Labour HumanistsGood news from Hampstead and Kilburn CLP, whose Committee adopted the following resolution on 24th July 2014:
The Hampstead and Kilburn Labour Party will campaign to accept Labour Humanists as an affiliated Society of the Labour Party.
Copy of the resolution to be sent to:
The NEC
Angela Eagle MP
Lord Kinnock
We hope to see more CLPs following this lead to promote Labour Humanists within the party, to help grow our supoprt and get our voice heard for a more equal, ethical and secular Labour.
We have written to representatives at Labour’s policy making body – the National Policy Forum – to raise our concern about the overarching equality statement it recently adopted as a commitment to the way it will implement policies and its manifesto.
As it stands, the equality statement appears not to cover non-religious people – atheists and humanists – and therefore we believe it needs urgent amendment.
The equality statement (full text below) states ‘religion’ but omits ‘or belief’. This goes against the letter of the Equality Act 2010 and human rights law, which use the term ‘religion or belief’ to cover both non-religious and religious people. In practice, just using ‘religion’ specifically does not cover humanists or any other person with philosophical beliefs which are not religious.
‘Religion’ clearly should not be used as shorthand or a catch-all for ‘religion or belief’ – few non-religious people would be happy to have their beliefs described under the banner of religion when they are atheistic, humanist or philosophical but distinctly not religious. It would be like using ‘men’ to mean ‘women and men’ and that, we are sure, would not happen in today’s Labour Party.
The exclusion of ‘or belief’ from the NPF equality statement has, therefore, potentially serious implications for the position for the large numbers of humanists and other non-religious people within the Labour Party, and sends a negative message out more widely about how Labour values non-religious people more widely.
NPF equality statement
“Labour is the Party of equality. We believe that no person should suffer discrimination or a lack of opportunity because of their gender, gender identity, age, disability, race, religion, socio-economic status or sexual orientation. In government, every decision we take will be taken with that in mind. We will ensure the policies across these eight documents and in our manifesto will be implemented ensuring that they further rather than hinder this cause.
Labour has always led the fight for equality, but our fight is not yet won. We will not rest until everyone can live their lives free from hatred, fear and oppression. In government we will work to remove the structural and social barriers that stand in our way.”
We believe that this should be amended as soon as is possible to state ‘religion or belief’ to ensure equality between people who are religious and those who are not.
We are delighted to announce that, jointly with the British Humanist Association (BHA), we will be holding our ‘No Prayer Breakfast’ fringe meeting at Labour Conference. 8am Tuesday 23 September, Hilton Hotel, Manchester. The venue is just outside the secure zone which means that it is accessible to people not attending conference this year too. We’ll be announcing our line up of fantastic speakers soon.
Here’s a short write up from our 5th No Prayer Breakfast in 2012.
Earlier this week, represented by Tom Copley AM, we met with Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt. We were pleased to attend that meeting alongside the British Humanist Association (BHA) and the Accord Coalition, to speak about our shared vision for a high quality and inclusive education and schools system. We had a productive meeting and covered issues from religiously selective admissions in faith schools to the importance of a broad and balanced curriculum about religion and beliefs – including Humanism – in all state-funded schools. We look forward to working with the Labour education team as it sets out what the next Labour Government’s approach to education will be.
Labour’s ‘Final year policy consultation documents’ – response and suggested amendments from Labour Humanists
*We have now submitted these amendments to Labour’s Your Britain policy review website. Members can view, comment and vote in support of these papers on education, communities, politics and Britain’s global role*
Following a review of its core policies, Labour has published eight policy papers for consultation. Those papers will form the basis of Labour’s One Nation Manifesto so it is crucial that humanists and secularists within the Party have their say, and encourage their CLPs to do the same. Below is Labour Humanists’ review of four of the papers most relevant to our work, with suggested amendments. You can also download our response.
CLPs and affiliates are entitled to propose textual amendments, and individuals and external organisations can make submissions until 13 June 2014.
Every CLP is entitled to propose up to ten amendments, which National Policy Forum representatives can then choose to bring forward to a meeting of the NPF in July.
The final papers will then be adopted by Annual Conference in September as Labour’s official policy programme ahead of the election next year.
Under ‘Equalities’ insert:
Suggested amendment (1)
Religion or Belief
Labour will commit to tackling the many special exemptions from equalities legislation afforded to religious groups which allow them to discriminate even when operating in the public sphere such as in employment, in the provision of public services, and in schools. These are anomalies in the current law which are unnecessary, unjust, privilege religious groups, and are completely against Labour’s commitment to equality.
Suggested amendment (2)
Marriage
Labour has shown its commitment both to equal marriage for same-sex couples and to making humanist marriage have legal recognition in England and Wales (humanist marriage has been legally recognised in Scotland since 2005). In Parliament, the Labour frontbench team led amendments for reform to have equality in marriage law between religious and non-religious people for the first time. Labour recognises that the legalisation of humanist marriage will take nothing away from anyone but will give many thousands of couples that chance to have the legal marriage they want. Labour will ensure that humanists in England and Wales will be able to have a legal marriage ceremony that reflects their own beliefs conducted by a celebrant who also shares them.
Under ‘Political Reform’ insert:
Suggested amendment (3)
Labour will promote equality and work against religious privilege in Parliament by reforming the House of Lords to end the undemocratic ‘right’ for the Church of England to sit in our parliament. Labour will ensure that Church of England bishops, and any other clergy or religious representatives, will be able to stand for election or be eligible for appointment to a reformed House of Lords but on the same basis as everyone else, with no reserved seats for any religious representatives.
Page 4 insert:
Suggested amendment (4)
Labour’s commitments to equality and to improving teacher quality are at odds with the present legal exemptions allowing many state-funded faith schools to discriminate against teachers and teaching staff on religious grounds. The next Labour Government will work ensure that no state-funded faith school can hire, fire, or set a ceiling on promotion for, suitably qualified teachers on religious grounds.
Page 6, after line 39, insert:
Suggested amendment (5)
Ending the divisive school system and instead ensuring that each school meets the One Nation ideal of serving its local community also means ending religious selection in admissions to state schools. The next Labour Government will stop the establishment of new schools that select pupils by faith and phase out entirely religious selection by current schools.
*For other suggested amendments relating to religious selection in admissions, contact info@labourhumanists.org.uk
On page 3 insert:
Suggested amendment (6)
Labour understands freedom of thought and belief – including religious and non-religious beliefs – and free expression to be human rights and the cornerstone of any free and democratic society, and will defend them robustly at home and internationally, including through opposing blasphemy laws.
Under ‘Delivering localism to our communities’ insert:
Suggested amendment (7)
Labour will make legislative and other reform to ensure that public services are equal, inclusive, and protect and promote human rights. In practice, Labour will ensure that all organisations, including religious groups working under public contract to provide public services, must operate in an inclusive, secular way, meaning:
We strongly support the direction of this paper. As humanists, we are committed to human rights, democracy, equality and mutual respect. We support moves to increase understanding of democracy and active civic participation. We believe the community should provide education that helps children and young people to develop knowledge, judgement and skills – including skills of moral thinking and citizenship – so we are pleased to see those sentiments reflected in a commitment to quality citizenship education in schools and beyond.
We want a society where there is a culture of respect for human rights. We are glad to see a commitment to strengthening human rights and to defending the Human Rights Act (HRA). The law is vital for protecting rights such as freedom of expression and speech, currently under attack from some religious groups.
We would like to Labour to commit to ensuring all organisations, including religious groups, providing statutory public services on behalf of the state are bound by the HRA, in order to provide much better protection for service users. Read more on our approach to secular public services below under ‘Safer, Stronger Communities’.
We are pleased to see a strong focus on equalities. However, we would like Labour to go much further and commit to tackling the many exemptions from equalities legislation afforded to religious groups which allow them to discriminate even when operating in the public sphere such as in employment, in the provision of public services and in schools. The exemptions from the law to which all other organisations are bound are unnecessary, unjust, privilege religious groups, and are completely against Labour’s commitment to equality.
Parliament. We submitted a paper to the policy review specifically on Bishops in the Lords. We’d like Labour to be more specific in the commitment to House of Lords reform and have a clear and principled policy against religious privilege in our Parliament, to include the following:
Under ‘Equalities’ insert:
Suggested amendment (1)
Religion or Belief
Labour will commit to tackling the many special exemptions from equalities legislation afforded to religious groups which allow them to discriminate even when operating in the public sphere such as in employment, in the provision of public services, and in schools. These are anomalies in the current law which are unnecessary, unjust, privilege religious groups, and are completely against Labour’s commitment to equality.
Suggested amendment (2)
Marriage
Labour has shown its commitment both to equal marriage for same-sex couples and to making humanist marriage have legal recognition in England and Wales (humanist marriage has been legally recognised in Scotland since 2005). In Parliament, the Labour frontbench team led amendments for reform to have equality in marriage law between religious and non-religious people for the first time. Labour recognises that the legalisation of humanist marriage will take nothing away from anyone but will give many thousands of couples that chance to have the legal marriage they want. Labour will ensure that humanists in England and Wales will be able to have a legal marriage ceremony that reflects their own beliefs conducted by a celebrant who also shares them.
Under ‘Political Reform’ insert:
Suggested amendment (3)
Labour will promote equality and work against religious privilege in Parliament by reforming the House of Lords to end the undemocratic ‘right’ for the Church of England to sit in our parliament. Labour will ensure that Church of England bishops, and any other clergy or religious representatives, will be able to stand for election or be eligible for appointment to a reformed House of Lords but on the same basis as everyone else, with no reserved seats for any religious representatives.
A third of state-funded faith schools have a religious character. These are commonly known as faith schools. Given their significance, it is surprising and disappointing that there is no specific mention of faith schools in the policy paper. We will be urging for a number of amendments to be made to make tackling discrimination by state-funded faith schools a core policy priority for One Nation Labour.
We would like to see a commitment from Labour to ensure all state-funded schools uphold principles of equality and do not discriminate on religious grounds in employment or admissions. We support a broad and balanced curriculum including teaching: about non-religious beliefs such as Humanism as well as different religious beliefs; comprehensive PSHE and SRE; science including evolution. We would like Labour to oppose any teaching of creationist theories as valid scientific theories.
Together with Tom Copley, Labour London Assembly Member, we made a submission on faith school admissions. All types of state-funded schools with a religious character are permitted to select in their admissions by discriminating on religious grounds. This even includes those whose admissions are controlled by the local authority if that authority allows it, faith Academies and Free Schools. Labour should guarantee that children will not be turned away from their local school on the basis of their parents’ beliefs. We firmly believe this would be a popular policy and likely vote winner. We would like Labour to consider the following policy options:
It is vital that a commitment to inclusive admissions with no religious discrimination by faith schools permitted is in Labour’s 2015 manifesto.
Quality teaching. In a recent article and in a joint submission with the British Humanist Association (BHA) to Labour’s call for evidence on improving teacher quality, we make clear that faith-based discrimination in employment is unfair on teachers and pupils, unnecessary, and in all likelihood usually unlawful.
All types of faith schools (around a third of state-funded schools), from those under Local Authority control to Academies and Free Schools, have the ability to place religious requirements on teaching positions. In reality, some religious authorities think that they have the right to know the intimate details of teachers’ private lives and to use that information to determine whether they can have a job or get a promotion. Or at worst and regardless of how well qualified a teacher is, use personal information to discipline and dismiss on the grounds that her conduct outside of work is ‘incompatible with the precepts’ of the school’s religion.
We support Labour’s moves to improving teacher quality but if the Party is serious about the value quality teaching it must address urgently the issue of discrimination against teachers in state-funded faith schools.
Page 4 insert:
Suggested amendment (4)
Labour’s commitments to equality and to improving teacher quality are at odds with the present legal exemptions allowing many state-funded faith schools to discriminate against teachers and teaching staff on religious grounds. The next Labour Government will work ensure that no state-funded faith school can hire, fire, or set a ceiling on promotion for, suitably qualified teachers on religious grounds.
Page 6, after line 39, insert:
Suggested amendment (5)
Ending the divisive school system and instead ensuring that each school meets the One Nation ideal of serving its local community also means ending religious selection in admissions to state schools. The next Labour Government will stop the establishment of new schools that select pupils by faith and phase out entirely religious selection by current schools.
*For other suggested amendments relating to religious selection in admissions, contact info@labourhumanists.org.uk
We support Labour’s commitment to internationalism, to tackling poverty and to promoting social justice in our country and abroad. Regarding human rights specifically, we would like to see a commitment to defending freedom of thought and belief. The Freedom of Thought report, published earlier this year by the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), surveys the discrimination and persecution against non-religious people in every country in the world and finds that ‘the overwhelming majority of countries fail to respect the rights of atheists and freethinkers’. Freedom of thought and belief – including religious and non-religious beliefs – are human rights and the cornerstone of any free and democratic society and should be robustly defended.
On page 3 insert:
Suggested amendment (6)
Labour understands freedom of thought and belief – including religious and non-religious beliefs – and free expression to be human rights and the cornerstone of any free and democratic society, and will defend them robustly at home and internationally, including through opposing blasphemy laws.
This paper covers a number of areas, from criminal justice to tackling violence against women and girls, and local public services. We support the direction of this paper regarding building stronger communities. We want a society where all individuals feel empowered as members of a democratic community to influence decisions made about their lives. We believe this can only happen in a society where people are not labelled or divided by their beliefs and where all voluntary and community groups and all volunteers are treated equally.
We made a submission to this Commission focusing on human rights and equalities, public services and religious organisations. However the importance of non-discrimination in services is not especially highlighted in Labour’s policy paper. We strongly believe that Labour should take action and have a clear policy to ensure public services are equal, inclusive, and protect and promote human rights. All organisations, including religious groups working under public contract to provide public services, must operate in an inclusive, secular way. In practice that would mean:
It is vital that a commitment to inclusive public services with no religious discrimination is in Labour’s 2015 manifesto.
Under ‘Delivering localism to our communities’ insert:
Suggested amendment (7)
Labour will make legislative and other reform to ensure that public services are equal, inclusive, and protect and promote human rights. In practice, Labour will ensure that all organisations, including religious groups working under public contract to provide public services, must operate in an inclusive, secular way, meaning:
We had a great turn out at the London Humanist Hustings for the European Parliament Elections (aka MEP hustings!) on Tuesday 6 May. Couldn’t make it? Check out our Storify to see what happened and see the British Humanist Association’s write up of the event too.
Leading Tory Eric Pickles MP recently derided atheists as ‘militant’ and ‘intolerant’. He also stated ‘we’re a Christian nation’ and told non-believers to ‘get over it’. These would seems to be quite shocking, exclusionary and ill-informed remarks from the Government lead for Communities, and we questioned whether this was the official Government line.
It was really rather dismaying that the Prime Minister David Cameron carried on where his Cabinet colleague left off, restating that this is a ‘Christian country’ and announcing plans to promote religion – he wants ‘to expand the role of faith’ – and to increase the role religious groups, particularly as service providers.
Where does all this leave non-believers and those who want to see a fairer, more equal and secular state, with no religious privilege? It doesn’t seem that the Conservative-led Government sees a place for us in their vision of Britain.
On Tuesday 6 May, the British Humanist Association (BHA), Conway Hall Ethical Society, the Central London Humanist Group (CLHG) and the European Humanist Federation (EHF) will be hosting a humanist hustings for the upcoming European parliament elections (22 May 2014).
We are delighted that Labour Humanist Mary Honeyball MEP will be taking part. The hustings will be a chance to question candidates from across Parties about how they will (or won’t!) be working on issues of interest to humanists, such as secularism, science, human rights and equality.
“Democracy and religion do not mix… Politicians are voted in to represent their electorates. People who vote for me and my colleagues expect us to further the interests of the public at large, not those of any particular religion, church, mosque, synagogue, temple or indeed any other interest group. We go against the democratic foundations of our country at our peril.”
Mary entered the European Parliament in 2000, following three decades of involvement in Labour politics. Since becoming an MEP Mary has taken a special interest in women’s issues, and acts as the Labour spokesperson for women’s rights and gender equality.
Mary is a supporter of Labour Humanists and a Vice President of the British Humanist Association (BHA). Find out more about Mary here and here.
Visit the BHA website to find out more about the hustings, the other candidates, and register online now to attend.
How fantastic are these? Brand new British Humanist Association animated videos, narrated by Stephen Fry. ‘That’s Humanism’ explores ‘How do we know what is true?’, ‘What should we think about death?’, ‘What makes something right or wrong?’, ‘How can I be happy?’
Following a review of its core policies, Labour has published a number of policy papers for consultation. The eight papers will form the basis of Labour’s One Nation Manifesto so it is crucial that humanists and secularists within the Party have their say on the papers, and encourage their CLPs to do the same. Here is our initial review of four of the papers most relevant to our work.
We strongly support the direction of this paper. As humanists, we are committed to human rights, democracy, equality and mutual respect. We support moves to increase understanding of democracy and active civic participation. We believe the community should provide education that helps children and young people to develop knowledge, judgement and skills – including skills of moral thinking and citizenship – so we are pleased to see those sentiments reflected in a commitment to quality citizenship education in schools and beyond.
We want a society where there is a culture of respect for human rights. We are glad to see a commitment to strengthening human rights and to defending the Human Rights Act (HRA). The law is vital for protecting rights such as freedom of expression and speech, currently under attack from some religious groups.
We would like to Labour to commit to ensuring all organisations, including religious groups, providing statutory public services on behalf of the state are bound by the HRA, in order to provide much better protection for service users. Read more on our approach to secular public services below under ‘Safer, Stronger Communities’.
We are pleased to see a strong focus on equalities. However, we would like Labour to go much further and commit to tackling the many exemptions from equalities legislation afforded to religious groups which allow them to discriminate even when operating in the public sphere such as in employment, in the provision of public services and in schools. The exemptions from the law to which all other organisations are bound are unnecessary, unjust, privilege religious groups, and are completely against Labour’s commitment to equality.
Parliament. We submitted a paper to the policy review specifically on Bishops in the Lords. We’d like Labour to be more specific in the commitment to House of Lords reform and have a clear and principled policy against religious privilege in our Parliament, to include the following:
• End the undemocratic ‘right’ for the Church of England to sit in our parliament
• No reserved seats for any religious representatives
• Allow Church of England bishops, and any other clergy or religious representatives, to stand for election or be eligible for appointment to a reformed Lords but let that be on the same basis as everyone else
• Promote equality and campaign against privilege in our democratic arrangements
A third of state-funded faith schools have a religious character. These are commonly known as faith schools. Given their significance, it is surprising and disappointing that there is no specific mention of faith schools in the policy paper. We will be urging for a number of amendments to be made to make tackling discrimination by state-funded faith schools a core policy priority for One Nation Labour.
We would like to see a commitment from Labour to ensure all state-funded schools uphold principles of equality and do not discriminate on religious grounds in employment or admissions. We support a broad and balanced curriculum including teaching: about non-religious beliefs such as Humanism as well as different religious beliefs; comprehensive PSHE and SRE; science including evolution. We would like Labour to oppose any teaching of creationist theories as valid scientific theories.
Together with Tom Copley, Labour London Assembly Member, we made a submission on faith school admissions. All types of state-funded schools with a religious character are permitted to select in their admissions by discriminating on religious grounds. This even includes those whose admissions are controlled by the local authority if that authority allows it, faith Academies and Free Schools. Labour should guarantee that children will not be turned away from their local school on the basis of their parents’ beliefs. We firmly believe this would be a popular policy and likely vote winner. We would like Labour to consider the following policy options:
• No new faith school allowed to discriminate in its admissions
• No existing faith school allowed to discriminate in admissions in the future
It is vital that a commitment to inclusive admissions with no religious discrimination by faith
schools permitted is in Labour’s 2015 manifesto.
Quality teaching. In a recent article and in a joint submission with the British Humanist Association (BHA) to Labour’s call for evidence on improving teacher quality, we make clear that faith-based discrimination in employment is unfair on teachers and pupils, unnecessary, and in all likelihood usually unlawful.
All types of faith schools (around a third of state-funded schools), from those under Local Authority control to Academies and Free Schools, have the ability to place religious requirements on teaching positions. In reality, some religious authorities think that they have the right to know the intimate details of teachers’ private lives and to use that information to determine whether they can have a job or get a promotion. Or at worst and regardless of how well qualified a teacher is, use personal information to discipline and dismiss on the grounds that her conduct outside of work is ‘incompatible with the precepts’ of the school’s religion.
We support Labour’s moves to improving teacher quality but if the Party is serious about the value quality teaching it must address urgently the issue of discrimination against teachers in state-funded faith schools.
We support Labour’s commitment to internationalism, to tackling poverty and to promoting social justice in our country and abroad. Regarding human rights specifically, we would like to see a commitment to defending freedom of thought and belief. The Freedom of Thought report, published earlier this year by the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), surveys the discrimination and persecution against non-religious people in every country in the world and finds that ‘ the overwhelming majority of countries fail to respect the rights of atheists and freethinkers’. Freedom of thought and belief – including religious and non-religious beliefs – are human rights and the cornerstone of any free and democratic society and should be robustly defended.
This paper covers a number of areas, from criminal justice to tackling violence against women and girls, and local public services. We support the direction of this paper regarding building stronger communities. We want a society where all individuals feel empowered as members of a democratic community to influence decisions made about their lives. We believe this can only happen in a society where people are not labelled or divided by their beliefs and where all voluntary and community groups and all volunteers are treated equally.
We made a submission to this Commission focusing on human rights and equalities, public services and religious organisations. However the importance of non-discrimination in services is not especially highlighted in Labour’s policy paper. We strongly believe that Labour should take action and have a clear policy to ensure public services are equal, inclusive, and protect and promote human rights. All organisations, including religious groups working under public contract to provide public services, must operate in an inclusive, secular way. In practice that would mean:
• No discrimination on religious or other grounds in employment
• No discrimination on religious or other grounds against service users
• No religious element part of the service, including prayers or proselytising
It is vital that a commitment to inclusive public services with no religious discrimination is in Labour’s 2015 manifesto.
We will soon draft some suggested amendments which you can take to your CLP. In the meantime, if you have suggestions for specific amendments, please do let us know.
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