Who‘s coming to FiLIA?

@ParmaVioletTea a haven of socialist radfems.

Good, now I can see where FiLiA is coming from. That's ok, I just don't understand why they don't own it. I'm sure all you very clever, OGfeminists all know the score but some of us are relatively new to this

A lot of the criticism of FiLiA on this thread has been that they haven't been controlling enough.

That's helpful to hear, thank you.

It was last night. I am amplifying this because it is not trivial. As an organisation they are thoroughly and unapologetically antisemitic- and yet FILiA invited them. THEY say because FILiA knew their views. I would like clarification. FILiA needs to b3 held to account for this. If antisemitism runs through them like the “Blackpool” in Blackpool rock then I know a lot of women who will want nothing more to do with them.

KJK must be dangerous if they cant have approved guests showing art mentioning her.

Little bit over the top and controlling?

Have you ever attended a FiLIA event @MurkyWeather2 or a WPUK, or a Fairplay for Women?

I remember going to a WPUK (or Fairplay for Women, can't quite recall) in Bristol way back in early 2017 when I was under the cosh of transactivists (who were trying to get me sacked), and KJK was there. There is far more to all of these organisations than "ladies who lunch." That phrasing actually displays a fair bit of ignorance about what all of these organisations do, try to do, and set out to achieve.

You don't have to agree with everything, but it'd be nice if you didn't use sexist slurs.

I don't like the increasing undercurrent of racism in some of her public videos

That's absolute rot, decrying the invasion of Islamism into our country is not racism.

I think we need to be careful about expecting one organisation to be all things to all people. FiLIA is a feminist organisation; Kellie Jay Keene has said many times she's not a feminist.

I rate KJK - I think she's brave and speaks sense. I don't like the increasing undercurrent of racism in some of her public videos, and I'm further to the left than she is. Her voice can be pretty extreme at times, but we need people on the edges to push the mainstream (just look at how effective that's been for TRAs over the last decade!)

But FiLIA is under no obligation to offer space to someone who is so openly not a feminist. Yes, it would have been great to have her there. WDI, a radical feminist organisation, invited her to the 2024 conference and she was fantastic - very straightforward, reasonable and pleasant, even in a haven of socialist radfems.

I don't see that one follows the other. KJK doesn't approve of FiLiA, either, and that's fine, too (though I don't see how calling them "arseholes" gets us any further). As this thread amply demonstrates, we had plenty of disagreement to go around last weekend, without making it "ladies who lunch".

The fact that there are women who FiLiA do not approve of is exactly why they should be given space. Otherwise FiLiA is just 'Ladies Who Lunch'.

*ArcheryAnnie" if you email FiLiA as I have, you'll receive an auto reply that says pretty much that.

Looks like that exchange had just over 100 views. I don't see a time stamp - was it before she apologised?

Why are you choosing to amplify antisemitism?

The child is having a tantrum. This is the calibre of speaker FILiA invited. I don’t need to be told how hard it is to organise large conferences- I’ve done it. Inviting this group was a fuck up of major proportions and they really need to say something. If they are unable to agree on what to say then that simply confirms that some of the trustees/ organisers agree with the antisemites.

This won't make me popular here, but I think that's fair enough. KJK has been very, very critical of FiLiA - as is her right. But if someone made a tiktok calling me an arsehole, then I wouldn't want to hang a picture of them in my house. Just as KJK is free to criticise FiLiA, it's reasonable that FiLiA is free not to want to give over space to promoting KJK.

Having thought about it a lot more, I think even this - a couple of days to recover then thrashing out a statement - is unrealistic. Rushed decisions are not necessarily good decisions. Perhaps a more achievable thing - and one which acknowledges the work ahead - is just an interim statement to say that they know past and future attendees need to hear from them, that they take this very, very seriously (which I don't doubt at all), and then to tell us whatever it is that they are planning to work on.

Agree with all of that @Shinyredbicycle Those of us who have experience in leading and organising large groups and big conferences know how frantic it can get during the event.

Had FiLIA shut down speakers and workshops I suspect they’d be criticised for doing that.

FiLIA can’t be blamed for the deep ideological divisions around the Middle East at the moment, nor about the underlying currents of racism in UK at the moment. Of course, in a politically charged conference, these issues will be raised. The Jew hatred was vile but FiLIA volunteers moved quickly to try to deal with things. Improvisation isn’t always effective. But condemning the whole organisation - particularly when you weren’t there - and casting aspersions on factions controlling it isn’t productive.

She saw the spiteful children with the Palestinian flag deliberately wrap it around the elderly, disabled, Jewish woman.

Is there any scope to report this as a hate crime or at least a hate incident?

Along with anything similar that happened.

For future gatherings I guess also tighten up the TofCs for future attendees and speakers.

Absolutely.

Definitely. And that would have to include anyone who had ever cheered on or even gloated about the mob violence against Kellie-Jay.

As to what lessons we can learn from it, not just for future FiLiAs, but for any feminist gathering: the need for a really robust look at prospective speakers, to swerve any woman of any political persuasion whatsoever who has cheered on violence against other women, or who has celebrated and prioritised men who have committed violence against women.

(Also thanks, @ParmaVioletTea, I really needed to hear that.)

Maybe rather than berating the women organisers'and trustees of FiLiA for not having yet made a statement about the antisemitism and other racism, some attendees posting images and videos of others on SM without consent, some speakers using their Substack to publish racist, classist and derogatory allegations about other attendees, some attendees using SM to amplify the vile anti-Zionist material on one of the stalls, the upset that some of Rahila's opening remarks caused, the impromtu demonstrations outside by some of the women attending, the issues that came out of the Sunday afternoon anti-colonialism meeting and so on, people could have a think about what can be done to make women's meetings and conferences anti-racist in the current climate?

I'm not suggesting some sort of brain storm on this thread btw. It's just that I've been trying to think about what a truly anti-racist space that felt safe for all women would look like these days. Just saying, 'no racism' is paltry - yes, there's some obvious racism (taking photos of women wearing headscarves and sharing them on SM as examples of women taking part in their own oppression would fall into this category - yes it did happen, and happen more than once) but there are also differences of opinion over ideologies like Zionism and so on.

It's complicated, bloody complicated. FiLiA did make some mistakes for sure but a small group of women pulled off a three-day conference with 12 workshops running simultaneously nearly all the time, stalls, films, meetings and so much more. It was a remarkable event, so many beautiful things happening despite all the conflict, division and tensions.

I remain in awe and don't begrudge them a few nights sleep inbetween going through the travel and accommodation receipts they'll have received from hundreds of speakers and volunteers, all the emails about 'I left my scarf somewhere - did anyone pick it up?', let alone all the angry and upset communications they'll have received, many with legitimate grievances.

The Filia lady filming on Sunday lunch was shaking with anger
and when the silly Norwegian woman started speaking
it was awful

IMO it's just not acceptable to mention the suffering of Palestinian women in a war which has also harmed Jewish women without mentioning both groups of women suffering. It's not feminist.

I agree entirely, @whatwouldafeministdo , and so I would, from what I heard, the FiLiA comms person who spoke (on her own account) at the Jewish women and allies meeting on the Sunday. She was really upset and angry that this speaker had broken the agreement not to do this. If this was my event and my team - senior volunteers, the trustees, etc - I'd have asked everyone to take a couple of days to sleep then had a day to thrash out a joint statement, which I imagine isn't going to be an easy thing for them to agree, as if this can happen in the first place, there's unlikely to be an easy unity available. I hope they are able to put out a statement soon, and begin the process of repairing relationships and processes (and that's going to take time and work), otherwise this will just continue to fester.

Which is disgraceful and there are no excuses or any justifications for their continued silence.