I’ve been invited to the Mankind Initiative National Conference. The associated leaflet is here, the booking form here. From the first document:
Who should attend?
Those working in community safety, public health, social services, domestic abuse, the legal system (police, solicitors,
CPS, probation), adult and children safeguarding, health, housing associations, health service, victim support, anti-social
behaviour, men’s health and welfare, equality & diversity, voluntary/third sector, academics and researchers.
Extraordinarily, politicians are excluded from the list – the only group of people in a position to markedly increase the resources made available to male victims of domestic violence. I doubt any more resources will be available to abused men in 20 years’ time than are available today, given the longstanding reluctance on the part of organizations such as Mankind Initiative – and researchers too, for that matter – to do whatever the hell it takes to engage with politicians, and publicly shame them for their indifference to men’s suffering.
I’ve declined the invitation to attend the conference. I can’t justify spending J4MB funds on it.
The Mankind initiative do some great work and feminists really don’t much like them which is an endorsement in itself. On the other hand, feminists are extraordinarily fond of “The Men’s Advice Line” an organisation which appears to hate them very men it claims to want to help.
I suspect that Mike’s idea of taking a break is stopping for long enough to put the kettle on. He’s tireless and unstoppable.
I agree Mike. Having spent a life time in policy fields, the only thing that really matters is getting the politicians involved. Keynote speaker, photo ops etc.
I was thinking of going but probably won’t now if it is just an inward looking thing.
I thought I read you were taking time off. Didn’t notice any fall off in posts?!
Pete
Thanks William, but I’m not planning on going to the conference. We have better things to do with J4MB funds.
That list looks suspiciously like an attempt by the ‘traditional enemies’ to infiltrate the men’s movement and subvert it in order to constrain its development and prevent its success. Too many of the words and phrases used in it refer to organisations and movements corrupted by ‘marxism’ / feminism and I cannot see that the current sex / gender orthodoxy is going to be challenged by anyone attending on behalf of any of them. I’d say token gestures and appeals for ‘co-operation’ will predominate.
The ‘third sector’ is rife with feminised authoritarian corporate thinking and practices and nothing is going to change until men as a class think as a class, or tribe, and put men’s issues before all others. I may be mistaken, and unfair, but I cannot see from that list that Mankind Initiative is interested in working in that direction.
I will await your report of the conference with interest Mike.
On a tangentially relevant matter, I was once briefly involved in what has, as I predicted, proved to have been a fruitless political campaign in another matter. One of the reasons I gave it up was that my suggestion that we might usefully seek out and communicate with possibly sympathetic MPs was greeted with suspicion and outright hostility. I could never understand it, unless it was always the intention to go nowhere fast.
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