Editorial. On the 27–28 of May 2023, Tonya participated in the World Village Festival, Helsinki, Finland, with partial support from the UFNPD. Below, Tonya shares why joining international events and talking about Ukraine matters and what topics are important to raise. They also share the full text of the speech they have prepared for the event.
When the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine commenced, I moved to Finland. Since then, I have moved multiple times within the country with my family and pets. The relocation itself was a challenge, as it was not planned. I would never have thought we would move to Finland before the 24th of February 2022. And it would not have been possible without some international activists and close friends helping us on the way. We have had a steady life and some ongoing projects back in Ukraine. Nevertheless, here we are, moving for the sixth time since the full-scale invasion started, this time to a bigger city where our work might have a more significant impact.
For the past 14 years, I have been actively involved in left-wing, feminist, anti-war, and queer activism in Ukraine. I have been using art as an instrument for my political expression and activism. As an artist, I work with topics such as fairly priced labor, alternative economy, multiple forms of discrimination and ways to overcome them, self-care, burnout prevention practices, ecological issues, and the relationships between humans and nonhuman creatures.
Since moving to Finland, my activism has been centered around helping grassroots leftist, feminist, and queer initiatives and supporting related young organizations in Ukraine. Together with colleagues from ReSew, we started raising money for humanitarian aid and providing military support for the people and warriors in Ukraine. My art has become an instrument for talking about war and the right of Ukrainian society to self-defense in an environment that appeared to question it.
I also joined Rhythms of Resistance (RoR) Helsinki four years after discontinuing my RoR Kyiv participation. RoR is a samba band and a network of activist percussion bands that shares transnational anti-hierarchical anticapitalist, antisexist, and antiracist principles. Together with other grassroots initiatives, RoR Helsinki organized a demonstration devoted to one year of Russian full-scale invasion, which took place on the 25th of February in Helsinki. The solidarity demo was called ‘Rauha Ukrainaan — Venäjä ulos ja vastuuseen’ (Peace to Ukraine — Russia out and held responsible). I couldn’t join it in person, so I asked a friend to present a speech on my behalf. I thought that as a representative of the Ukrainian grassroots feminist queer community, I should speak about important topics concerning full-scale invasion that my friends from Ukraine and I share. The speech was then published on a Finnish anti-war platform. It caught the attention of the organizers of the World Village Festival, an annual multicultural event held in Helsinki. They invited me to participate in a program called ‘Activists as a Force for Change.’ Although I knew it would be challenging to step onto a bigger stage, I also saw it as an opportunity to discuss important topics related to the war in Ukraine and advocate for support for grassroots activists in Ukraine.
For this program, I decided to share the stories of Ukrainian human rights defenders, as well as anti-authoritarian activists from other countries, who joined the armed resistance against the Russian invasion of Ukraine and share the stories of what grassroots feminist and queer initiatives do in Ukraine and how one can show solidarity with them. I started my speech by outlining my positionality to explain where my voice comes from and what experience stands behind it. You can find my speech below:
“Thank you for having me here today!
I came to the idea to become a queer-feminist activist through my personal experience of oppression and cooperation with other activists and networks. I was born not in a rich but big family, very early lost my mom and experienced bad years in school. Life was difficult but I managed to enter the University on Fashion Design faculty. At that time, I didn’t think much about global issues, such as wars, іnequality, exploitation and discrimination. I was just thinking that something was not fair in this world and, probably, I had no other choice than try to change it.
My public activism started when I joined the Direct Action independent students trade union based on anarcho-syndicalist principles. We fought against commercialization in the educational sphere and were developing alternative methods of sharing and getting knowledge.
Then I discovered feminism and found things I was lacking in the male-dominated organization there: criticism of patriarchy, opposition to gender-based violence and the dominance of cis-hetero men in the space. Later on, my views were radicalized to intersectional queer feminism, which centeres its perspectives around the experiences of the most oppressed and vulnerable. Inclusion of all people regardless of their sexuality, gender identity, ethnicity, skin color, nationality, whether they have children or are childfree, have physical and mental issues or not — no one has so aptly articulated these issues like my queer feminist colleagues.
Breathe in — breathe out
Altogether we have organized and participated in political demos, festivals, artistic events, film-screenings, discussions etc. I started to do art activism and even a feminist stand-up. Together with some friends we have created a cooperative ReSew in Kyiv: a small sewing enterprise based on ecological principles, horizontal structure, consensus and careful attitude to each member of the group.
Breathe in — breathe out
Activism gave me the understanding that I can change the world step by step. I found the community, very good friends and supportive people. Moreover, through activism I got involved in the international queer-feminist networks, which gave the possibility to meet people of common views all over the world and have a friend in any country I visit.
When the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine happened, it seemed to me that all the work of activists became senseless. In a situation where the existence of the society and the lives of loved ones are under the threat, all the achievements of our human rights struggle and plans for the future are under the question. For a long time, I felt powerless and very vulnerable. I felt that all the relevant problems like gender-based violence, rejection of LGBTQ+ people, racism, militarization of public space, the growth of nationalism, cutting of budget on cultural and social spheres become even more acute. Despite this, people still defend their right for the future, for free life and activism.
Currently, the Ukrainian Armed Forces is formed of yesterday’s civilians of various backgrounds, including human rights activists from Ukraine and international anti-authoritarians, male, female and non-binary people. They might have different reasonings to join the armed resistance to the Russian invasion, but they are part of the same struggle.
Breathe in — breathe out
One bright example is Maksym Butkevych — Ukrainian human rights defender and journalist who was helping asylum seekers and Ukrainian immigrants and countered hate speech. Maksym joined the Ukrainian Armed Forces and was taken captive by the Russian Armed Forces almost a year ago. Under tortures he was made to confess in purposeful killing of civilians and so-called «Supreme Court of the LPR» imprisoned him for 13 years. Now Ukrainian activist community is collecting signatures calling for the release of Maksym Butkevich to draw more attention to the case, because visible human rights defenders Russia less willingly offer for exchange.
Another friend of mine, Dmytro Petrov, joined the military struggle for his anti-authoritarian principles, desire to protect Ukrainian society and to liberate Russia from oppression. He was a Russian anarchist and anti-fascist, voluntarily joined the Ukrainian Armed Forces and was fighting like a combatant. He died near Bakhmut in April 2023 together with other internationalist soldiers, Irishman and Spaniard. They won’t be awarded with the title of Heroes, their families will not receive any compensation, but these people were brave enough to go fighting for their belief in a better world. And this belief Dmytro sent to the international community in the form of the appeal he recorded before death. Here are some quotations:
Long breathe in — breathe out
“We are here to defend the society, which defend itself against the aggression and against the elimination and enslavement.
As anarchists, we all know that justice is the precaution of any peace. So, we cannot allow the enemy to conquer us and to dictate us the conditions on which we should live and construct our lives.
We also rely a lot upon you, because your role could be very great to support anti-authoritarian movement and anti-authoritarian fighters and activists, who operate now in Ukraine.”
Some of the initiatives and young organizations I can share with you right now — it is those people I personally know and trust, who came from the same background as I did:
Freefilmers — collective of artists and filmmakers who from the beginning of full-scale invasion were helping with evacuation and supporting underground filmmakers, artists, queer and neurodiverse people.
Solidarity collective — anti-authoritarian volunteer network that helps leftists and anarchists who have gone to the front, as well as supports people and animals in frontline areas who have suffered from the hostilities.
Bilkis — grassroots horizontal feminist intersectional initiative, who now hold a couple of anti-capitalist projects about feeding homeless people and sharing clothes and stuff.
FemSolution — young organization that continues dealing not only with humanitarian aid and help internally displaced women, but also works for the promotion of gender equality in Ukraine.
Zboku — queer art and activist initiative that currently works on preservation of the queer activist archive and like community center.
Kviradio — the channel of amateur reading of texts in Ukrainian and Russian interesting to queer-feminist community, with permission from translators and authors.
Feminist critique — online journal of queer-feminist studies, the platform for alternative vision of the processes in Ukraine and other countries.
sil’ — activist cabaret with an imaginary stage, troupe and repertoire, performing mournful songs about own experience of activism, bright collaborations on creating zines and remote residencies.
Finally, our ReSew Sewing Cooperative, which after full-scale invasion turned into a volunteer initiative, organizing solidarity events, raising money and spreading the information about leftists, feminists and queers who work in and for Ukraine.Breathe in — breathe out
It is not a full list. But I consider it necessary to talk about those who have a lack of resources to promote themselves. They work in different fields and use different approaches, but all of them are aiming to democratic equal anti-authoritarian society, peace and respect for every life being and the surrounding environment. They are sincere in what they are doing and believe in some kind of utopia, which I do believe too. You can also solidarize and support us: follow any initiative or organization mentioned today and support them via donations, spread the information about them and the topics they are rising, sign a letter for liberation of Maksym Butkevych and spread the information about him, listen to the appeal of Dmytro Petrov. All these I added to the pinned message on the ReSew sewing cooperative FB page.
Breathe in — breathe out
I am a refugee from Ukraine and you listen to me. But of course, you can support and listen carefully to refugees who came basically from any country because of war — there are a variety of options on how we can show solidarity.”
While preparing for the speech, it was critical for me to have three coaches: one from the festival, one from UFNPD, and my partner. These people gave me a lot of essential advice. I was incredibly nervous on the stage, and having friends or close people in the audience was always good. Even if the audience seems friendly and empathic, thinking that you are talking to someone on the same wavelength helps. Jokes help, even if you are talking about sad and serious things; it’s good to have a couple of jokes just to lighten the atmosphere. In conclusion, I would say that preparing and performing such speeches was a significant experience for me, and I hope it was helpful for those about whom I was talking and interesting and appropriate for those who were listening.
Editor’s commentary: Tonya insisted on keeping the speech as it was initially prepared. They are not a native English speaker. Retaining the original text with indications of pauses for taking a breath reveals the challenge of addressing a large international audience and the effort required to overcome a language barrier to be heard.
Tonya — an artist and queer-feminist activist from Kyiv, Ukraine. Member of Kyiv-based sewing cooperative ReSew (since 2016) and the Ukrainian-Russian art group Shvemy (since 2015). Currently based in Finland.
The views of the author do not necessarily reflect the position of the members of the organisation.