Between 15 and 17 May, 2024, APC held its Community Gathering in Chiang Mai, Thailand, bringing together members, associates, partners and supporters from across the globe for three days of learning, sharing and connecting. Over 225 people assembled from 46 countries and participated in 43 events, including plenaries, participant-led sessions and regional meetings, 40 lightning talks, presentations, pop-up sessions and project meetings, and several social events, including film screenings.
During this time together, APC interviewed some members who are fairly new to the network to find out more about their experiences and expectations, and to explore different ways that our network can help build mutually supportive spaces for growth and exchange.
APC spoke with the following members:
- Feminist Leadership and Mobilization on the Edge (FLAME) (Taiwan, interview with Kuan-Jung Chen)
- SFLC.in – Software Freedom Law Center (India, interview with Prasanth Sugathan)
- LaLibre.net Tecnologías Comunitarias (Ecuador, interview with Cecilia López)
- Sursiendo (Mexico, interview with Jes Ciacci)
- Acción Ecológica (Ecuador, interview with Ivonne Yanez)
Interviews have been edited for length and clarity.
Your organisation has recently joined the APC network. Please share with us what your organisation brings to the network that other members might not yet know about?
FLAME: We can share some of Taiwan's practical experiences in East Asia. In Taiwan, we are trying to let the stories of women who may not have much opportunity to access technology or the internet be seen through our reports and personal interactions. In the past, we have done projects related to women, food and agriculture, and we have addressed issues of technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV). We've also discussed the situations of middle-aged and elderly women, possibly LGBTIQ individuals, and their conditions in old age.
We have tried many different approaches and hope these topics are closer to daily life. They are not just present in protests but are part of daily social movements. Taiwan is known as a technology island, and people think of it as a high-tech place. But could it be that the knowledge hidden in homes or communities, which seems marginal, is what truly improves human life? These are the stories we've been exploring, interviewing people, and compiling over the past few years.
SFLC.in: We hope to share the experience that we have in how we have faced various challenges in India, both on the policy level and on litigation. When it comes to litigation, there are a lot of ways that we have challenged internet shutdowns and content takedowns in India. There could be learnings for other organisations.
Sursiendo: Some of the things we can bring to the APC network is the work that we are doing with grassroot organisations, and also the work that we have been doing for a long time in terms of environment and technology. We have been working with APC for five years so we understand some of the work that APC is doing. We feel it’s a place where it’s important for us to belong, because we see the world in diverse ways.
LaLibre.net: Our work has always been with the community and social organisations, [and] there is a lot of experience that we can share on the issue of digital security and also the restriction of freedom of expression. We have seen cases where organisations are at a critical moment, and because there is an issue that is making a lot of noise, the first thing that happens is that their infrastructure is attacked. We have a lot of experience in that and we believe that we can contribute with that. We have also been accompanying some projects recently during the elections, and that has been important for us as an organisation because it has shown us how we as civil society organisations can participate without necessarily having to be with the government, but rather from our own spaces.
Acción Ecológica: Acción Ecológica is an organisation that has been working for over 37 years in monitoring the impacts of extractive activities, agribusiness and other projects, programmes and policies in Ecuador on people and on nature, and we believe that our involvement in the APC network has a two-sided advantage. On the one hand, because we know other organisations that are trying to link digital issues with environmental and social issues, which will enable mutual learning. We also believe that all of our accumulated work on understanding environmental problems from a structural perspective, and therefore from the perspective of finding real solutions, could also be advantageous for APC organisations that are beginning to address environmental issues. So I believe there is both mutual benefit and mutual learning. Above all, it is a way of working jointly to find solutions for the multiple crises that humankind and the planet are facing at this moment in time.
Having made the choice to join APC, what do you feel the network brings to your organisation?
SFLC.in: APC is a network that shares common ideas and values, so members benefit a lot because there are organisations that face similar challenges in other jurisdictions and countries, and we hope to learn from them.
FLAME: In recent years, our projects have increasingly focused on TFGBV and the importance of gender and technology in Taiwan. While many long-established women's organisations in Taiwan fight for women's rights through legislation, FLAME works through empowering social workers, focusing on TFGBV and connecting with creators. We look for female artists who care about gender issues and use creative methods to express themselves. I hope to find ways to balance technology and daily life. Many people [in the network] are from tech orgnaisations and discuss feminism and gender diversity, which I find valuable to bring back, giving us more confidence. This helps us not to question the two values we focus on—technology and gender—and find a balance between them. We want to think about how to make participants aware of how intertwined technology is with their lives and how to express themselves safely and securely.
Acción Ecológica: We have found a rich diversity of organisations in the APC network for whom “care” seems to be an important issue, something that we find very gratifying. And we would also like to share the way that we at Acción Ecológica, which is a radical organisation, can often challenge categories that are accepted as real or as useful, and I believe we can be provocative and we can share our experience as rebellious women who live in the Andes.
Sursiendo: One of the things that we are very interested in is the environmental work that APC is doing. APC is a network that listens, which is something that is not very common. I think we also try to be part of this “big listening”. We trust in APC’s point of view: you envision something, and you gather people to join that vision. We trust in that way of choosing. You do some of the work that is impossible for us to do, because we are not a big organisation so we cannot know people from different parts of the world. We trust APC, and you trust in the members, and that’s something that comes with the network. This trust, this conversation, this openness – it’s part of the concept of “social justice”. All these things together are so important.
How does your organisation find information, connect with civil society and keep up to date on what is happening in similar regions or fields of work?
FLAME: For TFGBV we use personal networks of social workers and gender education teachers. We hold focus groups and discussions to directly reach those handling these issues, extracting knowledge and experiences to create tools like our card deck. For practical projects, we use various resources, sometimes relying on colleagues' personal networks. It takes time to build these connections, but through exhibitions and other opportunities, we gradually find suitable people. We've also participated in community-building projects to expand our dialogue with women of different generations, applying for government funding and facing scrutiny about our focus on gender and technology. Over time, we've received more invitations and continued to build connections. We're now collaborating with a community college in New Taipei City and artists on food-related workshops, even exploring body experiences with the elderly.
SFLC.in: Currently we are part of networks like IFEX and the Global Network Initiative, so in many cases we have learning calls with these networks. That’s where we collect some information about the work done in other countries. And of course there are social media channels. And even for dissemination we use social media channels and these networks to send across information. For example when it comes to internet shutdowns, we are part of the #KeepItOn network. Any legal challenges that we are part of in India we share with these networks, and also on our social media channels.
Communication is a key element of a flourishing network. Could you share with us how you engage with APC so far?
Sursiendo: Basically we have been reading all the emails [that APC shares]. We are like that – if we are going to be part of any network in the world it’s because we are going to do something there. That is something that is very important for us. Sometimes it’s a very small way to contribute, but at least it’s something. We are still trying to explore the platforms... it’s so much information! I’ve been subscribed to the newsletters since before we were members, but when we become members we read all the publications, all the annual reports. All the things that you send, we read, and we try to explore the platforms themselves, like inside.apc.org and the grants platform. We like to be in places listening first before speaking; every community has its own history, so if you want to start adding value to a network, you need to first listen. You need to understand what is the knowledge there, what has the process been, why do the people like each other... you have a history there.
SFLC.in: With APC we can use channels like the mailing list, Mattermost, etc. to disseminate the information to the community at large. We also use fully open source tools like Nextcloud. I think there is a lot of learning possible, and maybe we can talk to your tech team to learn how we can improve our infrastructure.
LaLibre.net: We subscribe to the APC newsletter and that is how I know about most of the people, because they share their work, experiences and also what is happening in different parts of the world. I have found out that there are also Mattermost channels that I would also like to participate in to maintain closer communication with the people I have met. The newsletter is good to inform you, but it doesn't allow you to have that close connection that I am also looking for, both with people I have met here and in general with the people who make up APC.
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