Woman’s place UK conference

[Silencedwitness]

Is anyone else thinking or going?

womansplaceuk.org/conference-womens-liberation-2020/

Is anyone else still knackered?

Yes Tinsel! I slept for 12 hours last night but my brain is still buzzing. It feels like a good sort of knackered though, I feel quite uplifted if that makes sense.

I am still knackered!
I concentrated fully the whole day as it was all so brilliant and inspiring. My poor head is not good at that!

very well put and I agree

Thanks, Pombear, Socrates and all who have posted their reports here. It's wonderful to see women holding a huge, successful feminist meeting in the centre of London again, just as we did decades ago when we were making constant progress and the forces of patriarchy seemed to be crumbling.

I am still appalled by the speed and suddenness with which our rights have been swept away over the past few years. Misogyny is now flaunted and accepted -- I never imagined that could happen here. But today, for the first time in ages, I start to feel optimistic.

dianebrewster
there's a GC quaker group?
i have a back and forth relationship with the quakers- still not sure if it's for me - but it really doesn't surprise me that this splinter group exists. good for them!

It was such a brilliant conference, felt like a real moment and the start of something big. I think in the future many of will be proud to say "we were there".

I don't know if this has been discussed anywhere else but I feel it should be somewhere. I hope the organisers (and the new women's movement in general, whatever it will be called - 4th wave? 3.0?) keep it a broad church, open to all women.

I think there is a potential for it to narrow to the left and factionalise, similar to what happened over the last few years in the Labour Party.

In general I didn't get that vibe on Saturday, although my eyebrow raised at a communist party member pointing to a speaker on the stage saying "she was on the correct side of the Palestinian issue".

Equally I was pleased that Maya said she wasn't a radical feminist or a socialist feminist, she is just a feminist which received a big clap from the audience.

And then after I saw this thread on Twitter (shared with her permission) which was worrying.

This movement must be open to all women otherwise those not of the hard left will be turned off or drift away, same as we have seen with Labour.

It maybe I'm worrying unduly and it is (and will remain) a broad church, however for it to do so all women should feel welcome and part of the movement.

Remainder of twitter thread attached.

So, some women on panels and leading workshops are being accused of something, but they can't respond because they are unnamed.

^ 👆Yeah. Funny that.

Just came in to say thanks for such nice comments from everyone. It was exhausting and exhilarating and .... when are we doing it again?

I cannot believe Woman's Place managed time make it that slick and that fun and that powerful all at the same time. Thanks to every single one of them.

Thanks to anyone who came and said hello because I was a bit dazed and confused and it was just a big whirl of spotting women I know and love and trying to meet women I know online but don't actually know and trying to link up avatars with names with faces.

But mostly .... just .... all those women! All that passion. And beyond that .... all that hope. It's coming women. Our day is coming.

I’ve never been able to attend and unfortunately I’m unlikely to get the chance as I need to organise the care of my youngest, well in advance. Thank you Jean for speaking up for all women.

There was a professional creche provided.

My youngest is 24yrs old , but has SNs and autism. It is great, though that they had a crèche. However you would have had a hard time convincing my youngest that she had to give the babies back. 😁

Whenever Feminists are admonished not to narrow their advocacy to only half the human population I am reminded of this.
Dworkin:
"Feminism is a political practice of fighting male supremacy on behalf of women as a class,
including all the women you don’t like, including all the women you don’t want to be around,
including all the women who used to be your best friends whom you don’t want anything to do with any more.
It doesn’t matter who the individual women are."

I came to your workshop on Grassroots Activism @Jeanhatchet

Really enjoyed it - in fact, I had an amazing day all round

I did too! It sounds prompted me to start a Resisters group in my area. Thank you and thanks to Ali too

As a general note, the live subtitles were of an astonishing quality. They were the best that I've ever seen in any event.

I was very impressed by the level of thoughtfulness that had gone into planning the event.

@SisyphusLangClegRocks oh! Thanks for coming. Glad it was ok. Ali and I had both had really busy weeks so we did wing it a bit! The lives of women eh?

Soldiersinpetticoats I am keen to join my local resisters group but despite multiple attempts at trying to contact them, no-one has got back to me. If you have any space thoughts please could you pm me. Thanks.

Not sure what 'space thoughts' are

Discussing WPUK conference on Women's Hour today! On shortly - have set up a thread in Feminism Chat :)

Not sure what 'space thoughts' are grin

if have any space, though, could you PM me"? Which branch of resisters, though?

This is why an edit function is required.