International Women's Day Mass Cancelling of Labour Memberships Action

[leyat]

I am passing on an action started by @mayday4women on Twitter; they aren't on Mumsnet so they said I could post here for them.

Basically they are getting a lot of women contacting them saying they are cancelling their Labour memberships due to the decision by Labour's NEC to essentially take on self ID as party policy in every area, including re AWS. And they think it'd be a more powerful statement if women did it en masse together on International Women's Day, which is the 8th March (Thursday).

The idea is to let Labour see how important this is to women, and how badly they are letting women down. Everyone can always reinstate their memberships down the line, but this is a way to be seen and heard, and to make a statement. I'm not a member of any political party myself right now, but as I say I am passing this on and doing all I can to support my sisters in the Labour Party.

Mayday for women are drawing up a statement, and you can get in touch with them directly if you want to let them know you are taking part in the action: mayday4women@gmail

Cheers!

Is Matt Western MP a TERF? Tweeting about tampons on IWD, what will the TRAs make of that?

This is now being reported on Vladimir Putin's RT channel, including a quote from Mumsnet.
Not surprisingly it isn't particularly friendly since the ethos of the channel is to create as much dissention as possible.

www.rt.com/uk/420739-transgender-labour-feminist-walkout/

Poor Sally. You think this is about male to female transsexuals, don't you?

It's not.

We've been sharing the ladies with them for decades.

I wish I could do something to show support!! I'm in NI so the Labour Party is for nothing over here. If there is anything I can do please let me know

LastGirlOnTheLeft you can educate bit by bit. I drop little stories into conversations about things like men who have moved to female jails, who have then assaulted women. Always done with a “my goodness, I just read this story about .....” You’ll then open up the discussion, once the other person has picked their chin up of the ground. 😉

Someone on Mumsnet made a wonderful comment along the lines of being a candle in the dark, that has the ability to light other candles, until darkness is banished.

What a stupid little gobshite Owen Jones. Which university had the pleasure of that? I bet it was Oxford.
Sorry, not contributing to debate, just had to get that out there.

Just googled. I was spot on. Oxford, where us your quality control? Toby, Boris, Owen - how do you get it so wrong so consistently?

Good little tweet thread on OJ

"Loose thread. Jones is playing an old an old patriarchal game. It starts with women bearing the burden of caring to the detriment of their own well-being. It ends with women being regarded as heartless when they refuse to put themselves last."

twitter.com/Mocha_Soul/status/971402117117304832?s=19

"Frame the issue the way Jones does and concerned women seem to be against the rights of trans people when that is not the case at all. All that does is put women's backs up because... times have changed and we're not all the pliable types he expects women to be."

"Another way of playing the game is guilt-tripping left wing women with the prospect of a tory win. Somehow sexism is meant to be more palatable if it comes from a lefty bro like him than from the likes of a Spectator writer such as you, James (🙃)"

"A third way of doing it is to invoke a lack of resources. For anti-neoliberal economics women like me, who don't accept capitalist austerity premises easily, this reveals not only an unwillingness to avail resources to both women and transwomen to address their issues ..."

"...but also a tacit admittance that austerity is a necessity and that women much share their already meagre resources with a group of biological men on their say so alone that they are women despite their worries about male violence. What a confused lot we must seem to you, James"

"Anyhow... This is not new. Someone has said words akin to "The right regards women as private property and the left regards them as public property". That's simplistic, I know, but Jones and our other Labour bros seem very keen to be the embodiment of the last. 🤔"

"Above all, the way the debate is [not] being conducted reveals OJ's own lack of growth and maturity, as far as their views about women in general go, and that extends to their views on transwomen themselves which they seek to foist on women because of their own non-acceptance..."

"... of feminine/ised men. A true acceptance of transwomen by men like OJ would seek an overall debate on gender, on trans acceptance in society and a writing of policy that has transwomen as accepted in the male milieu just as women could never turn away a transman."

"... and that's yet another strand of the debate that's not being had. Lots of women as well as men with many thoughts and questions on this but we're all "TERFS" and "transphobic" so not worth listening to in the eyes of OJ and many other leftie bros."

"Perhaps, James, you could remind them of Gordon Brown's political death on a cross with the words "bigoted woman" written above it. One never knows, it may get them to think and, maybe, to listen. 😉"

*Ofmen

An opportunity for women to raise their voices*

I’m just going to copy this from the other threads you’ve posted on.
No thanks. Any organisation/group that doesn’t recognise sex and calls women ‘cis’ can get stuffed.

It even mentions "cis" actual, real women after TIMs. In a supposed celebration of women.

Most feminists are not Transphobic and think Trans people, both men and women have a right to live in safety and be recognised by our society. Those of us who are older know people who also became Trans sexuals going through the whole gamut of gender reassignment including surgery and living as their new sex. But what is now happening is that a growing number of younger men are ‘self identifying’ as women but dont want to go down the ‘medical’ route so no counselling, no hormone, no surgery. Just, ‘ I am now a women, you need to accept it and let me into your spaces, that the law allows you, no questions asked’ . Personally I think we should be asking the questions, but in some people’s eyes that is a reason to demonise me and anyone like me. Is that fair?

Nick Cohen @ nickcohen4
As unions play politics with Jeremy Corbyn, the new working class of women, migrants and the young has no one to speak for them - Me in the Observer

amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/10/dont-look-to-len-mccluskey-and-his-sorry-ilk-to-defend-workers-interests?__twitter_impression=true
Don’t look to Len McCluskey and his sorry ilk to defend workers’ interests

Very good Nick Cohen piece.

How does one get their head into their vagina in the first place? Best I can do is get my head to my knee, and even that involves painful contortions