Football Utopia: On and off the pitch with Republica and Cowfork

Both teams share a unique camaraderie based on anti-fascist and activist priorities, providing a safe home for identities that don't fit into typical sports trajectories.

~ Alice is rejected ~

that Eastern cowboys and cowgirls (cattle people) and International Republic It was founded 40 years ago in Bristol and Leeds. Some of the original members were punks, anarchists, socialists, and squatters. An identity teetering on the margins of society that is not often confused with football. The founders wanted to reject at all costs the many harmful characteristics of football, such as hypermasculinity, homophobia, racism, nationalism, capitalism and the typical sporting domination mentality.

By combining their experiences DIY CleanupThe team screen-printed and sewed their own kits, merchandise and banners. We created our own tournament celebrating friendship, solidarity and amateur spirit through handmade trophies. The team's identity blended with local politics and DIY music scenes.

Each team has its own unique history and culture that has been previously documented. Mick Totten and Beth Simpson and Michael McMahon. But what the two teams share is a unique camaraderie rooted in anti-fascist and activist priorities, providing a safe home for identities that don't fit typical sports trajectories.

Although both teams were founded by men, many women and gender-diverse players have taken on key roles in the organization and helped shape these clubs into what they are today. As an organizer at Republica, I had the privilege of interviewing some of these voices for my research. By representing their voices, we can redress the imbalance in representation of women and gender-diverse players in discussions about radical football.

As one participant told me, “You can be in a football space, a punk space, an anarchist space, and sometimes it can still be a fucking boys’ club. But if you come together collectively, DIY, Do It Together, you can change things. “We can be good at organizing, sometimes actually better, and help make that space a little better for everyone.”

Activism and Caring

Activism is essential to the club. From supporting refugee soccer teams, hosting community meals, winter clothing drives, anti-fascist demonstrations, and queer ceilidh fundraisers, these radical left groups are doing more than just soccer. One of the organizers said: “The politics of the club was that we were a group of people who came together because we all wanted to play football, and as a by-product of that, it was a group of people who came together.” Who can then take action consistent with those beliefs?”

As well as community activism, both Cowfolk and Republica have a long history of international solidarity. Most famously, the two clubs have toured Palestine together on several occasions to show solidarity in the face of occupation. One organizer said: “Like our trip to Palestine, we used football to break down the barriers between us. And while the lives of Palestinian women are obviously different from our lives here, using the game of soccer is a way to think, 'This is something we all love to do and we're going to do it together.' Or you could even say, ‘These are some of the challenges we face as women trying to play football in Palestine.’ And we think, 'Oh, yeah, we have that problem too.' And it’s about finding that commonality, whether it’s good or bad.”

As well as the outreach, some organizers spoke to me about the gendered work of creating communities of care. like Eva Majewska We argue that communities of care and emotional labor for anti-fascist and anarchist action are often not evaluated in the same way. “If history is written down, it might look a little different depending on who played the role,” notes one organizer. “But that doesn’t mean it was he who did the emotional labor.”

We felt that documenting and celebrating these acts of caring was as important as creating a radical community. Within the club, we have experienced this through group childcare, providing physical care or packages when physically or mentally ill, supporting each other's personal and work events, and tracking changes in menstrual cycles or menopause. One organizer said:

“It’s the joy of the community and the bond between the cowgirls. I sometimes feel like cowgirls are like a rally, especially when they surround people. We are a group of witches. Witches have always been ‘other’, always transgenerational, always alternative, always caring for people.”

Tournaments and Safe Spaces

Both Cowfolk and Republica developed within an international network of similar left-wing clubs that come together each year for tournaments. These tournaments are like three-day autonomous festivals with a carnival-like atmosphere, where punk bands, DJs and various other entertainment are as much a priority as the football matches. “I think it’s like creating a world that’s a little bit independent, very different from normal life,” said one organizer. “And there are a lot of older people, and there are intergenerational friendships. And there is certainly something reassuring about that. I often think about what I can do to keep acting like this for the rest of my life, and that’s okay.”

Another organizer said, “Network tournaments are like being in utopia. To me, it is like a bubble-like utopian community, and when I come out of that place, I feel like, ‘Ah, I’m back to normal society again.’”

Many organizers advocated for women and gender queer voices to be central to organizing these spaces. One organizer says: “I think some of the safe space issues that have come up in anarchist spaces before have been the only rule, which historically has been predominantly male, is ‘don’t be stupid.’ But now we're seeing more people of different genders coming in who need it more. All right. But what does ‘don’t be an idiot’ mean now?”

“I think it’s important to have older, louder female voices in anti-fascist spaces. Because many cis men take that space for granted. They have never had the same barriers to football. So I think there’s a lot of power in using space as a vehicle for social change.”

Many of the organizers I spoke to had their lives transformed by becoming part of the football community. Or, more often than not, playing soccer for the first time was a political and queer feminist act, but it was also associated with a lot of joy. Such pride and joy were the driving force that supported their long-term activities.

Top photo: Repubblica playing against Diyar University Palestinian women's team in 2017