Last night, Movement for Change activists joined with Brixton residents to launch a women’s safety charter at the Electric Social nightclub on Acre Lane.

The launch followed months of actions, starting with a listening campaign and culminating in community meetings with the Suzy Lamplugh Trust, the Brixton Business Forum, local night venues, the Council’s Licensing Review Board and others, to negotiate concrete changes night venues can make to improve women’s safety at night.

In the borough of Lambeth, which includes Brixton, we have one of the highest rates of rape and sexual violence in London.  There was a 30% increase in reported rape in 2009/10 – far higher than the London-wide increase.  A significant number of rapes reported this year have involved suspects who have briefly known the victim and are classified by the Metropolitan Police Service as stranger 2 incidents.  For example, the victim and suspect may have met at a club, party or bar.  Many of the incidents are connected to the night time economy in Brixton Town Centre and the surrounding areas, as well as public transport.  Offences are most likely to occur from Friday to Sunday nights (for more info, see the Council’s excellent Know the Difference website).

The women’s safety charter (Hands Up for a #SafeNightOut) is designed to combat this issue, promoting a unified community response with practical steps both the Council and night venues can take to improve women’s safety in their area.

Want to know more? We’re hosting an event at Labour Party Conference on Sunday where some of the leading activists will share their stories in more detail. There’s also further information elsewhere on our website.

The Women’s Safety Charter, which aims to improve the safety practises of nightclubs, is the culmination of work led by local activists together with Movement for Change.

Together with local women, community groups, national organisations, local businesses and forums we have formed the Women’s Safety Charter and are ready to ask night-time establishments in Brixton to sign up.

Help us to make this change and take action on the 25th September!

To apply for a free ticket to this event please click here.

Movement for Change activists from across south London, spearheaded by women members of the Lambeth Women’s Forum, are taking action to improve the safety practices of nightclubs in Brixton.

Trained and developed by Movement for Change, the activists have launched a Women’s Safety Charter. The Charter arose out of dozens of 1-2-1 conversations as part of a community-wide listening campaign earlier this year. In May 2012, we worked in alliance with school students, local youth groups and charities (such as the National Stalking Helpline and the local Women’s Institute) to stage a large community meeting in the Brixton area.  At the event, Movement for Change activists presented testimony on their experiences of safety in the night-time economy and put forward concrete suggestions for change.

To find out more about the next strand of the Women’s Safety action, and how to get involved, please get in touch.

Michelle Agdomar with David Miliband and Rukayah Sarumi

Movement for Change leader and Labour activist Rukayah Sarumi has been featured as a leading ‘Young Revolutionary’ in the June edition of Pride, Europe’s largest lifestyle glossy for women of colour (@PrideMag).

In the interview, Rukayah called it “unfair” to brand youth in this country as apathetic, and referred instead to widespread disillusionment. Her proposed solution is to provide young people with a sense of their own agency, and to lead by example in making practical change in her community. One her work with Movement for Change, Rukayah said:

“We’re running a campaign around women’s safety, in particular legislation surrounding nightclubs. We’re working on professionalising bouncers’ roles and improving their training, so that in the case where a woman is harassed on the street outside a nightclub, they’re equipped to respond in the most effective way.”

Find out more about the work Lambeth women are doing with Movement for Change here: http://www.movementforchange.org.uk/tag/streatham/ and follow Rukayah here: @RukayahSarumi

Catriona Ogilvy on the organising journey of activists in Lambeth:

Our Party must be of our communities, not some distant organisation; that was the gist of what Ed Miliband told the audience at the Progress Conference last month. Among others he cited the innovative work Movement for Change has led, for example in CLPs such as Walthamstow and with Labour Students on their successful Living Wage campaign.

In Streatham and Lambeth, members have also grasped the importance of connecting with and understanding our communities. Working with Movement for Change, several members set out to meet and engage our local community in order to bring about practical change – working with local groups, community leaders, individual women and others to give evidence to the Council’s Licencing Policy Review next month.

Listening to local women’s experiences around safety on our streets over the past year, Labour members heard frank and honest stories of sexual harassment and violence. One told of how her sister had been assaulted in view of a doorman who had done nothing to help, many described harassment and others spoke of how they couldn’t recall a night out when one of them hadn’t been groped.

Lambeth, a South London borough with one of the highest incidence sexual violence in London, has instigated a Council-led “Real men know the difference” campaign to tackle the issue. The campaign reaches out beyond traditional awareness-raising and targets young men in the ‘hot spot’ areas of Clapham and Brixton. The campaign makes clear what consent is, highlights the differences between harmless fun and sexual harassment and looks to change the attitudes of those who visit the areas.

But our members have heard from local women about how more can be done at a community (rather than Council) level to make the night-time economy a safer place to be.

This was echoed by other testimony given to the Labour Women’s Safety Commission event we organised in the Spring. Shaping our focus out of people’s lived experience, a local campaign with national significance is growing. Next month, we expect to start negotiations with local nightclubs, in partnership with other local community groups. Based on what we’ve learned from building relationships with local women, we’ll be asking the clubs to sign up to small but important changes that will make a practical difference to women’s experience of the night-time economy in Brixton. We’ll be posting further details here as the negotiations develop!

This is exactly where our Party should be. Not a distant organisation, not even a distant organisation that might seek to listen, but a Party truly based within our communities where concerns can be heard, solutions sought and action for change taken together.

Catriona Ogilvy
Dulwich and West Norwood CLP & Lambeth Activist
@catriona_ogilvy

Not only is there growing concern, there is increasing evidence that the Coalition cuts are putting the personal safety of women at risk. This, combined with little thought into the impact their decisions will have upon the lives of women is extremely worrying.  Set up by Yvette Cooper MP to collate evidence on the impact of the Government’s decisions, the Labour Women’s Safety Commission visited Brixton. What they heard was the culmination of months of work by Labour activists and brought together a wide range of community leaders, residents and local groups.

In my constituency Streatham Labour members wanted to address issues of women’s safety and looked to reach out beyond our Party. With training and support from Labours home of Community Organising, Movement for Change, activists used newly acquired community organising skills and began to take action on issues of women’s safety in our local area. Going out speaking with women it was startling to hear how many had been personally affected by or knew of someone affected by domestic violence, harassment or sexual abuse.  People were ready to tell their stories; it sounds simple, but it really was as straightforward as going out and starting conversations with young women. What we found was that many had clear ideas about what they wanted to see changed and what would make them feel safer. Welcoming Stella Creasy MP and Kate Green MP as part of the women’s commission to Brixton was a perfect opportunity to share our real life examples of the realities facing women in our borough. The chance however to engage with, build relationships and give our community a voice was a much greater opportunity than simply sharing our own findings.

Much is talked about reaching out to our communities and going back to our grassroots as a Party, but this does not happen overnight and requires work. Having started already to meet with community leaders, councillors, teachers and local groups as part of our action, the commissions visit served as a base from which to build on these links and acted as a spark from which we could establish firm relationships. Opening the event, local activist Michelle Agdomar spoke of how six months earlier she had sighed thinking to herself “not more rhetoric” when she had read Movement for Change’s aim to ally the Party more closely with local communities. Looking round the room she saw teenagers from local youth groups, women from Streatham Women’s Institute, representatives from the National Stalking Helpline and many others ready to present their own evidence; she was glad to announce that she had been proved wrong.

“The commission’s attended lots of events around the country, but we haven’t been to one quite like this” Shadow Equalities Minister Kate Green told the room, and I believed her.  Perhaps it was Jadene’s evidence which she gave in the form of a song she had written herself, ‘Gotta be me’ (creativity had been encouraged!); hearing young women tell how they rarely had a night out without being groped or maybe listening to teenage boys and girls debate the impact of the Chris Brown and Rihanna story on the attitudes towards domestic violence that made the event stand out. The strength of evidence was powerful, sometimes moving as well as presented professionally. This was possible as a direct result of the preparatory work done by Labour activists with each group in the run up to the meeting.

Listening to young men and women engaged in debate, to see them animated, passionate and shaping the work of the commission, it felt like a small triumph. Importantly it ensured the findings of the commission will be based in the realities of all women, but for us it has strengthened those community links and was much more than another community meeting. The event itself may have been and gone, but we will continue to meet and build on these relationships. The commission’s report has since been published, sighting much of our evidence; from this we will work together with our local community to make change for the safety of women in our area.

As a Party we must remain faithful to our aims and resist the temptation to dismiss ideas as rhetoric. If we truly work to meet and cultivate meaningful relationships within our communities then together we can act and achieve a lot.

Catriona Ogilvy

Streatham CLP

Streatham activists at the Labour Women's Safety Commission

Catriona Ogilvy describes the impact of testimony by young people from south London at the recent Labour Women’s Safety Commission hearing in Parliament.

Too frequently I am shocked to hear stories of violence against young women in our communities; an issue often misunderstood by policy makers and largely overlooked by the coalition government. Last Autumn Streatham Labour activists, together with training and support from Movement for Change, began a Community Safety Listening Campaign focusing on the experiences of young women. Speaking with young people across our borough it was striking how many had been affected personally or knew of someone affected by violence, harassment or sexual abuse. All had their own stories to tell and many knew what they wanted to see changed. The opportunity then to share these findings and bring examples of the realities faced by young women to the ‘Everywoman Safe Everywhere’ commission set up by Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper MP and Chaired by Vera Baird QC was not to be missed.

Giving evidence to the commission the stories of those we had spoken to struck a chord with many round the table. Our ‘real life’ examples illustrated the concerns of women and created a frame for discussion perhaps more powerful than hearing facts and figures alone. The most powerful evidence for me though was that given by young people who members of our group had worked with through building relationships with local youth groups. Listening to Imogen, aged 10, speak about her experiences of violence and aggression from boys in the playground and her hope for ‘young boys to be taught how be gentlemen’ was both moving and worrying; worrying that a young girl should experience this type of behaviour in the ‘safe’ setting of a school playground and worrying that Marcus, aged 18 years, told us how younger boys copy the behaviour of older boys and that to him it is no surprise to see aggression and violence occurring at an increasingly younger age.

Just like those we had spoken to in our listening campaign, Imogen and Marcus knew what changes they wanted to see and could voice solutions to the issues they faced on a daily basis. Imogen asked for a ‘safe zone’ in the playground and well lit streets so she doesn’t get scared walking home from school in the winter months. Marcus wanted to see empty shops in our communities opened up and used as safe spaces for young people to gather.

Listening to young people as they gave their evidence so eloquently and passionately, it was a humbling reminder of the importance to speak to people and to hear their stories. It was also a first-hand lesson that sometimes the best answers and solutions can be found in the most obvious of places; from people themselves. Sharing the experiences and ideas voiced by those in our community, it was positive for both us and them to see how it shaped discussion and debate by leaders who could take action and seek to make the changes women in our local area are calling for.

Over the coming months Streatham activists will use these examples and ideas and together with local groups form our own community safety campaign. Through our work, and with support from Movement for Change, we will continue to grow our group and forge new relationships within our community.

Catriona Ogilvy

Streatham Labour: Constituency Chair

Movement for Change activists in Streatham, south London, recently attended a session of the Labour Women’s Safety Commission in Parliament. They presented evidence gathered during their ongoing community listening campaign. And they brought with them young people from their area, who had their own recommendations to make about safety in their community:

Catriona Ogilvy, Chair of Streatham CLP, gives her view on the ‘bigger picture’ and what community organising is doing to help transform Streatham activists’ relationships with their community.

I have had the pleasure of working with Movement for Change as chair of my local constituency party since last summer; so when asked recently “What are they doing to win elections” I sighed a little and realised that there is still a lot of work to do!

As members looked to renew our Party last year, a recurring theme in Refounding Labour was to become an outward looking Party, returning to our roots and re-forging links with our communities once again. In Streatham we wrote our constituency development plan with the same view; making our Party more open, accessible and outward looking locally. It is easy to say one thing though and quite another to put things into motion. We often get into the ‘habit’ of doing things a certain way and are sceptical of new ways. However I hope through our actions and what we are achieving we will continue to build support for trying new ways in our Party local.

So, ‘What are they doing to win elections’? Firstly, I would never advocate leaving the tried and tested campaign format of voter ID for community organising alone – after all, we need to know where our voters are come polling day. But my answer would be to look at the closely fought seats we retained in 2010, to consider the impact their community campaigns had on the result and what it means to those communities to still have a Labour MP.

To me, asking what Movement for Change are doing to win elections is the wrong question at this time. Rather I would start by asking what are Movement for Change doing for our Party? Our experience in Streatham, where we are looking specifically around the topic of community safely, is a positive one. Members not previously active have become motivated and engaged in our campaign. Others, officers at EC or branch level are developing new skills and growing in confidence. Our community safety campaign, particularly looking at the experiences of women, is bringing in more women to our campaign and creating a greater gender balance in Party activities. These are just a few examples of the positive impact our work with Movement for Change has had on our Party locally.

Engaged and motivated members who feel our Party is giving something back, are perhaps more likely to go out on the doorstep come election time. And there is that age old question which we have all heard – “I only see you at election time, what are you doing for me?” As activists we know that our elected Labour representatives are busy, year in year out, responding to the needs of their constituents; but we as Party members can support this work. Building relationships with community groups and basing ourselves firmly within community campaigns, Labour will be present at the heart of our communities rather than viewed as individuals on the doorstep with clipboards. I believe together with traditional doorstep campaigning our community organising work will lead to winning or increasing the share of the vote for Labour at election time. For me though, (someone who was once a sceptic), it is more about the process and what we gain from it – being and being seen as the Party we and our members hope us to be.

Catriona Ogilvy
Chair – Streatham Constituency Labour Party