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The Industrial Relations Bill in clearly part of a generalised offensivo by the ruling class against the workers, which includes Increasing unemployment, Inflation, cui-buck on social services ( the Tory burgel), and in industry, productivily deals and measured day work. The problems of capitali-m are again acculating after its period of appurent stabilization and growth (the boom of the 150s) - and it can only attempt to solve these problems at the expense of the working clies, This attack affects working class women very severely, both as house workers and us wage workere. The woman generally bears the responsibility of the family budget, and is foreed into finding vays of econonising as money buys less. women ure going to work out of sleer economie necessity. The night cleaners are a case in point: no one looks after kids all day and then works at cleaning all night because she wants money for the little extras'.
The problems of the work situation women find themselves in will be greatly increased if this bill becomes operational:
1) Unionisation: a very high proportion of women workers are not even unionised. Many work for employers who ure anyway very difficult to fight, who employ women specifically as cheap labour: cleaning contractors, the public institutions of the bourgeois state (hospitals, schools, colleges, offices, employing cleaners and typists), small factories, and so on. The so-called "fair deal' would give employera the Tright! to victimise any women who attempted to join the workers up to a union - the first essential step of organisation. And so fair is this provision of the bill, that there is no procedure laid down by which workers who are unfairly dismissed can be re-instated.
2) Pay and Conditions: according to the Equal Pay Act we're supposed to be getting equal pay by 1975. It'a clear that the government and the eaployers are'nt going to grant even this without a fight, and there are numerous coses which the Act does'nt anyway cover: such as so-called 'women's jobs - cleaning, typing and so on. The only way real gains can be made is by militant action, and by the ue of the basic weapon of the labour market - withdrawal of labour. But strikes are seriously altucked under the Bill: in many circumstances they become THegal strikers can be Tined and on refusal, juiled. Strikes in this category inelude any made in violation of long compuleory negotiation procedures under the supervision ol a reinforced Connik-ion on Industrial elations - a body which knows very well on which side of the class struggle it is. Blacking and sympathy strikes are also made illegal - lis would isolate a small sork force ( the "ituation of many corking women) from the-support if other workers, Even picketing is illegal 1l E prevents fulfilment of contract:
The bill is very strongly directed against runk and file action and unofficial strikes of the most militant kimd. The calegury of Illegal strikes includes any made in breach of antagreement': that is, a deal made between the employers and union officials. Only the official! union organisations are recognised = allowed to register, Shop stewarde commillees, trade union branches and ao on, have no official statuR, and #trikes called hy them could be smashed.
5) Bureaucracy Vs Democraey: the BIll openly allacks even basic rigitz of bourgeois denocracy, notably the right of free peech. Incitement to strike in breach of 'agreement' be it by a worker at a factory meeting or by a paper such as "Socialist Nomin' becomes a punishable offence. But the attack on workers' democruey, the attempt to cripple shop-floor organisation, is equally important. For women workers the only possible leadership is that of the militant shop-steward or rank and file worker: union bureaucrats are Imbued with mile chauvicism as well as with ontent for the rank and file worker. The T&GwU, denounced ly May lobbs at the latest Workers' Control Conference, is not the only union with a bad record.
Our Tasks Clearly when women workers, knovingly or as yet unknowingly, face this situation, it is an important priority to begin to link their struggles to
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straggles of the became of the nature ression, and the overuria bourgeois ideology family role, women workers for too Jong seen themselves as apart from the organised working class movement - and thie weakens both them and the labour movement as a whole, which is of course just what the bosses want. Que of the chief aims of the bill is to increase the fraguentation, differentiale and competition among the working class, to get away with the present ruling class offensive by using sections of the workers to compete with and scab on others. From this point of view one of the most obviously useful existing sets of differentials is that between male and female labour, and we can expect, 1f we don't organise to combat it, to see Low-paid female labour used to incrense competition anong workers, to divide them and weaken their militanny.
Working clage women who do not work, who rely primarily on a man's wage, can also become unwitting victims of the attack by the employers. The bourgeois press, the television and radio all tell them to fear militant action by workers, to fear that they'll lose the source of the weekly housekeeping if their husbaud goes out on strike. But there will be even less job security if the employers and the government make any important gains in the present struggles. And in real terms the value of the weekly wage pocket will decline.
The most important tasks for women socialists in relation to the bill are the following:
1) to help explain the nature of the bill to women workers, showing in what ways it does attack them; and encouraging their participation in local Trade Union Action Committees and in strikes and demonstrations against the bill. Women workers who do become militant can often develop a political consciousness very rapidly, and can therefore have an impact on the politics of the labour movement out of proportion to their numbers - and win militant men workers away from the excesses of male chauvinism.
2) to work with militant women involved in struggles for unionisation and better pay and conditions, raising demands which relate to the generalised struggle of the vorking class - the need for the unions to go onto the offensive, the need for workers' democracy frecall of officials, etc.) - demands which can raise consciousness among other layers of the working class too. We mast also continue to support and raise demands which arouse vomen's consciousness about the particular nature of their oppression - equal pay, shorter hours, and so on.
3) to reach the great numbers of working class women who cannot be directly reached through industrial struggles. The most practicable areas of operation will be working class communities - council estates in particular. Through campaigns for nurseries and better community services, and through agitation on such questions as the social service cuts, and inflation, it is possible to bring together housewives -usually the most isolated members of the working class - and discuss the class nature of the Tory legislation. Rent strikes, which will undoubtedly be called for in many areas soon, offer great opportunities for making this kind of link-up. But the crucial factor in the success of such campaigns is the involvement of the organised labour movement -the only rent strikes ever to be won have been won by industrial action. The potential of the co-operation between organised working class women, and the trade union movement, becomes very concrete in such instances.
4) Finally, we must pose within the women's movement as a whole the need to fight the bill, aiming to win more women to a commitment to class struggle, and to a socialist position.
Judith White SOME FACTS 1% of women. There are 5 million wives working, 2½ million children have working mothers. In England and
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Industry sends 31% of its boy employees to day- release classes, but only 7% of its girls. 42% of men earn £15 a week or more; less than
Wales, there are fewer than 3,000 day nurseries, two-thirds of them privately run. There are just over 3,000 registered child-minders.