Fuck Oxfam

It's Pride Month. Oxfam are going big on it. One of the things they've produced is a short animated video on YouTube (click on Twitter link at start of this thread).

It wants to be supportive of LGBTQ+ people. But the Oxfam video itself peddles cruel stereotypes, not least the older white woman with a badge identifying her as a TERF (a slur referring to women critical of gender ideology), being hateful.

In recent years Oxfam had scandals where workers overseas raped women they were meant to be helping. For lots of people this will be the last straw, as it will confirm fears that Oxfam is toxic and misogynistic.

I'm fucking appalled. Now back to the top to read what everyone else has to say!

I wondered about that. Just checked and they say complaints should go to the charity itself in the first instance.

https://forms.charitycommission.gov.uk/raising-concerns/

Can someone explain this to me in idiot terms? Sorry I'm just not up to speed with all this stuff but want to know more 👍🏻

Fuck them. Absolutely had it.

I wonder whether it’s worth complaining to the charity commission?

Crikey.

What delights will day 6 of Pride bring? It gets worse every time I open twitter up. But we can't say anything lest we are accused of homophobia.

It's racist as all hell, with the demonised Chinese and Japanese caricatures
as well as this

This, I can't help but feel your time would be better spent volunteering elsewhere.

I certainly wouldn't volunteer for an organisation which enabled its workers to rape children. There are loads of charity shops crying out for volunteers, women's shelters, refugee centres, the list is pretty much endless and it's quite easy to find a multitude of organisations that will value those who work for free rather than patronise and demonise them.

Oh and meant to add - most people volunteering in your average shop are not political in the slightest. They might sign a petition. They certainly wouldn't be attending a demo, putting a poster in their window or wearing a political t-shirt.

Bunch of crooks. How has it come to this?

Despite their superstore being the closest and most convenient place to drop things off, I’d rather go out of my way to donate elsewhere. I always thought Oxfam shops had an arrogant vibe about them too. Their legacy and purpose is totally tainted for me.

Yes but it would take a mass, organised action. 600 shops in the UK, each shop probably has a rota of 20-50 volunteers on the "staff". And some of the volunteers in the studenty, trendy areas probably agree with all this stuff.

Volunteers are not feeling listened to by head office. We see the district manager once in a blue moon. We have not seen anyone else from Head Office ever and I've been there 8 or 9 years. They don't ask us about what's important to us (raising money for disaster response) and what's not (political campaigning and gender woo).

Stropping off and handing in my notice would make not one iota of difference. They don't care. The fact that lots of middle aged women in Scotland or Wales had stopped volunteering wouldn't even get fed back to head office. Communication is awful, we are not listened to. We have some fairly serious health and safety issues going on in our shop with mould/damp which is ongoing for 2 years and we can't get anyone to listen or deal with it.

So why do I stay? Because I like my fellow volunteers and the shop environment and know that the work I do - unpaid - really does raise money to respond when something like the Turkey earthquake happens.

Thanks you're right. NHM was last year's 'queer animals for pride' clusterfuck!

I have just deleted my direct debit. I’ve been sending these misogynists £20 a month for years. It’s over. I’m now working out who to switch my donation to.

You know @GulesMeansRed the only way they'll change is if you all just stop. They are demonising women who are the backbone of their organisation. Withdraw your labour.

We don't have to politely take this shit. You're volunteers, you're not earning anything. Tell them to fuck off with their misogynist hate b

I only give to a charity that is 100% reliable and through someone who can give directly to the needy....these big charities are all scammers even children in need their CEOS make a luxury living from it. The amount that gets Donated to them I don't see the full results of it. Plz stop throwing money to these big brand charities...do your own research and only give to reliable sources.

The four-week “learning journey” recommends that staff read Me Not You: The Trouble with Mainstream Feminism, a book by Alison Phipps, a professor of gender studies at the University of Sussex.

Shop volunteers are not getting this training. No idea who is. Bit of an echo-chamber at Head Office.

Yes and I'm one of them.

In about January there was a big survey commissioned to look at volunteer engagement, training, what was working, what wasn't working. The results were out last week and were no surprise at ALL to any of us at the coal face.

Huge disconnect between the "culture" at the head office and stores. Store volunteers don't give two hoots about gender identity and inclusive language and even aren't on board with the campaigning and politic-ing that Oxfam do around poverty. Store volunteers are there to raise as much money as they can so that Oxfam can meet its core goals of helping after natural disasters, digging wells, feeding and vaccinating children. Store volunteers reported that they did not feel listened to, did not feel consulted, felt ignored and unrecognised for what they did for the charity.

Store volunteers are a much more diverse bunch than Head Office, who are all left-leaning 20 somethings, many of whom appear to be working in a charity being simultaneously financially supported by mummy and daddy. The ladies I work with on a Wednesday are all older than me and I'm 50. They are socially conservative and not on board with all the gender woo nonsense. Our store is being quietly subversive from the inside.

Please don't think all volunteers are in agreement with Head Office tweets, or policies, or brochures. We're never consulted when they issue this sort of nonsense, and are on the front line of people getting justifiably cross about it.

By all means email head office, tweet them, write to them. Don't take it out on your local volunteers. And don't expect a reply either, as we don't get replies to our concerns/complaints on the internal messaging system.

Great letter!

There’s an irony in that they’re trying to show how trans people are subject to hate… and yet this is the most hateful, spiteful video I can imagine a charity ever making. How shamelessly misogynistic to demonise women who have legitimate concerns about gender ideology. Despicable twits.

You'd have thought that after their shenanigans in Haiti had come to light, they'd have had sense to keep their heads down a bit, wouldn't you?!
As it is they've yet again proven themselves to be utterly vile and not worth supporting, not that i did anyway, there are better charities out there, afaic.
They might find though, that they've just about bitten the hand that feeds them, for the last time. It's not poor people that visit their shops, not at those prices!

What a shitty day, we are only on day 5 of 30 days in June! I'm so fed up already. 😞

And now I've just read that the BBC received 1.7 million complaints of bias over the last five years and upheld ...

25 of them.

I mean it always felt like pissing in the wind submitting a complaint but I thought the ratios would be a bit better.

Today is an all round shitshow

FYI emailed to [email protected]

Dear Oxfam,

Over many years I’ve been a loyal supporter of Oxfam. In the past financial year alone, the amount raised from my donations was £x,xxx, which I gift-aided.

I’m writing to let you know I won’t support Oxfam again.

I was already feeling uneasy about your support for the trans agenda over the past couple of years. Your website still links to Mermaids, a controversial group now being formally investigated over safeguarding concerns. I’m convinced the current fad to rush vulnerable and confused children to life-changing and mutilating surgery will be seen by future generations as a medical scandal.

Then this evening I saw your new short Protect the Pride animation. The ’TERF’ image (below) is beyond offensive, like an image from old Nazi propaganda. As you must know, gender-critical views are protected in law in the Equality Act 2010. To portray an older woman as a hateful TERF is disgusting. I’d say in UK law it will probably count as a hate crime, so I’d get your lawyers onto this very quickly indeed.

I know you mean well, and think you are promoting inclusion. But the way you are doing it its itself hateful and peddling cruel stereotypes. This is now about blow up in the national press (it already has on Twitter), and will lose Oxfam thousands of supporters – particularly women who have questions about gender theory.

I’m sorry to say I can’t support an organisation that presents women who have genuine, valid questions about gender ideology as evil and malicious, and supports an organisation such as Mermaids that is damaging the lives of vulnerable children.

I remain concerned about issues of poverty and development, but I shall find another charity to support.