Denton's playbook again in use: Welsh Labour Women's Conference

[Pluvia]

Today at the Labour Welsh Women's Conference in Cardiff the Cardiff West CLP delegation put forward a motion proposing that in the name of inclusion and diversity every CLP delegation to the WWC in future includes a woman of colour or from an ethnic minority and also that transwomen are represented. It was extremely difficult for women to oppose the motion: no one wishes to speak out against any measure supporting the inclusion of minority ethnic women. So despite the discomfort of many present, the motion passed. This is Denton's playbook in action again. Take a motion that no one could possibly object to and then attach trans to it.

It would be interesting to know who proposed the teaming of minority ethnic women and transwomen. If there's anyone from Cardiff West here, please spill the beans. In my overwhelmingly white, working class CLP we have only a couple of women I'm aware of who might fit the criterion and there is no guarantee that any of them are either able or willing to travel to conference. But it occurs to me that if any man can self-ID as a woman, surely I (or any other volunteer) could self-ID as another race? Would it be okay for a man who self-IDs as a woman to also self-ID as a minority ethnic woman? If not, why not?

Can't answer you, sorry.

I can say that once again the twisting leaves me speechless.

'Includes a woman of colour or from an ethnic minority and also that men are represented'.

Absolute bollocks.

Sorry, that should have read transwomen, not men, are represented. Although obviously transwomen are men.

Just alerting anyone else in a union or CLP or some other organisation that this forced teaming tactic is being used.

Don't be sorry,your post was perfectly clear;but when someone says 'transwomen' I hear 'men',when someone writes 'transwomen' I read 'men'.

Teaming black women and trans women eh? Whoever proposed that motion obviously despises disabled women, religious women, pregnant women, old women, young women and every other kind of woman or they'd all get a special invitation. "If you're not black or trans piss off!" So bekind! So inclusive!

Indeed. Another delegate has made the point that they held this motion back to the end, after a lot of women had already left. The motions aren't released in advance and so it was sprung on those remaining — who happened to include Hannah Blythyn MS, the Welsh equivalent of Mhiari Black, and her Stonewall-approved acolytes.

It's the "transwomen are just a subset of women like black women" ploy

Mind you, if meetings of CLPs and the WWC conference insist, for instance, that transwomen are welcome to use the venue's women's toilets, or designate all toilets mixed sex gender neutral, how are they going to recruit women of colour?

In Cardiff, for example, the percentage of Asian residents is almost four times the percentage of black residents.

Appalling stuff, cunning tactics by the TRA though. We need to get way better at gutter fighting if we are going to get anywhere in Wales.

Glad to hear a bunch of awesome women were handing out a leaflet at the WLW conference warning of the dangers of homophobia and sexism in self-id. Sad thing is it had no effect on this vote.

Meanwhile in Scotland Labour women are fighting back and have voted to say they exist:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4950869-scottish-labour-womens-conference-motion-5-passed-womens-voices-as-a-sex-class-must-be-heard

We need way more women ready to fight back in Wales in Labour and outside.

Remember Drakeford is standing down next year. There will be a leadership vote. Time to get women's rights on the agenda.

I've been contacted by someone who was also there and has pointed out that the motion came originally from one of the unions and Cardiff West put it forward. That's so cynical and a real-time illustration of how the unions are up to their necks in this shit.

Motions aren’t released in advance? So no amendments to motions? And no opportunity for branches sending delegates to that conference to agree in advance whether their delegates are going to vote for or against motions on behalf of their branch? So in effect the Cardiff West branch have imposed that new policy on all other branches without an opportunity for branches to be warned in advance that this was going to happen?

Yup, there were several groups outside the venue handing out leaflets — lesbians and GC women among them. Good for them. I hear the GC women went to Greggs to pick up a coffee afterwards (it was bloody freezing!) and a bloke who'd seen their banners bought them all mince pies and made a moving speech about how grateful he was to them for standing up for women. Just an ordinary bloke whose daughter comes home from school confused and upset about the nonsense she's being taught. The Welsh government is so out of touch with the people on the ground. In my CLP there is growing concern about the patriarchal nature of the current government that just keeps rolling out these cheap 'benevolent' gestures (like the 20mph limit) without consultation. Welsh Labour is so bloody complacent.

This was my first time at the Welsh Labour women's conference, and I'm just finding my feet as an active Labour member after 30 years, so I'm still learning how the system works here in Wales. The motions were only circulated on the day. Women who've been in the party and attending the women's conferences for years have assured me that nothing comes of most of the motions and not to worry about it. To have any real effect they have to be adopted at the full Labour Party conference — which I guess this is working up to. By the end of the day a lot of women had left to go home and and this one, being the last on the list (four pages of A4) got rushed through. Two women, one who said she is a lesbian, and a Muslim woman of colour, spoke out against it — but had to be brief because of time constraints. They got some mild applause but the motion was passed.

Best way to see this is as a lost battle, but one which is only going to motivate women to fight back and recruit more people.

Remember they would have done this openly 5 years ago. Now they know that that would lead to too much conflict.

Gosh, the handful of Welsh Labour women of colour who are physically and financially able to travel to conferences are going to be VERY busy.

It struck me yesterday — £26.80 rail fare, £12 parking at the station — that being politically active isn't for those on a tight budget. I was able to get there and back in a day but lots of women from north and west Wales were making a weekend of it and had booked hotels.

Sorry, I'm totally ignorant of how these things work. Who are the people passing the motion at the Women's Conference, are they all women?

Apparently, though there was one individual I wouldn't have liked to stake money on. There's a massive generational divide. The full-on trans supporters are almost all under 35, the GC brigade older than that, though there are a few young GC women (who don't speak out publicly) and some older women, like the woman from Aberystwyth I sat next to briefly who said 'I don't understand all this, surely if a man wants to be a woman he'll fit right in and not be any trouble.' I asked if she'd talked to many lesbians on the subject and she pulled a face and said there were some lovely ones who were happy to have men in their group (she didn't seem to think it was transphobic to call them men) and then the usual old miserable lesbians who were always complaining.

Including ethnic minorities with men - really rather racist no ? I hate the singling out of women of any other ethnicity too -if they are all women, why does it matter what colour they are ? I live in a part of Wales where there are very, very few non white people, so how would that pan out ?

That is a really good way of keeping women out of politics actually isn’t it. Put lots of extra criteria on top of being a woman in order to participate or alternatively any man willing to say he’s a woman. What’s that there are no women meeting the criteria except Jack who is now known as Jackarina?

If women in a rural Welsh village can’t participate unless they are not ethnically Welsh and there are no women who are not ethnically Welsh in the village send an ethnically Welsh man in a dress instead? Great. I am not looking forward to the inevitable Labour government we’ll be getting next year.