*** addendum to Amnesty post***

I wrote recently about the founding conference of a group I joined, called For A Materialist Left. It was all about how socialism has been defanged and led astray by identity politics. One of the speakers, Chetan Bhatt, spoke about how identity politics leads inevitably into division and hate, and battles over bullying and cancellations – basically because instead of presenting a legitimate social analysis, identity politics makes everything about good and bad people.

Clearly, Amnesty has gone down with a really bad case of id pol. They have just produced a target list of ‘anti-rights groups’.

It calls this set ‘gender critical’ groups. Funnily enough, almost all the groups on that list are either women’s or lesbian and gay groups. Well I suppose we all know what they mean. There is a tranche of too-progressive-to-live organisations who insist on seeing anyone who’s working for women’s or gay rights as ‘anti-trans’, because – thanks to Stonewall’s aggressive campaigning, the fall out from the clash of interests between women and girls on the one hand, and trans people campaigning for ‘self-ID’ on the other, has often been presented as ‘women being transphobic’.

Trades Unions

Sadly for women, TUs are very prone to this way of thinking. Our ‘For A Materialist Left’ conference had three panels of speakers, of which we’ve published two but the third one was men and women talking about their Trades Unions’ responses to that clash, including about the way they’d often been treated if they dared to bring up women’s rights and guess what – the reaction of their own unions led them to feel they would be under threat in their workplaces if their panel speeches were published.

During her contribution to our conference, Mary Davies spoke about how the unions have become a significant seat of oppression of women. For me, the nadir of TU misogyny came when philosophy professor Kathleen Stock was hounded out of her job at Sussex University and her TU – she was a fully paid up member, assuming that union would represent her in troubled times, HER OWN TRADE UNION joined in the yowling to have her driven out.

Amnesty

Amnesty has been criticised for high staff salaries and for discrimination within the workplace, as well as being accused of ideological bias on a number of the issues it has addressed, such as supporting the decriminalisation of sex work, when many women’s groups want to see the sex industry (not the women who are its victims) criminalised.

It is perhaps not surprising that they choose to put Women’s Place UK on their target list, because they were called out by WPUK in 2021 for their anti-women activities…

But there are other things that stick in my mind – like the Amnesty-sponsored ‘protest’ at FiLiA in Portsmouth, which culminated in chalking toilet-wall foul messages all over the pavement ahead of FiLiA’s memorial gathering for murdered women…

Oh and the laughably dreadful fact that Amnesty were actually campaigning for single-sex facilities for women’s safety in third world countries at the same time as campaigning to destroy women’s spaces and services in the UK.

Hounding

Hounding, trolling, cancelling and setting up target-lists: identity politics believers are very prone to publishing target lists. The first list I was on (to my knowledge) was published by a group calling itself Labour Against Transphobia – it was supposed to inspire Labour members to report victims to the party — but it proved very useful to me, because after I discovered it, I made contact with others on the list and THAT is how I was introduced to the wonderful world of feminist women’s networking.

So – whilst I don’t think Amnesty’s target list can hurt us, it’d be really useful if more people would start calling out these crazy organisations to stop them expending their energy trying to attack women. The kick back has started. I looked at the comments on articles in the National and the Herald about Amnesty’s latest wheeze and certainly on social media, people are finding their voices and calling bullshit…

… but what about Stonewall, the main culprit in this decades long campaign to frame women’s rights as anti-trans? Look what they’re doing today. The comments are more mixed here but a fair few have noticed what’s wrong.

Thing is, that now infamous Supreme Court Review, and the government’s attempts to produce guidance after it were not just about toilets – nor was the guidance all about trans. It was about the rights of ALL NINE protected characteristics. Also – HELLO! WOMEN EXIST! IT WAS ABOUT WOMEN’S RIGHTS.

I’m convinced the media chose to make it all about toilets as that’s so much easier to explain. Here’s my tuppenceworth on that….

Where is the amnesty for women?

It’s been years — years and YEARS! (Yeah, I’m shouting, because it happened again right in front of me just this week, a woman getting slandered as ‘transphobic’ for daring to express concerns about women and girls.)

Transwomen are not women, they are transwomen. They deserve protection from discrimination and all the rest of it, and they HAVE those things, right there in the Equality Act, in the section on ‘gender reassignment’ so could the remaining would-be progressives PLEASE come down off it now, and stop attacking women as ‘anti-trans’ whenever we talk about OUR OWN legal rights? And if they won’t put a sock in it, would whoever is standing next to them when they start their anti-women stuff please try and tell them that’s enough?

If you’re one of those unfortunates who’s desperate to get women to shut up because you’ve transitioned a youngster, or couldn’t stop one transitioning well, I’m sincerely sorry for you and if the far right come shouting crap at you like that Tommy Robinson did last week, I’d be the first to stand with you, because everyone deserves protection from discrimination and abuse – and yes, that’s me, a ‘notorious terf’ saying that — you see, I am desperately sorry for trans people. Sorry for them because the way Stonewall et al framed this situation as women v trans people has put trans people in the middle of a battle they can never win.

Why? Because women have always sought their own spaces and services. Sure, they get pushed back sometimes but everywhere and every time, throughout history, whenever they get the opportunity, women come together to recreate and defend women’s spaces. Because they need them.

End of — now, just a word to those who are the main reason why we need women’s spaces….

If you’re one of those blokes who just thinks all this is a great opportunity to get one over on women — give it up. You are looking very foolish. No-one believes this stuff any more — look what happens in the comments when a faux-progressive police force pretends a woman has committed a violent crime …

That’s it, basically. I can’t remember who said it, but it’s true – the trans rights movement has ‘mummy problems’. Organisations like Amnesty need to shut up until they grow up.

***UPDATE***
I’m told Amnesty have taken down the offending lists but, apparently, not before several women’s organisations have prepared to sue. I hope they go ahead. The lists are out there, with all the others that aim to bully women into silence. Recompense should be required — and the story needs to go far, so that the world finally has to notice that the only reason there are majorities anywhere against women’s rights is the whole heap of trouble that lands on women who seek to defend their rights.

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