Green Party Women coup

[GreenPartyWoman]

The Green Party Women's party was co-chaired by a transwoman Kathryn Bristow (fae/fae) and a woman Emma Bateman. Emma has been suspended for alleged transphobia.

Kathryn has now taken over, calling themselves the Chair and removing the rights of women to organise and discuss women's matters on the Green Party forum. Kathryn has gone so far as to delete all previous posts.

Their statement:
"Over the last week I have tried to find a way to moderate this space in compliance with the Equality Act. Unfortunately I can't see a way of doing this that the 100 or so users of this space would be happy with and that wouldn't take a lot of my or someone else's time. While we have to look after the interests of 10,000’s Green Party members.
So sadly I have had to lock the ability of uses to post and comment on this space. I've also deleted all recent posts on the space by users, to ensure that we are complaint with the law in a way that makes no judgement on any one post.
I have to bring it up with the rest of the committee but my feeling is that is space will become a one way commutation tool from the committee to the membership.
More updates will be made soon.

Kathryn Bristow, Chair of Green Party Women"

I don't even know where to go with this, except that this seems to be almost like a totalitarian coup.

That video about terf floaters Absolutely disgusting.

I wish you luck trying to get some sense back into the gangrene party. I'd love to be able to vote green one day but can't currently

[quote HonestyCounts97]@letterem please dont give up hope your are inspiration and we need you to make it better again because the planet needs saved and women need to be able to be safe in there spaces. its not rite to block you from youre roll and if they want my votes they need to put you back and say sorry[/quote]
Solidarity @letterem. We have to fight climate change & we have to fight for women rights & for the safety of children & young people. Climate change is real. The gender stuff is a lie & capitalism on steroids. Where is the peer reviewed science that people can change sex? If it existed we would have seen it by now. Meanwhile people die in floods, fires & hurricanes caused by climate change, for which there is masses of proof & science.

I've joined the Green Party just so that I can vote for Shahrar Ali, who has made statements in support of women's rights. I just hope (but not very strongly) there's something he can do to put this right.

Hi , thanks for the messages of support and solidarity, and welcome to the new green party members. Please remember to sign up to the green feminists mailing list to receive updates on how the green party voting system works, and who to vote for to maximise the chance of gender critical candidates succeeding . The list also has a link to join an informal and unofficial 'welcome to the green party'' meeting for those who are interested.

facebook.us19.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=409cf838eaa33b3b4852ba616&id=0f633f2046

How do I sign up to the green feminists mailing list? I've joined the Green Party.

Hi, @AlwaysTawnyOwl the link to the green feminist email list is here:

facebook.us19.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=409cf838eaa33b3b4852ba616&id=0f633f2046

I believe the Green Party leadership poll opens tomorrow. Hope Shahrar gets a lot of support.

Always worth googling the names of candidates. In the case of Tamsin Omond, seen in the floaters video mentioned above, and now running for co-leader job with Amelia Womack*, a few interesting things come up. Omond is female and has a female partner, but now identifies as 'trans and non-binary'. I don't know if Omond would therefore now want to be described as a lesbian.

First thing I came across is this article. Yes, it's the Daily Mail, and it's over 10 years old, but it has Omond's byline on it, so is presumably self-penned. www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2153774/Tamsin-Ormond-reveals-married-women-making-passes-her.html It's a weird piece where Omond describes in sub-Mills & Boon prose how married women keep making passes at her (those were the self-chosen pronouns back then), even though they know Omond's a lesbian. It's an unpleasantly boastful piece in several ways.

Then we have this: metro.co.uk/2019/10/07/extinction-rebellion-activists-marry-during-protest-on-westminster-bridge-10877927/ I can't stand Extinction Rebellion, and I was incensed about their 2019 blockage of Westminster Bridge, so it's enraging to find out that while ambulances were backing up all the way to Oxford Street, unable to get to St Thomas's, Omond and partner were doing their bit to get more publicity by getting married (possibly - the legality of the ceremony seems to be in doubt, given that the Bridge isn't a licensed wedding venue).

And finally, Omond has a remarkably privileged background (to be fair, this is acknowledged in the Mail piece above). Wikipedia says: Tamsin Omond was born on 19 November 1984.[2] They were educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge.[3] They went on to complete a masters' degree in ecology and social justice with the Open University.[3] Their grandfather was the baronet Thomas Lees. No reason why privileged people shouldn't get involved in politics, but one wonders when was the last time Omond had to worry about paying the rent. That stunt where ER activists glued themselves to a tube at Stratford and stopped ordinary people getting to work was abysmal PR with the average voter. The Green Party should be looking to make itself electable if it wants to be able to effect change.

*The Green Party has a rule that it has to have one female and one male leader. Amelia Womack is female. Tamsin Omond is too, but of course self-identification kicks in here, so Tamsin's self-declared nonbinary status means not being female for electoral purposes. Or something like that. Not going to object to having more female politicians, but really? If it works this way, clearly it would work the other way too, and easily could.

Tamsin sounds like a peach

In unrelated news I’m really fucked off with privileged people giving away rights the loss of which is less likely to affect them due to aforementioned privilege

Voting recommendations just received from [email protected]:

Voting in Green Party leadership election opens 10am Thursday 2nd Sept and closes 10pm on 23rd September.

Please note, you DO NOT have to cast all six votes and Re-Open Nominations can be used if you don't like any other candidates. These are our voting recommendations. Explanatory notes follow.

To vote ONLY for candidates who will defend sex-based rights:

1. Shahrar Ali
2. Martin Hemingway and Tina Rothery
3. RON (Re-Open Nominations)

To vote to defend women's sex-based rights AND have a say in any run-off between other candidates

1. Shahrar Ali
2. Martin Hemingway and Tina Rothery
3. Ashley Gunstock
4. Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay
5. RON (Re-Open Nominations)

Our analysis of the election
Our suggestions address only the question of whether the candidates' recent actions and words indicate an understanding of the importance of sex in the life chances of women and girls - and of the implications if 'sex' is replaced in all situations by a concept of 'gender identity', as some propose.

This election uses Single Transferable Vote in which you are asked to rank each candidate/s in order of preference. The counting of the votes involves several rounds. After each round the lowest-scoring candidate/s is eliminated and their voters' preferences re-distributed to the remaining candidates until only one, the winner, remains. We have offered two voting suggestions: the first prioritising only those candidates who we believe will defend women's existing legal sex-based rights; the second allows you a say between other candidates if your top preferences were to get knocked out in earlier rounds.

Getting your vote
You will receive an email from the Green Party on Thursday 2nd September with a unique code and link to the online ballot. If you don't receive a voting link, contact [email protected] to obtain a voting code.

Thanks to Green Feminists for the voting recommendations, and to those who have been inspired to join the party in the hope that we may actually get a leader who recognises women as a sex class.

I think it is very possible that this will be too close to call , so we need all members new and old to take an interest in what is happening to the party and to cast their votes.
At the last leadership election , the turn out was abysmally low, so I hope we re going to see a much more enthusiastic turnout this time around. There is a lot hanging on this!

Interesting that Rupert Reed and Tamsin are "long time" friends according to the Metro piece. Reed is openly gender critical.

But ugh, that Daily Mail piece - the narcissism! It's skin crawling.