News and editorial – Labour Women’s Declaration

Defining ‘Shared Socialist Values’

In early February of this year, Labour Women Leading put out this invitation through their networks: “We are inviting any sister who would like to be considered as a candidate for the [Labour Party National Women’s Committee CLP] slate to let us know…LWL is working with sisters from other Labour left organisations (the Centre Left Grassroots Alliance) to produce a united left slate.”

But it stipulated in its criteria for selection that, amongst other (reasonable) features, applicants should be guided by “shared socialist values”, including: “LGBTQ+ rights – we support the right of trans people to self identify” read more

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LWD Hosts NWC Candidates: Zoom Event, Sunday 13th June, 4pm

The policy-forming Labour Party Women’s Conference and the formation of a new National Women’s Committee have been achieved by the hard work of Labour women who have championed the cause of women’s rights and representation within the party; Labour women who know the value of women’s participation and organisation for the Labour movement. The Labour Party implemented all-women shortlists aiming towards 50/50 representation of the sexes – but without a strong women’s organisation behind them we cannot expect our representatives to advocate for our collective needs and betterment. There are still many obstacles in the way of women’s participation. The route to candidacy to the women’s committee has highlighted areas that need to be improved for women who are attempting to link up and prepare for Women’s Conference this year. For independent candidates, the avenues for campaigning are restrictive, and they are told by the party that they must rely on their own networks in order to promote their message and find support. These prohibiting factors will be among the features of the National Women’s Organisation that the Women’s Committee will need to work at improving when formed. read more

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The Silencing of Women in the Labour Party: Dossier prepared for David Evans, General Secretary of the Labour Party

A longer dossier was initially prepared in October 2020 for a meeting which had been arranged with David Evans. That meeting was postponed by him due to pressure of work, with an offer of a future date. Despite three reminders, and sending this shortened version of the dossier, we are still waiting for that date.

When it is agreed, this paper will be brought up to date with additional recent evidence of abuse and silencing of women in the party. Meanwhile we are making the dossier available publicly because we believe it is important, in particular for Labour Party members, to know what has been happening. read more

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The Labour Party & Membership Data

Dear people whose job it is to collect & analyse personal data from the membership of the Labour Party,

Labour Women’s Declaration hopes you followed the court hearing on 9 March – Fair Play for Women versus Office for National Statistics – challenging the ONS guidance on how to fill in the sex question in the 2021 Census. A full judicial review was due to take place this Thursday, 18 March, so that the case could be heard as a matter of priority before census day, but the judge made an interim order instructing the ONS to immediately remove the incorrect guidance on the sex question, saying he was satisfied the campaign group Fair Play for Women was “more likely than not to succeed” on its case regarding the legal definition of “sex”. read more

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International women’s day in the time of Covid

2020’s IWD came just before the World Health Organisation declared Covid-19 a pandemic. On this, hopefully the only IWD we will spend in lockdown in the UK, it is a good moment to reflect on what the pandemic has meant for women here, and in particular how the policies and actions of the Conservative government have impacted on women.

On 9 February, the Women and Equalities Select Committee published Unequal impact? Coronavirus and the Gendered Economic Impact. The report states explicitly that the schemes the government put into place so rapidly had not had any equality impact assessment and “design of these schemes overlooked … the specific and well-understood labour market and caring inequalities faced by women.” read more

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Sex in the Census

With a month to go until the census on March 21, 15 organisations including LWD have launched the Sex in the Census campaign to protest against the last-minute decision by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) not to ask people to answer accurately with their biological sex.
The Sex in the Census campaign is not a boycott of the census but asks people to request a paper copy of the census and return it with a letter that will ask the ONS to confirm that they will only record the respondent’s sex as “sex registered at birth”.
The group is calling for the mandatory sex question to clearly and accurately count men and women based on sex.
Please visit this new joint website and help us highlight this last minute cave-in by the ONS. read more

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