Men violently preventing women from congregating, communicating and networking, is what the Taliban do. Why is it happening in the UK?

Excellent, thank you.

'In an increasingly polarised world, women are being squeezed by misogynistic forces from both right and left.'

She’s consistently good on this

Excellent piece, thanks for sharing.

Great column in the Times by Sonia Sodha
Trans protests are a fight feminists could do without

https://www.thetimes.com/article/8f93675b-a6c2-44de-b125-f0fb51203021?shareToken=a3d85e963244658c950e7bd23a59dab3

Ha ha, accusations of obsession! That can be added to the excellent round-up you were responding to. Are we obsessed with genitals too? 🤣

It's not just that. It's who they're backed by.

But we don't need this thread to be sidetracked by that discussion.

The group is/was called Palestine Action.
It was 'proscribed' (labelled a 'terrorist' organisation) following concerted lobbying by Friends of Israel, arms companies and others. They were never convicted in court for anything that any normal person would consider terrorism.

Pretty much all of their actions involved direct action (such as property damage) at arms factories and other sites where arms systems companies operated. They often carried tools (incl axes and sledgehammers) for use in these actions. (A bit like the suffragettes who carried and used hammers and axes... )They were very effective at shutting down arms factories and physically blocking the production of weapons for a period of time.

There have been a number of incidents where the police claimed to have been 'assaulted' by members of the group, including one situation where they alleged that an activist had attacked an officer with a sledgehammer (not an axe), and told the media she'd been 'hospitalised'. Later on they changed their story and said these alleged injuries "were not serious".

None of these alleged 'assaults' led to anyone actually being convicted of assault (suggesting that there wasn't any actual evidence and the police may well have made up the story) although I think a few activists accepted a caution so those cases never made it to court.

There are many many more occasions when the police have used extreme violence against Palestine Action and people associated with them, such as the protestors who were badly beaten in Govan, Glasgow last year.

Same here...

Your link goes to MI5 for me 😂

https://www.reddit.com/r/LabourUK/comments/1o41d4x/trans_activists_vandalise_filia_feminist/

Depressing.

Yes spot on

By the by:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13581155/boy-12-is-referred-to-counter-extremist-prevent-officers-by-his-own-school-after-declaring-there-are-only-two-genders-and-im-gay-not-queer.html

'A 12-year-old schoolboy has been investigated by counter-extremism officers after he declared there 'are only two genders'.
The child made a video, posted online, in which he also stated: 'There's no such thing as non-binary'.
And in response to school bullies who mistakenly believed he supported transgender ideology, he said: '[I'm] gay not queer.'
...
But the school told the boy's mother they would refer him to Prevent'

Yes, there's footage of them filming women attending.

'In this Act “terrorism” means the use or threat of action where—

(a)the action falls within subsection (2),

(b)the use or threat is designed to influence the government [F1or an international governmental organisation] or to intimidate the public or a section of the public, and

(c)the use or threat is made for the purpose of advancing a political, religious [F2, racial] or ideological cause.'

(2)Action falls within this subsection if it—

(a)involves serious violence against a person,

(b)involves serious damage to property,

(c)endangers a person’s life, other than that of the person committing the action,

(d)creates a serious risk to the health or safety of the public or a section of the public, or

(e)is designed seriously to interfere with or seriously to disrupt an electronic system.'

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/11/section/1

(My bold).

You may well be right, sadly.

They probably film the attendees too. Dox them to their employers if they can id them.

Yes! This is exactly it! I'd love to attend a feminist conference but I now don't feel I can because a protester might harm me. FWIW I have one closer friend who's a transwoman so I never saw them as a potential threat until I realised I can't go to conferences like FILIA, as a woman, safely.

It's also being used to intimidate venue owners to not hire their venues to womens groups

They're not obtuse. They know what they're saying.

Agreed, I find it difficult to comprehend the obtuseness of some people.

Absolutely this. It's a violent act, intended to terrorise and strike fear into the women about to attend the building. That's very obvious.

Not when they were damaging the planes. So if they are terrorists, so must this group be.

They attacked a police officer with an axe, IIRC

Hold on, weren’t freedom for Palestine or whatever convicted of terriridm and callled a terririst group even though no one was hurt?