Critical globalisation theory and the global women's movement? some propositions on solidarity, communication and citizenship

The global - level, process, epoch, ideology and episteme - provides an increasingly central terrain for the women's movement. This flies in the face of the idea that whilst capitalism is increasingly global, (women's) social movements are inevitably national, or even more local. The international women's movement needs to be reconceived in terms of globalisation. A theoretically-critical and socially-committed understanding of globalisation can provide the basis for such a reconceptualisation. Globalisation processes imply for women and women's movements threats, promises and seductions. Success here requires not only a new worldview (in both senses of this term), but a new understanding of (women's) global citizenship, of (women's) global solidarity, and of (women's) global communication/culture. The series of propositions and proposals here presented is intended to provoke both theoretical discussion and research. Starting with the First-Wave women's, movement in Latin America, we find one that was 'international' before it was generally 'national'. Ending with International Women's Day, 1997, in a Dutch institute of development studies, we see how such distictions or oppositions are becoming increasingly redundant and problematic.