• Britain: Women on the waterfront There is growing international support for Liverpool's striking dock workers (see IV#276). Closer to home, Doris McNally explains the role of Women on the Waterfront (WOW), which organises the wives and partners of the striking dockers. Viewpoint: How did WOW form? After the first demonstration/rally to support the men [sacked on 28 September 1995 for refusing to cross a picket line), many wives and partners spoke to the men's shop stewards about the need to set up a women's group. Two weeks later, about 50 of us attended the first meeting. Most were dockers wives, but some women came from the Socialist Workers'
Party, Militant Labour, or the DOCKERS
Lancashire Women Against Pit Closures group (one of the women's support groups formed during the 1984-5 miners' strike). These women showed us how to start a women's group. • Is it a stable group? Definitely. We have a hard core of about 60 wives and partners, who attend all the weekly meetings. Most of the others come when we have a demonstration, but are unable to commit themselves more because of family commitments. And because many of us have to work extra hours to make ends meet. • What does WOW do? As we've gained confidence, we ve begun speaking to meetings across the country: more than 500 so far!. Some are arranged by trade union branches, others at public meetings organised by the dozens of dockers' support groups which have sprung up. We now organise our own public meetings, and tour the country to raise money for the strike fund. We have also linked up with a range of women's groups. It has been a real inspiration to see other women organising independently.
And we are present on the picket line every day. The police are more 4 International Viewpoint intimidated by us than we are by them. They don't know how to handle us. • The dockers have done a lot of international networking. How about WOW? We have made contact with women's groups in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Canada. We sent a WOW delegation to Sweden in March, at the invitation of the Swedish
WORKERS Syndicalist Union (SAC).
We spoke to a rally of 500 people, at the end of a march through TI Stockholm. The Swedish media actually write more about the dispute than the British papers! We have also been invited to San Francisco, and we hope to visit continental Europe too.
• What has involvement in this dispute changed in your life? Before last October, I'd never spoken at a meeting before, never mind a public rally! None of us have done anything like this. But now we know that we women have a place in the struggle This fight has changed our lives. And we will not go back to the old days This is a fight for the future. We now understand the ways workers are exploited: nationally and globally. And we know that it must change! * Doris McNally was interviewed by Glenn Voris. An extended version of this interview is being published by the British fortnightly Socialist Outlook. Contact: WOW c/o Transport House, Islington, Liverpool L3, Britain. tel +44 151 207 0696, fax 207 3388. Donations to the strike fund should be sent to "Merseyside Dockers Shop Stewards" ', c/o Jimmy Davis, Secretary, Merseyside Port Shop Stewards, 19 Scorton St., Liverpool L6 4AS to compensate for PRC opposition by winning the support of other parliamentary groups - the former DC, the Northern League or fractions of Berlusconi's Forza Italia. Rather precarious support.
Moreover, Olive Tree itself is composed of a gamut of parties and groups that not only have very different histories, but today still maintain visibly different ideas and orientations that are contradictory on certain issues.4 The PDS is by far the strongest and best organized formation. But it only represents 21.1% of voters, while its allies inside the Olive Tree represent 13,6%. There is a PDS majority among Olive Tree's senators, but only 140 PDS deputies in the Olive Trees 286 member parliamentary group. 146 (the PRC has 35 deputies).®
What role will the Northern League play? Umberto Bossi has said his group in parliament will support the majority "on certain questions." But without renouncing the League's federalist [pro-decentralisation] offensive, tied to threats of secession of the Po Valley region (the rich north). Olive Tree does sees itself as federalist. But simple proclamations and minor concessions won't appease Bossi and company.
The League has a quite wide and solid social base made up of small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, businesspeople, artisans, fractions of the peasant middle class as well as popular layers, even workers.7 It is particularly rooted in the Northeast, which has seen spectacular economic growth, while the rest of the country is mired in stagnation. The region's capitalists have established multiple * links with the core industrial and service regions accross the border in France, Switzerland, Austria and, above all, Germany. These are the concrete roots of the growing secessionist aspirations!
Since the election, Umberto Bossi has not disguised his intention to further radicalize his movement's attitude. He has denounced the pro-federalist statements of other parties and coalitions as purely verbal and hypocritical. And rebaptized his "parliament" at Mantua, proposing the formation of an alternative government of Padua, a Committee for the Liberation of Padua, and even a militia. In a May 3rd interview with Corriere della Sera, he said, "the North and South should have two different treasuries... In Italy there is a dual economy: a Northern economy and a Southern economy. It would
be better for both if le lotte the treasuries were separated. The
South could become the
Taiwan of the
Mediterranean.
An agreement amic. We risk compromising our real possibilities for future growth. And fighting for hegemony in the popular movement under more difficult conditions than until now.
If we were only a very small formation, we could legitimately choose the terrain of propaganda, reaffirm our identity, and bet on positive medium and long term effects. But this is impossible for a party that now has a
Italy * weaknesses and contradictions, is percieved by radicalized sectors of Italian society as representing their interests and demands. We must take care to accompany the experience of layers of workers who still have confidence in other parties, especially the PDS We must prove ourselves capable of winning or helping to win partial conquests, however modest..