Ray Filar

Ray Filar is a freelance journalist and an editor at openDemocracy, working on the Transformation section. Their writing has been published in The Guardian, The Times, and the New Statesman, among others. They are the editor of Resist! Against a precarious future (Lawrence & Wishart, 2015), a book about young people and politics. They tweet, @rayfilar, their website is here.

What do you think of Transformation?

Transformation, openDemocracy’s newest section, turns one year old today. We want your help in evaluating our progress.

By Ray Filar

/ 8 Jul 2014

Liberation in the age of the hashtag activist

Under austerity we tweet #bringbackourgirls from the safety of our laptops: anything else is naive. Liberation means the comprehensive dismantling of hierarchies, but few movements talk about it today. An introduction to Transformation's liberation series.

By Ray Filar

/ 20 May 2014

Mental health: why we're all sick under neoliberalism

We don't understand mental health, allocating the label only to those who are struggling, so its political causes become invisible.

By Ray Filar

/ 1 Apr 2014

Silence = death: Sarah Schulman on ACT UP, the forgotten resistance to the AIDS crisis

When the AIDS activist movement ACT UP was formed in New York in 1987, 50 per cent of Americans wanted people with AIDS quarantined, while 15 per cent favoured tattoos. An interview with Sarah Schulman on her film United In Anger: A History of ACT UP.

By Ray Filar

/ 30 Jan 2014

All hail the vampire-archy: what Mark Fisher gets wrong in 'Exiting the vampire castle'

Where to start? He repeatedly accuses feminists of being “moralisers”, when he's not saying we're “vampires” or “liberals” instead. But there can be no real solidarity without intersectionality.

By Ray Filar

/ 26 Nov 2013

This week’s theme: Welcome to Transformation

Ray Filar, Associate Editor of our new section Transformation, walks us through its first week

By Ray Filar

/ 1 Jul 2013

Get ready for Transformation

“Oh, cool! So, uh, what's it about?” That's the usual response when I tell people I'm editing a new section of openDemocracy titled “Transformation: where love meets social justice”.

By Ray Filar

/ 26 Jun 2013

Questioning the imperative to be gendered

Despite women's progress, the norms that dictate that people should act along gender lines are stronger than ever. The rules of gender come first, humanity second. Genderqueers are transforming gender and challenging the constricting gender roles that limit everybody’s lives.

By Ray Filar

/ 25 Mar 2013

UK: the power of the women’s vote

Resistance to viewing women as a homogenous block can all too often provide politicians with an excuse to ignore women altogether. Women hold half the electorate’s voting power: which party will be brave enough to reach out for their vote at the next General Election?

By Ray Filar

/ 21 Nov 2012

Why the gender pay gap matters

With so many families in Britain struggling in the face of the Coalition's austerity measures, wage inequalities between men and women seem low down on almost everyone's agenda. But as increasing numbers of households depend on women’s wages, equal pay for equal work is a more pertinent demand tha

By Ray Filar

/ 6 Feb 2012

Mad Women on the March

The Fawcett Society believes that the UK coalition government has broken the law in not assessing the impact of budget cuts on women. Ray Filar marched with them last weekend to hear their reasons for protesting

By Ray Filar

/ 23 Nov 2011

A thousand feminists, a million acts of violence

The UK government says it wants to end abuse against women and girls but at the same time it is cutting vital funding to organisations in the front line. In London last weekend, the FEM 11 conference called for a new political strategy and for better funding of women’s services. Ray Filar was ther

By Ray Filar

/ 15 Nov 2011