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Pat Sturdy and the women who formed the Women's Industrial Union (W.I.U.) in Lucas, Burnley, last May are now going into the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers (A.U.E. W.) after being in existence for just over a year as a separate autonomous organisation.
Briefly, what has happened over the past year is that the W.I.U. received varying degrees of sympathy from other women trade unionists, but very few of these women actually joined. For women, without much experience of struggle, who don't think much of or about the Union, the prospect of just joining another sort of Union, albeit a women's Union, would not be very attractive. More militant industrial women, with some Trade Union experience would see what they had gained as part of the working-class struggle through the established Unions and be rather sceptical of a breakaway Union. As l outlined in Socialist Woman 1, 1972, I think that underlying this is a theoretical mistake; certainly the Unions are bureaucratic, non-democratic, male-dominated, but this is a result of the function that Trade Unions have played in relation to capital in our society over a long period of time. While the exploitation of women is part of the way in which the ruling class exploits all working-class people, it follows that their struggle against their exploitation must be part of the whole working-class struggle in the Unions. Bureaucracy and maledomination of the Unions is just one problem amongst many that faces workers. The W.I.U. women have learned this in practice. Their experience also rather knocks on the head the idea in Women's Liberation that women should opt out of the Trade Unions, because working people's struggles are somehow outside the Unions (see Selma Jones- "What is not to be done"). Her arguments are based on a confusion between the Union's rank-and-file and the union official leadership. While we are all quite well aware that the Unions are bureaucratic it does not at all follow that the Union equals the Union officials and that the rank-and-file in struggle are outside the Union. Precisely the workers are more effectively able to go into militant action because they are strongly unionised. Although Pat Sturdy does have more faith in the more democratic and militant A.U.E.W. than in the General Municipal Workers" Union (G.&.M.W.U.) she is unlikely to find that the interests of the officials in the A.U.E. W. often coincide with those of the rank-and-file.
The perspective that the Burnley women now have for the future is that of developing women's industrial groups within the A.U.E.W., organised a programme demanding equal pay, job opportunities, nursery facilities etc. Mrs Sturdy is proposing to the A.U.E.W. that the women should have a Women's Industrial Section within it, based on groups like hers in different areas. Mrs. Sturdy is currently drawing up a manifesto for her group declaring the central aims -to campaign for equal pay, and nurseries, which she is keen to distribute to other A.U.E.W. plants. She is also preparing to speak to other sections of women about her organisation to encourage them to do the same.
Already many improvements have been made in Lucas; in a recent dispute concerning women they were backed by the men workers and under threat of strike action the matter was settled within hours.
I think it is clear that it is only in this way, by women organising themselves around the issues that particularly affect them as women but through the working-class organisations that exist, that women will challenge their oppression. If, for instance, men and women workers are involved in a factory occupation the natural tendency will be for women to adopt their normal roles in relation to men within the struggle i.e. they'll do the cooking, look after the children ete. while the men make all the decisions and do the organising. At the same time one of the objectives of the strike could be Equal Pay for Women! The men will support it and fight "for" the women; perhaps in the end it will be thrown out in negotiation as a concession. But if women begin to organise themselves to make sure the equal pay demand doesn't "get lost" who will look after the children while they're at meetings? Women are then beginning to challenge their oppression as women as well as —as workers. When they begin to discuss amongst themselves they might well ask why they are worth less than men in the first place, why they don't get the chance to train for the better-paid skilled jobs etc., and thus the whole spectrum of women's oppression is raised. It will then become a political issue, instead of being a few words in the mouths of male Trade Unionists and Union officials.
While this kind of organisation is absolutely progressive in principle we only have to look around at the sorts of struggles that have taken place around equal pay, at the progress (or lack of it) that has been made towards equal pay to see why it is so necessary. These struggles have been fragmented, breaking out here and there, many occurring in the engineering Union, because of its policy to fight for three demands, more money (including moves towards equal pay), longer holidays and a shorter working week, at local level. Some progress has been made in various Unions with a comparatively large female memberstop, e.g. in come sections of Union of Shop Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW) and so on. But the progress depends to an overwhelming extent on the women involved (or not involved). There is some pressure within USDAW, and the A.U.E.W. cannot really ignore the question of equal pay. But nowhere is there a systemmatic means of organising the campaign; National Joint Action Committee Campaign for Women Equal Rights (NJACCWER) died and with it the coordinated rank-and-file support for equal pay, and other demands. Since it is only when women themselves begin to organise that they are going to make gains, the Burnley women's move may have a great deal of significance. If the industrial groups develop, as 1 think they should, they could have a marked effect on Women's Liberation Groups, male Trade Unionists and the revolutionary left. Women's liberation will find it less easy to argue against work in the Trade Unions, As Pat Sturdy says, the abortion issue is important but not central to working class women at the moment, a statement with which we in Socialist Woman Groups would agree. Some abortion campaigners might begin
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to think the same thing for themselves. A very important part of any work around the issue of women's oppression is the effect we have on men. I think on the whole male unionists will sympathise with the industrial group since any militant will support another; they will perhaps begin to understand more about the oppression of women and see that they have interests in common. Lastly we can show that as part of revolutionary left polities the issue of women's oppression is not a side-issue of secondary importance, but an integral element in every working-class struggle.
The Lucas women hope that the idea of women's industrial groups will spread within the A.U.E.W. and there does seem to be a reasonable basis tor its development, now that there is the example of what can be done and what has been achieved in Lucas. The main areas which would be most receptive to the idea would be:1) In factories where there are women in the A.U.E.W. 2) Where there are already militant groups of women unionists, perhaps in the tobacco industry. 3) Where militant struggles are happening, e.g. in the A.U.E.W. occupations in Manchester.
When such a group forms, for instance in a factory where some women are in the A.U.E.W., it would provide a stimulus for other women workers in the factory in another Union to do the same thing. There would then be a basis for forming a committee of women from each Union to organise the struggle for women's demands within the factory; they would demand equal women's representation on shop stewards committees. coordinate demands for equal pay, coordinate proposals for Union branches to put pressure on the local Trades Council to support women's rights etc., and in the process develop women's ability to speak, organise, and fully participate in their Trade Onion raising the demands of the rank-and-file While the implication of the formation of women's industrial groups is political i.e. by implication acknowledges the oppression of women, the main criterion for their effectiveness will be how much active grass-root participation and control there is. If they don't become part of an on-going active struggle for women's rights they will degenerate and may possibly be subject to any kind of leadership that can be bought off by the Trade Union bureaucrats.
So the job for Socialist Woman Groups is to help the formation of Women's Industrial Groups, encourage them to meet regularly, coordinate the work of different areas, and especially to agitate in them around the political issues of women's oppression and their relationship to the whole class struggle. In the Lancaster and Preston Socialist Woman Groups we hope to work with Pat Sturdy in the initial stages, In the meantime I hope SWG's throughout the country will discuss this issue so that in the shortest possible time we can use our national organisation to its fullest advantage in hoping to set up more W.I.Gs.
Nina Thomas Lancaster Socialist Woman Group
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GAY LIBERATION Any form of society which has exhausted its progressive role can in the long run only be maintained if the people who live in it accept an ideology which justifies its continued existence, and so fail to see that their real interest lies in overthrowing it in favour of a more rational system. This is the case with capitalism.
THE BOLE OF THE FAMILY One of the most effective ways by which people are contused into thinking that capitalism is the only possible way of life is through the ideology of the family and the relations between women, men and children (which are presented as 'natural', "right", and 'normal"') associated with this. It is very difficult then for anyone who learns these relations from the moment of birth to think outside this framework. Attempts to challenge the ideology associated with the family system of relationships between people have been made to a varying degree by the youth movements and the women's movements. Another challenge is now being presented by the Gay Liberation Front who very explicitly demand an end to social and legal oppression of people who do not fit into the 'normal' heterosexual categories accepted by this society.
However, the family must not be identified as the source and cause of oppression. The recent analysis of radical feminist writers e.g. Greer, Mitchell, that the family is the pillar of class society, implies that to attack the family is to attack the very core of capitalism. The family is the social unit within which people experience their lives and which expresses and reinforces the repressive nature of society. The family is essentially a social grouping and thus adapts to the prevailing economic conditions. The ideas, then, which develop in support of the family give it an aura of autonomy, permanency and inevitability which it does not possess.
GAY LIBERATION+ WOMEN'S LIBERATION The London Gay Liberation Front has been formed for about 18 months and there is still no clear support from either left women's organisations or the left in general. Gay Liberation and Women's Liberation are fighting the same oppressive ideology. They have common aims; to create a society where people can live without the exploitation and distortions of capitalism which women and gay people experience more than heterosexual men due to the phenomenon of sexism. We must organise on the basis of our oppression and recognise the need for other groups to do this.
The oppression of gay people starts in capitalist society's smallest social unit the patriarchal family in which the enshrinement of the stereotype "male", "female" sex roles offers no place for gay people. G.L.F. fights alongside the women's movement for the abolition of the family so that the sexist, male-supremacist system can no longer be nurtured there. This is a sexist society in which one's biological sex determines almost all of what one does. Gay women having none of the ties of sexual dependance on men are perceived as a threat in a man's world.
GAY ACTIVISM OR GAY LIBERATION? The first stages of gay liberation of coming out, coming together, and learning to overcome self-hate, are now well-organised. G.L.F. must work out what changes are necessary for liberation and must develop a practice along these lines. Two paths are open: gay activism or gay liberation. Activism is when gay males seek their full share of male privileged; social equality for homosexuals within a society based on male-supremacy. Gay Liberation fights to end male-supremacy and the whole gender role system. The London G.L.F. Manifesto relates gay oppression to the oppression of women and sees the gender role system as the common basis of both. Transvestites are seen to be an important factor in the gender role system. They do not attempt to fit into a particular role; male transvestites reject in a dramatic way all rights to male privileges , We should be free to develop with greater individuality, and to do this the stereotype sex roles must be smashed. Many people are alarmed at attacks on gender roles and only see chaos or total conformity as a result. As far as we can see there would be greater individuality and more freedom for experimentation. By openly rejecting the roles of oppressor and oppressed, gay women and men fundamentally challenge the sexual chauvinism that capitalism uses to divide the working class.
THE LEFT AND GAY LIBERATION A consensus has not yet been reached within G.L.F. concerning the left movements. The attitudes vary from "we should put our energies primarily into changing sexual attitudes" to a belief that a radical change in sexuality is only possible after the downfall of the economic structure and this cannot be achieved by changing people's sexual attitudes first, others think that both struggles should be carried on simultaneously, ie. by working in a left group with a total revolutionary perspective. The left cannot be the saviour of G.L.F. for the bourgeois ideology concerning women also extends into the revolutionary movement and male chauvinism has found very blatant expression in the marxist movement at various periods. Without their own organisation gay people would not have : the confidence to 'come out' even in left organisations. The lack of support for Gay Liberation is indicative of the general lack of understanding of the way sexism (like racism) is used to divide the working class both ideologically (through male chauvinism) and organisationally (through the family). We should support the Gay Liberation Front on exactly the same basis that we support all groups fighting against the bourgeoisie and its ideology. We are not just fighting an economic system, ideological oppression is just as real as economic oppression. There is a danger that the left may look upon minority group struggles economistically and therefore disregard movements like Gry Liberation because it has no specific economic roots or else it will regard them merely as a recruiting ground. G.L.F. is fighting an ideological oppression which unless drawn into the general struggle is relatively meaningless and in the final analysis is doomed to failure THE WORK TO BE DONE BY SWGS In the Manifesto adopted by the Socialist Woman Groups at their Conference this year it was agreed that one of our aims should be: "an end to sexual repression and exploitation ... including recognition of the rights of gay people". We have still to work out in detail the relationship between this kind of oppression -that of homosexual people in particular and sexual oppression in general, the overall social and economic structure of society, and how the fight for gay liberation can relate on a practical level in the struggle to overthrow capitalism. We hope that further contributions to the discussion will be made in future issues of Socialist Woman.
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(adopted by the national conference of the Socialist Woman Groups, 1972).
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WORK - I'M ONLY