* ; = Nora Vange, Looking at the usual predominantly .ule attendance at this year's Labour Party conference, it is hard 8 eee the dae Bey ements cone tee in the Lahour movement is as long ae the mons. un 1756? the*Manchester Small-ware Weavers! Associattan included women who paid the same duce and received the same strike dues as the men. During a strike of their union in I808 they proved'"if possible, more turbulent and mischevous than the men"! Women played their part in the machine wrecking of the late Isth century and after the Combination Acts were repealed in If2?4, became active again in trade unions like the men, They were menbers at ad unions, emong others. In 1832 a. .Lke strike of card setters, mainly woit"%* eae tor Equal Payand the Leeds Meroury * of May 4th, T9352 had a significant commentr"Alermiate mey view these indications female independance asmore menacing to established institutions than the education of the lower orders." Soma people's views have not changed much since than! Robert Owen's Grand National Consolidated Union in I883 was open to womenand many female 1' lodges were formed, The first charter drawn up by William Lovett in I837 included wome,'s suffrace, though this proved to be ahead of its time and was leter dropped. But women joined ~the agitation and 6,200 signed the chatter in IP42. Afterthe collepse of the Chartist movement apathy set in until the 1650s,when the new model unions were formed, The most significant of thesa were the Lancashire Cotton IInions,. whose recruitment of women in the weaving sections was vigorous, Recause no differentation between male, féhale and juvenile rateswas made there was no question of scparate separate unions for wonen and by I896 15,000 women=-about half the total membership-were in the union. Theyhad the same rights and responsibilities: as: the male nenbers Tn Té74m Moma Peterson formed what later became known as the Women', +rade union League which was called upon by many unions to help organise women workers. In the I880s hegmmethe New lnionism-the great movement among theun-skilled and semiskilled to build unions as the craft workers had donealready. Tho Matchmakers stri. in in I866 started as a result of an article by Annio Besant in the "Link", exposinz the terrible conditions of work, set Off a series of revolts by men workers toothe Gas workers, Deckers, Seamen etc. The new wmions that wera formed took women into membership, unlike most of the craft wnions, but usually in separate:omen's branches, During the latter part of the century,mangy arcas of werk apened up te women and with them great increase in trade union membership. Meanwhile, of course, the workers had realised that indusrrial action was not enough as a sole weapon.The first trade wniion .P.s vere elected in I87/, followed by three I,L,P. mambere in I862. The lehourftepresentation Committee was formed in ont T1900, and from its inception omen played a role. In the eleetion of 1906 many women helped the Labour candidates and as a result the Women's Labour Learue was formed; this was not affiliated to the Lebour Party. “he fight for the franchise 5 marked not merely « stage in the achievement of equality, but also a belated recognition of the importance of women to the political parties.The Labour Party can be proud of its support of the vomen's claims, with such peeple as Meir Hardie lending thier weight to the women's fight. We generally think of the suffrage movement ae being a middle clears movement, but that is only helf the story. The Labour Women's League fought “not only for their own suffrage, but for that of working class meng3 well. Once the war was over and the older women had their franchise,in I918, the Labour Party under ita new cbinetitution made provision for
individusl membership and the Yomen's Labour Lease tacame the Women's section of the Labour party. A big recruitmont campaign began and five full-time women orgnisera were appointed by IT9T9. The women's membership arew much faster than the men's ( oat of whom ware still only affiliated throvgh their union) an¢ by 192? there verte over 1000 sastiona. Inl929, the first General “leetion since total franchise was held, and therewere I. million more wonen voters than men. Women membership reached ita high point in 1953, with 420,000 and has been going fairly steacily downhill ever since, In toa early days of the Loarue and Women's sections, the members seom to have baen feiriy militant and ahoad of the men on many issues, The'Labour Yowan" of today is a mere shadow compared with the paper of the same name produced by tho pioncars "Socialist VYoman" ia tie true inheritor of ite traditions, At the time the paper was the only one pfficially produced by the Lebour Party and is now the longest ruming organ of theL.P. The women pushed the Party into campaigning for meny hecessary reforms, naturally they tended to concentrate on such issues as baby clinica { theleague established one of the first in the ecommtry) education, mater ~~ 7 nity services, clean air ete. Bit nothing was outside their range and they had a siai J etront sense of Internationealismy every issue of their paper had news and often : contributions from abrosd; Clara %etkin, secretary of The Yomen's Tnternational Council of Labour and Socmalist Organisations, often wrote for Labour “oman, and when war broke out, a manifesto ras published in the paper, which was sent to many Countries. Throughou+ the war they maintained contact with womgn in the ‘enemy! Countries, Im I9I5, the women declared their opposition to conscription. In 1918, a resolution at the L.?. conference, drew attention to the changes wrought by the war and urged that work or maintenance be previded for oll women displaced from employment to maku way for men returning from wer Lise asap that the principle of Mqual Pay for Mqual York be everywhere adopted, that T.ll.e accopt women as a members in such trade unions in which they were omployed, and that such women should be employed only at union retes. Amongat ather things for which we still wait. six Iebour governmonta inter, the resolution asked that merriad women, for the purposes of income tax, should be feasted as ‘independant humen beings’. The ovat impression one gets after studying tho carly publications of the Labour women is on the one hand, the tromendous etrides mad in tr= ficld of the Welfare State, improvements duc abieeLy to the unceasing and heroit® efforts of the men and women of the Labowr movement; end on the othr hand how little chenge there ia in the status of women, The conditions of life for the average woman have cha,zed beyond 1 the wildest dreams of those carly writers, she hes greater opportfmities then evar before for education and employment, yet still society disappgovea if sho sciges these opportunities fully, she still hes to chose to 4 large extent betwoen home and fmiily and certainly in one sphere= thet of the care of her young childrenwhile she worke- she may bo worse off, nov that the 'extendad family' has passed inta history. Yoman is etill seeking hor identity, still trying to be a person in her own right and not merely an appendage to somp man. The reason is plain to seo- in spite of all those socigfl reforms with all their undoubted benefits, we ere no nearer a Socialist society than when ‘Labour Woman! * __3 first saw the light of day. “That would those carly contribuators hove eaid if they Coulthave: Known that six labour Governments later we would be as fsr away from Socialiam as ever, The men of the tqbour movement today must look to their own reoord on their treatment of women. In, recent Labour Party publication, 'Discrimination against Yomen', for which the research we dons by tha vomen'a sections, the party takes a feirly honeat look at itself. In the section ‘Politics and Politicians’ th: rank and
file is rather bitter sbout tho attitude of male members. ‘Male members of
the LP. do not sccept v1 as real oguals snd still look upon women members
as merely tea machines for the bagaars'. 'Any woman who gets through to
election for public office has to be twice as good as a man.' But why must
women still have to be exceptional when so many third and fourth rate men
ean end do get inte every position in the L.P. and T.U.'s? The sama excuse
that Capitalist employers use agsinst employing women ere used agsinst
electing women as delegates to conferences, ete.(she hes family responsib-
ilities). Woiren don't want to be pstronised, they want the same opportun-
ities as men to educate themselves politically and to take their full
place in the labour movement. Let us hope thet the delegates at this years
conference will ensure a full debste on the Equal. Pay resolutions, that
they will attend the N.J.A.C,.W.E.R. meeting (do'nt leeve it sll to the
women) and return home determined that through their unions they will play
their part in making equal pay a reality before next conference. Lets make
1970 the year wa nced no more resolutions on that subject! But the men must
all slso look within themselves, to thelr attitude towards their women
comrades and sisters in the movement, to their wives and daughters too, snd
ask themselves if these attitudes are all they might be. Women's plece is
not only in the home. It will never ogain be bounded by four stifling,
limiting walls, but it will be beside the men, helping to build a Socialist
society. Wa're going te ba therc, like it or not, because eas the women of
the labour movement have always known, it is our task as much ss the mon's.
Our children will benefit from the struggle which the heroic women of
the past began end which we continue today.