Is "Intersectional feminism" the problem? Filia SBS statement.

[catspyjamas1]

Following the fallout from Filia, and the clearly coordinated social media 'response' today from women involved in WPUK, and now Filia, SBS released this.

To me, intersectional feminism is basically liberal feminism, and has been for several years.

southallblacksisters.org.uk/news/sbs-statement-on-filia-conference/

Southall Black Sisters decide they don't like HAMAS

https://nitter.net/solange_lebourg/status/1979474121340907591#m

"Sounds like lawyers wrote it. Lawyers who’ve advised them they may have broken charity laws."

Maybe a joint fundraiser with Mermaids?

There is some vile stuff in that statement and what's really worrying is that they can't see it. That's how a certain style of antisemitism is being normalised.

It's particularly loathsome that they make use of the "look there are some good Jews" technique as cover. There's a lot of that about and it's very convenient being able to point out the "good" ones to shame or damn the rest.

This is the statement from FiLia. I think there is a thread about it.

Walking the tightrope between being a charity and want to ingratiate themselves with the women they think are feminist "stars".

So SBS when it was initially set up looked at ethnicity and access to domestic violence services. If they had stopped there they would have been absolutely fine and broadly right.

Actually not correct. They have always had a more politically activist role than just being a DV service.

And if you look through their public statements 99% of them are on political issues not directly relating to DV. eg challenging Government policies. Instigating court actions.

I dont think any other DV service does this.

See their history https://southallblacksisters.org.uk/who-we-are/

I dont think they had "kudos" I think because they had a high profile and oftened seemed to "win" that many women just assumed they were some sort of leaders, without checking their actual history.

Just as many women think Refuge started DV support services, when in fact it was a Black lesbian activist in south London, and the original Refuge (ie Erin Pizzy) was anti feminist.

Most of the links are about their internationalist socialist position, which led to them forming Women Against Fundamentalism.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/25-years-women-working-against-fundamentalism-in-uk/

And if anyone heard Pragna Patel's closing speech at the WPUK conference supposedly celebrating the WLM would remember that there was virtually nothing about WLM politics in it at all.

Its not just individuals who myth make.

Its those of us who accept the myth as fact.

I used to admire SBS. Another gross disappointment

I dont think any of this should negate the work they do supporting women.

But their statement on FiLia is in line with who they always have been.

So just as some of us on FWR like to check what a women's group's position is on TWAW, it might be worth checking out their statment on other issues.

And even if we dont support those politics doesn't mean that they aren't providing a necessary service for women.

Although I think you will find most women service providers do not make political statements like this.

eg, though maybe for slightly different reasons, Jewish Women's Aid doesn't (when I last checked) make statements like this, but more likely about their work. https://www.jwa.org.uk/aboutus/news-and-media/news/

Generally speaking I find intersectionality to be helpful when it points out that people in the intersection of two groups may experience extra problems, and wrongheaded when it uses a given intersection as a reason to minimise particular problems.

I watched on youtube the interview with Julia Long on GB News (I don't often watch so missed the actual broadcast) and it bears no relation to what SBS are saying. Long described pro-Palestinian actions at the disco and that Jewish women were not welcome and had to have a meeting in a separate room away from the main conference meetings. So how is SBS saying that they were attacked and that they had to have a separate meeting (which I am sure they did) when it appears that a pro-Palestinian viewpoint was put forward during the opening plenary session without any protest - apart from some women walking out? Very confusing.
Interesting that the UN says 65,000 have died in Gaza (which is appalling) but that SBS thinks the figure should be 680,000 - I cannot dispute either figure but watching both Sky and the BBC I could see no evidence of starvation amongst returning Gazans and there seemed to be lots of building standing - the shots of devastation seem to be all of one area, taken from different angles (though I am aware that one bombed out building is liable to look like any other).
As to this: When Hamas could no longer be contained by Israel as demonstrated by the 7th October breakout - there is no excuse for calling an atrocity a 'breakout' or suggesting that this atrocity was thus justified.
I am perfectly aware that Israel appears to have set up a nascent Hamas - which only goes to show how stupid people can be (just like the US in Afghanistan essentially funding what became the Taliban).
SBS should be ashamed - and clearly do not understand that anti-Zionism is a form of anti-Semitism and that Israel is not a colonial state (unless they also want to call Syria, Lebanon and Jordan colonial, since they are also made up states set up from the ruins of the Ottoman empire for people already living in the area e.g. Maronite Christians, Jews, and various Muslim sects).

@Bringemout I agree. I cannot believe that any feminist thought it was ok to write this and publish it:
'Our grief and condemnation of Hamas atrocities against the Israeli people, including sexual violence against our Jewish sisters, on 7th October was framed by knowledge of the complicity of the Israeli state in the creation of Hamas and then rapidly overtaken by the disproportionate brutality of the Israeli government towards the Palestinians.'
I think this amounts to a) Me too unless you're a Jew and b) as everyone says heirarchies of rape. So Gazans are victims which means Gazan men raping Jewish women is not as bad as other rapes and is also an act of rebellion against a colonialist state.
Appalling. And completely ignores that Gazan women have reported that Gazan aid workers have been demanding sex for food.

have just read their statement. It’s basically a Jew-hating pro-Hamas word salad. I’m a fierce feminist and am appalled. They should be ashamed.

Do you remember Gita Sehgal raising an enormous stink when Amnesty prioritised hard islamist men, ie CAGE and "defensive jihad" over her feminism and advocacy of the victims of islamism? That was when the writing on the wall became clear as what western leftist activism really supported. Ironically Sehgal and SBS are doing exactly what Amnesty did to (brown) feminism then.

I have never quite understood why intersectionality was supposed to be such an amazing concept, tbh.

Some people could be oppressed in more than one way? Was that actually news to anyone? Or that those differernt parts of our experiences could interact in complex ways?

I feel like everyone already knew that. Also, that sometimes people could be both oppressed and oppressors. Or oppressed people could be nasty bigots. Or that people could, on the basis of the same characteristic, be advantaged and disadvantaged, depending on the situation.

That in fact, it is so variable, that each individual's situation is different and that class generalisations can only ever be generalisations.

The whole concept to me is really reductive, rather than adding complexity it somehow seems to lessen it. Insofar as it's true, it's banal.

That's a bit of a mad statement.

Feminism is about women. All women. Zionist, Anti-Zionist and not bothered about Israel at all.

Only posting this as the author Amrit Wilson is from the same era as when SBS and WAF were formed.

From the article title I thought FWR would be mentioned. But not.
https://www.thecanary.co/opinion/2025/10/28/fascists-zionists-palestine/

In the meantime SBS have opened their statement for other women to sign.

So although AGCL's has had a bit of bad press, https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/bbc-producer-claimed-charlie-kirks-widow-was-zionist-handler/ the left purity strand of feminism is still there (made up of a lot of friendship networks).

Christ Laurie Taylor, that old goat has managed to pull