What is WoCo?

About Woco

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.

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 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.

Our campaigns

This year the results of the National Student Safety Survey, which will document the prevalence of sexual assault on campus, will be released. The Women’s Collective on campus has a staunch history of fighting around the issue of sexual assault on campus. We will continue the Burn the Colleges campaign that brings attention to the innate sexism at the heart of the elite Sydney Uni colleges.

We also want to support the National Tertiary Education Union as they go on strike for better conditions and wages. The university sector is made up of 58% women. As it is a highly casualised sector, the issues that affect casuals predominantly affect women. This also intersects with issues of domestic violence leave and transition leave, that are both demands of the NTEU in their log of claims. As students, showing our solidarity with staff is of great importance. It gives staff the confidence to go on strike, knowing that as they do, they are fighting to better our education.

Another campaign that will be vital this year is solidarity with the nurses and midwives in the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association. These workers have been fighting for better ratios, pay and conditions. They are demanding basic respect for their work during the pandemic, where health workers should be given all the resources they need. It is crucial we give community support to this fight. As these are female dominated industries their rights at work are feminist issues. Particularly as the government will often use sexist tropes of women being caring and nurturing to prevent them taking industrial action, insinuating that they should work for free. No labour should be unpaid. This is more so the case in a pandemic. WoCo stands with all workers taking action.

Sydney Uni has a wide array of political groups and unfortunately this includes the right and far right. The group LifeChoices often have stalls that are explicitly set up to argue that abortion is a morally wrong act. They are aligned with right wing political parties who have millions of dollars behind them. WoCo believes that these views are dangerous for women and other minorities. Everyone should have the right to decide what to do with their bodies. We often protest the LifeChoices stalls to be another voice on campus and show that abortion is an individual choice.

We don’t know exactly what this year will look like, but we do know we’ll need as many people as possible on our side!