Crocodile "Call Out Culture" Tears

"Call out culture" is really people saying "these marginal people are pushing back and I don't want to deal with it." -@bad_dominicana

This obsession with trying to create a discourse about your hurt feelings rather than do ally legwork would be almost funny if it wasn't so ridiculous. I mean really? "call - out - culture" (brb while I write a paper on “Netflix & pizza takeaway culture”). For the love of god can people stop adding the word "culture" at the end of things for no damn reason. Imagine thinking it's more productive to take time to construct a debate about how people's call outs should be nicer, rather than getting involved with activity to make people want be better allies. Well I don't have to imagine, cuz this is apparently a thing.

Every time I hear someone complaining "call out culture" I think back when I used to look after kids. See, once in a while two kids will be playing nicely until one of them upsets the other making them cry. Then the kid that made the other kid cry suddenly thinks "oh crap" then starts to cry themselves, often even louder to shift the attention onto themselves.

My mum used to call them crocodile tears, aka the tears you cry when you've done something wrong but don't want to take responsibility for it.

I'd like to think people grew out of that kind of behaviour, but apparently not. I'm still scrolling through social media hearing people bang on about "call out culture", rolling my eyes so far back to the future and thinking "whose croc tears am I collecting now?".

Because it’s usually coming from someone who has somehow made themselves the victim of unfair hardship rather than rectifying the harm they've created. People who would rather get caught up in tone-policing how marginalised groups stand up for themselves in the face of discrimination, instead of taking responsibility for their own actions. Self proclaimed "Activists" who rather spend time justifying their apologism, digging themselves a deeper hole in the bin, like they actually believe the world would be sucked into the sun if they'd admitted that they had fucked up.

It's really strange when it's the same people who talk about owning the right to be angry and take to the streets, and find radical ways to hold people in power to account when it comes to class warfare, who then turn around and moan about how marginalised groups are being a bit too harsh when they call out oppressive behaviour. Like, are you for real?

Pro tip: Don't be that person.

Be that person who thinks "I've done something shit, I'm going try and educate myself and make up for it." It's literally not the end of the world. This is not an accountability session at the gates of heaven, it's just someone taking the time to actually try to help you rectify something you’ve done.

Why are people constantly expected to prioritise the feelings of the oppressor rather than the oppressed? If i get upset about something and I shut my mouth and keep my distance in response because I fear the other person might get defensive and argumentative - apparently I'm being unhelpful and I should just speak up.  If I speak up I'm creating a "toxic" environment. Apparently there's a specific way to have a “healthy debate”. Healthy for who? Like who are you actually giving the upper hand here? Because in my experience, apparently the only “acceptable” way to to call someone out is by doing so within a structure that the oppressors agree with. Usually this consists of:

No naming names; No raised voices; No swearing; Providing written/video evidence proving that the thing actually happened; Providing a historical and political background on why the thing is wrong and giving them a hug to ensure them that they are not a bad person.

Because, of course comrades, didn't you know? Being called out is so much more harmful than being oppressed ---- That right there is some stinky bullshit. This mode of “healthy debate” blah blah, usually falls back on the patronising idea that if you get emotional at any point during an argument, your opinion is invalid and you are not worth talking to.

I defend the right to be angry, upset and emotional. You might think that people getting “too emotional” shuts down debate, but I think that tone policing silences the oppressed. Personally, I’m not here for eurocentric standards of “debate” and “politeness”. I’ve spent my whole life being talked over by the same people that want me to stay in line. I’m here for liberation and justice.

Marginalised people don't owe you anything, not a free education about your oppressed ways or to talk to you with politeness by your standards. Deal with the 2 minutes of awkwardness when someone has the emotional energy to tell you that you've done something harmful, it's a lot less deeper than a lifetime of structural and oppression or being someone with trauma issues who is trying to survive in triggering spaces.

Marginalised people also do not have a duty to provide you with a fully detailed explanation - so don’t feel so entitled to demand one. “But if you don’t fully explain it to me right here! and right now! how am I supposed to learn?!” I hear the cries. Check out this awesome website http://lmgtfy.com/ Some people feel comfortable enough giving explanations, but if it’s about an experience that they face everyday, it can get exhausting and triggering and not everyone wants to give out free emotional and educational labour daily, so respect that and do some self educating.

Contrary to what most people think, I don't have a perfect intersectional feminist friendship group that never gets anything wrong and throws hell fire at anyone who does. In reality we call each other out all the time, and how we react to call outs is probably a big part of why we are still close. We apologise to each other, and we thank each other for those call outs because being told about something bad that we’ve said or done gives us the chance to go and educate ourselves and help educate others too as allies.

Being able to accept a call out and rectify stuff is a sign of solidarity. If you want to help marginalised people speak out, don't silence them by obsessing with platforming your croc tears. Because at the end of the day...

“Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them.” ― Assata Shakur.

Intersectionality is class politics.

I'm regularly astonished and puzzled by people who side line intersectionality as "just identity politics" and something that exists "without class analysis". Especially when Intersectionality was clearly created to provide working class black women something to use to fight for their rights in the work place. Acknowledging that the discrimination they face was more complex than others and that workers legal rights should reflect that.

The image on the left is from an article called "People of colour like me have been painted out of working-class history". If you are new to intersectionality and want to read the text most associated with the term "Crenshaw, K. (1989) "Dermarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory, and Antiracist Politics", University of Chicago Legal Forum: pp139–197 " - you can do so here.


In the recent years the theory and practice has developed widely. No, it’s not the communist manifesto, but it’s still one of the most influential frame works in liberation activism in deconstructing hierarchies and building bigger and a more inclusive movement. I think if we go back to what intersectionaty came from we can realise it was all about class. No. it wasn't about the usual people who the discourse about class politics normally centres but it was still about working class people. Because black working-class women - are working class people.

I know some of the current discourse about intersectionality sometimes leaves out the class struggle roots which is REALLY bad, but that's why we have to remind people it isn’t wishy washy "identity politics" but a political tool to get political activism out of single issue lens. I'm not here for watered down explanation of intersectionality either, not even a fan of the Wikipedia article about it. Intersectionality is something you do, not a buzzword to show how enlightened you are, and that's why I'm happy to talk to student activist all the time about how they can do this on campus.

So while how some people like to go about how "intersectionality just doesn't involve class and diverts from the main issue - capitalism"
1. I'm pretty sure if capitalism falls there are still going to bigots bopping about if the revolution isn't intersectional, so don't tell people who face intersectional struggles to "wait the their turn".
2. When are we going to discuss the lack of intersectionality in working class discourse?

Because no one is yet to give me answer to "why is your panel about poverty/class/austerity etc dominated by university educated white men? Even as a working class women, I have to admit that that fact that I even made it to university and got a degree from a University of London institution is a privilege that other working class women don't have and is something I have to check when discussing class.

I for or one don't want to go to another event yet again the experiences of being black, or lgbt, or a women etc is a side note in "real class analysis". Because it’s not. The existence of black politics or feminist politics or queer politics is not one line in the middle of your eloquent speech of the working class (white man), we've all written about class struggle an experienced it first hand and developed methods of organising to tackle it. You just have the access to the the platforms which most people listen to. You do sort of have to question the reason why those who are capable or reciting the communist manifesto in their sleep can't cant manage to recognise interstectionality (the root theory) could be something that helps not hinders class politics development. Sometimes I think many they just have a misconcetption of what it is, which is why I wrote this blog (just in case). But the truth is also some of them just don't want to, which is something I can’t really help. The left always want talk about opening up our minds to intellectual "debate", how about we open up our minds to accepting that more people from different backgrounds have experienced class oppression and organised around it.

Anyway, I could sit in debating society style debates questioning if this is "all just identity politics" or I could actually get on with my job and create more inclusive and safer spaces for activism. I rather do the latter so here! - take my two cents! (if you want them) Have a lovely day!

*drops mic*

Intersectionality is not just for Black History Month.

At the beginning of the academic year, in the freshers/black history month period, I was able to use my intersectional identity to aid our wonderful black students officer by taking up some of the university events that asked for speakers.  Most of these events were about Intersectionalty, and they were awesome and well attended and emotional. Also doing these in black history month enabled me to help give the theory some context, as some people just don't know that the theory came out of black feminist discourse and it came out of the analysis of the intersecting experiences of race, class and gender.

I for one have seen black women attacked for it more rather than welcomed into spaces to speak about something that effectively changed the face of twenty first century liberation activism, so I thought: bring it.

This was an amazing start to the year and this is blogpost about how the extend that.

Frequently asked questions at Intersectionality panels: 

What about the risk tokenism?

Your first attempt to make an effort to include a marginalised group is always going to look like tokenism, whether it is or not. You need to get over it. It's better you take the first step and activity do something to make spaces more inclusive than do nothing. The moment it becomes tokenism is the moment where you expect that one black member if your committee, that diversity rep, that black rep, that intersectionality rep, to be responsible for all diversity and inclusion issues to a point where you don't have to do a nothing. It's everyone's jobs to be aware intersectional struggles. That's right, everyone. Not saying that those roles aren't important, just saying they are not there to do all the work for you. 

If they don't teach us then how did we know? 

(In response to "it's not a marginalised group obligation to educate you")

You're reading this on blog spot right so I'm  assuming you can use google, tumblr and the internet in general. There's also many text by marginalised groups that have been published across the years about how they've felt within feminist and activist spaces, also the internet means that we can share stories faster than before. Also it be great if you actively went out to talk to groups (checking you privilege first), instead of them expecting them to come to you and use up their time and energy educating you. Although I do encourage women, especially black women to stay involved in women's groups, I know it's hard when your dealing with microgressions of racism in a space that's meant to be safe. Some people, like myself have the privilege of having full time jobs where than spend lots of time educating people. Some people have lots of patience and energy to explain things over and over again. Some people don't, and they should feel forced to, so do them a favour and try actively seeking education.

Why focus on black feminism, and not just general feminism? 

Ok we need to admit that when people talk talking about feminism, their usually talking about it in the limitations of a Eurocentric perspective, or "white feminism". But think about it this way, if you take the word black (in it's politic sense, meaning non-white), and if you think about the fact that black people make up the global majority of the world. Even if we just concentrated on (black) feminism, we'd still be talking about a more realistic representation of gender inequality in the majority of global society. The idea that black feminism is a new niche sector of feminism comes out the perspective of black people being a minority, influenced by the west rather than be able to analyse and mobilise for ourselves within our own cultures without the aid of western intervention.

The black women at my institution want to make a black women's group/ womanist group, because they think that the main FemSoc isn't inclusive, what do I do?

Leave them be, there's obviously something that's happened to make them feel like they want their own space and you shouldn't use your social capital or privileges to prevent that from happening. You should probably remain in close contact with them and work with them often, and discuss how you can make spaces more accessible to them, but respect that marginalised people have the right it create safer spaces or themselves in a world that actively excludes them everyday. Don't get defensive over it, no one owns feminism, there's nothing wrong with more women's groups on campus. See it as more ally ships to take on the patriarchy.
-

After taking part in discussions on intersectionality, I often got a line of (mostly) women of colour coming up to me thanking me for just being on the panel. Saying that they were cautious of coming to a feminist society/ women's forum event but I gave them some hope by unapologetically talking about the exclusion of women from marginalised group and critiquing mainstream white feminist campaigns in public. I still bump into some of those women months after saying that they saw me speak somewhere and I inspired them to stick with their FemSoc/ women's group. Although that does make me feel like I'm doing my job, I know it shouldn't be me making this impact on campus and the workshops or discussions on intersectionality or global feminism or black feminism shouldn't be the only spaces that women of colour feel ok being in. 

Some tips for people who run FemSocs which have hardly any black women attending.

• Interectionality is way more single topic discussion at one of the events in the year. 
• Also saying intersectionality in your introduction doesn't make the event intersectional. No matter how many times you say it. Its something that you need to have shown you've done.
• If the only discussion you have on a black feminists is debating whether they are feminists or not (in accordance to euro centric perspectives of feminist identity) you need start evaluating the your motivations behind those discussions and the impact of those discussions have on the black women that don't show up to your events.

Intersectionality is a tool that you should use to shape everything you do. It's not easy, but you really need to prepared to challenge yourself, your group and the oppressive social structures that you may uphold and do something about it. If you're not prepared to do that, how can you use the label intersectional? If you don't want to be faced with questions about how you have not mentioned a marginalised group, I.e: women of colour, attempt to include them in the presentation/ discussion, historical context in the first place. When some one ask calls you out for not talking about race. For the love of god at least try to answer the question, if you don't it's just embarrassing and disappointing for all of us. Don't start talking about black people in third world countries (unless the question was specifically about people of colour in third world countries), there are black people here too. 

I've probably got more of these ramblings somewhere on a postcard.

The NUS women's campaign have created an Intersectionality 101 guide for pact it's groups to use with the help from women from across the liberation groups (lgbt, disabled and back). It probably won't be the answer to every single issue but it's a starting point, or a restart point for those of you tha really want to embed intersetionality into everything you do. 

Susuana xx

I woke up like this - CFS and me.

Imagine waking up with the biggest hang over ever, you can't concentrate and your body is failing to do the simplest tasks. The act of rolling out of bed seems to have taken up 80% of whatever remaining energy you had. And imagine you were feeling like this, after a completely sober night where you didn't even leave the house, and you went to sleep about 10pm after a dinner and a couple of hours of Netflix.

That doesn't sound right, does it.

Imagine spending the whole weekend in bed with the hope that by Monday you'll look and feel fit for purpose and first thing that's said to you is "you look shattered". The only come back I actually have anymore is "I woke up like this".

I'm one of the 250000 people in the UK with chronic fatigue syndrome. It effects how I react, my energy levels and my concentration, I also often experience pain in my joints and spine and take a long time recovering from physical exercise, some times a whole day. In contrary to common random advice -Sleeping more won't make it go away, and can make it worse is some cases.

Imagine aching for a seat on the train or bus, but you look more or less able to stand. What could possibly say, excuse me "I know I don't look it but my joints are aching and I feel like I'm falling apart today so do you mind letting me sit down." You're waiting for a lift to take you 1 or two floors to save the last spoons of energy and someone's like "get the stairs, exercise is good for you". <insert side-eye>

When I was diagnosed, I was at university and didn't really tell anyone. I spent my first year travelling to and from university for hospital appointments, not quite understanding what was wrong with me, I had anaemia off and on for year or so and for a while I convinced myself that was it. I didn't really fancy a cocktail of various pain killers and vitamins and minerals everyday to numb the effects or keeping a diary of what I ate, I wanted to be a normal 20 year old.

Being in education was a struggle and many people don't know this but I got involved in disabled rights stuff on access to education level before feminism. However, I didn't do a really good job of dealing well with the daily microagessions of ablism, from friends, academics, fellow activist and strangers. I almost dropped out completely and probably would have if I hadn't joined my FemSoc and transformed my frustration of daily discrimination into something useful. For a very long time I used activism and close friends as my excuses to get out of be and grit my teeth through pain and exhaustion. 

I also did something silly and stopped taking proper medication a while back which I now know wasn't the right thing for me to do. I'm going back on medication soon, and it's probably going to be an awkward transition so bare with me, if it looks like I'm not concentrating it's not you it's me. I might ask you to go over the last thing you said once in a while to get me back on track on the conversation. Just so you know :)

Remember CFS is different for everyone and everyone has different coping mechanisms, mine mostly includes eating pizza, playing with my cat Cosmo, and making feminist postcards with Beyoncé quotes. My friends have been brilliant at sending me postcards and care packages for periods of time where I haven't been able to leave the house. For more ideas for how to find positive ways of coping check out - http://thepillowfort.co.uk/

If you're also interested in understand friends with fatigue issues I also suggest you read this piece The Spoon Theory by Christine Miserandino

Take care!
I mean it.

xx

Hello there!

Hi I'm Susuana and I'm the NUS National Women's Officer!

So last year I blogged every single week when I was a Women's Officer in London. I've given the blog a bit of a make over and started it up again. If you're signed up to the NUS Women's campaign newsletter, you'll get general updates every month or so, but if you ever wonder what I'm doing day to day this will be the place to check out. All views are my own and not of NUS.

So at the Women's Campaign, we're kicking of the year by providing you with the resources to plan you year so if you haven't already order a NUS Liberation freshers pack! The Women's campaign pack is full of loads of information and goodies, it includes posters, postcards, leaflets and stickers about the women's campaign, consent on campus, abortion rights, student carers and more!

Stuff that you should also look out for are:

The new Women's Officer handbook - If you are a first time women's officer or if your looking to build a women's group on campus this nifty guide was made for you! Lots of tips about how to run campaigns, create networks and how to win the arguments for women's representation. (I did have a blog post ready for the NUS connect website a while ago about tips for the new term but for some reason it didn't get put up in time but never mind, you can find lots of tips in this handbook and probably in more depth)

Consent Workshop facilitator guide - So you might have heard, we've launched a pilot scheme for consent workshops but if you missed out have no fear. The facilitator guide will enable you to deliver workshops on your own campus.

Intersectionality 101 Guide - Want to build a more intersectional campaign and network on campus but you don't know how? This guide provides info on the history of intersectionality and how we can incorporate it into liberation activism.

Reclaim the Night Student Organiser Guide (Coming Soon) - its all been written, just needs to be made to look cool. If you're organising a Reclaim the night march, this awesome booklet will outline how to go about it!

Susuana Xx

Week 43 - Women's Officer Report (May)

Supporting Women in their students' Unions: 

• I delivered a London Women's Officer Training day in the first term and created a network of London Women Student Officers.
• I hosted monthly ULU Women's Forums at ULU, talking to many women students from across London about various issues.
• I helped organise the second StudentFems London Conference. 
• Women students petitioned for women-only swimming sessions - We worked to get women-only swimming hours on Sundays and won. 

Cross Liberation activism

• I opened the Playhouse Gallery which has hosted may cross-liberation exhibitions and events as well as student parents and carers meet ups. 
• I helped organise the ULU Liberation Conference. 
• The part-time ULU liberation officers and I promoted pan london events during liberation history months and beyond.
• I also delivered intersectional liberation workshops to student exec teams and feminist societies. 

Defend Education

• I launched ULU Women's Studies Series, this was a series of lectures lead by women lecturers and phd students across London open to the public.
• Lectures were on a range of subjects including: Classics, Intersectionality, Virginia Woolf and Women in India.
• Lectures were hosted mostly at ULU and we had one lecture at KCL Strand Campus. 

Women's Sexual and Reproductive Health 

• I made sure that there are now free condoms/femadoms/lube available from the ULU reception desk 
• I helped host the V-inspired Love Is event at ULU around Valentines day. 
• I delivered I heart Consent Workshop training days and created downloadable workshop guides.
• I helped SOAS SU and CSSD SU launch the I Hart Consent Campaign on their campuses.
• I hosted Sexpression University event and invited different sexual health organisations to come to ULU and talk about how student activists and officers can make an impact on their campuses n regards to SRE. 

Zero Tolerance

• I completed a london wide reseach project in sexual harassment on campuses and launched the student-led anti-sexual harassment campaign Hollaback! ULU.
• I organised the student pre-reclaim the night London intersectional panel 
• I created a new anti-harassment grievance and disciplinary procedure for ULU students and visitors. Previously there had only been one for staff members  
• I created student staff training guide which is a available for all unions to download online.
• I promoted and went to ULU Women's Only self-defence classes. 
• I worked with Hollaback! London to build the student half of the Good Night Out project which is a London club/pub/union zero- tolerance initiative which focuses on staff training and anti-sexual harassment policy visibility.

ULU Women Parents and Carers

• Launched love2care with the UCL Welfare an International Officer - which involved a series of student parents and carers meet ups ie - Alternative Valentines day lunch 
• All events were also attended to by the NUS Women's Campaign's Carers rep. 
• I've been supporting the University of Arts Students' Union 
• ULU teamed up with UCL to host the children's easter egg hunt
• NUS National Executive passed a motion to create a students with caring responsibilities section with I look forward to helping to build next year in my role as NUS Women's Officer 

Student Women Workers
- I've requested stories from student women about sexism in the work place
- Currently working with women trade union activists to put together a zine on fighting sexism in the work places in time for the end of term when many women will be looking for employment. 

Week 42 - "Would you tell me, please, way I ought to go from here?" "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to."

Monday

So I finished putting together the Student Staff Anti-sexual harassment training folder for ULU and handed over to our staffing manager. Once I announced this on social media I had many people messaging me about creating a similar thing at their union. I will try and get back to all of you as soon as possible! I spent the rest of the day doing further research for my end of year student women in work project. I'm currently making additions involving internships and apprenticeships.



Tuesday and Wednesday
I was at NUS last national executive committee meeting of the year as an observer and on the day afterwards I attended NUS National executive committee training. Meanwhile the University of London computer system had a bit of a melt down and our phones and emails and Internet stopped working for a few days. Wasn't the most brilliant thing to happen, sorry to everyone that has has to wait for a while for me to get back to them.

Thursday
On this day was the long-awaited ULU Laurels Ceremony where I received my honorary life membership along withe rest of the sabbatical team at ULU.
Congratulations to everyone who received laurels and other awards, you should all be very proud all that you have contributed to the University of London Union. Hope everyone had a great night, thanks to all the staff and the laurels committee for putting together an amazing event.



Saturday & Sunday 
I went with the ULU Black Students officer to the NUS Black Students Conference in Coventry at Warwick University. (Excuse my ignorance for thinking Warwick Uni was in a place called Warwick.) I was also very happy to receive the Black Representation award and the award ceremony. It was a huge surprise and made my weekend so thanks again.  I'm also very happy to say that Malia was elected to become the next NUS Black Students' Officer. Also congrats to everyone who was also elected on this day to join the National Black students committee of 2014/15. It was my second ever black students conference and so far the best. Thanks to the NUS Black students committee for putting together a memorable conference and the biggest black students conference in NUS history.

Week 41 - “The rule is, jam tomorrow and jam yesterday - but never jam today... today isn't any other day.”

Monday - Bank Holiday!

Tuesday
We opened the new exhibition at the ULU Play House. This exhibition is called "In/visible Space - Reflections on the realm of dimensional affect, space and the queer radicalised self" and it's a a series of visual essays by artist and writer Raisa Kabir. It asks different self identified South Asian LBTQ women, and trans/genderqueer persons, where do they feel the most visible, or safe to be LBTQ and South Asian simultaneously? Really colourful, educating and mesmerising work :) Want to know more? - Check out the website! www.in-visiblespace.co.uk



Wednesday

This was a full day of researching equality law and and different types of sexism in the work place. I'm arts student not not a law student, also I have specific learning difficulties so this is all taking a while, but i really want to gather up as much information and ways to help women in the work place and make it as accessible as possible. Also started working on a student staff anti-sexual harassment training folder for ULU. I guess I won't be around forever but they'll always be a staff manager at ULU and it will be good to leave them a easy to read guide about the policy we've passed, the procedures and staff training outline and things.

Thursday 

This day was dedicated to sorting out the second part of the women's workers right protect and involved me doing a call out and talking to women students who had faced sexism in the work places. The feedback was immense and I got many different types of responses which is good for the project in the sense people are will be able to see the various ways which sexism effect women in the workplace, but they were all very saddening to read, especially when in some cases women had left their jobs. Sexism Sucks.




Friday 

I attended the #BringBackOurGirls solidarity demo at the Nigerian Embassy in central London with there Shakira, the NUS Women's campaign committee Further Education-Rep Elect. It was a great turn out and really emotional, well done to London Met Nigerian society for organising the event. In the evening I went to the Janelle Monae gig at Briton Academy where I nearly shed a tear for the second time that day when she held up #BringBack our gils placards and handed some out to the crowd.
https://www.facebook.com/bringbackourgirls

Weekend

Another early weekend wake-up, this time to take the coach to Oxford to get some lessons on Equality in Employment for my project on women rights in the workplace. Many thanks Manishita for helping me even when I asked dozens of questions about everything and when my learning difficulties kicked in full drive and I made you repeat things dozens of times. Trying to get my head around everything reminded me being back in my Philosophy AS class, where I got frustrated allot but also learnt allot which I'm grateful for :)  - Also WHOOP EUROVISION.

Week 40 - “I can't go back to yesterday because I was a different person then.”

Wow is it really week 40 already? Anyway I went on annual leave in Hambrug (it was really fun, ask me about activists squats and stuff if you see me) until Tuesday night so my week at ULU started on Wednesday.

Wednesday 

So now most students are back from Eaters Holliday so the first thing I did was print out new coloured Good Night Out posters for the ULU toilets and one of our main bars and staff guidance posters for the staff room. Then I redesigned some of the training material for Saturdays Consent Workshop, making new agendas and more accessible facilitator tip guides (larger than the pocket sized ones that I handed out previously). After that fun wrestling the the photocopier, I went the University of Arts London SU to meet up with members of the NUS London committee to talk about upcoming NUS London plans.



Thursday

MAY DAY! - I was always under the impression you don't work on May Day and go be super radical and storm the streets instead, but ironically I had one of my most busiest day in a while, but still doing some activism in my own way I guess. I did get walk in part of the May Day parade in London happening just by ULU though just before I travelled to LSE to facilitate a part of their, Equality & Diversity Consultative Forum which was really eye-opening. It's good to see a university acting on dismantling structural oppression and tackling lad culture within their institution, on student and staff level. The day ended with ULU Women's Forum which was great because, cool women, great conversations and hot pizza.

Friday 

So I started the day off with fun times at the ULU Laurels committee. I hope you're up for awards, speeches and free food and wine because I know I am - just a couple of weeks left and a nice treat after exams :) After that I returned the office to print out Content workshop training material before heading over to help set up for the newest exhibition which will be showing at ULU on Tuesday. The exhibition is called Invisible space and you can find more information about the exhibit here on the ULU Website http://www.ulu.co.uk/services/playhouse/



Saturday 

Early morning wake up for me so I could set up and facilitate the 3rd I Heart Consent Training Day at ULU. Thanks to everyone who came, its alway great to be able to have conversations where I get to build the campaign even more with other involved. One of the pieces of feedback I got was to to provide more examples of how t make certain sections of the workshops more interactive. I'm going to be working on that next! I also got LeSoCo College's newspaper in the post with an article on I Heart Consent. Also met up with ArtFems folk and now I have great new ideas for the (potentially) final exhibit at the Playhouse Whoop! Seeya next week :)

Week 38 & 39 - "Speak in French when you can’t think of the English for a thing..."

ULU shut down for a week so this is two weeks plastered together!

Week 38

Student Parents and Carers

I visited Carers UK HQ to get some materials for the next student carers meet up and was able to talk to a woman about what support services Cares UK provide for their members and also the recent rebranding of carers UK and that brings with it too. With the materials she gave me I was able to make bite size leaflets that summarised what they offered and as well as contact details for carers. I'm really looking forward to working with them and other carers organisations in the coming year. On May 16th in the ULU, in the Play House Gallery, with the help and funding from UCLU Love to Care - Student Parents and Carers Easter Meet Up happened :) It was great to see mothers present who were also active in the student movement and talk to them about how they juggle studying, parenthood, activism and how also intersectional aspects of their identities affect their lives.

Paris for Easter 

I spent half of my easter break in Paris and went to meet up with the officers at the University of London Paris Institute. Everyone was really lovely and welcoming and helped me work out how to get to places and took me to cool venues. I also discovered how much of a social hack I have become, talking allot about British and French politics in terms of current events, comparisons and linked issues.

I got to discuss with the incoming and outgoing officers about how their Students' Union worked and explain to them about what whats going on at ULU and what impact of the policy passed at the recent NUS National Conference would have at ULIP. It was really interesting to hear that ULIP is planning to affiliate to the NUS and I also got to discuss what benefits they may have even if they are located in Paris. Overall it was a great trip and I hope to see them again in the future, especially to get their members engaged with liberation campaigns, they have a lively feminist and LGBT society by the sounds of it.

Week 39 

The Good Night Out Campaign

I took part in an online conference about the next steps of the Good Night out campaign. To be honest I've never been n a conference call with so many people so it was quite alarming but more over a really productive meeting! Allot of the stuff I'm more likely to be focusing on in July when I start working in the NUS. Currently, I'm focusing on getting London Campuses on board.

Also since I have the privilege of being paid for feminist activism full time I'll probably be cracking on with a time scale outline for the the big Good Night Out Cites launch now that have a rough date. All very exciting stuff :) If you want to know some more about Good Night Out check out the mini site here - http://goodnightout.tumblr.com/

I also put some new posters up around ULU and been pushing to fill the rest of the paces for the consent workshop training! You can check out how to get involved with that here! I'm on annual leave in Hamburg until Tuesday but I'll still be available via my work facebook for stuff.

Week 36 & 37: "I've had nothing yet, so I can't take more." "You mean you can't take less"

Because of National Conference and work overload I've have to merge 2 weeks together! - enjoy!

Week 36

I started my week by opening up the registration for: I Heart Consent Workshop Training Day #3 You can check out what the training day will be about and how to register by clicking here - I'm also in pretty exciting talks with Sexpression UK about training Sexpression Trainees to go out in universities colleges and schools using the the outline I created.

I Heart Consent came abut partly because of policy passed at NUS Women's conference and because it was something that officers and activist in London wanted to happen on their campuses. The I Heart Consent campaign not a fluffy campaign, and the name isn't implying that consent "is sexy" or "trendy" - In the I Heart Consent Workshop booklet Consent is defined as "a necessary requirement in all sexual activity, no matter the nature of the relationship in question." The campaign on the whole intend to work with university, colleges and school to provide grassroots methods to incorporate consent education into society and has many SRE activists and organisations in. If you you have any questions or want to know more about it please email me at womens@ulu.lon.ac.uk - because that a reasonable way of directly finding about ULU Women's Campaigns and projects not agitative indirect facebook statues.

I got booked to meet the University of London Institute in Paris Fem Society and student officers during the Easter break! I took part in two interviews, one on student women's safety in London and the other for a student documentary on Lad Culture. I also ha had a great meeting with the UCLU Mature and Part Time Students' Officer about the Love to Care - Family Friendly Easter Meet Up :) at ULU on April the 16th which I cannot wait for!


Week 37 

I travelled to Liverpool for the 3 day NUS National Conference with SURHUL Education and Welfare Officer Sidonie at an ungodly time in the morning. I was there supporting Sky Yarlett for NUS Vice President of Society and Citizenship. Although Sky came second we're all chuffed that Piers won! Proving that an independent candidate and grassroots activist with an amazing vision and the talent to go with it can completely change the game. It was great to see and meet so many different people and pass really progressive policy. It was also really cool to be able to talk to people who were on different teams through out the conference, its important to show that in the end, the majority of us are there to get the best for students in the UK.

The day after conference, I travelled Crossroads Women's Centre in London, for a meeting with the English Collective of Prostitutes. Whilst I could have had the meeting at ULU, I really wanted to check out the Women's centre because visiting Women's Centres surprisingly isn't an opportunity I get to take up often. I had a great time talking to women there about student sex workers, Cops Off Campus, BDS, and migrant women. I'm also pretty glad that Amnesty recently came out in supports full decriminalisation of sex work.

On Saturday got up bright and early on Saturday for Black Women's Conference 2014, where I had the privilege to able to speak on the first plenary: "The intergenerational Conversation: Black Women's struggles of yesterday and today" and attend other talks and workshops organised but the amazing Black Women' Forum UK.

Week 35 - Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?

Tuesday -

On this day we had the second ULU Women's Studies Lecture of Women's History Month, which was titled ULU Women's Studies: ‘Poetry is the space of the fold’: Feminist Poetics after feminine écriture" delivered Nisha Ramayya a Royal Holloway, University of London PHD Student. I hoped everyone had an excellent time! I'm looking for new lecturers for the new term so contact me at womens@ulu.lon.ac.uk if you want to get involved :)


Wednesday 
I had the pleasure of getting to meet up with Royal Holloway's Education and Welfare Officer Sidonie and we had a brilliant chat about her new role next year "Welfare and Diversity" and what that will look like.  To be honest I think after Women's Officer, Welfare and Diversity is my second favourite sabb role! Afterwards I headed down to London School of Economics and Political Science where I got the famous black feminist theorist Kimberlé Crenshaw deliver her lecture titled: "Justice Rising: moving intersectionally in the age of post-everything". I even got to ask her a question and it was by far the best lecture I ever attended, she got a standing ovation! :)


Thursday 
I moved properly in to my new space at ULU which I'm very pleased with. I also began finalising some more work around hollaback! and the Good Night Out project in responses to the many many messages from students, activist and student union staff from all over London and the UK who want to get involved. I admit, I don't have all the answers available at the moment but me and the team are working to make the project more accessible for people to get on board with. Also, I stated drawing up ideas for a Hollaback! London volunteer training event!


Friday
This was the day of the bureaucrat. After regaining full access to my emails yesterday, I finally settled back into the office to sort out events and my calendar for the next month in the half. So I'm glad to say that we can al look forward to women's forums, a third consent workshop training day with a twist an easter student parents and carers meet up and more to be announce via various social media outlets!

Saturday

I attended spoke at the Abortion Rights UK AGM "Get Prochoice Proactive: Abortion Rights Prochoice Public Meeting", mostly about migrant rights, the student movement, international students and how the pro-choice movement needs more intersectionailty and to start using more inclusive terminology i.e not everyone who has a uterus defines as a woman. We passed 3 motions - to condem the problematic abortion media coverage, to campaign for free access to reproductive services for migrants and supporting activism Northern Ireland. Current NUS Women's Officer Kelley Temple was there and she also got re-elected on to the Abortion Rights UK Committee with me and current NUS-USI Women's Officer Aisling Gallagher :D

See ya next week!

Week 33 & 34 - Alice's doppelganger

For the first time ever I've merged two weeks worth of work into one post because things have been so hectic and I've also have taken a few days of annual leave. I'll be back on top form next week after some rest. I havent had access to my work emails in quite a while because of issues that I will bring up later in this blog post but I will get back to as many people as possible, as soon as possible. I think that the easiest way to grab mr will be through Twitter sand my Work Facebook.

NUS Women's Conference
I attended my third National NUS Women's Conference and I'm pleased to announce that I have been elected to become the next National NUS Women's Officer. I will begin working at the NUS in July thank you to all of my amazing team and I will miss the wonderful members of staff at ULU.


The SWP
So it was decided that that the Socialist Workers Party Annual Festival would not be held at ULU and I wrote a statement signed by all the ULU liberation officers and the ethics and environment officer. Later the statement was also signed by three other officers. The statement was also signed by over 100 student activists, including sabbatical officers and NUS liberation campaign committee members. You can find this statement here on the ULU website and the Socialist Workers Party's pitfall response to the statement here (Trigger warning for rape apologism). Thank you to all the students who have signed the statement and have taking action on their campuses and communities to make sure that it is stated that the Socialist Workers Party are rape-apologists and not welcome in our movement.

The split 
ULU has a clear safer spaces policy, which was passed in one of the first ULU senate which outlines that the relevant liberation officer has the final say in regards to allowing certain groups who are believed to create unsafe space for a liberation group. This policy and procedure is as clear as day, the president should support the officer elected to represent that group, not sit on the fence, gaslight them, talk behind their backs whilst telling them they have no time to deal with their pressing matter, and ignore the outline of the safer spaces policy. After feeling unsupported, undermined and ignored by my fellow sabbatical officers (again), I decided that I could no longer work in same space as them. Theres little room mediation when my word as an elected representative and women's rights are treated less important than dusty Trotskyist factional politics. Due to the previous points its very unlikely that I will return to the office.

Week 32 - Sweet Dreams

Tuesday & Wednesday
Since I worked on the weekend my week started on Tuesday. I spent most the beginning of this week going to different campuses and supporting women that I had been coaching for student elections as well as plotting fliers and postering for Million Women Rise student bloc. Well done to Leah from UCL and Bahar from Goldsmiths for winning their election race, looking forward to seeing all the brilliant things that you are going to do next year :) Next week is the last week for Women's coaching so get involved!



Thursday

This whole day was more ore less dedicated to prepping for Friday night's big campaign launch. Having like 0 moneys at ULU due to our university trying to demolish the union (and my mental health along with it apparently), means that allot of the time usually means hopping from campus to campus borrowing sugar. Thanks to the many officers/activist who helped me get things together especially Shelly Asquith from SUARTS. Every little helps! Managed to get lots of stuff for the launch in the end :)

Friday
We launched Good Night Out training guide for staff in students' unions to help to better address and prevent sexual harassment on campuses. This is in partnership with Hollaback London project "Good Night Out" which is the first ever London-wide campaign to end sexual harassment on nights out launches today, backed by some of London’s most high profile venues including Ministry of Sound and fabric. We had a club night where we handed out goodie bags with info, sweets, consent condom packs and stickers to students. Find out more about the guide here http://www.ulu.co.uk/news/article/6013/A-Good-Night-Out/  and the London wide scheme here:  http://goodnightout.tumblr.com/



Weekend

On Saturday was International Women's day and I attended my first ever Million Women Rise march in central London with some students.
On Sunday I went to LSE to speck at the consent workshop at the Wowzer Festival. It was an interactive round table discussion of consent with contributions from consent campaigners, sex educators, and survivors. It was a really interesting discussion and I'm sorry that I couldn't go to more of the amazing workshops over the weekend because everything looked brilliant!

Seeya next week :)

Week 31 - The Red Queen

Monday 

I launched the official promotion (not just a booking link) for the Student Women Elections Training at ULU.
Women make up the majority of the student population, but this is not reflected in the student movement. To tackle the issue of the lack of women running for student officer positions I'm arranging one-on-one election coaching sessions at ULU for self-defining women who are running or planning to run in student elections.
Thanks to London union sabbatical officers for helping me put the word out throughout the day.




Tuesday

I met up with a total of 4 women students who were running for positions at their union and one of the women candidates got me a present! I'm hopeful that the representation of women in London Student Unions will be amazing in the next year :) I'm only sad that it could happen at least year earlier because it would be great to not always be one of the 3 or 4 women that turn up to ULU Senate which is a meeting always dominated by men.

Wednesday

I met up with a further two more women who wanted to run for elections. Congratulations to SOAS as most of the women who have signed up have been from SOAS and over 50% of candidates at SOAS are women this year. Also, it was a lovely surprise to see Hollaback1 ULU and Hollaback! London in the latest ASOS zine. Especially because I thought we were going to be in the later issue. I also attended an NUS London meeting and the "I'm a feminist because..." photo exhibition UCL.



Thursday 

On this day I was preoccupied with last minutes up for the StudentFems Conference and meeting more women candidates. I spray painted t-shirts for the StudentFems Conference in the office. Probably wasn't the best idea to do it in the office be hey they looked great in the end and I hardly made a mess. I also printed out all the the programmes and signs for the weekend. Also Senate House got occupied again for a little while, as I was busy contaminating the office and poisoning myself in to office with paint fumes, I believe I have a legit alibi for this one. You can read more about that here - Students occupy UoL vice-chancellor’s office in call for his resignation Also that evening I went to Royal Holloway Feminism Society to talk about Sex and Consent.

Satuday 

The first day of Women's History Month WHOOP! This was probably one of the most planned for days of my life as an officer so far! We kicked off at 10am with the first day of the  StudentFems London Conference 2014 which was amazing! Highlights being the Islamophobia and Feminism panel and the Cultural Appropriation 101. At 530pm, the launch night of A Voice of One's Own began and student feminist work from across London were exhibited downstairs in the ULU Gallery. Then to end the night with a bang we had the  HOLLABACK RIOT NIGHT RELOADED gig which was just as amazing as last time. Thanks for all the amazing women who had a hand in making this day awesome!



Sunday
This was the second and last of the conference and after the blast we had last night I pretty glad people came back lol. We had amazing discussions and workshops on things like Feminist Academia, Sex work and Feminism, Transphobia in feminism and self care in feminist activism. Thanks again to the many many people who helped out over the weekend. I finally signed up to storify so I could make this cool online story about the conference which you can find here http://storify.com/SusuanaULU/studentfems-london-conference-2014

Week 30 - Curiouser and curiouser

Tuesday

I launched the new I Heart Consent motion for Students' Unions. A a collective of student officers/activists contributed to the motion at the Consent Policy meeting I held and in an online faceboock group. You can find the motion here. Give it a go and let us know how you get on! Please email womens@ulu.lon.ac.ok if you have any questions! :)
On this day I also finally got the new poster for the StudentFems London Conference 2014 - make sure you book your place! - http://studentfemsldn2014.eventbrite.co.uk


Wednesday

I was on the panel for a great #sheshouldstand panel discussion at London Met with Kelley Temple, (we didn't know that we were going to be on the same panel lol). I know we've at least got one student woman preparing to run for a sabb place (currently all of London Met are men).ALSO! - Remember if you are a woman student thinking about running for elections pleaseeee contact me! I've launched Student Elections Coaching for Women so you should get involved and book a place!

Thursday
Unfortunately, I managed to go temporally gone deaf in one of my ears (typical) so I had to go the hospital and cancel the rest of my appointments for the day which was annoying but I can hear now! - so happy days!

Friday 
I attended the the Lad Culture Summit and London South bank university and spoke on the intersectionality panel. It was a vey interesting event and i was so please to meet so many women's officer, students and workers from Student unions across the country who where willing to be engaged in tackling lad culture on our campuses. Well done Kelley Temple for pulling off another energetic conference. If you missed the summit the Guardian along with other news outlets covered it -here's some coverage here! - Tackling lad culture at university – live updates from the NUS summit


Sunday 
I travelled to Cambridge (for the first time ever) - to discuss the impact of public sector cuts on women today at Cambridge Defend Education PRIVATISATION AND THE NEOLIBERAL UNIVERSITY // A CDE TEACH-IN. Thanks for having me Cambridge Defend Education! :D

Week 29 - Rabbits in waistcoats

Monday - I was at a feminist conference all last weekend so I thought, well ... should get some rest.

Tuesday 
I had my first ever policy day! - (I Heart Consent Policy day). It took some time and it's still in the final works but I believe that we have built a strong motion which we can take and pass at our students' union's to get consent to become a necessary part of all Sexual Health Awareness and Guidance weeks as well as University orientations and inductions. Watch this space for updates :)


Wednesday
I spent the day in Northern Ireland because I was delivering a workshop on the history of intersectionality and how to incorporate it into organising in the student women’s movement at NUS-USI Conference. Many thanks to NUS-USI Women’s Officer Aisling Gallagher who invited me and UCLU Women’s officer Beth Sutton to Northern Ireland for the day and well done to everyone who got elected at conference


Thursday

On Thursday was Love to Care , our first Student and Parents Meeting at the ULU Playhouse. Thanks to everyone who came, parents, carers, kids, UAL Artfems helper. It was only two hours but it felt like we spent half day in the playhouse talking about all of experiences of studying and caring, DLA, Student finance and growing up in households where our parents were students. I seriously can't wait to the next one!



Friday

I spent Friday trying to sort out plans for ULU Women's History Month as well as trying to work out how many women were running for Sabb positions at different London Uni's and what I could do to help. Although the NUS Women in Leadership initiative has put women students running for elections on the agenda for many unions (which is a positive thing), by the amount of emergency drop ins I've had to do so far I can tell that the NUS should be doing to equip student officers will the tools/guides to directly empower women on their own campuses.