News

Green Women’s Declaration webinar: The Process is the Punishment

Monday 4th December 2023  7.30 – 9pm

Register for the event here

Following the Declaration zoom in October when some of the founding members spoke about why the Declaration was created, members of GWD are holding a second panel event.

  • Does the Green Party really do politics differently?
  • Why have so many committed ecofeminists been punished by their own Party?
  • How are women harmed by this process?

At this Green Women’s Declaration webinar, you will be able to listen to the story of 4 women who have been punished by the process. Special guests: Emma Bateman, Dawn Furness, Zoe Hatch and Alison Teal

Email questions in advance to info@greenwomensdeclaration.uk

Launch of Scottish Green Women’s Declaration

Women’s hard won sex-based  rights are being silenced in the Scottish Green Party, according to a group  of women members, ex-members and their supporters.

“There now exists a chilling atmosphere of censure and fear within the Party, which affects not only free speech but free thought,” they state in an open letter – the Scottish Green Women’s Declaration for Sex-based Rights – addressed to the party’s leadership and published on the website www.scottishgreenwomensdeclaration.scot where signatures can be added to the declaration.

“Women’s rights, based on the reality of biological sex, have been eroded within the SGP, as elsewhere in society. We believe the consequences of this are extremely damaging for women and girls,” the Declaration states.

“We are all members or supporters of SGP, or former members who have resigned in frustration, or been forced out of membership, or have been expelled or suspended because of our commitment to the legitimacy of advocating for women’s sex based rights,” says the Declaration.

The Scottish Green Women’s Declaration group is also opening a petition on the ipetitions.com website to gather further signatures of those who support their stand. (www.ipetitions.com/petitions/scottishgreenwomensdeclaration)

Newsletter 14/11/23

 

Huge thanks to all who joined us for the meeting we hosted on Thursday 26th October to discuss the Green Women’s Declaration (GWD). We were thrilled by the number of attendees!

As you may know, this meeting was originally scheduled as a Green Party Women (GPW) event, until Zoe Hatch (the duly elected GPW co-chair) was issued with a No-Fault Suspension (NFS) and the meeting was obstructed by the remaining GPW co-chair, Chesca Walton, who has previously made several complaints against Zoe, calling for her to be put on a NFS and expelled.

Joe Hudson-Small (acting chair of the Green Party Regional Council) then sent an email to members, insinuating that people may not be ‘safe’ to attend our meeting, because it was chaired by a person on a No-Fault Suspension (i.e. Zoe), concluding that ‘members are free to attend the event at their own risk’. Needless to say, GWD completely rejects any notion that people attending the meeting would be unsafe in Zoe’s extremely capable hands as chair.

Despite all attempts to thwart the meeting, over 160 people came to listen, learn, contribute, and support. Fantastic! We had an open, informative, respectful discussion, where people were free to speak out without being accused of ‘hate speech’ or being disciplined. And it was wonderful to hear Emma Bateman, currently expelled from the party, speaking so eloquently about her situation and about women’s sex-based rights. How very sad that such a meeting was disallowed as a bona fide Green Party Women meeting. We need to get to the point where such a meeting can be held within the auspices of the Green Party.

You can listen to a recording of the meeting here
The Court decides…

Closing statements in Shahrar Ali’s court case are due to be heard on 21st November. We hope that a judgement in favour of Shahrar’s right to hold and express ‘gender-critical beliefs’ in a political party will clear the way for real change inside the Green Party and guide it back towards being a place where healthy, open debate is encouraged, as it should be in a progressive, democratic party.

It’s an emergency…

Let’s get laser-focussed on tackling the Climate Emergency, the devastating damage being done to the natural world, and the pressing need to create an inherently equitable and fair global economy. Fighting for women’s sex-based rights is part of this massive, vital project. Let’s have an end to wasting precious time battling ‘No Fault Suspensions’ and the like. An end to authoritarianism. Let’s get our Green Party back!

If you want to help…

Many people have reached out to us, following our October 26th meeting, asking what they can do to help. Here are a few ideas:
1. You could talk to someone in your local Green Party who you think might be open to listening and see if they’d be up for signing the Declaration.
2. If you feel you have enough support, you could ask to hold a discussion about the Declaration in your local party. Do feel free to contact us if you need further support.
3. You could follow us on Twitter and retweet or ‘like’ our posts.
4. You could donate to GWD. The small group of women who developed and are running the Green Women’s Declaration are doing so entirely voluntarily. However, our work entails some costs which we could dearly do with help to cover e.g. website hosting, fees to MailChimp for our mailing list, developing resources such as our banner & flyers. If you can spare a regular donation, or even a one-off contribution, for our work we would be very grateful and promise to put it to good use in the cause of women’s sex-based rights within the Green Party and wider environmental movement

Please click here to donate

Above all, keep campaigning #ForWomenAndPlanet
Thank you once again for your support.

 

GWD – GPW Meeting Recording

Green Women’s Declaration Q&A Event with Green Party Women 26/10/23

Why we need the Green Women’s Declaration. Discussing Sex and Gender in the Green Party.

Chaired by Zoe Hatch – Founder of the Green Women’s Declaration and Co-Chair of Green Party Women.

With: Imogen Makepeace, Sara Mai and Emma Bateman.

Green Women’s Declaration meeting – 7pm Thursday 26th Oct

As most members of Green Party Women are now aware, some members of the Green Party created the Green Declaration for Women’s Sex Based Rights which went live in August. Members of the Declaration emailed Green Party Women to ask if we would like to learn more about the Declaration and we had also had correspondence from members.

At a committee meeting, the Green Party Women committee voted in favour of inviting representatives of the Declaration to talk to our members. This meeting was due to be hosted by GPW Co-Chair, Zoe Hatch. However, since then, Zoe has been placed on a NFS (no fault suspension) after a complaint was made about an email which she sent out to our members, informing them of events which had occurred and which affected GPW as a whole and the committee members in particular.

As the recent email by Zoe’s fellow co-chair, Chesca Walton, points out, members of the Green Party who are on NFS are not able to host official Green Party meetings. However, as Chesca also pointed out in her email, we want to make clear that if the Green Women’s Declaration wish to hold their own meeting, that is their choice, and you, as members, have a right to attend.”

I am delighted to announce that the Green Women’s Declaration have agreed to host tonight’s event; they encourage members of Green Party Women to join them and they have asked Zoe Hatch to chair the meeting.

If you have already registered for the event, your existing registration is still valid and the link will work. If you have not registered for the Declaration event but would like to attend, you can register  here.

[UPDATE 13.00]

Joe Hudson-Small (sole remaining co-chair of GPRC) doesn’t seem too keen on encouraging free speech or debate. Quite why he thinks there may be a risk in attending a Zoom meeting is puzzling.

He says:

“For the avoidance of doubt, the Green Party or any constituent part of it should not be encouraging members to attend an event where a member on suspension is known to be hosting the event, as we have the safety of our members to consider.

Members are free to attend the event at their own risk.

Thank you for understanding.

Joe Hudson-Small

London representative to and acting chair of Green Party Regional Council”

 

Green Women’s Declaration Update

The weekend of the 6-8 October 2023 saw the Green Party Conference in Brighton where the party celebrated 50 years since formation. We took leaflets about the declaration and our now infamous Green Women’s Declaration banner (more about that later) determined to spread the word about our campaign.

We had many, many members come up to us and THANK us for speaking out. They felt reassured where previously they had felt fear, they felt a sense of belonging where previously they had felt isolated, they felt a sense of relief that FINALLY someone was standing up for women’s rights. Many were proud to have signed but many remain in the shadows, only able to give us their discreet support.

Some long standing members described how just by existing we are an act of resistance against the authoritarian tyranny that currently grips the party – seeking to silence women’s voices and ride roughshod over our hard won sex-based rights. Whilst we are publicly ignored by the party, we know our existence makes them deeply uncomfortable.

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Dramatic events
The conference saw some dramatic events that prove we are needed now more than ever. Our GWD leaflets were torn from people’s hands, ripped up in front of them and our banner was attacked and damaged by GPW Co-Chair and Parliamentary Candidate, Chesca Walton. You can find out more by watching this video:

Article in The Critic
This sort of abuse is nothing new for Gender Critical voices within the party. Such attacks are precisely why the declaration exists. One of our signatories, Nathan Williams, has written a brilliant article about the ongoing aggression towards GC members and why this crisis needs to be addressed now, before it’s too late: https://thecritic.co.uk/it-isnt-easy-being-a-gender-critical-green/

What can you do?
So, what can you do, now, to help bring this insanity to a close? Well, if you’re a Green Party Member we urge you to share the Green Party’s own current legal advice with your local party. Ask your local party officers to distribute the advice to all members. It is a disgrace that we are having to do this when the party has had this information for months – so much damage to the party could have been prevented if GPEx and GPRC had taken action to prevent discrimination against members – but they remain silent, happy for the abuses to continue and in many instances being complicit with it. Here is a copy of the advice if you haven’t read it. It makes clear that those of us who believe in sex-based rights and single sex provisions have every right to speak out in favour of them.

If you are not a party member, you can still help! Write to your local party, tell them about the advice, say why you are no longer a member if you resigned over this issue. Don’t forget you can also urge friends to write too. Tell them we need their help, now more than ever.

With thanks for your ongoing support,
Green Women’s Declaration

To sign up for email updates visit https://mailchi.mp/f4f1a139cde3/green-womens-declaration