Fuck Oxfam

@Slothtoes Having worked in international development a little bit (very much on the fringes) I suspect it's a combination of things here, but mostly that across the sector there's an atmosphere of guilt (entirely appropriately, in Oxfam's case) that the big international aid organisations have been dictating aid policy for decades from comfortable offices in london and New York. The move towards giving actual financial, cultural and executive power to Global South aid organisations has been a long time coming. This film was made in Bangalore by women of colour and had presumably been signed off by Oxfam's member offices in India. For some Brit to say 'hang on, in the UK we've been having this conversation for ages and this isn't OK' would have felt (to the British office) uncomfortably like colonialism - these words get thrown around pretty freely in the sector and the issue is red hot.

Not saying it makes it ok but I can see how it happened.

@Slothtoes doesn't matter what branch released whet statement. It's Oxfam as an organisation that needs a full boycott. All women need to find other organisations which actually recognise them as women & appreciate their worth in the charity.
It is funny seeing Oxfam trying to limit the damage control though😂

I’m probably behind on the thread. I’d expect that mega brand charities with global reach, but who have national set ups for organisation, fundraising and governmental charity regulation-and who want to retain the power of one shared charity name/identity- would normally have very senior people paid to be coordinating their comms outputs so it’s all consistent

But if (bafflingly) UK Oxfam had nothing to do with this advert and was unaware of it prior and if UK Oxfam condemns promoting misogyny via personal attacks, and promoting racist stereotype caricatures, and deplores the global Oxfam office apparently promoting these, then shouldn’t the UK Oxfam strongly say so?
And explain how it had no oversight and was as upset as anyone else by this?

“55balloons”

I suspect that if women start leaving their volunteering positions as well and go and work for another charity, Oxfam will notice the impact when they cannot open stores some days due to lack of volunteers.

Wonder if many are on mumsnet🤔 there definitely is a boycott culture rapidly gaining force stemming from bud lite, Nike etc.. People are actively seeking alternatives now & are seeking whose values align with theirs. There is a cost of living crisis, hard earned cash is tight, companies need to work for customers money. I for one won't support wokeness or any company using woke language trying to make the word woman extinct like the dodo birds.

The piece in the times has this chilling bit.

“Copies of the presentation were sent to staff who did not attend the meeting. A separate slideshow also sent out features a section entitled: “What pushback do we anticipate?”

“Responses include: “Media leak/hostile sharing”, “complaints from staff who feel their behaviour/beliefs are being policed” and “awkward questions from supporters, volunteers, etc.”

Basically, they are signalling to people to STFU and don’t complain if they feel this is unequal treatment of women. I suspect that their head office and executive have no ideas, they have been hired because they all share the exact same ideological values.

It really is reaching a crescendo with the message that Oxfam really do hate women.

More negative coverage in the Times today - people within Oxfam not happy with the rollout of inclusion guidance featuring stonewall content

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/7440787e-070d-11ee-b1f9-dbcd37af20fb?shareToken=714b694d84343287ca052f665cd14a78

A charity commission spokesman said: “We note that Oxfam International has apologised for the concerns caused by its video and has made changes to it.

“We have carefully considered the issues raised.

“Oxfam International, the organisation that posted the video, is not registered in the UK or registered with us.

“Oxfam GB, which is registered with the commission, has submitted a serious incident report to us detailing its response to the reputational damage caused by the incident, and we have concluded that there is no further role for us as regulator.”

https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/charity-commission-calls-respect-jk-130649758.html

I wonder how long it took Oxfam GB to realise that they needed to make a pro-active move to stop being investigated by the Charity Commission, so submitted a "serious incident report"?

Hypocrites.

Sorry I've only just seen this. I'm assuming their Twitter feed is run by a young UK person who is trying to use the language they believe won't offend anyone - wrongly, obviously - but the charity is African based and led and they absolutely know what a woman is, the whole trans ideology isn't a thing in their work as they focus on dealing with women's biological health issues and the cultural issues that affect these.

Or ignored.

All those small gestures add up quickly, especially if done en masses. They are also very empowering.

I felt so great removing Innocent smoothies from my rolling shopping list, every week without fail I bought them. After their championing of the "legends at Mermaids" I will necer ever purchase one of their products again & the choice empowers me. Also I'm quite smug that the Tesco version are much cheaper & taste the same. So I'm empowered & ever so slightly richer!

India is also a very unsafe country for women.

I was in a town with a nice Oxfam bookstore today. I walked on by

A small gesture but if their revenue goes down from the date of the video, perhaps the Board will join the dots…

Is it 1 April again this year?

That was likely one of the young interns. On their website it’s all about women and girls etc. I worked with Amref and they were excellent. Admittedly it was all long before GI was even a thing.

Isn't that just the term that was in use been in 2014 @Tanith ? I think that was before Stonewall got all into trans issues and when it was still common to see the acronym LGB. He may also have been omitting the T deliberately because he was trying to make the point that they weren't the focus of stonewall.

In 2014, Sam Dick wrote this article for the Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/voluntary-sector-network/2014/apr/24/charity-successful-lobby-stonewall

It's interesting that Sam makes no mention of the T; he refers to LGB throughout his article.
However, a couple of the comments that follow refer to LGBT. There's specific accusation that Stonewall has failed because it does not represent Trans.

"Those who menstruate" so this organisation also doesn't support women. @persister sorry but no.. Not good enough. Obviously not your fault but that's a ridiculous statement to have on their social media. Those who menstruate have a label or title already we're women. Nothing else.

I see they refer to 'those who menstruate' on Twitter.

Ultimately the Trustees of charities have legal responsibility and they should be overseeing the overall charity direction and that the staff and Chief Exec carrying it out effectively etc.. so this is their failure really.
Looking at that quote though Dick has failed by his own admission. Misogynistic and racist hate caricatures generated to support charitable aims are not ‘safe’ for those portrayed

@persister what is their stance on woman? Biological women. Are they womanphobic & women haters like other similar organisations?

I'd not heard of Amref - thanks. That's a good list of projects.

If you're looking for an alternative to Oxfam to donate to, you could do a whole lot worse than https://amrefuk.org/

I know a fair amount about their work and it's fantastic, and heavily focussed on women - especially obstetric fistula, ending FGM, maternal and child health. They also train local health workers, tackle non-communicable diseases like diabetes, run mobile vaccination clinics, the list goes on.

@Clymene Sorry you in my thanks.

@ResisterRex @Needmoresleep Thanks both for those links. That explains it - not the CEO, but another very senior position. Looks like the influencing may not be going the the right way for him at the moment!

Also, thanks for the information about changes to what constitutes 'charitable objectives', Resister.