Women's Place UK: Filia event: the elephant ignored yet again

[pattihews]

I attended the WPUK event at Filia yesterday and came out feeling disturbed by what struck me as a very heavy-handed event designed to avoid talking about the elephant in the room. For what it's worth, I've voted Labour at every election since 1979. I imagine 90% of the audience had a similar track record.

Put briefly, we had 90 minutes of:
Feminism=socialism and if you're not a socialist you can't be a feminist and if you're not a feminist-socialist you're the enemy.
The right is sly and will lie and try to draw you in (illustrated with a video from the US about the right-wing origins of many apparently liberal groups, including the Heritage Foundation) and you must resist any temptation to get involved with them.
The way to do it is to join unions and change them from within, hold socialist women's salons to recruit and inform and get involved at grass roots level.

There were also regular warnings about racism, which seemed odd and extraneous because WPUK is all about gender ideology.

And then the penny dropped. Though her name was never mentioned, I suddenly realised that the whole tightly-managed event (no talking unless you're holding the microphone) was a warning not to fraternise with Posie Parker.

At lunchtime I encountered several other women, all of them furious about what they'd sat through. Furious in particular because of course the elephant in the room was the fact that the Labour Party, to which WPUK is loyal to death, is the biggest threat to women's rights in this country. And they'd used PP to deflect from that.

I'm not a Posie fan. Posie's clear she's not a feminist. She says things that make me cringe. I have doubts about her motivation and we wouldn't be friends in RL. But I went to one of her events when she came to my area and she can mobilise women the left will never reach and for that she's important and valuable. When I go canvassing for Labour I meet working-class as well as middle-class women who vote or have voted Conservative. They include aspirational minority ethnic women. They have their reasons, and some of them I can understand.

A woman I've never seen before and may not see again joined my table for lunch and explained why so many women were feeling really disturbed. These are TRA tactics.
The huge issue that concerns so many of us (should we vote Labour?) was avoided and we were instead lectured on how to be good socialists and feminists.

Was anyone else there? What did you make of it?

That group seems to contain people who are actively working to undermine individual women, women's groups, and feminist/gc groups with unsubstantiated gossip, slurs, and conspiracy theories.

It's completely reasonable of Katherine to create an account and give her version of what happened at an event she feels has been misrepresented on this thread. She has done so perfectly politely. What is wrong with people? Feel free to disagree, yes, but to have a go at her for creating an account and giving her opinion is ridiculous.

Here's Pragna Patel's speech from that event, so you can at least listen and make up your own minds up about what she said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=prB4-Z0kq3g&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=Woman%27sPlaceUK

Obviously it's absolutely meant to wind up. And only ever used by wankers.

a) accusing women of being gossips doesn’t seem very feminist to me (but as established, I am merely a Domesticated Zombie, who needs to reread Audre Lorde and self flagellate)

and b) why the fuck would anyone go to a feminist conference just for gossip?

If all Mumsnetters wanted from Filia was gossip we could surely just use the tiniest crumble of nothing, inflate it to massive proportions and spread it around (y’know, the way the Brighton Feminists did about Posie)?

Feel free to disagree, yes, but to have a go at her for creating an account and giving her opinion is ridiculous.

It’s not the creating an account that’s the Issue, Corgs, it’s the sneery attitude and refusal to accept that what WPUK are putting out and what women are getting from that output are not the same thing.

it’s just dismissal heaped on top of dismissal. Loads of us are fed up to the back teeth with it.

Did you feel the links already added to the thread of the WPUK event weren't enough, RoyalCorgi? You have to post it again? How many times do you think it's needed?

Again, are you all on permanent blast?

As has just been said "The only response needed from you is 'Im so sorry that's how it came across. We'll think about how we can do it better in the future'"

Are you aware of this:

www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/18/mps-back-plans-for-abortion-clinic-buffer-zones-in-england-and-wales

The UK is not the US. Our centre is your left. Our right is your centre.

The UK is not the US. Our centre is your left. Our right is your centre.

That might have been true once. It's not now - just look at the conservatives. And their far right and religious right are also now over here.

But let's just all have a go at Katherine. It's easier than trying to think.

I think it was interesting to hear the views of one of speakers at the conference.

It's sad how self destructive this all is though.

I believe that poster has already graced us with their presence on here, bersted us a couple of times, then flounced.

Please explain what you mean by ‘just look at the conservatives’?

because the UK Tories are as broad a church as UK Labour so just looking at them shows me all sorts of things and I have no idea what you are referring to.

FiLiA was absolutely incredible from start to finish. There was only one session I walked out of thinking ‘what the fuck was that all about’…..and now I can see why.

Definitely. I can even (privately, I'm not going to put anyone) pick out which poster. She is more transparent than she thinks...

Out, not put.

Liz Truss, Suella Braverman, Kemi Badenoch. The hard right.

I don’t think they even need to apologise! Just accept that what THEY say and what WE hear are not the same and decide if that’s a problem for them or not?

WPUK need to figure out if they actively want the purity spiral they’ve embarked on.

If they want it, they need to accept that a shitload of women are going to wave them off on their spirally travels (and that repeatedly telling us off won’t make us fall into line, it’ll just make us more and more annoyed).

But if intellectual discussion is not allowed here, I am in the wrong place, and will see myself out.
Is there a Latin term for being proved right about how WPUK see us ordinary women in the space of a single MN thread?

QED?

On what policies?

Because they aren’t all the same on social and economic policies (hence Braverman fucking Truss’ leadership over).

The hard right

But you said 'far right and religious right' earlier. Which is it? How does the hard right differ from the far right & the religious right?

Remember, we're all a bit too thick here to think. You need to break it down and explain in simple words. Otherwise we might not understand what you are saying.

I await to be enlightened.

I'm nothing to do with WPUK, and I'm not in that facebook group either. But I watched the recordings of the FiLiA panel, and I was moved by what Pragna Patel said:

"I feel like I’ve been in a coma and woken up to a call for feminism. If there is an alliance with the right, we are not feminists. If a ‘feminist’ organisation is working with the right, I am left behind. Black women are left behind."

Kemi and Suella didn’t look like they’d been left behind from their position on the front bench!

I didn't see that the link had already been posted. If a simple mistake makes you that angry, I dread to think what you'd do if someone posted something that was actually insulting or offensive.

Still, at least you're living up to your name, I'll say that for you.

Bloody hell.

I’d like to know whether that poster typed ‘Standing on Women’ rather than ‘Standing for Women’ on purpose. And whether some of them are aware just how horribly patronising they sound.

Having a go at Transgender Trend especially though - are they not capable of reading the room? Stephanie D-A’s done an incredible amount for kids.

Stephanie is a shero to parents, to teachers, to HCPs.

If purity spirals are coming for Stephanie we are all fucked.