By LM

I want to take a moment to set the scene for the emergence of the FiLiA Legacy Project. It is not an exaggeration to say that my first Feminist conference was the most significant day of my life. It changed absolutely everything; opened my eyes and banished the mess of patriarchally-induced cognitive dissonance forever. In the space of 8 hours, I knew that I was going to dedicate the rest of my life to Feminism. 

It’s a story for another time, but a couple of years later I ended up with 12 other Women putting on our first Feminist conference in 2013 in London. Why London? No particular reason - it seemed easy enough for everyone to get to and we held our fortnightly organising meetings there … what more was there to think about?  Lots more, as it turns out.

The conferences were a success (they’ve improved further over time as our political awareness has developed) and we had to move to a 2-day event because there was far too much to fit into a single day. At the time I was determined to learn more about our Feminist history. I immersed myself in stories of the first and second wave movements, enthralled by what I was learning and angry that this knowledge had been kept from me. At some point I read a number of books about the suffragettes and how they travelled from town to village, pitching up and speaking at the nearest hall or square about their campaign. I went to the next conference organising meeting stating ‘we have to move out of London!’. It took a long while to do the convincing and there were valid reasons to be concerned about such a move. Would anyone attend?

It all comes down to movement building. How can we contribute to building the movement if we restrict ourselves to London? How do we reach new Women so that they can experience that eureka moment and begin to find their voice and place within Feminism? How can we build Sisterhood and Solidarity in any meaningful way if we remain London-centric and exclude many of our Sisters on the basis of cost alone?

It was the best thing we did! In 2018 we took FiLiA to Manchester, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of some Women getting the vote for the first time. The story of the suffragettes has strong ties with Manchester and this is probably the moment to mention that I’m related to the Pankhursts - I found this out soon after finding Feminism and feel compelled to mention it whenever I can create the opportunity! If you are ever visiting the area make the time to visit the Pankhurst Centre and the Working Class Movement Library. Whilst spending the year in Manchester, both places were visited on numerous occasions and we learned much from them. We also got to meet dozens of community groups with a focus on Women. The Lesbian Immigration Support Group and Women Asylum Seekers Together both informed and participated in FiLiA2018 along with many others. We remain grateful to them all.

In Bradford the following year, we continued to meet informally with local groups. We held meet-and-greets where we would tell Women about FiLiA and hear about the work they were doing. We attended as many local events as possible. We had the opportunity to learn about the priorities in each area; Women everywhere face the same onslaught of abuse and subjugation, but there are subtle and important difference between cities that we try to convey in our programmes. Local Women attend the conference as speakers, volunteers, artists and stall holders. Over 60% of Women who completed the evaluation forms since coming out of London tell us that this is their first FiLiA conference. It’s rarely their last! 

I’ve taken the meandering route to the FiLiA Legacy Project, but all this is relevant. We were invited to apply for funding to formalise our local work by someone who attended the FiLiA2019 conference and saw the potential of those local connections.  After a lengthy and exciting meeting, we worked hard to put in our first ‘proper’ funding bid, and we were successful! 

The FiLiA Legacy Project is based on three core pillars of activity:

• Promoting collaboration and network building between women’s organisations and community groups, movements and activists

• Providing advocacy and activism training and skills, informed by local community needs

• Developing Legacy Networks within and between each region so the movement grows and FiLiA Legacy Projects are interconnected

When FiLiA moved out of London I made the decision to lock my belongings away in storage and move each year with the conference. The purpose of this was to immerse myself in the local community as much as time allows and to build authentic relationships with local Women. My experience of each FiLiA city so far is that men congregate in pockets, but Women form networks - this is as true of Portsmouth, where a phenomenal amount of work is being carried out by interconnected groups of Women.  I remain in awe of the work being done by and for Women. 

Because of the pandemic, the FiLiA Legacy Project has been a little trickier to launch than anticipated, but we’ve mapped out over 100 organisations that have a focus on Women and Girls. We’ve held numerous real-life and online meetings and have started a programme of events that has been shaped by, with and for local Women. I am grateful to the funders, to the FiLiA team and to the Portsmouth Women for this opportunity!