No More Page 3 campaign want co-op support

Members from the No More Page 3, a campaign against the Page 3 models in the The Sun newspaper, are visiting the Rochdale Pioneers Museum this Good Friday in...

Members from the No More Page 3, a campaign against the Page 3 models in the The Sun newspaper, are visiting the Rochdale Pioneers Museum this Good Friday in hope of drumming up support from the Co-operative Movement.

Lisa Clarke from the campaign explained why they have brought the campaign to Rochdale: “We chose the museum because we wanted a focal point of reference to co-op history. Co-ops have a great history of supporting women's emancipation and we want to appeal to them to help us with our current battle.”

The campaign set up a petition this year, which has reached over 88,000 signatures, to remove the Page 3 models from the daily newspaper.

Lisa added: “At the museum we plan to stage a peaceful demonstration simply by spreading the word about No More Page 3, collecting signatures for our petition.”

The visit will be targeting the Co-operative Group, who Lisa Clark hopes will take notice. She said: “We have heard from the Co-operative that they are listening and that's great because our supporters are certainly still sharing their feelings.”

She explained a group called Local Mums Online have asked the Co-operative to remove publications, which have content such as Page 3, to the top shelf where children can’t see or access them.

The theme of the visit will be Sunfragettes; they are asking people to come dressed up in an outfit that uses the iconic image of the suffragettes with a No More Page 3 twist.

Gillian Lonergan from the Co-operative College explained that the Co-op Movement has had a “long history of equality”.

She added a recent document drawn up by the London Co-operative Society in 1825 said: “To women, forming half the human race, equally capable with men of contributing to the common happiness and equally capable of individual enjoyment, we guarantee eligibility equally with men, to every situation within the Community, to which their individual talents and inclinations may adapt them. We also guarantee to them equal means of acquiring knowledge and social pleasures, and of individual freedom of opinion and action, as well as an equality of property, and the physical means of enjoyment with men."

The Pioneers also believed in equality and in their 1844 Rule Book included: “the word person to include females as well as males.”

The campaign has recieved support from Labour/Co-op MP Stella Creasy, among others. 

People can read more about the campaign here: www.nomorepage3.org

To support the campaign sign the petition here.

The No More Page 3 visit will take place at 1pm outside the Rochdale Pioneers Museum.

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