Green Party Women under attack

[Toomie]

Can anyone help explain what's happening with Green Party Women and the Green Women's Declaration? I've looked for a thread on here but can't find anything. Apologies if I've managed to miss it.

I'm a long-standing member of the Green Party, though not v active. There have been a lot of emails arriving in the last couple of days from people on both sides and it sounds as though things are blowing up.

I haven't been able to keep up-to-date with what's happening but get the gist of it - attempted (illegal?) booting out and silencing of GC people, that doesn't appear to have worked and has backfired fairly spectacularly.

I'd really like to understand the background and what ordinary members can do to support the GC women in the current situation.

There's a Zoom mtg for members tomorrow but bang in the middle of kids bedtime so I can't make it unfortunately :(

Can anyone throw any light on this and maybe point in the right direction for more info? Many thanks!

So why doesn't GPW just break all ties with the Green Party and start their own party and remove "Green" from their name?

Because many of them are seasoned environmentalists and far more "Green" than the entitled children campaigning against them? Why should they be cuckooed out of a party they have supported for years?

Also women are often the greatest victims when it comes to environmental disasters and climate change. There needs to be a female focussed, not an identity focussed, interest group for women. Even if it allows trans people who are not female to join, as this one does, they have their own groups dedicated to their own issues, and they should be peripheral here.

Like it or not, the female sex is something that you can't identify into or out of. We have different needs in many ways from men and boys.

@Stephanee By "views of the Green Party" I assume that you mean the ludicrous policy that "Transwomen are women, transmen are men and non-binary identities are valid" which was pushed through by a small group of trans rights activists at a Conference which was attended by a very small % of the Party membership.

It was approved by a mixture of hardline TRAs and ordinary members who hadn't been following the sex and gender debate, were unaware of the implications but just had a vague feeling that we should be kind.

Some members agree with the policy.
Some members disagree with the policy.
Many more just wish that the whole thing would go away and that the Green Party would focus on the Environment.

It sounds like you support No Debate. Once a policy is passed, all members should submit. Sounds very Maoist to me.

Are policies never to be questioned? Never up for debate? Never challenged or replaced?

If that's the case, what is the point of any political party bringing motions to Conference?

So many confused people around at the moment, some boundaries might mitigate the confusion, seems to work with children.

Yes, it would make more sense really if the Gender ideologists broke ties with the Green party and went off and formed a party all about Gender. Leave those who have been deeply involved in environmentalism for many years to get on with their work without being constantly attacked and undermined by those determined to stage a rainbow coup.

"Gender critical groups really should IMO have the words gender critical in their name so everyone knows what they are about."

Hmmm. Fair dos. I can get along with this, so long as a everyone with a penis is called a man, just so everyone knows what's what, yeah?

I'm honestly genuinely curious what @Stephannee thinks is anti-lgbt or anti trans about GPW. If there are examples, thank you.

So, there can be anti-LGBT and anti-trans? According to Stephan?

Maybe Steph can explain why transpeople can have their own individual grouping, but no one else can have a group without the T? TIA

Also, any groups campaigning for "trans rights" should have to make clear that they mean special extra rights that no one else has.

I'm a GP member, not longstanding and very far from committed to it. I only joined to try to help keep it focused the stuff it was set up to do.

Chesca Walton's behaviour has been reprehensible. I didn't vote for her as she had pronouns in her bio, but I'd very interested to know who the other TA members of the committee are. It's worth noting that the GP has lots of special interest groups, there's nothing unusual per se about having a women's group.

I'll be at the meeting tonight & have signed the declaration. I was thinking about emailing Chesca W to tell her (politely) which side of this fence I'm on, but think I prefer lurking in the shadows for a while longer.

Having had a look on Twitter she's doing the cry bully thing, with lots of TRA members lining up to tell her how terrible the other women are.

So why doesn't GPW just break all ties with the Green Party and start their own party and remove "Green" from their name? It's a win win for everyone.

There is no conflict between gender and sex you say, but still anyone who wants sex to matter should exclude themselves (because it is illegal to exclude) and then men can just get on with it.

Mmm, sounds very patriarchal to me. Same as 'why are you concerned with womens rights, you should focus on climate/peace/col as that is more important' and 'men will rape women anyway, so why do you want sex segregated spaces'

This comment is directed at Stephanee. The word 'women' includes Lesbians (many of whom suffer abuse from transwomen who identify as Lesbian) and also women who are defining themselves as non-binary or as men - that is, they are members of the sex who are able to bear children What you are saying by suggesting that GC groups are anti-LGBT is that it's unacceptable to talk about women's sex based rights. That's misogyny writ large.

It's clear that there are lesbians and bi women in the GPW

What you are doing is suggesting that if women have their own topics of conversation they discuss they must form their own group so as not to upset the men.

And that if lesbian and bi women have their own topics of conversation to discuss they must form their own group so as not to upset the men.

You aren't just sexist, you are also homophobic to suggest lesbians/bi women should have to leave if the topics they want to discuss aren't deemed "suitable"

You might want to work on that homophobia

What we see on this list is what happens to Green Party Women (a women's group withinin the Green Party) every time sex and gender is raised. The usual suspects start with their lies, half truths, bullying and name-calling.

The current Committee has had enough of it. They are fed up with being complained against and suspended and expelled for saying that a man cannot be a woman.
Tonight's meeting is hosted by the Green Women's Declaration. A petition stating what women should expect from a civilised society. It will be chaired by Zoe Hatch, recently-suspended Co-Chair of Green Party Women. She was fairly elected by the membership of Green Party Women. We want her to be Co-Chair. It is not up to a very noisy minority, which has captured the Green Party complaints system, to decide that they know better than me who I want to represent me.

Only just had time to come back in to the thread. Thanks so much to all those who've given such detailed and useful information, Especially to @Cariadlet for the excellent summaries🙏

To @Icakethereforeiam, @Ereshkigalangcleg and @IwantToRetire for all the links and @TheGreatATuin for the historical background.

Trying to piece together what’s going on for myself was a bit tricky as I don’t always see the emails as they come in then they get lost in the inbox abyss. Am going to spend a bit of time going through all of the links etc and start to get involved from the more informed position.

I agree with PP that I don’t want to write off the Green Party a lost cause quite yet.

@GreenishTinge and anyone else attending the meeting this eve, yes, please do report back about what happened to see. I wish I could come!

Goodness.... can this post finish any creepier? We see you?

That is such a male cue in relation to monitoring women who disagree with you. Fuck.

The Green Women’s Declaration have published info about tonight's meeting on their website.

It includes a link to sign up
greenwomensdeclaration.uk/news/

They are a group for women, I believe that's the issue.

Steffie believes that no group that fails to centre transwomen is valid.

@Stephannee

OFO

I'm no tribunal tweeter. Got home late so I'm cooking at the same time. But I'm in and Zoe just said 200 expected and then it froze on me.

More exciting updates to follow!

Attaboy.

There's a few TRAs there - including Dickie Firth who used to be well known in these parts.

Currently Imogen Makepeace is talking about why it was needed and the current state of play with diciplinary action and court cases. She seems very sensible and measured.