Crowdfunder for Ursula Doyle

[Lovelyview]

Ursula Doyle is taking Hachette to court: 'I have worked in publishing for 30 years. I have left my job after four years of hounding and abuse from peers who think I should not express my GC opinions nor publish authors who share them.' She published Kathleen Stock's Material Girls. There is a Crowdfunder at Crowdjustice.

I saw her comments on Twitter in the wake of the Waterstones debacle. When are employers going to start understanding that bullying employees because they won’t say TWAW is not going to end well in an employment tribunal

For those not on Twitter

I came here to post about Ursula Doyle - and as usual FWR is on the ball with spotting new gardening jobs 😊

(There are so many at the moment, I don’t know whether it’s better to split the sum I can find this month into many small pieces, or whether to pick one a month to help. What do others do?)

Done. Crowd justice

A trans inclusive policy for the use of toilets and ‘showering facilities’!!!!

Gardened. How annoying to still have to do this.

Looks like an easy win. Ursula has been targeted ever since publishing Material Girls and has a lot of evidence. The sexism is through the roof.

This is the first case that takes on the culture of fear in publishing, an industry which has largely capitulated to activists who loudly proclaim a set of beliefs as fact.
How strong is my case?
My lawyers say it is strong. It is clear on the face of the contemporaneous documents that the authors were allowed to move imprints because they objected to the fact that my imprint had published Kathleen Stock. If Hachette had let an author move imprints because they had learned that its publisher was gay, or Jewish, or black, that would be obviously unlawful. It makes no difference that the protected characteristic that caused the treatment was belief: all protected characteristics are equal under the law.

Her former company Hatchette are one of the biggest publishers in the UK. Claims to be gender equal obviously not:
https://www.hachette.com/en/news/hachette-uk-named-one-times-top-50-employers-gender-equality-fifth-year/

Note Hatchette publish a tonne of conservative, pro-Trump and right wing books. None of their books have been targeted by the "leftists" inside the company - just the left wing feminist one. Few examples:

https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/michael-savage/trumps-war/9781478976707/

https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/newt-gingrich/trumps-america/9781546077077/

I prefer to do one big contribution per month. I think it looks encouraging on the crowdfunder. Sometimes I might donate again after a few months, if it drags out.

it looks like a walk on the park for Naomi C but it has and will continue to be hugely stressful for Ursula Doyle. She is incredibly well respected. One thing to note is that like Jo Phoenix she doesn't want to settle and be made to shut up due to the importance of the issues in a wider context.

Wonder how The Times is evaluating ‘gender equality’?!

Gardened. It is critical that books (and other media) with a GC pov are able to be published. Would particularly love it if someone could take on the bbc, but this is a good start. Thank you Ursula Doyle

Ursula does look to have a strong case, although I'd be slightly wary in general when lawyers say that because you never know. However, Naomi Cunningham is on the team, so all should be well.

Yes, sharing toilets is bad enough but showers is a whole new layer of horror. I'd just stay stinky.

I'm not surprised that employers haven't got the message that GC views are perfectly legal yet. They're too busy being 'progressive' to see that the majority of people are not in favour of men being in women's spaces, sports, shortlists, etc.🙄

I wish mnhq would just let us put the links in for these things!

"What am I doing to keep costs down?
I know times are tough, and money is tight. I have already nearly exhausted my savings, so if I am to continue with the case, I need your help. But I don’t take your generosity for granted, and neither do my lawyers. They have agreed to act on the basis of a 'conditional fee agreement' under which they will bill me at a heavily discounted rate for all work on the case unless it is successful. If I win (or settle advantageously), I will pay their 'success fee' out of any compensation, not out of the crowdfunder.

Talking of settlement…
I don’t think my case is likely to settle, and having come this far I would be very reluctant to settle except on terms that will strike a public blow for freedom of speech in publishing. I can’t promise that there are no circumstances under which I might feel I have to accept a confidential settlement, but I do promise that I will keep it well in mind that people who have donated will want to know that their money has affected more than my bank balance. "

Just gardened.

Even if Ursula Doyle agrees to settle with Hachette it still warns other publishers (and employers in general) not to bully employees over GC views. Or other unpopular but legally protected views..

I decided to have a budget and to do several small contributions to different people each month. Some cases extend over months or years - the first crowdfunder I contributed to was Sarah Summers and that's still not been to court! - so the women who bring these cases know they haven't been forgotten if money keeps coming in. But it's OK however we do it!

It's three hours since Ursula tweeted that her crowdfunder was up, and the total (16,862 as I type) is less than 3k behind the total so far of the Mermaids crowdfunder previously discussed (19,380.47 as I type). How many hours do you suppose it takes us to overtake?

Another one here who now counts funding these things as part of my regular expenditure. I keep a file of what I give and to what, a running total each year with an idea of what I want to get it to - an amount I can afford but which is a noticeable part of what I spend - and periodically check on how each case is doing. It is cheering to see how many of them win, annoying as it is that there is still a steady stream of things we have to support.

Thanks for the heads up on this. I've gardened.

I had a quick look on the SEEN in Publishing X/Twitter and couldn't see any mention of this anywhere. Does X delete crowdfunders? I would have thought that this would be an obvious place to post it.

There is lots of sharing of this crowdfunder going on on X, but the seen in publishing account hasn't posted anything since July 11th, and the crowdfunder was only posted this morning. My first guess would be that the individual who runs seen in publishing just isn't on line this morning!

Total now 17.432, less than 2k behind Mermaids ;-)

I try to share it around. It’s good to show that large numbers of people support these issues. And it must cheer up each person who’s calling for help. At least I hope it does! Sending love and solidarity as well as money.

Without wishing to derail, could someone quickly summarise what else is needing funds right now? I've been busy and may well have missed some I'd like to support.

Thanks for this OP

Try this thread for all your gardening choices so many places to plant:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5109831-june-gardening-a-bit-late

Bumper crops going to be coming in this year I think. The harvests in the last few years just get better and better.

Looking forward to Natalie Bird's harvest in particular. Coming in August. Natalie got in trouble for pointing out Ed Davies should have spent more time weeding as his garden as it is looking like a complete mess and has a massive parasite infestation.

Thanks @fromorbit - I was really out of touch, I hadn't realised there were regular round-up threads like that. That's useful!

Now 4 hours post first announcement of Ursula's crowdfunder and it's within 1k of the Mermaids total (which has itself gone up just a little).

Overtaken Mermaids!

Such a mistake, allowing women to earn money and own property ;-)

I've also exceeded my womanly position and used my own money to plant veg. Sorry not sorry.