Tomorrow's Views on the News will be chaired by our Director of Festivals and Programmes with guests Heejung Chung from @giwlkings and former Women's Equality Party Leader @mandureid .
Together they'll unpack news from across the globe and shine a spotlight on stories that are often missed, overlooked or under-reported.
This event is exclusively available for WOW 365 Members. Sign up at the link in our bio to support WOW's work and get access to this and dozens of other live and recorded events in the coming months!
Everyone seems to be talking about how to use AI better.
But we need to also talk about and create a coordinated civil society response to address the seismic shifts that are unavoidable as work as we know it changes forever.
I’m cooking something up… let me know your thoughts on this and what you think the most urgent questions are.
#ArtificialIntellegence #AI #CivilSociety #FutureOfWork
Pushing a buggy through the Million Women Rise march yesterday felt quietly significant.
The global backdrop is chaotic and there are powerful forces pushing back against women’s freedom. Moments like this are a reminder that rights are not defended by sentiment alone. They are defended through organising.
Power starts with imagination and grows through coalitions that bring people together across lines of difference. A fragmented movement is fragile. A united one is powerful.
After two years mostly away from the frontlines of public life since becoming a mum, it felt good to step back into the crowd.
HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY!
📸Photo Credit: the brilliant and unparalleled Elainea Emmott @emmottelainea
🙏🏾@million_women_rise
“Revolutionary love is not sentimental.
It is disciplined, it is organised.”
- @missyankey at @million_women_rise 2026
Today I took my two year old to his first proper march. The Million Women Rise march. On international women’s day weekend every year - thousands of women gather together and march through central London… we sing, we chant, and we drum in solidarity with ALL survivors of male violence against women and girls, to grieve those who didn’t survive, and to draw strength from each other.
Such a great afternoon at the biggest International Women’s Day conference in the UK! 800+ women brought together by @allbright to swap notes, share stories, learn together, and lift each other up!
Brilliant to represent The Affleck & Co Collective and inspiring to spend quality time with @lisaoksport and @rosiekmita and @molliekmita
Loved it!
(@nicky_affleckandco )
Congratulations to @monikaradojevic whose debut novel #strangerland we celebrated tonight. Its story of immigrants from different sides of the world falling in love in London and trying to stay together despite turbulences and the ever-present threat of deportation is beautifully drawn - and is inspired by her own origin story. The clips show Monika reading and her parents talking about seeing their experiences novelised by their daughter. Lovely to catch up with @mandureid and to see Monika’s novel nestled next to @monisha_rajesh ’s Moonlight Express. It has been my great good fortune to work with some brilliant young women over the years, including those three. Anyway, tonight was the perfect way to mark both #worldbookday and the run up to #iwd
Gorton & Denton might be a teaching moment in British politics, but Labour risks missing the most important lesson. It isn’t just about whether the party needs to be clearer about the values it represents (though of course it does… You can’t beat the far right by echoing it). It’s about its culture and rules, both of which make it pugnaciously resistant to working with other parties to beat the far right. There are brilliant people in Labour doing great work, including cross-party work, but Labour is institutionally hostile to alliances and electoral reform. At the first Women’s Equality Party conference, all the other mainstream parties sent senior representatives to a cross-party panel. Labour refused. WE were able to work closely with other parties but never Labour. Our closest collaboration over our decade-long existence was with the Greens: we were able to get our policies included in Green manifestos and at one point got very close to running a joint candidate. We also supported @sian_berry and other Green candidates at various elections and they ours. The picture shows Sandi, @mandureid and me at the 2024 Green Party conference with Sian, @carolinelucasbrighton and @greenpartyzack . Anyway, I dream of a Labour Party that embraces alliances, and I salute the much deserved victory of @hannahtheplumbermcr . Unite to beat the far right and, you know, to save the world. Optimism is a political choice.
LOVE TO SEE IT!!!
Phenomenal campaign.
Phenomenal candidate.
@hannahtheplumbermcr
Incredible, uplifting result in The Greens 127th target seat no less!!!
Hannah and @thegreenparty have proven that most of us want to live in united, not divided communities, where love and hope prevail… and where inequality, exploitation, and hatred wither. Where working hard buys you a better life, rather than lining the pockets of billionaires. Where our environment and nature are nurtured. Where genocide is condemned. Where EVERYONE can thrive.
WELCOME TO WESTMINSTER HANNAH!
And well done to Zack and everyone on Team Green for giving us something to be hopeful about.
@greenpartyzack
@zohrankmamdani being elected as Mayor of New York is a huge ray of political sunshine! Congratulations to him, his team, and the organisers and voters who ushered in this stunning victory!
It mirrors the hope and possibility I’ve felt since @greenpartyzack became leader of @thegreenparty over here… in the last two months he’s animated and activated so many people in the UK who have felt disillusioned to point of apathy, and he’s influenced the national conversation on critical issues in significant ways from tax, to the genocide in Gaza, to immigration, and more.
And yes, to have two prominent male political leaders (who by the way, aren’t fathers themselves) confidently and unapologetically championing universal childcare IS MASSIVE.
Both men have refused to mimic a failing political orthodoxy or the macho templates of leadership that we’ve all grown so accustomed to. This is how change that benefits THE PEOPLE (not just the elites) happens. I’m here for it!
I’ve been thinking about the difference between mobilising and organising, and how often the two get blurred.
Mobilising is when people show up. Organising is when something gets built. Usually power.
Marshall Ganz talks about this beautifully in a recent podcast with Hannah Peaker from the New Economics Foundation. He explains how many progressives have become great at creating quick, high-energy actions like petitions, viral moments, and rallies, but not always at turning that energy into lasting change.
One question he asks really stayed with me:
Are we generating new resources from the ones we’re deploying? Or are we just burning people’s energy without building anything that lasts?
That question hit home.
When I reflect on my time leading the Women’s Equality Party, if I’m totally honest, I don’t think we always got the balance right. We mobilised well, but we didn’t always build what needed to come next. And that has left me with a feeling of unfinished business. (More on that soon!)
Ganz also talks about moral resources. Things like courage, commitment, and learning. These actually grow the more we use them… unlike money, which dwindles as it’s spent.
It makes me wonder: Are we really investing in people, leadership, and relationships, or just individual campaign actions? Are we being out-organised by the far right? If so, what are we going to do about it?
This podcast is hopeful and grounding. Give it a listen. And let me know what you think!
🎧 Link in bio 🎙 “Can organising save American democracy?” with Marshall Ganz
@neweconomicspod@neweconomicsfoundation
Big problems need big visions and bold collaboration.
Over the past few months, @sian_berry MP and I have been working on a project close to both our hearts: a report calling for universal free early years provision.
It’s a report called ‘All Our Children’ and it shows why early years care isn’t a private struggle. It’s essential infrastructure that holds society up, like schools, hospitals, and transport.
This issue is personal for me. As a solo mum to a toddler, I know how heavy the load can be. And I know how much difference the right care, at the right time, can and does make for families, for children, and for the people who do this vital work every day.
We’re so grateful to the parents and early years workers who shared their stories anonymously for the report and to researcher Verena Schneider, whose care and skill brought those voices to life.
The Mirror covered our report this week, link in stories - where you can also access the full report.
