Showing 43 results

Authority record
Feminist Activist Forum
Corporate body · 2007-present

The Feminist Activist Forum was set up in April 2007 to challenge the claims of academia and the mass media that contemporary feminist activism does not exist, or that post-feminist stereotypes capture the collective imagination. FAF is open to all genders (including transgender and intersex people)- as decided by consensus at national meetings. FAF also recognises the need for feminists of different backgrounds, identities and politics to organise autonomously.

Take Root
TR · Corporate body · 1993 - 2000s

Take Root was a self-build group which existed from 1993 to the early 2000s. It was formed from staff from the Glasgow Women’s Library and aimed to provide women on low income, and in need of housing, the opportunity to build their own homes. It followed the work of Walter Seagal, the architect who pioneered easy-to-build, cheap houses with timber frames.

Corporate body · 1993-

Molendinar Park Housing Association was formed by Committee Members of Reidvale Housing Association in 1993 to reconnect Reidvale with Glasgow City Centre. They aim to make affordable housing in Glasgow.

Corporate body · 1985-

The Walter Seagal Self-Build Trust was founded upon the death of Seagal, the architect, in 1985. It aimed to promote his ideas on self-building and encourage projects.

Corporate body · 1973-

The Centre for Alternative Technology is an eco-centre in Powys, Wales. They educate people on sustainable development and living, alternative technology, renewable energy, organic farming and gardening. They run postgraduate courses, residential and day courses, and publish information on the above topics.

GB1534 BM1 · Person · c.1920s-2010s

Barbara Robertson MacKinnon was born on the Isle of Skye. Her first language was Gaelic. She trained at the Royal Infirmary in Greenock in 1943 and worked there until 1947. She then worked at the Bellshill Maternity Hospital from October 1948 to November 1949. She was a district nurse from January 1953 to May 1953 and then became a Staff Nurse at the Infirmary in Greenock from October 1947 to October 1948. After this, she worked at a number of hospitals and as a district nurse in several areas in Scotland, including hospitals in Inverness, Moray and Nairn, John Martin Hospital on the Isle of Skye, Argyll and Bute, Dr Grays Hopsital in Moray, and the Orkney Islands. She finished her career by working at the Nursing Offices in Orkney until 1981.

Women Live Scotland
GB 1534 WL · Corporate body · 1981-1987

Women Live was started in Edinburgh in the autumn of 1981 inspired by the work of Women in Entertainment, which was based in London. The aim of Women Live was to encourage women’s work in the arts and media in Scotland and to explore and campaign around issues such as stereotyping and distortion of women’s experience in the media and the status of women in society at large.

The 1982 festival was their first event. It was financed by the Scottish Arts Council and through sponsorship and membership fees of the initial 100 women who joined Women Live. It was a great success, with nearly three shows per day at the Netherbow Theatre (the centre of the festival) for the whole of the festival, along with other exhibitions and events. The following year in 1983, the festival was equally successful with shows all over Edinburgh. Women Live also participated in the Women's Health Fair in 1983 which coincided with the last weekend of the Women Live festival. Throughout this time regular meetings and events took place, with newsletters keeping members informed of the group’s activities. Due to lack of funding a festival was not planned for 1984. However, there were several events throughout the year. In 1985, thanks to Edinburgh District Council, Women Live were able to stage another festival known as the Spring Fling. This festival was not as long, just over a week, and was also mostly based at the Pleasance theatre as opposed to various venues.

GB 1534 CLCBLG · Corporate body · 1982-1996

The Camden Lesbian Centre Project (CLCP) was founded in 1982, when several women from a loose social collective known as Kentish Town Lesbian Group (based at the nearby Kentish Town Women’s Workshop) recognised the need for a space expressly for lesbians. The group - all of whom were white lesbians - successfully applied for grant funding from Camden Council Women's Committee, and they began organising regular meetings and events with a view to establishing a centre for lesbians. In 1984, the Black Lesbian Group was founded as a support group for Black lesbians and lesbians of colour, who faced the tripartite barriers of homophobia, racism, and misogyny; the group used the term 'Black' in the broader political sense.

Having worked closely together, Camden Lesbian Centre Project and the Black Lesbian Group merged to form the Camden Lesbian Centre and Black Lesbian Group (CLCBLG) in 1985. Despite their differences and the fact that CLCP had originally excluded Black lesbians from its initial stages, BLG members felt the merger presented an opportunity to improve things for their community. The merger agreement stipulated that at least 50% of CLCBLG's staff and its Management Committee would comprise Black lesbians and that around half of the Centre's events and workshops would be for Black lesbians only.

From 1985-86, CLCBLG sought out premises across Camden. Although initially unsure of how the site would work for them, the group eventually applied for a change of use for a former retail space at 54-56 Phoenix Road, which they were granted amidst vocal resistance and homophobia from some local residents. The group signed the lease in September 1986. CLCBLG worked with Matrix Feminist Design Co-operative, Support Community Building and Common Ownership Design and Construct (CODAC) to renovate and alter the Centre before opening its doors to the public on Saturday 31 October 1987. From this point onward, the Centre was a social and political hub for many strands of London's lesbian community, becoming home to workshops, socials, seminars, discussion groups and other events. It became the base of groups like the Older Lesbian Network, Zamimass Black lesbian group, and GEMMA, the friendship network for disabled and non-disabled lesbians.

With successive and ever more severe cuts to grant funding from Camden Council, CLCBLG was forced to scale down its paid staff members and operations from c.1990 onwards. The Centre eventually wrapped up its operations in 1996, when the group was informed that they'd receive no grant funding in that year's budget.

Outwrite Women’s Newspaper
Corporate body · 1982-1988

Outwrite newspaper, produced by a collective of women throughout the 1980s, was dedicated to offering news by women, for women. Self-defined as an ‘internationalist feminist’ publication, the paper focused on ‘the development of feminism worldwide’ and an examination of women’s oppressions ‘in the context of imperialism, racism and class divisions.’

Liberation struggles across Latin America, southern Africa, Palestine, Bangladesh and India, as well as local campaigns including those of Southall Black Sisters, the Sari Squad and the King’s Cross Women’s Centre were regularly featured in Outwrite’s monthly reports. The transnational community Outwrite envisioned and embodied resonates powerfully with the social justice struggles of today.