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?

There are many stand alone elections taking place throughout the country when it comes to Town Councils, Parish Councils and more rarely County/Metropolitan Councils. So a political voice can be heard and more importantly a step into politics and how it is run.

It's a tough ask though. It's not a suitable position for those with young children - which is a disgrace, I know. I had to resign due to childcare issues.

Thanks creaturefeatures I think your bullet points are spot on.

I agree with Elendon above. I am also one of those with small children.

I think it's very difficult to have a party like this. WEP demonstrates how incredibly difficult.

If we made the issues ones of femaleness (I'm thinking about the prolapse thread and birth injuries, how the law is applied to sex offenders, family annihilation and the reporting of that, tampon tax and period poverty, enabling women from different cultures to fully participate in society) then we could sidestep some of the debates around trans issues while still being clear this is a movement for females.

I think this is a great idea as is linking it to the suffragettes and the 100 year anniversary.

I concur rosy71

Have lurked for several years but I've finally built up the courage to post! I think this is a wonderful idea and would be keen to help and support in any way I can.

I must admit that I was on the fence when I read this thread initially, but the more I consider the matter, the more I think that a new, explicitly and implicitly female-focused political party may be one of the best ways of having a real impact on the political system. It seems that working within our existing parties simply isn't getting us anywhere. If our mainstream parties are abandoning us, perhaps it's time that we abandoned them.

So yes, count me in. I'd be very glad to help get this off the ground in whatever way that I can. I want to be able to look my daughter in the eye and know that I did my best for her when women's rights were being sent back to the Victorian age.

I agree with Marilla with regards wanting it to be a party that isn't embarrassed to stand up for the working class woman, not just one that uses us as window dressing for a bunch of metropolitan luvvies to display their faux-socialist credentials. I'm a single mum of two, and I work two crappy minimum wage jobs to get by. I'm proud of being working class and northern, and I'm tired of seeing women like me either used as props in arguments or else sidelined in favour of more trendy demographics. I'm not against wealthy or middle class women in any way, but it would be good to see poorer women being empowered through politics too.

The precedent is not only the Suffragettes, they are just the most well-known. I am not well at the moment, so I need to come back with references, but there is a huge precedent in the early twentieth century of women’s groups (including within the Labour Party) campaigning for female issues (around maternal and child health, access to contraception and abortion (for economic and social reasons), family allowances). If you google the Women’s Co-Operative Guild, for example, or Eleanor Rathbone, and I cannot remember the details of the LP women’s group.

The Women’s Co-Operative Group were active before women had the vote, they were concerned about women’s reproductive issues (see Letters from Working Women, they use the language of the time in talking about the ‘betterment of the race’ but I don’t think they mean it in eugenic terms, but population/public health terms, they were not a eugenic group)

Eleanor Rathbone was an elected MP who worked for women’s issues.

I think the point I also wanted to make was that the Suffragettes were the militant wing of the suffrage campaign. There were another women’s suffrage group who employed different tactics (whose name escapes me). But for both groups, representing women and bringing women’s concerns into public debate and policy were a key concern. It was not just about equality in the franchise but recognising that women had different concerns (deserving equal weight).

So, for the vote there were a variety of approaches used, and women’s health and reproductive issues were approached in diverse ways thereafter - so there are lots of precedents (all of which highlight the importance of being able to express the particular demands of being female)

Sorry, should also have said all my examples were concerned with the conditions of working class women; working class women were active politically but usually less able to organise because of time (small children, domestic work and work outside the home). This is a pressure many of us face, but we have the internet

I couldn't be much help practically as I don't live in the UK. Happy to donate some money if something is set up though. I'm an accountant which I guess could be useful (although limited by geography as stated above).

I am/was a founding member of WEP and left due to their inability to define women, but, rejoined earlier this year, and have attended a few meetings. There are a lot of gender critical members in the rank and file. WEP seriously lack WC/lower income and BAME members though (plenty of old fashioned lesbians though ). When discussing this issue at a meeting - with Sophie Walker present - a black woman silently left. No one knew who she was or why she left. Honestly, it was a horribly sad moment. All the nice, affluent, white women really wished to be more inclusive - no one had a clue why she felt so unwelcome that she left (assuming that’s why she did).

I agree with the aim of change from the inside: WEP already has reasonable numbers, resources, publicity etc. And a lot of what people here are saying they want in a political party. Sophie Walker’s speech at FiLiA was what made me renew my membership. She’s good, on most things. No one is perfect and no one political party is perfect. Beatrix Campbell at FiLiA made a good point about that. That change comes from being part of something, rather than criticising it from the outside.

WEP parachuted a candidate in to a constituency near me, split the vote and then fucked off so the locals are still represented by an awful MP. I have zero time for them.

Another vote for Suffrage colours.

All for a party that openly focuses on the politics of female biology, since that is what all mainstream parties are intentionally stepping away from.

Weezol, which constituency is that? I've been reading about WEP and can't see they've achieved more than 1.9% of the vote in any constituency, and that wouldn't have swung it.

Cwenthryth
Given what you say, why have the WEP been completely silent about this issue?
The use of untested drugs on children?
The formal erosion of women's access to sex segregated spaces?
Women's sport disappearing as a distinct category etc etc.
All issues which I would have expected the WEP to have views on?

But they are completely compromised aren't they? They made a decision to centre men in this party so of course are unable to make any comment. Their only foray seems to have been to criticise Heather Brunskill - Evans for participating in the Moral Maze (while ignoring the support that one of their other members Jane Fae has for promoting untested 'puberty blocking' drugs to children).

Says it all when a party for women promotes this.

Not outing myself.
In short, Labour, Greens and Libs were unofficially strategising against the incumbent Con. Green and Lib were prepared to step aside to get Con out.
WEP brought the media circus to town and destabilised all the local activist relationships and haven't been seen since the count.

That and now their epic fail on trans issues is enough for me to write them off as an option for me.

Cwentgyrth i think you answer your own question as to why the black woman left

‘No- one knew who she was or why she left’

There was a black woman who made the effort to come to a meeting, wanted to listen, possibly to contribute, no-one convening the meeting had made any approach at any point to find out who the audience were. I have no idea how big the meeting was, but if one is seeking particular constituents, and there is someone of that background in the room, then surely there needs to be some informal or formal time for introductions.

It is that simple. If I were in a room full of men talking about increasing female participation, and no-one knew who i was or made any overture to me, I too would leave.

But they are completely compromised aren't they? They made a decision to centre men in this party so of course are unable to make any comment.

Exactly. So to talk about any issue that mentions biology is 'excluding' and 'cis sexist' and other made up nonsense that implies that people who do not share those exact characteristics cannot be expected to be emotionally mature enough to recognise that some people do and need representation.

Womens issues are biological. Once you remove the biology from the politics of women the only thing left is the politics and issues of transwomen. Madigan is demonstrating this brilliantly. If they'd come into post prepared to support women in general I'd have been willing to wait and see - after all, Miranda Yardley is doing a spectacular job of publically batting for women - but Madigan doesn't see anyone except trans women as being of any value or deserving of representation.

What if enough gender critical , biology reading folks joined the WEP?

Wouldn't it force them to discuss it?

"WEP seriously lack WC/lower income and BAME members though (plenty of old fashioned lesbians though grin). When discussing this issue at a meeting - with Sophie Walker present - a black woman silently left. No one knew who she was or why she left. Honestly, it was a horribly sad moment. All the nice, affluent, white women really wished to be more inclusive - no one had a clue why she felt so unwelcome that she left (assuming that’s why she did)."

If I may, I wonder if this incident isn't related to the issue that myself and Marilla mentioned up thread about working-class women (and I suspect BAME women) feeling like props to someone else's agenda. There's nothing more galling than feeling like the 'token' in a group - someone whose political worth is valued not for the quality of their opinions, but for how 'progressive' you make the rest of the group look by just being there. As a working-class woman, it's humiliating to hear wealthier, more educated people than myself talking about representing and empowering the working-class and then proceeding to talk over us about what THEY think we want/need. Obviously no one but this lady can say exactly why she left, but I wonder if she heard all the talk about wanting more BAME members and saw - not an opportunity to make herself heard - but a bunch of (wealthy?) white women wanting to use her skin-colour to earn political brownie-points?