Helen O'Connor defends women's rights at Morning Star conference

[fromorbit]

In a fiery speech union activist Helen O'Connor addressed the relentless bullying of women for standing up their sex based rights in the trade union movement 'neoliberal hyper-individualised identity politics'. She received a large round of applause. This was at the Morning Star conference - Fightback: the Movement 40 years on from the Miners’ Strike held at Central Baptist Church Bloomsbury on Sat Feb 10th.

You can see the relevant section of the speech here from Labour Women's Declaration:

Afternoon section of the Conference in full O'Connor starts at 32:00 :
https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=3668170266753705

Helen O'Connor had 28 years as a nurse, is now NHS Trade union organiser and regional officer for the GMB union's Southern Region, Morning Star columnist and recently appeared on a panel at Filia.

Two people responded to O'Connor's speech at 1:12:45 and 1:14:20

The same panel also included Alex Gordon President RMT union who backed O'Connor and said sexist bullying in the trade union movement was wrong see 1:21:40.

Also on the same panel was Jeremy Corbyn. He didn't respond to O'Connor's position, but did not criticize her and did applaud her. So once again he was platforming a gender crit socialist not for the first time. Be interesting to see if he gets any criticism for this.

Other figures at the conference included Ian Lavery MP.

That was effing great

Saw this earlier - really impressive and loved the clapping

Brilliant! And brave to speak out for women when so many unions have completely surrendered to male supremacism.
The communists are among the few left wingers who still defend women’s rights and recognise genderism as neoliberal hyper-individualised identity politics.

Astonishing that this hasn't gained more traction (whether for or against what she has said) on Twitter. Almost as if the TRA crew don't want to amplify a reasoned and passionate defence of women's rights... difficult to argue she's a right wing boomer so perhaps best to pretend it never happened.

She's fantastic! Can I be her pal? Amazing !!!

Brilliant speech from a brave woman. I know this is the Communist party, not the Labour Party, but it really highlights how far Labour have drifted from their roots.
I loved the point she made about women on the frontline of working class struggle having been written out of its history. So sadly familiar. And how in times of reaction, women suffer disproportionately. Also sadly familiar.

The Morning Star has been massively supportive of women's rights over the last few years.

Excellent, well done that woman!

Not sure if Helen is in the Communist Party or is a general socialist. The Morning Star is indeed supported by the Communist Party of Britain (CPB) note there are a bunch of other communist parties in the UK too. It also publishes pieces from a variety of left wing, green and trade union perspectives to be fair.

Thanks, OP - my mistake.

@domineastronomy yes it does indeed. I am in the bizarre situation that I buy tMS from my local Co OP and check the Daily Mail for GC stuff. Was once a Guardian reader . Wouldn't use it to stuff ma dug's wellies these days!😂

It is interesting. Been shared quite a bit in left GC twitter, but not beyond there, no-one is mentioning Corbyn was on the same stage though which is pretty interesting. The TRAs don't seem to have picked it up though at all. Doubt they would want to as they really are committed to the whole gender crit world is funded by the US right idea. Which means they are looking entirely in the wrong direction so keep getting taken by surprise as women come out of the left.

That brought a tear to my eye OP thanks for sharing

Helen O'Connor is fab. Good for her and good for the Morning Star. I do wonder what Corbyn was thinking.

Probably wishing he was brave enough to say the same things.

Helen is a member, and indeed is on the National Executive Committee of the CPB. She is brilliant.

@MsPavlichenko is she ? That's interesting . Wish she would stand at the GE . I'd vote for her !

Thanks for the info. Good to know.

@MsPavlichenko Are you in them ? I have a family member in the YCL. PM if you want . No hassle if not comfortable answering.

The Morning Star is brilliant on this and other women's issues. It's my go-to publication to link on social media when people trot out the "terfs are right-wing fascists" nonsense.

e.g. https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/womens-concerns-should-not-be-minimised

Also Kara Dansky's blog posts are great for responding to Americans who think similar.

Wow that was great!