Women’s liberation

She doesn't cringe and cower,
she's not a fragile flower
She picked on him and tricked him
She's not a perfect victim

She tells of his coercion,
he tells a different version
How dare she contradict him?
She's not a perfect victim

She unstable, she's a venter,
she's known to lose her temper
She pushed him and she kicked him
She's not a perfect victim

She provoked him.
She said she was leaving him.
She’s been looking at other guys.

He had to show her.
She had to know
She isn’t a person in her own right,
She’s part of him.

She is the buffer between him and a hostile world.

Janine's contribution to the debate on shiftwork at TUC Women's Conference 2022.

Read the text here.

At this year's TUC Women's Conference, one of the motions we debated was about working shifts, particularly women's safety on late shifts. This was my contribution to the debate.

You can watch the video of this speech here.

I'm Janine Booth, RMT, and I've worked on London Underground for over 25 years.

Published in Solidarity 610, 20 October 2021.

The Night Tube in London will resume on two lines from 27 November, in a move promoted as ensuring safety for women. However, the reality is more complex, and women’s safety requires increased Night Tube staffing.

Be streetwise, girls, be streetwise
and you won't get false-arrested
Look out for cuffs and meat knives
Be streetwise, girls, be streetwise
and memorise our treatise
on what to do when pestered
Be streetwise, girls, be streetwise
and you won't be false-arrested

Published in Women's Fightback 26, Autumn/Winter 2021

Her cover drive and how she ran
are now haram
under the rule of the Taliban

Can she stay in? For sure she can
She can't be out without a man
in ancient, new Afghanistan

She'd tackle assumptions and she'd score
but won't be playing any more
She's fallen foul of holy law

Published by Women's Fightback 25, Winter/Spring 2021

Our story is set just after the first world war in Poplar, an east London borough with a population of 160,000 people crammed into the docklands in the bend of the River Thames (Poplar) and the area just north of it (Bow).

Published in Solidarity 567:

Some women claiming welfare benefits are finding that the system compromises their financial autonomy.