East London Feminists

[ElephantsAndMiasmas]

Have been looking for feminist groups in East London, but not come up with anything, so was thinking of (possibly) starting one instead.

Does anyone know of a group? Or would anyone like to come to one? Would probably be quite relaxed, chatty (think MN in real life) and aiming to be a source of inspiration, moral support and wine ideas for activism etc.

:)

No, no, it's fine, we're cool. I probably should have made my intentions clearer. I'm really glad you're coming.

Looking forward to meeting you - all of you - very much!

Ahh sparky of course you have to come! :)

And you Alice!

If you alternate the meetings between East London, and The North, then sure. Have fun!

[embarressed]-sorry.
i got a bit upset because i cant risk joining facebook and this made me realise just how unfree my life really is.
anyway-look forward to meeting you all.

ha ha ha ha ha-thanks for making me laugh Daisy

Hello,

I wanted to let you know that the Fawcett Society is about to launch an East London Group on Thursday 9 June.

The purpose of the group will be to unite women in East London for the purpose of celebrating our achievements and driving forward progress in gender equality.

The group will unite women across all occupations (both employed and unemployed) and will run a 6-monthly programme of creative, social, political and intellectual events - open to women across London. The events will be designed to raise money for campaigning and also to promote local talent among women.

I am currently organising the launch event alongwith another woman. We hope to make the group as open and supportive to the interests of local women as possible and are looking for people to help run and promote the group.

If you would like more information, please email [email protected].

We would love for any of you with an interest to be involved/attend the events and there is no commitment necessary.

Best wishes,

Hannah

I am SO pleased about this :)

I had a really horrible anti-feminist conversation last week at a child's first birthday party (yes really!) which has made me think I really need to spend more time with people who think properly so I am doubly invested.

In fact, no pressure or anything but if you aren't all absolutely perfect and there isn't the promised cake (see mission statement ref to 'baked goods') well I do declare I just might lose all faith in human nature.

Sparky I'm not on Facebook either cos it's shit :)

banana bread do?

Oh, and hello Hannah! Good news about the Fawcett group, I did wonder why there wasn't an east London one.

I note that Fawcett didn't mention wine...

Look Fawcett, stop muscling in on our territory.

We're the biggest Feminists on the block, ok? You don't think that your your 150 year history and impressive track record of leading important campaigns for gender equality can even begin compete with our stickers and banana bread, do you? Do you, huh? Huh?

And - as Elephants has already pointed out - and we'll have wine.

Hannah, it sounds brilliant. I'd like to come, please. I will email.

is this still on?

anyone?

Yes it is Sparky! See you there!

thankyou Daisyhayes-got youre e mail.

hey, can I get involved? It's a bit short notice for tonight but maybe the next one (especially if i can bring baby in sling). I will PM for access to Facebook group! Am in E17 too

Excellent - come come come! I don't think we can call ourselves Feminists if we don't welcome babes in slings (though we're in a pub for tonight's meeting, which may be problematic for you Adair? We'll discuss alternative venues for the future)

Can't wait to see you all later :)

Just out of interest - is this new group women-only?

Errrmmm...it is a difficult one. It's been quite a divisive issue to be honest.

We are not quite decided yet. At the moment, we think that men can join the FB group (but a consensus has not yet been reached on whether men should post or not). Men will be welcome to attend every third meeting, but the majority will be women-only spaces.

Thanks Daisy

I have a 'mixed' Facebook group & wanted to publicise your group to any of our members who might happen to live in your vicinity

Anyway, whatever you end up deciding re membership, good luck with everything

I have just revisited this thread and it has made me smile....

East London feminists is now 85 members strong and doing amazing things!

In November alone we have organised: a members pre- and post- FEM 11 meet up, An ELF presence (complete with banner!) at Reclaim The Night, Feminist Book Club, the Anti-Sexism Workshop planning meeting as well the regular monthly ELF meeting.

If you're interested in joining us, our details are below and you can find us on Facebook:

"ELF was founded in May 2011, born from a feminist discussion forum on the internet. However, the group belongs to all the members and no-one is in charge or the arbiter of What Feminists Should Think About Stuff.

Everyone will be at a different point on the Feminism road. Some of us will be brand new to it, some of us will put Germaine Greer to shame, and all the stages in between. Everyone's contribution is valid and welcome and we hope that no-one will feel intimidated.

It's about discussion and sharing our thoughts, ideas and knowledge with everyone else. We are also working towards being activists, with lots of projects and campaigns on the go.

We meet monthly in a lovely venue in East London where there is always wine, rage, laughter and sometimes cake. You don't have to attend the meetings to be part of ELF though; our wall is always busy and lively with discussions and links added all the time.

We are a mixed gender group, though in the interests of protecting a women-only space, men are only permitted to attend every third meeting.

It's so exciting that there are so many of us who are interested in feminism to make this group.

Hope to see you at our next meeting. ¡Viva la Revolución!"

Well Done DH and others!

Thanks for posting, DH! The ELF are going great guns at the moment, as she says - we just had another brilliant meeting last night. We're also hoping to arrange some sort of MN/ELF meet-up at Reclaim the Night, for those that are going.

I'm not on FB... do you have a website... would love to come along sometime! Is it like the WI just without quite so much cake and needlework?

Quite a few members have fake FB accounts just for ELF... I know that's a bit of a pain though.

We're working on a website - should be up by the new year

Do come along to meetings, they're really fun. Do the WI talk about pubic hair a lot? If so, then yeah - we're just like them