Mind the Gap

For the Record March 14, 2008

In light of the recent discussions about the Cardiff pro-choice demonstration, I want to state something for the record.Vibracobra is not claiming to represent Mind the Gap in her posts about the event. The people who post on this blog represent their own views, not those of the network as a whole, and we are not in any way licensed to speak for other members. Vibracobra did not attend the protest and has mainly been objecting to the way it has been represented since, but her views on the matter have been influenced by myself and Nectarine who told her about it. We did attend, were both troubled by various aspects of the protest and left with a lot of questions about how it was carried out, what it was attempting to achieve, whether anything was achieved and also our own response to the situation.

However, it is very important to be clear that Nectarine and I are only two people in Mind the Gap and it is perfectly possible that other people who consider themselves members of the network had completely different experiences and thought it was a great event. This seems likely, being as the protest has been subject to some radically different interpretations.  While Nectarine, Vibracobra and I occupy different positions, we do share some basic ideas about feminism which, I think, brought us to some shared conclusions about the protest.  Other members of the network will have different feminist ideas and it may well be the case that those of us who had a negative experience are in the minority in this instance, but we’re the only ones blogging about it so our voices are getting heard.

So, I am concerned that our responses might be having a silencing effect on the rest of the group and I think that we should organise a meeting to discuss the event and pro-choice activism, so that other members do have an opportunity to express their views within the group. We will post any responses we get here on the blog.