A token conference on women's health

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Day three will be the AGI and in between there will be evenings free for informal discussions, relaxation, and WOMEN'S FIGHTBACK's yearly conference, our AGM, at the end of Aug- -The AGM will be open to members, ust, is to be combined with two days of delegates and visitors, but only mempolitical discussions and practical 'selfhelp' sessions. It will be held at a resi- Please register, and send in resoludential centre over the August bank tions, by August 14th. All inquiries to Women's Fightback, 41 Ellington St, Days one and two (the 29th and 30th) will cover basic self-education on soc- Women can join Women's Fightback ialist ideas, guidelines on campaigning for f2 a year, and organisations can and the labour movement, and sessions affiliate for £5 a year (€20 for national on practical and organisational skills. VIV JONES reports from the TUC women's conference on women's health (17th July)

THIS was token conference for token women!

The TUC were instructed at last year's Congress to discuss women's health. Now they. will obviously feel they can cross it off their list of duties which have to be performed for no reason, except shutting up a few stroppy women.

The attendance was unlike any women's conference I have attended The average woman trade union activist who has got far enough up the bureaucracy to attend such conferences as representative of national union or a Regional TUC is as much a part of the bureaucracy as her male counterpart.

The morning was spent with speakers talking about health education, Parliamentary positions from the Social Services Select Committee, breast and cervical screening and hazards for pregnant women|in the workplace This provided a lot of information but basically set the tenor of the discussion -that women's health means we can only discuss our reproductive system!

The Deputy General Secretary of the TUC, Norman Willis, opened the afternoon discussion on a TUC document, They didn't even have the sense to find a female bureaucrat to introduce it!

The discussion went from personal experiences, which varied trom boasting about masectomies to fighting for cytology screening in the workplace to the need for a political struggle for better housing and standards of living.

There was also some disagreement about the best form of screening for breast cancer, with the platform advocating mamography (x-rays of the breast) and a radiographer delegate opposing this by pointing out the long term dangers of x-raying soft tissue The most exciting part of the conference was when the ASTMS delegation challenged the chairperson's refusal to let the ASTMS Health and Safety Officer speak (on the grounds that an ASTMS delegate had spoken during the morning session).

It was not until well into the afternoon session that the chair announced they would only take one speaker per union.

It was obvious the platform did not want the ASTMS Health and Safety Officer to speak Fightback] holiday weekend. because they thought she would challenge the complacency of the platform and demand action.

With more democratic organisation and more rank and file representation, this could have been a very important conference and developed the delegates to go back and fight.

It could have taken decisions for the TUC to entertainment.

London N7.

organisations). fight fon But instead it was a sort of information session which would have been better (and cheaper!) if the information had been written down and sent out.

Whatever the aim of the conference, it did not achieve it-except in easing the consciences of the bureaucrats. bers and delegates can vote,

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Socialist Organiser 30 Juli 149: Fse: . .. ". i tis