One day, I hope, feminism, which has been described by Erin Pizzey as “The most fraudulent movement the world has ever seen”, will be relegated to the annals of history. The second International Conference on Men’s Issues, held a few weeks ago in London, will be regarded as one of the significant events which helped to bring this about.

The three days of the conference were richly packed with information, knowledge sharing, insights and ideas: the untold damage of male circumcision, the impact of pornography on the male brain (Martin Daubney), the subversion of due process (Martin Evison), the unequal treatment of women and men in prison, strategies for educating younger generations about men’s issues (Josh O’Brien), how we build up the Men’s Movement (Anil Kumar). These were just some of the issues covered which I hope, in the coming weeks, to be able to touch upon here.

Also to the delight of many there was nearly a full deck of American Honey Badgers with Janet Bloomfield, Janice Fiamengo and Karen Straughan.

Seeing men (and women) coming together to address issues affecting men, is significant because, as Pizzey explained, while men will die for their country, their families or their children they don’t come together to fight for themselves. I would argue that this is still true. The men (and significantly fewer women) who came to the conference, are above all, fighting feminism because they see it ruining the lives of their children, their families and society and individual women and men. They came because of a love and concern for others, and out of a wish to tackle gross injustice. They came to fight feminism’s incessant bare-faced lies. Men are not fighting feminism out of an interest in themselves.

So different from feminism.

The battle lines were drawn on the first day. A fundamental belief of feminism is that patriarchy is very, very bad. The feminist solution, as Herbert Purdy explained is “the culling of fathers”. Pizzey pointed out that if you take the authority of the father out of the family, you destroy the family. Eroding the role of the father is at the heart of feminism and this is how it has its most damaging effect.

Herbert Purdy reminded us that destroying the family was at the heart of Marxist ideology: “Women’s liberation, if it abolishes the patriarchal family, will abolish a necessary substructure of the authoritarian states , and once that withers away Marx will have come true, will nilly, so let’s get on with it” – Germaine Greer famously proclaimed.

If the communists had achieved an iota of what the feminists have achieved in terms of family destruction, communism would be with us to this day.

The family is under attack from all sides. First feminism erodes the bases for trust and relationship between men and women. Purdy, and others spoke about the moral panic surrounding rape culture and Violence Against Women and Girls. Boys are made to feel ashamed for being boys and men are born guilty. Women, ever anonymous, are always victims and always to be believed.

Eloquent testimony to this was Mark Pearson. He did absolutely nothing but at the word of an actress who appears to have had severe mental health problems, had his life turned upside down. This Erin assured us, was not an isolated incident.

This sort of system and ideology no doubt contributes to the low rates of marriage but so too do the chances of ending up the loser in a nasty and messy divorce.

Women initiate divorce at three times the rate of men and the family courts support them. Pizzey explained how men could be forcibly excluded from their families, with accusations of domestic violence or child abuse. The result is that up to 1/5 of children from divorced families find their own father is excluded from their lives.

Kathy Gyngell explained how feminism has not simply ‘destroyed’ families but has created and continues to perpetuate very dysfunctional ones – leading to high rates of mental illness in children, suicide amongst men and unhappiness in women. She explained how Britain’s ‘feminised’ tax and benefits system has led to a situation where responsible married men’s taxes are used to support larger single parent families, encouraging and incentivising fatherlessness, at the expense of their own ‘fathered’ family size.

Paul Apreda is on the front line trying to help and support the traumatised victims of this system. He comes from the Welsh branch of what was formerly called “Families need Fathers”. However, in a country where a prominent politician could tell us that “It cannot be assumed that men are bound to be an asset to family life or that the presence of fathers in families is necessarily a means to social cohesion”, it is hardly surprising that the authorities objected to the name. The organisation is now called ‘Both Parents Matter’, and I suspect even that is risqué.

Paul is in the business of supporting and advising victims of the family court process. His matter of fact, down to earth approach must be reassuring in the face of battle, reminding victims (and for once the word is used appropriately) that this is not about them as individuals; it is about an ideology and they are very far from alone. In fact, it became clear from the many speakers that the family court system is a prime recruiting ground activists and advocates in the men’s movement. From the sickness also comes the cure.

Kathy Gyngell also reminded us that the ultimate victims in all of this are the children – one on four of whom are not living with both biological parents by the time they are two and one in two of whom are not living with both biological parents by the time they 16 and whose life chances diminish with every ‘half sib’ they have. The feminised family system which neither values fathers’ nor mothers’ roles directs women into the labour force too early, forcing their babies and infants into day care, while ignoring and burying evidence of the damage this has done and does to child development and well being.

These were just some of the topics touched upon on the first day of a truly magnificent conference. If you would like to find out more, Justice for Men and Boys is making available recordings of the speakers available here.