It's worth checking out The Laughing Auditor at the trans protest outside a building where a collective of lesbians who wanted to peacefully meet together had the noisy TRAs outside and the kind of behaviour he filmed. On YouTube.

The Party you envisage would aim to attract women of the Left. That would inevitably include activists, who would be duty-bound by their allegiance to socialism to ensure that where there was a conflict of values that socialism took precedence over feminism.

There is nothing socialist about the identity politics (including transgenderism) that’s currently touted by so-called leftwingers. And although men on the left have often sidelined women’s issues, they have no valid socialist grounds for opposing women’s rights.

I’ve been a feminist and s socialist all my adult life. No conflict there — though plenty of conflict with misogynists who like to identify as socialists.

I think an alliance is possible but we would have to have a very very strict terms of reference, that sets out the strict membership criteria and clear objectives of said alliance. And it would have to be agreed that this cannot be altered or amended in any way.

A loose affiliation would also require topics of discussion on the periphery of the alliance as excluded from debate,

We can see from various groups and affiliations that there can be mission drift, disagreements on say how hard is the line is, on trans rights, etc. do we include surrogacy?, (no IMHO) even though i do not agree with it.

So we would also have to inspect what issues are lobbied from elsewhere, Christian right, sex matters, Genspec, and defer to them for some more detailed arguments.

I think on reflection this could prove impossible.

We might end up sounding like a scene from life of Brian.

However willing to explore.

Steph’s been one of the few tweeting support.

Julie Bindel wrote about Steph of Steph's place who organised the sexually abusive protests outside FILIA. Steph was apparently a WEP member:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4376760-Julia-Bindel-on-the-FiLia-conference

I don't know which transwomen targeted heather Brunskell Evans but they were successful in getting her kicked out of the WEP so very powerful in silencing women.

I think that was the conclusion of the thread that was started about it at the time.

Sadly I wouldn’t trust anything set up by Fawcett not to instantly get taken over by TRAs.

https://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/news/first-womens-caucus-uk

Surely that is what Fawcett has recently set up. Cant remember what it is called.

Women's Lobby?

Do you remember "Women Uniting"? It was not that long ago. 2020. "Women Uniting" had a joint campaign for the 2022 Local Elections. Then they disappeared.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womensrights/3842088-Women-across-six-political-parties-are-uniting

Something like that might stand a chance now WEP has folded.

I understand that the GC faction within WEP (the party for women who have penises) couldn't stay united with the GC factions of the other parties and it all fell apart.

At least that is what I was told by an "insider". If true, WEP are even more deserving of their demise.

EDIT to add Filia link.

https://www.filia.org.uk/latest-news/2020/6/21/women-uniting

Good riddance. Their statement on Twitter about Chris Kaba was embarrassing, considering this man's history with women.

"You'd think when they look at the behaviour of some of their men claiming to be women members, they might have had a moment of self reflection: "should our members be involved in abusing women outside meetings in this way?"

Have I understood you right, that some WEP male members (!) were doing this?

I know we have got used to this sort of behaviour as the norm with other Political Parties but I didn't know it applied to WEP too.

😳

If so, it's even worse than I realised!

I'm another founding member. I was so excited by the possibilities and prepared to get meaningfully involved, but it was obvious quite quickly that this was not a women's party but a middle class liberal party. I think Suzanne Moore has put it very well:

'You cannot fight for women when you dare not say what we are. You cannot say we need special provision in health services, for instance ,if you do not acknowledge biology. What the hell did you think would happen? Was it all just a way of furthering already cushy careers? I have no idea. This liberal feminism which does not centre women and girls is toothless. It’s actually just wishful thinking that everyone should be nicer. In fact it is NOT feminism at all, it is unqualified middle class social work.'

@borntobequiet It was sad - not a single journalistic question. No 'some have said you lost women's support when you agreed that trans women are women and failed to realize the consequences for women in rape crisis centres, prisons and sports to name a few."

I am looking forward to their take on women's view on the US election. I wonder if they'll mention, alongside the abortion issue, the fact the Republican stance on trans issues is tempting some liberal women to cross the great divide ... while acknowledging they are hugely torn over the outcome of overturning Roe v Wade.

Just listened to a pathetic Woman's Hour piece (on Sounds, from earlier today). Emailed to tell them how pathetic it was and how useless the WEP had been. Also recommended they interview KJK (I know they won't, though).

I like that idea.

Something to connect all the existing political party women's groups, strictly non partisan and cross party.

😂
You'd think when they look at the behaviour of some of their men claiming to be women members, they might have had a moment of self reflection: "should our members be involved in abusing women outside meetings in this way?"

But sadly they gave these men such immense power - being able to get a woman like Heather Brunskell Evans kicked out of the party - that their misogyny appeared to escalate unchallenged.

I coundn't understand it all, but maybe this is it.

But quite honestly if this is the "political" analysis and language they come out with, not wonder they weren't really making an outreach.

Just another elite group, ingratiating themselves with those who already think like them.

Fuck them.

That would require some self awareness from Ms Toksvig et al.

An honest we fucked up big style isn't forthcoming then?

I think so, @NotTerfNorCis.

It could be a thinly veiled swipe at the Cass Report’s changing of the landscape, edging it back to sanity.

These utter berks in WEP have bought into the ‘omg! … and that is sooooo right wing and not progressive’ slur against women who can and do actually think.

I got the impression that they think fighting the hard right is now the priority, and that the hard right has made is getting more media coverage to they aren't(?).

Yes that is peculiar. The article says this:

The normalisation of far-right narratives means it is harder for progressive campaigns to gain traction in traditional media or online platforms, Reid said.

I'd like to know what they mean by that. Genderists tend to smear gender critical people as 'far right'. Is that what she's alluding to?

Rather than reinventing wheels that would require using up precious resources, would there be the space for some kind of Coalition of existing political parties/splinters/ putatives that foreground women?