Filia statement

[ArabellaSaurus]

https://www.filia.org.uk/latest-news/2025/10/17/statement-from-the-filia-trustees-on-the-filia2025-conference

A good start.

Mealy-mouthed. It really isn't too soon to apologise to the Jewish attendees for the failure to anticipate the possibility, that there would be speech or behaviour that they might reasonably construe as hostile towards them.

A clear acknowledgement that there was a problem, which they didn't anticipate, which they admit they should have perhaps foreseen, but they're willing to learn from their mistakes and will take what steps they can to prevent it happening in future.

Not a bad statement on the surface. I am intensely irritated by the Capitalisation of Words Like Women All Over the place though.

It would have had much more effect if they had used the words; Jewish, Jews. Antisemitic and others instead of being vague about behaviour.

I think that's quite a decent statement. If they're referring themselves for an independent investigation then I wouldn't expect any advance apologies as I imagine that could lead to accusations of trying to influence the outcome.

It was a good statement - the only thing I think it potentially missed was about tightening up on people filming. The people filming the disco and then putting it up on social media meaning that the DM has published pictures of women in what was supposed to be a safe space is unacceptable IMO. They should be banned from future FiLias

Copy pasting:

'Statement from the FiLiA Trustees on the FiLiA2025 conference

Published 18th October 2025

The FiLiA Trustees have been reflecting since our conference finished six days ago, listening to the many Women affected and looking after our team, who have worked exceptionally hard over the last two years in preparation for our largest and 10th conference. It is clear there are multiple perspectives and experiences and we want to start by acknowledging that this statement won’t satisfy everyone but we hope it reassures Women that we have listened, will continue to listen and are responding to the issues that occurred last weekend.
We are glad to have put on our 10th conference, despite the many setbacks that we experienced before it even began. We have received lots of positive feedback about the majority of the conference and we thank our volunteers, speakers, facilitators and attendees for their contributions and commitment to the weekend.
However, we are devastated by some of the events and issues that occurred, particularly that a place for building sisterhood and solidarity has ended up with Women, including within the FiLiA team, feeling so hurt. Our priority now is to understand what has happened, take responsibility for all that we need to, and put in place the changes needed to prevent these issues happening again. We have already started work in several areas, as set out below.

Reporting to the Charity Commission

We want to make it clear that FiLiA completely distances itself from religious fundamentalism and extremism in all its forms, including Hamas and support for Hamas, and we condemn all violence against Women, in all its forms, everywhere. We are firmly anti-racist and condemn all forms of racism (whether based on real or perceived race and/or religion), harassment, prejudice and discrimination. We acknowledge that we missed some very important elements of due diligence, and we take this extremely seriously. We have contacted the Charity Commission and, with their guidance, will be reviewing our processes, including our due diligence process to ensure all future speakers, stallholders and materials are in line with FiLiA’s mission, reflect FiLiA’s values and are within the law.

Commissioning an independent investigation into our security and safeguarding processes

We are aware of the upset and anger caused by multiple issues at the Saturday night party.
The safety of attendees was our priority and this was central to our decision-making processes in assessing and addressing risk over the rest of the conference. We would like to invite anyone who wants to share their experience regarding specific behaviour towards them to please contact us by email to [email protected]. We are commissioning an independent, internal investigation into our security and safeguarding processes, plan and implementation for the Saturday night party. We are committed to learning and putting in place the changes required.

Convening a series of meetings to listen to Women and feminist organisations
FiLiA works with our speakers to agree on the framing of their topic of discussion within FiLiA’s existing stances and values. In most topics, our speakers are the experts but we try to ensure they understand FiLiA’s positions and trust them to deliver in line with those. We will be reviewing our communications and agreements with speakers and ensuring that everyone involved will come to FiLiA in the spirit of sisterhood and solidarity.
We recognise that underlying tensions were inflamed at the conference and have played out beyond it, and we apologise for our lack of foresight and preparation for this. We condemn the vile racist and misogynistic abuse that women have faced for speaking out.
FiLiA wants the spaces we create to be places where Women with differing opinions and beliefs can come together, learn from each other, disagree respectfully and unite in our shared vision of Women's liberation, everywhere. FiLiA is a place where Women come first, where Women are the priority.
We must stand up for all Women who are subjugated by men, in all the ways that they are, irrespective of geography, religion or ideology.
It is clear that some Women didn’t and don’t feel heard by and at FiLiA. We will be reaching out to Women and feminist organisations to actively listen to their perspectives, to learn lessons and guide the changes we need to make. It is our hope that we will be able to open dialogue between those with different views and forge a way forward for FiLiA that those committed to Women’s liberation can support.
Next steps
For the last 13 years, FiLiA has provided a space for Women all over the world to gather, learn and discuss. We are proud of the work we have done to amplify voices, particularly those less often heard, highlight new topics and challenge viewpoints respectfully, share campaigns and build solidarity – all to advance the global Women’s liberation movement.
Many Women have told us that it was an incredible conference – learning about campaigns and issues that were unknown to them, making new connections and revisiting old ones, and being part of a movement for change. We are extremely grateful and heartened to read these messages and hear these stories, and they have sustained us at an incredibly difficult time.
We are proud of the many successes achieved together with our sisters, but we also know this is a moment to pause, listen, reflect, review, and learn.
We have work to do, relationships to build and strengthen, and processes to fix. We are going to take the time and focus now to do that work carefully and well, to enable us to be stronger, clearer and more accountable as an organisation. This will mean that we are better able to deliver on our mission to build sisterhood and solidarity, defend Women’s human rights and amplify the voices of Women across the world, and contribute to building a Women’s liberation movement.
We will provide updates on the relevant outcomes of the investigations and other work if and when we are able to do so.
Thank you to those who came to FiLiA in the spirit of sisterhood and solidarity and for your continued support.
Sisterhood and Solidarity,
The FiLiA Trustees'

Unlike what seem to be the majority of detractors of FiLIA on social media who weren't actually at the conference or Friends of FiLIA (donors), I think it's a good open and frank statement about what went wrong and how they're taking steps to learn & ensure it doesn't happen again in Blackpool. They referred thenselves to the Charity Commission and are looking at their safeguarding procedures.

When you have over 2000 people at an event, in a quite febrile political atmosphere - TRAs, the Palestinian situation, and the Hamas massacre, things are volatile.

There's a very fine line between safeguarding and censorship of adult free speech (safeguarding in an adult event is trickier than with minors, I think). FiLIA is frank about this going the wrong way last weekend.

The success of a grassroots feminist organisation is always going to come with strongly felt views which lead to disagreement and dissent. The women's movement has always had deep disagreements over politics (suffragists v suffragettes is an obvious example).

It’s a decent statement I went. I’m also Jewish
they couldn’t control the behaviour of everyone and they really tried with two extra sessions to support Jewish women present Filia are NOT antisemitic
its being played by the far right…

I went. I'm not Jewish, but I was deeply upset by the attempt from the stage to lead the conference in chanting for Palestine. I found it incredibly divisive and inappropriate. I think the two sessions that were organised were done by participants weren't they? Not by Filia.

However, I think this is a good statement and they are taking appropriate action and I'm glad to see them seeking expert help and advice. They are a fundamentally decent organisation with a good mission and I'm very conscious that most of the work is done by volunteers and most appreciative for that. I think their size and growth has meant they've outgrown the governance and risk management processes they had in place and I hope this is just a good reset. I think they run the risk of the whole thing imploding otherwise which would be a great loss.

I think their size and growth has meant they've outgrown the governance and risk management processes they had in place and I hope this is just a good reset.

I think this is key. I'm just sick of the carping by armchair commentators here & elsewhere who weren't there and haven't been involved.

I’m a little bit about this narrative that only posters who were there have a right to comment. It’s the same on the other thread too. I didn’t go so maybe I should ask for my post to be taken down even though it was supportive?

I think this statement is very much in the mold of the accepted norms, as though this was just an event.

However, in terms of the over the top statements about FiLia building a movement etc., that is just plain nonsense.

Their choice of speakers etc., is manipulative, and dishonest. I've posted about this on other threads, but any organising group who secretly is banning some feminists activists because the organisng group is usurping their position as organisers to say what is or is not acceptable feminism is actually selling a lie.

And that sense of ownership of feminism is why someone felt entitled to flag wave her own politics from the platform where she had a different role.

Unless and until they are more open about how they contrive to have those they know and want to speak, and more importantly publicly state why they have banned women from speaking, they shouldn't be trusted. Certainly not in provide a "feminism" that some women seem perfectly prepared to passively consome.

And it is this very failure to create in an open and transparent way who has been platformed and who hasn't that has bled into the existing juvenile, twitteresque peformance politics.

And whilst any event can be invaded by trouble makers, they have more impact if those taking part already feel that part of the atmosphere is about that competitve politics.

Also they need to stop boasting about an all female security team, if as has now happened on 2 occasions, they cant deal with events at the social and male security guards have to be brought in.

And as going back years socials at women's conferences have nearly always had some sort of disturbance where personal animosities are made public through behaviour fueled by drink, of all they things they could plan for are that.

Long gone are the days when on Women's Liberation Conference social became mythic as all the women attending showed their solidarity with each other by taking their tops off!

Now there are women attending FiLia who think the social is for lesbians.

There is no polical purpose or outcome.

The time and money spent on it, would be better spent by women supporting local activism or outreach to women who would never attend such an event.

The whole concept is retrograde.

It's a curious position to take, to be the one who constantly and at length berates and criticises others for doing it wrong.

What would make you think Filia and local activism are mutually exclusive?

I agree @ArabellaSaurus I think if any poster has been involved in any kind of women's lib organisation, they might remember that sometimes at big events, with a very diverse range of attendees, with a correspondingly wide range of political views, there is challenge & disagreement,

If @IwantToRetire doesn't approve of FiLIA (has she ever been involved with the group?) then she's free to set up a different sort of organisation or loose affiliation of feminists. OR get active with the other wonderful grassroots organisations, such as Women's Rights Network (loads of my local WRN members at Brighton + Heather Binnings was one of the over 200 speakers) or Women's Declaration International, run by the indefatigable Jo Brew with 2 online webinars per week involving around 150 women per week internationally (I'm due to give mine in a couple of weeks) or Let Women Speak, which has public meetings most weekends. Hell, there are even women's groups in the Green Party, and the Labour Party, and the LibDems don't quite tolerate the Liberal Voice for Women ginger group, but again, indefatigable feminists keep these groups going & vocal for real women in political parties.

There's far far more going on than posting on MN, or obsessing over a few attention seekers on Twitter.

Sorry @Floisme I'm just irritated by the carping from people who weren't there, but are reading Twitter and inflated doom-sayers on social media, and then criticising what was overall a successful feminist conference, which platformed over 200 speakers to an audience of over 2,000 women,

My personal ethic on this is that I try to put my money/time/energy where my mouth is.

It's the carpers that I resent, personally. But, you know, mine is just one voice/opinion among many.

The time and money spent on it, would be better spent by women supporting local activism or outreach to women who would never attend such an event.

Go and have a look at the FiLIA website and you'll see the multiple local projects they support, in the UK and beyond.

And FiLIA runs a 'Solidarity' campaign during registration where those who can afford it, can donate an extra registration specifically to support women who could not otherwise attend.

Just because I criticise something you think is okay, doesn't mean it is an odd position to take.

I have always been involved in grass roots feminism, and big staged events like this have always been open to criticism, because as an "event" too many just consume it.

This is said in the context of other types of organising.

The issue is they conflate their event, as being representative of feminism and advancing women's liberation movement, the last of which is historically inaccurate and shows ignorance of the premise.

If others are happy to consume the event as laid on for them that's fine.

Its no different than me saying I dont like to eat ready meals even if they are convenient and avoid eating ready meals because they aren't real food.

For a feminist forum that is full of contributors who have quite strong view points and are prepared to say them, why are you suprised in this context.

I think you haven't grasped the point I was making.

Jewish Women Supporting FiLiA
https://jewishwomensupportingfilia.substack.com/p/jewish-women-supporting-filia

Palestine liberation is a feminist issue
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/palestine-liberation-feminist-issue

and at https://archive.is/tIoDQ

I don't think it's fair to say that women who weren't at this FiLiA should STFU. Having been to 4 of the last 6, 3 times as a speaker, and unable to attend this time, I'm pretty sure I've put in enough FiLiA-work to warrant an opinion.

I think it's unfortunate that the statement fails to apologise for the extreme hurt and distress caused to both attendees and stakeholders and also fails to name the problem (i.e. anti-semitism).

And I absolutely agree with @IwantToRetire about the bait and switch of celebrating an all-female security team and then relying on male security to actually do the security work. Not once, but twice. Inviting men in to police women in a female only space feels very antithetical to feminism and the provision of feminist spaces.

Conference moved from Blackpool in 2026 , to 2027.

That's quite significant.

And yes, I was at FiLiA in Brighton (and the previous four conferences) and I am a supporter financially.

So there's my credentials to post, ok?

(Sarcasm)

I don't understand why postponing it for another year helps address any of the issues they're facing. Do they just think t will all blow over and everyone will just forget about it...?