There is lots of useful info in the links provided by Emma in her feedback. She is promoting women in business but the data she provides suggests that, if capitalism cannot deliver equality in the boardroom, it certainly cannot deliver on the shop floor. All the more reason to support women participating in trade union and socialist organisation
Hi,
I found your page here: https://creatingsocialism.org/international-womens-day-is-here-and-we-still-need-it/, and I saw that you mention International Women’s Day. Thanks for writing about this organisation – I’m passionate about women’s rights and gender equality and I really value its work!
While researching women’s rights, I came across a stats article that I believe you and your readers will find interesting. It sheds light on the current state of women’s participation in the business world.
I found this article very informative and I thought that you might also find it relevant. You can access the article here: https://pay.com/blog/women-in-business-stats
Thank you for your dedication to empowering women. Your efforts are truly appreciated and can make a difference in our world!
Best regards,
EMMA M MADDISON
Excellent article by Natalie Porter on teaching, Dave Middleton’s article on Cost of Living Crisis is ‘right on the money’.
Mike, my late father was a member of the SPGB, regularly travelling from Dundee to London in order to attend meetings, sleeping on people’s floors. I will bring the whole publication up on my tablet to reread at leisure and do justice to everyone’s contributions. Keep up the good work.
GAIL MACFARLANE
Our survey on DIANE ABBOTT’s suspension by Sir Keir Starmer drew a varied response.
Don’t care one way or another, when you look at Labour Party history and its military support for imperialism, anyone still in the Labour Party since it lied and killed one million Iraqis is either gaslighting us or is stupid.
NIGEL THOMAS
There is no question that Diane Abbott could have chosen more careful wording in the letter to The Observer that led to her having the party whip withdrawn and being put under investigation.
It is also clear that she was making a valid point. Although they faced, and often continue to face prejudice, redheads and people from Irish and Jewish backgrounds don’t do so in the way black people do.
There is, apart from the racist laws that operated in Nazi Germany, no historical legacy of members of those groups being marginalised by the laws of the society in which they live.
Irish or Jewish drivers lucky enough to own an expensive car aren’t routinely pulled over by the police on suspicion of having either stolen it or being involved in selling drugs.
This, I’d argue, is about Diane Abbott being a left-wing MP who supported Jeremy Corbyn and so an anathema to the Starmer cabal.
Her loss of the whip and being placed under investigation, no prizes for guessing what said investigation will conclude, has little to do with ‘rooting out antisemitism’ and everything to do with purging the Labour Party of anyone associated with the left or Jeremy Corbyn.
ADAM COLCLOUGH
In August 2020, Labour MP Barry Sheerman, referring to the failure of two prominent Jewish businessmen to be appointed to the House of Lords said: “Apparently there has been a bit of a run on silver shekels!”. Following an outcry he apologised and said that his words were badly chosen and that he did not intend the meaning many people took from them. A Labour Party spokesperson said: ‘Barry has apologised. He deeply regrets the offence caused’. That was the end of the matter.
These are double standards.
BRENDAN O’BRIEN
No idea how I missed the surveys! I would want to vote for Corbyn and Abbott because of their general politics but that would depend on their stance on protecting women’s sex-based rights and of course dysphoric children.
In any election that will be a big issue and I am considering spoiling my ballot as I cannot vote Conservative because of their general politics but Labour and the Greens have swallowed the gender Kool-Aid so I won’t vote for either.
It’s pretty devastating, I have never considered spoiling a ballot; I know several women in the same position. Oddly the men I know who are also biological realists will still vote; this shouldn’t be just a women’s issue.
LINDA FERGUSON
The favourable opinion among readers for a new left of centre party is perfectly understandable, and from a socialist standpoint it is positive news.
This view is fairly widespread among those who were enthused by Jeremy Corbyn’s short spell as a campaigning Labour leader.
It is however naive, for two reasons.
Firstly, the practical difficulties of gaining an electoral foothold in an established FPP voting system are formidable, and the failure of attempts like Scargill’s Socialist Labour Party give ample warning (and this is not in my book an argument for PR, by the way).
But the second, and by far the more important reason, is that attempts to resurrect a Corbyn-style left reformist party in different clothing would encounter precisely the same obstacles that Jeremy did.
The ruling class was able to neutralise the Corbyn threat without him forming a government. But the assault, vicious though it was, was as nothing compared to the sabotage Corbyn would have immediately faced attempting to implement Labour’s manifesto. All the power of corporate capital, and its guardian the capitalist state, would have been immediately mobilised.
This is an issue that Corbynists like McDonnell allude to in suitably vague terms, but never address. Never addressed it for the simple reason that there is no answer to be found in left reformist politics.
The power to defeat and overwhelm the defences of the ruling class does not reside in parliament or in electoral votes. It lies in the power that a militant and united working class could exercise, and only there.
Orienting on building that power requires a completely different politics than any variety of Labourism. And that’s why my political energies and political intelligence are harnessed to revolutionary socialism and have been for close on 50 years.
RICHARD PURDIE
Our article on bullying by RAAB drew this response from an ex-civil servant.
Good morning Comrades, I’m just catching up with your articles. This one struck me particularly because I am an ex-civil servant.
I am angry and affronted on behalf of my former colleagues by these attacks following the findings on Raab. Just to set the record straight, most civil servants are low or averagely paid and in the admin and executive grades. We were always told we’d never be well paid but at least we’d get a decent pension when we retired. That has been under threat and subject to change over the years.
In my experience, we worked hard, often without enough staff and with many policy changes depending on what Minister was appointed. Thatcher tried to privatise some of our work, but our union was a great bulwark against it. I was proud to be a union rep for 18 years and I never recall anyone putting in a grievance lightly. It is a stressful process and one most people seek to avoid.
I’d like to offer my solidarity and best wishes to all civil servants in the face of this recent unfair, unwarranted backlash.
LINDSEY BAKER
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Life long socialist. Now retired, I have been an office junior, a bookseller, a docker and a teacher. I write a lot and read a lot more. Committed member of the Society of Authors, English PEN and the National Education Union. Uncommitted member of the Labour Party. Will they expel me before my direct debit expires?