News
If the Cowfolk are doing it, this is where it’s at…
Easton Cowfolk Cricket Club AGM
Monday 26th September 2022, Easton Community Centre, 7 – 9pm.
This is a very important meeting for future of the Cricket Club and all interested parties need to attend. We need to discuss how we want to proceed after a good season of net sessions and a couple of great friendly games.
Calcio Popolare: Boycott Qatar 2022
This was sent to us from Dialectik Football…
About thirty Italian clubs claiming the current of calcio populare, which is an alternative to merchandise football, have co-signed a statement marking their hostility to the upcoming World Cup in Qatar.
https://dialectik-football.info/qatar-2022-le-message-du…/
“The World Cup in Qatar is the epitome of what football should never be: a huge business built with the blood and exploitation of the poorest, as well as an entertainment scene for a few millionaire spectators.”
Despite FIFA’s front policies in recent years to combat gender inequality, wage and stadium racism, the choice to host the World Cup in Qatar reveals the true face of business football.
Human rights and civil rights are relegated to the second place, giving a blank card to a country that:
– repeatedly violated the fundamental rights of people from the LGBTQ+ community and migrants to the point that the vast majority of hotels and B&Bs declared they do not accept gay hosts;
– excluded women from almost all sports and sporting events, opposing or preventing their participation;
– has not defined regulations regarding working hours and wages, in particular for migrant workers;
– showed that it is not a country equipped for an event of this size by launching massive, eco-friendly constructions in the desert areas of the country.
The massive financial and trade operation has brought millions of workers from Asia and Central Africa (who often pay for their own jobs) into the country and forced them to come home re to survive in a state of slavery.
Exploitation, temperatures well above 45° and working hours above 12 hours a day are just some of the causes that have led to the death of at least 12 people per week. Amnesty estimates point to 6,500 workers have died since 2010, but other sources describe even more grim situations, with as many as 15,000 victims.
The vast slums that stretch beyond the luxury urban centers are the theatre of miserable living conditions. There is talk of confiscation of IDs to keep people from entering their countries, turning police barracks into prisons, and teams of jailers committing acts of violence on a daily basis.
FIFA’s tacit approval of infamous practices in the country remains embarrassing. Infantino’s statements attest to this: “When you give someone a job, even in difficult conditions, you give him dignity and pride. “This is just an umpteenth evidence of this disgrace.”
We launch this call as a unit alert of the Italian Calcio Popolare scene. Convinced that our sports model is always aimed at the defense and participation of the oppressed, the most vulnerable, the marginalized. So our reason for being is to fight and attack models of “sport” such as those implemented in Qatar.
Knowing the bloody face of the enemy, we will continue to propose with even more conviction a viable football alternative: from suburban pitches to the sports complexes where we play, with left-out and populace marginalized actions as protagonists in a quest for deliverance.
We assert as a basic principle that football has always been a channel of cohesion, integration, a global language that cannot and should not move away from an inch of the eyes and feet of the people and ordinary citizens.
So modern football reaches its climax with the World Cup in Qatar: the rich owners of the sponsors, paid television and FIFA executives rejoice in it with disrepair. But we will not stand idle, we will be a thorn in their foot, attacking and hitting on one hand, and suggesting an alternative on the other.
Still against this cursed modern football: football is for the people, or it is not.”
Signatures 
Polisportiva Sans Papier / NAPOLI UNITED / Polisportiva Sans PapierAsd Aurora Vanchiglia / Polisportiva Sans Papier / No League Sportinzona / Polisportiva Sans Papier / Armata Pirata 161 / ? Atletico San Lorenzo / Polisportiva Sans Papier /Unione Sportiva Stella Rossa / Unione Sportiva Stella Rossa / Spezia Calcio Popolare / RFC Lions Ska Caserta / Unione Sportiva Stella Rossa / ASD Quartograd
Nina Franklin Fund 2nd Anniversary Event
Please consider attending this Palestine event in Bristol on Friday evening as it is closely linked with the Cowfolk’s Palestine solidarity work.
https://www.eventbrite.com/…/the-nina-franklin-fund…
Entry is free but you need to register in advance. Looking forward to seeing some familiar faces there!
Community meals every Wednesday
Supper Supper Club was set up to offer three course meals for our local community using food from supermarkets and local shops that would otherwise end up in landfill. They’re open every Wednesday from 7 – 9 p.m. offering meat, veggie and vegan meals for a £3 donation at Eastside Community Trust (opposite The Plough) in Easton. Families, singles and friends are welcome. It’s a lovely way to meet your neighbours and enjoy a three course meal. We look forward to meeting you.
Cowboys firsts home game
Cowboys 1st team are playing at Packers field (Whitehall Gardens BS5 7BN) 2pm Sat 24th Sep
Justice for Chris Kaba campaign
Unfortunately this got pushed to the back of the news because of the queens death so needs the pressure kept up on social media etc. Here’s a link to the campaign website where you can get more info and donate. The club will also be making a donation.
‘Kiss Before Kick-Off’ by Zoe Gibbons
I’ve created this piece of artwork in celebration of the history of women’s football. It’s called “kiss before kick-off” and imagines a meeting across 100 years between Dick, Kerr ladies (of Dick, Kerr ladies munitions factory in Preston who were the unofficial England team of 1920) and some of the founding teams of Bristol Women’s Football Casual League (BWFCL) which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.
I’ve played football with the Easton Cowgirls for 19 years and during this time I’ve seen the development of women’s football culminating in England’s unforgettable Euros 2022 win, with record crowds cheering them on.
But as many of you will no doubt know by now, Women’s football previous hay day was in 1920 when there were over 130 womens teams playing across the UK raising the equivalent of millions of pounds for charity.
This piece of artwork is based on a famous photo and the match on Boxing Day in 1920 when Dick, Kerr ladies played St Helen’s at Goodison Park to a crowd of 53,000 with another 14,000 outside in the grounds. Less than a year later the FA made the shock move of banning Women’s football across all of its grounds, effectively culling the womens game. Women were told that playing football would make them infertile and it “was not fit for women”. By the 1930s there were only a few dozen teams left and no ability to play to crowds.
The ban lasted 50 years, was only lifted in 1971 and it would be another 40 years before the 1920 crowd record was beaten (London Olympics 2012).
So whilst this new dawn is fabulous for all the young women and girls out there (and boys too) there is a whole generation of us who wanted to play football and weren’t able to. For this I’m still part sad and part angry. In fact to be able to play I had to build something that would give me the chance to do this – I was one of the founders of the BWCFL – but what myself and many others have created in the last 10 years has now grown to be a wonderful league with 30 womens teams giving hundreds of women the chance to play the beautiful game.
So I’ve made this piece of art to celebrate all that has happened. Forza to all the women past and present who are part of this story.
Limited edition prints cost £30 (small), £45 (large). Free postage in UK. To buy visit zoegibbons.com
Profits from sale of the prints are split equally between Zoe and womens charities as agreed by teams of BWFCL.
Art & Resistance weekend
Our international fan club and some cowgirls are running the fundraising cafe and some art workshops at the Art & Resistance weekend at the wild goose space in St Werburghs on the 24th & 25th of September. Everyone is welcome. We need cake bakers and general volunteers. Please get in touch with Soooooz, Becs or Tanja if you can help 
Facebook event page here.
POWERLANDS film screening
A FILM ABOUT GLOBAL INDIGENOUS RESISTANCE TO RESOURCE COLONIALISM
Screening + Q&A with director Ivey Camille Manybeads Tso & producer Jordan Flaherty
A young Navajo filmmaker investigates displacement of Indigenous people and devastation of the environment caused by the same chemical companies that have exploited the land where she was born. On this personal and political journey she learns from Indigenous activists across three continents. This film is in seven languages, including several Indigenous languages rarely captured on film: English, Diné, Spanish, Wayuu, Visayan, Blaan, and Zapotec.
More here: www.powerlands.org
Pearl’d Cup 2022 souvenir programme
Click here to download a pdf version.
To get a physical booklet, please send a message via the contact form.
