No one more qualified to speak

Speaking of A oppressing B and B oppressing C – the UK Green Party says women must pretend men are women when told.

Green Party Women must remain trans-inclusive

Must. Orders are to be obeyed. Hop to it.

The intrinsically linked nature of social and climate justice isn’t news to anyone who has been involved with the Green Party for more than a few minutes. From tackling the disproportionate impact of deadly air pollution on people of colour, to opposing the running of privatised public transport for profit, the solutions to the climate crisis are so often those which promote societal equality and which tackle historic and contemporary injustice. Liberation politics is at the heart of all of this: ‘for people and planet’ means for all people, not merely those free from societal oppression.

Meh. I don’t buy it. I’m sure there’s plenty of overlap, but “intrinsically linked” is overstating it. Circumstantially often linked, yes, but intrinsically, no. It’s not the same kind of thing. The fixes are technical far more than they’re political or social. Poor people have more trouble getting broken plumbing fixed because it costs money, but the fixing itself is technical.

And that’s when we’re talking about real oppression. When we’re talking about the absurd made-up reverse victim and offender kind, it becomes even flimsier.

Next week, Green Party Women, a self organised liberation group within the party, will vote on a new constitution. This proposed constitution would remove the right of non-binary people and trans people who do not identify as women to vote in Green Party Women democracy, or to stand for election to its committee. It is vital that this constitution is be rejected.

Green Party Women want to keep men from voting in a women’s group, and we’re told they must not be allowed to keep a thing for women for women.

Time and time again, the Green Party membership has reiterated its support for trans-inclusive feminism, passing a policy for the self identification of gender, and for the recognition of non-binary identities. Liberation from patriarchy must be inclusive and universal. To exclude trans and non-binary voices from Green Party Women is to absorb the system of oppression against which feminism fights into our own ranks.

Bollocks, kid. Women get to organize as women, which entails not being “inclusive” of men no matter how the men choose to “identify.” What if oil company executives started “identifying as” Green and wanted to gobble up the Green Party? Would you be all gung ho about that?

Self organised liberation groups in the Green Party of England and Wales represent an important principle within the fight for social justice: ‘nothing about us without us’. Ensuring that the voices of those affected are centred in the struggle for liberation is crucial — after all, there is no one more qualified to speak on the extent of queerphobia than queer people, no more legitimate voice than that of disabled people in the fight against ableism in society.

One, ok, but what does that have to do with Green?

Two, ok, but then why don’t women get to say “after all, there is no one more qualified to speak on the extent of sexism and misogyny than women”?

Our liberation groups organise against these forms of structural oppression, envisaging and mobilising for a world free from discrimination and prejudice where everyone is free to be who they are, and where barriers to societal participation are broken down.

You say “free to be who they are” but what you mean is “free to be who they are not.” You’re talking about people being free to claim to be the sex they are not, thus displacing people who are that sex. When the sex in question is the subordinated one, that becomes a problem.

This extends, of course, to the fight against patriarchal oppression. From the overturning of Roe v. Wade in the United States earlier this autumn, to the Conservative government refusing to take a clear stance on abortion here in the UK, whilst continuing to fail to make misogyny a hate crime, it’s clear that patriarchy is alive and thriving. In the fourth richest economy in the world, tampons are still financially out of reach for millions, menstrual leave is but a pipe dream, and just 1% of reported rapes lead to a charge — let alone a conviction.

Well said. So why are you putting your efforts into forcing women to pretend men are women if they say they are?

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