@floralbunting
Rest your eyes! Here's what LM wanted to say. Note the number of "I"s and "me"s. Such a sense of entitlement. Well done, Gill! I think LM really, really wanted this position and I'm not sure LM will handle this rejection at all well. Perhaps LM will embark on a campaign to usurp Gill. Here's LM's opus:
Sisters.
When I announced I was standing to be Chair of this forum - and Women's Officer of our CLP - I knew what was going to happen.
I knew that I would be confronted with a week of constant attacks, where I would be called the wrong gender, the wrong name, and face smears in the right-wing press.
I knew I would be dismissed, treated like an overly-ambitious upstart or someone who should 'get back in their box.'
I knew that despite being a woman, living every day of my life as a woman and being mocked and disparaged by some of the most vile misogynistic people for it, I would be accused by those who call themselves 'comrades', of undermining womanhood itself.
I don't say that because I want you to pity me, and I don't say it because I think I 'deserve' to be Women's Officer by virtue of who I am.
No. The reason I'm standing in front of your today, through all of that, is because this is what kind of party we want to be.
In my previous CLP, I fought against the closure of Sure Start centres and women's refuges. I knew it was by opposing cuts and Tory austerity that we could show who we are, and on who side we're on.
I'll do the same in Lewisham Deptford - standing up for the most oppressed and marginalised women in our communities.
By electing me, you'll be sending a message that those women are front and centre in what we do, and who we fight for.
I want to see women-only, fully accessible campaigning and training sessions so that new, less experienced members feel comfortable and welcome in our movement, standing for positions at every level. It's only a breadth of ages, backgrounds and experiences that's going to grow our movement.
I'll support bringing in those different experiences, those looking to learn and listen to other women, politicised by their own experience, as the only way Lewisham Deptford can become truly representative and a force for change in our communities.
I also want to see an end to sexual violence.
Two women are murdered each week as a result of the misogynistic abuse happening in the homes of our neighbours and our colleagues.
It won't be defeated unless we first eradicate it from our own circles and that is why it is shameful that sexual assault and harassment still blight the Labour Party itself.
We need consent and bystander intervention workshops for all of our local branches, so that by tackling sexual violence at its source, amongst those who perpetrate it, women and survivors feel truly welcome in our movement.
There are many women who aren't only unable to participate in our meetings and campaign days but in every part of life, from school to work to the elderly and unemployed.
Period poverty is real, its dehumanising and it's something that shouldn't exist in 2018. I've already reached out to Red Box and PFP Deptford, who work to provide free sanitary products in schools.
Whether elected or not, I'd like to see the Women's Forum commit to supporting these local organisations as well as regular collections at our brand and CLP meetings.
It's just one other way that women are bearing the brunt of austerity. I've been enthused by the work of local trade unionists, many of whom share our politics but they can't make our meetings because they're in precarious, shift work.
Between shifts they've been working to unionise bar and hospitality workers, as well as cleaners and carers - many of these workers are not only women but women from black and ethnic minority backgrounds.
It's these women that we should be making every effort to welcome into our Party, working class women for who Labour should be their natural home.