Women's Sex-Based Rights: A View From the Left

[BackToLurk]

Interesting article from Helen O'Connor, a former nurse who is now a GMB union official

This is a good article.
''The global attack on women’s rights is being framed as “culture wars” by those who are unable to recognise that the deep divisions being sown between working-class men and women undermines class struggle.''

(Didn't there used to be a weekly round up thread? It might be time to revive it.)

There a link to a review of 'The Women Who Wouldn't Wheesht' too.

Iirc GMB have been all TWAW and people wearing or carrying their logo have been among the abusive tras at LWS and similar.

I only read the article very quickly so if there was an acknowledgement, never mind a condemnation, of this I missed it.

I doubt all the women quitting unions will have done so because of this. More likely they've retired, been made redundant, and either not been replaced or their replacements don't see the point of joining. In my experience, GMB and Unison, they were an utter waste of time. I used to be a staunch supporter of unions and this, all this, makes me sad beyond words.

I didn't love this.

SO, women are leaving unions, and the author suggests this means they aren't meeting women's needs. And that this related back to a few issues she mentions.

It's not at all clear to me though that this is anything to do with a real effort to cause a division between working class men and women.

And I'll be honest here, I don't know that I see most unionized positions today as really working class. Many are middle class. Now you can make an argument that the middle classes are really just working classes with delusions of grandeur, but the people who best fit the description working class usually don't have unions available to them.

I am inclined from my own experience to say that working class people are generally much less likely to get sucked into this stuff. Middle class women seem to be pushing a lot of these issues, sadly.

But mainly, I'm not sure that this article convinced me about why women are leaving unions. I'd like to have seen some attempt to actually find out to support the article.

she's writing in a personal capacity
the Communist Party are definitely gender critical, and I like her comments on prostitution

strange really because I thought all gender critical women were rabid right wingers