Gender and unity in the labour movement

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/sep/16/gender-and-unity-in-the-labour-movement

Version 0 of 1.

Deborah Orr is right to be troubled by the domination of male leaders in the trade union and labour movement (Opinion, 12 September). No modern-day labour movement, political party or trade union can thrive without women’s support and representation. All the more reason for a woman to lead the largest public service union and work with Jeremy Corbyn and his team on the issues facing public service workers. As female activists, academics and trade unionists we therefore welcome the decision by Heather Wakefield, head of local government at Unison, to stand in Unison’s general secretary election. As Orr suggests, it is time for a union whose membership is three-quarters female to be led by a woman and, crucially, one who can offer unity of the left and who has the experience and leadership skills for the job.

Heather has campaigned in the trade union, women’s and labour movements for over 25 years for fair and equal pay, parental rights, women’s representation and for public services and public service workers to be properly valued. She is working to defend adult social care, now a privatised service that is recognised to be in danger of collapse and which must be a priority for the labour movement. Here, as elsewhere, women are both frontline public service providers and public service users. As such they bear the brunt of the government’s ideologically driven austerity policies. Women need collective and concerted action by public-sector trade unions to defend democratically accountable public services and the workers within them. We have every confidence that Heather Wakefield can lead Unison as part of a growing coalition against austerity.

Professor Sian Moore University of the West of EnglandProfessor Hazel Conley University of the West of EnglandDr Iona Byford Portsmouth UniversityHarriet Bradley Professor of women’s employment, University of the West of England and UCU (University and College lecturers’ Union)Dr Kendra Briken University of StrathclydeAnna CooteProfessor Susan Corby University of GreenwichProfessor Diane Elson University of Essex, and chair, UK Women’s Budget GroupProfessor Geraldine Healy Queen Mary University of LondonProfessor Sue Himmelweit Open UniversityProfessor Gill Kirton Queen Mary University of LondonDr Leena Kumarappan London Metropolitan UniversityDr Sue Ledwith Emeritus scholar, Ruskin CollegeDr Ana Lopes University of the West of EnglandProfessor Marjorie Mayo Goldsmiths, University of LondonDoreen Massey Emeritus professor of geography and UCUProfessor Maureen Mackintosh Open UniversityProfessor Sonia McKay University of the West of EnglandDr Phoebe Moore Middlesex UniversityDr Margaret Page University of the West of EnglandAnna Pollert Emeritus professor, University of the West of EnglandDr Cilla Ross The Co-operative CollegeProfessor Sheila RowbothamProfessor Jill Rubery University of ManchesterPam Smith Professor of nursing studies, University of Edinburgh, UCU and RCNProfessor Stephanie Tailby University of the West of EnglandProfessor Carole Thornley Keele UniversityHilary Wainwright Co-editor, Red PepperTracy Walsh Ruskin CollegeDr Tessa Wright Queen Mary University of London

• It is hard for Jeremy Corbyn to respond to requests to promote more women, given that generation of female MPs came into the party as Blairites rather than traditional Labour reps. Few, or even none, of these women even questioned the media labelling of “Blair babes”. If Corbyn was to promote these candidates he would immediately be accused of subverting the wishes of the grassroots, who put him in the job. As a black Briton, I would like to see more ethnic diversity in the shadow cabinet, but I am realistic that the previous Blairite regime did not allow many black real-Labour MPs to flourish. In the short term there is little the Corbyn/Watson team can do until some form of reselection has taken place.Gavin LewisManchester

• A Labour shadow cabinet with women in charge of health, education, business, defence, energy, transport, environment and food, international development and the whole of Wales, and people are grousing that women weren’t given the important jobs? Deirdre MasonLondon

• I wonder what the shadow cabinet members who are refusing to serve under Jeremy Corbyn would have done if they had been Labour MPs in 1944. That was the year in which the party conference overwhelmingly carried a resolution setting out a sweepingly radical programme for a future Labour government – the programme that was largely carried out by Clement Attlee’s postwar government. Herbert Morrison, home secretary in the wartime coalition, complemented the mover of the motion on the excellence of his speech, but added: “Of course, you realise you have just lost us the election.” In the event, Labour won by a landslide. No one, not even Morrison, refused to serve in Attlee’s cabinet.Ian AitkenLondon

• I hope the headline to Zoe Williams’ article proves correct: “By ripping up the rulebook Corbyn is redefining our politics” (14 September). But she is wrong when she goes on to say, “I don’t care whether Corbyn can win a general election”.

Something seismic has happened within the Labour party, but taking power from the Tories is the real tectonic shift that Labour must strive for. What purpose is served by an opposition party that does not seek to win the power to implement its policies and ideas?

If the Tories do not fear losing to Labour then we are not being an effective opposition. What is to hold the Tories back if they know they cannot lose? Rather than being the champions of the weak and the disadvantaged we would be wilfully abandoning them to perpetual misery under an unbridled Tory government.

To be an effective opposition we will need the support of moderate-minded party supporters. The moderate majority within the parliamentary Labour party has always understood this necessity.

Building broad support is not about resurrecting the outdated doctrines rejected so emphatically by Labour members as Zoe assumes. Jeremy too has shown that he understands this by appointing a shadow cabinet representative of a broad spectrum of opinions.

Almost 600,000 people did not join the Labour party just to have a good debate and let the Tories rule. They want to win the keys to No 10.Clive Efford MPLabour, Eltham

• Could there be anything more important for Labour than to engage young voters? A shadow cabinet post with this intention could be seen to be vital for the future of engaged politics. Having criticised the media for castigating Jeremy Corbyn’s lack of media-savvy tactics in appointing white male cabinet ministers first, Gaby Hinsliff (Opinion, 14 September) falls into exactly the same trap of misjudgment. It is clear from a lot of the press coverage and the poor behaviour of some Labour MPs that the positive potential of the changes that are afoot have still not been understood and the establishment is determined to continue in the comfort and simplistic ease of ya-boo politics.Julian and Judy MarshNottingham