30 November: Bristol

I was in Bristol today on a picket line and then off to the demo in the centre. There was around 12,000 people, good lively and a dynamic atmosphere. First demo I have been on in ages where I wasn’t kettled! One thing that made me laugh was while I was standing around taking photos I felt a tug at my back, turned around I saw this young boy scoffing a biscuit wanting his photo taken his mum laughed nervously and apologised. I didn’t mind, it was kinda sweet, and he looked very happy when he knew I had taken his picture (a future activist, methinks). If you can quite read his placard it says, “I want the teachers to have lots of money”…

I only heard a part of the rally that included John McInally (PCS vice president) saying that, “Ed Miliband is a disgrace” to much applause from the audience. Actually, as anyone seem Mister Ed lately……?

Labour MPs and councillors back 30 November strike and say ‘we won’t cross picket lines’

FOR IMMEDIATE USE:

Press release from the LRC

Labour MPs and councillors back 30 November strike and say ‘we won’t cross picket lines’

On 30 November thousands of ordinary Labour members will be backing public sector workers in their dispute with the government. In Scotland all Labour MSPs have pledged their support and will not cross picket lines at Holyrood. Likewise Labour AMs in Wales will not cross picket lines at Cardiff Bay.

Today, dozens of Labour MPs and councillors from across the UK have pledged their support for the strikes in a letter to the Guardian (full text below). The group says, “We stand in full solidarity with workers on 30 November – and encourage our fellow Labour politicians to do so too” – in sharp contrast to the equivocation from the Labour leadership. The MPs and councillors are also following the lead of Labour politicians and Wales and Scotland by refusing to cross picket lines at Westminster or town halls.

John McDonnell MP, LRC Chair, said:

“We expect Labour MPs and councillors to stand in solidarity with trade union members striking on Wednesday.

 

“The public and Labour Party members especially are behind these strikes and expect Labour politicians to back our fellow trade unionists. There can be no ifs or buts on this one.”

Charlynne Pullen, Islington Labour councillor, said:

“On 30 November I will be standing side by side with council officers as they take strike action against a government that is proposing to slash their pensions and is refusing to engage in meaningful negotiations.”

Greg Marshall, Broxtowe Labour councillor and co-ordinator of LRC Councillors’ Network, said:

“I give full unconditional support for those taking strike action. This government is attacking the terms and conditions of ordinary workers who deliver our public services, in order to finance the reckless behaviour of the bankers. People understand that these attacks are not fair. I oppose all cuts to jobs and services and will stand alongside those in order to defend them. 

 

“The Labour Party still remains the party best placed to represent the interests of the working class  - we were of course founded to give ordinary people a political voice. We should be firmly standing in solidarity with those taking action against the Tory led attacks on pensions.”

-Ends-

Notes:

The Labour Representation Committee (LRC) is a socialist grouping within the Labour movement, with over 1100 members and around 100 affiliated organisations, including six national trade unions.

Full text of the letter:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/nov/28/labour-solidarity-and-pensions-strike

Labour MSPs in Scotland and Labour AMs in Wales will refuse to cross picket lines on 30 November in solidarity with millions of public sector workers.

 

As Labour MPs and councillors we will not cross picket lines at Westminster or town halls. Instead we will be joining picket lines to do what Labour politicians should do: be on the side of labour.

 

The Government’s attack on public sector pensions is totally unjustified and unsupported by any economic or actuarial case. It is a crude attack on public sector workers who are already suffering a pay freeze while many face the threat of losing their jobs. This is part of a wider attack by this government on public services and the welfare state, which Labour must resist.

 

We stand in full solidarity with workers on 30 November – and encourage our fellow Labour politicians to do so too.

 

John McDonnell MP, LRC Chair

Ronnie Campbell MP, Blyth Valley

Martin Caton MP, Gower

Jeremy Corbyn MP, Islington North

Paul Flynn MP, Newport West

Michael Meacher MP, Oldham West & Royton

Linda Riordan MP, Halifax

Cllr Kingsley Abrams, Lambeth

Cllr Lynne Allen, Hillingdon

Cllr Tony Belton, Wandsworth

Cllr Matthew Brown, Preston

Cllr Barry Buitekant, Hackney

Cllr Van Coulter, Oxford

Cllr Jim Grundy, Ashfield

Cllr Clive Grunshaw, Wyre / Lancashire

Cllr Kevin Hind, Bury St Edmunds

Cllr Mike Jones, Maghull

Cllr Jay Kramer, Hastings

Cllr Geoff Lumley, Isle of Wight

Cllr Greg Marshall, Broxtowe

Cllr John McGhee, East Ayrshire

Cllr Ian Morrison, Ashfield

Cllr Kier Morrison, Ashfield

Cllr Lachlan Morrison, Ashfield

Cllr Tom Neilson, North West Leicestershire

Cllr Mick O’Sullivan, Islington

Cllr Andrea Oates, Broxtowe

Cllr Charlynne Pullen, Islington

Cllr Mike Rowley, Oxford

Cllr Jenny Smith, Bristol

Cllr John Tanner, Oxford

Cllr Sam Tarry, Barking & Dagenham

Cllr Kieran Thorpe, Welwyn Hatfield

Cllr Claire Traynor, Maghull

Cllr Patrick Vernon, Hackney

Cllr Andy Walker, Redbridge

Cllr Dave Young, Calderdale

Response from MIND on volunteering

I wrote this post the other day regarding MIND and volunteering and I got a response from MIND, here it is.

Dear Louise,

Many thanks for getting in touch concerning the volunteer position within the membership team.

The volunteer position had been specifically designed to provide the opportunity for someone who may not currently be working to gain the confidence and skills that may help with their return to work, while in a safe and supportive environment.

Whilst we use the language found within the workplace, such as job description and personal specification, the tasks to be undertaken do not constitute a job available within the team. The tasks undertaken will be based on the individual’s current skills and the type of experience they wish to gain during the six-month period to enhance their potential progress back into a paid position. Whilst these tasks may support some aspects of the membership team’s activity, they will not involve or affect the delivery of our day-to-day work.

We have had overwhelming support for the position and we continue to strive to get the balance between offering paid and voluntary work so that people can choose what best suits their needs. With your permission, I would like to pass on your views on volunteering being exploitative to our HR team – I think it is important that all views on the impact of voluntary opportunities be considered.   

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards

Suzanne

Suzanne Page

Membership Manager 

The job description refers to “responsibilities” and volunteer responsible to a membership officer. The placement, according to MIND, doesn’t constitute a job available within the team. But if it sounds like a specific role in a specific department then it’s a job without pay.

However, MIND, stresses (a bit of back peddling here, methinks) in a rather mealy-mouthed manner that, the tasks undertaken will be based on the individual’s current skills and the type of experience they wish to gain during the six-month period to enhance their potential progress back into a paid position. Whilst these tasks may support some aspects of the membership team’s activity, they will not involve or affect the delivery of our day-to-day work.

Interestingly, that isn’t mentioned in the job description and person spec. Also what is meant by “overwhelming support for the position”? Does that mean applications? Support from MIND overall?

The reply is interesting as, like I said back peddling, it puts MIND on the defensive and with the attacks on the economy, jobs, pay and conditions we need to make organisations accountable because if we don’t then they will slip without hesitation into unpaid labour.

Ken Russell and The Devils

So I will bid adieu to that over-the-top hyperbolic baroque style director, Ken Russell. It was only a couple of weeks ago there was a programme about the British Board of Film Classification where letters between the head of the BBFC, John Trevelyan, and Russell over the controversial film, The Devils (1971). It was a fascinating, the censor telling the director to make cuts and certainly the infamous orgy scene along with the ‘rape’ of Christ (see this excellent article by Mark Kermode). The censors didn’t get or maybe they did, and by all accounts Trevelyan was worried about the American financiers. I re-read Huxley’s The Devils and viewed the film again. It is a very powerful and political film. The main issues being of religious bureaucracies, sexual repression, oppression, political subterfuge, witch hunts, persecution and execution..all added to a potent celluloid mix. No wonder the moralists hated it. Also, what also increased the power of this film was its minimalist set created by Derek Jarman. The film, The Devils, deserves its own post, which I will write at some point.

Russell, no stranger to controversy, directed Women in Love (the infamous wrestling scene between Alan Bates and Oliver Reed). The rock opera, Tommy, which too was over-the-top but better for it. There was The Music Lovers, The Boy Friend, Lisztomania, Altered States, Gothic and Lair of the White Worm. I saw the prequel to Women in Love, The Rainbow, in the cinema circa 1989 and was highly disappointed by it. It just had none of the originality and passion of the sequel.

I believe that Russell was underrated. Censor and critiques couldn’t see beyond the “indecency”. The director Alex Cox and film critic Mark Kermode argue The Devils  is one of the ten greatest achievements of cinema history. I think they are right.

When is voluntary work exploitation??!!

I have written extensively about workfare lately. While doing this I have noticed a rather significant increase in the amount of “jobs” on offer asking for volunteers flicking through the Guardian’s job site. There’s always been requests for volunteers but since the economic meltdown this seems to have increased. I have looked at these “jobs” out of interest and they are asking for specific skills and requirements. I gained an enormous amount of skills, knowledge and experience when I volunteered for various radical mental organisations in the 1990s. I did this out of my own free will and there were no sanctions such as loss of benefits if I didn’t volunteer. Volunteering, for me, was useful and a way of gaining expertise. You get a taster of what the organisation is like and it is kinda tailored around what you can do, what you would like to do and commitment.

But things have changed. I saw a “job” advertised by MIND. It was advertising for a Membership Volunteer to work 4 days a week.

The volunteer position is for six months only and is intended to provide vital work experience for someone who may, at this stage, not be able to gain or undertake an employed position.

When reading that I wondered who could commit themselves to six months while on benefit. If you are experiencing mental distress, signed off sick, but would like to go back into the job market in a kinda baby steps way where you can ease your way into an office environment, is this possible? You are claiming ESA, there’s a likelihood that the state will automatically think if you can do this you may as well be bumped onto JSA. Someone, possibly, who is part-time worker may be able to take this kind of work up. Yet it still makes me wonder who can do it without their benefits being undermined.

Also, the job is highly specialised and complex. It also looks stressful in a busy office. You are expected to undertake online research of MIND associations and services, collect and format results on an Excel spreadsheet, assist in mailing recruitment campaigns, undertake internet-based research, carry out as-hoc admin duties. Carry out ad-hoc admin duties? You’re a volunteer!! Also they need to commit themselves to a weekly time slot and 6 months. The job description/person spec reads like a specific role with specific skills. It also emphasises your “responsibilities”… Where’s the benefit? Do you get a paid job at the end of the 6 months?

Essential Criteria

Experience undertaking general duties in an office environment including photocopying, mailing, printing and paper filing.

Capable of using a computer to carry out tasks such as creating, saving and locating files.

Experience of working with Microsoft applications Word and Excel and able to carry out the basic functions of these applications.

Able to use the internet to undertake research and obtain results from queries.

Empathy with Mind’s values, aims and objectives. Understanding of, and commitment to, Mind’s equal opportunity policy.

Desirable Criteria

Previous volunteering experience.

Experience undertaking similar activities within a charitable organisation.

Interest in, or experience working within the mental health sector.

Direct or indirect experience of mental distress.

This volunteer role should be a paid role, even at 4 hours a week it’s better than nothing, which is what you are doing. How will it feel working in that office surrounded by people who are being paid possibly doing similar the same duties. This is a two-tier workforce. You can apply for this “job” freely, you may think you will get skills and experience but remember you are doing it for free. MIND is saving money, for specific duties, by having someone to fulfil the role but there should be a contract of employment, NI, tax, pension and so on. You work you should get paid.

I know the voluntary sector and charities function on unpaid labour but with the economic situation getting worse expect to see paid work being substituted by voluntary. Same kind of work but unpaid. When is workfare workfare? When it’s coerced, punitive and sanctions threatened. But ask yourself, when you see an advertisement asking for your labour for free, for the good of the movement, is this still exploitation? Is this undermining pay and conditions? I think the answer is yes. People should be paid. A day’s work = a day’s pay. If we accept this regarding charities and voluntary sector by excusing the fact they don’t have much money how long before they will be all run by an army of volunteers?

 Btw: I have emailed MIND about this to see what they have to say.

Update: Islington Council and workfare

You may remember that I wrote a post a couple of days ago on workfare and councils apparently taking part. Well, after that, Labour Representation Committee joint secretaries wrote to key Labour activists whose constituencies are part of these councils about whether there was involvement in workfare… and Islington Council being one of them responded. To cut a long story short, Anna Roberts, Head of the Labour Group, Islington Council maintains:

Thank you for sending through the spreadsheet. I can confirm that Islington Council isn’t offering any work placements to work programme clients.

We are also not a work programme contractor, so will be asking the DWP to correct this mistake. The council did look into the programme when it was first announced, but the decision was made many months ago not to proceed. 

Anna Roberts 
Head of Labour Group Office 

Interesting that they looked into it probably why the DWP included them. It is definitely worth contacting councils on the list to find out what they are actually up to, why is the council on a spreadsheet where the information was supplied by the DWP, do they use unpaid labour and if they don’t get them to pledge they won’t ever use unpaid labour, hopefully, it gets them to investigate. It is also worth asking councils who aren’t on the list if they are intending to use unpaid labour and if they oppose workfare get them to pledge they will never use it now and in the future.

Mandy Mudd – a wonderful friend and comrade

I received my copies of Labour Briefing today, flicked through the pages and got the shock of my life. There was an obituary for Mandy Mudd. I knew Mandy from many many years ago and she was such a courageous woman who stood up for what was right. Back in the mists of time, when I was around 17 I attended the fusion conference between the International Group (IG) and the Socialist Group (SG)…. put them together you get ISG… Anyway, I needed somewhere to stay for the night as I had come down from Birmingham and that’s where I first met Mandy. She graciously put me up for the night in her home in Haringey along with taking me to a SWP social (great music especially as Mandy was the DJ) in Tottenham. She kinda looked after me, took me under her wing, as she could see I was rather green and naive with life (looking back I definitely was). She was kind and supportive.

Mandy, politically, was at the forefront of the campaign Positive Images that sought to “promote images of gay men and lesbians”…. unfortunately this led to one shockingly homophobic witch hunting backlash against Mandy. I recall staying with Mandy sometime in 1988 and she had this ongoing cold she couldn’t shift. It was because of the constant smears and witch hunts against Mandy by the media. The Sun being one nasty tabloid who wouldn’t leave her alone, they dug up information from her past and used it. Norman Tebbit got involved in attacking her in the pages of the Sun. It was unrelenting and it did make Mandy ill, it always sticks in my mind talking to her back in ’88 about the abusive crap chucked at her because she dared to fight for lesbian and gay rights (this was just before the horrendously homophobic Section 28).

Mandy was also blocked by the Labour Party to stand as a councillor, reminds of when Labour blocked Sharon Atkins for standing as an MP because she spoke the truth (Labour Party being racist) and also Martha Osamor who was also stopped by the Labour bureaucracy to stand as an MP. Labour has never liked outspoken, dynamic, radical, Socialist women. Two of the women, Sharon and Martha, were Black and the choice of LP activists but not the right-wing witch hunting white male bureaucrats like Kinnock!

Mandy was a teacher and the tabloids expected the school, pupils, teachers and parents to be shocked by her behaviour. But they weren’t, indeed it was the oppositive, she was shown much solidarity and support which certainly pissed off the Sun. I remember Mandy talking the author James Baldwin and getting the pupils in her class to read his books. I also began to read James Baldwin.

I lost contact with Mandy from the ’90s onwards, which I really truly regret. She was a wonderful supportive woman and really looked out for me back in those days. Her political activism was something to be admired. A woman who stood up and made her voice heard, even with the backlash against her she continued. She was a feminist and comrade who I will always remember. There’s a quote from Mandy in the obit written eloquently by Glyn Rowlands:

“I haven’t come here today to tell you how terrible things are for me. I am not smashed, intimidated or discredited – in fact I feel stronger and even more determined to fight. I have come to urge people to stand and fight with me, not just for me but for all Socialists who are being witch hunted…I will not be intimidated, I will not shut-up and I will continue to fight for socialist policies to achieve equality and dignity for all people in this country and internationally”…

Workfare means exploitation

I wrote to Labour councillors today in Bromley asking them to investigate the fact that the council is apparently using unpaid labour, to what extent is unpaid labour used and calling on them to challenge and condemn this practice. Time will tell whether this will work. Below is a list of councils involved in using workfare (please see Boycott Workfare’s excellent spreadsheet which includes retailers and charities). And some of these councils are Labour implementing cuts and exploitation of labour. It is not a case of who is on this list but who isn’t!

Argyll and Bute Council

Barnsley Met Borough Council

Blackpool Council

Baenau Gwent County Council

Bolton Council

Brighton and Hove Council

Bromley Council

Calderdale Council

Cardiff Council

Cheshire West and Chester Council

City of Bradford Met District Council – Skills for Work

Dudley Met Council

East Riding County Council

Gateshead County Council

Halton Borough Council (Halton People into Jobs)

Hartlepool County Council

Islington Council

Kensington Council

Kent County Council

Lambeth Council

Liverpool City Council

Bexley Council

Manchester City Council

Medway Council

Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council

Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council

Newham Council

Newport City Council

North Lanarkshire Council

Northumberland County Council

Perth and Kinross Council

Portsmouth Council

Renfrewshire Council

Sefton Council

Shropshire Council (County Training)

Slough Borough Council

Southwark Council

Tower Hamlets Council (Skills Match)

S E Rural Community Councils

Stoke-on-Trent City Council

Suffolk County Council

Wigan Council

Wycombe District Council

We have to act now as further proposals of unpaid labour are being unveiled by the ConDems

The government has unveiled plans for yet another workfare scheme. This time, for six months at a time. In a press release on 8th November, Chris Grayling revealed plans to give community service type sentences to the long term unemployed. A trial is already underway in Derbyshire; Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland; East Anglia; and Leicestershire and Northamptonshire. In short, claimants are now being treated as criminals.

And guess who is involved in this financial gravy train…. Atos!

Indeed the aim is ideological, to criminalise the unemployed. Workfare provides an army of unpaid workers who don’t do this out of choice but out of fear they will lose their meagre benefits. People on these schemes rarely get a paid job, if ever, at the end. They do a day’s work yet get nothing in return; no sick pay, holiday pay, NI contributions or pension. They are an invisible workforce. Workfare will create a two tier workplace and possible divide and rule.

This practice must be condemned and fought against. Workfare is quietly creeping in as you can see with the number of councils involved in some shape or form. Councils like most of the other users of Workfare… are quiet and vague about it. And they are supposed to be accountable and transparent.

Even if your council isn’t on that list contact your local councillor to ask them whether there are plans to use unpaid labour and if there isn’t then ask them to sign up to the pledge at Boycott Workfare. If you are a trade unionist and work for one of these councils investigate and challenge the practice. Also go for a Freedom of Information request (see Boycott Workfare for info). Lobby in any way possible including council meetings. We need trade unionists, unemployed, disabled activists, anti-cuts campaigns, councillors and MPs (Labour….please listen!!) to work together to get rid of this pernicious criminalisation of the poor. They didn’t create this economic mess so stop blaming them!

See

Boycott Workfare

Corporate Watch

Where’s the Benefit 

Benefiting from Workfare

Intensive Activity 

DPAC

Update: Good news! There will be a legal challenge to Workfare

PIL sent a ‘letter-before-action’ last night to the Work and Pensions Secretary Ian Duncan-Smith – the first step in a High Court judicial review action on behalf of 33 year-old Jonathan Shaw from Birmingham.  PIL are arguing that the Mandatory Work Scheme amounts to exploitation, with jobseekers forced to undertake up to four weeks of unpaid work.  At the end of their placements, jobseekers are often not considered for permanent employment and many are simply replaced by other jobseekers who, like them, face losing their jobseeker’s allowance if they fail to carry out the work. 

Another update: Labour councillor for Bromley contacted me and said,”We would not support the use of free labour. I will make enquiries and get back to you”. Hope she does and I hope Bromley Council drops any commitment they have to unpaid labour as it’s exploitation.

More bloody assessments!

There isn’t a day where the ConDems aren’t thinking up wheezes in attacking the poor. The constant message that it’s claimants who are sapping the welfare state dry, when in reality it’s a lie. The Bullingdon chaps aren’t content with stricter conditionality, sanctions, private company assessment on your fitness to work and making people work for their dole, now they want to do this:

People should be signed off for long-term sick leave by an independent assessor rather than their GP, a government review will recommend.

Furthermore

The welfare minister, Lord Freud, said the reforms could lead to “fewer wasted lives”. He said the government wanted to intervene earlier to stop patients drifting into unnecessary ongoing state support.

Wasted lives? Who is he kidding? This proposal will cause fear and mistrust. Visiting your local Atos assessor can instil dread and misery for many disabled claimants because it’s NOT about objectivity and independence it’s ideological. Failing people precisely for ideological reasons. It makes a mockery of the phrase ‘Primum non nocere’ as harm is being done.

And how to create more anxiety

People who are signed off sick would also be put on to jobseeker’s allowance, rather than employment support allowance, for a period of three months. They would receive less money and have to prove they were looking for work.

There’s this stark warning about this pernicious proposal

The deputy chair of the British Medical Association’s GPs committee, Dr Richard Vautrey, warned that if the reforms turned out to be “a punitive process just to try and save money without the best interests of the patient at the heart oTf the process then it will fail”.

It will fail as it is purely about punishing people and it’s damn well punitive. It’s based on a premise that claimants off sick are lying and fooling doctors. Indeed doctors don’t have enough time nor resources to speak to people and that’s not the fault of anyone other than the government who are starving the NHS of cash.

Dennis Skinner makes a valid point

“Last year, the government said GPs should be accountants in charge of the money that is spent in the NHS. This year they want assessors to be GPs. It’s crazy. No wonder the country is going to the dogs.”

More worryingly

Around 600,000 people would disappear from the benefits system altogether under changes to be introduced by 2014 and would often have to rely on family members for financial support, warned researchers from Sheffield Hallam University.

Who will be these assessors? GPs? Human Resources bods? The emphasis on independence is a misnomer. It’s ideologically driven, it’s blaming the unemployed for this crisis, along with fanning the flames of hate and vilification. The steady drip-drip screaming media headlines about “scroungers” and the “workshy”  pocketing benefits they don’t deserve and there’s always a story of someone “caught” amassing thousands upon thousands of pounds. Shame there are no screaming headlines about bankers pocketing massive pay increases while pay for everyone else is frozen along with benefits.

And has any of these right-wing journos or politicians lived on £67 a week or less? Have a go and see whether you can live reasonably or just about exist…!

Back to this assessment, will these assessors have knowledge of the claimant? Will it be like an Atos assessment when some assessor who has read a few forms, formed a snapshot about you and made massive assumptions about you based on a computer programme. GPs, at least even if they see you for 5-10 minutes on a regular basis (that’s if you can get an appointment) build a more consistent picture. It’s based on a medical judgement not ideological. GPs do lack resources, counselling for example is hard to acquire as there’s always a waiting list. And at least a GP’s diagnosis is based on medical judgement.

Will, as well, there be appeals if you are found fit for work and chucked onto JSA? I can foresee appeals clogging up the system. Just look at Atos assessments.

The number of appeals for employment and support allowance (ESA) heard by the Tribunal Service, has quadrupled in two years, rocketing from 68,000 in 2009 to a projected 240,000 by the end of this financial year. The cost to the taxpayer is staggering: £80m so far, and rising.

It’s laughable, Keystone cops-esque incompetency, if it wasn’t so vile and distressing. These assessments have backfired on the ConDems. But the fear, misery and worry about going to these assessments increases as it’s not an honest and useful assessment. You are bound to be found fit for work and score zero. The waiting for a result increases worry and distress (suicide is never far away from thoughts) and when found fit for work is damaging. If that happens put in your appeal straight away and get advice.

These constant conveyor belt of assessments do harm by damaging and destroying lives.

The Left and representation

Charlynne Pullen

I attended the Labour Representation Committee Conference last Saturday, 19 November. One of the things that was always noticeable in nearly ever single political meetings of these types I have attended and that’s a helluva lot is the lack of representation from women, Black, LGBT and disabled activists. Over the years there has been good intentions of increasing membership and representation for marginalised and oppressed people. And the strange thing is that I don’t take any notice now, it’s a kinda acceptance that it will be white male straight dominated and it’s bad, very bad, for me to inwardly shrug my shoulders. It’s that old conundrum, how do you get people who are oppressed in this society engaged and represented? It’s about relating to and engaging with people on their terms as well.

Katy Clark

Firstly, the Left is not hermetically sealed when it comes to oppression and will reflect those power relationships that exist under patriarchal capitalism. Secondly, when this question is tackled there can be hostility and defensiveness when discussing this question which exposes a deeper crisis in leftie organisations and entrenched oppression (both individually and collectively). It not just about taking a collective responsibility, it is also about personal awareness and responsibility as well, and education.

Maria Exall

On the issue of women attending conference, they may have other responsibilities which may be problematic for them to attend and traditionally women are the carers. There was a crèche at the LRC but there are multiple reasons why women, for example, don’t attend. And of course, many of these, events have a whiff of the “boys club” about them.

Sarah Evans

In the afternoon of the LRC the debate was on Europe and imperialism, majority of speakers were men yet certainly on the issue of imperialism women bear the brunt. The Left ought to be a comradely safe place where people engage in collaboration to build alternative along with progressive politics but scratch that surface and you are faced with the same fraught power relationships and oppression that exists in society.

Dot Gibson

And many people have suffered burn-out and oppressive behaviour from the Left and rather than staying around it’s sayonara and thanks for the head fuck. Many women I knew when I was first involved in politics I rarely see, not sure if they are still involved in the struggle though I see more men I remember from my youth who are still part of the Left.

Christine Shawcroft & Marsha-Jane Thompson

Funny enough, invisibility, marginalisation and oppression has a tendency to silence women. I remember ages ago I wrote a post for the F Word regarding women and the Left and there was a very illuminating debate from women who could recount the times they had been ignored, silenced, patronised, shouted-down, marginalised and rendered invisible and many walked away.

Margarita Morales

So what is to be done? It’s a valuable exercise to do an audit of your membership regards to how many women, black, LGBT and disabled activists. Autonomous groups should be supported and not criticised as ‘separatist’ and organising takes energy, time and commitment. But overall, support, respect and solidarity from the wider movement is integral to the movement.

Susan Press

Above all it’s about the whole process of empowering people facing oppression who can control things on their own terms, to be heard, listened to and supported. If there’s no conscious change then the Left will be forever a white straight blokes talking shop intellectualising on navel gazing.

Rhiannon Rose