Jeremy Corbyn & 'Women Only'

by Les May

THE suggestion that Jeremy Corbyn will back the introduction of 'women only' carriages at night suggests he isn't the vehicle to a different kind of Labour party that his supporters have been eager to believe.  This is just the kind of 'shopping list' politics we have been hearing from Labour for years where some bright spark thinks that announcements favouring one interest group or other will secure votes.

 

I want to be able to vote for a Labour candidate who understands that its people of both sexes, all skin colours, all religious affiliation or none, of any sexual orientation or none, who are affected by problems of inequality, low wages, zero hours contracts and unaffordable housing, who want to be protected by a union, who can fall ill or become disabled, who will become old and need care, and who are frustrated by a lousy railway system.  I hoped Corbyn might offer this.

 

But now I come to think of it the writing was on the wall in his leaflet to members which promised 'Straight talking, honest politics'.  The endorsement from Cat Smith MP for Lancaster and Fleetwood focused entirely on issues related to women who make up just 50% of the population.  That from Mike Jackson, founding member, 'Lesbians and Gay Men Support the Miners' included his belief that Corbyn was a supporter of LGBT rights, a group that make up a much smaller percentage of the population.

 

You cannot build a progressive party based upon the politics of identity.  Our identity is what divides us from other people.  To weld us together we each have to submerge it a little to make room for the identity of others.

 

By comparison with Yvette Cooper, Corbyn is a lucky man.  In the 'i' for 19 August Sarah Solemani endorsed Cooper because her policies included 'implementing buffer zones around abortion clinics where violence and intimidation are rife... '.  So which country would this be Sarah?