TRIBUTE TO AFRICA Cupid's Inspiration Ginger Johnsons Drummers Cartoon Archetypical Slogan Theatre ratio of male to female trainees was:- | clerical craftsmen 84:1 supervisors technologists 69:1 nanaeerial staff 99:1 What does the man responsible for industry training think about this situation? On the question of equal opportunity for women, Mr Hattersley spoke recently of continuing the development of education and training on an equal basis."
Bewildered? So was the Association of Teachers in Technical Institutions. They decided to find out what kind of jobs women workers -were being trained for, how their opportunities compared with men's and whether there had been any improvement since the setting up of the Industrial Training Boards in 1964. The general pattern could be guessed but the results of their survey in percentage terms are still startling. While most boards don't bother to keep records of women trained, the statistics which exist show the scale of discrimination. For instance in the Knitting Lace & Net industries whete two thirds of the work force are women, they are predominantly on the shop floor or doing clerical work. Only 8 out of 192 technologists trained in 1967 were Very few women get day release at Colleges of Further Education. According to the 1967/8 annual report Engineering Industrial Board day release education for Trinidad Folk Singers Biafran Atilogwu Dancers workers is making slow progress because, "The employers appear particularly reluctant to release clerical trainees who it is claimed cannot be spared from the office, and are also unwilling to release girls whose working life is often short in any case.
The situation is circular. Lack of training and educational opportunities mean the majority of women will have to take unskilled and frequently underpaid work Inevitably these will be stop gaps belore marriage. Inadequate nursery facilities will discourage women, except under severe economic pressure. from returning to work, and the difficulty of getting part time jobs aggravates this. Thus, girls will continue to be regarded by employers as simply a bad investment. At a time wher further education is under attack and the growth rate is being drastically cut, it is obvious there will be no improvement without a fight. It is important not to argue on the lines of better opportunities for women workers instead of men, but to criticise the whole range of wrong priorities and inequality throughout the system. Any other approach would be simply UHC group struggling against another. It's important that socialist teachers, students, and trade unionists link up to prevent not only the general reduction of educational opportunities but to secure access for girls to skilled work.
Incidentally there are only 5 women among trade union representatives the Industrial Training Boards.
Gen. Man, John Der n, C.B.E.) the democratically elected, representatives 0 the students as a whole.' Racism is becoming so popular that the Committee expressed surprise on learning that only a militan minority' was opposed to it, and one member Ronald Bell MP (member of the racist Society for Individual Freedom) even suggested th minority should be expelled Dougla demurred - perhaps not fancying the prospec of booting out the several thousand ringleaders Nor did the Times which printed Logan's views print any of the letters it received fron democratically elected representatives (eg. th President of SOAS) which pointed out that Si Douglas's second statement was straightforward lie The strategy of Sir Douglas Logan and the refusal of Senate to do anything when it considered the matter on March 26 are no surprising in the light of their views. They have in common a deep implication with racism especially in South Africa and Rhodesia. Si Douglas is in Rhodesia just now, advising the illegal Witherine Onle on tich fit "illegal University College, which University of London still examines and awards degrees. The members of the Senate include some outstanding monopoly capitalists: Lord Penny of Tube Investments. J. C. Gridley of Powell Duffryn, Lord Shawcross (with directorships too numerous to mention) and many others, all of whom have it in common that their companies make huge profits out of the exploitation of black labour in South Africa and Rhodesia. With such deep interests in racism, they are unlikely to oppose manifestations here which can also be a source of great profit, as Bernard Waley-Cohen, a property developer and member of the Senate, will know. Likewise. the Senate contains several ex-colonial civil servants who paved the way for the giant monopolies in Africa: men like R. C. Tress and C. H. Phillips Not only cannot the Race Relations Act be invoked against the Lodgings Bureau but the Kace Relations Board actually advises the Bureau on its lodgings policy toward black and is thus directly involved in legalising racism.
Students in the University of London are mobilising on a broad front against the Bureau's They are holding a mass Wednesday May 7 at 2.30 pm in the Hall, Regent St. Polytechnic to wi ummigrants, and workers been invited. After the meeting march to Senate
The Black Dwarf May 2 1969
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AFRICA FREEDOM DAY Sunday, May 18th at 2.30 pm at the