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The campaign for equal pay started in force with the Ford women's strike in May-June 1968, although sporadic attempts to form equal pay committees, etc. had been made before that. The campaign reached its height in early 1970 and, to all intents and purposes, died later that year with the passing of the Equal Pay Act, although the corpse was not buried for another eighteen months.
This article is intended to serve partly as an account of that campaign; to place on record at least some of the activities that took place; in fact to ensure that a little bit of our history does not pass away unrecorded. But it cannot be a complete history, partly from lack of space, partly because the campaign was fought all over the country and many pieces of the story are missing.
In addition, an analysis of what happened to the campaign is attempted, a look at its victories, a survey of its failures and shortcomings, in an attempt to learn from the campaign and apply the lessons learnt to our own campaign today.
THE FOUNDING OF N.J.A.C.C.W.E.R.
The strike at Fords aroused a great deal of interest, and one of the organisers, Fred Blake, a district official of the National Union of Vehicle Builders (now amalgamated with T&GWU), felt that a basis for a campaign existed The first meeting, mainly of union officials, ete. who had written to NUVB, was a flop. But another, held shortly afterwards, in October 1968, at the House of Commons and advertised in the left press, was attended by about 200 people.
Volunteers for a Committee were called for, and 50 gave in their names, including a few of the Ford women who remained on the committee to the bitter end. The Joint Chairmen were Audrey Hunt, a member of ASTMS and author of A Survey of Women's Employment (1968) and private member's bill for Equal Pay and was a part-time official in USDAW. (He has now retired from Parliament and did not stand at the next election). Fred Blake acted as Treasurer and Secretary, assisted by his secretary. Doreen Lane. The organisation was known as the National Joint Action Campaign Committee for Women's Equal Rights.
It was decided to work through the establishment of 'Corresponding Secretaries"; when someone wrote in to the campaign, they would either be asked to become corresponding secretaries for their area, or be put in touch with the existing C.S. Meetings of the General Committee were held, generally bi-monthly, in London, and a smaller working party, elected from the G.C., met in between the general meetings. C.S.'s and others who contacted NJACCWER were invited to come to the general meetings, which were sometimes attended by as many as 50 people, overwhelmingly women.
Early in the campaign a six-point charter was discussed, but the second point, dealing with protective legislation, was dropped before the charter was adopted. The other points were: 1. To demand the removal of sex discrimination against women in employment, education and public life. 2. To demand the inclusion of equal pay for work of equal value in all egreements between employers and Trade Unions. 3. To demand that Members of Parliament enforce equal legal rights for women through Parliament. 4. To demand that the T. U.C. leads and co-ordinates a national action campaign for equal pay and opportunities in industry, in accordance with their decision at their 1968 Conference. 5. To demand immediate Government ratification of the I.L.O. Convention 100.
In practice, the campaign concentrated on point 2, in spite of a promise in the leaflet that NJACCWER "will keep on fighting until the women of this country have full rights in every sphere", The campaign won a tremendous amount of support very rapidly: many union branches, Trades Councils, women's organisations, M.P.s, ete. became supporters. The IMG was a supporting group and a member, Toni Gorton, was a member of the General Committee and organiser of the first meeting to be held outside London, in Nottingham, on 30th January 1969, with Audrey Wise as speaker.
WEAKNESSES Several weaknesses in the method of organisation were evident right from the beginning. The volunteers who had given their names at the first meeting mostly disappeared from sight, leaving a depleted committee, but the newcomers who began to turn up regularly at meetings, including corresponding secretaries and, where they became established, branch organisers, had no status. In fact, for the first four meetings, voting at general meetings was indeed general, everyone present taking it for granted that it was "their" campaign.
Another weakness was the fact that organisations did not "affiliate", but merely "supported"; no regular financial commitment was required, no delegates called for. As branches became established, an opportunity to institute individual membership was passed by. No rules for branches were laid down and the whole thing was very ad-hoc, so that right from the start a feeling of impermanence was able to make itself felt.
The alms of the campaign were to be promoted in a number of ways, Corresponding secretaries were to organise support in their own area. Post-cards were produced for sending to interested organisations calling for support for the main activity of the campaign, a Rally on May 18th 1969. Equal Pay badges were produced and proved very popular. Preparations for the Rally included lobbying the special TUC meeting (on the Labour Government's Trade Union legislation) on February 27 and poster parades, Ineluding one in Oxford Street.
As the Rally came nearer, the biggest weakness of all was shown up. The campaign had not been able to organise women in large numbers, had not succeeded in mobilising them and developing their militancy. The method of organising the campaign went right against any such development. The nearest to grass-roots organisation were the local NJACCWER committees, many of these were set up, some with considerable success in local campaigns for better pay etc. However, considering how many of the committee were careerist trade union officials it is not surprising that no attempts were made to set up factory committees. In fact, the local NAJACCWER branches were
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set up as a result of local initiative, not because of encouragement from the general committee.
The nature of the committee was shown up when the first big dispute arose. This was over the question of wording for the posters on the May 18 Rally. Banners from TUs and political groups were allowed, but posters had to be in line with the five point charter. Women from the Women's Equal Rights Campaign (originally the London NJACCWER, from which the trade unionists quickly left, leaving mainly those who are now in Women's Liberation Front) wanted to have posters supporting "the heroic women of Vietnam". but this was turned down by the press officer, Julie Jacobs, a member of the Communist Party. Challenged by Toni Gorton as to the action that would be taken if such posters were brought on the Rally, Jacobs threatened to ask the police to remove anyone carrying them. Uproar! Another CP member, also a man, reproved Jacobs, not only for his sentiments, but also for the chauvinistie way in which he had expressed them.
It was at the meeting after this that for the first time it was mentioned that "visitors to meetings must refrain from voting". On May 1 a meeting was held at the House of Commons, from which a number of suggestions were made, which had they been vigorously taken up. might have resulted in a much stronger campaign which could have continued beyond the point it in fact did, These suggestions included selectingfactories with a majority of women workers and conducting campaigns for Equal Pay in them; organising factory gate meetings; and lobbying the TUC and annual LP conference.
GROWTH The Rally duly took place in pouring rain, attended by about 1.000 women mainly from unions and mainly from outside London. Interest in the campaign continued to grow and the next activities planned were a meeting at Brighton for the Labour Party conference in early October and an "Equal Pay Day on September 12, on which nation wide meetings, rallies, ete were to be held. These were planned at the first General Committee meeting after the Rally, and three other important questions came up: support fro women's strugeles was raised by Toni Gorion, in particular a strike then laking in Ramsgate (for which ten pounds was donated). The idea of having an AGM at which a new committee could be formed was raised, but no decision reached, and Fred Blake resigned. By the closing date for nominations to take his place only one valid nomination had been received from Leonora Lloyd. who was nominated by Doreen Lane, Fred Blake's secretary. At the following general meeting the Chairman Chris Norwood declared nominations reopened, and nominated himself. The majority of people at the meeting (over 30) were not entitled to vote, and only 18 people voted, resulting in the election of Chris Norwood.
DECLINE By this Lime, the Equal Pay Bill had been drafted and the necessity of a really strong campaign forcing changes in the Bill was now greater than ever. A process of education and propaganda on the other points in NJAWER's Charter should have been started at this point, too. However, it is from this point in time that the decline of the organisation can be dated. It would be ridiculous to put the view that it was the election of Norwood that caused this decline. His election was only possible because of the nature of the organisation; its lack of internal democracy; of' any contact between the committee and the branches in any real sense; its methods of campaigning.
*with honourable exceptions, notably Fred Blake, Doreen Lane and Audrey Wise. From this time on, little came from the committee. Minutes were no longer generally circulated (previously this had been the main communication between the committee and local activists). A promised constitution turned out to be even more undemocratic and bureaucratic than the previous non-organisation, and the previous rapid growth in local groups and supporters dwindled to practically nothing. There was a short burst of renewed activity when Jean Watts replaced Norwood as secretary, but the Impetus had been lost, the undemocratic constitution remained, the same methods as before were followed and the organisation finally wound up in 1971. This account has necessarily missed out what was really the most vital part of all the local activities that took place, Even if this information was available, there would be no space to give representative details).
LESSONS OF NJACCWER NJACCWER was an unbrella organisation. It reflected the male-domination and lack of democracy in the trade-union movement. The committee was dominated by Stalinists and their supporters: other members of the committee on the whole just did not have the same experience and were unable to counteract this domination. But the failure and rapid demise of NJACCWER were caused above all by the lack of any attempt to involve women workers in their place of work. In some cases, local bureaucrats used the campaign to further their own career as happened in Glasgow, for instance. In other cases, trades councils and TU branches did get involved in the campaign to some extent, for example in several areas of London. But compared with the women's movement, which during ail this period was coming into being and growing rapidly, the decline of NJACCWER cannot be explained simply by saying that the passing of the Equal Pay Act in 1970 left the organisation with no raison d'etre. All the problems that led to the formation of NACCWER apply with equal force now, as was shown in the article on Low Pay in our last issue.
The main lesson to be learnt from all this is the importance of by-passing the union hierachy and of mobilising the women themselves at the base. This is not to say that we should not be putting pressure on TUs -far from it. But this pressure cannot come from a small self-appointed committee it must come from women workers, organised in their place of work. We should be calling for women to form committees within the factories, ete, along the lines of shop stewards committees (Le. cutting across union boundaries): campaigning for, amongst other things, the demands of women workers to be placed high on the agenda of the unions; fighting against male prejudice in the work-place and union; against complacent union officials: against the attempts of management to divide work and evade the E. P.Act we should be fighting for equal pay, equal work, equality of training and promotion, ete. ete. Such a committee would have as its main task the mobilisation of the women in the factory in support of such a programme, to educate them in the facts of the situation (just what differentials exist in pay, what jobs are closed to women, ete) and to make links with other women workers in their area and with women in the same industry. This is the way forward. At its height NACCWER showed itself, with all its weaknesses and short comings, capable of arousing a lot of support for its programme. Such enthusiasm largely evaporated, but can be aroused again, and ten-fold. NJACCWER has a place in the struggle of women for their rights, and as with all such struggles we must learn the lessons and go on to build a fresh.
Leonora Lloyd