Missiles: men too must pl al role

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WHO SERVE Send letters to Socialist Organiser, 28 Middle Lane, London N8. No longer than 400 words please: longer letters are liable to be cut. I HAVE no wish to add to the currently fashionable campaign of denigration and ridicule of the Greenham women ( a campaign that has its reflection in sections of the left - Socialist Worker and Militant for instance), but I must take issue with some of the ideas put forward by Judith Bonner in her 'Women in Struggle" article of November 10.

In places, Judith seems to be repeating some of the positions of the most backward and apolitical sections of the women's movement. Judith continually emphasises that it is "men" who guard Greenham, and refers to 'the male bonding systems" (?) breaking down as the police fall out with the army. Surely our objection to these people is that they are servants of the state and the class that is bringing in such dreadful weapons - not that they are men?

When I was at Grenham at Easter I noticed a large number of women police about; presumably there are women military personnel at the base as well. What would Judith say about them and their 'bonding systems"? I'm sure she wouldn't regard them as "sisters" , or in any way preferable to their male colleagues.

Judith concludes - quite correctly - by calling on Labour Parties and trade unions to sponsor groups of women to go to the camp. But at the end of the day, only, mass industrial action - blacking the base -can stop the missiles coming in. That will necessarily involve male workers. We must be supportive and sensitive towards the Greenham women, and respect their right to keep the camp women only.

But that should not lead us to go along with separatism as some kind of principle, or to fall in with the mystical feminism that some (and only some) of the Greenham women subscribe to.

JACKIE McDONOUGH Birmingham