TODAY at NEU conference we are going to debating an important motion about the weaponisation of violence against women and girls.

This motion is vital as it set out our unions position around one of the many tools the far right is using to divide us by proclaiming migrants are to blame for VAWG.  

It’s eerily similar to the rhetoric used to divide our movement around the issues of trans rights, painting the picture that trans women are somehow a danger to cis women because it is exactly the same far right playbook. We must combat this divisive nonsense and come together to look at practical ways we can dispel the myths.

The reality is the main danger to women and girls in our society are cis men. Most perpetrators of violence against women and girls are known to the victims already and one in three women will experience domestic abuse and on average one woman is murdered by a male partner or male ex-partner every four days.

This is a class struggle and we must unite and fight together against the neoliberal agenda to keep the money rolling upwards to the elite global capitalists. Make no mistake, the billionaire-funded far right has undeniably created a hostile environment to keep us divided.

At the same time as it is working to blame migrants it is funding toxic online misognysts like Andrew Tate and the late Charlie Kirk to reinforce the patriarchical stereotypes that the status quo relies upon as well as driving false transphobic narratives online and in the media.

This must be challenged in our schools and communities. This is why initiatives like Women Against the Far Right are vital.

We must push back as a movement against this notion that the far right are protecting women and children. The truth is clearly seen by the statistics below.

Forty-one per cent of the 899 people arrested had previously been reported for crimes associated with intimate partner violence. In one area of the UK this figure was as high as 69 per cent. Previous offences included actual bodily harm, grievous bodily harm, stalking, breach of restraint and non-molestation orders, controlling coercive behaviours and criminal damage. From this we can clearly see these thugs are no defenders of women.  

As educators we are in a unique and privileged position to do something about this. Within my union, the NEU, we have developed an excellent toolkit for use in our schools called It’s Not OK! which is focused on working with children to tackle the scarily high levels of sexual harassment and misogyny in our schools and colleges.

Inside the NEU we need to keep this campaign high profile and get it more embedded in our grassroots workplace organising, alongside all of our excellent equality toolkits, and change the narrative with the next generation. And we need to share this work outside of the NEU — we must collaborate across our movement and in our communities.  

A few weeks ago I delivered a community workshop to a range of activists and support groups at a conference in Durham titled Enough is Enough, ending violence against women and girls, and I shared not only some of the good work we have been doing in the NEU but also the prevalence of misogyny and sexual harassment in our school system which some participants were shocked to learn.  

We talked about how changing cultures and attitudes must start with actually protecting our children from harmful online influences and by giving them an education that teaches them about healthy positive relationships and challenges harmful gender stereotypes.

I was proud to be part of massive NEU presence on the half-million strong Together march in London last Saturday and it has given me strength and hope that there are indeed many more of than them. But that was simply a start, and while we can certainly celebrate its success, the long-term work needs to be done in our schools and communities, now more than ever because It’s Never OK.

Vonni Hardman – County Durham NEU.