The past few weeks we’ve had to disassemble FiLiA2020 due to the pandemic, moving everything to 2021 (put the 16th-17th October in your diary!). The FiLiA team has experienced the myriad effects of covid from job losses to illness and being stranded in Argentina trying to return home. We’ve held on to each other via weekly online calls where we check in and talk far too much about cake (ask Gemma!).

We’ve been gifted with a daily schedule of Feminist learning by one of the FiLiA volunteers which has kept us motivated and brought some order to our days. Well done to all the Feminist organisations who managed to pull an incredible array of online sessions together under quite demanding circumstances.

Thanks also to the many Women who have continued to contribute to the FiLiA blogs and podcasts. We’ve almost reached our 100th podcast which is a great achievement - thanks to the podcast team!

During lockdown, and at a time of intense financial pressure, 50 Women have signed up to the Friends of FiLiA scheme. We’ve received a number of emails from Women explaining that they can’t give much, but would like to contribute; asking whether £1 a month can really make a difference. Over the course of a year £1 / month will cover a Solidarity Ticket for the FiLiA conference, enabling a Woman to attend who otherwise would not be able to; it makes a huge difference. Thank you.

Thanks also to those Women who are working under enormous pressure to defend our sex-based rights. The ones who have been highlighting the issue for decades, and those who have recently stepped into the fray. In the face of intense lobbying to remove single-sex exemptions, Women have organised and mobilised to great effect. I’ve recently been wondering what ‘sex as a protected characteristic’ actually means for our day to day lives. Every morning I read the news and see the brutality and unfairness of a world set up to discriminate against us on the basis of our sex. The tiny sliver of mostly ineffectual protections we have are at risk. It appears that sex-based protections are not themselves safeguarded against lobbyists blatantly attempting to make them a thing of the past. As it ever was.

FiLiA has won three funding bids. One is going to be driven by grassroots Women’s organising in Portsmouth; the other by girls in Bradford. The third one will allow us to explore socialist Feminism at the next conference. I’ll write more as the projects progress. My final thanks is to those funders who are supporting FiLiA to take our work to the next level.

Sisterhood and Solidarity

LM