What are unions for? Holding workers up for the mob to stone, is it?

‘I don’t feel the need to back anybody’, says Jo Grady head of the of UCU when asked whether she backed @Docstockk against the harassment she has suffered. Why would anyone belong to such a union? @BBCr4today

— David Aaronovitch (@DAaronovitch) November 5, 2021

That is just extraordinary.

— Dr Mike Ward (@Schroedinger99) November 5, 2021

… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Djolaman on What legal rights?

There’s a distinction between a ‘right’ in the sense of something you are entitled to do within the law and a ‘right’ in the sense of something that may not legitimately be denied to you.

For instance married couples in the uk can have their income tax liabilty evaluated so that some of the money earned by the higher earner is considered for tax purposes to have been earned by the lower earner, which often means it’s exempt from income tax as it falls below the tax threshold. This is a right in the sense that married people are perfectly entitled to claim this tax deduction. However, if the rules were … Read the rest

I’ve watched this twice today, and I think it will probably be a good idea to watch it at least daily from now on. Via Cameron Larios.

Info:

This quirky short film by Iqaluit filmmaker Becky Qilavvaq has caught a wave of viewers around YouTube recently. Feel the Inukness stars actor Anguti Johnston step dancing around Iqaluit to a Celtic jig, which is said to be similar to the footwork at Inuit celebrations. The work was well received by youth in the town, and Qilavvaq was awarded Ajjitt Media’s emerging filmmaker of the year.In an interview with Nunatsiaq Online, Qilavvaq spoke of a deeper message in the work: “It’s about being ourselves and embracing who we are … The

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Joan Smith talks to Jo Phoenix:

Jo Phoenix is a widely respected academic. Since 2016, she has been professor of criminology at the Open University, where her focus is on vulnerable women in the criminal justice system. Phoenix does not think of herself as vulnerable and she certainly never expected to be where she is now – diagnosed with acute PTSD and suing her employer for failing to protect her after what she describes as two years of harassment from colleagues. “I’m exhausted,” she tells me – and she sounds it.

…

Her voice breaks at some points in our conversation, as she describes how she became a hate figure, metaphorically put in the stocks by colleagues who accuse

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I asked OJ what he meant an hour or two ago. It’s a futile exercise, because he has too many followers to answer questions, but I did it anyway.

What exactly are "trans legal rights"? What legal rights are specific to trans people and no one else?

— Ophelia Benson (@OpheliaBenson) November 4, 2021

OJ and people like OJ want to insist (and do insist) that it’s about bad women wanting to “abolish” the legal rights of trans people, while feminist women counter-insist that we’re seeking to protect our rights, and that some claimed “rights” of trans people are not actually rights.

As far as I can tell the issue is that [some] trans people want it to be a … Read the rest

Cutting edge political analysis.

A lot of British culture war discourse is comfortably off middle-aged "centrists" who see themselves as progressive, who have been driven to incandescent rage by younger people who very loudly don't think they are at all.

— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) November 3, 2021

So…it’s the young who get everything right, and the middle-aged and older who are the smug comfortable clueless Wrong people who stifle all the youthful rightness and ruin everything.

I wonder if OJ can see a downside to that way of looking at it. What downside? The fact that if that’s true then we might as well all give up, because nothing can ever improve. Why? Because young people become middle-aged people (OJ … Read the rest

Our new overlords let us know what we’re allowed to think.

3/ In UK HE, where transphobia contravenes Discrimination, Harassment & Bullying policies, challenging anti-trans behaviours is not discriminatory against those with GC 'beliefs' as all, regardless of belief, are equally prohibited from being transphobic.

— Jacob Breslow (@jlbreslow) November 3, 2021

But how is he defining “transphobia”? And “anti-trans behaviours”? And “being transphobic”? What does it mean to say that all are “prohibited from being transphobic”? Is it even true? I don’t think so. I don’t think laws are formulated that way, not least because they would be unenforceable. The law deals with acts, including speech acts; it can’t deal with being. The first Queen Elizabeth said “I … Read the rest

And there’s this:

I think you're right. This, for instance, is a public tweet from a Sussex colleague on the same corridor as me, after my resignation. I guess this sends a message to any of the few friends who helped me internally. pic.twitter.com/33fr9eJeo1

— Kathleen Stock (@Docstockk) November 4, 2021

Anne-Marie Angelo has (of course) now protected her account. Fucking Stalinist.… Read the rest

Julie Bindel also interviewed Doc Stock today, but they’re friends, so it’s different. (I thought Emma Barnett was ok though. I expected her to be a little disapproving, but I don’t think she did.)

I have known Kathleen since 2018, when I discovered her research on gender identity and women’s sex-based rights. We have remained close since then, and I have looked on with horror at the abhorrent treatment she has been forced to endure in recent months.

…

[T]o implement self-identification without question is to ignore a key safeguarding problem. As Kathleen puts it, “Self  ID policies trade on a fantasy that suddenly putting on a dress or saying ‘I’m a woman’ will change your basic nature. But,

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Speaking of that disgusting article by Grant Buttars, Kathleen shared her view of it hours ago.

In which President of Edinburgh @ucu branch Grant Buttars compares me to pro-paedophile and racist academic. Normal. These people are fanatics. They've got upper hand in union at moment. This is terrible news for gender-critical women academics and particularly at @EdinburghUni https://t.co/OjAtbufpxQ

— Kathleen Stock (@Docstockk) November 3, 2021

… Read the rest

Now it’s discrimination in banking. No bank account for you, bitches! Get back in the kitchen!

We are strong advocates of human rights and are committed to equal treatment, equal opportunities and equal rights for all people. We believe in the power of diversity and do not tolerate any discrimination. 1/3

— bunq (@bunq) November 3, 2021

Your organisation does not stand behind these values, which is in contrast with what bunq is and represents. In light of this and due to complaints we’ve received concerning your activities, we’ve reserved our right to terminate the contractual agreement with you. 2/3

— bunq (@bunq) November 3, 2021

We’ll be happy to support feminist organisations, but do not tolerate discrimination against trans

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Yet more poisonous bullying from people who fancy themselves comrades:

A little something I wrote on trade unions and true solidarity https://t.co/KVpKSftsnd @revsoc21

— Grant Buttars #OneOfUsAllOfUs #GrantB4NEC (@gbuttars) November 2, 2021

He’s president of Edinburgh UCU. His “little something” explains why it’s good for a union to throw a member to the wolves.

When is it right for a union to support dismissal?

Transphobic philosophy professor Kathleen Stock recently resigned from her position at the University of Sussex, shortly after tweeting that the Sussex branch of UCU ‘effectively ended’ her career by releasing a statement in solidarity with trans and nonbinary communities at the university. Stock has not been a UCU member for some time. Before her resignation there

… Read the rest

It was only a month ago that Liam Hackett verbally abused Kathleen Stock on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/DiageoLiam/status/1446100565809942541 https://twitter.com/DiageoLiam/status/1446115446705451020

This barely literate young punk calls a woman “dangerous” and “toxic.”

And worse.

Hackett didn't just use those words. He also used other ones. pic.twitter.com/8ZDIG2ZD3G

— Kathleen Stock (@Docstockk) November 3, 2021

Ugly stuff.… Read the rest

Interesting development.

Dramatic stuff on @BBCWorldatOne where veteran Tory @PBottomleyMP interrupts his own interview on another matter to issue impassioned support for @Docstockk, who has made the main headlines after her interview with @Emmabarnett…

— Simon Edge (@simonjedge) November 3, 2021

What a difference it makes when @BBCWomansHour gives an issue the coverage it has so long been crying out for

— Simon Edge (@simonjedge) November 3, 2021

Sir Peter Bottomley seems to have been talking about Liam Hackett, the youngest person to hold an honorary doctorate from @SussexUni and who did indeed use those words about @Docstockk. So, @SussexUni, what do you say? pic.twitter.com/oNVY2WGXhg

— Simon Edge (@simonjedge) November 3, 2021

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Could anything go wrong?

Twelve trans prisoners convicted of violence or sexual crimes have been accommodated in Scottish women’s jails within the past 18 months, according to figures released under Freedom of Information laws.

The writing is annoyingly imprecise. Are the trans prisoners male? Probably, but it’s important to make it clear. “Trans prisoners” does not make it clear.

A long-awaited review by the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) into Scotland’s transgender prison policy will consider ending the rare practice of transitioning male inmates demanding a move to female housing.

Only one of the prisoners had completed transition and the other 11 were self-identifying as female, it has emerged.

Finally we get clarity. We shouldn’t have to wait until the third … Read the rest

All very normal.

At the site overlooking where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated nearly six decades ago, scores of QAnon believers outfitted with “Trump-Kennedy 2024” shirts, flags and other merchandise gathered. They forecast the president’s son John F. Kennedy Jr., who has been dead for over 20 years, would appear at that spot, emerging from anonymity to become Donald Trump’s vice president when the former president is reinstated. The prophecy foretold online, of course, did not come true.

When 12:30 p.m. came, the time when Kennedy was shot, they recited the Pledge of Allegiance, journalist Steven Monacelli reported. The crowd lingered, some for more than an hour, eventually trickling away, a few vowing the Kennedy known as

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Kathleen Stock is on Woman’s Hour.

Listen now: In an exclusive interview, Professor Kathleen Stock @Docstockk speaks to @Emmabarnett about resigning from her post at the University of Sussex, her experiences while still at the university and the concept of academic freedom https://t.co/mz4H8FwEUE pic.twitter.com/DgVd93eF6l

— BBC Woman's Hour (@BBCWomansHour) November 3, 2021

… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on How can Manchin.

…like everyone else, he is unable to imagine a life different than the one we live.

Well, if we just wait a little, we won’t have to imagine at all: it will be here.

I tell people the economy is man-made, the ecology is not. The ecology is more complex by orders of magnitude than the economy, and we understand it far less. Which one should we be thinking about changing?

Very well put. Our global economy is a pale, weak imitation of the exchange of energy, information, and elements that happens in nature, which we have been inerfering with and disrupting to our shame, and at … Read the rest

If this is true…

Wow. In order to join @LGBTLabour, a lesbian – same-sex oriented – woman has to find two blokes to confirm she doesn't reject the possibility of male sexual partners. In other words, that she isn't lesbian https://t.co/WUdK4P0DxK

— Helen Joyce (@HJoyceGender) November 2, 2021

So lesbians can’t be in LGBT Labour, because of being lesbian. If they want to be in LGBT Labour they have to promise they’re not lesbian, and get two men to vouch for them.

SERIOUSLY?

And does this rule apply, mutatis mutandis, to gay men? Hello? Are we still connected?

Men are who they say they are

Women are who men say they are

A woman's testimony is worth half that

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Originally a comment by iknklast on How can Manchin.

It’s fine to be optimistic, but since we’ve already passed several tipping points, it is probably unfounded. We can’t solve all our problems with solar panels and wind farms because emissions control will not solve our problems. Global warming isn’t the problem, it’s the fever that tells us there is an underlying problem. We can fix emissions all we like and still careen to ecological disaster at a breakneck pace. And, even if I thought we would reduce our emissions, we needed to do it a long time ago, say, about the 1980s…earlier would have been better, but there was still time to fix things by the end of … Read the rest