Who‘s coming to FiLIA?

Yes but I'm not an organisation running a conference and I haven't banned anyone and not refunded their money paid for the days where they were banned for no reason (which is essentially stealing).

Yes, only a guess.

And a slur on FiLIA organisers and volunteers.

IMO because she didn't actually do anything wrong. I think they banned her because they don't like her opinions and thought she'd be a useful scapegoat for the trouble that didn't involve her. Just a guess though.

Banning her is slurring her. It implies she did something wrong. They haven't said what.

FiLiA haven't slurred Aja, or anyone else TBF.

Aja herself says she was banned. She's asked for an explanation and not got one (or a refund) as far as I know.

Saying it's definitely racist (or homophobic, or classist/snobbery or anything else) is no more untethered to reality than saying it definitely wasn't. We can't possibly know.

All we know is she did nothing wrong and was barred. She was also monstered in Milli Hill's blog very unfairly and as @notsurewherenotsurewhy says there's a bit of a history of unfairly painting black women as aggressive so given the total lack of any evidence justifying a banning, it's not surprising people are speculating.

I mean she started a conga line FFS, it's hardly aggressive or threatening is it?

It's not ok to ban her, keep her money, slur her name, and not explain. If it was a mistake it's way past time for an apology.

Not really. The volunteers did 'shifts' so were at times volunteering for FiLiA and at times a regular attendee. Even Milli backed down from associating this message with the organisation.

It looked as though Milli included the information about the 'FiLiA volunteer' in her initial blog in an attempt to give legitimacy to her alleged fear of Aja. In reality, it was likely someone who knew Milli/is a friend of Millie's who Milli happened to know was/has volunteered for FiLiA.

We don’t know either way at the moment.

This begs the question if a volunteer isn't 'acting in their capacity as a volunteer' did they get free tickets in which case they ARE acting in their capacity as a volunteer.

So that needs looking at as well. Well it would be if I was part of the investigation team. Which they probably haven't brought in yet.

That's fair. I would caveat that the 'FiLiA volunteer' wasn't acting in her capacity of being a 'FiLiA volunteer' when she told Milli this, (Milli amended her blog to this effect), so it's not accurate to say that this was 'FiLiA's' actions.

Notwithstanding, there are very racist overtones Milli''s alleged fear of Aja and the blog that she posted, which she removed the pay wall from as though it was something to be proud of.

FiLiA's statement says that they're going to commission an independent investigation into the events during the disco. The email sent to attendees during the conference said that the police were involved - not sure exactly what to do with. It's probably a good thing that they're taking their time to work through everything that happened, including their own safeguarding failures, even if it is frustrating for Aja and DJLippy that they haven't received a response yet.

It was my post you quoted (aware I'm not the only person on this thread voicing this issue, though):

"the seemingly very racialised banning of a Black woman"

You're right that none of us yet know why Aja and Lippy were banned. However, it's not at all ridiculous to acknowledge the racist overtones in MH's blog relating to this aspect (Milli's self-reported anxiety that Aja was there to attack her, rather than simply because it's a massive feminist conference; and the FiLiA volunteer she reports as helpfully pointing out Aja to her, as if she's some sort of threat to be aware of) - which actually constitutes a massive proportion of what is currently known about this ban!

And, of course, none of us can really prove that MH being (or claiming to be) frightened of Aja, and a FiLiA volunteer apparently humouring that, had anything to do with race. Maybe it did, maybe it didn't. But there is a rich fucking history of White women weaponising their fears of Black people (men and women), and of Black women being perceived as aggressive, excessively angry, difficult. So until I hear otherwise, I'll continue to recognise that this unexplained banning, which nobody seems to have any explanation for, and which FiLiA has yet to comment on, seems to have taken place in a racialised context.

If Aja was banned, and it sounds like she was on the Sunday, it will 100% NOT be because she is black, or a lesbian.

That Aja was banned because of either her race or sexual orientation, or both, is the ridiculous assumption, untethered in reality.

I don't think anyone on this thread is going up be able to make it make sense tbh.

It's not clear why A and DJ were refused entry on Sunday. They have written to FiLiA and are writing for a response. Meanwhile, the 5 trustees (all women with other commitments) are dealing with the charity commission, the police, wash up from the conference and about 20,000 emails, many from hurt, distressed and/or angry women. They're commissioning an independent investigation into the safeguarding failures at the party and being bombarded with statements from groups.

I'm not sure that going round in circles saying the thing is going to further any sense-making tbh.

Aja and Lippy were not in any of the altercations on the Saturday night.
JH and JCJ were
along with a couple of other ladies who had to be physically separated in the bar.

Only Aja and Lippy were barred on the Sunday

make it make sense

It isn't an assumption if they literally banned a black lesbian from attending an event she had paid in full for.

Does it, aye? Welcome to mumsnet, btw.

😂

"If black, lesbian or Jewish women arent part of the gang, who'd want to be in their gang anyway?"

^ One ridiculous assumption untethered in any reality.

"the seemingly very racialised banning of a Black woman"
^ another ridiculous assumption is that any women excluded would be because of her race. Its simply untrue, harmful stirring , untethered in any reality.

I've only looked back a few posts.

Can you be specific about these assumptions?

Indeed @RobinEllacotStrike I think there are a lot of ridiculous assumptions on this thread. Just ridiculous.

oh sorry are we only talking about 2 women? I didn't realise.

I'm not actually talking about two women. I don't know why Aja & Lippy werent allowed in on Sunday & I too would like to know this.

I am replying in general to points raised on this thread, and more specifically to the ridiculous accusation that all these women of many different ethnicities, colours, nationalites, religions, sexualities, political persuasions and classes have joined together to create "FiLiA is, at its core, a racist and antisemitic organisation."

How did the two women being discussed here 'behave very very badly'?

Many of the FiLiA volunteers, (and trustees), are black, lesbian &/or Jewish. Also many are working class and many are asylum seekers.

So far I've seen FiLiA called her, on X & in various articles/substacks etc, sexist, racist, anti-semitic, classist. Anything I've missed? Oh yes allegedly there was a TiM at Filia lording over women too (not that I or any of the 100+ women I knew at FiLiA saw him).

Everyone blaming FiLiA for creating & holding a unique space for many different women to come together. Some of these women intentionally behaved very very badly, and then all they turn and point the finger at FiLiA "It's HER fault".

What a mess.

Or are these people who call themselves 'feminists' not really feminists at all?

If black, lesbian or Jewish women arent part of the gang, who'd want to be in their gang anyway?