Legal news

A number of FiLiA volunteers went to hear Prof. Catharine Mackinnon speak at the RSA about her new book, Butterfly Politics

In it she argues that small interventions in the legal realm can generate major cultural transformation.

FiLiA organised donations to pay for a solicitor to write a legal briefing on the obligations of local authorities in relation to the sex industry. That document is now published and is owned by the Women's Liberation Movement. A copy can be obtained by contacting FiLiA. One of our trustees is also involved in an ongoing legal case in which she is acting pro bono, arguing that there is no clear line between pimping and trafficking for a woman who entered the sex trade through force of circumstances.

2 FiLiA 2017 About FiLiA

Where did FiLiA come from and what are our aims? Many of us found by attending a series of conferences called ‘Feminism in London’ started by the London Feminist Network in 2008. When these conferences stopped, a small number of us decided to take up the challenge to keep them going. We were new to organising, and some of us were new to feminism, but personal experience told us how life-changing feminist gatherings could be – both on a personal and a political level. We called ourselves the ‘Thirteen Angry Women’ and set about learning as much as we possibly could about everything and anything to do with organising, women’s history and the Women’s Liberation Movement. We put on our first event in 2015 and we were terrified and excited in equal measure … as well as the logistical complexities came the pressure to position ourselves correctly relative to all the important topics that impact on women and girls … the finding of our political feet. The financial pressure was, and is, hard to bear - we are all volunteers and the huge costs of putting on such an event is scary if we allow ourselves to think about it too much! Since 2015 we have gone from a one-day to a two-day event. Women have contacted us from all over the world to come and share experiences of their work and their lives. 2017 sees us putting on our 4th conference which has been renamed FiLiA, meaning daughter – we are the daughters of our foremothers to whom we owe immeasurable thanks. And we work for the liberation of our daughters, sisters, mothers and all who come after us. We now have 84 volunteers and have been granted charitable status. We believe more than ever that FiLiA has a part to play in the growing Women’s Liberation Movement. Our aim is to continue to provide a space where new women can find feminism and meet those already deeply immersed within it. A place where we can connect, share and learn; where our collective consciousness is raised. A space where women gather, as we always have, in order to continue the hard work to liberate ourselves from . Welcome to FiLiA. ‘Failure is Impossible’ Susan B Anthony

FiLiA 2017 3 The Women’s Liberation Music Archive The Women’s Liberation Music Archive singers and groups did not make absolute democracy, and an intense documents and celebrates the wealth recordings and operated outside the desire for audience participation. and diversity of the feminist music- commercial, mainstream or alternative Through the intensity of the medium, making of the 1970s and 80s. It circuits – or indeed were oppositional through our bad-ass revolutionary demonstrates its importance in the to them. They were self-funded and poetry, we shouted the news: we can political and social context of that era. As worked on a shoestring and thus unable have a new world, a just and generous in other social movements and political to create lasting material. Despite being world, a world without female suffering struggles, cultural activism was a major a significant and integral part of the or degradation.”The Women’s Liberation part of the Women’s Liberation Movement movement, they are often omitted from Music Archive exists to ensure that this that began in the late 1960s. In a great or marginalised by media reportage and vital part of women’s radical history is burgeoning of creativity, feminists fused feminist histories. not lost, believing these achievements artistic activities with politics to develop should be documented, valued and and express feminist ideas. Women’s Feminist music-making was not purely placed in the cultural and political music, film and theatre groups, art and about providing great entertainment context of the time. theatre proliferated throughout the 1970s but embodied a world-changing and 80s. commitment to putting politics into It hopes to inspire other women as practice. Women sought to do things we are inspired by pioneering women Feminist bands, musicians and related differently, not only in terms of before us. The WLMA is an independent, projects are archived in a collection performance but by providing practical not-for-profit voluntary project. Any of written and oral histories and skill-sharing workshops for women donations are used solely to fund the memorabilia. This includes photographs, and girls, demystifying musicianship running costs and development of the videos, recordings, gig lists, lyrics and and challenging male supremacy, archive. You can make a donation to help musical scores, press clippings, flyers, , heterosexism and stereotyped the archive securely through Paypal. posters, weblinks and manifestos that gender roles in every way possible. testify to the creativity of the Women’s Their work reflected the values of the Just click on the WLM Liberation Movement. Although women movement. As Naomi Weisstein said badge on https:// musicians and bands were a major of the Chicago Women’s Liberation womensliberationmusicarchive. part of the WLM, there has been scant Rock Band, our bands were about co.uk/about/ permanent record of their ground- “conveying celebration and resistance © Frankie Green/ The Women’s breaking activity during this era, and … performances deliberately set up Liberation Music Archive much of it is not widely known. Many a politics of strong, defiant women,

comedian, the sort who dared Introducing to have opinions and call your host: Kate herself a feminist. Soon I was being asked to write Smurthwaite columns for magazines and newspapers, appear on shows I've been one of the comperes like The Big Questions and for the Feminism In London Question Time and writing for since the very first conference political comedy shows like Have over a decade ago. I Got News For You and The I'm not there to push a point Revolution Will Be Televised. of view, I'm there to signpost I've built my own YouTube people to the information they channel sponsored by want. I hope to create an generous supporters via atmosphere where it's okay to Patreon (www.patreon.com/ disagree and it's okay not to newsatkate). have all the answers. Later this year I'm hoping Expecting feminists to be to start work on a book as perfect all the time is just well as touring my new solo another way misogynists seek show ForniKATEress about to undermine us. polyamory. I have a mailing I've had a varied career list you can join at www. myself, starting out as a katesmurthwaite.co.uk.

4 FiLiA 2017 Vanessa Olorenshaw is the author of Liberating Motherhood, Birthing the Purplestockings Movement She spoke at the FiLiA 2016 conference about the need for our culture and socio-economic system to recognise the unwaged work of mothers. Women are financially vulnerable when they become mothers if they take time out the workforce: in immediate damage to income; in private relationships; and in their retirement through lack of recognition of caring labour. Vanessa argues that feminism has to recognise the need to support mothers not just to engage in the workforce while they have young children but to decline to do so if that is their need and their wish. She argues for creative policies such as a homecare allowance for the first three years (as seen in Finland), fair tax recognition of family-based care responsibilities to remove the family tax penalty, reinstated universal child benefit, universal basic income or a living wage for carers, removal of discrimination against mothers when we seek to re-enter the workforce or reduce our hours, and a wider examination of the intrusion of the workforce into all our lives. Childcare has its place, but it must be part of the package, not the sole solution to the issue of motherhood. The old feminist truth that the personal is political remains true but needs to remember that the maternal is political too.

Brunskell-Evans, H. (2016) The Sexualised Body and the Medical Authority of : Performing Sexual Liberation. Cambridge Scholars This is an edited collection which examines internet pornography, not as sexual liberation, but as a material practice that eroticises and the subordination of women. Dr Heather Brunskell-Evans is a member of FiLiA and spokeswoman for Women’s Equality Party policy on girls FiLiA 2017 5 Feminist Libraries and Archives Network

The story of The FLA begins about a year talked about all this and more. ago, a story about the practicalities, There are many different projects dotted joys and frustrations of running feminist around the country, big and small, archiving libraries and archives. and preserving feminist history. There are From proper buildings and large collections also many that have had to close down like Glasgow and London to university because of the lack of support. But how many affiliated special collections like FAN and people know about them? How many of you FAS, to our small but special library at have been to a feminist library or archive? Nottingham Women’s Centre, our libraries Have you visited the WLMA website? Spent are diverse. But they have many, many an evening getting lost in the treasures of the things in common. feminist library here in London? The most important thing they have in As with all other campaigns at the moment, common is that they all exist and survive we need to join the dots and create a due to sheer passion and force of will. Most bigger picture. This is why there is such an of these feminist and women’s libraries and urgent need for FLA. This network will give archives have no funding, hardly (if any) staff a platform to feminist and women centric and very little resources. They exist because libraries, archives and collections. It will act of the love, care and dedication of the women as a resource and improve access to our who created them, the women who run them, projects - an online directory of libraries and and the women who use them. And just by archives where you can find one near you. existing, they make a political statement. It will provide a hub for those of us who work within these or in related fields - a place for It is this shared love and passion which us to come together and support each other is the basis of FLA. We met for an initial when the going gets tough. gathering of feminist libraries and archives in Nottingham in February of this year. It It has already done so over the past year. was meant to be a weekend of knowledge Perhaps most importantly, it will enable us sharing and discussion, of learning from to fight much harder and more effectively to each other and celebrating what we do. save them. Our libraries and archives hold It was at this weekend that we realised the victories, the struggles, the mistakes of exactly how important it is that we come our past and the keys to our future. They are together. Important for our individual libraries places of knowledge, of rebellion and of self- and archives, important for ourselves as discovery. They help validate our feminism, custodians of these and important for the they provide inspiration, they remind us of feminist movement as a whole. what has been achieved and also of how far we still have to go. And so - FLA was created! This is why I ask that you support FLA. This Together we are so much stronger, as we network is for feminist and women’s libraries realised over that weekend in February. And all over the country (and beyond) and all then, more recently, last month when we those interested in them. had visitors from as far away as Japan who It is also for those libraries and archives shared some amazing stories with us. It was which may not necessarily be feminist or things like being in a room full of people who women focused but have dimensions of these understood exactly why the Dewey Decimal - for example the Black Cultural Archive or System doesn’t work for feminist libraries. It’s anarchist libraries. It is for everyone who the patriarchy, if you are wondering. People has an interest in preserving women’s and who were as excited as you about cataloguing feminist history, whether affiliated with a systems and classification instead of giving library and archive or not. you odd looks. Along with these more practical aspects, Anyone can get involved and all kind of it was also deeper discussions about the support counts. So what can you do? diversity of our collections, about who is represented when we talk about our history, Zaimal Azad, Nottingham Women’s about the relationships between our libraries Centre October and local activism. We came together and 6 FiLiA 2017 The Feminist Group Ottar from Norway

The Feminist Group Ottar running websites… Writing and debate is a Norwegian politically in all forms are an essential part of independent feminist our outward strategy. We try to reach people who do not agree with our organisation founded in movement, but are still interested in 1991. The group is named women's dignity and rights. after the Norwegian feminist pioneer Elise Ottesen As feminists who combat porn, Jensen, called Ottar. From , male violence towards the 1920s to the 1970s, she women and supports women’s liberation in all fields, life can sometimes feel worked mostly for women’s hard. At times like that, it can be really . encouraging to see what is moving We pride ourselves on being elsewhere. essential in achieving the Nordic Model legislation on We therefore took the trip to London prostitution in Norway in to check the mood of Feminism in London 2010. It was a wonderful 2009, ten years after Sweden. experience for us Norwegians The Feminist Group Ottar believe that to wander around among over a changes in the community and in thousand wonderful feminists and education are closely connected, and feel the greatness of the international can only be achieved through an active feminist movement. and targeted feminist organisation. A clear highlight was the lunch Activism allows us to be groundbreaking action arranged by Object. Clothed and challenging in relation to the in pig masks, we surrounded Marks women's role. & Spencer and distributed leaflets against renting out premises for the Feminist activism is groundbreaking porn culture infected chain Hooters. and important as political action. Precisely for that reason it is also Since 2010, we have traveled to every personally enriching and liberating. Feminism in London conference, with If more women knew how good it feels a group of about 10 feminists. We to be “inappropriate” or “unfeminine”, have participated in the international the feminist movement would become activist panel a few times and have a true mass movement. every time been inspired by the many powerful feminists at the conference. Through our activism, we have become known as the most noncompromising feminists in Norway, The Feminist Group Ottar among both enemies and allies. is of course participating in Our strategy is not to work within FiLiA 2017, and are looking the media or political parties, but to influence through rising debates and forward to a new weekend providing arguments others can use in of feminist inspiration and discussions. Managing an organisation sisterhood is also about doing the invisible work: raising money, handling accounts, FiLiA 2017 7 Remembering : Looking forward to the end of male violence This is the nineteenth year since the death of had used to cut her wrists. Emma immediately Emma Humphreys. It is the nineteenth year that ran into the street and flagged down a car so her friends have gathered to remember her and to that help could be found. celebrate the work of other women campaigning Trevor Armitage died and Emma was swiftly to end male violence against women. arrested, tried, and convicted of his murder in Emma first got in touch with from a trial where she was treated without regard for the campaign group Justice for Women through her age or trauma. a letter written from HMP Drake Hall on the 24th Emma was too distressed to be able to of September 1992. speak about the incident when she was first She explained that she was in prison for a interviewed by the police. She agreed to murder for which she thought that she had been suggestions made to her about what had unfairly convicted. She wrote that although she occurred and what had driven her actions. had some family in this country who were trying She had a legal team who were incurious to help her survive her prison sentence, they did and insensitive and failed to ask her what not believe she had been wrongly convicted and had motivated the stabbing. she had “no support”. Emma remembers her solicitor hoping the Emma had been 16 when she met Trevor psychiatrist who interviewed her for the trial Armitage, the 35-year-old man for whose death would find “psychopathic tendencies”. This she would be arrested a year later. Emma had would help him to argue that she ought to first been placed in institutional care at the be held to have diminished responsibility age of 13. She had already run away from for the crime. her abusive home and was being exploited in Emma did not feel able to give evidence at her prostitution and pornography by older men. trial. Under the care of her legal team, she Emma began to self-harm and made a number signed away her right to appeal. of suicide attempts, as well as developing an eating disorder and making heavy use of alcohol Despite the injustice of her imprisonment, to help her to cope with her situation. Emma’s time in prison, with structure, away from male violence, gave her space to think. By the time she met Trevor, Emma was homeless in Nottingham and was being She had always found writing a useful outlet. regularly exploited in on street prostitution. After taking a creative writing class, she Trevor was a punter who said that he wanted developed a style of poetry and prose that vividly to be in a relationship with her and gave her expressed the pain inflicted on her and the life somewhere to stay. she was leading. She began to see that what had happened might not have been her fault. He soon began to beat her and to force her onto the street, taking the money she was paid By the time that she wrote to Justice for for sex. He would lock the doors and nail shut Women, she had been in prison for seven years. the windows of the house to prevent her from There, she found women who confirmed her crawling out. Emma was raped by three punters sense of injustice at what had happened to her. and felt that she could no longer continue with They helped to place it in the context of male her involvement in prostitution. She later wrote: violence against women and girls and the state response which allows it to continue. “I continued to work although I hated it, but I just kept going. Sleeping with Trevor became a trauma - I hated it - even though I used to try, but I would leave the bed to be sick … As soon as I started refusing Trevor sex he would force me.” On the night of his death, Emma was afraid that Trevor was going to her again and she cut her wrists while he was briefly out of the house. Sometimes when she had done this he would appear to take pity on her and not beat or rape her. When Trevor returned he began to take his clothes off and come towards Emma and in a panic she stabbed him with the knife that she

8 FiLiA 2017 Julie Bindel from Justice for Women first went to campaign for crucial structural changes. visit Emma in prison. Julie remembers: Every year since, we have come together to “I explained what we wanted to do: change the celebrate the work of women and women’s law. And we were looking for cases that could groups fighting to end male violence against challenge the law. I also explained that we would women and girls. Our nominees come from all not be a support group, but that we would take over the UK (and sometimes the world) and up her case, and that the only way to do it was from a wide variety of personal and professional to use publicity.” backgrounds. The campaign came at some cost to Emma. We celebrate writers as well as more traditional She was chastised by the prison for giving an campaign work, and many of the women interview to the BBC whilst on day release. She whose work we celebrate are open about being knew from the outset that the campaign and survivors, drawing on their own lives to fight for lodging an appeal against her conviction might others. lead to her spending longer in prison. It made Emma’s case was groundbreaking and the her ineligible for parole. prize has stayed at the forefront of the violence When Emma’s conviction was overturned, it against women agenda. It has been important was not just a huge vindication for her but a in bringing prostitution and trafficking onto the major victory for the women’s movement. The agenda and has helped to raise awareness of judgement in her case set a precedent as the issues such as FGM (female genital mutilation), court acknowledged that provocation can be , the abuse of disabled women, cumulative; that an understanding of the history and the specific violences being visited on of the abuse that Emma had suffered was Kurdish and Iraqi women. necessary to properly interpret and respond to This is the fifth year I have been involved in her actions. This precedent has been crucial in organising the prize. I never knew Emma. getting justice in the cases of other women who This year’s youngest nominee first read about followed Emma in striking out at their abusers. Emma’s life in a book and has found her story After her release Emma struggled with to be an inspiration in her own, very brave, the legacy of the various abuses she had campaigning. experienced. In July 1998, six years after her As we come up to twenty years since Emma’s first letter to Justice for Women and three years death there is still enormous work to be done after her release, Emma’s friends Julie Bindel and there are ever more of us doing it. and found her dead of an accidental overdose of a prescribed sedative. Rosa, on behalf of EHMP The first Emma Humphreys Memorial Prize was held later that year on Emma’s birthday, 30th October. The prize was given to Fiona Broadfoot - another woman who had drawn on her experience of being exploited in prostitution to

Persons Against Non-State Torture

In 2015 Linda MacDonald and Jeanne Sarson, from Persons Against Non-State Torture, Canada participated in a panel at FiLiA called Non-State Torture (NST): Breaking the Silence. They have continued their grass roots activist work and have just launched a new website: http://nonstatetorture.org/

Non-State torture (NST) is torture committed in the private or domestic sphere. For instance, NST is committed by parents, spouses, other kin, guardians, neighbours, trusted adults, strangers, human traffickers, johns, pimps, or pornographers in various public and private places. Few countries have enacted laws addressing torture committed by private individuals and groups.

It is a global crime and human rights violation against women and girls.

Please visit their website to learn more about what NST is and how you can support women and girls who endure such atrocities.

FiLiA 2017 9 The Pimping of Prostitution Abolishing the Sex Work Myth By Julie Bindel In The Pimping of Prostitution, renowned investigative journalist and feminist activist Julie Bindel takes the debate on prostitution legislation head-on, exposing the lived realities of women in contrast with the dominant discourse in current academic and liberal feminist debates. Based on more than 250 interviews with the people involved in and affected by prostitution around the world – from trafficked women to legal brothel owners to the men who drive demand – this book uncovers the lies, mythology and criminality that shroud this global trade, and suggests a way forward for the activists seeking to abolish ‘the oldest oppression’.

The Working Class The collection covers Movement Library in Salford everything from working life has been called one of the to political life, to union life, most unusual libraries in the to stories of female and male world. There's no shushing campaigners and activists here, only friendly people, from the 1700s right up to the comfy chairs and the offer of present day. a cup of tea while you settle It's full of stuff to inspire you to down with a good book. investigate, and to spur you on The Working Class Movement to participate. There are lots of Library exists to tell the story free events on too. of people's fight for a better world. This is not dreary politics, grey men in grey suits telling half truths. It's a place of ideas, of questions and of demands.

10 FiLiA 2017 Creating the Inclusion Paradigm Shift One of our key commitments as we this process and in true feminist spirit formalise our organisation is our duty we will achieve this through sisterhood in respect of Diversity and Inclusion. and solidarity. I have recently taken on the role of Through the Inclusion Framework we have Diversity and Inclusion Lead in FiLiA. already identified that our choice of venue I have developed an Inclusion Framework this year may conflict with our intent in into our governance which will ensure this area due to the venue being a listed FiLiA operates with inclusive working building undergoing substantial renovation. practice at the heart of everything it does. Our response to this, alongside the The structured pathway, which embraces practical measures we are putting into the social model of disability, moves place at Conference, is a commitment to beyond mere compliance issues. It Accessibility in its broadest sense steering considers the practical processes and our choice of venues going forward. responses needed to engage with our If you want to follow our journey as we members in ways which they feel included. implement our framework keep checking We will face some challenges as on our website. we move to this position particularly If you would like to get involved in our where there are budget implications focus group please email universal. or making changes to our current or [email protected] future scheduled events. Written by Jacqueline Winstanley, We will remain transparent throughout Founder & CEO Universal Inclusion

Feminism and Immigration In a post-Brexit, post-Trump world, immigration My grandmother is an immigrant who doesn't has become a dirty word. We've all grown used to speak English. My mother has gained more seeing clickbait headlines (oftentimes in the Daily independence because she lives in the UK. Everything Mail) blaming unemployment, a struggling NHS, crime, that I have, that I am grateful for and ambitious about, and terrorism on immigration. And this rhetoric works is because my parents are immigrants. because immigrants are a visible target. It's easier Protecting immigrant women and speaking with them, to blame an immigrant for society's problems than giving them a platform, is something we should all be it is to blame faceless, powerful corporations and a fighting for, as feminists. government that cares little for anyone who isn't white and wealthy. Sim Bajwa is speaking at the FiLiA conference about why immigration is a feminist issue As feminists who care about being intersectional, the dehumanisation of immigrants by right wing politicians and media is something we should be concerned about. Women of colour are especially vulnerable to racist hate crimes. The months before and after Brexit saw a record rise in these attacks, including a number of cases where men attempted to forcibly remove hijabs from Muslim women. This is a visible, violent issue, but not the only one. UK immigration law makes it possible for a husband to cancel his wife's spousal visa. There have been cases of women who entered the UK having their visas cancelled by abusive husbands, effectively leaving them without money or support. Women who move to the UK and don't speak English are vulnerable to exploitation. And of course, Yarl's Wood stands as a symbol state-sanctioned racism and abuse, where Theresa May, as Home Secretary, ignored accusations of sexual abuse. Closer to home, my parents are immigrants.

FiLiA 2017 11 In 2017 women need trade unions as much as trade unions need women Inequality is one of the biggest issues facing our society. a pay cut of 23%. The mostly women trade unionists have It is only through trade unions that all women, particularly run a campaign that has been autonomous and grounded low paid women, can fi nd a voice. The history of women’s in community based actions. They have challenged their involvement in trade unions is often marginalised. I know when employers and their own union, Unison. Other actions have I was involved in the project to transcribe the Minutes of the come through new trade unions such as United Voices of the Manchester and Salford Women’s Trades Union Council, funding World. UVW are a London-based trade union made up of many could only be obtained through trade unions or individuals. low-paid workers from central and South America. They have Getting publicity for the project was even more diffi cult as the brought their traditions of social movement into fi ghting some mainstream media mostly refuses to highlight anything with of the biggest institutions over their employment policies for “trade union” in its title. Organisations such as the MSWTUC some of their lowest paid workers. show how women and men have worked together to campaign for equality for women. Central to that struggle has been the The trade union movement often seems slow and sluggish issue of women’s role in the workplace. Women have always in its approach to women workers. But it is a democratic demanded that this analysis also includes issues about our movement in which women can take an equal part, and lives as mothers, carers and partners. Looking backwards we its membership is now 50/50 women/men. In fact a trade can learn from our own history as in 2017 we have to fi ght unionist is now more likely to be a woman than a man, those battles again. The story of women’s role in the trade union refl ecting an increasingly “womanised” labour market. The movement can be a depressing one. Women have not just struggled challenge facing trade unions in 2017 is how to refl ect the for justice at work but for recognition by their male comrades, to be needs and aspirations of the women who are most in need accepted as members of the union – and then for equality within of their support. Work and life in the future are going to the union. continue to change rapidly. It is important that women shape trade unions into organisations that refl ect our lives and Working life is not easy for women today. Years of the austerity dreams for a better future. agenda have seriously impacted on women’s lives at home and work. Women are at the mercy of an economy that is Bernadette Hyland is a writer, researcher and political activist. increasingly casualised. Women are penalised for wanting She has published one book – Northern Resisters: Conversations to have children. Jobs deemed ‘women’s work’ have been with Radical Women – and co-wrote, with Michael Herbert, Dare attacked. Women are increasingly taking on the role of carers to be Free: Women in Trade Unions Past and Present. She is a while being penalised by an unfair benefi ts and tax system. member of the National Union of Journalists and writes the blog But some of the most inspiring campaigns have been led largely Lipstick Socialist: https://lipsticksocialist.wordpress.com/ by women. The Durham Teaching Assistants Campaign has fought back against a Labour Council that did not just attack their standing as educational professionals but sought to impose

Conatus News: Defending Progressivism Conatus News is leading the debate on the most important issues in politics, culture, religion, and science. Much like FiLiA, the team at Conatus News strives to forge a better tomorrow in which petty partisanship to the human rights and women and girls are economically, politically, social progress that concern all of humanity. and socially liberated from the shackles of Through conferences, such as the news team’s sexism. Conatus News stands in solidarity very own “Defending Progressivism” in which with what the FiLiA conference endeavors academics and activists discussed the refugee to accomplish – to embolden women and crisis, mental health, feminism in developing eff ectuate positive change for the future. countries, and the future of activism, Conatus The non-politicised online news and opinion News seeks to address key concerns within platform has established an infl uential the progressive movement. It hopes to inspire presence, with some of the biggest names growth and foster a dynamic environment for in activism contributing to the creation and sincere individuals desiring to make an impact. dissemination of its content. Conatus News, with its strong forward-looking Conatus News was launched by grassroots perspective, is committed to positive change activists and it continues to empower with regard to feminism. For more information, progressive voices other media outlets please visit conatusnews.com silence, an initiative that has earned it a place among the most signifi cant progressive Sarah Mills, Editor/Writer news platforms. Its team of over one hundred at Conatus News writers aims to shift the focus away from

12 FiLiA 2017 Amplifying the voices of Women in Prison

One of the most powerful things FiLiA can do Prison were already undertaking. as the largest women’s rights conference in the In the six months we’ve been working with them, UK is to ensure access to our huge platform for this has included prison based arts and writing women who are unheard and often misheard. projects, a craft project and campaigns and this We have always tried to do this by highlighting has all happened alongside their on-going work to the full range of women’s experiences at the support women within and who have left prison. conference, especially the experiences of the We decided together to bring the work WiP are most vulnerable groups. For 2017, we wanted doing to the FiLiA audience and use the platform to build on this foundation and offer more of the of the conference to build support for and conference space to a group of women whose awareness of their campaigns. voices needed to be heard. We are really excited that thanks to the This was our goal when we launched our pilot commitment and enthusiasm of WiP and the community engagement programme this year. women they work with, you are able to engage Our aim was to support the engagement of with and support the work of WiP at Feminism in women who had experienced vulnerability with London by: the conference in two ways: By supporting the l Visiting their stall where women will be sharing active participation of women in the conference. art speaking out about their experiences and By developing ways to take the conference out there will be information about Women in into groups and communities who could not Prison’s work attend and participate in person.

l Coming to their workshop where you can learn We also wanted to use the pilot to build about the 2020 campaign and hear directly sustainable networks across the women’s from women sharing their experiences and movement. their vision and plans for reducing the women’s As women with experience of the criminal justice prison population system were one of the groups we wanted to l Checking out the beautiful flower meadow of engage, we were incredibly excited when Women flowers crafted by women who have been in in Prison agreed to be our pilot partner. Founded or are in prison and adding your own flower in 1983, Women in Prison supports women to in solidarity avoid and exit the criminal justice system and campaigns for the radical changes needed to l Pledging your support to their 2020 campaign deliver support services and justice for women. at the registration desk We have worked closely with one worker from Together we have decided to extend the pilot and WiP throughout the pilot. She has supported us continue working together after the conference. to meet with women at their community based We hope to work with some of the women who centre in South London. attend to create ways of taking some of the themes and conversations from the conference At this centre, an invaluable part of the rapidly out to women who cannot attend. We hope this diminishing women-only spaces in London, WiP can include women in prison. provide advice, support and advocacy on issues facing women affected by the criminal justice We would like to thank Rosa Fund for their system. It also hosts a campaigns discussion generous support for the pilot, and the workers group there which, is the group we met with. and women at Women in Prison for their From the first meeting, it was clear that the incredible support as our pilot partners. partnership was critical. Even in our best If you want an idea for a quick feminist action: tell imaginings we couldn’t have got it right without someone about Women in Prison’s 2020 campaign. hearing from the charity and women themselves. The campaign is fighting to reduce the high We hadn’t thought about how potentially intense human and financial cost of prison to our the conference space could feel. It’s busy, noisy, communities, to women who are caught in the full of movement and bustle. While that can be cycle of the criminal justice system and to their exciting, if you feel anxious or unsafe, it wouldn’t children and families. be a comfortable environment. The campaign is to reduce the women’s prison Thanks in part to the WiP group, we have a quiet population to 2,020 (or fewer!) by the year 2020 - room at the conference and we are sure other roughly half the current number of women in prison. women will use it too. We also found out quickly what incredible Visit www.womeninprison.org work the women involved with Women in to pledge your support

FiLiA 2017 13 The Campaign to End the Leeds Sex Trade The West Yorkshire Police and the Leeds City Council made to reduce neighbourhood opposition to the Zone set up a so-called Managed Zone for street prostitution and there has been some success with this strategy. in 2014. So far there has been one murder. Daria A major issue is that local people do not blame men, Pionka from Poland was robbed and battered to death. but the women. Prostitution is seen as caused by This is not the only serious crime against women seen the women, not a lucrative business run by pimps, as one of the reasons to withdraw support by the West procurers, drug dealers and traffickers. No action Yorkshire Police or the Council. seems to be taken against these criminals. The Zone The Zone has operating hours when neither men raises interesting legal issues that extend far beyond nor women will be arrested. It is not managed in the decision to not arrest individuals. the sense of being safe for women, but safe for While the police appear to have considerable legal men. Men are being drawn into the Zone from ever latitude in the criminal offences they pursue, is it widening areas as their access to women’s bodies legally acceptable that they can set up organisational is not being limited, but encouraged. Approximately systems that not only avoid arrests for criminal half of the women in the Zone are from the UK and offences, but encourage their commitment? The the other half from Eastern European countries, Leeds “Managed approach” is being promoted as the mainly Romania, Hungary and Poland. way forward for other towns and cities. BBC3 is producing films interviewing women in the The Campaign to End the Leeds Sex Trade (CELST) Zone about their lives and experiences. Titled Sex advocate for the implementation of the Abolitionist Drugs & Murder, these films can be found on BBC (Nordic) model which decriminalises prostituted iPlayer. They explore women’s experiences of drugs, people and provides viable exit strategies with full physical attack, conditions of being on the street, support and criminalises those who exploit them. hitting rock bottom, trying to leave prostitution. They show what life on the street is really like for women. The Police and Crime Commissioner for West Yorkshire Contact us at: describes the decision to introduce a prostitution zone as to “better protect sex workers and make sure [email protected] communities are safer and feel safer”. Efforts are being

The Cross party Group for Commercial Sexual Exploitation at the Scottish Parliament

Last November, MSP Rhoda Grant’s grassroots group of community and the Secretariat also replied on behalf of the CPG. organisations met and decided to become a Cross Party Group. The Government have not yet made any announcement We needed to have a minimum of 5 MSPs from at least 3 concerning their conclusions or further actions. Indications political parties who were in agreement with the aims and are that they are sitting on the fence about the issue. objectives of the CPG. This month, we have two eminent speakers presenting at the CPG, Ms Gunilla Ekberg and Ms Sabrinna Valisce. The Secretariat is usually a lay person: they can be sponsored by an organisation, or voluntary (like me) but are not paid by Ms Ekberg was the key protagonist who created the iconic Nordic the Parliament. The Chair should be an MSP and Rhoda Grant Model in Sweden in 1999. She has subsequently been an advisor (Labour) and Ash Denham (SNP) co-chair our CPG. to governments which have followed this response to prostitution. We had our first proper meeting in February, where Ms Ms Valisce was involved in prostitution in New Zealand Catriona Graham spoke about her role as Campaign Co- before and after the Prostitution Reform Act 2003. She ordinator of the Republic of Ireland’s ‘Turn off the Red Light’ will be speaking about the impact of this legislation from campaign, a second one in May and our third was on the a lived perspective. She was formerly an advocate of 26th September. Our first AGM will be in November. decriminalisation and she now campaigns for the Nordic Model.We are having some issues around how to fund a During this time, we have lobbied for the pro Nordic Model campaign co-ordinator, but we definitely wish to have one. resolution, which was brought by MSP Ash Denham and others at the SNP Conference. To our absolute delight, it was passed! There have been ideas about forming a civic coalition of pro NM organisations and also to create a smaller group within Once the euphoria had died down, we realised that we still our own CPG to focus on strategy and action. The role of had a way to go before this would become law. a CPG and a campaign group are different and sometimes Firstly, Michael Matheson the Justice Minister had, some the boundaries are confusing, but we hope a steering group time previously, commissioned research into the current might help to sort this out so we can move forward. situation regarding prostitution in Scotland. This was finally After a career in nursing and teaching Jacci Stoyle moved to published in the spring. Glasgow twenty years ago to undertake a PhD in Theology. Responses to this research were invited from the general public She represents the Scottish Episcopal Church on Action of and community organisations. The CPG played a major part in Churches Together in Scotland’s Anti-trafficking Group and is this. Several member organisations responded in their own right the Secretariat for the CPG for Commercial Sexual Exploitation.

14 FiLiA 2017 Introduction to The Porn Report

When I was seventeen, I remember thinking being paid Online pornography is the new and ugly face of the war to have sex must be great. When I was eighteen, I was on women. Every mobile phone is a weapon that allows offered money to do just that. The first pornographer who misogynists to reach into minds and distort desire. approached me is now in his 50s with a respectable (if A with many heads, pornography seeps across mediocre) career in IT, local politics and charity work. It was popular culture and consciousness from music videos to be work on a web portal, in the time before webcams. to hit TV shows. My much older boyfriend at the time told me it would Even within feminist circles ‘slutwalks’ are heralded destroy me. Whether born of genuine concern or a as progressive. Earnest discussions take place around possessive urge, the advice he gave probably saved ‘feminist porn’ and ‘sex work.’ The popular acceptance my life. I declined the offer. Over the ensuing years, I of pornography belies the brutal reality. was given grubby cards by sweaty men in seedy clubs The more I researched for the report the more painfully promising opportunities to get rich by doing porn. apparent it became that pornography is sexual abuse on film. Going out I’d arm myself in gothic corsets and make-up. Investigating the work of brave and pioneering feminists such To my mind this oozed sexual confidence. In reality it was as lawyer Ann Olivarius was a much-needed antidote to the a signal to predatory men that I was desperate to please tired malestream arguments about censorship and liberalism. and to be desired. I understand now what I was too naïve to recognise at the time. I was approached multiple times By the conclusion of the report it became apparent to me by pornographers because as a fresh-faced and extremely that thanks to the work of women’s rights advocates, the petite young woman, to most older men I looked like a child. legislative framework is in place to take on pornography. What we now need is to instil the political will to make I was lucky I refused their offers. Many are not. Now change. The war on women is one we cannot afford to in my mid-thirties, I am beginning to understand that lose. I hope those at the FiLiA conference will use this women indeed do grow more radical with age. For report to fight back. the past ten years, I have been active in the women’s movement, and the more I learn the more I realise we This piece was written by Jo Bartosch. have to change. Writing the ‘Pornography in the UK’ The full report can be found at report for FiLiA brought home to me that the personal https://filia.org.uk/news/2017/4/11/ really is political. pornography-in-the-uk

Not Buying It Not Buying It challenges the Council showing that this too porn and sex industries and can be a breach of equality law. their normalising. And we are And we join with our sisters using Equality Laws to do it! (and brothers) fighting against We are holding advertising the porn and sex industries regulator, the ASA, to account themselves. for allowing porn and sex Join us, find out more, take ads in newspapers (a major action! [email protected]. way by which men access uk www.notbuyingit.org.uk prostitution) as a breach of its legally binding duties to promote gender equality. We are also challenging Local Councils over their licensing of strip joints, with a ground breaking legal case against Sheffield City

FiLiA 2017 15 Website: https://filia.org.uk/ Twitter: FiLiA_charity

16 FiLiA 2017 Instagram: filia_pix

Email: [email protected]

FiLiA 2017 17 Taking it to the streets – the abolitionist movement in

We went to for its annual festival celebrating keeping, fully legalised their enormous profits, and the Bahnhofsviertel – the area in front of station. reframed prostitution to facilitate the payment by prostituted women into Germany’s social security It is the red-light area with brothels, street prostitution system. Cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants must and counselling centres for those struggling with drug designate areas in which both prostitution and brothel addiction. It has bars, cafés, sex shops, night clubs, keeping are allowed. restaurants, bistros … and a large crowd shouting, drinking, talking, dancing, shoulder slapping, high Pimping and trafficking were moved from “sexual fiving, smashing beer bottles. Occasionally some person crimes” to “crimes against personal freedom” and clears the debris and collects the empty bottles in largely decriminalised, making these practices shopping carts, to redeem them for cash. punishable only if proven to be “exploitative”. This left the definition of “exploitative” to case law, and only if We last saw this area on a night in October when “force” is exercised, with “force” in as narrow two activists from FiLiA came to visit Germany to a definition as possible. get an impression of what a fully legalised sex industry looks like. As a result, a court in Hamburg decided last year that a woman from abroad, with hardly any knowledge of What does it look like where it has been normalised? German, subjected to sexual violence by her pimp who Where brothel operators count as businessmen and had also taken away her papers and then locked her are invited to TV shows? Where being a dominatrix is into an apartment, was the victim of a “work accident” seen as glamorous? Where 1.2 million men are said when she badly hurt herself in her attempt at climbing (although there is no solid basis for this figure) to visit from the window. brothels each day? Where no one can even say how many women in prostitution there are, so everybody Trafficking, coercion or pimping just seemed too keeps quoting the number 400,000? complicated to prove. Prostitution is presumed to be a job like any other. A country with mega brothels with several floors, with “love mobiles” along streets, small brothels, One might presume that such glaring violence, sexism short lease apartments, dominatrix studios, street and the objectification of women as commodities would prostitution, garage-like areas set aside for prostitution, draw outrage among feminists and spark a strong feminist “escort” sites, and street prostitution on what is called movement. The opposite is true, however. Although the Hartgeldstrich – where prices are so low they can be abolitionist movement in Germany has significantly grown paid in coins and where the cruellest of punters find the in the last years, opposition remains rare. drug addicted who will not set up boundaries. (cont’d next page) A country with huge billboards advertising these mega brothels everywhere, where special trolleys and lorries with these posters are parked outside schools. It takes weeks for local residents to have them removed – to just a few yards down the road. Prostitution itself was decriminalised in Germany during WWI. What remained illegal was brothel keeping and pimping. During the Nazi era, women in prostitution had to register, and streets and brothels were set aside for prostitution.

In 1942, the establishment of brothels was made mandatory in the concentration camps, as Himmler believed the availability of prostituted women would serve as an incentive to the inmates who were subjected to forced labour. Brothels were also established by the German army for the soldiers - one official reason was that this would prevent homosexuality among young men.

The women in these brothels were either enslaved women from the occupied countries, Jewish women, or German women deemed lost to the “folk’s community” such as communists, or lesbians. All were “expendable” and murdered once they were no longer sexually exploitable. After WWII, prostitution remained legal. Women had to undergo regular health checks. Brothels were frowned upon but tolerated. Stuttgart set up a brothel under municipal supervision, and zoning regulations became local matters. Commemorating the women murdered in In 2002, the decriminalised brothel prostitution in Frankfurt (August 2017)

18 FiLiA 2017 EMMA magazine and some individual activists Stop Sexkauf and Abolition 2014, with Manu Schon, Inge denounced prostitution for what it was, and were swept Kleine, survivor Huschke Mau and many others have aside by an interpretation of prostitution as aspect of organised panels, taken part in demonstrations (and been women’s general sexual liberation. harassed), written about a thousand letters to politicians and stake holders, organised demonstrations, awarded According to “progressive voices” in our country, Amnesty with a “Shame on Amnesty Award” which prostitution, renamed “sex work”, apparently exists simply the local branch refused, commemorated the women due to the irrepressible wish evinced by some women to murdered in , set up websites, engage in it. That this is precisely the interpretation from written and published and translated articles. the 1950s, from the 1930s, and from the 19th century, escapes these “progressives”. Feminist activists from Terre des Femmes, the largest feminist organisation in Germany, finally convinced its Conservatives spare themselves the trouble of members of the “Nordic Model” – another huge success. euphemisms. Prostitution exists because men allegedly need it because they are men. Both sides agree In Frankfurt this year in August, during the that it is the state’s obligation to guarantee men sexual Bahnhofsviertelnacht we honoured the women access to women 24/7, and the new “Prostitutes’ Protection murdered in prostitution there. Law” that came into effect this summer affirms that. Among people celebrating and drinking, close to where If this is what prostitution looks like in Germany, what pro sex industry lobbyists held “guided tours” through does the abolitionist feminist movement look like? some of Frankfurt’s brothels and spread pro sex industry We’re still not large enough, but we are tough. In propaganda, we set aside a corner for these women. December 2014, the Aktionsbündnis Stop Sexkauf Researched by the group “Sex Industry Kills” these with Anita Heiliger organised the first international women were given their names and what we know abolitionist congress in Germany for more than 100 of their lives, candles were lit, roses laid down. years. Survivors Rachel Moran, Tanja Rahm and Marie Our groups, and others – Alarm Sexkauf, the Merklinger explained to a shocked audience what Störenfriedas, Save Rahab and Frauenverband Courage – prostitution really is. Trauma experts Muriel Salmona handed out leaflets and spoke to passers-by. We still have and Ingeborg Kraus did the same. International feminist a very long way to go. But looking back at the distance activists, politically active women and social workers we have covered in the last four years, we know that, as spoke, and Simon Häggström from the Swedish police Susan B. Anthony put it, failure is impossible. showed how the Swedish approach works. Since then, a meeting in December in Munich has Inge Kleine become a fixed event. In 2015, was stop-sexkauf.org among the speakers; in 2016 French activists Claudine Legardinier and Claire Quidet together with Patric Jean www.abolition2014.blogspot.de taught us about the French model. www.banishea.wordpress.com www.huschkemau.de

FiLiA 2017 19 The Sheila McKechnie Foundation

The Sheila McKechnie Foundation is the We can also offer bespoke training on a UK’s leading provider of training and commissioned basis. support to those seeking to bring about Working with our Associates, we can support positive social change. all kinds of organisations from very large We act as a powerful voice for this NGOs to local community groups, and coach community, and celebrate excellence through individuals both in the UK and abroad. our National Campaigner Awards. To find out more visit We offer a wide range of support www.smk.org.uk encompassing training, coaching and or email [email protected] consultancy. Last year, over 400 people came through our doors to develop their @SMKCampaigners skills, taking this back to their wider organisations and networks. We work all over the UK and overseas offering access to our training at a reduced fee or no fee depending on income. We provide a wide range of training from introductory one-day campaign workshops, more advanced five-day programmes and intensive two-hour masterclasses.

The Feminist Library But our struggle is far from over. The Library is The Feminist Library is a large archive collection now fundraising for its move to a new community of Women’s Liberation Movement literature, space in Peckham. Help us secure this precious particularly second-wave materials dating feminist resource for future generations by signing from the late 1960s to the 1990s. We support up to our Friends Scheme or check out our website research, activist and community projects in for other ways you can support. this field, and beyond. To become a member of the Friends Scheme The Feminist Library has been doing this work since for as little as £3 per month, visit http:// 1975. It was set up by a group of women concerned feministlibrary.co.uk/support/friends-scheme/ about preserving the writings and the knowledge of To make a one-off donation or to learn more the Women’s Liberation Movement. The Library was about supporting The Feminist Library, visit set up during the height of the Second Wave, as http://feministlibrary.co.uk/support/ there was a political imperative to provide a space for women to organise, agitate, network and share ideas in a clearly feminist space. That political imperative remains to this day. Despite the dominant media message that there is no need for autonomous radical feminist spaces, we know differently. Although feminism has achieved much, there is still much to fight for. The Feminist Library can and will provide this space. In 2015, the Library was faced with a threat of eviction, unless it agreed to pay an increased rent - from £12,000 to £30,000 a year! We launched a wide-scale campaign to fight the landlord's decision, gaining international support, positive media coverage and 16,000 signatures for our ‘save the library’ petition. We also held a successful ‘read in’ protest in February 2014, where over 100 members of the public gathered to read feminist books.

20 FiLiA 2017 Susan Merrick: FiLiA Artist in Residence

In August 2016 I met with FiLiA chair Lisa-Marie were working and which allowed for children Taylor on the beach down by the River Thames to be present. Each workshop gave the to discuss how we could work together. While participants different materials and creative my children gathered fossils we spoke of the ideas which meant that whether experienced organisations FiLiA works with, what the aims and inexperienced in art, the participants were of the charity are, and what role Art could have able to join in and really enjoy creating. Cate in this. Field took the participants through mark making, weaving and wood painting while Amy Dignam I had already exhibited twice with FiLiA and was introduced mono printing and collage. drawn to work closer with them. I was a year into my MA in Fine art, focusing on performative The workshops with Women In Prison were and film based work considering language and held across six days within a women’s prison power. My research at that point was mainly and were wonderfully and patiently coordinated in archives and libraries, sited within women’s by Claire Cain from the organisation. Three of rights and issues of gender/social relations. the days were focused on visual/hands on art

and crafting with Rebecca Harris in which we I felt it vital to my practice that my work would looked at embroidery, collage, paint and sketch engage in and instigate real conversations. books. The other three days were led by Leah During a creative residency at the National Thorn and focused on poetry, spoken word and Archives I looked at prison reports of suffragettes creative writing. in Holloway prison. This research led me to consider what voices are heard in archives (and The workshops demonstrated to an incredible subsequently wider society), whose voices, and amount of creative output from participants who makes those choices? The works that came as well as a whole host of conversations. out of this included a performance in which Conversations around class, race, feminism, I signalled words from the reports from the prison life, children, social life, social care, balcony of the National Archives building, using violence, ‘victim versus survivor’, language, semaphore signals. This was the first step in me future, law, literature, art and so much more. concentrating on how using a very visible but There was a lot of laughter, some tears, hugs, silent and not well known language could be a compassion and anger but most of all there powerful tool in beginning deeper conversations was enthusiasm. Enthusiasm to join in with around the issue of voices, language and power. something, to come together as women, women who wouldn’t normally sit and chat together After our wonderful chat on the beach I went (and I don’t mean with me, I mean for example away and gathered a lot of information, contacts women in the prison who wouldn’t normally and eager partners (artists and organisations) speak to each other) coming together to make, and put together a successful project proposal speak, write and listen. for Arts Council England. This proposal was that I would become FiLiA Artist in Residence 2017 The point of this project for me was to enable and I would run a project that would incorporate participation in creative workshops with participation in art for women who have limited practising artists and to allow for spaces access to it; dialogue of current social issues; that would engage dialogue, not forced, but and an artistic outcome. This project would be naturally, as women have done for millennia. called ‘Statements in Semaphore’. This aspect of the project became the work itself, a socially engaged practice, a socially It has been just over a year since we had that engaged research ‘hub’. We spoke to one conversation and I put together the proposal, and another, shared with one another, argued it has been a fantastic year. The project was the with one another. We all listened. first that I have run of this scale and it began as most do with a shedload of organising. After the With regard to my own art practice and ‘pieces’ initial 3 months of applications and fundraising I of work, the project has instigated a huge then faced another three months of coordinating amount of work across the year. I will mention and planning with artists, organisations and just a few of these starting back in autumn last participants. Eventually I had twelve workshops set year with a series of photographs of women up, six with one group from YouTrust Hampshire artists and local women signalling the semaphore and six with the organisation Women In Prison to alphabet. These images were then used in work with five groups of women prisoners. The several exhibitions and live actions to signal fantastic artists I had on board were Leah Thorn, hidden messages to the public, growing on the Cate Field, Amy Dignam and Rebecca Harris whom idea of how such communication can raise the I worked with to deliver each workshop. topic of the hidden experiences of women. The workshops themselves took place between May and August 2017, across six evenings ensuring that we could cater for those who (Continued on next page)

FiLiA 2017 21 Susan Merrick – continued

I then created a performance called the work and for more conversations to start. ‘Semaphore Aerobics’ in which I signalled For me it has confirmed that I cannot research semaphore to groups of live audiences at only in archives and libraries. My practice must exhibitions as an ‘interruption’ to the gallery incorporate meeting people, creating spaces for exhibitions they were there to see. The conversations and opening up to audiences that audiences began joining in with me, with no may not normally enter an art gallery. idea what they were signalling, the power being handed to me, the artist. Artist website: Susanmerrick.co.uk I also filmed some footage of some of the Project website: workshops and projected this at the Desperate statementsinsemaphore.co.uk Artiwives takeover, Leyden Gallery in June 2017. Social media: The projected footage was shown in light spaces and outside in daylight; it could not be seen clearly FB @Statementsinsemaphore until I the artist or someone from the audience @SusanMerrickArtist intervened with the beam. Instagram @susan_merrick In the final couple of sessions with the women I Twitter @smdoula asked for joint actions. With the group from the 'What a lovely environment to express how refuge I took photos of the women posing using we feel without being judged. It’s been very semaphore signals again. This time the women inspirational for me because I always write my were photographed from behind, to preserve poetry in rhyming form and I have been able the necessary anonymity they need but to to listen to poems that have texture, definition, also visibly show this anonymity, but with their give warmth, create images and ignite feelings. physical presence and voices. These images will Very good to be part of and contribute to the be used in the final exhibition in October. group.' LS At Prison I bought a T-shirt from the prison 'The workshops were wonderful. So fulfilling shop. I then asked some of the women who had to hear other women's creations. I learned so previously been in Holloway to write a message, much about my own writing and how I might word or phrase to Holloway. I took this T-shirt improve it. The workshop leaders were great, to the ex-Holloway site and placed it in a tree encouraging, courageous and led the project on the site to be left there, taking some of so well. Every moment was a joy. More please.' the voices back to the site. I also read out the KM poems that had been written by the women to the prison gate, letting the words carry their 'I really enjoyed the art workshop. At first weight through the prison fences and empty times I thought it would have been stressful buildings. These actions were performance having to be creative. But it was the opposite. based but without a live audience. What I chose The staff made me feel at ease by positive to do instead was live stream some of the encouragement and I was engaged throughout, actions. Live streaming my work allows for me as I got creative without worrying about to reach an audience, a potentially more diverse judgements.' K audience, without the limitations that scheduling 'What an amazing day I’ve had. and planning for an audience would incur. With an array of coloured paint, the colours I am now working towards the final exhibition were so bright I felt so dizzy, of this project which will take place along with they nearly made me faint. the FiLiA Conference. This exhibition is a space I worked in a group and I worked alone, for me to show both the creative outcomes of I'd forgotten where I was. the women who participated in the workshops, I had so much fun looking at artwork, but also the work that has come out of it for I’d almost gotten lost. me as an artist. As I approach this time I also Such talented women, all in one room, want to consider how this approach can work sharing thoughts and ideas, as a practice for me as an artist but also as a we all had fun with PVA glue, useful tool for women’s rights organisations or which we hadn't seen in years. charities. Part of this will be in talking about This workshop was like a magical journey, it, talking about what we did and what the taking me to a place unknown, participants thought of it. I can't wait for the day I’m released so I can do artwork at home.' L I intend to take the exhibition (the work from participants as well as my own work) to several sites, to enable the women themselves to see

22 FiLiA 2017 FiLiA 2017 23 24 FiLiA 2017 FiLiA 2017 25 26 FiLiA 2017 FiLiA 2017 27 28 FiLiA 2017 Older Women Rock! Walking in ancestral women’s footsteps These artists embroidered, burned, I am an archive on legs, printed, engraved and spray-painted a time traveller, alive to life, my poetry and the women’s testimony I embody time, provide testimony, onto retro clothes found in local charity me, I’m a radical, lyrical, womanist legacy. shops. The poetry/clothing we created Women’s blood memory speaks in me has been exhibited in two pop-up shops As a spoken word poet, it is a privilege - one in Folkestone, Kent and the other to be connected to FiLiA. in Newcastle-under-Lyme. My poetry, films and poetic clothing The work is publicised in creative ways have been screened and exhibited to reach women who might not usually at conferences and art exhibitions. be drawn to creative events or to Recently I was lucky to work with feminist exhibitions or talks. women in HMP Downview, alongside ‘Older Women Rock!’ sticks of rock FiLiA artist in residence Susan Merrick. and sweets are given out, poetry/ My latest project ‘Older Women Rock!’ clothing is displayed in high street uses poetry, retro clothes, performance shop windows and recently knitting and film to celebrate older women, artist Deborah Nash knitted in Wilko’s challenge our invisibility, unite us shop window. We have had an older across our differences and subvert women’s Zumba Gold flashmob in dominant assumptions and prejudices Folkestone shopping centre and an about us. It came about as a result of a exciting programme of performances, Leverhulme Trust artist residency that talks, workshops and films. I had on the theme of ageing at the As a Visiting Fellow at Keele University University of Kent and at Canterbury in the Centre for Ageing Research, Christ Church University. I recently ran a three month ‘Older The poetry I wrote addressed issues of Women Rock the Potteries!’ project gendered ageing, including the invisibility in North Staffordshire. This involved or misrepresentation of older women in older lesbians, older women who are the media, the beauty industry and the refugees and asylum seekers and imperative to ‘age agelessly’, poverty, women in their 80s and 90s who live being a carer and the experience of older in a retirement village. women and incarceration. As a result of the Fellowship, nine During the ten months, I ran poetry poetry/clothes will be added to workshops and had conversations the collection, including a ceramic with a wide range of women in their dress. They will be exhibited at Keele late 50s, 60s and early 70s. I spoke University during this month and in to women in a Zumba Gold class, November. There will also be a film women in prison, women with physical evening at the Stoke Film Theatre, or learning disabilities, women at a featuring short films celebrating older MIND Day Centre and daughters of women, plus archival material of Holocaust survivors. women in the Potteries. After the residency I collaborated with For information about the screening fantastic older women artists - sculptor of documentaries about ‘Older Nicholette Goff, fashion designer and Women Rock!’ or future exhibitions lecturer Claire Angel, textile artist Trish of the poetry/clothing, see Bishop and members of the wonderfully- loveolderwomenrock.wordpress.com named Profanity Embroidery Group.

FiLiA 2017 29 FEMINIST KNOWING

Have you come to this conference similarities of our experiences of to find ways to work on one feminist male domination and the solidarity issue in particular? Or are you here from which we work together as to explore feminism and see if it is the women of FiLiA have worked a fit for you? Or have you come to to bring about this conference. this conference through feminist With the emergence of new ? generations of feminists who may Whatever has brought you here, you not have experienced the vital force may find during this conference and of CR that brought us to launch the after feminist events like this that you Women’s Liberation Movement in look at the world differently, analysing the 1960s, I developed a workshop public events and reflecting on private that I have been offering around the life from a new perspective that world, Feminist Knowing. becomes possible when you discover A year ago, ten women from FiLiA that you are no longer isolated in gathered in a country house for the pain and self-doubt from fighting off weekend and connected with me violation and oppression by yourself. in the US via Skype. Between each Together we create our feminist two-hour session, FiLiA women met knowledge first, through coming together in consciousness raising. together as sisters, which in During our second session, I could itself is a blow to patriarchy. Male tell that something was afoot. They domination thrives by setting seemed electrified. Brimming with women against each other. energy, they spontaneously began We bring our feminist analytical sharing their ideas with me. The tools together to expose patriarchal ocean and miles between us melted practices that we had previously away. I felt more hopeful about the seen as inevitable, whether that future of feminism than I had in a takes the form of a belief that every long time. women needs a man or prostitution You can find more information is inevitable or we cannot end about my Five Session spousal abuse… Programme and how you can Together with our own knowledge get involved on my website: and tools we move into action. kathleenbarry.net In my fifty years of feminist activism, I wish you a very successful writing, and organising, I know conference. of nothing more important than In Feminist Sisterhood Consciousness Raising (CR) as the and Solidarity... most genuine foundation for activism in dismantling the patriarchy. , Ph.D., is the author of five books and an Consciousness raising turns our internationally recognised minds, hearts and beings to look feminist-human rights activist at the issues facing women through our connections with each other, the

30 FiLiA 2017 Thank you for supporting FiLiA. You can continue to help support our work by checking out our merchandise at the conference

FiLiA 2017 31