Response to SWP's statement.
We are former members of the Newcastle Socialist Workers Party branch, and the three women who have made repeated complaints of a culture of sexism, bullying and misogyny within the branch; complaints which the DC have refused to investigate, and which have led to us and other members of the branch, being driven out of the organisation.
We are writing this in response to a statement released last night by the Socialist Workers Party, which we find grossly offensive, as it seeks to completely ignore the complaints of the female members around accessibility, safeguarding, sexism, misogyny, bullying and the atrocious conduct of Joint National secretary of the SWP, Amy Leather, during a meeting on 11th March in Newcastle (to which 6 formal complaints were submitted to the DC).
We feel that he statement seeks to conflate the complaints of the women in the branch, with concerns raised about the suspension of YB, despite the fact that the complaints raised by the women of a toxic culture of sexism and bullying predate YB’s suspension by nearly two years. Indeed, this has been the attitude of the DC throughout in refusing to investigate our concerns, and constantly seeking to conflate them with concerns raised over YB’s suspension and a breach of his confidentiality.
The statement even goes so far as to state:
We find this deeply concerning that following a group resignation of numerous members from the Newcastle SWP branch, citing a toxic culture of bullying and misogyny, and a failure by the organisation to either take these concerns seriously or indeed investigate; the SWP have once again in this statement, completely ignored and dismissed the voices of the women involved, and focused only on their continued victimisation of YB.
We are also astonished to read that the DC are now investigating our concerns around sexism, bullying and misogyny, as we have been previously told by the DC on numerous occasions, that they refuse to investigate our complaints. Indeed, when one of the female complainants C’OD wrote to the DC informing them that she had been driven out of the organisation by the culture in the branch, but that she had hoped to re-join once the matter had been addressed by the DC, she received the following response from Laura Miles, Chair of the DC:
We note that there is no recognition of the distress that we have experienced or the fact that the most active members of the branch, including 5 women, have been driven out of the organisation and have been left with no other option but to share their evidence in the public domain. The statement is a disgrace.
We also say to those few SWP members who have sent messages attacking Yunus and the other complainants, we would urge you to read all our evidence and see that we were left with no other avenue available to raise our concerns. No socialist organisation should refuse to investigate complaints of bullying, harassment, sexism and misogyny.
In solidarity,
FH
Cait O'Donovan
Rachel Meenan
We are writing this in response to a statement released last night by the Socialist Workers Party, which we find grossly offensive, as it seeks to completely ignore the complaints of the female members around accessibility, safeguarding, sexism, misogyny, bullying and the atrocious conduct of Joint National secretary of the SWP, Amy Leather, during a meeting on 11th March in Newcastle (to which 6 formal complaints were submitted to the DC).
We feel that he statement seeks to conflate the complaints of the women in the branch, with concerns raised about the suspension of YB, despite the fact that the complaints raised by the women of a toxic culture of sexism and bullying predate YB’s suspension by nearly two years. Indeed, this has been the attitude of the DC throughout in refusing to investigate our concerns, and constantly seeking to conflate them with concerns raised over YB’s suspension and a breach of his confidentiality.
The statement even goes so far as to state:
“A number of issues are raised by the statement, but the central issue is this. In February, this year the Central Committee of the SWP suspended Yunus Bakhsh from membership of the SWP for one year. This was a disciplinary suspension.”.
We find this deeply concerning that following a group resignation of numerous members from the Newcastle SWP branch, citing a toxic culture of bullying and misogyny, and a failure by the organisation to either take these concerns seriously or indeed investigate; the SWP have once again in this statement, completely ignored and dismissed the voices of the women involved, and focused only on their continued victimisation of YB.
We are also astonished to read that the DC are now investigating our concerns around sexism, bullying and misogyny, as we have been previously told by the DC on numerous occasions, that they refuse to investigate our complaints. Indeed, when one of the female complainants C’OD wrote to the DC informing them that she had been driven out of the organisation by the culture in the branch, but that she had hoped to re-join once the matter had been addressed by the DC, she received the following response from Laura Miles, Chair of the DC:
“Regarding the complaint you made, obviously the DC cannot action a complaint by someone who is not a party member and so it has been set aside and is not being actively pursued”.
We note that there is no recognition of the distress that we have experienced or the fact that the most active members of the branch, including 5 women, have been driven out of the organisation and have been left with no other option but to share their evidence in the public domain. The statement is a disgrace.
We also say to those few SWP members who have sent messages attacking Yunus and the other complainants, we would urge you to read all our evidence and see that we were left with no other avenue available to raise our concerns. No socialist organisation should refuse to investigate complaints of bullying, harassment, sexism and misogyny.
In solidarity,
FH
Cait O'Donovan
Rachel Meenan
YB is a thug, a bully, and an antisemite!
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