Internal elections 28 April 2014: Women’s Caucus – candidate(s) & statement(s)

Candidates:

Jade Hope (Northampton LU)

Nominated by Kate Hudson (Crouch End LU), Sharon McCourt (Birmingham LU) Bianca Todd (Northampton LU)

Susan Pashkoff (Waltham Forest LU) 

Nominated by Eleanor Firman (Waltham Forest LU), Kat Burdon-Manley (Cardiff LU), Gioia Coppola (Greenwich and Lewisham LU) as job share with Jade Hope

Statements

Jade Hope (Northampton LU)

I was born a feminist. It’s something I have truly believed in all my life, although I have only lived for 22 years so far. I was born in Lincoln and I have grown up in a working class environment. I have always been rather out spoken when I am passionate about something and I believe that this would perhaps be a benefit in this role. I have always tended to struggle with academia, yet I have never let this hold me back, I put myself through university getting a first on the dissertation which was about Female Perpetrators of the Holocaust, I presented this for Holocaust Memorial Day 2013. Whilst studying History at University I took every gender based module I could this helped me to develop knowledge about feminism and women within politics.

I have never been active in politics before, disadvantage I think not. I have fresh ideas and no previous bias opinions of anyone or anything. I went to my first local Left Unity meeting, which was the second one ever held in Northampton and I signed up that day for the next TNC in London. I have attended and supported every Left Unity event in any way I could since.

I became active in the Caucus after the founding conference, although I was already signed up to the emailing list. Since then I have written 2 articles for the website, the first defending the quotas after a direct attack was written about it, and I am still defending the quota system publicly. I also contributed to the broadsheet. I recently set up the twitter page for the caucus which has 174 followers already. Since the twitter account went live I have noticed that more women signed up to the emailing this and I believe this is a direct result of the page. At the policy conference I was on the SOC team which proved useful.

I am young, enthusiastic and working class. I believe that I can lead this already fantastic caucus to the future. I respect everyone’s efforts so far and I know I will need guidance on this path however I think it’s time for a change.

Susan Pashkoff (Waltham Forest LU)

I am a socialist feminist, economist,  activist and member of Socialist Resistance. I have been a political activist since the late 1970s (doing anti-war and Palestine solidarity work), I cut my teeth as a feminist activist volunteering as an escort to a women’s health centre facing attack from anti-abortion protestors in New York in the 1980s.

I have a doctorate in Economics from the New School. I taught at De Montfort University, (Leicester) Economics department from 1994-2003 when it closed. I have been unemployed since then due to a variety of illnesses precluding employment in my profession. I have been blogging as an NY-Brit expat since 2009, covering a wide range of topics (http://www.dailykos.com/user/NY%20brit%20expat/) including economics, feminist history, political debate and theory, labour history, ecosocialism, human rights and general politics.

Since 2010, my research work has explored the economics and ideology underlying austerity and the impact of austerity on women and disabled people in Britain. I have spoken both in the US and Britain and appeared on WBAI Pacifica radio (NY) addressing these issues and an article deriving from this research has been published in New Politics (winter 2014).

I am on the organising committee of Waltham Forest LU and am a member of the economics policy and social security commissions. I wrote the employment policy for LU, specifically, my contributions relate to Purple Jobs and creation of a cooperative sector. I am a member of the LU disabled people caucus and the women’s caucus

The caucus has worked well and co-operatively so far with groups of women setting up and maintaining the Facebook page, running this list and pulling together the fabulous IWD bulletin. I have played a role in each of these tasks. I think a job share caucus rep on the national council continues that spirit.

What I bring is a long history of political work on women’s issues and a strong understanding of women’s oppression and class exploitation and the intersectionality of oppression and exploitation on women’s lives under capitalism.