Kick-started by the incredible #MeToo movement, this project has enabled Labour women to share their stories of sexual harassment and abuse within the Labour Party anonymously so that we could build a compendium of the types of abuse women face which all too often are unseen, ignored or swept under the carpet.
We know that despite everything the Labour Party stands for, women are not believed, told they are lying, or in some cases their potential careers within the Party are threatened. The idea for this was germinated by women who love the Labour Party and work hard within it, but who know it has to be better.
We launched our call for submissions in October 2017, closing the survey in December 2017. In February 2018 we released a report of 43 anonymised stories submitted via this website to provide an insight into the experiences of sexual harassment, abuse and discrimination faced by women in the Labour Party and to convince those who run our Party to take these issues more seriously and create a consensus to change policy and cultural norms within our organisation. The report was sent to Jeremy Corbyn MP, Leader of the Labour Party; Iain McNichol, then General Secretary of the Labour Party; and members of Labour’s National Executive Committee. We did not include any stories in the report that specifically name individuals.
Please note: this is not an official Labour Party website or a way to report assaults or discrimination to the Labour Party. If you have experienced any form of sexual harassment within a Labour Party environment you can report it directly to the party so it can be dealt with through their existing procedures. A copy of the sexual harassment procedure can be found here: https://labour.org.uk/about/sexual-harassment-policy/
Who are we?
The LabourToo team recognises the extreme difficulty of speaking out which is why we too are anonymous. But we also recognise that this may create a sense of uncertainty about our motivations.
1. All of us are Labour Party members, some with many years under our belt.
2. Weve all held positions of responsibility in the Party and have a deep commitment to its success - we act not out of any misguided sense of factionalism, lack of loyalty or hostility to current or previous leaderships.
3. We are simply interested in letting the light in to the very real experience that women have in the Party day-in day-out so that those in positions of authority have the evidence to take real action.
What information did we ask for?
We wanted to break the cycle of women not feeling they can speak out in the same way as courageous websites like EverydaySexism have done. We also recognised that men experience harassment and abuse and though this project was aimed at women, we encouraged men to record their stories too. We asked people to submit the following information:
- What position they held in the Party (activist, elected, CLP officer etc.)
- Whether their experience was recent or a while ago.
- The position of the harasser(s)/abuser(s).
- Whether they reported the experience and if so, what happened.
- Whether their experiences have stopped them being active in the Party or made them consider their membership or activity levels in the Party e.g. standing for an elected position.
- Anything else they want to tell us.
Please see our full confidentiality statement for more.
What happened to the story I submitted?
We pulled together all admissible entries together in a document thematically and sent copies to senior members of the Labour Party. Some entries were excluded because they held too much identifying information for either the victim or potential perpetrator.
Further support
At this point we’d also like to ensure everyone has access to the National Rape and Sexual Abuse Support number: 0808 802 9999 and website: http://www.rasasc.org.uk/ as well as the National Domestic Violence Helpline: 0808 2000 247 http://www.nationaldomesticviolencehelpline.org.uk/
If you want to get in touch with us by email, contact us at team@labourtoo.org.uk