Scottish Women Against Pornography

“Before pornography became the pornographers speech it was somebody's life.”
                                                               - Catharine A. MacKinnon

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Current campaigning activities.......

23 March 2004
SWAP will soon be launching a Postcard Campaign to protest against the Bank of Scotland's investment in the porn industry.

We are contacting you in response to today’s public apology from the Bank of Scotland over its loan to Remnant Media for pornographic magazines.

The pornography industry’s ability to churn out commercially available pornography depends upon the trafficking of real women and children.

The National Women’s Council of Ireland was able to take action and influence the Bank of Ireland’s decision in not giving a loan to allow Remnant Media to buy part of Richard Desmond’s porn empire. Subsequently the Bank of Scotland has agreed to part-fund the acquisition of a number of pornographic magazines form the publisher Richard Desmond. The Bank of Scotland confirmed today that it has extended more than £5 million of debt financing to the company Remnant Media, to buy 45 pornographic magazines from Mr Desmond’s portfolio. These titles include ‘Asian Babes’, ‘Reader’s Wives’, ‘Mother-in laws’, ‘Big Ones’, ‘Barely Legal’ and ‘60 Plus’.

It is vital that we act now and as many individuals and organisations register their objections to the Bank of Scotland in response to this decision.

This decision is at odds with the Bank of Scotland’s “Equality and Diversity” strategy which explicitly calls for its business to be underpinned by “Social, Moral and Political” factors. It is clear that the Bank of Scotland’s principles are negotiable. A public apology and a promise to review its lending policy is a cynical attempt to placate its customers after the decision was made.

What you can do....

• Email or write a letter of protest to the Bank of Scotland now.

• If you hold an account with the Bank of Scotland or the Halifax you may wish to change to another bank.

• Inform the bank of your decision and why you are leaving.

• SWAP have closed their account with the Halifax.

Click the following links for more.......

Text of the Press Release for the postcard launch

Sign our on-line petition.....
Enter your name and email address and press the sign button.
When you click on the link sent to that address, your name is added to the list.

Transcript of Sarah Nelson's speech at the HBOS postcard launch

Text of the letter from Change closing accounts with HBOS

comming soon......Photos of Bank of Scotland Protest on 12th December 2004

You may already have read in the press or received our e-mail about the Bank of Scotland’s decision to loan 4.5 million pounds to Remnant Productions to buy part of Richard Desmond’s pornographic empire. The loan helped meet the purchase price of 45 pornographic magazines from Mr.Desmond including Asian Babes, Barely Legal and Sixty Plus. The Bank of Scotland’s own “Equality and Diversity” strategy calls for its business to be underpinned by “social, moral and political” factors. Clearly the Bank of Scotland’s principles are negotiable. They also ignore the awful reality that the commercial production of pornography depends on the exploitation of women and children. SWAP now wishes to highlight the Bank of Scotland’s investment in pornography and to apply pressure to rethink its policy. We are therefore launching a postcard campaign in September to expose the Bank’s unethical investment policy. It is vital that as many people across Scotland get involved in the campaign to register our objections as widely and effectively as possible. Current Bank of Scotland customers may wish to withdraw their custom and let the bank know of their reasons for this decision

Those wanting some postcards should let us know by e-mail as soon as possible. As SWAP is unfunded please only order the amount of cards that you feel able to use. Each postcard costs twelve pence to produce. Contact is if you wish more postcards. Donations to support this campaign would also be very welcome. Please make cheques payable to: Scottish Women Against Pornography.

We aim to formally present the collected postcards to the bank during the Sixteen Days of Action Against Violence Against Women (25th November to 10th December).

We will forward details of the date of this presentation nearer the time.

We hope that you will actively support this campaign and will do our best to keep everyone in touch with its progress. Many thanks for your help.

Alternatively, if you want to order cards by phone or mail our address is:
SWAP, PO Box 28073, Edinburgh EH17 8YT.
E-mail: ffswap18@yahoo.co.uk