Why has WPUK gone quiet?

DH being 'strategically used' would fill him with glee no doubt.

There it is- Hayton was more “strategically useful” to a feminist group than we trans widows would be, even though we’d tell the real truth about AGP and not Hayton’s self serving lies. Shame on anyone who thinks this whilst professing to be a feminist.

He was a pervert who was telling the truth when no other AGP was, and I wanted him to keep telling the truth so a wider circle would hear this. That doesn’t mean I’m defending Hayton or whatever, it means I think this would be strategically useful

👏👏👏

Ludicrous but true.

Ain't that the truth.

At the end of the world, when civilisations are burning and the sun swallows us all, there will still be a thread on MN where women try to justify feminists platforming Dr Hayton.

Yeah exactly he's still knocking about. I read it (and I could be wrong here ) is that Posie's beef with DH is that he is a teacher admitting to a sexual fetish that is dressing as a woman. That's my beef with him tbh. Safeguarding.

I am really sad to hear this.

This is another group that from the outside I sort of accepted as being well run along party and trade union organising methods.

But given what I have said about my experience of groups like this in the past, I should have been a bit less Alice in Wonderland.

And without wanting to say this is always the case, there is no doubt that in some groups, personality clashes can be a contributing factor.

Lets face it a lot of strong willed women working together can be quite combustible.

ie when it is about strongly held beliefs rather than say organising some work event and tasks just needing to be shared out.

That was Hayton and his wife Stephanie.

Some activists allege she can be a bit of a bully towards other GC folk and her way is the only way. I think a lot of the dislike amongst the LWD activists does stem from the fact she left the party though. I personally don't mind her.

There are lots of problems with platforming men who like to pretend they're women. One is that it excludes their wives / ex wives and children, who, unlike the men, don't have loads of charities and public sector organisations falling over themselves to offer support.

I can't remember which high profile TIM it was that did a video with his wife where she looked like a hostage. It was one of them. You only have to read the transwidows thread to see there's a hell of a lot of abuse in these men's relationships with both their wives and children. Of course there is - denying reality, trying to convince someone their perceptions or memories aren't true, imposing a belief which always puts the controller in charge, getting his own way all the time and denying the reality and equal rights of his victims. Main character syndrome. It's classic coercive control and gaslighting.

Of course organisations don't have to be only about women, but we are also free to judge them on their choices and the impact that that has on women and children. And possibly question how truthful their statements about feminism may be based on actions.

Rosie didn't leave as such, she was bullied out by KS.

I’d like to know this too? Is it because she left the party?

Why don’t they like Rosie?

LWD still wont attend any events or protests where KJK is present which imo is just daft. You don't need to be besties to attend a woman's rights march.
They also really don't like Rosie Duffield behind the scenes.
LWD and WRN are just mad at the moment. I hear Conservative Women are actually 'nicer' and 'better organised' but I'm not a Tory so cannot confirm.

"They closed down in despair because it turned out that even though they as committed socialist had run some very good events that we had been happy to attend, it didn't turn us all into toe the line socialists."

Oh dear. It is awful when a closed-ranks, closed-minded little group is so dominated by their ideology that they can't survive as a reputable body, isn't it?
I simply can't image any parallels to this awful state of affairs...

It is. Sionnach makes me nostalgic for a left I could believe in.

Their final facebook post implied they were ceasing to organise because Labour had got into power, and there wasn't any need to campaign anymore.

ie ignoring that at the point had their not been an election Kemi Badenoch as Minister for Women was drawing up new guidelines emphasising women's sex based rights, whilst Labour men (and some women) couldn't publicly say what a woman was, or even is!

In some ways, Hayton is a fantastic example of "Let them speak"

He's written a book on being a fetishist who is aroused by being seen as a woman.

It should be very instructive for anyone looking at, say, the guidance he wrote about allowing male teachers and boys to access girls' loos at school.

AGP literally is a perversion. A paraphilia, a fetish, a sexual fixation outwith the norm.

Anyway. Not to get sidetracked.

Kristina Harrison was also prominent in the early days of WPUK.

Times were very different. Tiny grassroots groups come and go - in many ways that's a strength. Your aim as an org set up to address a concern should be to make yourself defunct.

As said up thread I think that on one level what happened with WPUK is very similar to other socialist feminist organisations, campaigns which were in fact made up of women with affilitations to Labour the the TU movement. As opposed to more radical socialist feminist groups, of which there used to be many.

Many had good political links, and equally important good experience of organising. And for many women it was a huge bonus to have well organised, on face value un-aligned meetings.

But when some women challenged from the floot the inclusion of DH etc., what was revealing was not some sort of political professional we are a broad church statement, but nasty personal sneers. (Sitting on chairs is just too OTT!) Or maybe this is how political rivals always behave? Or publicly canceling involvement in a meeting because KJK was to attend.

And this sort of sectarianims became obvious quite early on but at the same time there were 2 meetings (Bristol and Brighton - who else) where they stood up to the harrassment.

So I think overwhelmingly most wanted to only see the positive side of the work they were doing.

And then all that appropriation of what was basically KJK slogan and logo style be that documentary group who they promoted as though they had conceived all these ideas and KJK just didn't exist and shouldn't be acknowledged. Really nasty.

As I said up thread the facebook page showed that quite a few women had become disillusioned with them. And to given them their due, I think 99.9% of the time they didn't censor ie let stand some quite strongly critical posts.

Although for me any earlier doubts were totally crystalised by the gross misrepresentation of Women's Liberation in the Conference they organised.

An early fore runner of the dangers to handing over your critical thinking and letting an organising group decided who should or should not be the voice of feminism, as has happened with FiLia such as marginalising someone like Tinsel Angel in favour of one of their own.

The silly thing is, if what was WPUK organisation a socialist feminist event and were up front about it, I am sure many would attend, and there could be constructive discussion and even, after much showing of hands and calls for order, order motions passed!

Many in LWD say WPUK ceased because they had 'achieved their goals'.

Great post.

Whatever issues I have with them, they did have some excellent speakers.