TORCH is a feminist conference by Total Woman Victory that aims to bring together women committed to rebuilding radical feminism as an independent, anti-imperialist political force. Held on October 9 - 11 in Worcester, Massachusetts—the site of the first National Woman’s Rights Convention of 1850—this gathering situates itself in a long tradition of feminist organizing outside state, NGO, academic, and empire-aligned institutions.
TORCH calls on women who recognize the decisive break between anti-imperialist feminism and feminism that serves empire to begin organizing independently. Through theory-building, getting organized, consciousness-raising, and historicizing contradictions, the conference aims to revive the foundational practices that once forged durable feminist movements. This is a space to form real political connections, clarify lines of struggle, and continue the unfinished revolutionary project of women’s liberation—because feminist revolution cannot be built alone, and the torches of our foremothers demand to be carried forward.
What does TORCH mean?
Cohesive frameworks for liberating women requires THEORY that analyzes the contradictions of the female sex class condition.
The future of female liberation rests in the assembly of feminist theorists who can ORGANIZE and lead a formal feminist political party.
There must be communication between feminists and members of the public who have not yet become radicalized by RAISING CONSCIOUSNESS.
By studying our HISTORY, feminists can discern what has not served our movement and what will sustain it.
TORCH 2026 INFO
WHO
TORCH is organized by the Editorial Team of Total Woman Victory, a radical feminist newsletter and political project committed to advancing a materialist analysis of women’s oppression under male domination and imperialist social relations. TWV exists to clarify feminist theory, sharpen political lines, and support women organizing independently of state, NGO, academic, and corporate feminist structures.
For any questions about TORCH, please contact us at totalwomanvictory@gmail.com.
WHAT
TORCH is a weekend-long radical feminist conference calling on women who recognize the decisive break between anti-imperialist feminism and feminism that serves empire to begin organizing independently. This gathering centers women who understand that institutional feminism has repeatedly proven loyal to imperialist and male supremacist interests. TORCH is a space for women committed to rebuilding feminist politics on clear, uncompromising terms.
Each day will feature a variety of workshops and panels dedicated to exercising TORCH to create and sustain an actionable feminist network:
Theory: Developing and clarifying radical feminist and materialist analysis.
Organizing: Supporting women to organize independent feminist structures capable of sustained struggle.
Raising Consciousness: Collective political education rooted in women’s lived material realities.
History: Reclaiming feminist revolutionary traditions that have been erased, diluted, or co-opted by liberal and imperial feminism.
WORKSHOPS:
A workshop is 60-90 minute interactive, skill-building, consciousness raising, or political education session led by one or more women. Workshops are designed to deepen collective understanding, develop organizing capacity, or work through a specific political or material problem facing women through hands-on learning or crafting and shared discussion.
PANELS:
A 60-90 minute panel brings together multiple women to speak on a shared political theme, struggle, or area of work. Panelists offer analysis, experience, or theory in conversation with one another and the audience. As opposed to workshops, there will be minimal audience participation limited to questions at the end as a chance for conference attendees to learn from knowledgeable women.
Topics we will cover in workshops and panels include:
Feminist history
Feminist publications + projects
Women’s organizing
Female homelessness and incarceration
Domestic labor
The sex industry
Women’s health + safety
Anti-racism
Lesbian life experiences + advocacy
Third World Women
Economics + imperialism
Consciousness-raising
Feminist theory readings
Ecofeminism
Feminist art + performance
and more!
Have ideas for a panel or workshop that you/ your group/organization would like to lead? (You do not need to be part of an organization to present!)
WHEN
October 9-11, 2026
Friday, October 9: 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Saturday, October 10: 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Sunday, October 11: 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM (Official end time TBD due to closing ceremonies!)
WHERE
The conference will be held in Worcester, Massachusetts, home to the first National Woman’s Rights Convention of 1850. We gather here deliberately, in continuity with a long tradition of women organizing collectively outside sanctioned political channels.
We will be meeting in Worcester State University’s Student Center:
Student Center
486 Chandler St
Worcester, MA 01602
Click HERE to download our guide to Worcester, including hotel and food recommendations!
WHY
This conference exists to organize an autonomous gathering of women prepared to collaborate across regions and struggles against male domination. It aims to build a coalition of women grounded in the radical traditions of feminist critique—rooted in the analysis of sex, labor, reproduction, and imperialist domination—and to rebuild the foundations of women’s collective struggle on principled political terms.
Historically, both institutional and militant feminist formations have emerged from national and international feminist conferences. TORCH seeks to revive that tradition and return feminism to its most radical roots: collective political education, disciplined organizing, and consciousness-raising grounded in women’s material conditions. This gathering is about creating tangible, lasting connections between women.
Our goal is for women to leave the conference with a toolkit for building feminist groups in their own cities, and connecting all of these groups through a united feminist network. We wish to reignite a sustained feminist movement to coordinate planned actions, consciousness-raising, marches, developing and publishing theory, and future conferences.
HOW
This conference is only made possible because women have generously given their time, creativity, and ideas for free. We organize independently and do not report to or accept funding from state, NGO, and corporate feminist structures. This conference is entirely run by volunteers!
Interested in helping out? Fill out our volunteer form here.
To fundraise for TORCH, we are selling merch designed in-house and printed by a Worcester-based worker-owned union co-ор: all proceeds from sales will go towards our conference. Click here to view our tote bag + t-shirts!
Other funding comes from one-time grants as well as our paid Substack newsletter subscriptions starting at $50 annually or $5 a month: click here to subscribe.
We also accept donations via PayPal: click here to donate.
The Freedom Trash Can
Saturday October 10, 8:00PM at Implacable Books
189 Washington Street in Worcester, MA
On September 7, 1968, New York Radical Women protested the Miss America pageant. Along with unfurling a large banner that stated “Women’s Liberation” inside the contest hall, they placed a “Freedom Trash Can” on the Atlantic City boardwalk where women could throw in “instruments of female torture,” including bras, high heels, hairspray, pantyhose, makeup, girdles, hair curlers, false eyelashes, corsets, garter belts, dish rags, mops, Playboy and Good Housekeeping magazines, and more.
The idea for the protest came out of a collective recognition at a consciousness raising meeting that all women are hurt by beauty competitions—both the participants and women at large. They rejected these events and the cultural ideas surrounding women and beauty. Some women might claim that they find these beauty rituals empowering, but women need real, collective power, not individual empowerment. To achieve this, we must look further into these daily routines we’ve accepted as our norm. Who actually benefits and who is harmed when women spend hours primping in front of the mirror? There is the issue of comfort; women's bodies are squeezed and contorted to fit an unrealistic ideal. There is also the issue of how beauty divides women; we are in constant competition with one another. But above all, feminists of the 60s came to understand that women were not merely donning uncomfortable, unnatural clothing and beauty standards, but donning the uniform of women’s inferior class status. They understood that this ideal was not just about sexual attractiveness, but about power—when women acquiesce to these standards, we are marking ourselves as the “other.” As Carol Hanisch states, “That ‘who wears the pants’ has long been synonymous with ‘who has the power’ is not an accident of language.”
Total Woman Victory invites you to join us at 8:00PM on October 10 at Implacable Books to throw your own instruments of female torture into a Freedom Trash Can.
In 1968, feminists threw girdles, pantyhose, garter belts, and Playboy magazines into their Freedom Trash Can—what do articles of female torture look like today? If your items are too large or abstract, you may also draw them or write them on a piece of paper. We will have space available in the Student Center at Worcester State University for you to store your items. After the conference ends at 6PM, we will transport any remaining items to Implacable Books.
What is Consciousness Raising?
A Tool for Feminists
The Women’s Liberation Movement in the 1960s inspired women to gather and share their struggles with sexuality, domestic life, work, and more. Through these conversations, they realized that their “personal problems” were, in fact, shared experiences in a system of male dominance—in other words, they were manifestations of systemic problems. These women then worked to develop a way of analyzing political problems that is relevant to women and based on information they could trust is true, adopting and adapting similar techniques from the Civil Rights Movement and Chinese Revolution to ultimately create the tool that they called “consciousness raising” (CR).
CR taught women that our own experiences are the most reliable source of information we need to understand the sex contradiction and formulate theory. CR encouraged women to deeply analyze their own lives and identify the root causes of women’s oppression, and through this they understood that the system of patriarchy was not an abstract force, but one that manifested daily in the most intimate spheres.
At TORCH, we will host multiple Consciousness Raising sessions each day!
Further reading:
“Consciousness-Raising: A Radical Weapon” by Kathie Sarachild (1973)
“Resistances to Consciousness” by Irene Peslikis (1969)
“About my Consciousness Raising” by Barbara Susan (1969)
“How to Start a Group” by Judith Brown of Gainesville Women’s Liberation (1969)
How does Consciousness Raising work?
In a group of women, each woman answers a question or set of questions as honestly and completely as possible. They are given an allotted amount of time so that each person can speak.
Participants answer from their personal experience, not what they read in a book or what they think are problems in general. It’s important to hear from women with a variety of different backgrounds.
Listen, learn, go off on tangents!
A note-taker records testimonies anonymously. Testimonies and conclusions should be shared so that other women can learn from your group’s observations!
After everyone has testified, there is time set aside for coming to conclusions.
All participants work together to pool and compare the experiences they heard about, paying special attention to contradictions between testimonies, trying to find the common root problem.
Identify actions to create change! Avoid individual solutions or merely offering advice.
Example CR questions:
“How have you felt most oppressed as a woman recently?”
“What has it meant for women in the group to earn their own money? What has it meant to your mother and her friends?”
“Discuss feminist issues that cut across racial and class lines, touching the lives of all women. Which of all these issues have you worked on or considered a priority?”
“Have you ever lived with a man? What did you like about it? What did you not like?”
“When did you begin to make the connection between your own experiences and the experiences of other women?”