WELCOME, and thank you for joining Labour Women’s Network.

For those who don't know me, I'm Abena, Chair of Labour Women's Network.  I'm also the Labour MP for Erith and Thamesmead and Shadow Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury.

I wanted to share with you some of the things that make LWN a much loved part of the Labour movement.

As you will know, Labour Women’s Network exists to secure the election of more Labour women to public office at every level and to support Labour women to play a full part in the Party, having been around for over three decades you can imagine we have seen lots of changes.  

We are a sisterhood, no matter your shade of red, and aim to bring diverse Labour women together to make our voice heard.  We are the women in the room!

We are affiliated to the Labour Party as a socialist society, in fact we are the only socialist society dedicated to the advancement of women in our Party.

We are a busy organisation!  Our committee and training team are all volunteers and we have two part-time members of staff to help with the running of LWN.  You can find out more About LWN, including who is on the committee here.

We aim to send out regular e-newsletters, which will share news, events or campaigning.  Please make sure you keep your details up-to-date.

TRAINING

The main part of our work is our gold-standard training programme which has been running for over three decades now. You can find out about all our training, past and present here

During the pandemic we moved all our training onto Zoom.  As part of our #keepthegoodstuff promise we will continue with our online training and as restrictions lift will start to re-introduce in-person training.  We have also continued to offer bursaries via our own Jean Black Bursary Fund for all our training.

ELECTIONS AND AGM

Every year we hold our Annual General Meeting (AGM) normally around Annual Conference, again as part of our #keepthegoodstuff promise we will continuing to hold this online from now on.  At our AGM you will find out the results of our Management Committee Elections (see below); receive reports from the Committee on our activities during the last year; and hear from speakers. 

Early in the summer months, all eligible LWN members will receive an email with the details about our AGM and Committee Elections.

We hold our Elections over the summer months, details are emailed out around June/July each year to all eligible LWN members, so its important that you stay in LWN membership to get a vote (and stand if you've been a member for four months).  Every year, full LWN members elect a Committee who are responsible for the direction of all LWN work.  Each committee member holds office for 2 years and the committee is elected in two halves.  Meet LWN's committee here.

EVENTS

Over the last 18 months all our events have been held over Zoom, you can watch a few of them here.  As part of our #keepthegoodstuff promise we will continue with our online events but hope to hold our Christmas Party and other fundraising events as restrictions lift.  It’s fair to say that Covid-19 has (and continues) to hit our ability to fundraise very hard!

You may also like to have a look here at some of our feminist merchandise via our online shop!

You can find out lots more information from our website, please like our Facebook page and find us on Twitter @LabourWomensNet

I hope this gives you a favour of what LWN is doing.

In sisterhood,

Abena,
Abena Oppong-Asare MP, Chair of LWN