WPUK launch new wider based campaign - but contrarily only to their immediate followers.

[stumbledin]

Not sure I support the idea of a top down campaign that women (and men?) are supposed to be passive supporters of, but genuinely wonder at the tactic of launching to what is in effect its immediate fan base.

The campaign is about:

1. Women have a right to self-organise

Women have a right to self-organisation, to speak and to be heard free from fear of abuse, threat or vilification in public and political discourse and in academia. This should be actively facilitated by those with civic or legal responsibility for promoting equality.

1. The law must work for women

The law must be strengthened to ensure that all women who want or need single sex spaces (including toilets, health provision accommodation, prisons, sports, sexual and domestic violence services) are able to access them without resorting to extraordinary measures. Service providers should be supported in offering such services through legal and financial means and clear guidance must be issued on the exercising of such rights.

1. An end to violence against women

Government must make the end to male violence against women and girls a priority. Sustainable funding for independent women-led services for women subjected to VAWG must be fully resourced by central government alongside the implementation of statutory relationships and sex education in all schools.

1. Nothing about us without us.

All organisations, committees and politicians speaking on issues of material concern to women to demonstrate that they have widely consulted the women they represent and serve and that such consultation informs their action and their policies.

1. Sex matters

Rigorous collection and analysis of sex-based data and high-quality research must be central to the development of any services, policies or actions which address women’s needs or which challenge sex discrimination and inequality.

(I wonder if these were drawn up through some sort of democratic consultation - or ... ?)

(Also not sure how effective as a campaign to have a meeting structure of a platform where agreed speakers presumably go through the new demands. Aren't we all more adult than that - equal? - and wouldn't it be great if those attending had read and thought about the demands and so could straight way go into an open discussion)

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-womans-place-is-resolute-tickets-54586767491

Badgerthebodger is right. There's a massive growth in women organising and meeting and it's disappointing to see someone criticise a group that have been at the forefront of challenging what is happening.

Hopefully the OP has lots of examples to share of their own practical contributions in creating local based feminist groups?

Two points: considering how messed up the situation of meetings last year, perhaps WPUK is quite rational to be a bit cautious (i’m not invited which is fine. I can get to next to nothing anyhoo).
The Tory thing: considering they are the ones in Govt, quite rational to be pissed off with and focus on them. They need to stop screwing women over. Lets give Labour a kick when they come to power, because I strongly doubt they like women any more than the Tories.

Wasn't WPUK formed only in the last few years by a group of women sitting around a kitchen table saying we've got to do something?

Sounds like a grassroots organisation to me.

I also wonder how familiar the OP is with Mumsnet to talk about the hive mind regarding top down organisations. Op must have missed the criticisms of Stonewall as a non-member top down organisation, the worries about the professionalisation of various charities where they start to be run by people who have no direct experience of the issue but instead follow theory.

And that's without mentioning the campaigns that have originated with Mumsnet users on a variety of issues over the years and more recently in this section the Man Friday campaign.

Sorry, it just strikes me as an odd critique to make about Mumsnet users.

I don't want to comment on WPUK specifically, but I do agree with you more broadly OP with respect to 'talking heads' events that ask for scant feedback 'from the floor' and no real workshopping not being true to radical feminism (as I remember it in the 80s).

WPUK have been clear that they don't intend - at this stage, anyway - to become a membership organisation: womansplaceuk.org/funding/

AFAIK the three co-founders all have full-time jobs which means they are organising events etc. squeezed around work commitments (no doubt caring commitments too). In that respect, it's astonishing what they've pulled off in the space of just over a year. It's raising awareness of the GRA reforms and enabled other women to take action themselves.

I've worked for membership organisations and they take a huge amount of time and energy to run, let alone start from scratch.

Maybe WPUK will go that way in the fullness of time although I wonder whether the ReSisters movement (if we can call it that) might be the way in which women come together on a more geographic basis.

I honestly think those of us who want to get involved need to get offline and start meeting IRL, given that the platforms we've become reliant on to inform ourselves are shutting us down. (Not Mumsnet btw! It remains one bastion of free speech.)

I think there is room for a wide range of gender critical/women's rights groups, all coming from different perspectives. So long as none claim single authority status, all is well.

First-time poster here, but if any of you want to become more involved with real life activism there are ReSister groups popping up all over the UK. Many of us are fed up of being passive about these issues and are ready to take more direct action, surrounded by sisters who feel the same way.

If you want to learn more, search 'ReSister' on Twitter. It should bring up all the branches, so you can find the one nearest you.

I think there is room for a wide range of gender critical/women's rights groups, all coming from different perspectives. So long as none claim single authority status, all is well.

This. Lots of groups, catering to different-although-overlapping-constituencies, is a feature not a bug.

I think sometimes very active people can forget exactly how daunting it is for new people to take the first step and get involved. Just attending a feminist meeting can be a big deal, especially in the current climate.

I'm with BadgertheBodger. I think those demands look good. I'm hoping to get to the London meeting if I can sort out childcare. I went to the one in London last year and was totally inspired. The atmosphere was electrifying.
I just don't buy the gripes about WPUK not speaking out against austerity, or being too close to the labour party, or being woke....I see no evidence of that at all. From where I'm standing it looks like a bunch of bloody inspirational, lefty, working women deciding that enough is enough and starting a movement.
Hats off to them.

WPUK are socialist feminists. I'm entirely sure every founding member is interested in austerity's impact on women. But WPUK is a campaign group with a specific focus, which it's, well, focusing on!

I don't necessarily agree a hundred percent with everything WPUK says and does (deplatforming Posie, for example) but I don't have to.

As I said previously, I think we need lots of groups of women focusing on slightly different things. That way we can drill down and achieve results. And we can all support all or some or move in and out as suits each one of us.

The usual format at WPUK events gives about half the time for contributions from the audience. Meetings are only possible by working with local organisers, who often set up (or have already set up) local groups.