Labour Party Women’s Conference – Yellow Pages issue 3, June 2021 – Sunday supplement

Yellow Pages

Labour Party Women’s Conference – Yellow Pages issue 3, June 2021 – Sunday supplement

by CLPD | published on 27.06.21 in CLPD Women's Collective, Labour Women's Conference

Justice for Palestine!

Yesterday Conference heard some excellent speakers talk about their experiences of visiting Palestine, seeing first hand the injustices faced by Palestinian women on a daily basis – whether through the recent airstrikes, causing the loss of so many lives and homes, or the ongoing struggles over access to water and electricity. Speakers drew attention to the issues women and girls face accessing healthcare and education as a result of the ongoing occupation by Israel. Israel’s failure to meet its requirement as an occupying power to support the Palestinian vaccination programme was also noted, as was the positive development of the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigating possible war crimes in Palestine, and the Human Rights Watch report ‘A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution’.

Speakers – and the motion – called for concrete actions by both the British government and our Party in addressing the issue. The motion calls on the British government to recognise the autonomous state of Palestine; and to call on Israel to end all settlement building, evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes. It calls on our Party to publicly support the work of the ICC and to recognise the fundamental rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality, respecting and protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.

These are not radical demands – really the bare minimum that can be expected of a democratic socialist party; and we would expect the support of anyone with an interest in human rights and equality. The CLPD model motion went further, noting that it is only through real concrete government action that pressure can be brought to bear on Israel. It pointed out that trade policies allow British companies to facilitate demolitions, for example in 2020 British–made JCBs demolished 191 Palestinian structures, making 160 children homeless and destroying vital irrigation networks; and that therefore banning trade with illegal settlements is a necessary step to making a difference.

It was therefore disappointing that several sisters criticised the motion, even suggesting it could be antisemitic – demonstrating just how much further we need to go in explaining the unequal nature of the relationship between occupiers and occupied, and that even Labour’s stringent rules on antisemitism explicitly do not undermine freedom of expression on Israel or the rights of Palestinians. It was even suggested that this is an issue that should be ignored, because voters care more about other issues. Not only does polling demonstrate that this is an important issue for potential Labour supporters, which has come into particular focus with the Batley and Spen by-election, but also, as other delegates pointed out, if we are true to our Labour values, we should stand for peace, justice, equality and internationalism, even if these values were not as popular as they clearly are.

So we call on all delegates to support Composite 5 on Women and Palestine and the Middle East, and if passed to prioritise voting for this composite to be sent by the Women’s Conference to Annual Conference so that we can amplify the voices and experiences of women in Palestine, and stay true to our Labour values.

More say for delegates!

Thank you to all delegates who supported our call for a more democratic conference, with more say for grassroots delegates, by voting against yesterday’s WCAC report. Unfortunately we weren’t successful in asking for the WCAC to reconsider how it could enable more CLPs and delegates to be heard, but our fight for more say for grassroots members continues. Delegates should take the opportunity both during the WCAC debate and in any feedback opportunity to offer constructive criticism on how future conferences could be more inclusive and democratic. Examples could include:

– Questions about why there have been so many plenary sessions hearing from the great and the good, when it reduces so significantly the time for hearing from delegates – the difficulties of putting on an online conference are appreciated, and have been amply demonstrated, which makes it all the more important that plenty of time is allocated to the real business of conference – its policy-making.

– Questions about why such strict deadlines (much more so than for annual conference) were applied to compositing, in particular for the Violence Against Women and Girls topic with so many CLPs and affiliates involved, resulting in a deeply unsatisfactory composite which is not able to articulate the important demands necessary in this vital policy area. And why the standalone motion from the Scottish Labour Women’s Committee – a model for our new women’s structures – has not been timetabled for debate.

– Questions about why there has been so little opportunity for engagement between delegates – with no networking sessions or mechanisms for putting delegates in touch with each other in place. And why it has not been possible to post the names of all delegate speakers on the screen whilst addressing Conference, which would have helped with following the business, and reporting back. Delegates have no sense of who is ‘in the room’ at this Conference.

– Questions about the influence that shadow cabinet members have been able to exert in some of the compositing meetings – the most well reported example being Thangam Debbonaire’s intervention into the Social Care composite, rolling back Labour’s commitments in direct contravention to the policy of the successful Labour government in Wales, which offers a shining example of competence and electability that the Westminster leadership would do well to learn from.

– Questions about the accessibility issues faced by delegates and visitors – although the platform has many positive features, many women trying to login and participate have reported issues with knowing how to make contact and emails going astray. Some quotes from delegates include “I feel embarrassed about my dyslexia, this has made me feel worse and caused unnecessary anxiety”, “I found the captioning but I can’t read what it says, it’s blurry”, “After [a previous women’s conference] I came away feeling empowered and inspired, I just feel so overwhelmed and unsupported during this one”.

– Questions about why full membership is being used for voting rather than women membership.

– Questions about why no organisation motions or rule changes have been allowed for this conference – when the NEC explicitly agreed that rule changes should be possible when it agreed the rules for the National Women’s Organisation last spring, and it would be so beneficial to the conference to be able to discuss how we organise as women and how that could be improved.

– Questions about why all the emergency motions submitted were ruled out of order initially, and on appeal; why the appeals procedure was unclear and did not give organisations the opportunity to meet with the WCAC to put their case, as would have been the case at annual conference.

It is totally understandable that there have been technical teething problems, and that an online conference could never hope to replicate fully the camaraderie of a face-to-face event. The hard work of staff and elected representatives in making this conference happen is appreciated. However if we are to build a vibrant, democratic, inclusive Labour women’s organisation we need much better information and communication, priority and resourcing for building and supporting Women’s Branches, and most importantly, an approach that enables conference to have more opportunity to listen to delegates, for different views to be debated and for positions to be agreed that can contribute to Labour winning women’s votes. The wider membership and public could be forgiven for being completely unaware that this conference is taking place, based on the lack of priority given to sharing the positive messages from this conference on social media by the Party and the leadership. This is such a shame. An active membership, and a vibrant Party is critical to Labour’s future success.

Congratulations to the six left candidates elected to six CLP places on the Women's Committee. Thanks to all delegates who voted for them.

Campaign for Labour Party Democracy has been pleased to work with other organisations on the left as part of Grassroots Labour Women to build unity and support a single left slate for the Women's Committee. This is a great result for candidates committed to building a democratic, member-led women's organisation and fighting for the policies of the 2017 and 2019 manifestos.

Nations and Regions - building the Labour Women's Organisation

One of the Rules for the National Women’s Organisation allows for Women’s Conferences in Scotland and Wales to prioritise and submit a motion direct to the National Annual Women’s Conference (NAWC).

In 2019 at Telford, the motion from the Scottish Women’s Conference was not tabled at all, and no explanation given. This year WCAC allowed a motion from the Scottish Labour Women’s Committee (as COVID had prevented a 2020 Scottish Women’s Conference) to be submitted. However, we are now in a situation where it has not been scheduled for debate. Wales did not submit anything this year.

The intention of the Rules was that nations (and possibly regions in the future) should be able to bring their top topic to the NAWC agenda. Not just ‘submit’ but also move and debate it at Annual Women’s Conference. To ensure this happens, the motions should stand alone and not go into the Priorities Ballot. The top topic this year from Scotland was Violence Against Women and Girls. Next year it could be on a subject that is not picked by other organisations.

This needs to be sorted out. The two motions from the National Annual Women’s Conference to Labour’s Annual Conference in September stand alone, and are not put into the compositing process. That’s how it should be for our Women’s Conference, to best engage with the Scottish and Welsh priorities.

More information

This Sunday Supplement adds to the points made in the original Yellow Pages no.3 for Women’s Conference. You will find there, priorities for annual conference and more information about how you can keep in touch with CLPD.

Yellow Pages