GWD at the GPEW Autumn Conference

Despite Green Women's Declaration having booked a stall at Conference, that booking was cancelled less than 48 hours before Conference began on 3rd October in Bournemouth. Nonetheless, we went equipped with a table, banners, badges, and leaflets and stood outside the venue, where lots of members were happy to speak to us. The conversations generally revolved around the importance of free speech, and most of the members we spoke to couldn’t understand why our stall had been cancelled (allegedly it was Zack Polanski who led the charge to ban us).

Party members agreed that open dialogue should be welcomed inside the conference hall and not pushed to the pavement outside. They had a range of views on sex and gender, and many were unaware how divisive this issue was in the Green Party. Some were new members who had left Labour, disillusioned by that party's authoritarian tendencies. They were dismayed to discover a similar suppression of debate in the Greens.

Overall, the collective mood of Green Women's Declaration supporters outside conference was upbeat, in contrast to the gloomy reports coming from friends inside, where it seems that there was a sense that the 'Zack faction' voted en masse as directed.

C03 Reforming Trans Healthcare (calling for puberty blockers for children) passed with no debate. Members who might have spoken against it admitted that they believed opposing the motion was futile and potentially risky, as they would be putting a target on their backs.

The final plenary on Sunday afternoon, when many members had left for long journeys home, debated two controversial motions.

D05 Change the Governance Structures of the Party was passed which means that power will be taken away from the regions and from the Executive. Regional Council will be replaced with a larger Council elected by the whole membership - which could result in some regions having no representation - and GPEx will be reduced in size with its members not being elected to specific roles. 

E06  The GPEW and the Global Climate and Ecological Emergency - which would have instructed the Party to put campaigning on the climate emergency at the heart of its work - was defeated.

While debate was stifled inside, outside we had lively, free flowing conversations. Jenny Jones came out to chat (though the leadership and other Green luminaries scurried past avoiding eye contact) and despite the Party's best attempts to silence us, lots of our leaflets made it into the conference venue, and the story of our cancellation made it into The Times and GB News.