Shared Territories - Divided Territories was the title of a symposium we organised last year. In this symposium we tried to bring together people from different cultural contexts and different positions in society. We looked at the possibil ities and impossibilities of co-operations between individuals and groups with different social positions, different political rights and thus different chances in Austrian society.

Here, in this text and context, we use this title for a second time, as many of the questions that were asked, or debates that took place, are still relevant and unfinished today. The title "Shared Territories - Divided Territories" names a paradox which every individual or group that is trying to achieve changes in a hierarchical society has to grapple with. There is a common ground we share despite all differences. As women, we try to form alliances and co-operations of black, white, heterosexual, lesbian, Eastern, Western women in order to fight patriarchy and establish women's rights and herstories in history, as Trinh T. Minh-ha has called it once. But on the other hand, there is always a boundary shaking and dividing the ground that we have regarded as common, separating us. White women have only recently begun to reflect on their privileged position in feminism, for example. They have only done so because the critique of women with migrant backgrounds, of black women in particular, could not be ignored anymore.

There are differences between women; we have to accept that and to talk about what that means to whom. At the same time, we have to talk about equal rights and about how to reach equality in society. In this text we make another attempt to grapple with this paradox.

Speaking from the white Austrian feminists' position in society we want to address the chances and limits of co-operations between activists, artists and theorists from different backgrounds in the fields of culture and the visual arts. Individuals and groups have different positions in society as a result of their cultural and ethnic backgrounds, their biographies, their gender and sexual orientations, or the histories of their countries of origin and their families' involvement in these histories.

White western women often presume that all women are oppressed by patriarchy in the same way. They neglect the differences and asymmetries between women in their social, political and economic environments. Racism, sexism, anti-Semitism and homophobia have evolved historically; they are manifested globally and locally in all spheres of society and they have become more8 and more effective due to their interconnection. Thus we have to deal with different forms of discrimination and investigate where and how they overlap. Furthermore, discrimination cannot only be seen as the action of individuals, but must also be regarded as complex structures. These structures of discrimination shape social positions and political standpoints as well as working processes among feminists.

Our main interest here is to look at how social, political and economic differences between members of minority groups and members of the majority are negotiated and represented in the fields of culture and visual arts in Austria. How can moments of solidarity and alliances between activists, artists and theorists with different backgrounds be facilitated? Which conditions are needed in order to establish spaces for anti-fascist, anti-racist and queer feminist work? Which strategies have been developed against structural discrimination in the fields of culture and the visual arts?

Racism and Whiteness
Discussion about individual and structural racisms includes the discussion of our privileged position as white, central European women with EU passports. The term "whiteness" was brought up by feminist women with migrant backgrounds to analyse and attack asymmetries and power relations in society. Black feminists in particular pointed out that white culture claims a position of absolute authority, truth and power, placing itself at the centre, while marking, marginalizing and terrorizing "other" cultures. At the same time, we white people - or, to be more specific, we white feminists - remain unmarked and profit from this position in society. Whiteness represents "race" or ethnicity, too, although we seldom refer to ourselves in "racial" or ethnic terms. In Europe "race" or ethnicity, like whiteness, is a social construction dating from the 18th century.

The term "race" has different meanings in different countries. When using it in Austria or Germany, the term is closely linked to National Socialist "science" (if one can call it that) and extermination policy. In Great Britain or France, the term "race" is linked to colonialism and has been used and re-appropriated also by black and migrant scholars and activists.

However, race/whiteness is a social construction which has become a social reality. It shapes people's lives and experiences in different ways. Discussion and critique of white positions in society denaturali7 ze whiteness and make structural privileges of white people visible. When attempting to form egalitarian co-operations with migrant and Jewish communities, we have to investigate and understand the social and historical positions of white Western feminists in the countries and contexts where we live.

Blanche Radford Curry notes that, first of all, white feminists are uninformed about "38 race matters" and other issues of differences. Secondly, white educated feminists ignore legitimate alternative discourses in their environment. In German speaking countries, for example, they often study American or British literature rather than confronting migrants in Austria with their knowledge and practices. Thirdly, some white feminists have begun to regard "other" discourses as valid. However, there is the danger of appropriation and exploitation of migrants and migrant knowledge by the white majority members of society.

For a useful debate between women from minority and majority groups we have to realise how white women's identities are constructed - culturally and politically, how these identities evolve from our specific historical and geographical contexts. Furthermore, there is the clear necessity to criticise the exploitation of cultural practices and political strategies of migrant communities by dominant institutions, such as art museums or majority artists.

When we talk about exploitation , we mean actions that adopt or appropriate anti-racist, feminist, migrant or Jewish knowledge and strategies while detaching them from their political aims and contexts, without offering any economic, social or cultural benefit to the original contexts and their members.

But still, we should also think about whether and how mechanisms of exploitation can be turned upside down and be used for other purposes. We should discuss whether and how exploitative structures in the fields of culture and the visual arts can be used to establish oppositional policies in society.

Anti-Semitism
Besides racism and whiteness, we want to look at forms of anti-Semitism in anti-racist and feminists contexts. Anti-Semitism in Austria is usually seen as a specific form of racism. As we have learned from Jewish women's criticism, such a definition and understanding of anti-Semitism is problematic because it denies the singularity of the National Socialist genocide as a genocide that took place in the middle of Europe, targeting people who were completely assimilated into society, and helps suppress a discussion of Austria's past involvement in and present responsibility towards the Shoah. Therefore, we want to point out the difference between racism and anti-Semitism. Racism is primarily aiming at the exploitation of discriminated people, while the aim of anti-Semitism in National Socialism was the extermination of Jews.

Yet when attempting to find strategies to fight this discrimination and create an egalitarian society, we also need to analyse how different forms of discrimination such as racism and anti-Semitism overlap, historically and geographically, in the environments where our ancestors lived and worked as well as in the ones where we live and work today.

How do racism and anti-Semitism operate in feminist and cultural fields? How do they shape the discourse on white positions in Austrian society? How can we attack structures of discrimination and make moments of solidarity possible? These questions have a special importance in this year (2005) because the Austrian government and mainstream institutions have declared a "year of thinking" [Gedankenjahr] to celebrate the year 1955, when Austria became an independent nation again, instead of declaring a "year of memorialising" [Gedenkjahr] to celebrate 1945, when Austria was liberated from the Nazis.

In many dominant and marginal contexts, the myth of Austria being Hitler's first victim is still alive. Thus talking about the presence of the past in Austria, anti-Semitism, the history of National Socialism, the Shoah and its legacy for the descendants of both sides (survivors, perpetrators and "bystanders" of the Shoah) is crucial for any anti-racist or feminist work.

First of all, we need to ask how women from Jewish backgrounds are represented in Austria in feminist groups and in the fields of culture and visual arts. When looking at Great Britain or the United States, we note the presence and visibility of Jewish artists, scientists, writers and musicians. We find many theoretical and historical analyses by Jewish feminists who criticise the blindness towards anti-Semitism in the women's movement. Do such publications exist in Austria?

Since the beginning of the 1990s, very few feminist analyses have been published which focus on anti-Semitism in the German speaking women's movement. Instead of critical analyses, we find theorists concentrating on women as victims of patriarchy and representations of the fascist regime as just an extreme form of patriarchy.
Although we must emphasise that there is a big difference between Austria and Germany in how they have dealt with their past, non-Jewish feminists in both countries have only recently begun to investigate the participation of women in the Shoah. Only recently have they started asking themselves how this dreadful chapter in the German-speaking women's movement affects the thinking, the points of view and the actions of feminists today. At the same time, Jewish production of knowledge - visual, musical and textual - seems to be largely absent and invisible in Austria. What are the reasons? Is there a blindness resulting from the dominant white, non-Jewish position in society or an exclusion of Jewish interests from the dominant Austrian public discourse?

Creation of Public Discourses
As Nancy Fraser has pointed out, the inclusion and exclusion of interests, opinions and issues into and from the dominant public discourse is decisive for the possibility of participating in and influencing decision-making processes in a hierarchical society like ours. Designating different articulations of interests and opinions as legitimate or illegitimate determines which individuals or groups have access to and thus can help redefine different spheres of the society. Visibility, access to and production of public discourses are the central means in the struggle for comprehensive political participation of migrants and marginalised groups in general. In concrete terms, this means that anti-racist and anti-fascist feminist groups have to develop adequate strategies of creating visibility on rhetorical, visual and textual levels. At the same time, we have to critically reflect upon the possible and actual ways that the effects of those strategies for creating public discourses feed back and influence our own political contexts.

Creation of visibility in dominant, public discourses or in specific, minority discourses is not per se positive. The intentions of public relations need not necessarily coincide with its actual effects. A policy of representation which is free of the risk of indirectly reproducing the conditions it attacks requires strategies of representation which incorporate their political claims as a structural representational element. To achieve this, it is fundamental to deal with the following questions:

1. When is it politically meaningful to create public visibility and publicity? Which topics should be addressed by anti-racist and anti-fascist feminist public relations? What are the adequate ways and contexts in this respect?
2. How can (or can) anti-racist and anti-fascist feminist public discourses and 8 practices facilitate structural changes in the racist, sexist, homophobic and anti-Semitic fundaments of mainstream society?
3. What are adequate visual and textual strategies of representation that can contribute to the realisation of claims to equal political participation?

Conclusion
In co-operations between members of minority and majority groups we need to look at differences and the social position from which we speak and act. For white non-Jewish feminists in Austria, this means dealing with their whiteness, analysing it in its historical and geographical context (i.e., anti-Semitism, National Socialism, the Shoah) and investigating how this history influences their own views and actions in the present on a personal and collective level. Neither oppositional identities for the white non-Jewish minority can evolve nor oppositional strategies for an egalitarian society be developed without debating these issues with black, Jewish and migrant communities and seeking co-operations with them.

Which conclusions can be drawn for feminist, anti-racist and anti-fascist3520 projects in the cultural fields of the arts and music? The basis for such political work is, no doubt, the representation of migrants, women, blacks, lesbians, queers and Jews in leading positions. Their presence and visibility is crucial at all stages during the conception, organisation and realisation of these projects. Secondly, there must be continuous debate about the preconditions, structures, limits and chances of co-operations between privileged and marginalised members of society. One further8 and probably equally important factor in anti-racist and anti-fascist queer feminist co-operations is the practice of representational critique. Structural changes of society have to be accompanied by the development of adequate visual and textual representations. Otherwise racist, sexist, anti-Semitic or homophobic stereotypes will be reproduced despite all good intentions.