WE are holding a rally in Manchester on Saturday (2 July) to lay out our plans for shaping post-Brexit Britain
WE are looking forward. WE have a clear plan for the future. WE want to share it with you - and we want you to tell us what you think.
Join us in Manchester on Saturday July 2 from 1pm in Albert Square in front of the Town Hall.
To hear the voices of ordinary people. To be listened to.
WE will:
- implement an immigration policy that has equality and justice at its heart
- introduce universal childcare from the end of parental leave to the start of primary school
- put an end to uncertain employment practices that mean too many women are self-employed or on zero hours contracts, missing out on paid holiday and sick leave benefits.
- protect working women's rights to maternity leave and extend them to men, as well as end the gender pay gap
- create a politics that means something to ordinary women - and men - not just a Westminster elite.
Hatred and intolerance is rising as our markets and currency are falling. Post-EU Britain must be better than this.
Party leader Sophie Walker and special guests will speak to members, supporters and people interested in a party that in its first election in May beat longer established parties and won more than 350,000 votes. Thousands have joined over the last two months and many hundreds more in the past few days, all looking for a unified way forward.
“WE were born out of a simple idea, that a small party can create huge change,” says Walker. “Brexit has thrown into doubt rights and protections that were guaranteed to women and to some of the nation’s poorest and most vulnerable. The economic turbulence threatens to deprioritise the needs of the underrepresented majorities. The campaign has divided families and neighbours.”
“It has been less than a year since WE registered as an official party,” said co-founder Sandi Toksvig. “That year, and the past week alone, have seen tremendous change. But the old parties are too absorbed with infighting to manage that change. The old politics is not working.”
Party co-founder Catherine Mayer added: “There has been much talk of progressive alliances over the past week. This is the model WE proposed from day one: collaborative politics, working towards solutions that will benefit everyone. There is clearly a call from the electorate for a new way forward. WE have big announcements and some very big ideas we’re excited to reveal.”
Before the referendum, the Women’s Equality Party called for the rights of women to be protected and extended whatever the outcome of the vote. The failure of the Remain and Leave campaigns, and of broadcasters, to include women or take on board female perspectives until a last-minute rush (too little, too late) weakened the democratic process.
So join us as WE rally. Tell your friends, and let’s get to work.
Politics is ours. WE don’t have to ask for permission to claim it. Together we can build a new vision for our country in the name of equality.
Published June 30, 2016