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Associations passed a series of resolutions to take the Charter Campaign forward in this area. large numbers of women employed at both factories.
Working Women's Charter held in Leeds which resulted in a considerable response from tories.
on behalf of the Brent Working Women's Charter Campaign. The Charter itself did not, take of making such assumptions. Rather, we should, in the course of support work, ater Campaign, especially on the question of nursery provision.
Tenants Associations. A great deal of the necessary groundwork was done a couple of the home and in the workplace.
a position on abortion in relation to James White's Private Members" Bill to restrict the 1967 Act. Resulting from an appeal by the Charter Campaign the Trades Council wrote to Barbara Castle, and agreed to circulate the petitions which had been drawn up to protest against the Bill. The fight for free abortion has gained a great deal of support in the area-at a recent public meeting held in the area sponsored by the local Labour Party to mark the beginning of activity for International Women's Year, the discussion centered around the question of abortion The Conference on the ten-point Working Women's Charter, jointly organised last November by the Brent Women's Centre, Brent Trades Council and Brent Federation of Tenants This included a resolution to grant practical support to all struggles involving women both locally and nationally. Just at that time two disputes were in process at a local level at Hoover Motors and at Associated Automation towards which the Charter Campaign immediately orientated itself. Neither struggle was specifically concerned with issues of equat pay and opportunities or any other demand relating directly to the Charter, but there were both locally, and at a natiortal level-that is, at the Women in Socialism Conference on the Charter Committees in the way of messages of solidarity and donations sent to these facWhile not belittling the efforts involved in doing this, it is important to stress that the role of supportative actions alone by the Charter Campaign is not a sufficient perspective to bring the Campaign forward. We actually found ourselves in a difficult position in the case of Associated Automation when asked to address a mass meeting of women workers and could not, be the main focal point in such a struggle. We should not commit the mistempt to introduce wider aspects of our work on women's oppression into the labour movelin the course of the two struggles mentioned above, the Charter Campaign was able to make contact with a number of women who expressed interest in working with the ChartA nursery campaign has now been launched in conjunction with Brent Federation of years ago by the Under 5's Campaign who have made this information available to us. The objective of the present nursery campaign is to attempt to get child care provision on each on the twenty-five council housing estates. We hope to involve the local labour movement in this. By bringing their industrial weight to bear on such a campaign for nursery facilities a further step would be taken in helping to demolish the false division between women in The Brent Charter Campaign succeeded recently in forcing the Trades' Council to take to local Labour MP's urging them to vote against the Bill. It also wrote a letter of protest Ingrid Falconer
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• NEWS.•• NEWS••• NEWS• Lack of training opportunities is one of the key factors in women's discrimination at work, and an important step in combatting this has been taken by women members of the Association of Cinematograph, Television and Allied Technicians.
At the initiative of two rank-and-file members, ACTT sponsored a one-day film workshop in December at which 60 women who work in TV were able -many for the first time in their careers-to learn about the equipment which transforms sounds and images on to film and While training is clearly the responsibility of the employers, the experience of the workshop, which is likely to be repeated shortly, showed that that such initiatives undertaken by inions can be crucial in giving women confidence to demand training facilities and opportunities.
The ACTT workshop was run almost entirely by women-many of them the only qualified practitioners in their respective fields-and this had useful repercussions. Many men in the industry, it seems, say that they couldn't bear to see women humping a camera around, to which Linda Dove, who was mainly involved in organising the workshop, replies: "Don't look".
Joan Churchill, who shot Punishment Park, told the workshop students that their muscles would soon Working Women's Charter groups will soon be asked to help with a campaign for abortion on demand.
woman should have the right to abortion within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and should only be refused abortion after that time if there is an unacceptable risk to her health.
In support of the main aim, the campaign call for NHS outpatient abortion services to be set up throughout Britain. At present, women in Northern Ireland are not even covered by the 1967 Abortion Act, which requires the agreement of two doctors before an abortion can be performed.
ortion clinics to be backed up by an unbiased counselling service to tell women what an abortion involves, to help ner if she wants to keep the child, and to give contraceptive advice. Free contraception, sterilisation and pregnancy tests are also demanded for all fertile women.
Women's Charter is for free contraception and aborition on demand, and the campaign organisers hope Charter groups will support them by pressing for better abortion services in their areas.
10 · , demands that every The campaign organisers want abThe eighth demand of the Working OUT But before any steps can be made towards aborition on demand, a threat to restrict the present Abortion Act must be warded off.
On February 7, James White, Labour MP for Glasgow Pollok, will introduce a Bill to prohibit abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy - the limit is now 28 weeks-and to forbid abortions on social grounds.
Anyone who wants to offer help with or get information on the new campaign should contact "A Woman's Right to Choose', 186 Kengs Cross Road, London WCIX 9DE (01-278-4575)
The Hoover Workers returned to work at the Perivale factory in West London early in January after a three month bitter struggle.
The dispute between 150 skilled tool room men and management had resulted last October in the layoff of 2000 production workers, many of whom were women.
During the first eight weeks of the dispute no hard feelings were shown towards the craftsmen by the production workers. Attempts were made by the bosses during this period to use the women to turn the workforce against the skilled men by saying that they would not be out of a job if it were not for the strikers.
The women made it clear that they were not going to be fooled. These men have supported us in the past
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The campaign, called "A Woman's Right to Choose".