Women's Liberation Party

[ISaySteadyOn]

There was a thread on this somewhere but I couldn't find it so decided to start a new one.

A lot of us on this board and possibly off it feel that none of the political parties represent us and that many are also anti woman.

Clearly, we need a new party. I am rubbish at organising things and don't quite know where to start. However, you are all rather clever and might be able to help.

Do we need a manifesto first? Can we start thinking about what WLP policies might be?

This idea is going to cause eyerolls because the lay person will just see it as feminist infighting, given there's already the WEP.

A better alternative is a sustained takeover of the WEP. Carefully planned and executed.

@ISaySteadyOn Here's the link to the thread I started a few weeks ago:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3092098-Womens-Liberation-Party

I’m definitely in.

I thik this is a good idea. If you are a political party it's much much harder to shut you up.

I don't think most people have even registered that WEP exists, so I don't think it's worth taking them over. All that energy could be better spent putting up candidates who we actually believe in without having to do any cloak and dagger stuff.

#shedsforwomen

We just did start a political movement: the 100 000 british women who marched last January shut down Trump's visit.

That Corbyn and to a lesser extent the lovely Khan are getting credit for this is gas lighting to write us out of history again.

I think there are one or two issues going on right now which would warrant another mass action.

And no boys in dresses need bother worrying about coming, they can do the ancillary work if they want to help, like men did at Greenham to support the feminist work.

Might as well get a WLP march going, then a WLP women's strike.

Direct action tends to focus minds, as we've seen today.

Yes! Million women rise in March, let's do it.

Thanks, BahHumbygge. I thought it was a good idea at the time and had hoped to bump the thread.

So yes, main credit for the idea goes to BahHumbygge who started the original thread.

What about calling it the equality party? With the aim of breaking down harmful stereotypes that damage society and mostly women. You'd also have to think about policies in other areas such as nhs and education. You'd certainly need to get men on board to get anywhere so a manifesto pointing out clearly how total equality (and including BAME and disabled people) would benefit everyone would be more likely to get people on board. But however it looks i would support it. I cant vote labour ever again.

To be honest I am a bit done with equality @JollyJuniper. Not that I don't agree with the principals/aims of it but I think I has become a stock to beat feminist with when they centre women (ie act like feminists) it is not women's job to solve all the problems of the world.

Also as datun (I think) has been pointing out recently we are not looking for equality. Equality would mean that women commit rape and violent crime at the same rate as men and 100m boys are killed globally at or before birth.

I don't want equality I want female liberation from male oppression. A more equal society will be a byproduct of that but the goal I am working for is subtly different.

I think it would make more sense to join WEP, organise support properly, submit a motion at conference in Sept and vote for change.

WEP are having their leadership election now, but it's probably too late to influence that unless you have sleeper members who can activate now.

WEP are doing a lot of things right and a lot of things wrong. It makes more sense to me that they fix what's wrong and keep doing the right rather than we have two feminist parties arguing amongst themselves. I can just see the existing establishment writing us all off as stupid women who can't even agree amongst ourselves.

I am a member of WEP currently. I support everything they're doing with the exception of the transgender issue. There's no other Party out there that I agree with more than I agree with WEP so they'll do for me for now. But I'd really like to see a sensible conversation coming out of them on this issue.

My point was really that a lot of people of both sexes would dismiss a women's liberation party without taking time to read up what its aims are. But an equality party might get people to sit up and listen because people naturally want to know what you'll do for them. anyway I'm not an expert in politics by any stretch so i won't pretend to know what I'm talking about. Just based on the fact that lots of women i know don't know about the issues, and don't feel they need to be liberated. I would assume not to be just another minor fringe party you'd need to appeal to a wider audience.

But one point, wouldn't total equality mean fewer offences committed by men against women, not more women committing more offences?

You'd certainly need to get men on board to get anywhere
Actually I totally disagree with this and think this is one of the big flaws with WEP.

UKIP/greens started out as parties with a particular issue that was shared by a small subset of the UK population. They worried about representing the views of that core of people first.

Women are 50% of the population, we know women are feeling disenfranchised from the existing parties, so let's appeal to them. Let's ignore the men for once.

Realistically the point of this kind of party is to raise the issues in the public consciousness and take away vote share from other parties so they are forced to take them seriously. Let's forget about the men for once.

I like this idea! I really struggled with who to vote for at the last GE and ended up with Labour as the least worst option.

I'd be happy to help get this off the ground. I don't have much political experience, mind, but I'll contribute what I can.

And yes to not worrying about getting the men on board. I think we need to focus on what women want and need

I'm in.

Could we crowdfund it, or ask for supporters on Patron (for as little as $1 a month) as we work on manifesto/constitution?

Do we all agree on it being leftwing/green, or do we differ there ? (I'm only interested if its leftwing/green).

I think it should be a longer-term aim to be registered as political party (because we don't want to split the leftwing vote at next election). But we need to build numbers, clarify positions on things, send a message to labour and greens.

Could we start an email list for drawing up manifesto or key positions? I'm happy to collect emails if you PM me

I'm not sure about anything which has woman or feminist in title, because if the policies are sound male allies could support/join too. Have discussed this with others, someone suggested Exodus (i.e. people leaving Labour and Greens over GRA), but that's negative and also biblical (although its sounds nice and dynamic). I like RAISE (you can do lots with this as an acronym, also alludes to raising kids and raising minimum wage etc).

I think this should be a stand alone party, much like the suffragettes. Yes sure it will 'alienate' people but it is a party that is responding to those who feel alienated from politics.

WEP isn't working, Greens isn't working (and won't now post Brexit), Labour is playing silly buggers, and I cannot see that being resolved.

The time is now for women to speak up, be heard and listened to.

I reckon that after the the two coming @WomansPlaceUK conferences, we are going to see some big women only for women events coming up.

Is anyone on here an expert or authority on the history of the suffrage movement ?
I was just wondering if we could organise ourselves to stage vigils/consciousness raising/demontration/events with speakers and stalls on significant important dates at the places they occurred
E.g at the Derby where Emily Davison died
At the gates of the Houses of Parliament where women chained themselves or even inside where Emily
At the prisons where women were held and force fed
In Manchester where the mill workers started their campaign
I'm not really up to date on all the names or dates but if someone here does know I feel it's a fantastic opportunity to raise awareness at the same time as aknowledging and showing respect to women in the past and hope for the future
To summarise recreate the campaigns of the past with a 2018 slant on important and significant dates at the locations they happened

I have to agree with Elendon and say that at the present moment a standalone group (a la suffragettes) would work best.

I would be happy to help, I don't have a political background but I'm a management consultant/project management type so good at organising, researching, getting shit done, etc.

Really I think the first step is for a few people to get together (founding members) and decide on the fundamentals:

• Will this be a political party or a 'movement'?
• If a 'movement', will it include supporting independent candidates from the movement?
• What are the group's objectives?
• What are the immediate financial needs of the group and how can these be met?
• What 'roles' will exist in the group during these early stages, who will fill these roles and what is expected of them?
• What are the group's first goals?
• Draw up a plan towards these goals.

This may take a few meetings (face to face or virtual). We may decide to then split into two 'teams' - one focusing on more short term goals (e.g. Certain fundraising or demonstrations) and the others on setting up the longer term aims

^ Just an example, but we definitely need to put some things in place

I think that's a brilliant idea from @mamas12 given the focus it will have 100 years on and the link will make for great press potential

We could also resurrect the old purple and green suffragette colours in some way in our branding, etc

Yes violet green and white is definitely the way to go. And these significant event could be perfect to have these discussions about where and what we want

Will be offline fo a good chunk of the day but will come back on later as I'm well up to participate in this kind of thing

I think WEP use the suffragette colours.

There are certain legal advantages that come from being a registered political party. Can't remember the details but when the TPD was going through some vapers set up Vapers In Power just to get their voices heard. They knew they had no hope of ever getting a candidate elected, it was all to do with awareness raising.

Id be up for this. Have also found the WEP disappointing. No real political experiece but I am an IT consuktant so could help with websites, technology, online payments etc.