Who‘s coming to FiLIA?

There was a kind of compere, but nothing was said about the Palestine/Israel bit that I heard. Speakers had got on stage one by one, most of them were talking about feminist issues/campaigns specifically related to Brighton. Gupta was there because she had edited/written? the ten-year history of FiLiA , which is why it did seem inappropriate for her to take her specifically personal stance on this issue and ask the audience to in effect agree with her.

I don't expect to agree with every woman even at a women's rights conference (Filia appears to have a pro-immigration stance that I do not gel with), but attempting a trite chant at the opening speech on an issue unrelated to the conference sounds more like a tone-deaf speaker selfishly going rogue than a problem with the conference itself.

Also, chants are embarrassing at the best of times, so she should be reprimanded for that alone.

Others may remember better but it was a weird one at a time on the stage rather than a panel /group. I think everyone was a little shocked and someone else took over

@IwantToRetireI don’t recognise anything in that article at all - seems like complete BS to me.

Dont be ridiculous, its not that simple at all. The muslim speaker calling on the crowd to chant free palestine was invited to talk about women's rights, not cheer on her own preferred cause, if you were there you would have seen how impossible it was to have a 'right of reply', when she has the stage and the microphone! I admire those that did at least walk out. I wish I had, but was too shocked to be honest.

There is no divine right to not be insulted.
There is no divine right to be invited to speak.

If you do not like what others have said, engage and contradict
not tantrum out

If you think the choice of speakers is not right
run your own conference

its that simple

How was it handled when it happened? There is usually someone acting as MC/host. Did that person say anything? (Like: ‘we will always stand for women’s rights and women’s rights to be free of male violence’?)

It seems like FiLiA are not replying to people raising this on X.

@IwantToRetirethats interesting and something I wasn’t aware of.

I am at Filia and the topics have been wide and interesting so far. I think the feminist movement needs a wide range of voices and I for one enjoy it. The high jack by Rahila this morning was clearly a surprise and not well received, especially as there was no acknowledgement too of Jewish women and children who had died. I personally don’t think organisers had anything to do with it

This is what I heard too.

What she said was fine, speaking about the violence of leaders on both sides.

Starting the "free free Palestine" chant was wildly inappropriate though, and thankfully was only taken up half heartedly by a few people.

Yes, I was there - as you might have guessed! An excellent and moving session.

Yes I know that, and isn't relevant to what I asked.

If you are at FiLia do you experience these allegations that some women feel excluded not welcome.

You know those sites are nothing to do with Julie Bindel and Kathleen Stock

I'm not on this thread, and have expressed elsewhere why I think it is coporatised and not that feminist. Especially banning women who dont fit the correct politics of AGCL who seemed to have infilitrated the organising group. ie Julia Long being expelled is almost a yearly ritual. And one year she had a stall outside!

But find the reasons in this article calling for a boycott of Filia (a bit late) so implausible I feel I should somehow be supportive.

Just wondered if any of you there feel what this article says is in any way what you are experiencing.

https://bindelstockclock.substack.com/p/boycottfilia-how-filia-targets-jewish

See also https://x.com/unherdclock

I enjoyed that one too. Especially JB’s rant at the end.

Ah ok - I missed the opening session as I couldn’t get there until 11.

The Dworkin film session this afternoon was brilliant as were all of the speakers (including the wonderful Julie Bindel)

I think she might have been talking about Rahila Gupta in the opening session. If I heard correctly, RG acknowledged the violence on both sides, and then started calling out for Palestine. Some people joined in. A woman near me was obviously very upset by this and shouted back about the 7th of October. To be honest, it did feel rather inappropriate to have this chant as part of the presentation from the main stage in the general opening session.

The bunting was still at the station this morning!

I don’t know what talk JL walked out of - it certainly wasn’t the one I attended where a Southall Black Sister was talking (about the far right) and very eloquently. There were 12 other talks taking place at the same time though.

I was looking forward to seeing the bunting (when do we ever get bunting or any kind of welcome in a public place??) but for whatever reason 🤷🏻‍♀️🤔🧐 it’s no longer there.

Oh dear God

I thought the speaker did condemn Hamas then went on to also condemn the Israeli government but I could have misheard.

However I was very uncomfortable with talk of genocide and chants of 'free, free Palestine' and most of the attendees seemed to feel the same.

Rather hope FiLiA will put out a statement about what happened across all their channels as reports are obviously of a concern for anyone who cares about ending MVAWG

Well I'm with Julia Long on this occasion all the way. A feminist conference should condemn violence against women whoever the perpetrators are. I'd like to think I'd have walked out too.

Bash Back have helpfully posted video on X of them vandalising the Conference Centre if the police can be arsed to investigate.
https://x.com/TransBashBack/status/1976555969439223934

KJK x post re Filia