Women say no!
International Viewpoint #253 February 1994
THE call for a women's strike in Germany on 8 March has been well received. Strike committees have been formed in many cities. Feminist activists from trade unions, autonomous women's groups, and from political parties have been debating the content and the practicalities of the strike call. Our correspondent reports. BRIGITTE KIECHLE* Karlsruhe, 4 February 1994
T HE call for a women's
strike on International Women's Day corresponds to the present mood: Enough is enough! This is particularly true given the scale of the assault on women's rights and living standards. An important first step has been taken which can propel women back in to the public domain as a serious political force.
The strike call is not fixed on a specific goal or set of demands (see box on page 15). This is certainly a weakness, but it corresponds to the actual state of the women's movement. It is almost invisible and has no functioning structure. The "Call" has won broad support because it has emphasised the worsening reality of women's every-day lives. These political developments must be opposed, as a matter of principle, unless feminist goals are to lose all chance of being realised. The strike call marks a clear dividing line with the right and plainly rejects the notion that merely to be a woman is sufficient ground for
### GERMANY
Germany (which involves bridging the gap between women in the western and eastern parts of the country) a negative definition cannot form a lasting basis for feminist politics. One of the focal points of future work should be a productive political debate on the fundamental questions and goals of a women's movement which does not merely propagate equality under conditions of inequality but aims to emancipate all humanity.
From the beginning the call for the strike was accompanied by a critical debate on the notion of a "strike". The term "women's strike" is not identical with the traditional concept of a strike as a collective form of workers struggle within the framework of collective bargaining. A women's strike means that in all social spheres women refuse to work — in the sphere of production as well as reproduction and the home. This approach makes it possible to overcome the division between "housewives" and unemployed women on the one hand, and employed women on the other. In other words, the common action relates to the specific oppression of women as a whole.
### Practical organisation
The women's strike is to be organised on three levels: at the workplace, in the home, and at the shops (in terms of shopping). In all three spheres there will be a multitude of proposals for the practical organisation of the strike. Indisputably it is especially difficult to realise a strike in the sphere of reproduction and to make it known publicly.
A serious
To call for a women's strike is a challenge not only to organisations and trade unions but also to women. The. trade union leaderships want to limit the strike call to some action in the workplace, and have even referred to the "illegality" of political strikes. However, the DGB (the German trade union federation) has called for political strikes in the past, for example in 1983 ("five minutes for peace"). The problem associated with building a strike is not, in the main, one of legality, but rather a question of the trade union leaderships political determination and the pressure which is brought to bear on it by women rank-and-file activists.
The call for a women's strike is the correct political response to the current shift to the right and the increasing attacks on past gains. We should give up our "feminine" modesty in our methods of struggle as well and at least try to turn the 8 March into a day of women's strike.*
"An important first step has been common action.
be that the expec- taken which can propel women back
Far-reaching in to the public domain as a serious political force."
The strike call sets down political markers which, in relation to its broad social orientation, are more far-reaching than women's political activities in the past.
For this reason the minimum consensus that has been reached is sufficient for the preparation of the strike. If, however, the strike action on 8 March is to resurrect the women's movement in
14 strike call might tations aroused by cannot be fulfilled. Measured against the goal of the "strike" even a successful day of action would be seen as a failure. This consideration is not unimportant and must be taken into account during the mobilisations.
* The author is a member of the United Socialist Party
(VSP) and a supporter of the Fourth International.
The re-establishment of a greater Germany is occuring at the expense of refugees, the Women are saying no!
and at the expense of women.
women's strike!
International Viewpoint #253 February 1994
We want to protest against the attacks on our fundamental rights; the reduction in welfare benefits and the increasing poverty of women; attacks on the gains we have made in the past; the destruction of the environment; and against German military
A new anthology by women writing from their personal and activist experience.
Published as part of the NSR's
"dossier" series, it explores how intervention. In 1975 the women of Iceland went on general strike.
In 1991 the Swiss women went on strike. Now we are going to strike! This strike will take place in the second week of March, 1994 (with 8 March being International Women's Day. Women will stop their house-work; strike or work to rule at the work place. They will not do the shopping, and nor will they smile courteously or be "nice". They will not make the coffee and they will send their children with their husbands to work. We will demonstrate our common interests and our solidarity in a We are fed-up with thirty percent less pay than men and will fight against the "old-boy conspicuous and purposeful way. networks" which prevent women from rising into well-paid jobs. The unwritten rule of
"men first" has meant that in the five new federal states it is women who, in the main, have been pushed out of their jobs. We fear that it is women who will also pay the price for the EC-Common Market. In Germany hundreds of thousands more women's jobs will be eliminated over the next few years.
Stop right now! Stop violence and humiliation! Rape is being used as a weapon in war. In Germany rape is still not prohibited in marriage. Women are subjected daily to sexual harassment because men are fighting to preserve their dominant position. We demand the redistribution of decision-making powers in a way which will correspond to the percentage of women in society. We demand a fair division of paid and unpaid labour between women and men and an independent income for every adult oerson. We demand equal rights for all forms of living, be it single or in partnership, heterosexual or lesbian. We object to the preferential treatment which is given to heterosexual marriage by the law. Every women has the right to decide whether or not to We want equal rights for immigrants, refugees, non-white Germans, Gypsies, and continue a pregnancy. Jews so that they may live here in security and without fear. We reject the German government's plans to send troops to war and will support those men who choose to We are giving in our notice to the patriarchal consensus. Our strike is the start. o conscientiously object and desert.
capitalist re-organisation of the global economy is profoundly affecting women's lives in every corner of the world.
• Introduction on women and economic integration
• Ida Dequeecker on women climbing the career ladder as others are sent back to the kitchen
• Eva Nikell examines women and the Swedish welfare state
• G Zenyap reveals the conditions for women in Turkish industry
• Rita Edwards considers the future of South Africa's post-apartheid economy
• Trupti Shah reveals the truth behind dowry death and female feticide in India
• Carol McAllister discusses
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• Carmen Valadez Prez on
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• and Stephanie Coontz on the family, economic crisis and people in pain in the USA
With a foreward by Penny Duggan and Heather Dashner, Women's
Lives in the New Global Economy demonstrates that feminist and labour struggles can re-assert women's right to decide their future.
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15
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"irst call for a women's strike in 1994 weak, the poor This is why we call for a Notebooks for Study and Research Coming soon! No. 22, Women's Lives in the New Global Economy.