionalized academic and scientific knowledge. We aim to contribute theoretically and methodologically to an anti-hegemonic, countercultural, non-liberal, anti-system, anti-patriarchal, and anti-capitalist feminist thought.

We also consider it relevant to critically examine the gender and women's equality policies implemented in Latin America, highlighting both progress and shortcomings in the various political stages we have experienced. These debates will include the discussion raised by several feminist voices regarding the unwavering hope placed in state action and the achievements of the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as in the gender-sensitive social responsibility of national and transnational corporations, in contrast to other possible paths of transformation more focused on community, grassroots, and cultural action. Some exemplary topics for this analysis undoubtedly include: pathways to achieving women's effective right to a life free from violence, the right to freedom of choice regarding motherhood and sexuality, the rise of prostitution and trafficking, women's organizing to defend territories and natural resources, the economy and public policies from a feminist perspective, social reproduction, and care work. A noteworthy theme is the recognition, empowerment, and inclusion of women's voices in political spaces and the creation of equal opportunities for a better quality of life, a militant anti-racism in a region that is a melting pot of origins and colors.

Significant feminist research has made progress on the aforementioned issues. Undoubtedly, its findings point to direct courses of action that will allow us to move beyond the current situation and embrace profound civilizational alternatives. The numerous feminist collectives promoting (re)educational processes to eradicate violence through a radical transformation of the justice system, the reorientation of public denunciation to cultivate critical consciousness—driven by feminist journalists and communicators—the processes of transformation "from within" science and technology to incorporate gender as a category of critical analysis, the struggle to decriminalize and legalize abortion, the redefinition of solidarity economies, and the proposals of Indigenous women to defend the land, territory, and humanity itself, are just a few examples of the steps taken toward a radical social transformation. This transformation, while not neglecting formal politics, fosters active and decisive community or collective social participation that, from a political perspective, points to realistic paths for change.