I wanted badly to get to the TORCH conference (October 9-11, 2026) in Worcester, Massachusetts, because it looked like one of the most important gatherings for women that I’d heard of in a long time. What particularly sparked my
interest was the pre-announced themes of both radical feminism and anti-imperialism–two tendencies not usually evident in the same groups (male-perspective dominated groups usually focus on colonization/imperialism issues but pay scant attention to feminist concerns–and both liberal and ‘radical’ feminist groups often leave out the international dimension). The TORCH Conference promised a broader feminism that included both of these poles (see organizers’ statement about the conference at: https://www.totalwomanvictory.com/torch2026).
From the moment I walked into the initial gathering on Friday morning and saw the sea of young women in their 20’s intensely and seriously exchanging views on feminism–I knew I was in a special place. We had gathered in a radical bookstore (Implacable Books, owned by one of the organizers of the conference) as we waited to find out the ‘new’ actual site of the conference–as our planned site at a university in Worcester had canceled at the last minute due to threats of disruption by transgender activists! A second site had canceled for the same reason. Eventually, Sathi Patel, a key organizer, arrived to tell us that a third site had also canceled. We did not have space big enough for a conference expecting up to 90 women and we debated what to do. While the bookstore was cozy but small, there was a room adjacent to it that needed work to serve as a conference space–so the women already there immediately started cleaning the space and finding–even buying–enough chairs to host large workshops and decorated the room with feminist posters. Although a few hours of the conference had been lost due to the disruptors, before long the women created enough usable space so that, including the bookstore, we could hold two workshops at the same time (the original plan). The fact that the conference went on in spite of almost being derailed by TRA attempts to stop it was a real victory for the determination of the women there! But the protesters came back on Saturday afternoon.
The conference was put together by a radical feminist collective of women in their 20’s who publish a magazine entitled “Total Woman Victory” (TWV), which, in turn, was born from a group that had been meeting on the internet to study feminism and debate feminist theory. Some of these young women had started the magazine to exchange and publicize feminist ideas. According to my discussions with organizer Sathi Patel, they were seeking a feminism that differed from the “individual empowerment” and pornified models they had grown up with. Many had studied Marx to understand the structural reasons for oppression but found that Marxism did not account fully for the oppression of women and their own lived experiences. So, they turned to the 1960s radical feminism that had started the “second wave” and had created Consciousness Raising/CR (gathering data from the testimonies of women), daring actions and the theoretical and popular journals first brought feminist ideas to the mainstream. These groups were “Redstockings of the Women’s Liberation Movement” and “New York Radical Women”. As a result of their readings, the TWV collective invited Carol Hanisch, a feminist pioneer who coined the phrase “The Personal is Political” and Kathie Sarachild, a developer of CR and an early (and current) member of Redstockings to be featured workshop presenters. Other workshop leaders were Melissa Farley (activist/ researcher on prostitution who recently spoke at a FIST forum), members of Aff3rm (a woman-of- color led group focusing on prostitution), Aurora Linnea and many others. The workshops were well attended, with lots of debate taking place, as women representing different understandings of feminism, including early second wave consciousness radical feminism, Andrea Dworkin-based radical feminism, Marxists, matriarchal feminists and more–all respectfully debated and exchanged ideas.
Melissa Farley described it this way: “….the atmosphere was unique, nothing like most conferences. The sisterhood came alive, with respect, affection, courteous disagreement, cats and wild feminist creativity. 20-year-olds teaching 80-year-olds and vice versa. Above all: fearless women.”
On Saturday the TRA protesters gathered on the sidewalk outside the bookstore and made a lot of noise to disrupt the conference and got into a fight with teenagers that were defending the bookstore (the bookstore was also a space for local teenagers to meet and this produced local loyalty). Some of the teenagers were injured and the organizers called the police who made three arrests and told the protesters not to come back (which they didn’t) and the conference was left to proceed in peace! While this was a real victory, the problem of having to deal with attempted disruptions and shut-downs of all of our conferences has not gone away and we have yet to find a way to deal with this problem.
All in all, I found the TORCH conference to be a thrilling event that ended with an all-round consensus that it must be repeat
ed, with the intent of building a movement that will knit together our many different strains of feminist understanding into a cohesive movement. The fact that this was a young woman-organized radical feminist conference gave and gives me hope for the future of feminism!
To get in touch with the Total Woman Victory collective, which will also give you news of upcoming events, go to: https://www.totalwomanvictory.com.
Their next issue will be writings about the TORCH conference