The role of women in the finally lost because the unions stupidly backed the management in its attempt to bring in part-time work.
Another example is the fight of the women workers at the Bekaert-Cockerill steel fabrication plant in Fontain l'Eveque near Liege. In August 1982, the workers, both men and women started a strike against the threatened layoff of workers fight against the crisis ninety people. The strike lasted nine weeks. Finally, the management and the trade-union leadership came up with a "compromise." Those workers who were not their families' breadwinners would have to accept part-time work, otherwise
The present economic crisis is hitting all sections of the working class. But those sectors that are weakest, and less able to defend themselves, such as women, young people and immigrant workers, often suffer the effects most severely.
Jacqueline Allio of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International spoke to
Rienke Schutte of Klassenstrijd (newspaper of the Dutch section of the
International) about the situation of women in Europe today, and the way in which women are fighting back, often as the vanguard of the working class.
Question. In discussing the problems in
West Europe confronting women today, obviously the effects of the econ- things such as take sick leave to care for omic crisis come first. Measures such as the EEC guidelines for equal treatment of men and women are coming into sharper and sharper contrast with the reality that faces women today.
That's not something new.
At the moment, it's clear that the bosses are trying to grab everything they can.
The cuts in real wages and mass layoffs are not something that has dropped out of the blue. But in an earlier phase, when people were not talking about the crisis they do now, women workers were already being hit hard.
The first big wave of layoffs came a few years back in the more backward sectors - in textiles, the food industry, and others in which there is a high percentage of women workers. At that time automation and restructuring already meant a crisis for women workers. But that stage did not rouse any alarms.
At that time, moreover, we were also confronted with social cutbacks.
hit women particularly hard. This impact was further increased by discriminatory measures such as the "breadwinner" rule for payment of unemployment benefits, as well as limitations on pregnancy leaves.
Day-care centers and other social services were cut back.
In Italy, for example, overnight the appropriations municipalities cut their for day-care centers by 50 percent. Women were obliged again to take on the full burden of child care and had to do own children or those of their their workmates. Needless to say, these women could not come in line for promotion and were locked into unskilled jobs.
this way, moreover, other women were forced to accept part-time jobs.
In the Netherlands, such social services were never very advanced, since relatively few women worked outside the home. Probably that has something to do with the fact that a lot of women here have part-time jobs. They hardly have any choice. More than 80 percent of the part-time jobs in the Netherlands are held
In the last ten years more and more married women have begun working outside the home and they account for three quarters of the part-time
In every industry now, the bosses are trying to replace full-time workers with part-time ones. In particular, they are trying to force women and youth into
A fight has been waged against this in Belgium, which has brought out very clearly what sort of problems women are facing now. At the Galerie Anspacht in Brussels, the management tried to introduce part-time work. The women who work there waged a long struggle against it. But they were not supported by the trade unions. The strike was the management would have to close the plant.
Of the 240 people who worked there, thirty were women, and 27 of these were not breadwinners. They had to accept half-time. The women refused. They went on strike and lost. Thirteen women were fired. They lost because they were totally abandoned by the union leadership. The men did not follow the women out on strike. They went along with the deal the union leaders worked out. So, you can see how the policy of the union leaders plays into the hands of the bosses' divide-and-rule game.
Not just the union leadership but the Social Democratic parties are leaving women in the lurch. For example, they taking a clear stand part-time work, and are even saying that male workers should be the ones to pay women for the work they do rather than
In France, the Socialist and Communist parties are in the government.
the situation there different for women than in countries where the right
There is, of course, a difference. It's right-wing governments like Reagan's or Thatcher's or Kohl's in West Germany that are leading the attack on the working
Women are one of the main targets this offensive. Thus, for example, Reagan openly supports the U.S. anti-abortion movement, and Kohl has announced that he is for making the already restrictive German abortion law still more
Moreover, he has accepted a 3 perSO.
cent increase in arms spending, which the
Social Democrats in West Germany always rejected. There is a difference between this sort and the policy Mitterrand is conducting in France.
Under Mitterrand, a series of measures have been introduced that are in the interest of the working class. For example, the public health insurance system reimburses the cost of abortions. But this is strictly the result of mobilizations by women and the trade unions. The government had been clearly yielding to pressure from the bosses and was hesitating to make good on its election promises with respect to abortion. But under the pressure of the mobilization in November, it gave in to the women's demands, which is something Thatcher certainly would not have done.
Other advances have also been made.
The French government has introduced
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retirement at sixty. This is a gain comparable to the achievement of the eighthour workday. But there is a catch. To collect retirement benefits at sixty, you have to have worked for 37 years. That represents serious discrimination against women. Women are much more likely to have taken a few years off to look after children or elderly members of the family, thus decreasing their work lives. The fact was simply ignored that this provision has a special effect on women.
You can't say that the left government in practice has really concerned itself with the situation of women. For example, before the elections, Mitterrand promised that 400,000 day-care places would be set up and now, two years later, they have only created 10,000 new places. The special women's rights ministry that was set up produces a lot of nice resolutions, but it has no money to
• The government's overall program has a lot of progressive points, but they always say they don't have the money to carry them out, since they completely accept the logic of the system. "Because of the crisis," they are going back on their earlier promises. The government has no definite program for getting the money from where it is - in the pockets
Q. In what areas do you think gains can be made, then?
A. There are important examples of initiatives and struggles in which women are playing an important role and which are promoting the unity of the working class as a whole.
To give another example from Belgium: Since 1980 there has been a group called "Women Against the Crisis" which represents a common front of unions, left organizations, and women's groups.
Women Against the Crisis takes as its first principle achieving as broad a unity
Since the unions and the traditional workers organizations (CP and SP) participate in Women Against the Crisis, it is harder for the leaderships of organizations to back off from their rejection of part-time work or their defense of the cost-of-living increases. duces their maneuvering room.
Another example of how women can play the leading role in defending the gains of the working class is the fact that it was women in Sweden who started up the fight for the six-hour day. demand was raised years ago by women in the Social Democratic Party. years ago it was still possible to discuss whether the six-hour day should be just for women. But they came to the conclusion that a six-hour day for women alone would only reinforce the traditional position of women.
Social Democratic and women in various cities have decided to committees and to strive to win the entire workers movement to the fight for a six-hour day for all workers. That is a good example of a step in the direction of a common struggle by the workers movement for a common goal that was initiated by women.
Another example of the vanguard role women can play is on the international scale. Contacts exist between women in various countries. In the past, we saw excellent examples of international solidarity in the abortion struggle. For example, victory in the Bilbao trials was won mainly thanks to international actions.
Now working women are this tradition. In Scotland, women at Lee Jeans waged a long struggle against the closing of the factory. support they got from the union in the area and the women's movement, they
This was a significant example of the fight against restructuring and factory closings for other parts of Great Britain but also for other countries. So, women workers from Lee Jeans were asked to do
Swedish women textile workers to strike
These examples are important because at the moment there is not enough international solidarity in the European workers movement in the fight to defend wages and jobs. This means that women are not only in the forefront in defending their own rights but that, overall, in the struggle of the working class, women are
The examples of the defense of the cost-of-living increases
Belgium and the fight for a shorter workweek in Sweden can be spread.
In Switzerland, for example, things are on a lower level. But the women's conference of the country's biggest trade-union confederation has passed a resolution calling for a drastic shortening of the workweek without any cut in pay.
On a broader political level, women have also taken far-reaching positions. At the women's conference of the Labour Party in England last June, advanced demands were adopted to be put to the annual Labour congress. conference called for British withdrawal from NATO, withdrawal of British troops from the Malvinas. against the war, and they adopted a resolution calling for support to the Salvadoran revolution.
Q. You have brought up a relatively new phenomenon. More and more women are playing a role in the peace strug gle, and as the Greenham Common exexample shows, a not inconsiderable one In the Netherlands women have been organizing in the peace movement for some years. The effect of this could be seen, for example, after the big November 21, 1981, demonstration in Amsterdam The Hague demonstration called by
Spanish women demonstrate against discriminatory, sexist laws (DR) as possible. They wanted to get both the Socialist-dominated union and the Catholic-dominated union confederation (the ACV) to join in the struggle for a drastic shortening of the workweek, against part-time work, and for maintaining the automatic cost-of-living allowance. end, they left the abortion question out of their platform. They thought that unity was more important than nice-
A lot of working women are organized in the Catholic union confederation, and they have problems with the abortion question. Women Against the Crisis did not want to drive them away.
At the moment, a big discussion is going on in the Catholic union confederation about abortion, and this year the right to abortion was the central theme of the big demonstration by Women Against the Crisis on March 6. The Catholic union confederation agreed to let the abortion committee officially participate in the demonstration, and at the moment the majority of its Women's Commission are for the right to abortion. 20
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MUJER ION GONY26A22
Appeal for solidarity with the women workers of Bekaert-Cokerill
LAUNCHED BY THE FLORA TRISTAN CLUB, PARIS
Thirteen women workers from fabrication plant were sacked on November 1, 1982 because they refused to accept the parttime work that the management
CONTRACEPTION wished to impose on women who were not 'heads of family'.
The management obviously wanted to make women pay for sending women back to the home. The proof of this is that today 23 men in the factory are replacing the women at
DROITDES FEMMES
The women workers of Bekaert-Cokerill have said 'no' to
NON A LA STERNSATION FORCEE this intolerable discrimination, which challenges the right of women to work, and has been accepted by the trade-union the economic crisis.
a higher hourly rate.
branch.
the Bekaert-Cokerill steel
This flows from an overall policy of
The women went on strike by themselves, and the most LES FEMMES DECIDENT But they have continued their action, calling on the labour tribunal and the European Community, with the support of the Belgian feminist organisations. We are in total solidarity with the struggle of these courageous women.
Their struggle is ours. others on the necessity of 'work sharing' makes us fear that the right of women to work challenged - could also be put in danger in France, and in
To support the struggle of the women workers of Bekaert Cokerill, to defend the full right of women to work, we ask you to send motions and telegrams, as we have done, to:
The Ministry of Labour and Employment 1040 Brussels, Belgium. The President of the European Parliament militant were sacked.
Europe.
The statements by the bosses and
- a principle which is already
Strasbourg, France.
For women's abortion and contraception rights, against forced sterilisation (DR) Vrouwen voor Vrede (Women for Peace) brought out more than 10,000 women. For most of these women, it was the first time they participated in a demonstration. How do you assess this development?
A. That is an entirely new aspect of he women's radicalization. Consider the act that in a country like England more than 30,000 women not only participate in the fight for peace but organize special initiatives to stress women's rejection of atomic weapons.
A lot of women have responded to these initiatives. A lot of women who were never active in a union or in the feminist movement have been brought into action out of fear of what nuclear armament means for themselves and their children. These women respond with slogans that call for defending life.
As revolutionists, we have to be careful not to take a sectarian attitude toward these women's level of political consciousness. We can't say, as a whole number of ultraleft groups in England have done, that this is a reactionary movement because the Greenham Common women have gotten involved in order to protect the lives of their children. What they are doing is totally normal!
MANIFESTATION
FEMMES CONTRE LA CRISE
• Droit au travail
E Droit aux allocations de chomago maintien du pouvoir d'achal
• indépendance économique de la femme
4801083099
We have to see the great importance of the activity of these women. We have to try to show that it is necessary to see what their opposition to nuclear arms means in the broader sense. No change in the present situation that they, and we, fear without a basic change in the system.
Women who come into action for the first time naturally are not going to come to a socialist understanding overnight. But we fully support their specific actions, and we should ourselves propose actions that women can carry out as women, either in their workplaces or in the neighborhoods where they live.
We have to offer proposals for specific activities by women in the unions and other mass organizations. That is all the more important because such mobilizations are getting off the ground not just in England and the Netherlands. In other countries as well, the organization of women in the peace movement is beginning to take off. Sometimes there is talk about the influence of the Communist Parties or the pacifists. But the women are active. They take part in actions. That is decisive. The participation of women in struggle is a very important first step. We have to base ourselves on this if we want to raise the struggle to a higher level.
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AVORTEMENT