Sutton and Cheam Labour Party Sutton and Cheam Constituency Labour Party, London Borough of Sutton
Action on Equalities
Introduction
Our local party has throughout its history been committed to promoting equality in a wide range of forms. We seek to understand and act by the Equality and Human Right’s Commission (EHRC) protected characteristics: of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation.
We recognise there can be wider discrimination and were the first ever CLP to adopt a Neurodiversity and Mental Health Charter. Our General Committee has also undertaken Dementia Friends training twice. We have also for many years recognised occupational class can have strong economic inequalities too. Within the wider Labour Movement, Trade Unions have always played a key role promoting greater economic and social equality for working people. As well as inequality within countries, these economic inequalities also have a global dimension with a need for an internationalist response to address deep social inequalities in the global “south” some of which were the aftermath of the era of colonialism. We further recognise Intersectionality as a framework for conceptualizing a person, group of people, or social problem that can be affected by a number of discriminations.
As well as locally campaigning on a wide range of equality issues over the last century, we also have tried to advance the cause of equality in a positive way through our own internal actions, selecting the first ever Labour transgender parliamentary candidate, Emily Brothers. Emily was also blind and was supported by the Access to Elected Office for Disabled People Fund, a government pilot scheme to improve access to standing for disabled parliamentary candidates. We also believe we hold a record with two-thirds of our 27 candidates in the 2018 Local Elections being Women.
Whilst there have certainly been serious issues elsewhere within the Party we are pleased to report our CLP itself has never had any local problems with Antisemitism. However we are not complacent and our officers have attended national Party training on the issue and we have also circulated the widely welcomed TUC guide to talking about antisemitism to all our CLP and branch officers and elected delegates and it appears as a link in our local member Handbook that goes to all members. We also seek to abide by Labour Codes of Conduct on that and other forms of racism including Islamophobia, Afrophobia and Anti-Black racism.
We operate at a number of levels in promoting greater equality:
Dedicated CLP Equalities Officers
We have dedicated CLP Officers for a wide range of equalities areas who regularly report on issues:
- Trade Union Liaison Officer: Vic Paulino
- Women’s Officer: Lauren Peek
- BAME Officer: Vidyasagar Paleri
- Disability Officer: Richard Phillips
- LGBTQ+ Officer: Victoria Wright
- Youth Officer: Toby McGuinness
- Equality and Diversity Officer: Richard Phillips
- Inclusion Officer: Victoria Wright
Our equality officers help us identify local and national campaigns to support that are reported below and elsewhere on this website. They have also held local Women’s, BAME and Youth members meetings in the last few years too.
Local Campaigns
Most recently we have strongly supported the following campaigns or issues:
- We have supported local activity to raise awareness against Violence Against Women & Girls (VAWG). Along with Carshalton & Wallington CLP we are the only two Labour CLP’s in the country registered as supporters of the White Ribbon campaign against male domestic violence.
- We are promoting the campaign against the closure of rail ticket offices which will particularly impact on the disabled and other vulnerable people.
- We have raised concern over reduction of cash payment in shops which impact on the poorest without access to full banking facilities.
- We have raised concerns over access to the Blue Badge scheme and ensured that was in our Borough Labour Manifesto.
- We have supported Sutton Labour Councillors in their campaign for better air quality after the imposition of the Beddington Incinerator
- Some of our activists have attended Sutton LGBTQ Forum events
- Some of our activists have helped Sutton Nightwatch
- Our website promotes global solidarity through support for organisations campaigning in the fields of Humanitarian Assistance, Climate Change, International Development and Human Rights.
National Labour Equality Structures and Networks
Labour has a number of formal National Equality Groups that our members can take part in.
Some of our members are also part of the various affiliated Socialist Societies and other groups that form networks focused on a wide range of equalities issues:
Labour National Women’s Committee
East and South East Asians for Labour
Labour Campaign for International Development
Local Community Equality Organisations and Campaigns
No single organisation can seek to address all these issues on their own so locally we work closely with campaigners, trade unionists and co-operators (some of whom are in our Friends Network and some in affiliated organisations) as we seek to promote equalities by supporting local organisations dedicated to some of the specific issues:
Sutton Race Equality Conference
Sutton African & Caribbean Cultural Organisation
Sutton Dementia Action Alliance