Ian McNee Profile picture
Sep 21, 2020 9 tweets 5 min read Read on X
At the exuberant 2017 @UKLabour conference I was privileged to attend a meeting addressed by @ruthserwotka & @cwknews discussing proposed changes to the 2004 Gender Recognition Act that would effectively erase women's & girl's limited & hard-won legal protections. /1
THREAD 👇🏼
The mood of the meeting was in contrast to the rest of conference: the venue had to be kept secret until the last minute as other recent events where women had the temerity to meet with other women to discuss their political, legal & social rights had been harassed & attacked. /2
Not only that but this reactionary proposal from the Tory government, paralysed by the insurgent & radicalising #LabourParty under #JeremyCorbyn's leadership, was tacitly supported by large sections of the labour movement & many other public institutions. /3
From that meeting a small group of women from the Labour Party, trade unions & women's organisations formed @Womans_Place_UK - apparently a small & lone voice in a political landscape that seemed intent on silencing women's legitimate protest at the erosion of their rights. /4
Over the past three years the misogynist grip on political discourse (every major UK political party), the media, public institutions, sporting bodies & even many women's organisations seemed like a vice & the harassment of vocal feminists only increased. /5
But those driving this attack on women (and the cowards that cravenly went along with it for perceived narrow advantage) forgot an important thing: that women are the backbone of ALL our progressive movements & are steely in their determination to resist their oppression. /6
So while political parties & public bodies put fingers in their ears our sisters from @Womans_Place_UK, @LabWomenDec, @ForwomenScot, @fairplaywomen & others organised & gave voice to many thousands of women across the UK. This defeat of #SelfID has not come out of the blue. /7
This is the one of the biggest of a series of victories in rolling-back the attack on women's rights. Our sisters will lead us to further victories, not just in ensuring that women's sex-based rights are enforced & enhanced but victories for wider progressive movements. /8
Women will lead the way in re-uniting a left divided & crippled by misogyny, classism & racism - a goal that we now need to achieve more than ever under a rampantly elitist & racist Tory government & a fake opposition under #KeirStarmer. Here's to my sisters & comrades! ✊🏿✊🏼✊🏾 /9

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More from @IanSMcNee

Feb 5
Even as parts of the British left escape the activist bubble to engage in mass politics thanks to the huge peace mobilisations organised by @PSCUpdates & @MCB for a #CeasefireNow, they remain myopic & inward-looking on critical issues.

@AyoCaesar is a prime example. Here... /1
@PSCupdates @mcb @AyoCaesar ...the @NovaraMedia commentator rightly points out that the witch-hunts being orchestrated against pro-#Palestine activists like @NizMhani must be resisted. But Ash seems not to suffer any cognitive dissonance over her participation in similar witch-hunts against #feminists... /2
@PSCupdates @mcb @AyoCaesar @novaramedia @NizMhani ...who understand the social significance of biological sex & campaign for that to continue to be recognised in law & civil society. Women like criminologist @JoPhoenix1, social worker Rachel Meade, barrister @BluskyeAllison & development consultant @MForstater all faced... /3
Read 7 tweets
Sep 25, 2020
It is deeply disappointing that @UKLabour (my party) has allowed this racist & utterly regressive #Tory government to present itself as the protector of women's rights & children's safety. The current #Labour stance is wrong in so many ways it is hard to know where to begin. /1
Firstly we must be clear that for the Tories this is a risk-free & cynical act of political expediency that fits with their petty nationalist narrative that presents the left as an aloof "metropolitan elite". The same Tories have impoverished & marginalised women over the... /2
...past decade of austerity and they have failed to act upon the growing tide of male violence & sexual exploitation faced by women & girls. Anyone drawing the conclusion that a vote for the Tories is a vote for women is sadly mistaken. /3
Read 10 tweets
Jun 27, 2020
So far I've not commented publicly on the @PeoplesMomentum #NCGvote. both @ForwardMmtm & @Mom_Renewal have good people on their slates but both groups *collectively* have failed to make a strong political case for their slate. Neither has publicly stood against the false... /1
...accusations of anti-Semitism that divided the Labour left and undermined the only genuinely pro-working class, anti-racist & internationalist leader our party has ever had: #JeremyCorbyn. This is critical because part of the left capitulated to the smears, sealing our fate. /2
Anyone on the left who believes that if we keep our mouths shut about atrocities perpetrated by #ApartheidIsrael, if we quietly back away from #BDS & #Palestine solidarity, if we silent while those falsely accused of anti-Semitism are silenced & expelled is DELUSIONAL. /3
Read 10 tweets
Jun 26, 2020
The right-wing of @UKLabour, led by @Keir_Starmer & cheered-on by the anti-Labour press are very publicly sticking the knife into the #Labour left by sacking #RebeccaLongBailey. What do the sectarian left do? Silent: @workersliberty, the @Clarion_Mag, @MomentumInt_. /1
Some of their supporters give the game away, dishonestly claiming that #MaxinePeake (and by association @RLong_Bailey) peddled an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory. No surprise as the #Islamophobic @workersliberty have been giving left cover to false claims of AS all along. /2
This organisation and their assorted fronts are not part of the left. They act solely in the interest of their own organisation and as a result not only aided the downfall of #JeremyCorbyn but also scandalously British imperialism's military intervention in Syria & beyond. /3
Read 4 tweets
Jun 22, 2020
Thanks @MADooceyGroup
- your contactors have just DELIBERATELY cut off electricity to the whole of our street, Allen Road in #Wolvehampton, without warning anyone or letting us know when it will be back on. Absolutely rubbish. @ExpressandStar
@bbcwm
Workers from @MADooceyGroup have been in the street ALL DAY - why have you not put a note through resident's doors warming them about a planned powercut? Why have you caused a powercut when people are preparing their evening meals? Would this have happened in Tettenhall or Penn?
I doubt it. But Whitmore Reans has large black communities. Perhaps @MADooceyGroup don't give a damn because we're a poorer part of town with migrant communities. It seems #BlackLivesMatter hasn't been heard by Doocey. Did @WolvesCouncil or @wolvespolice has a say in this action?
Read 4 tweets
Mar 31, 2020
#JennyHarries is simply a mouthpiece for the #Tory government's #Covid19 #HerdImmunity policy. Here she ignores the fact that there was no large-scale #TestAndTrace during the containment phase in the UK (unlike China, South Korea, Denmark, etc.) & lies about the #NHS's... /1
...preparedness for the #pandemic after 10 years of #austerity & cuts, suggesting that it is possible to "clinically manage" the #coronavirus (ignoring public health systems overwhelmed in Italy, Spain & now the US, who have not had effective test & trace programs). So when... /2
...#JennyHarries is asked in Downing Street press conferences about comparisons with other countries she has to lie again, claiming it is not possible to make any meaningful comparisons without providing any scientific evidence for such a claim. Of course @JohnsHopkins differ: /3 Image
Read 6 tweets

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