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Why are we ‘obsessed’ with Palestine?

Quite a few of the attendees of the recent FiLiA conference in Brighton have been asking this question. Women I know and have great respect for have asked this question, their tone suggesting we were being unsisterly imposing our concerns on this, our annual, internationalist conference. I was told waving flags and chanting wasn’t the…
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Viva FiLiA!

It’s three weeks now since I got my hands on a copy of Rahila Gupta’s ‘British Feminism Through a FiLiA Lens.’ I’ve been reading furiously ever since, and have only just emerged. 384 closely printed pages about all that FiLiA has instigated, inspired or been a part of over the last ten years. To say…
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Artificial Ignorance

So, today it happened to me. I saw a Facebook ‘friend”s post, which was making a political point, based on a photo. I got the point, although I suspected her motivation was a bit odd (all that stuff about what’s feminism, what’s racism and how the heck did I get lost somewhere between the two).…
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FiLiA: I had a bit of a tantrum

What it feels like Having been bawled out of the Labour Party, union activism and a whole load of less important things over Palestine, the sex-and-gender issue or both, I have, like vast numbers of others, been trying to help set up locally to be ready for the re-birth of left politics. When I sent…
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Palestinian Liberation is a Feminist Issue

A group of women, feeling that trying to stop the genocide and end the illegal occupation of Palestine was too important a task to be sidelined at a feminist conference, ran their own Palestine fringe meeting. Here is Emily Garcia’s speech, which opened the event… *** Guest post*** There are many reasons why the issue…
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Genocide was stalking the corridors of conference

I’m just back from day one of FiLiA, the biggest (and I’d say the best) feminist conference in Europe. No time to say much yet, but there was one very, very urgent message: During the opening speeches, Rahila Gupta reminded everyone that what’s happening in Palestine is not something anyone can afford to ignore. I…
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Is this a different direction?

Question: is it possible to join Your Party and ‘take a different direction’? Answer:…? For the last couple of years, I’ve been learning about real democracy. I first came across the concept in a film about Venezuela in the Chavez era. The way Venezuelans at that time formed into local assemblies that discussed issues at…
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This may be a good thing

Blat blat blat Zara Sultana blat blat SWP blat blat blat blat Jeremy Corbyn blat blat blat blat Karie Murphy blat blat blat blat Information Commissioner blat blat Adnan Hussein blat blat blat blat blat blat … Bang! Why? Because when they did this… …she did this… … and they responded with this… … and…
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For the many

What I’d do is draw up a list of the main policy pledges from the 2019 manifesto — you know, the one that drew on the then Labour Party’s then policy forums — the one with all the really popular policy options in it, like British Rail, the People’s Post Office, and really saving the…
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The most evil people in the world?

“Why did they kill the children? Even the most savage beast in the jungle isn’t that brutal.” Go on, guess the country, guess the year. It’s not Palestine and it’s not 2025. (Five book recommendations and a musing — well, it’s been raining out there!) I read The Kite Runner a few years ago, and…