[page 11]
Charter Campaign has given active support to Grunwick strikers, most of whom are women. The national Working Women's Charter Campaign is a year old. The campaign has been placed on the map of struggles for women's liberation by many successful activities. Of particular note are the establishment of a national newspaper with a circulation of 2,500; a Rally on Women's Rights of a scope and base of support unprecedented in the life of the WLM; solidarity with struggles developing in the year, e.g. with the Trico strike, where the response of the campaign throughout the country gave it recog nition from the strikers (Eileen Ward stated at the Trico victory celebration, without the support of the trade unions and the Women's Charter we would not have won*).
Not surprisingly, the first year of the national campaign has been plagued with problems. Balance sheets of the year's activities have been produced for the conference. These, and the reports and experiences of the local groups, should play a central part in the discussion at the conference. In this way we can learn from the problems of our first year and go forward in our fight for women's liberation, of which the campaign for the Charter is a part.
In the assessment of the first year, many people in the campaign are beginning to question the importance of the Charter demands in the fight for women's liberation and the need for a nationally organised campaign.
In this paper, members of the International Marxist Group take up some of the questions raised in this discussion.
Why are the WW demands important for the battle for women's liberation? 1. Since its beginnings, the WLM adopted a number of demands as a framework for action. This framework stressed the need to take up the interrelated aspects of women's sexual oppression and economic exploitation at home and at work. These developments in the WLM were important in a situation where the labour movement had an inadequate understanding of the need to challenge women's ties to the family.
2. The Charter demands emerged from a labour movement body as a response to the increased struggles of women and the growth of the women's movement. The London Trades Council Charter has been discussed by most trade (national) unions, has been adopted by 12 national unions and received one third of the TUC votes in 1976. The significance of this is that for the first time important sections of the labour movement were considering the lessons drawn from the women's movement on the necessary basis for a fight for women's liberation. Thus the Charter demands allow an audience for the initiatives and arguments of the WLM far wider than anything previously existing.
This is what we mean when we argue that the Working Women's Charter acts as a bridge between the experiences and lessons of the WLM and the struggles and debates of the labour movement.
Why an organised campaign?
Many people have argued that a permanently organised campaign with local groups and conference is not necessary. They argue that the Charter can be taken up in many ways in existing organisations — women's groups, trade unions, etc. While we agree that the methods of taking up the Charter demands should be explored, we believe that an organised campaign is also necessary.
1. Without an organised campaign, the pressure for activity and debate around the Charter would be lost. The existence of Charter campaigning groups and the propaganda actions of the campaign have ensured continued debate on the Charter issues in the labour movement. The influence of these debates around the Charter is already seen in a revised TUC Charter, which includes demands for abortion rights and drops demands which bolstered women's home responsibilities. Without such an organised campaign, the Charter demands would have died with the London Trades Council in 1974.
2. The Charter has been taken up inside the trade unions, political organisations and within the struggles of women on specific issues - abortion and nursery campaigns. The campaign has allowed women most active in the fight for the Charter to exchange their experiences and co-ordinate their activities. Without an organised campaign these activists would be isolated in individual women's groups, labour movement bodies and communities.
3. An organised campaign on the Charter can begin to gain recognition from people who may not be as committed to the struggle for women's liberation as those active in the Working Women's Charter Campaign itself. This is achieved through consistent propaganda and support activity which only an organised campaign can produce.
This recognition from people outside the campaign allows it to organise events (eg. conferences, the Rally) or set the ball rolling on particular Issues with broad support (e.g. the London Charter organised the first demonstration against the James White Bill).
Without an organised campaign, these initial steps might never be taken. The broad support and discussion around the Charter demands allows the Campaign to approach people who may be unfamiliar with struggles on the issues in question.
Why a national campaign?
1. Many of the gains to be made by an organised Charter Campaign relate to the debate within the labour movement on the issues raised by the women's liberation movement. These debates are often organised at a national level through trade union and women's conferences. Without national co-ordination we would be illprepared to take advantage of these national discussions.
2. The backwardness of the labour movement on women's oppression often means that women in struggle do so in isolation from the national support of the labour movement. Important examples of this are: EGA, Trico, SEl and other equal pay strikes. In this situation, the women's movement is important in the struggle to gain national labour movement support and recognition for women's actions.
The specific relationship of the Charter Campaign to the labour movement places it in a good position to take action to strengthen and gain wider support for women's struggles (e.g. Trico).
Photo: ANDREW WIARD (Report)
[page 12]
3. Propaganda on the issues raised by the Charter is best organised and co-ordinated on a national level. A national newspaper and pamphlets strengthen the respect and impact of the campaign on a local and national level. Propaganda material produced by the national Campaign or circulated from one group to others throughout the country makes best use of our energies.
Should all the activity on the WWC demands be organised through the We have argued the importance of building and strengthening an organised national campaign around the Charter. However, for the Charter demands to have the fuilest impact within the specific struggles of women, or in the general labour movement, we must explore all possible ways of using the Charter.
When considering this we must be aware that the people committed to the organised Working Women's Charter Campaign are not the only ones active around the Charter demands. Support for the demands spreads far wider than the This support acts as a basis for actions which unite quite broad sections of the labour and women's movements in struggle - turning often passive paper support for the Charter into action. This 'wider movement' on the Charter demands the importance of looking beyond the boundaries of the Campaign itself, which largely organises women already committed to the Women's Liberation Movement and to socialist is not to downplay the importance of building a national Charter Campaign but clarifies the role of the Campaign as a radical section of a much broader, less politically committed movement around the Charter demands.
One difficulty faced by the Campaign and local groups in the last year was the form this 'wider movement" on the Charter should take relationship of the organised Campaign to Some of the problems to be resoived 1. How the Campaign relates to the individual campaigns on specific issues raised by the Chartger, e.g. nurseries and abortion? What steps can the Campaign take to initiate action on these issues? How can we use our support in the labour movement to strengthen these activities? What actions should we take to raise the wider questions embodied in the Charter within these single issue campaigns?
2. What opportunities exist to organise women's groups in the labour movement? These groups would support the Charter but draw in women not yet as politically committed as those in the Working Women's Charter Campaign. We should consider here the possibilities offered by women's committees women's committees.
3. How best can we relate to women's sub-committees in trade trades counciis whilst maintaining independence of the national Campaign?
4. What possibilities exist for setting up women s caucuses involving large numbers of women as a basis of action?
Do we only concentrate on activity with women at work?
Many women in the Campaign have raised the very important problem of how we take up the issues facing women outside the workplace. The debate around this question has thrown up many confusions. Among these are the notion that we should ignore the labour movement or the equally incorrect position that we should concentrate our attentions on the problems facing women at work. following position should be considered in the debate around the problem:
1. The struggle for socialism, of which women's liberation is an intrinsic part, takes up all questions of oppression and exploitation facing all oppressed sections of society. The struggle for socialism concerns a challenge to a whole social system. It cannot therefore be reduced to the economic problems faced by people at the workplace.
2. Struggles on issues not directly involving the workplace or working people challenge to capitalist domination, e.g. Basque national question, prisoners in Spain, apartheid in South Africa, abortion and divorce in Italy.
3. The best way to unite all sections of oppressed women is to offer solutions to their problems. For example, the struggle to defend abortion rights, women's health needs and nursery facilities can unite together women in the home and at work.
4. It is necessary to recognise that, although the issues on which we struggle are not reduced to those only facing working women, the economic power and of collective action by organised labour movement is crucial for victory on any question. Whatever issue we take up, we must attempt to draw behind it the collective strength of the labour movement. So in the struggles of women around such questions as rents, nurseries, rape we should fight for the aid and support of the labour movement. This is why we stress the importance of an orientation for the Campaign towards the labour movement. This is why we emphasise the importance of the Charter La channel to the labour movement. Thus our emphasis is not necessarily on working women as such but on the organisations of the working Where do we go from here?
Women are under attack through government policies of the Social Contract, cuts in social expenditure and associated unemployment. In addition we see increased attacks on an ideological level, with a challenge to abortion rights and the right of women to define their own sexuality and reassertion of the family as a woman's 'natural' place.
These attacks must be greeted with the most consistent fightback, which asserts women's right to independence equality and begins to challenge women's ties to the family.
The present stage of development and resources of the national Charter Campaign limit the amount of national action we can take on in this situation. The weight of activity will rest on actions in localities, workplaces and through women's groups. However, it is important areas of co-ordination national activity which can unite our efforts and increase the impact of the Campaign in the quest for women's liberation. A serious discussion of realistic forms of national activity, which takes the Campaign further than its local work, is particularly important when the attacks on rights are co-ordinated nationally by a consistent attack from the Government and the national leadership of the labour movement. These attacks can only be blocked by a national response.
1. The abortion issue is at the forefront of the ideological attacks on women. A organisations like NAC, Labour Abortion Rights Campaign and ALRA. The Charter Campaign can play an important role to spread support for this The national Charter Campaign has a base of support in the labour movement much broader than abortion campaigns. This support could be drawn behind the abortion struggle through consistent work by the Charter Campaign in the labour movement. The abortion struggle also draws into action many women and men not yet committed to the issues raised by the WLM and the Charter. By taking up nationally co-ordinated activity, the Charter Campaign can begin to win some of these people to the wider struggle for women's liberation.
2. At present, the major attacks on women's rights come through Government policies of cuts, unemployment and bution the Charter Campaign can make to these activities rests largely on the work particular struggles developing in the However there are some important actions which the Charter Campaign can (a) Propaganda produced nationally to highlight the need to integrate demands of women into the unfolding labour movement opposition to government (b) Nationally co-ordinated solidarity with the struggles of women, e.g. Trico, (c) Contacts have been made with the labour movement through national actions like the Rally and the statement issued by the Campaign to the British Leyland conference on women's low pay. This and the continuing debates around the Charter mean that the Campaign is well placed to initiate a call for a national on opposition to Labour's attacks on women. Such a conference will be important for women leading struggles against these attacks. The conference would strengthen opposition to government attacks through the exchange of experience and the chances offered to generate further support for women's struggles. This will begin a process of ensuring that their struggles are given national weight and importance. This is essential when we consider the problems and isolation facing the EGA and Grunwick workers because of labour movement refusal to take national action.
(d) One of the main tasks of the national Campaign is to organise propaganda on the general questions raised by the Charter to win support inside specific struggles, labour movement bodies and the women's movement. Nationally organised propaganda, particularly the national newspaper, material for meetings (speakers and speakers' notes). and the organisation of meetings at union and campaign conferences (e.g. NAC, TUC) to win further support, are an important feature of national campaign work over the next year.