UK Indymedia - UK Gender Newswire Archive

Can you help female victims of sexual violence?

18-08-2011 17:47

The Oxford Sexual Abuse & Rape Crisis Centre (OSARCC) is recruiting women who can help of women and girls who have experienced sexual violence.

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Fascist NF in Newcastle

13-08-2011 16:44

Fascist boneheads spotted up to nee good as usual in the Toon.

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Ian Hislop In Bed With MI5 and A Super-Injunction

08-08-2011 10:57

Ian Hislop has criticized Julian Assange because he claims to be concerned about Assange's alleged treatment of women and his possible connection with an anti Semite. When confronted with evidence of anti-woman, anti Jew hate material published by MI5 agent provocateur, David Myatt, Hislop put a 'super-injunction' on the truth and refused to publish. Hislop wouldn't even publish a letter which mentioned Myatt's name.

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LaDIY Cinema Fundraiser Presents: Itty Bitty Titty Committee (2007)

28-07-2011 10:16

On Sunday, July 31 · 7:00pm - 10:00pm at the Rutland Arms, 86 Brown Street, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S1 2BS

LaDIY Festival presents a first in a series of feminist film screenings

Starting with Jamie Babbit's light hearted comedy approach to radical feminism in 'Itty Bitty Titty Committee' (2007).

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Occupation of Shell peat storage facility in Rossport

20-07-2011 17:13

Shell to Sea protest halts Shell's peat works for second day

At 10.30 am this morning Shell to Sea campaigners stopped work for the second day in a row at the Bord na Móna site at Shramore, near Bangor, Co. Mayo. They are currently on the site and occupying machinery.

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Action Alert! Stop the prosecution of Sheila Farmer. Safety must be the priority

18-07-2011 14:08

Sheila Farmer is being put on trial for brothel-keeping on Monday 5 September at Croydon Crown Court. Please can you urgently write to stop the prosecution
to the addresses below.

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Photos from the Cambridge Abortion Rights Demo 16 July 2011

17-07-2011 14:47

http://groupspaces.com/FeministActionCambridge/item/162671

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Indymedia UK, Assange and Rape Apologism

15-07-2011 12:26

A short article on the censorship and rape apologism which appears to have pervaded Indymedia UK. Published on Indymedia Scotland.

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PRO-CHOICE DEMO Saturday 16th July, 1-2pm, outside the Guildhall, Market Square

04-07-2011 22:13

Women's right to an abortion in the UK is under threat

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T'Other Stage Wants You !

22-06-2011 17:38

T'OTHER STAGE IS RETURNING TO SHEFFIELD PRIDE ON SATURDAY 16TH JULY 2011.

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Riot Don't Diet - Feminist subvertised ad spotted on Mill Road, Cambridge

17-06-2011 19:40

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Pro-Nazi, Pro-Rape, Pro-Pedo Music in London

14-06-2011 21:52

On 25 June and 1 Oct 2011, London's Slimelight nightspot plan to stage concerts by musicians with links to Fascism, Nazism and violent anti-Feminism

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Stand Up, Be Counted, Slut Walk

13-06-2011 08:45

This past weekend, I popped my protest cherry by marching alongside women of all ages, races and religions at London’s Slut Walk. It’s an event and subject I feel strongly about and the day itself made me even more passionate about it. There were women in that 5000+ strong crowd who had been victims of rape themselves, there were men who marched along to show their support. It felt good to crowd the streets of London, make the traffic stop and and draw attention to the heinous culture of victim blaming that goes on world wide.

As we stormed the London streets on Saturday, a defining moment for me was when we walked past a group of builders. They downed tools and just stared at us, open mouthed. No cat calls, no wolf whistles, no smarmy comments – they read the signs, they shut up. I’m sure for many women there it was the first time we’ve managed to walk past a building site and not had our anatomy dissected by men who are often older than us, probably with daughters our age.

This is what I think gets misunderstood. There’s a difference between someone paying you a compliment and someone wolf whistling or saying ‘nice tits’. I have had men say to me in the street ‘you look nice today’ and been bowled over by the fact they seem to have manners. It’s such a rarity. The majority of the time, I get hissed at, whistled at (you know, like you would an animal), told I have nice tits, nice legs, told I should wear my skirt a little shorter, told how nice my ass looks. When your first comment to me is sexual, how am I to know you’ll just leave it at a comment? What may be an innocent comment to you, I have no choice but to take a a possible threat.

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Strathclyde police step up repression and target anti-rape event organisers

12-06-2011 15:25

The Glasgow Defence Campaign has received the following report from a Scottish Socialist Youth supporter.

Organisers of an anti sexual violence demonstration in Glasgow city centre on Saturday 4 June are facing possible charges after Strathclyde Police reported two individuals to the Procurator Fiscal for what they claim was an 'unauthorised' march. This follows a huge police operation which was mounted on the day of the 'Slutwalk', which saw around 200 mostly young people taking part in a completely peaceful march against rape and victim blaming, in light of recent comments by various Tory politicians on the matter.

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london slutwalk - pics and report

12-06-2011 14:55

organisers estimated 3000 people took part in yesterday's 'slutwalk' anti-rape protest yesterday in central london. the crowd filled trafalgar square to hear from a wide variety of speakers, and the event was seen by them as a success. it has certainly opened up a debate about attitudes to women, rape, dress, and misogyny, although not all agree with the premise of the march.

click on image for larger version. all images are 'some rights reserved' - free for credited non-commercial use, otherwise contact author for permission

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as the crowd assembled outside the 'hard rock cafe' at the west end of picadilly, it became clear this was going to be much bigger than most people had imagined. the london slutwalk, follows similar uk marches in edinburgh, newcastle, cardiff and glasgow, and these in turn were part of an emergence of currently more than 70 similar events around the globe.

it all began in toronto, after an ill-judged, and later reprimanded, comment by a toronto cop, michael sanguinetti, in a rape case. he was quoted as saying that "women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised". there have been similar comments in british courts from ill-witted judges, and rape victims are routinely asked what they were wearing at the time. so the 'slutwalk' response is that women should be free to wear whatever they wish, and that rape is thus never invited or 'asked for'. infact, one particularly incisive banner at yesterday's protest simply pointed out that "by definition, you cannot ASK to be raped".

some feminists have opined that the protest doesn't address deeper concerns over the commercial sexualisation of the female in society, and that the word 'slut' is not one worth reclaiming. on a side note, etymologically, 'slut' doesn't originally appear to suggest any sexual connotation, rather being associated with dirt, and applied to women, often servants, who didn't clean properly.

all controversy aside, the trafalgar square speeches, from organisers and invitees, kept returning to a simple single-issue point to be made, and 'slutwalk' might be strongest and least divisive if it continues to be clear about that one issue.

i thought it was best summed up by one speaker who invited us to imagine the case of a man appearing in the witness stand after being the victim of a rape where some penis-like object had been shoved up his arse. the first question he is asked by the sympathetic judge is "can you describe what you were wearing at the time?". the farcical unlikeliness of this scenario brought laughter and a huge cheer from the crowd. and yet female rape victims are routinely asked this question.

a young muslim woman pointed out that her religious dress is under fire for too much coverage, while rape victims are under fire for too little dress. why does (patriarchal) authority believe it should interfere in this area at all? 'slutwalk' invited people to come dressed in any way they wished, and although many took up the challenge to dress 'provocatively' (isn't that word in itself a sign of how deep this problem is entrenched?), others rose to the call in other ways.

a trans-gender speaker spoke of her previous life as a man, never experiencing any sexual abuse, but that since dressing as a woman, she receives anything ranging from stupid comments to serious threats on a shockingly regular basis. sex workers spoke of their experiences at the hands of the police - claims of abuse or rape are routinely met with indifference because of the nature of their work, and the level of protection is minimal, non-existent or indeed negative. she told how she was currently fighting a conviction for 'running a brothel', when her only motive was to work in a flat communally with a couple of friends for safety after being brutally attacked herself (without any subsequent justice) when she previously worked on her own.

other speakers did of course make connections to wider women's issues, such as the use of rape as a weapon in war, the plight of women in AIDS ravaged countries, and the rights of women globally. one particularly eloquent speaker on global issues was crystal from 'global women's strike'.

but ultimately and simply 'slutwalk' is about challenging the arbitrary and ill-conceived connection between dress or appearance and the crime of rape. it is about fighting the perception among, mostly male, police, prosecuters, and judges, that rape can be invited by signals and implied consent. it is about raising these issues publicly and in the press, and pushing it into the judicial agenda.

it certainly seems to have captured the imagination of a wide cross-section of the public, and yesterday's london march and rally had men and women in all states of dress and undress, in unexpectedly large numbers, with a serious aim and as part of a global phenomenon.

quite by chance, yesterday's event coincided with the yearly 'world naked bike ride', and as the speeches were drawing to a close, hundreds and more hundreds of naked men and women rode past the square as part of that event, not one of them inviting rape - a delicious synchronicity on a sunny afternoon.

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Ugandan lesbian awaiting deportation from the UK

09-06-2011 10:45

"... We, the undersigned, are calling upon the UK Border Agency and the British Government to give Betty Tibikawa leave to remain in the UK, with refugee status, and to stop deporting people persecuted for their sexual orientation... "

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Racist + Islamophobic News Manipulation by the BNP

07-06-2011 22:26

The BNP published an article under the headline "All Rapes in Oslo Committed by Immigrants", claiming that a Norwegian Police report "revealed that all perpetrators of rape... were identified as being non-Western by their victims", and that the report has "shown that Third World immigrants, most if not all of them Muslims, are responsible for the vast majority of sexual assaults and rapes in the country". In fact the report says exactly the opposite of what the BNP pretends it says ---

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Report from Oxford Radical Forum 2011

25-05-2011 16:47

Oxford’s ivory tower may not often feel the tremors of a thousand students pushing through police lines to protest Vince Cable‘s (non) appearance at the Exam Schools in collusion with the marketisation of higher education in Britain. However, some students at Wadham College have, this past week, renewed a tradition (alive since 2008) of bringing radical ideas into the heart of the ‘dreaming spires’, with the aim of reviving that momentum experienced in the winter of 2010 against the cuts and the Tories’ wider programme of austerity and neoliberal reform.

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