WHEN Richard Leonard was elected leader of the Scottish Labour Party in November 2017, decisions were made swiftly to move ahead with the promises made on increasing women’s representation and to rebuild an effective Labour women’s organisation in Scotland.

Labour’s Scottish executive turned its attention to preparing the necessary rule changes for the Scottish Labour conference in March 2018, and by November 2018 a delegate-based, policy-making Labour women’s conference took place in Glenrothes.

Earlier that year, in February 2018, the Glasgow Women’s Library had provided a great venue for bringing Labour women together. From that event, which was addressed by Dawn Butler MP, shadow secretary of state for women and equalities, along with members of the Scottish Parliament, strong contacts between women in constituencies and in trade unions across Scotland were established.

At a Britain wide level, the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership is also re-establishing a Labour women’s organisation and continuing to make good progress in increasing women’s representation too, increasing women’s voices at every level.

The Glenrothes Labour women’s conference discussed a wide range of topics, raised through the motions submitted by local constituency Labour parties and by trade unions. That conference also elected a Scottish Labour women’s committee, with representation from all sections of the party, and directly elected women to sit on the Scottish policy forum, to ensure that the views of the women’s conference are taken into account in the development of the next Scottish Parliament manifesto.

The Scottish Labour women’s conference also directly elected two women to take up two new seats on Labour’s Scottish executive.

These structural changes are slightly in advance of those progressed at Britain-wide level so far. Whilst UK Labour women’s conference does now elect a “women’s conference arrangements committee” with a specific role to arrange conference, there is not yet a directly elected Labour women’s committee from that conference, which would strengthen the voice of women, and assist in carrying out the campaign priorities of the UK Labour women’s conference.

The policy-making women’s conference was held in Telford in February 2019. The date has not yet been announced for the 2020 UK Labour women’s conference, but is expected to be next May or June.

In Scotland we are now preparing for the 2019 Scottish Labour women’s conference. This will take place at Strathclyde University on Saturday November 16, and local Labour parties and affiliated organisations are now receiving the information on delegate registration and deadline dates for motions for consideration at that conference.

The theme of conference agreed as women, climate change and environmental justice, and the women’s committee is already undertaking work on women and care policies, on increasing resources for supporting women experiencing violence, and on mentoring schemes to better support women seeking to stand in elections. We can expect another packed day, and a stronger voice for women in the Scottish Labour Party.

This is not about setting up many more meetings for the sake of having meetings. When we look around us at rising inequality, the growing gap between the earnings of those at the top and at the bottom, the never-ending reports of violent assaults on women, the demand for refuges and safe spaces, and the continuing undervaluing of care in our society — we need women’s voices and experiences to be around every policy-making table.

The Scottish Parliament resumes shortly. Early in September we will hear from the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon MSP, outlining the programme for government for this session. Addressing the rise in child poverty should be high on the agenda.

The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) reports that child poverty in Scotland is on the rise. Almost one in four (240,000) of Scotland’s children is officially recognised as living in poverty.

One in four. This is shameful. And it must call into question the effectiveness of policy interventions made so far.
CPAG observe that the Scottish government’s own figures predict that on the current trajectory, 38 per cent of children in Scotland will be living in poverty by 2030/31.

Scottish government figures also record that 65 per cent of children in poverty live in working households. This increase in “in-work” poverty is happening across Britain, as the labour market fails to provide stable, secure, and well-paid employment for so many people. And the disproportionate poverty in lone mother households continues to rise.

Unless there is significant change in our labour market policies, including a recognition that care giving whether in a paid setting or at home, requires recognition and investment, child poverty will only continue to increase.

In Scotland the SNP government has recently announced that some of the powers it now has to alter the social security benefits will be used for a new Scottish Child Payment for those families on the lowest incomes, which will of course improve the living standards for thousands of children.

However, it does not address the shortage of childcare places, including the inadequate funding to allow recruitment of the stable and secure workforce needed to meet the Scottish government’s commitment on expansion of services, nor the lack of serious investment in the care sector, reinforcing poverty in so many households.

Child poverty is about women’s poverty. Which is a point well developed by the Scottish Women’s Budget Group, the UK Women’s Budget Group, and the UN Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights Philip Alston.
 
For the Labour Party, re-establishing our Labour women’s organisation must be for a purpose.

Women must have an equal right to a decent standard of living, to stable employment, to a roof over our heads, and be able to live free from fear and violence. Only by strengthening these demands and policies and implementing as a priority, not an afterthought, will we seriously make an impact on the shame of rising child poverty. That’s what a policy-making Labour women’s organisation brings to the table.

Ann Henderson is a member of Labour’s Scottish and national executive committees, and the Scottish Labour women’s committee.