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You need ten members to start a branch in any workplace.

The definition of 'workplace' is left open in the rules: separate branches can be established in separate sections of a large The Labour Party membership of workplace recruits has to be processed through their ward branches. But the workplace branch can send one delegate to the Labour Party GC in each ¡ constituency where it has at least ten members living. HELEN JOHNSON, one of those arrested last Friday reports: Greenham Common: On Friday 8 July the Greenham Common protest took a new turn. Women around the base cut down 20 feet fencing in the morning, making it impossible for the convoý of workers to get into the base.

A group of 20 women from Halifax decided they would block the road about a mile from the base which the convoy would use on its way to the base.

The idea was that the tailback of traffic would build up which the police would have to move before the convoy could get through.

Unfortunately . the coach drivers got lost and we didn't arrive until the convoy was in sight.

We got out of the coach and blocked the road. The convoy went across the grass and we went in front of it again.

Unexpected

The police weren't expecting this sort of thing to happen.

arrested in harassed by the police.

After being dragged along the grass about 200 yards one women was handcuffed to the inside door of a police van for refusing to chat to the police.

The others were arrested more usual manner.

The women were all charged with obstruction. test change our tactics just ag It the orotest is to succeed we police organised and flexible enough to change theirs.

The cutting down of the fence by the women around tue base kept the convoy out for Other ideas forces never can know exactly what action they will have to deal with next. factory or office complex. IT ISN'T only the formal structures in the Labour Party that manage to work so effectively to exclude women from decision-making and participation in the Party: the left has its own problems in this regard too.

A clear example of this is the way in which the left slate for the Women's Section of the NEC has been drawn up; a process which involved very few women and which is perpetuating the male domination of decision-making throughout the Party.

A number of issues arise from this process. Firstly, the drawing up of the slate occurs very early on in the year.

This is because it is considered imperative that the slate should be available for those union conferences where the conference makes decisions as to who its delegation to the Party's Annual Conference should vote for.

This means that to be on the slate you have to know thạt you delegate to Annual Conference at the begininng of the year. And how many women can know that? The women MPs óbviously; a small handful of trade union women; and an even smaller number of women in constituencies which decide very early who their conference delegate is to be.

Apart from that, the field is empty land even more so this year, when we don't even have any women Parliamentary Candidates in place to call on).

What is worse, hardly any of the above mentioned women are active in, or even support, the women's organisation in the Party, or the changes in it that By ture and power of the organisation.

In the past, a great amount of soul-searching has gone on by women on the left, active in the women's organisation as to to do about this situation.

We have discussed the matter ad nauseam with the small group of men on the left who have taken it upon themselves to draw up the slate; and in the past have grudgingly acquiesced.

This year, however, even this small amount of lip service to democratic decision-making has been abandoned and the slate for the Women's Section has been drawn up not only without much consultation, but actually against the wishes of many active women on the left:

Last year, we accepted the slate (we were told it was a 'one-off' thing!) to present a united front to try to keep control of the NEC - this year we are now told a slate is needed to try to win back control.

Last year, we had Frances Morrell on the slate, the only woman on it who was fully committed to the women's organisation in the Party - this year, for reasons which are far from salutory, Frances has been left off.

The women's slate is a travesty. 'Men in the Party have drawn it up - after closed discussions with men in the unions. Men will vote at Annual Conference for the Women's Section; and it is to men that those women elected will be beholden.

It is time the left 'put its money where its mouth is' and began to really fight for women in the Party. The fiasco of the From Pluto Press:

an analysis of capitalism in crisis from regular Socialist Organiser contributor Bob Sutcliffe. £2.50 from bookshops, or (with 50p post and packing) from Pluto, The Works, 105a Torriano Avenue, London NW5.

Scan page 6

Socialist Organiser no. 140, July 14 1983 Page 6

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Build workplace Labour branches!

like this must be tried to ensure that the police and other state

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