We hope that you are all keeping safe and well.

We are still planning for the FiLiA conference to go ahead over the weekend of October 17th - 18th in Portsmouth, and are busy organising the agenda which we will share in the coming weeks.

We spoke with our Feminist Sisters in Australia today; Susan Hawthorne and Renate Klein of Spinifex Press. Susan and Renate spoke at FiLiA 2019 on the topics of Violence Against Lesbians, Surrogacy and Publishing. They enjoyed FiLiA so much that they will be returning for the 2020 event - watch this space for more information!

Sarah Learmonth wrote a piece called ‘Your Chance to Respond to the Government’s Pre-Charge Bail Consultation.’ Speaking with Sarah today, she impressed upon us that this is the first time that victim-survivors have been asked for their opinion before, so please do share the link widely and use Sarah’s answers to support you if you need them. The deadline is the 29th April.

A guest writer and survivor wrote about ‘Coronavirus and the Prostitution Question’ after realising that countries were responding in very different ways to prostituted Women during the outbreak. FiLiA has been horrified (though not surprised) to see organisations using the pandemic as an opportunity to push for decriminalisation of the sex trade. They push for funds to get through the current crisis (which the state should be supplying) without supporting the Nordic Model which would allow those Women who want to, to leave prostitution behind them.

We also took time to reconnect with our Sisters from Norway. The Radical Feminist Activist group Ottar have been incredibly supportive to FiLiA over the years and we hope that they are able to make it across this year too.

Shahidah Janjua sadly passed away. Shahidah was involved in the Women’s Movement for many years. She was passionate about the environment too, and wrote beautiful poetry. She was so kind and humble and a joy to have met. Here is a LINK to her speech at FiLiA2018 where she talked about ‘Patriarchy and Neoliberalism - shaping the future’.

We know that the powerful write history. 
Patriarchy would have us believe that patriarchy, has always existed, that it is the natural order of things.  This is a lie.

Shahidah Janjua

Sisterhood and Solidarity

LM

Thanks to those of you who have already bought tickets to FiLiA2020.

Tickets are available NOW and we are keen to support as many Women as possible to attend who otherwise would not be able to, via our SOLIDARITY TICKET scheme - please buy a ticket if you can.

And don’t forget - you can also become a FRIEND OF FiLiA with a monthly donation from £1 per month. Funds go towards enabling as many Women as possible to take part, for example by paying towards the creche and speech-to-text.