FIVE years ago, 15 Labour Party women found their way to a secret meet-up in a Liverpool restaurant, on the eve of the 2018 conference.

Some were meeting for the first time, though we knew others’ names as veterans of campaigns, including against Section 28, for abortion rights, lesbian custody battles, anti-racist and anti-fascist activism, and women’s liberation. 

We — and others — had spent months secretly organising to distribute Fair Play for Women leaflets and talk to fellow delegates about the Tory government’s proposals to introduce self-ID in reform of the Gender Recognition Act (GRA).

We’d also volunteered to support the off-fringe meeting held by Woman’s Place UK, their 15^th public meeting.

Why the secrecy? We rightly suspected that we would meet hostility and aggression from party members determined to silence women’s concerns about the GRA proposals; most of us had experienced abuse at local level. 

The following year, in Brighton, we met in greater numbers but still in secret, on the eve of conference, and again attended a Woman’s Place fringe.

This meeting experienced such a level of intimidation, some from conference attendees, that it became imperative to step out of the shadows as Labour members. 

And so, in November 2019, with an article in the Morning Star, we launched our Declaration with 300 founder signatories. 

Nearly 8,000 more have since signed. We come from all political wings of the party, but we share a socialist and materialist analysis of the oppression of women as a sex class.

Four years on from that Morning Star article, where have we got to as we prepare for #Lab23?

Following the national policy forum conference in July, the party has shifted from its previous embrace of self-ID and renewed its commitment to the single-sex exceptions, as communicated in a Guardian article by Anneliese Dodds and subsequent statements by Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting. 

We have welcomed this. We agree that sex and gender are different, and that the single-sex exceptions must be defended. However, much work is needed to reinforce these messages, unevidenced policies remain and free speech supressed. 

In a contradictory decision by the NEC business board, our application for a conference stand, made on our behalf by Labour politicians, has yet again been refused. 

The listing of our fringe meetings in the conference guide is positive, as is a slight increase in coverage of our positions in left-leaning media.

For example, Labour List, having ignored LWD for years, published an op ed from us in a series on sex and gender.

The Morning Star has been courageous in covering our arguments, and the Observer offers more balanced coverage than the Guardian.

All polls show a clear majority of Labour voters agree with our views; our Declaration is broadly in line with official party positions. Stonewall and LGBT+ Labour etc are now the outliers. 

Yet the climate of fear on the left persists, and after years of “no debate,” issues relating to sex and “gender identity” are inadequately understood within the labour movement.

The party needs to catch up on well-evidenced concerns about its proposals in relation to “hate crime,” “conversion practices,” the safeguarding of children, the future of NHS gender identity services, and data collection.

The clarification of the Equality Act’s references to sex is also essential, so that services for women, and provision for lesbians to meet, can be straightforwardly single-sex.

For years we have raised the problem of how women are treated in the party and submitted evidence about errors in policies and internal procedures.

However, the new Code of Conduct still uses “gender” instead of “sex” in places and inaccurately lists the protected characteristics.

The party’s approach to Gender Recognition Act reform remains flawed, for example continuing to claim that it is “outdated” to permit a spouse to refuse consent to continuation of the marriage/civil partnership when their partner has changed its basis (see our article). 

The influence of Stonewall and allied organisations, like Gendered Intelligence and Mermaids, means that gender identity ideology has been adopted by almost every British public body and political party.

Indeed, Labour still pays Stonewall to operate inside the party, dispensing its inaccurate advice.

The recently revised members’ pledge states: “I will not organise to drown out the views of others, recognising the unfairness this creates.” 

Maybe those who shout down our meetings, MPs who smear women MPs in Parliament, and the business board which prevented us having a conference stall, will be considered to be in breach of this? 

What can supporters do?

Labour members can ask their CLP delegates at annual women’s conference on October 7 to vote for our candidates to the national women’s committee. 

All are welcome to register for our fringe event at 7pm on October 9, “How can Labour champion freedom for Women and Girls?” 

Speakers include MPs, an activist from Afghanistan and trade unionist Kiri Tunks, focusing on the socialist and feminist fight for women’s liberation. It’ll also be live-streamed on our YouTube channel.

You can email us to be put in touch with other LWD supporters. Engage with Lesbian Labour’s campaign to defend the protected characteristic of same-sex sexual orientation and register for their fringe meeting.

Support Communist Party sisters who have developed the excellent Charter for Women. Volunteer for FiLiA, follow other feminists on the left like Woman’s Place UK — together we need to move forward on all fronts to achieve women’s liberation and socialism. 

Are we still angry? You bet!

Our arguments and evidence have been ignored for so long that policy capture has been allowed to grow unchecked throughout the party.

The Welsh Labour government adheres to Stonewall’s regressive ideology, and refuses to engage with LWD Cymru, (although Scottish Labour, after supporting the SNP’s disastrous GRR Bill, recently indicated a more rational approach, and has engaged in “constructive and ongoing dialogue” with LWD Scotland). 

Lazy adherence to an unscientific ideology, and cowardly decisions to ignore the abuse of colleagues, has revealed a shocking shallowness of political analysis and a contempt of women (especially lesbians and older women).

As writer Victoria Smith explains, women’s trust (and trust in many comrades on the left) may have been lost for ever.

However, this is our party. We fight on. Join us. 

Come and talk to us during conference if you want to discuss any of these issues. Follow #LWDLiverpool for daily updates for where to find us.