factory in Burnley who left the General and Municipal Workers Union to form their own union have now joined the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers. They have disbanded their Women's Industrial Union in a conscious move to put the pressure back where it belongs, inside the trade union movement.
In so doing the women, led by Mrs Pat Sturdy, hope to benefit from the experience of having had their own organisation by spreading their ideas and demands (contained in their Manifesto, some of which is no printed below) inside the trade union movement as a whole. At a time when the question of what role the unions should play is posed so sharply, the willingness of the left to support moves of this kind which go beyond and in some ways contradict the traditional trade union framework may well be crucial for the success of the struggle as a whole.
Mrs Sturdy, who is now speaking to other groups of women workers about the Manifesto, stresses the importance of rank and file activity in fighting for such demands, and the need to place them within a wider political context. "We need a change of political system. Under the present system of Parliament, anyone, no matter who it was, would end up as a Wilson or a Heath, for all their ideals: the Parliamentary system would change them," She is confident that the struggle of women workers in the trade unions will have an important part to play in bringing about this change.
MANIFESTO
Women have for a long time not been fully active in the Trade Union movement because they have most responsowty for runnine incur nomes ano looking after their children. This is why they are the most exploited and poorly paid workers. We for our rights. All Trade Unionists must support our demands since they are in the interests of all workers. We women need to take a more active part in our onions and in routes goncranyOur campaign centres around the following issues:1. For equal pay and against low pay - for a decent wage for our labour. 2. Against any kind or joo evaluanion seneme - for these only divide the workers more to the advantage of the employer. 3. For ecual opportunity for women an tor more opponamas for women as woul as men. 4. Against all redundancies.
- for the right to work of all workers. 5. For nurseries controlled and financed by local councis - to uce women to parciac more in their Unions and stop being pushed around.
We want to organise industrial groups of women to fight within our Unions, to put pressure on the Trade Union officials for our demands. We need to form a network of groups and factory committees around the country and to get a bulletin going for exchange of ideas and experiences.
If you are interested contact: -Mrs Pat Sturdy, 31 Hogarth Avenue, Burnley, Lancs.
Telephone: Burnley 31783 If you are in touch with other women workers she would be happy to come and talk to you.
FAKENHAM FILM A film has been produced on the Fakenham occupation of women workers in a shoe factory in Norfolk and is available for hire.
Please write for details to SOCIALIST WOMAN, c/o Pat Masters, Flat 3, 20 Queens Gardens, W.2.
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I enclose £1.50/£3.00 tor 6/12 months. RED MOLE Name:
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Money Orders to Red Mole, 182 Pentonville Road, London N.l. UCATT secretary George Smith (left) takes conciliatory attitude towands bosses' leader Glyn Lloyd With the return to work of 20,000 workers on 87 sites, the dangers outlined in our last issue seem to be coming true. The desire of the UCATT and T&GWU bureaucracies to avoid a national strike means they will do anything to get off the spot. Their latest move in this direction is to allow men who have reached a settlement with individual companies to return to work. So once again the bureaucrats have scabbed on the one important issue in the trade - the splitting up of the workforce. Time and again since 1947 the basic issue of the organisation of the trade has been dodged. Now, when at last pressure from the militants had forced a national stoppage of sorts (using the strength of all workers in the trade), the union leadership duck for cover again. DANGERS INCREASED Individual settlements for the full claim will undoubtedly put pressure on the Employers Federation to settle, provided the men involved stay out meanwhile to maintain the solidarity which the weaker sites so desperately need. But what is criminal is to settle for less. This is what has happened on some sites in Aberdeen and Dundee where the workers are going back on a basic rate of £25 for 40 hours. This is a classic way to break the strike - and make sure the full claim is never reached. George Smith and the rest of the UCATT leadership cannot lead an all-out stoppage. Even in this period of intensified attacks by the Government on the trade unions, Smith as chairman of the TUC General Council has been spending much of his time in setting up the new conciliation board between the TUC and the Confederation of British Industry. The trade union leaders, including Brother Jones, O.B.E.. are not prepared to lead big struggles because such struggles take on the whole weight of the capitalist state. Even when the Government is desperately trying to use every split in the labour movement to its own advantage, men like Smith have no choice but to conciliate.
CHARTER Throughout the course of the strike Charter too has ducked the issues. The Charter groups in Manchester and Yorkshire are furious with the lack of the necessary newsarrived in Chile their position at first looked ical question. It is quite clear that these "leaders' see their role simply in terms of "putting pressure" on the bureaucrats. To do that no independent activity must take place. This is done in the name of not "splitting" the movement. It would make better sense to keep the rank and file organised and informed (through Charter) as a method of stopping Sm ith & Co. from scabbing on the strike. Yet the Charter leadership, dominated by the CP, has now tied itself completely to the bureaucrats (not only has the Morning Star been giving the run of its pages to George Smith see 18 August issue - but far worse, CP militants in Scotland have been to the fore in urging individual settlements below the national target).
THE ALTERNATIVE As long as Charter sees itself as apressure group it will always fail when the chips are down. Many of the rank and file militants will continue to fight site by site. But the purpose of a national rank and file organisation will be lost. If Charter is going to concentrate solely on replacing the 'bad boys in the bureaucracy, instead of using its potential strength to conduct national campaigns in the trade, then it will be of no value to milAs Brothers Scanion and Jones prove, it's not the people but the positions which lead to sell-outs. Only a mass movement organised against the way the trade splits up workers will prevent it. Charter should have been building such a movement, now, while building workers realise their strength as a national movement