Who‘s coming to FiLIA?

I missed Rahila's speech.
Having now seen it I am glad I did.
I am saddened that Filia allowed her stall to stay after that.

The Filia book she was involved with probably did not sell well for the rest of the weekend.
I certainly do not want a copy.

The fucking egos on these people! I don’t give a fuck what Rahila Gupta thinks about Palestine. I can hear ‘from the river to the sea’ at every toxic fucking student union / trade union / male-dominated misogynistic gathering of pricks about.

A lot of ordinary women travelled miles and paid money they couldn’t afford to attend this event, and you’ve got a minority of self-important attention seekng jack arses and a few juvenile social media warriors sabotaging it. Just fuck off and let the grown-ups speak next time, will ya!

Waving the Palestinian flag and the yellow ribbons were provocative acts. Possibly the individuals who did so came from a place of expressing their beliefs, without realising that other parties present would experience them as racist/offensive/provocative.

Regardless, the FiLiA disco wasn't really the time or place for either. IMVHO.

I wasn't there and cannot imagine myself ever attending, but to my mind the Palestinian flag waving and the aggressive moral certainty that accompanies it is totally reminiscent of trans activists. What were these women thinking to permit themselves to get caught up in the hatred that typifies tribal politics such as this? Also very poor, ill thought out timing given the current ceasefire.

I also sense, though, that some may have become bogged down in the politics of personality and popularity that tends to accompany organised movements of any type.

Surely waving a flag was itself a provocative action? They must have known it would upset people.

“We must not allow ourselves to be divided, except by this” being the gist of the speech.

Its very in alignment with the current version of “inclusion” where you respect the beliefs of everybody but only as long they’re within certain omnicause parameters.

It says something that she thinks that speech is acceptable. It would have been so easy to end speaking about Palestine and Israel, condemning all the violence against women and using it as a time to bring women together (especially with the ceasefire) instead she ignored Jewish victims completely and called the only democratic country in the region fascist.
And she obviously still thinks it was ok and she's been misrepresented, well she hasn't been misrepresented, it was ill judged in the extreme. And very divisive.

See Aja’s Twitter.

Yikes. Me too.

Oh wow! That’s awful! Do you have a source for this?

Banning a black lesbian pretty much sums FiLiA and their supporters up.

That's worse than I expected.

I don’t think Aja and Lippy wanting to know why they were banned from the final day of a conference they’ve paid for constitutes “picking it apart” either. Should they just take it meekly, again for some kind of greater feminist elite good?

Rahila Gupta has posted the transcript and the video of the last few minutes of her speech at the opening Filia session.

It's still a no from me

x.com/RahilaG/status/1977740462581526658

Honestly reporting my experience of being fobbed off and then shunned as a potential speaker is “pulling it apart”? Are you suggesting I should have not talked publicly about it for the greater good?

You’ve still not explained why your first contribution to this thread was to say I’m a trouble maker, so I’ll presume you can’t substantiate it.

Julia as part of WDI and Lippy as part of Make More Noise, have organised successful events, which I have participated in and spoken at. Lippy and Aja were a part of the organisation of Let Women Speak events until fairly recently.

I was there and had spent a really enjoyable day on Saturday at some great sessions. I was really looking forward to the disco, which is always great fun. Was marred this time around by a group of women on stage draping the Palestine flags and keffiyeh (?) which was quite menacing and left a sour taste. Really surprised that anyone would think to bring a Palestine flag to a disco if their intention wasn’t malicious or to goad others. Really debating whether or not to attend next year’s event. Which is a real shame as so much effort had gone into organising such a huge event, only for it to be marred by a few.

Julia long, Tinsel Angel, Jean Hatchet, Aja and Dj Lippy should create their own event. Many of us would enjoying pulling it apart

Scathing article from Nicole Lampert

https://unherd.com/newsroom/antisemitism-row-splits-feminist-group/

Or me if I want to speak.

Or non-Jews who happen not to be wildly keen on antisemitism....

Agree.

@inkognithaIn support of your rant, the Dworkin documentary and panel discussion led by Julie Bindel was fantastic!

Many leading/public figures in the women’s movement need to have a hard look at their leadership style, wonder how far they have fallen into their own hype, main character energy and Last King of Scotland-type adulation from their groupies, write down 500 times the Dworkin quote about feminism being for all women until they get that FiLiA was the place where they should have made the effort to put all women first, grow up a little with their personal beefs and feuds and twitter spats and name calling and rise above. And to be able to hold their drinks or stay home. On all sides.

And for the love of the gods i don’t believe in, when someone apologises, rather than sniding “not enough”, think “not enough but a step nonetheless in the right direction”, that’s how you build respect and tolerance and a community for all women.

I hope FiLiA will ask attendees and speakers from next year to solemnly commit to respect Andrea’s Dworkin quote and to behave accordingly for the duration of the conference and towards all other attendees.

#rantover

Jean Hatchet wasn't helping the security. She was snatching flags and shoving women.

I hope FiLiA reaches out to the women who felt unwelcome with an invitation to take a platform next time.

That's an absolutely essential step, and I hope a lot more happens.