Lily M standing as women's officer again

I think Momentum’s influence is variable depending on areas.

In most CLPS (especially those with active MPs) the longer standing members still have the most influence - they have a breadth of longstanding local contacts that younger people cannot compete with. Ultimately, the people who can get the most support on the day of the vote are elected.

Full disclosure - I’m a momentum member and hold an elected position locally - I think we have around 100 members to 1300 odd total labour in our area. Most of our active members are actually fairly elderly and have moved over from the greens or have come back to labour membership after a hiatus (many left over Iraq).
Our inactive members are mostly parents of very young families that struggle to get to evening meetings. We aren’t an area popular with students though.

I must say I am impressed that Lewisham’s women’s forum is on a Sunday afternoon - I hope it has a crèche - that’s the kind of thing women really need to enable us to take fully active roles in politics.

Congratulations Gill!

As far as I was aware, in the case of disability while there's nothing to stop people self defining and naming themselves as disabled, there is a clear legal criteria which has to be proved through medical records/assessment if any disability related right is being requested under the EA, such as EA related arrangements, exemptions or to prove discrimination. Do I have that wrong?

Sorry white I dont know a huge amount about labour procedures- could you explain a bit more?

Excellent news for Lewisham.

Gill sounded perfect for the role.

What was attendence like? What was the atmosphere?

Wonder who lily will blame?

Thank goodness for that

Gill won, LM was voted down at the first vote for deligate so was unable to stand for Chair which was the intention.

Screen shot from Lewisham momentum
It literally says you can self define

I noticed a lack of age diversity in the lewisham momentum photo of support for lily.

How has momentum been allowed such a grip over labour? Is it clear who they are? In this instance lewisham momentum looks like a bunch of students, surely not a good representation of such a diverse set of constituencies. Do they exercise similar power over MP selection?

Gill Hart used to be Chair of the CLP. I saw a picture of her with Vicky Foxcroft, the MP, on Twitter. I hope this means she has lots of local support.

Sorenipples I hadn’t really thought about it (the only category relevant to me is ‘Woman’) but yes, I would imagine you indicate which of these groups you belong to simply by ticking boxes on your membership application, which is in effect, self ID.

That depends on the set up - I think ideally, that yes, the specific representation officers (Women’s, BAME, LGBT, Disabilities) should be voted on only by those registered as belonging to that group.

However, if a CLP follows the ‘All members’ format, and doesn’t have specific forums, then all members vote on all positions.

Of course, the smaller CLPs that are more likely to be all-member, are also less likely to have contested positions (I think my CLP has had only one applicant for BAME and Disabilities for several years running, the LGBT position hasn’t be filled in yonks and the WO had two applicants a couple of years ago, one of whom pulled out on the night of the vote in support of the other one, who has since been re-elected unnopposed).

Before the membership increase of recent years, many of these positions (along with the chairs, vice chairs and secretary roles) were decided by the same 10 or 20 people, who would just occasionally swap roles!

Thanks Betty.

I found this
transforminglewisham.com/lewDept.html?ward=brckly

Yes you can also self define as BAME and disabled.

I'm also coming to the conclusion "democratic socialism " is like those countries which put democratic in their name.

Apologies for the naive question but is it usual for the men (mxn?) to abstain from voting for women's officer?

Don't forget that at the time of the uniform debacle the school statement said that they were also supporting LM's younger siblings. But, y'know, why should anyone care about those confused and upset young children transphobes who set up nasty Twitter accounts to make LM look bad?

GC is General Committee - some CLPs have ‘all member’ meetings and some have GC only (the GC delegates represent their branches, and take the branch members views to CLP).

All CLPs and branches have an EC (Executive Committee) who do the grunt work of organising.

Those CLPS that use the GC system are usually the ones with the biggest membership - it’s ruddy hard to find cheap, accessible, meeting rooms for groups of 100 or more.

Sometimes, it’s just that the CLP went GC at some point in ancient history and no one really knows how to change it back (or can be bothered).

As Lewisham clearly has the numbers to run separate BAME (Black And Minority Ethnic) and Women’s forums, they are probably GC due to high membership numbers.

www.usdaw.org.uk/CMSPages/GetFile.aspx?guid=6afcc264-08e6-46af-bbd2-9e1216ace939

Technology fail there

I also like that our favourite socialist now won't be seen at any event without corporate sponsorship.

Screen shot

Interesting perspective given she has never been lewisham deptford CLP women's officer.

It's like the constituency is irrelevant to her. Just what I look for in a local politican.

May the force be with you!

Too much to hope (gender critical)

Thanks. What's a GC delegate? How are they decided?

Surprised there isn't an 8 weeks residency clause. Not surprised, but it would make sense considering its a local position.

Tweet

I’m on my way- this is what the email I was sent last night said about the vote:

You must have at least 8 weeks continuous membership of the Labour Party and not be in arrears, both to stand as a GC delegate and to vote in the elections. These will take place by secret ballot.

Eligible women members can self nominate at the meeting tomorrow.

Only women who are GC delegates may stand for the post of CLP Women's Officer.

Two strong candidates have already declared their intention to stand for this post: Gill Hart and Lily Madigan (both of Brockley ward). If there are more than two eligible women for this nomination, then the vote will be by preferential ballot.

It's great to have such enthusiasm for women's representation in our CLP. We look forward to coming together in the spirit of sisterly solidarity and respect to collectively choose our delegates and CLP Women's Officer for the year ahead.

bettydumonde Magdalen berns had a good video about someone across the Atlantic protesting uniform rules for themselves rather than everyone

m.youtube.com/watch?v=0PPV83fgJx0&t=91s