Alloa Womans Festival - the radical feminist alternative to the curated feminism of FiLia?

[IwantToRetire]

Alloa Woman's Festival

Join us for the Alloa Woman's Festival, a vibrant celebration of women's achievements and empowerment! Taking place at the iconic Alloa Town Hall, this in-person event promises a day filled with inspiration, connection, and fun.

On Saturday, March 23, 2024, starting at 10:00 AM GMT, we invite you to come together with like-minded individuals to honor the incredible contributions of women in our community.
Throughout the day, you can expect an engaging lineup of talks and discussions from

Dr Julia Long, Fiona Broadfoot, Rhona Hotchiss, Kate Barker, Joan MacAlpine, Johann Lamont, Paula Boddington, Dr Em, Caroline McAlister, Rachel R Sanchez, Linda Thomson, Anne-Marie Ward, MurrayBlackburnMacKenzie, For Women Scotland, Womens Rights Network and so much more.......

War on Women's Bodies, Womens Spaces, Womens Representation are all up for discussion

Connect with fellow attendees, share your stories, and forge new friendships in a supportive and inclusive environment. This festival is an opportunity to celebrate women from all walks of life and to inspire one another to reach new heights.

Don't miss out on this empowering event! Mark your calendars and join us at Alloa Town Hall for the Alloa Woman's Festival. Let's come together to celebrate, learn, and grow!

Amazingly its free although donations are requested - full info here https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/alloa-womans-festival-tickets-505950620927?aff=ebdssbdestsearch

What a bizarre claim. That's not true in relation to Women's Liberation meetings / conferences back in the 70s / 80s where women met, organised, tabled and spoke to papers in large halls. There were of course countless other types of WLM meetings, consciousness raising, women's groups focusing on all sorts of similarities and differences

Not sure why you're trying to rewrite women's history like this? The WLM has a long, complex and proud history and didn't all revolve around consciousness raising meetings. At a time of massive social change women organised around sex, race, motherhood, our bodies, sexuality and countless other issues, sometimes using "conventional" conference structures and sometimes in smaller groups having a look at our own cervix 😃

https://www.historyworkshop.org.uk/womens-history/taking-photos-of-the-first-womens-liberation-conference/

FiLiA’s ultimate aim is women’s liberation and they actually do so much more than the conference. To say that their way of raising women’s consciousness through access to speakers (amongst other things) isn’t in line with how other women sought to achieve this 50 years ago and therefore isn’t valid is just nonsense. But your post wasn’t - just - an attack on FiLiA. You compared it to Alloa and said that the latter was the ‘radical feminist alternative’. Again, what’s the difference between the two?

I'm looking forward to Saturday. Who's going? Do we need a secret MN signal? I imagine that most of the women going are on this bit of MN

I don't understand the comparison with Filia. Both seem to involve speakers/panels. Both sound amazing.

vivarium I panicked there and thought I’d got the date wrong for the Alloa event!

This thread is interesting, lots of things I didn’t know, eg “we need to wean ourselves of the idea that being a feminist means waiting for someone to organise something you can consume.” I don’t really understand what the alternative is?
if there was a really beautiful singer in this sort of group, then, am I right in thinking, that nobody would make special efforts so that we could all hear this singer? Instead anyone could sing and the amazing singer might not be heard? What is the benefit of this?

As I understand it the problem some have with FiLia is not so much that they organize an event, but that their main organizing personalities sometimes seem to act and speak as if they are the ones who get to decide what is feminist and what isn't, and what political strategies are legitimate and what aren't, and who it is ok for feminists to speak to, and who isn't. The kind of thing that has pushed a lot of women out of wanting to be involved in organized feminism.

She feels that smaller, more grass-roots groups remain more authentic and less top-down.

That being said, I'm not sure it is necessarily going to be welcomed by the organizers that they seem to be pitted here against another organization in the thread.

I got confused - I went to the Falkirk event yesterday and it was fantastic. I feel really good today, some amazing stuff is going on in Scotland. Good cakes too.

To be honest, I find the various groups quite hard to keep track of.

I don't post in here often so I had missed this discussion. Just wanted to correct your statement about the Falkirk vs Alloa event as you seem to have got some important details wrong.

The Falkirk Women's Festival 23rd Feb was organised by a group of women in the Scottish Feminist Network. It's the same group of women that organised a festival in Alloa Town Hall in Feb 22 and Feb 23. This year they organised it in Falkirk.

There were some personal issues within the group I believe, as there inevitably is, and a group of women left/were asked to leave as a result. The women that were asked to leave have now set up the Alloa festival (not sure what name they go under). There are now 2 entirely unrelated festivals and if both attract great speakers and lots of women, it's no bad thing for women's rights or Scotland.

I'm pretty concerned about the comment about money since you are implying there were dodgy dealings, which is quite the claim and risks becoming "fact" if unchallenged and we want to be evidence-based feminists, don't we?

I have asked the organisers of the now Falkirk event (Forth Valley Feminists, the originators of the festival) about it. Donations were collected in Feb 23 to cover the cost of the Feb 23 event (it was free). Some sort of stooshie occurred, a group of woman left Forth Valley. Money was temporarily shifted as one of the women leaving had access to the accounts. Money was then moved back to the account once access was removed. I am told this was all minuted and transparent to all of the women in the group. The women that left made accusations of theft etc, presumably as an act of pettiness at being asked to leave. Nothing was reported to the Police, which you would expect if an act of theft occurred? I'd certainly report it if I had reasons to believe donations were stolen.

These sort of stories, putting one group of women up against another, are unhelpful whether it is the Falkirk festival vs the Alloa event, or Alloa vs Filia. There is space in this world for multiple strategies, and multiple events. We shouldn't only be able to make progress in our efforts by undermining other women's efforts. There is far too much infighting at present and all it is doing is scaring off women from engaging in the first place and alienating women who are already involved. The one thing we probably all have in comment is an interest in feminism and women's rights so we have to find routes to live with the views or strategies we don't agree with.

I went to the Falkirk festival yesterday and they had an excellent lineup of speakers and they brought lots of Scottish women together to network and learn. I have no doubt the Alloa event will also be successful. We should be celebrating that without having to denigrate other women, surely?

This isn't accurate and it's very unfair to the Forth Valley Feminists, who organised the previous 2 events in Alloa and yesterday's Gaithering in Falkirk, to repeat claims that would be (potentially) criminal, if true. They're not true.

I also attended yesterday, which was as excellent as the previous 2 events. The speakers were filmed and the recordings will, in due course, be up on the FVF YouTube channel alongside those from the previous ones. I heartily recommend watching them.

Sorry but it is true. I've been involved since the first festival. I and many women in the group donated/transferred money into the groups account over the years to pay for festival and other costs.

After some disagreements within the group I and half the women were kicked out the group, the money had been taken from the account and we were denied access to resources.

We did seek legal advice regarding the money and unfortunately there was no way forward with that.

Feminist groups fall out all the time. Some grow stronger for it but doubt it’s ever a pleasant part of the process! However, I’ve looked into this and there doesn’t seem to be any disagreement that money was transferred from the official bank account into the personal account of a woman when the group split. I don’t know about police / legal involvement but suppose there’s still time. It doesn’t seem worth having that hanging over someone never mind all the whispering and finger pointing that will go on indefinitely I’d imagine..

Great that there was a mini event yesterday - but it’s obviously not the 3rd Alloa Women’s Festival and that at least is something everyone can agree on and get behind. The last 2 were brilliant and the women behind them have come up with a fantastic line up this year!

TBH I/we're happy to move on,.despite how unpleasant it was. That said, I do fee that I/we have the right to correct the record when misinformation is put out there. I should probably clarify that some of the money was raised from the previous festival but women donated too. One woman in particular, who was treated appallingly, donated £200 for this years festival.

They could've given that donation back or halfed the money. Instead they kept the lot.

Anyway, you can pass on to the high heed yin that she can unclench, the Police are not after her.

Onwards and upwards!

Why would you refer to yesterday's event as a mini-event? I was there, it was most definitely a full event with quality speakers (can recommend Rachel Hewitt and Victoria Smith's books by the way, whoch I'd have said before they spoke). Why wouldn't you credit the women for their effort, the same group the organised the first two events? Seems a very unsisterly thing to do. As does trying to leave an hint of theft in the air.

Being sisterly does not equal being a walk over, and whilst taking the money from the group account might not qualify as theft in law, it was a pretty shitty thing to do.

I'm quite sure their event was lovely and they had some great speakers, that's true. I wish them success with their future events.

Interested to hear about women’s festivals, but totally put off by you having to use the actual thread title to diss on FILIA.

FiLia certainly isn't all big names, and it's wrong to portray it as such. If you look beyond the main hall, there are loads of grass roots projects and groups getting a chance to share their work. Even so, many (most?) the sessions do take the format of women on the stage talking to an audience.

I think there is a discussion to be had about how many events in our movement are top down, but I don't think pitting one event against another is the way to do it. I love FiLia - and would also love to go to Alloa and Falkirk given the opportunity, but I suspect they are speakers panels too?

I don't think KJK's model is the answer either, speaking into a mic in a highly charged atmosphere makes for good video content that's easily monetised, but I'm not sure it actually does much good for the women speaking. Everyone just takes their turn doing a monologue, there is no discussion, nothing is built on.

Personally, I'd love to see more consciousness raising sessions at FiLia, Alloa and other events. They do do them already, but numbers were pretty small last time. I saw in their newsletter, they're also running CR groups around the UK as part of their legacy project.

*FiLia do CR sessions already, I mean. No idea if Alloa and Falkirk do or not.

Size doesn’t always have a bearing on impact admittedly - so look forward to seeing what impact this event has and that of any further activism from the group 👏 It’s wrong to say this group organised the first 2 Alloa women’s festivals. Some were involved and others were not. Even without the comments from the poster who is actually involved in Alloa above, the women’s movement in Scotland is strong and women are connected. Women talk 😁 Just as the removal of the money is known and talked about (can’t see that one dying down tbh which must be really unpleasant), the driving forces of Alloa are well known- and respected. Saying something multiple times doesn’t make it true 🤷🏻‍♀️ But here’s to Alloa Women’s Festival again this year and will watch out for Falkirk next.

Love that FiLiA organise Consciousness Raising groups ❤️ Don’t think anyone else is doing this and it’s just so brilliant that they are

Yesterday was great. I was going to go to Alloa, but, honestly, this thread is putting me off, it's all so mean spirited.

Shame that’s what you’re picking up here. Think it’s more a case of women who won’t wheesht tbf 🤷🏻‍♀️ Alloa is sold out and there’s a waiting list so if you have a tic maybe let them know if you can’t make it so another woman gets the chance?

Maybe there's a flaw in women won't wheest. I used to think it meant against those who want us to shut up, but it's turned into Mean Girls picking on women they don't like any more. I don't know how passive aggressiveness is going to sort out the mess womens rights is in.

It's very sad to see Scottish women being treated this way.

I was invited to speak at both festivals so did some digging to get to the truth.

It seems the Alloa Women's Festival was booked to take place in March at it's usual venue but a small handful of women who had been loosely involved in the previous festivals got jealous of the success & liberated the money raised for the 3rd festival into one of their own bank accounts. Hastily organised a much smaller meet-up in Falkirk. Tried to discredit the actual organisers and took credit for their hard work.

This appears to have been organised by a meglomaniac whose sole purpose is to create division & conflict & causing massive problems for previously well-respected organisations & 100+ well-respected campaigners.

We've had women trying to do the same here & we had to take painful decisions to weed them out, so my advice would be to trust your instincts. You have a single woman who hides in the shadows directing false flag campaigns to split the movement, create conflict & sow division. I think I'd be asking myself who benefits from that. Because it's not women's rights.