In the days surrounding TORCH 2026, Total Woman Victory (TWV) became the target of an organized campaign of harassment, intimidation, and threats intended to prevent women and girls from gathering for an independent radical feminist conference. In the aftermath, narratives have circulated that obscure the sequence of events, misrepresent the conduct of those involved, diminish the extraordinary efforts women made to ensure that our gathering was not disrupted, and continue to put women and children in harm’s way.

We are releasing this statement to establish the chronology of the conference and clarify the circumstances under which it proceeded.

On Friday, September 25th, our original venue Worcester State University (WSU) sent TWV a security addendum requiring 16 police details from WSU Campus Police, Worcester City Police, and the Sheriff’s Department to be stationed inside and outside the venue from 8 AM to 8 PM because of repeated threats of violence and intimidation. This was quoted at $38,350.00. We were given until Wednesday, September 30th (three business days later) to sign the addendum and submit payment. The financial burden was unfeasible for our organization. We could not responsibly commit to a security expenditure of that scale and also disagreed with the risk-level assessment of the university organizers. We therefore sought alternative arrangements.

On October 2, we contacted another venue, toured the space, and paid the full rental cost that same day. On Friday, October 9th, we arrived at this venue at approximately 8 AM to set up for the conference. At around 9:45 AM, fifteen minutes before the conference was scheduled to open, a woman working for the venue pulled our organizer, Sathi Patel, aside and informed her that employees had received notice of threats to disrupt by all means necessary and that this venue could no longer host the event because of this.

We immediately began contacting alternative venues, but they ultimately declined to host the conference because of threats of violence.

We quickly moved our programming to Implacable Books. Women organized themselves amid the chaos—they immediately self-organized rentals for chairs, rearranged seating, cleaned the bookstore to make more room, and communicated information to one another as we worked to continue the day. We held three sessions with the time remaining and, by Friday evening, collectively decided to continue the conference at the bookstore for the rest of the weekend. There were no disruptions to the conference on Friday.

On Saturday morning, attendees arrived at 10 AM, and we began the program. To protect the privacy and safety of attendees, women and girls covered all windows and doors that looked into the building.

That morning, information about a planned disruption at the bookstore began circulating publicly. The disrupters announced plans to arrive at approximately 2 PM. At around 2:30 PM, because they had not yet appeared, we held a security meeting. We collectively decided not to engage with the anticipated disrupters and to continue the conference as planned.

Approximately thirty disrupters gathered at Crompton Park (two blocks away) before around fifteen men + their allies marched their way to the bookstore at around 2:40 PM.

Children in the neighborhood, who had been spending time around the bookstore, approached the disrupters in conversation, asking who they were and why they were there. These children have developed a meaningful connection to the bookstore and have helped make it a living community space. According to what we were told by those present, disrupters responded aggressively, striking phones out of children’s hands as they recorded and hitting their bicycles as they rode alongside the group. The children are okay.

Inside the bookstore, six trusted women worked together to barricade the entrance as disrupters pulled at the door in an apparent attempt to get inside. Two conference sessions were taking place simultaneously. Women and girls were inside participating in the conference. Our priority was to protect everyone in the building and prevent the disruption from reaching them altogether.

The building’s brick construction and insulation meant that participants inside could not hear what was happening outside. We were focused on holding the entrance and maintaining the safety of the people inside.

Police had been notified in advance of the planned disruption, and we had communicated concerns about anticipated disruptions to the conference throughout the preceding week. At approximately 2:38 PM, police were called to respond. By around 2:50 PM, when several women went outside to speak with officers, three disrupters were already in handcuffs. Police moved the disrupters away from the premises and informed us that we should call again if they returned.

The conference continued. We completed a full day of programming, including the Freedom Trash Can, despite the attempted disruption outside our doors.

We want to be unequivocal about what this required of the women inside. While disrupters attempted to force their way into the space, women were simultaneously responsible for protecting attendees, maintaining the entrance, communicating with one another, and preserving the program. The fact that the sessions continued does not make the threats launched by misogynists insignificant. It reflects the resolve of the women who refused to let intimidation determine whether we could meet.

On Sunday, attendees returned at 10 AM, and we immediately resumed programming. We held eight sessions and continued all the way until about 11 PM.

There was no further disruption at the bookstore on Sunday. At approximately 1:05 PM, rape alarms were thrown onto the roof. They were unheard by participants inside and we silenced them and continued our program.

TORCH proceeded because women made it proceed. TORCH was convened to bring women together across generations for feminist theory, organizing, consciousness-raising, and history—and that is exactly what we did and will continue to do. We invited women from across North America to learn from and alongside our elders and younger sisters, to examine the roots and modern iterations of women’s oppression, and to strengthen an independent feminist movement.

We reject the suggestion that the burden of preventing intimidation should fall entirely upon the women being targeted. TWV was forced to navigate prohibitive security costs, the intimidation of local community organizations and institutions that allowed us to host critical conversations, the possibility of physical violence, and the responsibility of protecting conference attendees, all while trying to deliver the very program we had spent months preparing because of violent misogynists.

The events surrounding TORCH were a result of the fully socially-condoned harassment campaign directed at our organizers by a rapist and his allies. Sathi Patel has obtained a harassment prevention order from Worcester District Court against Andrew Saltzberg, whom we identify as the owner of the online accounts @snuff.the.torch and @matapacosworcester. As of the time of this statement, the order has not been served because of an old address on file.

We are grateful to every woman who traveled to Worcester, every woman who spoke, every woman who listened, every woman who helped make room, and every woman who contributed to keeping the conference alive. We are grateful to the community members whose space and labor made it possible to continue. The conference belongs to all those who helped sustain it.

We will not allow the hostility directed at us to dictate the future of feminist organizing. We will continue to build spaces for feminist political education, historical study, and intergenerational exchange. We will continue to insist that women have the right to assemble, to speak, to disagree, to dissent, and to organize without intimidation.

Our commitment to women’s liberation is not contingent upon the approval of our political opposition. Nor will it be extinguished by men’s attempts to frighten us out of gathering.

Total Woman Victory
October 13, 2026