Ill Eagle 1999

All past years of Ill Eagle are combined at www.ivorcatt.com/98.htm

[Ill Eagle 2000 issues are at www.ivorcatt.com/00.htm ]

[Ill Eagle 2001 issues are at www.ivorcatt.com/01.htm ]

Ill Eagle 1, may99

ISSN 1466-9005

p1

The Poor To Stay Poorer

In his March budget, the Chancellor described the Married Man's Allowance as neither an allowance nor a benefit. He then stripped away the last symbolic vestige of marriage as a meaningful union. The subtext to his changes will prevent even more fathers from seeing their children and cuts directly across the green paper "Supporting Families" - page 2 col 1

Patricia Morgan speaks to Lords

Speaking to a Parliamentary Committee, Patricia Morgan slammed the Budget. "The Budget reinforces, with a vengeance, the massive discrimination against married couples. .... At any given income level, lone parents enjoy a higher living standard, because the benefit and tax regime ignores how many mouths the benefit must feed." - page 2 col 2

Domestic Violence is Beneficial - says Open University

Who'd be a feminist these days ? Feminists just recovering from Home Office Research Paper 191, showing that women were at least as violent as men, are "decked" again by another survey.

The Open University reveals that domestic violence is not the negative, nasty thing we all thought it was - especially from a women. According to their study, being violent is considered attractive and on a par with being assertive and aggressive. The reason given is that it "gets things done" - (no more backchat from inferiors, one supposes). "What the results of these studies tell us is that for women in ordinary, everyday life violence is mostly a matter of the mundane. As participants in this study made clear, ordinary women who behave violently seldom pose any serious threat at all. They can be nasty, stroppy, mean and manipulative, but hardly ever will they cause serious injury or act uncontrollably", said Ms Chappell. . (Daily Telegraph 9/4/99). Your views please to EOC, Women's Unit and Open University.

Australia's Violent Women

by Lynnette Haas

Unfortunately, much research into domestic violence (like the Australian Bureau of Statistics study several years ago) still only questions women and ignores men and their experiences completely, and so, unsurprisingly, conclude that only women experience such abuse and violence.

'Husband Abuse as Self-Defence', a paper presented by associate professor of sociology Sotirios Sarantakos (Charles Sturtat Univ.) to the International Congress of Sociology in Canada last year, details an ongoing study of 198 violent marriages in rural Australia, identified 64 abused husbands.

Through a series of intense interviews, conducted over many years, the wife, one of the couple's children over 16 and one of the wife's parents (usually the mother), Sarantakos investigated the claim that most female-male abuse is self-defence - that the male victim physically encourages the attack. He found otherwise.

He found that the vast majority of abusive wives admitted they did not hit their husband in self-defence. Nor did they 'feel threatened' by the husband even after they assaulted him and were not in need of protection from the husband.

However, many of the major domestic violence organisations are unconvinced by these findings. Research says it exists, and in significant numbers yet welfare groups, the frontline workers, say it doesn't !

Relationships Australia executive director Ian MacDonald accepts female-to-male abuse does occur, but sees it "at a minuscule rate, compared with male-to-female violence that's reported to us". He believes it's no more difficult for a man to report domestic violence than it is for a woman, though he concedes that the sceptical response of police can make men feel 'awkward'.

Queensland - large-scale research has been scant in Australia's Sunshine State. In 1988 the Queensland Domestic Violence Taskforce, researching male-female abuse, reported that 6.2% of domestic violence victims were male.

However, one Queensland organisation which fully supports the notion of female-male violence, the Waterford-based Men's Rights Agency, run by husband and wife team Reg and Sue Price, has been ridiculed as right-wing extremist for its stance on family issues.

While government money is available for abusive male programmes, there is nothing to help male victims. So, nationwide, this one self-funded organisation is the only one open which is sympathetic to abused men.

Sue Price says: "If a man comes to me with his children in tow, trying to escape his violent wife we have nowhere to send him".

Having helped men through various personal crises, Price is convinced many men will never report their violent wives.

Victoria - The Victorian Injury Surveillance System last year concluded that of 372 victims of "partner - inflicted violence" identified by several hospitals 76.1% were female and 23.9% were male. It further concluded: "The admission rate was 14.6% for male and 10.9% for females, suggesting that a greater proportion of males received more severe injuries".

Brisbane - Meeta Iyer, director of the Domestic Violence Research Centre at Brisbane's inner-city West End, says since July 1998 out of a total of 700 or 800 help calls only five calls from male victims seeking counselling or information. She believes those 5 calls represent the true overall incidence.

"While there is a lot of information out there that says men find it difficult to talk about domestic violence, I think it is the same (for women)," she says. "I believe (this figure) is indicative of true victims of domestic violence who are men."

But Peter, (who won't reveal his surname) of the Men's Domestic Violence Telephone Counselling Service emphasises that since its inception in 1996 the service has primarily fielded calls from men "who are perpetrators of domestic violence, with 20% of incoming calls from men who say they're the aggrieved spouse".

Peter says the difference between male-to-female and female-to-male violence is that most abused males do not fear their partner's attacks and seem to be part of a mutually violent relationship.

The landmark study by Strauss, Gelles and Steinmetz in the 1980's "Behind Closed Doors: Violence in the American Family", revealed that 49% of spouses reporting domestic abuse, admitted they were both violent.

In the previous year 27% of men claimed they were the sole perpetrators of violent incidents compared to 24% of women.

In instances of so-called severe violence, 3.8% of wives were identified as victims, while 4.6% of husbands were victims.

[This supports the UK findings that men suffer more severe injury because women use weapons while men do not. -Ed ]

Croatia's Appeal

On 24.4.99, our London HQ received a request from Croatia for advice on how to set up their own organisation. "One of the last negative examples is the 'Family Law' which was written in co-operation between women's organisations and the Croatian Gov't with very little participation by men." - Ivan Kasanic

p2

The Poor To Stay Poorer - Official

The last symbolic vestige of marriage as a meaningful union was stripped away in the last budget.

However, we must thank the Chancellor of the Exchequer for clarifying the use and abuse to which the Married Man's Allowance had become distorted over the last few decades. In his March budget address he described the Married Man's Allowance as neither an allowance not a benefit. Indeed, he went on to describe how it was routinely paid to married couples with children, married couples without children as well as couples with children but who weren't married. We must be grateful that a cabinet packed with an inordinate number of homosexuals, not that we are implying that the Chancellor of the Exchequer is homosexual, should be the ones to clarify the situation.

The Chancellor outlined his vision of a regime where all credits and State benefits were paid to women and mothers - regardless of marital status - on a 'needs', not a 'contribution', basis. This, as we have said many times before, is the Road to Ruin. Already, at 1994 prices, single mothers alone cost the taxpayer over £18 BILLION a year - an amount equivalent to Britain's entire Defence Budget. !

In "Supporting Families", the Consultation Paper issued last year on funding families in the future, great play was made of married couples and the importance of stability and continuity for the healthy development of children.

However, at the first opportunity to endorse that view with real money, the Gov't has done nothing. Any increases are given across the board and not aimed or skewed toward married families. This contradicts the doctrines contained within "Supporting Families" and "Children First", as it is disproportionately unfair to married couples. Single mothers and unmarried couples already have extra allowances denied to married couples. A token of good faith would have been to equalise the situation. In the Budget, the Gov't also felt unable to disengage from universal Child Benefit payments in not tapering or cutting off the benefit to wealthier families. In effect "Cheryl and Tony Blairs" are siphoning off money from the poor. This meant that only a smaller increase to desperate families could be given. This cuts across the Gov't avowed intention to aim and channel benefits to the poorest in society and limit benefits to the better-off in the upper income bands.

We feel there may yet be more unplanned adverse side effects of the Chancellor changes. (See Atticus, below.) We foresee that changes in the CSA will cause an even greater incidence of fathers being prevented from seeing their children by wilfully obstructive mothers.

The Chancellor may yet rue the day he failed to return to a tax system that paid allowances to married couples via the man/husband. Since benefits became payable only to women, the taxpayer has seen the amount spent double and double and double again - from 1 billion a year in 1976 when paid to husbands to over £8 billion pa today, when far fewer children are being born than in '76, and benefit rates have remained almost static.

Atticus, Sunday Times, 14mar99, sect1 - p19;

"Gordon Brown did not realise he had blundered in his budget ... The small print .... removed tax relief from child maintenance payments by divorced fathers - the very people the government wants to encourage to 'do the right thing'."

Patricia Morgan slams Budget - speech at the House of Lords.

Patricia Morgan's address to the Lord's Committee for Family and Child Protection (March 10^th) opened with an unequivocal broadside on the budget proposals. "The Budget reinforces, with a vengeance, the massive dis-crimination against married couples". She went on to detail how the Working Family Tax Credit actually penalises working married families who do not qualify for the CCTC (Child Care Tax Credit) in the way that lone parents do.

Like the Family Credit regime it replaces, no account is taken of the extra costs involved in actually staying at home to raise children. Instead, it gives extra credit to lone mothers to employ another person (possibly another lone mother) to care for her children.

Married couples, she also pointed out, were more penalised than single mothers through the Council Tax regulations. As the country moves toward more means-tested benefits, it is married couples who are hurt more. The withdrawal of benefits when households begin to enjoy incomes are set at the same for the lone mothers and married couples. The same applies to the 'savings' test criteria. In effect, this means disqualification at only half the savings level for married couples if a per capita basis is used.

Paradoxically, says Patricia Morgan, while the analysis of poverty takes into account the size of the household, the benefit and tax regime meant to alleviate poverty completely ignores how many mouths the standard benefit must feed. The evidence suggests that at any given income (wage) level, lone parents enjoy a higher living standard than do married couples. This is only to be expected, given one less adult to feed. Also, benefits are greater for lone parents than for marred couples.

It is therefore almost idiotic to base additional support solely on how many children "and their needs" there are in the family, and to totally ignore the plight of the parents or adults in a same sized household. It leaves married couples less well off, and their children actually poorer, and in greater need of financial help.

Although Society now places no value on mothers caring for their children at home, these women's husbands (i.e. the one income families) actually subsidise, by the taxes they pay, the costs involved in the creation and provision of Child Care facilities so that single mothers can enjoy a better lifestyle than the one income family.

The Performance & Innovation Unit

The Performance and Innovation Unit established last year by Gov't is charged with cutting across the boundaries of Whitehall depts and assist in joined-up government and sensible policy making. The PIU is keen to reach out beyond Whitehall and draw in the private sector. It is looking for volunteers for 6 - 9 month placements to work intensively on projects.

These include Developing Electronic Commerce in the UK; Active Ageing (improving the well-being of older people by helping them to remain active in paid and unpaid work); Central Gov't role at the regional and local level; Accountability and incentives for joined-up government (the reform of Whitehall's accountability and incentive systems to encourage joined up policy making and delivery); Objectives for rural economies (examining the key factors affecting performance of Gov't policies). The PIU is seeking secondees for this autumn. Tel. Lesley Bainsfair 0171-270-1527 or email PIU@cabinet-office-gov.uk

Suicide

Doctors get help to spot suicidal young men, by Marie Woolf, Political Correspondent, Independent on Sunday, 21mar99, p4.

".... GPs .... are often the first port of call for people contemplating suicide.

.... The Government is devising strategies for high-risk groups, such as drug users and young men. In 1997, 1,759 young men between the ages of 15 and 34 killed themselves compared to 412 women of the same age.

.... Suicide is linked to severe depression, and areas of Britain with high unemployment, drug use and low incomes will be targetted."

The Labour Market Supply Division of the Department for Education and Employment, tel. 0171 533 6176, confirmed that their "Claimant Count Data Base" figures for the years 1995, 1996, 1997 and 1998 showed three times as many males as females for age group 18-24 unemployed for more than 12 months.

Totally ignoring their own unemployment figures, all the Govt initiatives are to get young women into work, not young men.

________

Mankind National Conference

for members is on Saturday June 5 - see Page 2 of Male View.

Refreshments will be at 1.30-2pm, with the conference beginning at 2pm. It is expected to end about 5pm.

It will be informal, with plenty of time to meet the NEC in person to chat.

"The Tournament" pub, Old Brompton Rd., London SW5 9JU. Between Chelsea F.C. and Olympia. Earl's Court Tube Stn. 200 yds. Owner Alan Piper, (0171 370 2449.

unpaid work); Central Gov't role at the regional and local level; Accountability and incentives for joined-up government (the reform of Whitehall's accountability and incentive systems to encourage joined up policy making and delivery); Objectives for rural economies (examining the key factors affecting performance of Gov't policies). The PIU is seeking secondees for this autumn. Tel. Lesley Bainsfair 0171-270-1527 or email PIU@cabinet-office-gov.uk

p3

Editorial

The crisis Senator Anne Cools

refers to in her address to the

Canadian Senate (see page 4) identical in many countries - including England.

In this, the first issue of Mankind's new monthly newsletter, we see that feminist judges in the 'developed' world represent a Fifth Column. The illegality of the English family courts is duplicated around the world, giving rise, not only to the name of this newsletter, but to identically catastrophic social outcomes.

The ACFC (American Coalition for Fathers and Children) has concerns identical to ours. In this bulletin, the political scientist Prof. S. Baskerville, says the US family courts are 'out of control'.

It is significant that ManKind is moving toward an assertion of Men's human and civil rights at a time when the same evolution is occurring in the US. This leads us in two directions; first, the international nature of the problem, and second, the uniform pathological outcomes produced as shown in the social statistics from so many countries.

Our opponents now have to answer why the same crisis has developed simultaneously; why the numbers of male suicide is still escalating amongst the young; why we have the same ratio of false accusations and charges of violence and sexual abuse; and why we continue with secret and unaccountable courts which continually break the law.

What we need is a Sen. Anne Cools, not just for the UK, but for Australia, New Zealand, and all the counties of Europe.

You can play your part in this. Our Chairman (Robert Whiston) called for 'volunteers' to help with this heavy workload in any way they can. My contribution is to take on the task of Editing our Newsletter. Please help me in this by telling me if you have access to equivalent or sympathetic organisations both here and abroad. Newsworthy items, letters and other contributions will be appreciated. Contact me at:-

(1). Suite 367, 2, Lansdowne Row,

London W1X 8HL.

(2) www.ukmm.org.uk

(3) The Editor, Ill Eagle, 121

Westfields, St. Albans AL3

4JR, England.

(4) Email :- ivorcatt@

electromagnetism.demon.co.uk/

Lord Irvine found

guilty as charged

Oh, how I wish, but the sad truth is that his only crime was to express a personal opinion and show a preference in appointing his own confidential Adviser. Not an outrageous thought, given the sensitive nature of the work, but outrageous enough for 'a woman with an agenda' to bring an action - and win. To humble the nation's highest Law Administrator in a court action, drag in a Prime Minister, Tony Blair, (whom Lord Irvine consulted on how to make the best appointment) is surely to take on Gov't and win. Only a woman can do this.

At "Ill Eagle" we feel so sorry for Lord Irvine that we thought we might make him an 'Honorary Member', with a Citation to the effect that he too has now suffered at the hands of 'gender neutral' laws that were never intended to penalise men in this way.

Silent Women's Unit ?

ManKind's protest letter to the Women's Unit about its recent biased domestic violence report has been answered - but by the Home Office. The explanation given for refusing to meet a ManKind team is that the HO "has the lead responsibility for the Gov't's policy on domestic violence" and doesn't normally agree to such requests. The Home Office in their letter while accepting that DV is perpetrated by both men and women still contends that women are "more frightened" by DV, and therefore, (they reason,) the protection of women as victims must remain the priority.

Threats by men, they assert, also frighten women, who are more likely to be injured or seek medical help. Men are also less upset by threats. Their letter assures ManKind that "Gov't will develop policies to tackle domestic violence on a gender-neutral basis"

"The Beak" drawn by James Wood.

'Jungle Survival' 4 men

"The UK Men's Movement is campaigning to redress what it sees as discrimination against men in areas such as education and health". Robert Whiston, Chrm, is quoted (Sunday Times, 28/3/99) as saying, "We are seeing a return to Victorian times with women getting preferential treatment. Men are no longer feeling valued enough". According to Tom Robbins' article, the men's movement got underway with advent of Robert Bly's book in 1991. "Over the last 2 years there has been a ground swell of men's self help". Interviewed at length, the article cites the male suicide rate of 3.7 times that of women. Dr. Thapar-Bjorkert admits that the "women's movement went wrong somewhere. We were talking about gender relations but only ever discussed women".

U-Write ~~ Newsfrom the Regions.

Central London

Mankind took to the airwaves in a 1-hour 1-2-1 phone-in and interview on Talk Radio. Most of the callers understood the problems faced. Some asked for advice and guidance. Many were obvious casualties of the legal process, believing that when they went into court they would be given a fair hearing (like in the movies -Ed). Women also phoned. Many were sympathetic to the predicament men face. Some of course were hostile. The Station Interviewer pressed hard on some points, but the Mankind representative (NC member Edward Crabtree) dealt adequately with all topics and all 'spins'.

Lincolnshire

This dedicated and determined branch daily bombard TV and the Media. GMTV recently advised viewers to use Instamatic cameras to proves domestic violence injuries. But as the Branch pointed out Gay Phillips of GMTV, when a man offers them to a judge they're deemed "of no consequence" and thrown out as evidence. She says she's always keen to hear from viewers. [So write.]

Stoke.

Football legend and Stoke City manager Lou Macari's son has been found hanged. We can only imagine his grief and suffering. The word 'condolences' seems somehow inadequate. Lou has given much to the game and it is therefore all the more tragic that he will not now be able to pass on and share those wonderful moments with his son

Malta.

"Male-Order" the men's movement, in Malta's reports another year of increased activity. Not only have they achieved widespread TV and Radio coverage but "engaged" with politicians. Malta now has a Director of Women's Rights at the Prime Ministers Office (what nation doesn't these days ? - Ed). Male-Order also reports that domestic violence statistics take many turns in a country where divorce isn't really permitted. One husband was attacked by his knife-wielding wife Simple case of domestic violence- you might think.- wrong ! After the

attack she headed off for the cliffs and was later found drowned.

The 'official' statistics recorded this

as an instance of suicide not DV.

Sheffield.

Sheffield members report that their archdeacon has "rapped" as selfish parents who stop their children from parents (fathers) after divorce or separation. The Venerable Stephen Lowe, who is to become the next Bishop of Hulme (Manchester) has hit out at what he calls the selfishness of parents who somehow think they have priority over their children. He condemned those parents who 'act out their hatred' by actively preventing contact. He is concerned with the rising level of mental illness amongst the young and has called for urgent action for the homeless.

Leicester.

Members in Leicester succeeded, courtesy of the Leicester Mercury, in taking a sideswipe at those on the city council who fund and support domestic violence schemes. Prominently placed on the Readers Letter page they detailed the implications of the Home Office report into domestic violence against men as well as women (HO paper 191) together with key elements of the earlier screened C4 "Dispatches" programme.

In the past Leicester City Council has waved aside attempts to get domestic violence listed as both a male and female problem. No longer can they describe male victims as "a very small minority not meriting attention."

Somerset

County organisers have successfully pressed the CSA to improve communication for members. After discussions with CSA officials a dedicated "hotline" for ManKind members is in place.

Lie Detectors Needed

In order to keep custody of a child during divorce proceedings, French women are increasingly falsely accusing their former husbands of sexually abusing their children.

"I lived with that, the most heinous of accusations, for nearly one year," Philippe said. "She falsely charged that I'd molested and raped their little girl. You cannot imagine the devastation that brings on."

SOS-Papa (France) says it has counted more than 200 cases similar to Philippe's. The court is obliged to investigate once a charge is made. "We cannot know in advance that the accusation is false," one investigator said. Until the charges are disproved, fathers can be thrown into jail., unable to see their children for as long as a year.

p4

Fathers Movement

emerges in the US.

Deborah Mathis

WASHINGTON DC, DC

A surging US Men's Movement has spawned hundreds of organizations and conferences, much scholarship and countless Websites. As an indication of the movement’s growth, men will descend upon San Francisco for an International Fatherhood Conference 31/5 to 5/6/99 [see www.internationalfathers.com ] sponsored by the Ford Foundation, the U.S. Department of Labor, the State of California and other mainstream institutions.

Prof. Steve Baskerville, a political scientist, said, "It may take a while for the fatherhood movement to take off, but I think we’re making great strides."

Baskerville, of Howard University, says the movement is on two tracks: one, advocating men’s rights, the other promoting preparedness and responsibility in fatherhood. The patrons behind these efforts for men who want to be better fathers include social service agencies, religious groups and corporations who sponsor workshops support groups

Like many of his colleagues and millions of men in the movement, Baskerville was jolted into action by his own divorce.

He now channels most of his anger into the Civil Rights arena, alleging that Family Courts automatically favour women in divorce and child custody cases. This, he contends, gives impetus to the movement.

"So many fathers are being hit by this, it’s an epidemic," Baskerville declares. "I think it is more than just gender bias. I think it’s a system of organised crime. It is legalised child-stealing for profit and power."

[I prefer to say that the English judges simply ignore the law. - Ed]

"The court ordered me to stay away from my children most of the time," Baskerville, 41, explains. "I was stripped of all custody rights and decision-making rights under pain of incarceration. I pay about 60 percent of my income to people who took my children. … This is the kind of shake-down racket that "Family" courts have now become"

However, Washington, D.C. - based American Coalition for Fathers and Children, paint a bleaker picture of fatherless children than the self-described "growing, national Civil Rights movement."

"People [the general public] are unaware that fathers are having their children simply stolen…by family courts," Baskerville says.

The US federal government inaugurated a nationwide database (Autumn 1998) to help states collect the $50 billion ordered in Child Support each year. States had been collecting less than one-fourth of the total owed by the 16 million parents required to pay. Most are men.

Baskerville says Virginia’s Child Support Enforcement Division is pursuing 428,000 fathers for payments. "This is absurd on the face of it," Baskerville said. "Half a million fathers are turned into criminals."

Still, Baskerville (hot property on the speaker’s circuit these days) believes the militant wing of the fatherhood movement will soon upstage the self-improvement wing.

"I think I’ve struck a chord," Baskerville said, "and I think you have a new generation of fathers who are outraged at the way we’re being treated in the courts." He noted that the Virginia task force includes 15 women and eight men. "Some fathers are upset about that ratio," he said.

U.S. Statistics mirror UK experience

As many as 19.5 million American children live apart from their fathers. Four out of 10 do not live with their biological fathers.

Compiling statistics from state, federal and academic reports, the ACFC also says children without fathers at home are 10 times more likely to abuse chemical substances, nine times more likely to end up in a state institution and 20 times more likely to be imprisoned than others.

According to that organization, children from fatherless homes are five times more likely to commit suicide, 32 times more likely to run away, 20 times more likely to have behavioural disorders, 14 times more likely to commit rape and nine times more likely to drop out of high school.

Fourteen states and the District of Columbia now require family court judges to act on the presumption that joint custody is in the child’s best interest. Men’s rights groups say fathers are falsely accused of sexual or physical abuse or child support violations in order to deny them custody or visitation right.

Canadian Storm insexual assault case.

Anne C. Cools, Canada's Senator outspoken for men's rights, launched a searing attack on feminists in the Canadian Judiciary. Members of Canada's Senate (the Parliamentary upper chamber) were asked why the American feminist, Catherine MacKinnon, had been allowed to shape much of Canadian domestic and sexual assault laws.

"I speak of the Supreme Court of Canada judgement delivered on February 25, 1999 in the case of Regina v. Steve Brian Ewanchuk, in particular, Mdme. Justice Claire L'Heureux - Dubé's concurring reasons for judgement and her stinging attack on Mr. Justice John W. McClung, and his subsequent distraught letter to a national paper.

She reminded members that Mr. Justice McClung, heard and passed sentence on an Alberta case involving a young woman's alleged "sexual harassment" complaints against a prospective employer.,

"The Supreme Court's Madame Justice Claire L'Heureux-Dubé is a well-known feminist judge. The profound reaction of the legal community, lining up on Judge L'Heureux-Dubé's side and ignoring the fact that her hurtful and thoroughly unnecessary words started the battle, is a striking example of how politics has taken over the issues surrounding sexual assault. It is clear that the feminist influence has amounted to intimidation, posing a potential danger to the independence of the judiciary. I deplore any attempt to use the Canadian Judicial Council as an agent of the women's movement, through the filing of complaints against judges whose remarks do not accord with the feminist world view. Feminists have entrenched their ideology in the Supreme Court of Canada and have put all contrary views beyond the pale...."

Mrs. Cools continued, "Honourable senators, these two justices, McClung and L'Heureux-Dubé, have dominated news reports this week. Shortly after his first letter, Mr. Justice McClung apologized profoundly and generously to Madame Justice L'Heureux-Dubé for his hasty letter. This apology was published on March 2 in the newspapers.

"Off with his head," shrieked many gender feminist headlines. "Complain to the Judicial Council," and "Remove him," shrieked others as feminists and their supporters mobilized citizens to Madame Justice L'Heureux-Dubé's side. "The public has no appetite for gender feminist injustice and the public discussion is revealing this."

"Mr. Justice McClung is a scholar of the law, a great jurist, and a great luminary of the bench of Canada. He has upheld the law as an instrument of justice. He has upheld parliamentary institutions as the givers of the law and public policy, and has declined to join the current judicial activism and certain judges' unashamed and unabashed entry into politics. He is persona non grata with the judicial, charter, and feminist activists".

Opening the senate debate she asked, why MacKinnon's was permitted to influence Canadian jurisprudence, and what such a raw, gender feminist, ideological diatribe who sought to criminalize man-woman sexual relations had to do with the Supreme Court of Canada, or with an Alberta Superior Court judge".

She described MacKinnon, as "a gyno-centric feminist", who postulated in her 1989 book, Toward a Feminist Theory of the State, "that man-woman sexual relations are abhorrent because they violate women, and that in a patriarchal society all heterosexual intercourse is rape". MacKinnon helped craft sexual assault laws in Canada. "This gender feminist ideology has driven much law in Canada, and consequently has driven much injustice. It has ravaged law, justice, many careers, and many human lives. It resulted in positions, jobs, grants, and even appointments to the bench. It created a terrible silence as it inflicted obvious injustices on many. It was buttressed by feminist terrorism and aggression, ready to pursue to destruction anyone who gets in its way, while chanting its mantra that all evil and violence are men's, and that all goodness, virtue, and truth are women's. .

Judge L'Heureux-Dubé was hell-bent on re-educating Judge McClung, bullying and coercing him into looking at everything from her point of view.

"Honourable senators, as members of Parliament, we have a special role in the superintendence of the behaviour of judges and a representative role in upholding the public interest in this. I believe that radical judicial activism is a serious threat to parliamentary sovereignty and judicial independence. ...[more available on my website electromagnetism.demon.co.uk/ - Ed]

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There are problems with transferring Ill Eagle 2, june99

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Ill Eagle 3, july/aig99

p1

Black TV boss 'hadn't suffered

enough' to adopt

- Sarah Toyne and Maurice Chittenden, Sunday Times, 18july99, sect. 1 p7.

"A black television executive and his white wife were turned down for adopting a child because social workers claimed they had not suffered enough racial abuse.

"The couple were stalled for more than two years by staff at a Labour council who also said their home was too tidy and that their existing child was too normal.

"Their case has been seized on by MPs who want to end the scandal which keeps 51,000 children in foster care at a cost of £2 billion a year when thousands of couples are prepared to offer them loving homes. The social security inspectorate is to investigate whether misguided political correctness among social workers is contributing to the problem. .... ....

"They say they were perceived as too middle class and were told that as all mixed-race and black children came from 'severely damaged' situations, they were all disruptive."

This report confirms the findings in Patricia Morgan's mar98 book "Adoption and the care of children", pub. I.E.A. tel. 0171 799 3745. Her most startling statistic is on p9; "The rate of trans-racial adoptions plummeted: there was a 40 per cent decrease between 1971 and 1972 alone." This shows how such activities can be heavily, and rapidly, influenced by fashion. We read of the same disgraceful factors as in the family courts. "The law is widely ignored..." (p12). The whole scene is driven by ignorance, bigotry and fashion, as are the family courts, with ignorant so-called experts playing the same destructive role; in this case social workers instead of court welfare officers. "Staff specialising in adoption are rare. The result is diminishing expertise, with decisions being made by people without relevant training or experience, so that social workers feel that they are 'left just to flap in the wind'." (p13) The prejudice against the normal family is repeated.

Prof. Betsy Stanko of Brunel University

Telephone Stanko on 01895 -203068 or 203085 for your free copy of her disgraceful Oct 98 booklet "Taking Stock", which is sexist propaganda masquerading as research. In view of Home Office Study No. 191, it discredits her. She will also send you the A4 leaflet "Violence Research Programme" (VRP) which tells you that the ESRC is giving her £3.5million of your taxpayer's money to fund so-called "research". Further leaflets outline each of the 20 programmes she funds, using Gov't money. This is our money, and is being used to mislead voters and legislators. The inevitable result will be rising suicide among young men for a further fifteen years, until the crisis forces itself upon their attention. To see why, take the opportunity to request her 1999 study "Counting the Cost".

See also next article.

The myths of domestic violence.

Home Office Research Study 191 on domestic violence, published in January this year, was based on self-reporting interviews with about 10,000 men and women as part of the 1996 British Crime Survey of England and Wales. It is thus by far the most comprehensive and reliable study of domestic violence carried out in this country, and as such should be viewed as having authority. [Compare with the 200 people in Hackney interviewed by Stanko leading to her report stating 25% of women being subjected to violence, headlined in the Express and elsewhere].

The Home Office study 191 found an almost equal and numerically very small culpability of 4% in couple relationships. In a 12-month period 4% of men and 4% of women reported being assaulted by their partner, although more women reported injury (in a ratio of two to one), and more women were chronic victims (in a ratio of three to one). Even in the longer term (over a life-time), 15% of men reported that they had been assaulted by a female partner compared to 23% of women by a male partner. It is at this point that the probability over a lifetime magically turns into the "1 in 4 women suffer domestic violence etc. Across the Atlantic, somewhat lower but still substantial proportions of male victims were reported in the latest 1998 National Violence against Women Survey. Despite this being aimed principally at women as victims, the Survey still found 835,000 male victims of domestic abuse, compared to 1.5 million women (physical or sexual abuse), a proportion of about 36% male victims. ....

The results of the study 191 are repeatedly being brushed aside. We reported in June that Jack Straw, Home Secretary, said; ".... domestic violence is men beating women". Another example of where survey is ignored is Consultation Paper on Contact between Children and Violent Parents (May99) published by the Children Act Sub-committee to the Advisory Board for Family Law.

For further information and booklets on domestic violence contact; Dewar Research, Constables, Windsor Rd., Ascot, SL5 7LF.

Fathers to face new threat to "contact".

New proposals to restrict still further the chances of fathers seeing their children after divorce have been published by the Lord Chancellor's Dept. Overall control is in the hands of the long titled "Children Act Sub-Committee of the Advisory Board on Family Law". The Advisory Board was set up after the Family Law Act 1996 to monitor its implementation but is also responsible for monitoring the Children Act 1989.

We immediately contacted the Chairman of the Children Act Sub-Committee and our Chairman writes; "I have received a reply from Mr Justice Wall [Chairman] welcoming our interest in Contact between children and violent parents (CBCAVP). Wall has indicated that he would be pleased to hear comments from both individual ManKind members and collectively.

The proposals suggest introducing New Zealand's 1993 method of allegations of violence by one parent to create a barrier for contact. In a country of only about 10,000 divorces there are 7,000 "protection orders". Enquires in New Zealand show that since its inception the legal aid bill has risen fro $20m to an expected $100m this year.

Among the many contributors to "Contact between children and violent parents" is a summary by a NZ judge on the merits and working of the regime. Responses from New Zealand men paint a more jaundiced picture. Other contributors to the CBCAVP include Brenda Hoggett, a.k.a. Mrs Justice Hale.

We are well placed to counter any untoward influences if we act now. The closing date is Nov 1st.

For your copy, telephone 0171- 210-0642 and ask for "A consultation paper on Contact between children and violent parents." The extent of its reforms and lack of safeguards for men will shock you. To convey your views and opinions please write to: Mr Justice Wall, Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London WC2. If you would like to participate in contributing to ManKind's official response (which has to be delivered by Nov 1st) contact our London Office at Suite 367

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Suicide Prevention Effort Launched in America

- by Laura Meckler, A.P.

"Suicide is the eighth leading cause of death in the United States, claiming about 30,000 lives in 1997, compared with 19,000 homicides". In Washington DC the surgeon general today declared suicide a serious public health threat for the first time, launching an effort to educate school counselors, parents and even hairdressers on how to spot signs of trouble.

"This is a national tragedy and a public health problem demanding national leadership,'' said Tipper Gore, the vice president's wife, an advocate for mental health issues. "Let's talk about the reality of suicide in our national life,'' she said, "Let's encourage all Americans to get the help they need.'' She joined Surgeon General David Satcher in releasing a "call to action.'' "We must act now,'' Satcher said in his report. In 1980 there were 20,489 male victims as opposed to 6,363 female victims. The numbers in 1996 were 24,980 male victims and 5,899 female victims. The number of annual male victims increased by 449 lower the time frame, that of the annual female victims decreased by 464 over the same interval. It seems that whatever is being done to decrease the risk of suicide for women is working extremely well, in spite of the large increases in the number of women in poverty due to the escalating divorce rate. However, what works well for women appears to have the opposite effect on men at ten times the numbers. As to the 19,000 annual victims of homicide, the vast majority of those too are male.

British men fear to touch children - Richard Reeves and Martin Bright, The Observer, 25july99, p6

"....based on interviews with 1,000 men.... Such is the obsession with, and fear of, paedophilia in the UK that advertisers are being warned off using images of men with children. .... ....

"Adrienne Burgess, ...., said the report confirmed the British 'obsession' with child abuse.

"'The impact of some feminist critiques in the early 1960s, which said all men were rapists, was greater here than elsewhere. .... which makes it seem abnormal when a man does touch a child, sometimes even his own. ....'"

Domestic Violence

Some of the best research into domestic violence is by Dr. Malcolm George, of Queen Mary College, London. His analysis of some of the grave problems we face and the flaws in modern research are detailed in "Beyond All Help ?" - avaialbel from Dewar Research (£5.00).

"A Critique; Domestic Violence: a health care issue?", (Dewar Research) outlines the flaws in the BMA report of 1998 into domestic violence. Orders should be sent to; Dewar Research, Constables, Windsor Rd., Ascot SL5 7LF.

Understanding the sentencing of women

by Lindsay Jackall - Australia.

"The Home Office have just released British Research Study 170, which deals with the discrepancy betwen the sexes in jail and penal sanctions. It establishes beyond any doubt that women are treated significantly more leniently than men for the same crime.

"The difference, as you'd suspected, is that everyone, from the judge downwards tries their hardest to find "mitigating circumstances" [ie excuses] to let her off (this also extends to the Media). Judges interviewed this study also candidly admit to 'feelings' that women, especially mothers, should be treated more leniently. With mothers they feel that any punishment given to them will be suffered by the children but felt no such sympathy or connection for fathers with their children, who are

curiously 'blamed'. [this mindset hasn't changed since Hanging Judge Jeffereies - Ed].

Edited by Carol Hedderman and Loraine Gelsthorpe, it is availabel from the Home Office Research and Statistics Directorate London.

The full text can be downloaded at:

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs/hors170.pdf.

"Women are not as hard, aggressive or predatory as men. They are more sensitive of others' feelings. A woman who gets on to drink and drugs often does so because her relationship with a man has gone wrong. The male quest for conquest, sensation and change is more likely to cause unhappiness than the female quest for affection, children and a stable home life." - Judge James Pickles, "Straight from the Bench", pub. Dent 1987, p83.

Erin Pizzey Writes

- sent in by Ted Diggins.

"I'm appalled by the decision to attempt to ban 'violent fathers' from seeing their children. In 30 years working with violence-prone people, I've treated just as many violent women as I have men. Fathers have been a political football for the past 30 years.

"There is a politically motivated, million-pound industry, run by political extremists, who have dedicated their lives to destroying family life in this country. The first step on their agenda is to remove fathers from their children and the second is to encourage women to go out to work.

"The third part of the programme is that children should be raised by the state. Home Office research shows that both men and women can be equally violent. When will the judicial war against fathers come to a halt? By staying silent, men and women in this country are condemning thousands of children to a fatherless life. Children need both mothering and fathering to become healthy, happy, mature adults." - Erin Pizzey, Family SOS. - Letter in the Daily Mail, 30june99, p58, by Erin Pizzey. Sent to Ill Eagle by Ted Diggins.

When Erin tried to publish her research results, that 62 out of the first 100 women who came to her pioneering refuge in Chiswick were as violent as the men they had left, she and her co-researchers were censored. They received death threats and other threats which led to her having police protection. In the end, for safety, she left the country. After fifteen years in exile she has now returned, and lives at a secret address, where I visited her. Text books on the law credit Erin's book on her experience in founding the first women's refuge, Scream quietly or the neighbours will hear, as having been the main factor in causing the courts to embark on a policy of ousting fathers from their homes. This is why the later discovery by her researchers, that her women were as violent as their menfolk, had to be censored out. This had to be suppressed in order to save the anti-man policy in our courts, which has continued for twenty years, resulting in the collapse of marriage and remarriage rates and the escalation of suicide among young men. Erin says that the feminists hijacked the domestic violence industry, and all her funding, and drove her out. They used violent threats. - Ed.

Lynette Burrows' book re-launched

Following hard on the heels of her 1998 book "The Fight for the Family, which lifted the lid on the mrky world of child abusers Lynette Burrows has released an updated edition.

Available from FET, (Tel 01865 -556848) it develops the interrelation between apparently innocuos pressure groups and the undisclosed network's secret agenda, involving for instance anti-smacking, run by a few political (not to mention sexual) extremists.

Law complaints system to close for one year

Francis Gibb, Legal Correspondent, The Times, 23july99, p1.

".... The crisis has reached such a pitch that members of the public are being told that their current complaints - about high fees, mishandling of cases, bad advice and delays - may not be dealt with for another year.

"The effective closure of the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors .... comes with some 25,000 complaints awaiting attention. .... complaints .... are rising by 300 every week."

With 80,000 solicitors in the country, this is far more than a backlog of three complaints per solicitor. Those solicitors working for large companies are unable to generate complaints from the public over their shoddy work.

Letter to Ill Eagle. ".... 25,000 complaints awaiting attention. ...." Whereas parliament set down that 'delay is not in the interest of children', nobody will be able to bring and resolve any complaint against incompetent, corrupt, drunk, deviant, or defrauding solicitors for a long time now. The self-regulating solicitors' body (by its failure to provide an effective complaints procedure) has closed its doors to anybody with information about solicitors whose conduct damages children.

"It thus comes as no surprise that Lord Woolf ruled it may be 'undesirable in the interests of justice' for a McKenzie Friend to witness the conduct of lawyers and judges in Britain's Secret Courts." - EH.

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Editorial

Part 2 of Masculinity has to go into this issue because Part 1 went in the last issue. The fact that Part 2 is so good crept up on me, and it is impracticable for it to split off from Part 1, and migrate to its rightful place, Male View.

Another growing insight is into the behaviour of male rulers. Two sources, L and G, have independently told me that men divide into three groups; the rulers (5% to 10%), the wheeler-dealers, and the grovellers. We have to concentrate on the rulers, to try to understand why they are nonchalant about the current attack on the civil rights of young men, and actually assist in the attack.

The story goes as follows, and I shall embellish it later when I gain fuller understanding of it.

An important sub-class of our male rulers resemble psychopaths more closely than they resemble normal men. Whereas the unintelligent psychopath ends up in jail, the intelligent psychopath becomes a ruler.

Their characteristics are as follows. They are risk takers. They are indifferent to the effect of their actions on others. They are driven by power. Part of their concept of power is sexual, to have access to numerous women. They have a contempt for women. Extreme examples are Maxwell, Aitken, Goldenballs and so on. However, most of our current male rulers, including senior judges, are also in this class. They do not suffer from divorce as normal men do. The destruction of men by feminists and their agents gets rid of the competition, and so they welcome it and even collaborate.

This explains the partly feigned incomprehension shown by our male rulers, including our judges, when presented with the tragic impact of their policies on fathers and their children. They see children are trophies, not as human beings. (A female judge will screw you for sexist reasons, while a male judge will screw you and your children for pathological reasons.) They have to fail to comprehend, or it would be more difficult for them to connive in, or even engineer, their destruction of men in order to reduce the competition they face for positions of power.

Women do have empathy, but only for other women. When feminists drive for equality, equality is not the result. Rather, we end up with 90% women and 10% men. The few remaining men take the top positions. The power feminists, having driven out nearly all the men, need the small number of remaining powerful men to rule above them. For them, power is an aphrodisiac, so like the male rulers, their motivation is not only power (or empowerment, as they describe it,) but also sexual. The surprising result of radical feminist policy is not only polyandry lower down (=  a woman taking control of her sexuality), but the harem higher up.

The powerful man was brought to power by vested interests including the feminist lobby. He knows that, once in power, he will have to pay their price, which is to assist them in legislating against men.

Whereas L bemoans the stupidity of men in not defending themselves, G says that our children's main enemy is not the feminists, but powerful men.

ManKind and Ill Eagle can be reached at;

(1). Suite 367, 2, Lansdowne Row,

London W1X 8HL.

(2) www.ukmm.org.uk

(3) The Editor, Ill Eagle, Ivor Catt,

121 Westfields, St. Albans AL3 4JR, England. ( 01727 864257

(4) Email :- ivorcatt@electromagnetism.demon.co.uk/

Anti-dad ad makes me mad.

"The government's intention of screening a TV commercial to encourage children to report their violent fathers in cases of domestic violence .... is an outrageous and sinister development.

"To encourage children to report only one violent parent is highly sexist and pernicious, especially when there is now strong evidence to show that mutual combat is the norm in violent households. Not only does this approach deal with only half of the problem, it diminishes further the status of fathers, both in the eyes of children and society. It also negates the plight of those children who live with violent mothers.

"This advertisement uses public money to vilify men and to further confuse the emotions and loyalties of the unfortunate children of violent parents. Why is there no protest from children's charities?" - David Yarwood, letter in The Express, 28nov98

Why won't they just leave men alone?

"I am becoming more and more certain that there is a national commitment among the powers that be to diminish, demean and denigrate the male sex in its entirety. Every time I read a newspaper, be it national or local, ...., it seems there is yet another movement, or law passed or proposed, which hits men as hard as possible. .... men can .... be put in prison or fined huge sums if the fail to come up with maintenance. Why is it always believed that the man .... is actually the cause of the breakdown? Why can women act as badly as they like ....? Do women have no responsibility at all ....? .... there is just as much violence against men by their partners .... Women .... can .... be capricious, spiteful, and downright dangerous .... I feel that society has turned against men in a most devastating way .... - Heather Causnett, Yorkshire Evening Press, 6july99.

Boys' exam results plummet

The gulf between boys' and girls' exam results continues to widen .... 11 per cent more girls are obtaining five or more A-C grades. .... in some parts of the country boys' results have gone into freefall. .... Martin Bright, Observer, 20june99, p2.

GCSE girls are sprinting away from the boys

"The gap between boys and girls at GCSE has reached a record level, according to a new government analysis .... The gender gap had continued to widen throughout the school system. .... At GCSE, the gap has widened markedly since the start of the decade .... The gulf is most evident in the top grades, with one in 30 entries by boys awarded the coveted A* compared with almost one in 20 girls." - John O'Leary, The Times, 4aug99, p11.

No one spotted the problems looming in the fine print.

- Leader, The Guardian, 2july99.

Unpublished letter to The Guardian by Ill Eagle Ed; "Your first leader today about the CSA says; 'No one spotted the problem looming in the fine print.'

"I heard Ros Heppelwhite lecture to FNF AGM three months before she set up the CSA. (Her father deserted her family when she was two years old.) I told everyone that the CSA would self-destruct. FNF literature was full of prediction of disaster even before the CSA was set up, with reasons given. The Guardian refused to publish any material from Men's Organisations." Ten years later, Men's Organisations were again excluded from the consultation process leading to the current CSA 'reforms'.

"Will the Guardian now publish our current analysis, and predictions of future greater disaster and further escalation in the suicide rate among young men, to be caused by the 'reformed' CSA?" There was no reply, and the letter was not printed.

In The Sunday Telegraph, 18july99, p10, David Bamber reported;

"Solicitors 'admit to excessive charging'. .... NatWest bank's professions unit questioned more than 1,000 solicitors. .... only one per cent of solicitors took up the profession because they were interested in the law. One in 10 solicitors admitted they were in the profession purely because of the financial rewards."

Two barristers have told me I know more about the law than they do. I am shocked by the ignorance of lawyers, and their apathy except when it comes to taxing the case - jargon for their fees. - Ed

Absent Fathers

".... For too many children today, the answer to the question .... 'And when did you last see your father?' is 'Never'. This is the worst social problem of our time." - Daily Telegraph Leader, 27aug99.

Legal Aid

In 1996-7 the Legal Aid Board spent £392 million on matrimonial and divorce proceedings. The average cost to the legal aid board of ancillary relief proceedings connected to divorce was £1,759 and the average length of such proceedings was just over 2.5 years - Family Policy Studies Centre, Family Briefing Paper No. 10, June 1999.

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Masculinity - are men in crisis or not? Part 2 - concluding article.

by Robert Whiston

For Crick, "Virtu", that is to say what is proper to a man, has the following attributes; "Courage, fortitude, audacity, skill and civic spirit - in fact a whole classical and renaissance theory of man...." The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary includes "valour" as essential.

Renaissance writers asked; "Does a state have 'virtu' among its citizens or not? Are there, in a word, citizens ?" [Citizen here means a Plebeian, male or female, with 'virtu' -Ed]. If a State had too few of these citizens, then it is doomed to a tyrannical personal rule; but if many, then a Republic can flourish, and will prove - the by now familiar argument - the stronger form of state." Crick (1970) then cites the Arabs and the Israelis - the Israelis dominate because the Arabs lack citizens with Virtu.

Of all the attributes 'civic spirit' is the least expected - it is not manly, nor sex related - but at the same time it is seen by all writers as an essentially male-only trait. To make more sense of "Civic spirit", one has to read in the Middle English used in the King James's Bible and Shakespeare. In the context of 20th century English one might say "for the common good", but that is a lack-lustre translation.