Today Feminist Anti-War Resistance (FAS) together with the Foundation for Human Rights Defenders receive the Aachen Peace Prize. FAS members and activists will perform during the award ceremony with their faces covered out of solidarity with the anonymous activist women of the movement currently in Russia. About 20 people will take the stage, and behind their backs there will be a screen with Russian activists who cannot come to the award ceremony, so they will be present on the screen and wearing masks. In this way, FAS emphasizes that our movement exists because of those who have stayed inside the Russian dictatorship and continue the struggle.
Our speech was written collectively and through open-call, as FAS is a horizontal movement.
The full text of the speech is available at the link. (https://teletype.in/@femantiwarresistance/aachen_speech)
Excerpt of Feminist Anti-War Resistance speech:
"Peace is not limited to a ceasefire. We want a peace not only without overt military violence, but also without structural violence. Such a peace also requires the full inclusion of representatives of vulnerable groups in any pre-negotiation processes and peacemaking. Such a peace requires active struggle and cannot be fooled by a mere ceasefire.
We call ourselves Feminist Anti-War Resistance, but we are well aware that "anti-war" is not about privileged pacifism, but about recognizing the right of the affected party to self-defense. Ukrainians cannot say "no to war" to a war that has already come to their home. They cannot say "this is not our war". They are forced to defend themselves and their home and loved ones - and often at the cost of their lives.
We want to be understood correctly: "anti-war" in our case is not the idle waiting for an abstract peace to come when one side runs out of resources. "Anti-war" is daily resistance to the aggressor and his military and imperial ambitions. Resistance including thousands of women, queer people, activists and feminists. And this award belongs to them.
As long as Putin and this regime exists in Russia - there will be no peace. As long as people and territories are under occupation - there will be no peace. Peace cannot be considered peace when political prisoners are in jail and activists who have fled the country cannot return home safely. Such "peace" does not take into account the rights of the vast numbers of people in vulnerable situations.
We want peace, but we want a just peace, without occupied territories, without slavery and torture, without prisons and exploitation, without dictatorships, without silencing violence in any form.
We want to dedicate this award to Russian women and LGBTQ+ people who have been criminally prosecuted for their anti-war actions, identity and views, who are sitting in pre-trial detention centers and prisons. Activists who have experienced searches and torture, faced violence for anti- war agitation and for helping Ukrainians. These are not only activists of our movement - these are thousands of stories of resistance to Russian fascism, stories of schoolgirls and pensioners alike. We dedicate this award to Maria Ponomarenko, Sasha Skochilenko, Natalia Filonova, Tatiana Savinkina, Marina Novikova, Victoria Petrova, Masha Moskalyova and all those whom we are unable to name today for security reasons.
We will donate the cash equivalent of this award to a Ukrainian feminist organization and a Russian initiative that helps political prisoners. We express our support and solidarity to Ukrainians in their struggle for freedom. Thank you. »