Scottish Labour Conference this weekend - pro woman motions up for vote

[fromorbit]

With Labour Women's Declaration stall now in the main hall this weekend the Scottish Labour Conference in Glasgow 16-18 Feb shows no debate is truly over in Scottish Labour. Four policy motions are up for voting in conference lodged from recent Scottish Labour Women's Conference will be on the floor. Women chose these motions as a priority:

Education Funding;
Women's Rights [motion 10 - key one for gender crits being voted on Sat afternoon];
Protecting Neonatal Services;
a Real National Care Service

See below for text. This is the background to getting the motion passed at Scottish Labour Women's Conference in December:
https://labourwomensdeclaration.org.uk/successful-motion-at-scottish-labour-womens-conference/

This doesn't mean the battle for women's rights is won in Scottish Labour. Far from it - just moving to a new stage of the fight which would not be possible without the work of many thousands who refused to be silenced across Scotland, inside political parties and on the streets.

Women in Scottish Labour will now have a chance to fight against sexist ideas openly, and when the genderists have to fight in open debate sooner or later they always lose. Biological realists are taking back the political parties - ALL of them. It will take years, but it will happen.

Going to be interesting to see who will actually vote against motion 10 it is carefully worded, but it is a clear defence of women's sex based rights. I suspect we are going to see a huge swarm of ferrets reversing wildly. This could increase pressure on Starmer to stop fence sitting.

Also obviously if Scottish Labour are more openly pro-women could be a huge weapon against the SNP in the upcoming general election.

Keep an eye on the amazing Ann Henderson who is a figure in winning back Scottish Labour for women.
https://twitter.com/AnnDHenderson

It's been going on forever, though, hasn't it? The Grunwick strike was 48 years ago. Jeez, I feel old! 😃

It's not just the men in the trade Unions. At last September's Labour party conference in Liverpool I came across several very hostile female UNISON delegates - who I had tried to engage in discussion at the 'Let Women Speak' event.

There were many trade Union delegates amongst the abusive mob that descended - including one guy from the Firebrigades Union. The problem is that they simply don't understand/are not aware of the issues; they have just swallowed whole the 'transphobic' accusations with no critical evaluation at all.

I remember that, the guy in the Fire Brigade union tee-shirt, looking very pleased with himself.

A good friend of mine is senior in a TU. I suspect he is GC but we have a kind of unspoken agreement not to actually talk about our respective position on the matter. I think its time to have that talk and then decide whether to leave the TU

I think the Community Union is what is left of the old steel workers' union, where you might expect some macho men.

But Unite, Unison and GMB have thousands and thousands of female members. They are not being represented by their leadership.

“It was the Unions” is not an excuse though. Labour chooses to take their money and their orders. Imagine it was voting down a motion to sort out racism or anti-semitism at the Unions’ demand. That would not be acceptable, but because it’s only women and misogyny, it is somehow acceptable to vote it down. Disgusting. Sort it out Labour Party.

I guess this is why I've seen some posters say it might be easier to turn things around in the Green Party, because although the Greens seem even further entrenched they're also smaller, nimbler and - please correct me if I'm wrong - don't have these huge voting blocks exerting so much power?

Is there some sort of organisation like SEEN for the unions?

Where is Sharon Graham on this? She was all over the news a while back, heard nothing from her lately.

Anyone else going to cancel their Union Membership? In a cost of living crisis I cannot countenance paying my £7.99 a month to Unison if they voted against this. Unison Women seem to champion a lot of great causes but if they vote down something like Motion 10 - I’m out. Furious 😡

Can we find out what other unions voted? How separate are the Scottish branches from the other UK branches? Is it worth members of (say) Unison in England writing to Unison protesting about this shameful vote, or can the English unions just say “Nothing to do with us”?

Apparently Anas Sarwar backed the motion.

Gina Davidson
Scotland Political Editor with LBC.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar told me prior to the vote that he "hoped" the unions would vote for the "very reasonable" resolution.
He said: I hope they can support the resolution. I can understand why this is and has been a heated debate.

I think there is, there is no inconsistency in wanting to remove the indignities that may exist in the process of gaining a gender recognition certificate, but at the same time recognising the importance of single sex spaces based on biological sex.

"I think there is a way that you can stand by those fundamental beliefs and principles around standing against any form of prejudice and hate, including transphobia and the rights of LGBT communities, whilst also recognising that there have been hard fought sex based rights that have been won and there are still many more sex based rights that need to be won because we still have a huge issue with sexism and misogyny in this country, as well as with homophobia and as you heard me reference yesterday with anti semitism, Islamophobia and all types of prejudice as well. So I hope colleagues will support what I think is a very reasonable motion."

Very true we all know many of the most ardent TRAs are women. If anything men on average are more sceptical it is just they generally won't get involved. Why should they it doesn't threaten their interests.

Which is why the problem is so difficult to handle. It is not going to be easy to win.

It is interesting that the male head of the RMT, basically old school socialist trade unionist, 100% backed Helen O'Connor barnstorming speech recently.

Helen O'Connor defends women's rights at Morning Star conference
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5006439-helen-oconnor-defends-womens-rights-at-morning-star-conference

I should bloody well hope Anas Sarwar backed the motion given that it was - or so I understand - totally in line with Labour policy.

I do appreciate the efforts to find positives in this but I'm going to need something a bit more I'm afraid.

The Telegraph reveals Unite and GMB refused to state their reasons for opposing the motion and Unison said the motion was “not in line with agreed union policy”.

Also quotes former Scottish Labour Leader Joanne Lamont on this debacle.

We need SEEN groups in the major unions now.

I want to leave my union as 1, I can't afford it 2, this situation pisses me off

BUT I want protection if there are issues in my place of work.

Also...how does one even set up a SEEN group?

Not in line with union policy for women to have equal rights?

I might go join the Community union perhaps more likely to support people.

There was the Women's Trade Union Federation they were organising only they haven't been live on twitter for a while.
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4481455-Womens-Trade-Union-Federation-Unions-are-being-reclaimed-by-Women?page=2

Just had a look at the community union website. Lots of words about EDI, pronouns etc. and advice about sexual harassment, pregnancy and the menopause, and the gender pay gap, but I don't think there's a GC network, Nor much likelyhood of one being tolerated.
Perhaps that's another job for Posie to take on once she's sorted out politics?

Damn.

Well another option is the Affinity union:

workaffinity.co.uk/

The definitely know what sex is and will defend their members see their response to Alison Bailey case :

https://workaffinity.co.uk/employers-must-respect-the-law-on-freedom-of-expression/
It’s stating the obvious to say that employers are in powerful positions relative to staff and, unless employees are represented by an effective trade union with a preparedness to fight for free speech, it’s often impossible for them to stand up for their rights. We find that employers start to behave far more reasonably the moment we become involved.
We’ve decided that we have an obligation to act in the interests of all our members, irrespective of the views they hold, and the best way of dealing with that is to focus on protecting their rights under the law, including their rights to free speech. We refuse to take a particular stance on political issues and remain neutral so that we can represent all members effectively. Our members can be certain that, whatever views they hold, we will always fight to protect their right to hold those views under the law.
The same cannot be said for those trade unions, which have aligned themselves with agendas that are in conflict with the views and interests of their members.
Because their unions proved unprepared to defend free speech, a significant number of members, most notably university academics, have joined us over the last two years.

Thank you. That's exactly what I'd look for in a union and what I'd expect from all of them. I'm not in a union currently, because there isn't one for what I do, and as I'm self employed I can quite happily tell my boss to go fuck herself and still have a job in the morning. But I've always thought it important and been saddened by how most of the older unions have changed over the last few decades (thanks thatcher). I'll definitely give them a look.

is that a proper union? Don't they need TUC recognition? I can't imagine they'd be able to do as much, despite what they say.