Press home struggle for Right to work' demonstration

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Women's liberation and class struggle? Women on the steel

Rachel

THE campaign for a demonstration for a woman's right to work has made definite progress.

The Labour Party is committed to an 'event', and June 5th has been suggested as a possible date.

The idea is now being put to the TUC. The final format of the day will be determined by how much pressure can be built up for a march, as the TUC are reluctant at this stage to call one and are likely to press for a 'festival'.

Sponsors New sponsors are coming in all the time for the demonstration. Latest support from prominent individuals comes from Marie Patterson and Alex Kitson of the TGWU; TUC President Alan Sapper; Ray Buckton of Aslef, Bill Sirs of ISTC, and Bernard Dix of NUPE. IN October 1979 an historic demonstration made its way from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square. About 60,000 people marched to protest at John Corrie's anti-abortion bill.

There had been militant, successful campaigns against previous attempts to restrict the 1967 Abortion Act — but the 1979 demonstration mobilised about cause it was officially a lled by the TUC.

For the first time the official backing of the labour movement was given to what, not so long before, was seen as at best peripheral or purely 'personal' or at worst a crime: free abortion on demand. TUC demonstration against Corrie's Bill The Action Committee for a Woman's Right to Work, which has been organising support since May, would like a full scale demonstration - though not necessarily a very long march - because this will make a big difference to the way people mobilise for it (a serious protest, not just a nice day out), and will be a way to show who is there with banners and placards.

That campaign was perhaps the highpoint, so far, of the process by which the labour movement is slowly being shaken up by women and women's politics. Embryonic women's caucuses and campaigns have sprung up in unions such aș CPSA and Nalgo.

At the same time, women's sections in the Labour Party are being revitalised by militant women, prepared to organise to chal. lenge the rampant sexism The final rally could then incorporate bands, shows, stalls and festivities.

The other question that will only be resolved by the work that's put into it is the political complexion of the event. The official line is likely to stress the Alternative Economic Strategy and what a future Labour government may do for women.

The Action Committee will be stressing women's self-organisation and independence, challenging the dominant male bias of society and the labour movement, and mobilising for defence of jobs, services and rights against the Tories.

Conference

On February 20th, the Action Committee is calling a national conference to boost the mobilisation for the demo. And already, several local groups have been set up. and bureaucratic lethargy of the Labour Party structure and leaderships.

This process would never have begun land it has only begun) without the profound impact of the women's movement of the last two decades. All our lives have been affected by the Ideas campaigns and practice Towers liberation movement (WLM).

'Women's issues, such as abortion and nursery This reflects a determination that the long run-up to the demonstration will be used to create a movement all over the country to support women fighting for lobs and services and to begin to challenge the predominant view of unemployment as a man's problem.

Broadsheet

Other plans are for a mass circulation broadsheet, a specially commissioned play, speakers' notes and use of Open Door TV.

Meanwhile, a basic leaflet is available from the Action Committee (c/o 181 Richmond Road, London E8), and an excellent pamphlet produced by the Labour Party and TUC (Women's Right to Work, 35p).

Raise the matter now in your local organisation. Get them to sponsor the demo, to order leaflets, to send a donation to the Action provision, are now taken up by the left and pushed in the labour movement. The very style of politics has also been subtly altered by the involvement of more and more women influenced by the experiences of the women's movement.

A book that tries to draw together the achievements and experiences of the WLM is therefore important - not just to the women who've been directly involved in the debates and campaigns, but also to 'No Turning Back' is a collection of essays, poems, articles and interviews from five years of the WLM, 1975-80. It covers theoretical discussion, campaigns, personal experiences.

As the introduction points out, the 'late 1970s saw the flourishing of women's music, theatre, writing groups, printing presses and publishing houses, and the development of internal women's movement newsletters and information services' • The collection is a very rich reflection of these developments.

Patriarchy

There is a growing division in the WLM between the socialist feminist current and the radical or revolutionary feminists. In a sectinn hoaded 'Sov and Noco' a number of articles discuss ine question or patriarchy, and the relationship (if any) between the struggle for women's liberation and for socialism.

The dommant argument is that Marxism, while it has some useful methods, has failed to take into account the depth of women's oppression and Demonstrating at the TUC Committee, and to press for the Regional or National body to commit itself to the demonstration.

If you're in a Labour Party women's section, local women's group, antiReview by Ann Evans:

failed to place it centrally. in its analysis of capitalism and class society.

An interesting sideline is a discussion of the concept of patriarchy between Sheila Rowbotham, who argues that it is an unhelpful concept, and Sally Alexander and Barbara Taylor who argue 'In Defence of Patriarchy'.

My view is that it is useful to have a word to express the fact that men do dominate all aspects of capitalist society. 'Patriarchy' may not be very scientific, but I have yet to come across a more precise one.

Rape

The growing preoccupation of the women's movement with campaigns against male violence is strongly reflected. Reports from Rape Crisis centres, and descriptions of rape and pornography as methods of male control of women, take up a substantial section of the volume.

What is clear is that there is still confusion about what can actually be done about male violence, apart from responding in a defensive way with Rape Crisis Centres and refuges.

The question of whether pornography should be banned or censored this is not an issue that can be skirted around.

The overall theme of the volume is expressed in the title: the achievements of the WLM and its momentum cannot be easily reversed. Where that momentum is taking the movement is an open question, especially in a period when cuts campaign, unemployed centre or Trades Council call a meeting to plan how to mobilise around the demo, inviting all the usual and the less usual organisations to send representatthe Thatcher government is doing its best to reverse the gains made.

It is striking that the articles are almost all timeless: they deal with issues that have always been there, without relating them to recent developments.

One notable exception is a piece by Sue Fawcus on Abortion and the Cuts.

The recent women's ull strike picket lines, 1980 tives.

CONTACT: mittee for a Right to Wo Bass, 181 Ri London E8.

NO TURNING BACK writings from the women's liberation move. ment 1975-80 Published by The Women's Press, 1981 Bass, 181 Richmond Rd, Action ComWoman's rk, c/o Fran chmond Rd, movement was born in a period of boom, optimism and forward movement. It remains to be seen how the movement will cope with the present period of reaction and backlash, and with the present government's overt attacks - ideological and material - on women.

I would not agree with all or even most of the arguments in this book: but they dea with questions that concern us all.

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