Cuts: women at the cutting edge conference
30 October: “Women at the Cutting Edge” conference
30 Oct 2010 – 11:00am30 Oct 2010 – 5:00pm
The Arbour, 100 Shandy Street, London, E1 4LX (tubes: Mile End or Stepney Green)
A conference hosted by Feminist Fightback, open to people of all genders.
The ConDem government’s “Spending Review” announced enormous cuts in public services. We are already feeling the impact of earlier cuts, many effected by Labour; nurseries and libraries are closing, jobs are being lost. As the government “austerity drive” steps up, the reality is that cuts will hit the lives of all but the wealthiest. In many cases women will be hit the hardest with recent reports estimating that women will suffer 72% of the tax and benefit cuts.
Whether you’re a feminist, an activist, a trade unionist, someone affected by the cuts, or involved in fighting the cuts in your college, community or workplace, or just interested in how the landscape of the welfare state is changing, Feminist Fightback invites you to join a day of discussions and networking. We want to put these cuts in a political context, link up, and share ideas and skills as we plan to fight them together.
Participatory workshops on:
* What’s going on? Mapping cuts and campaigns
* Who do the cuts affect? Why are cuts a feminist issue?
* What does it mean? Demystifying the “economics of the crisis”
* What do we want? Fighting within and against the state
For more information please see www.feministfightback.org.uk or email feminist.fightback@gmail.com or call Laura on 07971 842 027.
Free creche available: please email feminist.fightback@gmail.com to confirm a place
Facebook event: http://tinyurl.com/wac30
Further details here
Sarah AB said,
October 27, 2010 at 6:05 am
A commenter on the F-Word blog noted this quote from a BBC story – by Jill Kirby, director of the influential Conservative think tank, the Centre for Policy Studies. “It may be better news for women not to spend money on childcare any more and to look after their own children and fit jobs into the child’s day,”‘ Here’s the link.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markeaston/2010/10/will_the_cuts_change_the_role.html
Also – excuse linking to my own post – Frank Field’s comments imply a similar ideology.
http://www.adjb.net/sab/index.php?entry=entry100912-162621
‘There are some mums who know that they are not good mums and they want to work. We shouldn’t try to build up a culture where we start blaming them. But if we say that breast-feeding is really important for all the reasons for the child’s health and their life outcomes, we should surely make it easier for mums to stay at home to do it.’
There seems little questioning of such statements – which are focused exclusively on female parents.