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?

my 'south coast friends' do not follow the tribal actions of SFW and KJK
Yes they do, they've been doing it all over twitter (and probably FB) ever since the Brighton SFW event. This is an incredibly disingenuous response. This tribal behaviour from the WPUK outer circle has been mentioned, and witnessed by several women on this thread.

I've been the victim of it to the extent that I had to block your friend on twitter, for trying to gaslight me in the same way that you are doing now.

I've been there before and I'm not having it.

And we have been over this many times now sapphos

Sin pages and name calling is the very definition of tribalism. However, why do you feel those very personal acts should be ignored by other groups.

That is the entire basis of this thread.

Alternatively, we could all join in with a round of 'will-you-condemn-a-thon'

decentpedia.blogspot.com/2007/08/will-you-condemn-thon.html

We are still waiting for various women to publically condemn the actions of King James VI*, up here.

I think the Scottish Government are working on it. They should be up to speed with apologies and condemnations by at least 2525.

*(Or, as you southerners would have it, James I.)

I think performative denouncing and shunning is a key part of purity politics.

As is performative inclusivity.

Its a combination of virtue signalling and “Do it to Julia” - lest your tribe turns against you.

which all the WPUK women and its supporters are doing
If this sort of generalisation isn't tribalism I don't know what is.

@JessSi my “Do it to Julia”. Comment was a coincidence as I was writing my post.

It is possible to critique KJK without thinking of her as a domesticated zombie.

Though that comment wasnt I understand aimed at her, but women on the right in America, trad wives who support the supremacy of their husbands.

But as a housewife one can understand why KJK felt it might have been aimed at or apply to her. But there are very many reasons to critique her and being a sahm isn't one of them.

I’d not heard of that 😂

There was an earlier example of the spousal exit clause being 'offered up' as worth allowing it to be removed so that other aims could be achieved - without anyone thinking to seek or include women affected by this.

That's fucking disgraceful whoever did it and there is nothing feminist about it - here you go we'll sacrifice these women for you - I mean wtf???

It was Sarah Ditum in a speech to WPUK. The speech went completely unchallenged at the time.

I challenged it when she subsequently wrote an article repeating the offer

uncommongroundmedia.com/spousal-exit-clause/

To be fair to WPUK they have been fairly sound on the spousal exit clause (other than quoting Whittle in the WESC session against my specific advice).

Am I the only person that side-eyes anyone that announces they're antiracist? It feels like pure virtue signalling to me.
I'm white, married to a black man and have mixed-race children.
If anyone feels like they need to say they're not racist out of nowhere, the first thing I think is "that's what a racist would say" to cover up their own views.
I'm sure I'll be marked as racist now but <shrug>.

Thanks for clearing that up @TinselAngel . It's still a fucking abhorrent idea to float and I am surprised the feminists of WPUK did not immediately and comprehensively challenge it and distance themselves from it.

Ditum had an inadequate understanding of how the spousal exit clause cannot be fully replaced by no fault divorce, but she wouldn't have made this mistake if she'd spoken to women affected.

Tbh I don’t side eye anyone in this climate where you are deemed racist or transphobic or far right for pretty mainstream views which should be utterly uncontroversial. There’s a lot of people who get off on labelling others and seeing them shunned, shamed and torn to shreds these days. Sadistic f%#£rs.

@Endlesstea Agreed. My post re Julia etc was deleted. Not sure why. Is there anyway of getting info or appealing to mods. Nothing I said was untrue.

On that note, I think I should start a thread/discussion on the theme of #wagesforhousework. How would I do that. And will I be banned?

I think you can report your own deleted post and query the deletion

No, that's not it at all.

And you do know that WPUK only platformed those people because local women asked them to. (That's not a question, it's a statement.)

Great idea. Just start a thread on the main S&G board.

No, that's not it at all.
What is it then?

"Local women made us do it" is a new one on me, I have to admit.

@ArabellaScott I'm new here. The main S&G board?

I think that left wing feminists should be able to distance themselves from what right wing femalists (or whatever term they are using today). That should be uncontroversial.

This one, just scroll up and you'll see a 'Start New Thread' button, press and away you go.

I would be very interested in a thread on 'Wages for Housework', start away.

right wing femalists
Who are you referring to?

Feminism: Sex and Gender
Our current thread is poster there, you’ll see if you scroll up to the top of the page