My experience of Steve Hedley and a message to the British Left.

*Disclaimer/TW*
Triggering issues including mental illness, domestic violence, victim blaming and body elitism are discussed in the following post.

As most trade union/left activists in the country know, there has recently been an incident regarding domestic abuse. On International Women's Day 2013 Caroline Leneghan (RMT- Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers union) made public an account of how her ex-partner Steve Hedley (Assistant General Secretary of RMT) abused her physically and mentally during their relationship. Leneghan's blog can be found here and contains pictures of her injuries that some readers might find upsetting. In her blog she detailed how when she took her complaint to RMT & she detailed several ways in which RMT tried to disregard her allegation

1. The investigator attempted to make a link between her mental illness and the abuse she suffered.
2. She was asked about her personal history.
3. She was asked how someone of Hedley's build with a history of boxing didn't hurt her more.

RMT then cleared Hedley and on the back of the investigator's attempt to blame Leneghan's mental illness he wrote a statement which you can read here.

A few weeks before this Leneghan published her account of the abuse she suffered at the hands of Hedley, I got into an online argument with him. Firstly during the argument he stated that I 'couldn't handle the topic' attempting to convince me and others that my point was non other than a product of me being to delicate for the discussion.


His tone with anyone who contributed to that discussion was vile, but to me in particular. He told me that 'in the real world' people argued and alleged that I was a 'middle class student' who would soon be 'sacking the workers' (presumably with my English degree from Edge Hill). When I affirmed that I was indeed working class, a council tenant, a care leaver and had extensive experience in the 'real world' he then shifted his attack to my looks. 

Hedley's attempt to silence me by telling me I was middle class, then telling me I was ugly then telling me I needed to 'find myself a partner of some kind'  made me feel like my part in the debate was completely dictated by my gender and by my age. A well paid middle aged man in the high ranks of the RMT being misogynistic, ableist, and attempting to intimidate a young woman isn't as serious his violence to Leneghan, and I wouldn't want anyone to think that for a second. What is similar, however was the way in which Hedley reacted. 

First he attacked me and then when I fought back he told me that my mental health was the problem and that I needed to 'seek some help', he also went to look on my profile. Finally when I refused to allow him to bully me publicly he told me that I was playing the victim and that I had been attacking him by swearing in my comments.
 First he physically attacked Leneghan and then when she sought help in his statement he told the world that her mental health was to blame and he hoped she would get the help she needed and he implied he had been the victim. 

There's a pattern emerging, isn't there? I spoke to someone who worked with domestic violence victims and they told me that abusers tend to use one set of behaviours repeatedly to disempower the people they wish to hurt. Hedley's attack on my mental health and his pointing to Caroline Leneghan's as the problem isn't a coincidence, it's a tactic used to make onlookers (and the victim) question the validity of their opinion. 

Unfortunately I've encountered many men that attempt to silence me with bullying tactics and many of them in the Left, I've seen first hand in the SWP what not listening to women and survivors can do. It's poisonous. So I have a message to the British Left;

 women will not be silenced any more and your attempt to disregard the abuse we suffer will result in your cause being weaker. No longer can you hide misogyny or rape apologism behind a veil of doing the best for the party or the cause. No longer can you appropriate the women's struggle with tokenism to strengthen your appearance whilst simultaneously pushing silence upon us. 
There will be no radical left without women's liberation and no women's liberation with victim blaming and rape apologism. 

Sara Malm’s article on strikes is disgraceful, selfish and quite frankly passé.

There are some moments that make you want to hang your head in shame. The morning of Friday the 13^th is one of them and no, it’s not because my boiler broke, I lost my keys or walked into a glass door. This time I’m not hanging my head in shame because I’m ashamed for myself, but because I’m ashamed for my generation.  This time, I’m ashamed because I’ve read Sara Malm’s article and her regressive naïve attempt at trivialising the historical role of unions and strikes.

Apparently Sara wants to be a journalist to ‘shape the news’. The less said about what kind of shape she’s working towards the better. I can only assume (or hope) that the article was some ill-orchestrated attempt to jumpstart your career as a journalist, Sara. Think about it, you could be the Queen of Controversy. People would read your over simplified analogies every day to shock and disgust themselves over their cornflakes. You’d never have to work an ‘entry level’ job again.

And that’s the crux of the matter really isn’t it? You know how difficult it can be working your way up. You know that the strain put on people by the targets of management causes resentment. How unfair. Almost as unfair as, say, having worked hard to become a teacher, dedicated most of your life to educating the next generation just to be told that’s you’re actually disposable, a resource. That your pension and jobs and working conditions can be taken from you at any time. Make no mistake about this; striking is a clear way of saying ‘No’.

‘No’ we won’t work half our lives and then live in poverty after retirement because some public school boys say so.

You mention you jobs in this ill-informed attempt at political commentary. And I expect that during these jobs you worked a set amount of hours? For a set wage? That you worked less than seven days a week? And you didn’t start working at the age of four? Interesting how you write a scathing (and let’s face it, weak) denouncement  of unions, as you work a 9-5 job with your basic human rights intact. And yes, Sara, you have unions, strikes and ‘foot stomping’ to thank for this.

We’re all well aware of the practical difficulties facing parents when teacher strike. There’s a reason most do it without writing adjective ridden articles and angry letters; they understand it is necessary. A way of ensuring that the future generation will get a wage they can live on, will get to retire and will be able to survive when they do. If our teachers, hospital staff, social workers and civil servants allow their pensions, jobs and rights to be taken away from them, how will they look their grandchildren in the eye when asked ‘What did you do?’

It is a temporary inconvenience with long term implications. The unions are not sulking, throwing a tantrum or screaming in the aisle of a supermarket. They are reminding a blasé government that those pieces of paper they are holding have real life consequences, apply to real people and these people have worked hard to have the wage, pension and right that they have. Why would they silently let them be taken? Hardly the same as pulling a sickie because you had one too many glasses of wine the night before, is it now, Sara?