The Guardian writes back: 21st Century Feminism is here...

'That's the kind of feminist resurgence we need'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/24/middle-class-feminism-politics

‘Feminism Today’ with Nina Power and Lindsey German

Saturday 6 March, 5pm to 6.30pm for International Women's Day

Author and academic Nina Power joins veteran socialist campaigner Lindsey German to discuss the state of contemporary feminism, with a focus on the rise of‘consumerist feminism’.

Nina Power’s latest book, ‘One Dimensional Woman’ charts the rise of ‘consumer feminism’, the cultural phenomenon according to which the height of female achievement consists of “the ownership of expensive handbags, a vibrator, a job, a flat and a man.” But how has it come to this?, she asks. Did the desires of twentieth-century women's liberation achieve their fulfilment in the shopper's paradise of 'naughty' self-pampering, playboy bunny pendants and bikini waxes?

Socialist activist and London mayoral candidate Lindsey German similarly examines women’s places within a consumer-capitalist economy in her 2007 publication ‘Material Girls: Women, Men and Work’, in which she argues that women’s relatively recent admission to the world of work has left them exposed to the worst exploitations of capitalism.

Join the authors in conversation at Housmans bookshop for a discussion of feminism’s possible futures.

Event information
Housmans Bookshop
5 Caledonian Road
King's Cross
London N1 9DX

Tel: 020 7837 4473. Free entry. Nearest tube: King's Cross

www.housmans.com Tel: +44 (0)20 7837 4473 Shop email: shop@housmans.com map: http://tinyurl.com/2oq9vv

"Support the shop that supports your campaigns!" To receive Housmans’ monthly events newsletter with all our events, please email nik[at]housmans.com and mark the subject ‘subscribe to newsletter’.

Do you love Love? Could you love a Tory?! Mutiny's 2nd event: Love on Trial, a Revolutionary Valentines.

If music be the food of love.. Love on Trial. 10th February 6pm
Money on Trial in September was a fantastic success with around 100 people coming along and almost all of them emailing or letting us know personally they had a fantastic time. The Sauce blogged about it here: Money on Trial
Join us on on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/tweetthemutiny

Our next event is especially for all you romantics. If music be the food of love...

We already have a brilliant line up so far, with Nina Power, the author of One Dimensional Woman speaking in the first session,

The fab poet Musa from PoeJazzi who has also performed for Stop the War.

The Speed Debating session will kick off the night to get you all mingling and thinking: we want your thoughts on what questions to add to this. Please comment at the Join the Mutiny blog

We are also looking for further artwork, musicians, poets, visual artists, films, speakers and, of course, participants for the evening.

And, finally, like last time we are doing political goody bags. Last time we had LMHR cd's, Stop the War badges, War on Want stickers & matches, flyers for demo's, signup sheets for UAF, an appeal for Gaza and much, much more. If you want your event to submit something to the bag, please email jointhemutiny@gmail.org. We will need to arrange delivery for these items so let us know as soon as possible

Join the team or send us any ideas & suggestions by emailing us at jointhemutiny@gmail.com

More info on how to get more involved coming soon.


Planning meetings are every Tuesday at 6pm in the Birkbeck Bar. Feel free to come along with your ideas and bring people with you.

Please click the above image, print off and put up in any place or make into flyers to hand out at meetings, in class, at work or on the streets…

Read more about the evening at the Join the Mutiny website

Join us on on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/tweetthemutiny

Please feel free to link this publicity to your blogs.

London Student Feminist network activist day. Is this a return to Feminism?

It's interesting how many more young women, and men, are becoming once again interested in what has classically been called Feminism. But what does feminism mean today? Are we still fighting for the right to work, for equal pay, for equal position in society? Well, yes, it seems so. Women, although we are now encouraged out of the home, to work for a boss, to be free to wear what we like in reality this is by no means equal. What sort of work are we allowed to do? Who do we want to be equal to? Who are we trying to emulate? Certainly we are not really equal. The media is littered with sexist images and propaganda which encourage women to behave in certainn ways. Fro example, I was astounded by this article on the launch of the new Pole Dancing doll. 

I don't want to here go over the well argued positions in the many feminist strains but to draw your attention to the fact that feminism the word is back on the agenda and is attracting a new layer of activists.


Although as a Marxist I do not see the struggle for womens rights as seperate from the struggle for equality for all I welcome any moves which encourage people to join in the fight. It is through these campaigns that many people become full blown revolutionaries.

In 1909 Alexandra Kollontai, a leading revolutionary, wrote a fabulous pamphlet entitled  'The Social Basis of the Woman Question'


Here is a quote which encaputlates the opposition to feminism as seperate from class struggle:

The feminists see men as the main enemy, for men have unjustly seized all rights and privileges for themselves, leaving women only chains and duties. For them a victory is won when a prerogative previously enjoyed exclusively by the male sex is conceded to the “fair sex”. Proletarian women have a different attitude. They do not see men as the enemy and the oppressor; on the contrary, they think of men as their comrades, who share with them the drudgery of the daily round and fight with them for a better future

 and further:

For the majority of women of the proletariat, equal rights with men would mean only an equal share in inequality, but for the “chosen few”, for the bourgeois women, it would indeed open doors to new and unprecedented rights and privileges that until now have been enjoyed by men of the bourgeois class alone.

 It is on this basis that '[a] woman can possess equal rights and be truly free only in a world of socialised labour, of harmony and justice.'  We can only have equality once the conditions from which oppression are founded have been removed. And this means we must continue our struggle, our fight and our campaigns against an unjust system which places profit before people, which places competition at the heart of all movtivations and which justifies class inequality. You should read her whole article; she puts it much better than me!

Anyway, a suuprising development has arisen surrounding the iminent Feminist Activist Day to be hosted at SOAS: MEN are allowed to attend. And a welcome addition this is. The day will be guided by women; all votes and decisions will be made by women but men can come as observers. Great.

I am providing a short introduction to the political uses of the internet and demonstrating some of the tools of internet activism. I welcome any comments and advice on this.

The day will be kicked off by JUDITH ORR- author of Sexism and the System, former editor of the Socialist Review and veteran speaker at SOAS feminist events and rallys. She will be giving the opening speech on the challenges for feminism today and the backlash against feminism.

The full timetable can be found at the London Student Feminists Network blog

Whilst this is a dayschool for student activists, I'm sure non-students can attend as observers. Please email them to request a space.

Also, if you wish to have a stall there feel free to also contact Elly.

I look forward to seing you all.

Anti-anti-feminism and a return to...?

Coming soon...

Here's a delightful video for you in the meantime.