Selina Todd has been disinvited from "Women's Liberation at 50" because of association with WPUK

[stumbledin]

Have just seen this on facebook and am totally taken aback. She is listed as a speaker here www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/womens-liberation-at-50-tickets-75905313837

Everyone of the other speaker if they go ahead and dont protest should be totally ashamed of themselves.

This is her tweet twitter.com/selina_todd/status/1233456777057964035

Some of the women speaking are those I have told I should and I do admire.

This sickness that is dividing women is so upsetting.

Not sure where or how we can show our disgust at this and make sure they know they do not speak for women.

[DuLANGMondeFOREVER]

Cowards.

The whole event now makes a mockery of what it was intended to commemorate.

[BovaryX]

I don’t believe in the marketplace of ideas

Imagine. The kind of person who pastes this slogan as if it is something to boast about. #No debate is chanted by people who can't debate. There is a sycophantic conformity at the epicenter of so much of this dismal ideology.

[ArranUpsideDown]

After all of the recent discussion about the slowdown in the rate of increase in life expectancy - especially for working class women - it feels even more unthinkable that Selina Todd's expertise on the history of working class women is judged inappropriate for a feminism conference.

[LexMitior]

No debate is the last line of someone out of their depth.

That post on trashing was interesting. I think it’s “tall poppy” syndrome. There are a lot mediocre people who have benefited from the trans rights agenda. They also stand to lose out if it goes wrong. No platform is a good way of protecting yourself and never having to reveal your ignorance.

Effectively all you do is agree that you hate certain people; disagreeing is healthy. It means you can learn to actually form a useful opinion and agree.

[OccasionalKite]

This is a despicable development.

An attack on Professor Selina Todd.

Professor Selina Todd wrote The People: The Rise and Fall of the Working Class, 1910-2010. Helped me develop a greater understanding, in a historical sense, of my grandmothers' lives, and my mother's life, and my own.

[BovaryX]

It is important to note that the reason Professor Selina Todd has attracted the ire of trans activists is because they don't like her historical research conclusions. This lobby does not believe in freedom of speech, it does not believe in debate, it does not believe in academic research which challenges its bizarre interpretation of history. The intolerant, authoritarian dictates of this lobby should be met with resistance. Not craven capitulation.

[RadFemsUnite]

There's a plan for peeps to meet outside the event at 10.30 and talk respectfully to those going in who are willing to engage - not to stop anyone, but just to explain that this has happened. Everyone welcome to join this, outside Exeter College on Walton Street in Oxford tomorrow.

[nonsenceagain]

There will be a picket outside the event from 10.30. Picketers plan to speak to those going in about the no platforming. Please join if you can.

[nonsenceagain]

Xpost

[ReinstateLangCleg]

Fucking hell.

Solidarity with Prof Todd.

[Goosefoot]

It is manipulative, dishonest, and excessive. It is occasionally disguised by the rhetoric of honest conflict, or covered up by denying that any disapproval exists at all. But it is not done to expose disagreements or resolve differences. It is done to disparage and destroy.”

It's the adult version of teen girl politics, and for some supposedly grown up women, it's how they assert power. Especially those who have personality disorders or are sociopaths etc, they have no qualms and they suck others in with them.

[AyeRobot]

I can't believe stop ironic laughing.

And the Erin Pizzey piece - She's another one I don't understand. She turned up on here once.

I'd really love to hear some reasoning. I'm all in for understanding an opponents pov, even if I don't agree with the conclusion. I just don't understand the workings out 🤔

[bedelia]

They've now told her that she's welcome to come - as long as she sits in the back and doesn't say anything.

Has this been confirmed?

Initially, I'd wondered whether the security measures needed to keep Selina safe were problematic (either because of increased risk to her safety, or the increase in public awareness of certain sector's antagonism towards her). However, I've just read that complaints have been made about her speaking from certain parties.

It's an absolute travesty. We are celebrating 50 years of Women's Lib and yet this esteemed feminist historian has been no-platformed.

I stand with Selina!

[stumbledin]

This is looking more and more contrived. From a thread on facebook it turns out that the woman whose name is given as the organiser on the eventbrite page is actually a student being supervised by one of the other speakers. That speaker is a member of Feminist Fightback who quite honestly only seem to have existed to criticise WLM / 70s feminists (a sort of forerunner of Sisters Uncut). Feminist Fightback are using their facebook page to slur Selina Todd.

Selina Todd has confirmed in a tweet that it was complaints from Feminist Fightback that got her disinvited. And conveniently this was done, even though her name was on the event for months, with less than 24 hours to go. Almost as though they hoped they could sneak it in at the last moment.

So although there is no doubt of the political differences, this also looks suspiciously like some academic vendetta.

I wonder how many of the other speakers are aware of this.

I was getting ready to be part of any protest but hadn't realised it is tomorrow. I thought it was next week.

I just cant get over, not the fact of political differences, but the fact that they have acted in this way.

Thanks to those of you who are organising a peaceful protest.

There was also the suggestion of a letter that we could all sign. Not sure if it has happened and whether it would go to Ruskin, or the organisers, or the other speakers.

This is surely the moment when as a feminist you are meant to be able to empathise with other women whatever their experience, but have to say I cant quite manage it this situation.

How low can you stoop to try and manipulate situations to suit the outcome you want.

[stumbledin]

As an aside, please on no account have any worries about Erin Pizzey may have suffered at the hands of feminists.

She has always wrongly claimed she started the refuge movement. She didn't. She endlessly went to the press complaining that the Women's Liberation Workshop was a den of lesbians, and communists.

And it is alleged that she passed information from women's meetings to the police.

This is the originas of the antagonism between Refuge and Women's Aid. Not just the destructive actions of one woman, but the fact that Refuge (formerly Chiswick Women's Aid) was not based on feminists principles. She famously stated that the reason women suffered domestic violence was because they sought out violent men.

But both the media and politicians were happy to use her to attack feminists.

Her situation has no relationship to Jo Freeman. so whoever wrote a book claiming they were the same hasn't done their research.

[bedelia]

The event will be livestreamed on YouTube and is open for comments:

Interestingly, Selina is still listed as a speaker here too. I sincerely hope decisions will be reconsidered.

[stumbledin]

Oh thanks bedelia - I wont be able to watch all day. But will try and see part of it. And keep asking where is Selina?!

[CherryBowl]

There are a lot mediocre people who have benefited from the trans rights agenda. They also stand to lose out if it goes wrong.

This, more than we realise, and especially in business and ‘consultation’ is spot on.

As well as all the other reasons one concludes from ‘no, we don’t want a third space.’

[JulesJules]

Selina is getting a lot of support on twitter, which is heartening.

[nonsenceagain]

Yes, but no backdown from the organisers. This is backfiring on them spectacularly already. Absolute fools.

[stumbledin]

Does anyone know what is happening. The live stream link says it wont start now until 11:00. Do you think that is cover up whatever is being said in the room at the moment.

And nobody seems to be commenting on the chat link to the live stream. Or maybe it is being censored.

I really do want some of the named speakers who have always been held up as WLM originals will be speaking out against this.

You can bet if any of the papers write this up it wont be a honest presentation.

[ReinstateLangCleg]

I'm just sad. I was planning on going to this, but if the esteemed Selina Todd may not speak then why would I think I'd even be welcome to attend?

[ArranUpsideDown]

And nobody seems to be commenting on the chat link to the live stream. Or maybe it is being censored.

Hope Last has commented and has asked about Selina Todd.

[ArranUpsideDown]

Hope Last's question:

I think this is a mis-step by the organisers. I'm deeply sorry for all of the women who've travelled there for what looks like a decent programme. I hope that they have a good event but it feels like it would be very uncomfortable.

I'm rather relieved that it wasn't practical for me to attend. In fact, it would be a bit awkward being anyone who'd attended #WomensLib2020 if we're looked upon as supporters of a hate group.

[stumbledin]

PRESS STATEMENT BY SELINA TODD

"I am shocked to have been no-platformed by this event, organised by Oxford International Women's Festival and hosted at Exeter College. I was asked to participate in October 2019, and I explained to the organisers that some trans activists may object to my being there. I was then told that trans activists had already expressed hostility towards the event because they claimed second-wave feminism is inherently trans-exclusionary. However, the organisers decided that because I am a historian of feminism and working-class women, they would like to invite me, and were open to many different points of view being expressed at their event. I was delighted. I am deeply interested in the history of the WLM - my first academic article focused on it - and my parents met at Ruskin shortly before the first conference was held there. Participating had personal and scholarly significance.

Between October 2019 and February 2020 I helped the organisers to get support from Oxford History Faculty – in the form of student helpers, facilitators and some funding - and to find media contacts. I was stunned to receive a phone call at 6pm on the evening before the conference telling me that I had been no-platformed. The organisers say this is because of pressure from trans activists and Feminist Fightback. I refute the allegation that I am transphobic, and I am disappointed that the organisers have refused to uphold our right to discuss women’s rights - one that the original organisers had to fight hard for."

Link to the speech she would have given:
filia.org.uk/news/2020/2/29/womens-liberation-at-50-the-talk-that-should-have-been-by-selina-todd