Support Grassroots Labour Women! Rally 7pm Monday May 17
JVL Introduction
Jewish Voice for Labour is backing the Grassroots Labour Women candidates for Labour’s new National Women’s Committee and co-sponsoring an Arise! rally for them on Monday night. Meet all the candidates and other great speakers.
CLPs have until 26th May to choose delegates to the Women’s Conference in June which will elect them, to submit nominations and motions.
Thanks to Labour Briefing, the magazine of the Labour Representation Committee, for permision to repost the article below.
This article was originally published by Labour Briefing on Sun 16 May 2021. Read the original here.
Standing up for the collective empowerment of women
Chlöe Hopkins, one of the five Grassroots Labour Women candidates for the Labour National Women’s Committee, explains why she is standing
The National Women’s Committee (NWC) was re-established as a result of the Democracy Review and it is crucial that women members understand the role of this new body and the new women’s structure to make Labour truly democratic on policy-making for women.
I believe real democracy means decentralising power, so that decisions are made as collectively as possible. It would be very easy for the NWC to fall into a pattern of top-down organising, which is why a key task for the Grassroots Labour Women, if elected, would be to support and encourage the establishment of local women’s branches so that women members write the party’s policies for women. To that end, we would work very closely with our trade union sisters on the NWC, our sisters on the Womens’ Conference Arrangements Committee and CLP women’s officers to support fully democratic policy making.
On a personal note, I have often felt frustrated by the focus on individual women in power by mainstream feminist discourse. Sadly, the Labour Party has often fallen into that same habit of only thinking about representation at the top. Of course, having women in power matters, but as socialists we must seek collective empowerment, not individual success stories. So, I’d like to thank the LRC for putting me forward and for supporting the six socialist women candidates in our campaigning.
So many issues facing us today – from the hostile environment, to austerity, to social care, to climate change – have disproportionate effects on women. It’s important that our responses to them come from the mass movement, not a select few.
We’ve also seen from the mobilisation of the Kill the Bill coalition how much solidarity building makes a difference. Let’s take inspiration from that movement to transform Labour into a party built on the demands of its members, organising and leading in all the liberation struggles we face.
Labour Briefing adds:
This year’s National Women’s Conference on 26th and 27th June, although virtual, will return to the two-day standalone policy-making format of 2019.
There are six CLP places on the National Women’s Committee.
The Labour Representation Committee is part of a coalition of Labour left organisations which have come together as Grassroots Labour Women (#GLW) to support a team of five candidates: Ekua Bayunu, Mandy Clare, Tricia Duncan, Pamela Fitzpatrick, and Chloe Hopkins.
We are also urging CLPs to support Solma Ahmed from Momentum.
We believe that these women, if elected, will fight for a democratic member-led party with progressive socialist, feminist and anti-racist structures and policies. You can find out more about the #GLW candidates on our website and the issues they stand for.
If your CLP has not yet held a nominations meeting, you have until 26th May to elect delegates to Women’s Conference, and to submit nominations to the NWC, together with motions to be debated at conference.