Who‘s coming to FiLIA?

"Much more serious stuff" to you, maybe. For some of us, the seemingly very racialised banning of a Black woman who had done nothing wrong is pretty fucking serious stuff - particularly given the discomfort with her presence seems to have been connected with a platformed speaker (MH) and a volunteer (per MH's blog), and FiLiA actually took the decision to prevent her from entering conference the following day. It's not like the call to comment on this (in reply to Aja's own requests, if not within the statement) is asking FiLiA to comment on a dispute among attendees only.

I'm very much on the side of FiLiA, it's a more natural political home for me than LWS etc, and I don't want it to cease existing and putting on events such as last weekend's, but the longer this goes unaddressed the more upset and appalled I am.

I've emailed them. Had a holding response

Flia stated that 2 women were removed from the disco and not allowed to attend the next day.

I have expressed my views clearly in emails to Filia
and on Xtwitter

The changes they need to make are clear
I hope they do it.

Not repeating here as this account does not link to my other ones.

Exactly. Why mention 2 if there were 4 that were barred?

This is getting like 1984.

2 +2 is still 4 as far as I am aware. What I want isn’t relevent.

Only if you want it to be. It wasn't Filia that put the information about who was barred in the public domain.

Presumably four women were barred.

If you bar 2 people and say publicly that you barred 2 people for their behaviour then the intimation is that the 2 people that were barred were barred for their behaviour.

I think A and DJ should take up their being refused entry on the Sunday with FiLiA, but no amount of you SHOUTING is going to create an intimation that wasn't in the email.

They have and they're not getting answers.

The email from FiLiA stated some facts, presumably to let attendees know that they'd taken action in regard to two women who had behaved in an aggressive and intimidatory manner at the disco.

I'm not sure that it would have been appropriate for them to add they would also be refusing entry to some other women on the Sunday tbh.

I think A and DJ should take up their being refused entry on the Sunday with FiLiA, but no amount of you SHOUTING is going to create an intimation that wasn't in the email.

The two women that were barred WERE Aja and Lippy.

If you were barred without reason from something and someone put out a notice saying ' we barred two women from the day due to their behaviour' you'd probably be pretty pissed off that the INTIMATION was that you'd been barred due to your behaviour.

The email from FiLiA did not intimate who the two women they kicked out were. They did confirm later in the week that Lucy Masoud wasn't one of them, possibly because JH had posted on SM that she was.

If people want to put 2 and 2 together and come up with 5, I can't see how FiLiA can be blamed for that.

I have no idea why some women were not permitted to attend on the Sunday, and in the interests of privacy, I don't think I as another attendee should know.

This is a good point. Aja has multiple times been on the streets in crowds with angry men who want to harm her. Implying it was her at fault was not on. She's one of the warrior women who regularly face down angry TRA men.

Fifia made their own statement that they had barred two women due to their behaviour didn't they? Intimating that it was Aja and Lippy. And Milli hasn't said 'It wasn't a Filia Volunteer' just that it was 'someone' who may or may not have been a Filia Volunteer.

They don't have to be 'for all women' but putting an actual target on two women's backs, women who regularly go out and face down actual violent men is utterly disgusting.

They've had time now to clarify why they barred A and L from attending after the party and they have chosen silence. I'm very glad now I didn't fall for Filia twice and only wasted one weekend's 'conference' fees on them.

spannasaurus yes, I was talking about F's actions and whether they should make public comment on that aspect of events.

FWIW, I think Milli''s piece was racist, classist, crappy for A and a crappy thing to do to an organisation that has platformed you multiple times. In my opinion, she shouldn't have published it.

It seems to me, reading here about a conference I attended but don't recognise from many posts, that part of the problem is some PPs want FiLIA to be all things for all women.

It isn't and can't be, and some PPs are setting up an impossible standard.

If you don't like what FiLIA does, there are plenty of other grass roots feminist groups, or start your own.

Milli amended her piece to change Filia volunteer to someone. She didn't remove her remarks about Aja

Quite. They've said they're going to review their due diligence processes.

Shedmistress the info about the FiliA volunteer and A was from Milli Hill's blog. She's amended it now. I don't think F have a duty to make a public statement about this situation at this point tbh. There is much more serious stuff for them to be dealing with.

And in terms of attendees' behaviour, the first women who went on stage were two older women who proceeded to take their bras off and perform an imitation of a sex act. I'm not sure that was welcomed by everyone present tbh

I think FiLiA's preference would have been for attendees to behave a bit better tbh

But some of those badly behaving attendees were FiLiA insiders, Rahila Gupta and Lucy Masoud, for example, or speakers, such as Milli Hill and the Total Women Victory women.

They absolutely cannot request other people behave when they themselves had a volunteer running round telling someone that a black lesbian that someone had previously slated online was in the building, and then not letting same black lesbian in the next day. If they cannot make a coherent statement about what happened here then I'd be wary of anyone going to future conferences if they have had any previous interactions with any of them or their volunteers. It is shocking behaviour.

I do think they should explain why they banned Aja and Lippy. If it was a mistake, own it and refund their conference fees. It's not ok to takes someone's money and then do this.

Aja has asked for a reason on X, no reply. They've treated her dreadfully because they released a statement saying two people had behaved badly (turns out not Aja whose only offence was starting a conga line) and lots of people jumped to the conclusion it was two blameless women when they were banned out of the blue with no reason given.

And while I'm generally in favour of naming the problem, I don't think the statement about how FiLiA move forward as a charity is the place for naming antisemitism. The reason being that if they did they should for balance mention the conduct of some attendees towards Muslim women wearing headscarves ie taking photos then sharing them on social media as examples of women complicit in their subjugation.

This would then make the document something other than a statement about the event and the actions they have taken/will take to move forward as a charity, which wasn't it's purpose.

They've said they'll meet and listen to individuals and groups. This is going to take longer thañ the week since the conference finished.

The security team employed by FiLiA is all female. I assume the men that got involved were the venue's who didn't want things inflamed any further.

One of the FiLiA team was standing between JH and JCJ while the venue staff were getting women off the stage.

I think FiLiA's preference would have been for attendees to behave a bit better tbh. They've said they're going to review security arrangements for future years.

I posted this on the other thread but it's probably more relevant here:

I don't think it's fair to say that women who weren't at this FiLiA should STFU. Having been to 4 of the last 6, 3 times as a speaker, and unable to attend this time, I'm pretty sure I've put in enough FiLiA-work to warrant an opinion.

I think it's unfortunate that the statement fails to apologise for the extreme hurt and distress caused to both attendees and stakeholders and also fails to name the problem (i.e. anti-semitism).

And I absolutely agree with @IwantToRetire about the bait and switch of celebrating an all-female security team and then relying on male security to actually do the security work. Not once, but twice. Inviting men in to police women in a female only space feels very antithetical to feminism and the provision of feminist spaces.