By an Anonymous member of the Anti-Imperialist Feminist Network

Edited by N.K. & members of WLRN

The Anti-Imperialist Feminist Network was founded in October 2023 by members of the Manchester Feminist Network, in response to a felt need to connect with other gender critical feminists with anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist politics. As well as providing an online discussion space, the network hosts regular real-life meet-ups including organising feminist blocs on Palestine demos, discussion groups, and socials. It is open to women based in the UK or with strong UK links, and can be contacted at: antiimpfemnet@yahoo.com. 

The FiLiA conference, the largest annual(ish) feminist event of its kind in Europe, has faced significant controversy since adopting a pro-sex-based rights position ahead of the proposed (and ultimately defeated) changes to the UK Gender Recognition Act to allow the sex-identification of sex. 

In the early hours of 10 October 2025, the opening day of the conference, a handful of balaclava-clad men from ‘trans-rights’ collective Bash Back attacked the Brighton Centre conference venue — smashing windows and spraying pink graffiti — which they boasted of targeting for being “anti-trans”.

A strong police presence was required outside the centre to separate conference attendees and trans rights activists who held daily protests there. 

Photo credit: Stephanie B

Despite this backdrop, at FiLiA 2025, such ongoing controversy over its alleged “transphobic” politics was arguably eclipsed by growing tensions between the so called ‘PERFs (Palestine Exclusionary Radical Feminists) — also known as FEPs (Feminists Except for Palestine) — and the ‘TAGs’ (Terfs Against Genocide), which simmered and occasionally boiled over throughout the three day summit. 

The Battle Scene is Set

Despite sustained lobbying by a number of pro-Palestine feminists (see, for example here and here) in the two years leading up to the event, FiLiA — which describes itself as an anti-racist and internationalist feminist organization — had yet to make a public statement on the genocide in Gaza. Moreover, as the conference date approached and its schedule was released, it became evident that neither Palestinian speakers nor any session(s) specifically naming Palestine would be featured. 

Whilst some anti-racist feminists resolved to stay away on this basis, others felt the struggle of Palestinian women for liberation from Zionist settler-colonialism and its project of occupation, apartheid and genocide — particularly during a period of heightened existential threat to the Palestinian people — was just too important to go unheard at such a major event on the calendar of many feminists in Britain (and beyond). 

A group of women from the Anti-Imperialist Feminist Network (AIFN) — an initiative launched in October 2023 by members of the Manchester Feminist Network — sought to foreground the issue by organising a fringe meeting: ‘Palestine Liberation is a Feminist Issue’, and holding a Palestine visibility vigil outside the venue to distribute flyers to attendees about it:

A second fringe event — scheduled on the same day at virtually the same time — was promoted on social media several weeks prior to the FiLiA kick-off. Titled “Solidarity Means All Women”, it focused on the purported “silence from feminist and progressive community” regarding alleged sexual violence committed against Israeli women by Hamas. The online listing of the event asserted the failure of feminists to centre Israeli and Jewish women’s suffering since October 7 was rooted in anti-semitism.

Both the timing of release and wording of the Zionist event’s publicity material — which invoked (while denying) a “competition of pain” and claimed the event “responds to a specific and urgent omission” by those who “feel passionately about the suffering in Gaza” — together with the involvement of a FiLiA volunteer who was credited as an organiser, who may have been privy to AIFN’s prior communications notifying FiLiA of its planned actions, suggest that the “Solidarity Means All Women” event was organised in response to leaked information about the AIFN event.

Applying a feminist framework of analysis, one might draw a parallel with the behaviour of a domestic violence abuser — who upon hearing that his victim intends to speak out, seeks to discredit her truthful claims amongst family, friends and other potential supporters. All the more apposite given the DARVO tactics — deny, attack, reverse victim and offender — typically employed by coercive control perpetrators are also commonly deployed by those seeking to justify or obscure the Israeli state’s brutal colonial violence and genocide against Palestinians. These tactics were on display in the actions of a number of pro-Israel visitors to Brighton that weekend. 

The FEP’s Dirty Tactics & Collusion with Power: The Boss and The Man

Such women demonstrated they were unwilling to tolerate opposing views on this issue within feminist spaces. Rather than advancing their pro-Israel position through democratic discussion, information distribution, or respectful debate, they resorted to strategies of aggressive retaliation. 

To this end external Zionist lobby groups and organisations — funded and resourced by, and embedded within, oppressive patriarchal and imperialist-capitalist systems and structures — were enlisted by Zionist feminists apparently without qualms, to intimidate TAGs and smear and otherwise obstruct their activities.

During the Saturday lunchtime Palestine vigil, participants were immediately accosted — upon unfurling their ‘Women Against Genocide’ banner — by a middle-aged couple, camera phone in hand. The pair launched into what appeared to be a rehearsed rapid-fire monologue of accusatory questions or assertions intended to evince guilt of “anti-semitism”. As the vigil holders adhered to their pre-agreed strategy of de-escalation if approached by hostile parties, the man eventually turned his attention to passers-by by loudly declaring, “If you don’t want to read about Jew hate, don’t take those leaflets. . .it’s all untrue and Jew hate!” 

Photo credit: Bohdana Zolotenko

Later, a figure in dark clothing was spotted by an organiser taking photos in the doorway of Afrori Books — the black woman-owned book-shop where the fringe meeting was held — before running off. You can read accounts of that meeting here and here. 

Rahila Gupta of Southall Black Sisters was named and shamed on GB News’s “Free Speech Nation” for leading a chant of “Free Palestine” during her keynote opening address (in defiance of FiLiA’s explicit ban on any mention of Palestine). Gupta’s action was criticised as “such an irresponsible thing to do” by the lesbian feminist invited on the programme. This feminist’s background in anti-male violence and femicide work apparently failed to offer her pause for thought that publicly denouncing Gupta could open her and her women’s organisation to witch-hunts by misogynists, racists and Zionist groups; the latter of which enjoy state backing in their fanatical persecution of political opponents. 

It is relevant to highlight that GB News has been characterised as a Zionist asset by sociologist Dr. David Miller. A quick search of key terms on its website confirms that it provides zero coverage of the situation in Palestine and Gaza — a lower bar than even the BBC — but consistently promotes pro-Israel and anti-Muslim propaganda. The latter is increasingly important in order to sustain residual support for the Zionist project by a Western audience, as Israel’s reputation as a pariah state is increasingly understood.

Miller, through his legal battle against the Zionist lobby’s attacks on academic freedom, was instrumental in establishing anti-zionism as a protected philosophical belief in UK case law. Ongoing attempts by the University of Bristol and the Campaign Against Antisemitism to have this ruling overturned should concern anyone genuinely committed to the democratic right to speak truth to power; yet this issue has never been discussed on “Free Speech Nation”. Nor have any of the thousands of cases of professionals, students and activists facing sanctions that range from social media bans to disciplinary hearings, counter-terrorism police raids and investigations, and even imprisonment for speech that opposes Israel’s occupation and genocide. 

“Not a word does a person utter except that there is an observer (angel) ready to record it.” — Quran 50:18

One of the panelists at the “Solidarity Means All Women” meeting, pro-Israel activist Heidi Bachram spoke about an incident on 8 October 2023 that she said made her realise “what was happening in Israel was coming here too and we were under threat as well.”  She recounted how her husband, Adam Ma’anit, filmed a Palestine Solidarity Campaign rally in Brighton on that day, where a British-Palestinian student celebrated the violence of 7 October as an “inspiring” act of resistance. 

What followed, Bachram chooses to omit. As a result of Ma’anit’s decision to capture the speech on film and circulate the footage — Ma’anit being a Communications Manager at the Board of Deputies of British Jews with privileged access to the corporate media, politicians and police through his professional lobbyist role — the young female student, like many Palestinians carrying intergenerational trauma of extreme colonial violence — became the target of an investigation by her University; mass mainstream media exposure and vilification; and was arrested and charged under Counter Terrorism laws. There is no information available online about the outcome of her sentencing, and/or whether she was ultimately imprisoned.

Feminist journalist and campaigner against male violence against women and girls (MVAWG) Julie Bindel, offered a contribution that inadvertently revealed her awareness of the power dynamics at play, when she reflected on her insomnia-fuelled ruminations about the consequences of taking a public stand for the victims of Israel’s atrocities, stating: “I’ve been told we don’t tweet enough about it. And I would just like to imagine, and I do sometimes in the horror of the middle of the night, what response I might get if I tweeted my absolute disgust at what’s happening in Gaza. Can you imagine that response? What that would be? So effectively we don’t, we don’t.” 

Wales lead for FiLiA, volunteer Ali Morris, appeared unaffected by any such pangs of conscience. She relayed — in a voice dripping with contempt — the awareness-raising activities of her local pro-Palestine groups. The applause that followed her gleeful admission of sabotaging children’s craft events (bird-making) to commemorate Israel’s mass slaughter of children in Gaza, suggested a lack of self-awareness in the room as to how Morris’s fairytale-villain-style acts of banal evil (delivered fittingly in a Scary-Fairy costume) might be seen by those to whom Palestinian children are every bit as human and deserving of life as their own. 

Morris’s biggest PR faux pas, however, was yet to come.

The Climactic Final Day

It occurred on the following morning, after a second sitting of the “Solidarity Means All Women” meeting was demanded — and acquiesced to by Filia — inside the main conference itself. 

At the meeting — described by one witness as a “struggle session” — Morris claimed she was afraid of entering the conference for the final day’s programme, saying she had been spat at in the face by a person wearing a Palestine flag in the queue on the previous day, after she expressed disapproval at such attire. Morris’s “trembling” testimony appeared to move a number of those present, and soon reached the heady heights of twitter amplification by GB News contributor and recruited ally Josh Howie. The problem was that the assault never happened: as a FiLiA investigation into the allegation confirmed. On 7 November Ali Morris announced on social media that she was, “no longer working with or for FiLiA. . .the charity’s values no longer align with my own.”

Curiously, this was not the first time a false “spitting-in-a-queue-allegation” had been leveled against pro-Palestine activists, as recalled by one AIFN supporter: 

“This is all a carbon copy of how the forces that we’ve now learned to think of as the ‘Israel lobby’ wrecked the Labour Party when Corbyn was leader. Within days of his taking office, the new membership surge was labelled ‘anti-semitic trots and thugs’. A Councillor in Brighton claimed one of the hooligan hordes had spat at him while queueing to enter a meeting and the LP exec responded by cancelling ALL meetings, nationwide for — I don’t know exactly — months. And when meetings resumed, there was an endless stream of videos of ‘rowdy behaviour’ when someone was provoked and a vid produced of their annoyed reaction etc etc ad infinitum. I saw the same tactics again in my town when trans activists were trying to get sex-realists out of the party. There appears to be a standard playbook for groups touting unevidenced policies.”

A representative from a charity for same-sex-attracted persons read out a drafted statement intended for FiLiA to air in the closing session. It focused on the 7 October attacks and Israeli victims, implying “anti-semitism” in the exposure of Jewish attendees to pro-Palestine viewpoints over the weekend. (The petition was rejected by FiLiA.) Several meeting participants who attempted to offer a counter-view whilst wearing keffiyehs were swiftly ejected from the ‘safe space’ by means of physical force. 

This concerning scene followed two preceding days marked by furious stares, verbal harassment, online doxxing and covert filming, in violation of conference photography policy — as well as actual assaults at the Saturday night disco — targeting Arab, Asian and other women of colour, along with hijab and keffiyeh wearers. 

Most distressing of all were the repeated verbal attacks on the Palestinian stall-holder selling goods from her women’s co-operative. One such — the aftermath of which was witnessed by several supporters — left her in tears.  This courageous and resourceful feminist, still carrying the pain of bereavement inflicted on her by the occupier, was subjected to abusive gaslighting by one individual who venomously insisted both the occupation and genocide were figments of her imagination. 

An emergency statement was released by FiLiA on Saturday night in an unsuccessful attempt to defuse tensions. 

Their next move was an attempted cancellation of the Sunday afternoon assembly “Why feminism must include the harms of colonialism”, citing concerns for the safety of women involved. Fortunately US sex industry abolitionist and campaigner Melissa Farley, the session’s creator and director, exercised the feminist art of “no” as a complete sentence to great effect, and it went ahead. The event received highly positive feedback from the approximately 100 women who joined. 

Outside the venue, Zionist feminists — not content with a counter-meeting — held a smaller counter-vigil than the previous day’s, featuring Israeli-flag bunting and a banner reading “RAPE IS NOT RESISTANCE”. 

Lierre Keith of the Women’s Liberation Front (WOLF) claimed credit for crafting and transporting the banner all the way from the US. Yet the concept turned out to be recycled hasbara — tailored to feminist sensibilities — but rooted in the Western military-industrial-genocide economy’s propaganda machine. This was unintentionally confirmed by Bachram, who mentioned in her talk having carried identically worded signs on a Reclaim The Night march months, or perhaps years, earlier. 

Israeli media itself reported that in the summer of 2024 some Israelis rioted for the right of Israeli prison guards to rape Palestinian prisoners. In a gang, with weapons, and almost to death, in the case that provoked the riots. Such treatment of abducted Palestinians is routine rather than exceptional. Yet it is unlikely these same campaigners will acknowledge that ‘Rape is not self-defense’ anytime soon. These women reproduced not only propagandists’ slogans but also misogynistic attitudes of dehumanisation and the erasure of survivors of sexual violence; attitudes they would rightly condemn in any other context where the victims were not Palestinian.

Why TAGS Claim (Tentative) Victory

The dust has yet to fully settle after the conference fallout. Despite the stronger-than-expected backlash against the Palestine visibility actions — a flavour of which can be found here, here and here — support for the cause proved greater than many had anticipated too. 

The anti-genocide vigil was experienced as uplifting and empowering by those taking part, despite the outrage it generated, including furious phone calls of recrimination and cancellation by colleagues and long-time friends. 

One AIFN member attested: 

    “It was probably the most memorable Palestine demo I’ve done, in part thanks to the added spice and gynergy that comes with women-only political organising. We started with six, then quadrupled our numbers as women from the conference just kept coming to join us. The reactions of passers-by was overwhelmingly positive, as usual. The wedding party with bride in headdress and glammed up bridesmaids joining the chants as they skipped past, fists in the air, stands out in my mind. Also the elderly white gentleman who came to thank us with his wife, so visibly moved. We had originally planned to be more visible than audible, but when the small band of TRA’s turned up with megaphone in tow and a lanky bloke began chanting “Trans rights are human rights!” the choice was clear. Drown them out or get shouted at by men. In the end we were all chanting together, since we women had the critical mass, and on this issue at least, we found common ground!” 

The vigil and flyering wrapped up early once it became clear the meeting would be oversubscribed. The venue was packed to capacity, with 77 women seated before late arrivals had to be turned away, despite the women-only entry policy (unlike the “Solidarity Means All Women” fringe, which welcomed men). It seems likely that a room twice the size could be filled with ease, if such a fringe event were to be repeated. 

Photo credit: Bohdana Zolotenko

The strategy to “show up and be politically visible” also led women from the AIFN to cross paths with a number of others waging independent struggles for a feminism with anti-imperialist teeth, and vice versa. From the excitingly bright and radical editors of the online quarterly “Total Woman Victory” — now considering hosting their own event — to performance-art-protesting witches, and those who fought for sessions on anti-militarism and anti-colonialism, new alliances have emerged. The network has grown as a result; a primary objective from the outset. 

Photo credit: Bohdana Zolotenko

Women who were targeted for bullying on the basis of anti-empire political stances are — hopefully, if they weren’t already — now aware of a passionately engaged and mobilisable cohort of gender critical feminists standing alongside them. Transposing the Palestine-Israel debate from Big Tech and billionaire-class-manipulated social media algorithms into real life spaces broke through the isolation, and made evidence of such solidarity harder to conceal. 

Palestine liberation is now, arguably, one of the largest worldwide populist anti-colonial movements in history, which is provoking Western state and corporate powers to resort to openly fascist methods to repress the uprising. On a less dramatic and consequential scale, such dynamics played out throughout the conference, wherein collusion with power was instrumentalised to try to delegitimise or punish truthful speech. And yet, the efforts were largely unsuccessful. Decolonialist sex-realists were most decidedly seen and heard — and thanks to the raging controversy engendered — the issue of the genocide of Palestinians was centred. 

It remains to be seen how the FiLiA leadership will proceed from here. From an outsider’s standpoint, they appear locked in a kind of checkmate between angry Zionist detractors and equally frustrated pro-Palestine feminists – some of whom are long-time platformed speakers or official ambassadors for the organization, and who are now publicly pressuring for change. Perhaps relatedly, FiLiA recently announced their next conference in Blackpool is postponed until 2027. 

A statement by “Jewish Women Supporting Filia” offered a pro-Palestine Jewish perspective, challenging the dominant identity-politics narratives that portrayed Jewish attendees’ experience of the conference as uniformly hostile.

FiLiA’s post-conference statement, reportedly released following a letter from UK Lawyers For Israel, concedes significantly more ground to the Zionist faction’s demands to explicitly condemn Hamas and expressions of support for Hamas in the context of religious fundamentalism and extremism. It did not include a comparable denunciation on apartheid and the genocidal ethno-nationalist state of Israel. 

Based on the actions of the pro-Israel lobby to date, it looks probable that if/when FiLiA find the strength to finally draw a clear line against the far-right fascist, mass-murdering Israeli regime, and the extremist institutional anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia it perpetuates to further its colonialist project, the lobby’s response will be an attempted full takedown.

For that reason — if no other — should such a time come, all grassroots feminists who value the ever-rarer space FiLiA offers for genuinely socialist and radical feminist consciousness-raising and political organising, must stand behind them.