Miners' wives and
Greenham Common women tour West Germany
In October four women on a delegation from Britain toured West Ger-
Marie Collins and Kay Sutcliffe from the Kent miners' wives committees, and Lesley Boulton and Ilona Aronowsky from Greenham
Common women against the missiles and miners' wives support commit-
The purpose of the delegation was to inform people about the strike, the political situation in Britain and the self organisation of the miners' wives and their links with the women of Greenham.
The four women were divided in two and sent on two tours during which they spoke at 12 meetings and addressed a total of 1,300 people
(not including the anti-racist and the peace movement actions). They raised about 16,000 German marks (8,000 US dollars or £6,000) and were well received by male and female trade unionists and activists in the peace
The following description of the tour and interview with the women at the end was taken from Was Tun, the paper of the German section of the
Fourth International.
In Cologne, speaking to the wind-up rally of the March Against Racism, Kay stressed the support for the miners' strike by the Blacks living in Britain.
Leslie gave greetings to the founding conference of Maulwurf [the German youth organization in solidarity with the Fourth
In Osnabrueck, the women of the IG Metall and the German Confederation of Trade Unions [DGB] issued the invitation. The local DGB organized a press conference in the afternoon. In Stuttgart, the IG Metall local women's committee wise for the NUM in St. Helens. These examples of twinning cities as a form of solidarity among workers seem to be being widely imitated.
Women's groups and left organizations set up meetings in Mannheim, Aachen, Karlsruhe and Ruesselsheim. In Tuebingen, a rally was organized by the women of Dru-Pa [the printing workers' union], the Postal Workers Union, the Railway Workers Union and the university workers assembly. These meetings adopted resolutions calling for organizing further solidarity and building direct contacts with the miners' wives committees. In the long run, this will be the most impor tant result of the tour. The money collected, which will immediately be followed by further funds from the mining regions, totalled 16,300 DM.
The close collaboration between the NUM and the British peace women was stressed by Lesley in her speech to the Stuttgart peace rallies and by Marie and Ilona in their speeches in Munich and Dortmund on the Women's Day that was set aside during the week of peace actions. 1. VHS is an adult education center. IV. 2. The ASF is a women's organization of the Social Democratic Party (SPD); Hoesch is a steelworks. - IV.
Lesley Boulton was calling an ambulance when this policeman charged at her (DR International]. At a solidarity concert for the March Against Racism, money was collected for the miners.
The meeting two days later held by the Women and Work Group, in collaboration with the VHS (1) was the largest one of the tour (about 200 people). In Heuckelhoven, the discussion soon came around to Northern Ireland and the parallels with the miners' strike. A group of young Protestants and Catholics from Northern Ireland was there.
In Luenen, mining region like Hueckelhoven, the meeting was organized by the women of the ASF, Miners' Wives Against Pit Closures and the Hoesch Women. 2) Despite the attitude of IG Bergbau [the right-wing led German miners' union], which is giving the strike hardly any official support, the British women were shown many expressions of solidarity. There is an effort underway to twin Luene/Dortmund with Leeds.
In Oberhausen, a solidarity committee organized the meeting, with the presence of a leader of IG Bergbau, who - against the official line of the union - has organized support in his area. Further solidarity actions were agreed on - collections at workplaces, invitations to speak to miners and especially the children of miners. 10
International Viewpoint
26 November 1984
Question. How did it happen that the miners' wives organized independently during the strike and that you have come now to speak on your own account at rallies in West Germany?
Kay. Most of the women started from the outset of the strike to organize in action groups. The problem of survival came to the fore very soon. The men weren't bringing home any wages or strike pay. Savings were used up quickly. And at the latest, when cars, TV sets and furniture were pawned, we had to start collecting money, food and clothing.
However, some of us were already involved in previous strikes, such as the one in 1974, when miners' wives committees were set up. At that time, we thought of ourselves as autonomous groups, but we were only concerned with
We asked the NUM what we should do and dissolved the committees after the strike. At that time, we had no objectives that went beyond the strike.
Today, we think that that was a mistake. With our women's action groups, we want now to lay the foundations for building a national and international women's movement.
Q. How is that going?
We started very contact with the Greenham Common women. In July, we held regional marches jointly with them in Northern Ireland, Scotland and South Wales. A march through northern England went from the nuclear fuel reprocessing plant at Capenhurst to Mansfield in the Nottinghamshire coalfields. Our slogan was "Mines not missiles." The Greenham Common women did picket duty with us. We held joint rallies. Afterward, we held a conference. Some 75% of those who attended were miners' wives, 25% were women from the miners' support committees, and there were also Greenham Common women there. We set up a national coordinating committee.
goal, it decided to build a national women's demonstration in support of the miners strike for August 11. About 20,000 women took part in the march, even though the press did not go to the trouble of reporting that it would take place.
We have become a political factor. The bourgeois press is trying over and over again to demoralize the strikers by focusing on housewives who supposedly or in fact are trying to get their husbands to go back to work. The workers' families themselves are putting pressure on them. We have taken up the fight against this splitting tactic, with considerable success. The majority of the miners' wives are for the strike and actively support us.
Q. Is your work getting recognition from the men? Has anything changed in your relationship with the men?
In general, we are completely accepted by the men. You hear most of them saying, "It's the women who'll win
They're fighting against hunger, and it's by hunger that Thatcher wants to force us back to work." not just bringing the men soup picket duty with them, and like them, we get a very modest financial compen-
Naturally, there are differences. South Wales, for example, women are having difficulties in being accepted on picket lines. In Kent, where I come from, we have already gone a long way. The miners' wives committees participate officially in the daily meetings of the strike committees. Our proposals are consider-
The men come to us with requests for organizing demonstrations or to speak at rallies. We women are playing an important role in the publicity work. We often do things that the men can't.
For example, the men are often prepicket duty in other districts having been arrested and released on the condition that they do not leave their own districts. So, we step in. We are more often invited because we get calls from those who are not for the strike but who are opposed to our children going hungry.
Since we also do picket duty, we can always report that we have seen with our own eyes what happens in the clashes with the police, how they attack us brutally, who starts the violence.
In the families, it is often the men who look after the children while we go to rallies. I have even had arguments with my husband about which one of us is going to stay home and watch the children, when we both want to go on a
Q. Why are the Greenham Common women supporting the miners' wives?
We have common demands. The miners are fighting against the government's plan for converting to nuclear
A secret government document that has come to light says openly that if that is done, the government will no longer have to fear that power can be cut off by the miners. against nuclear energy, and shares with us the demand for unilateral nuclear disarm-
We are also fighting plutonium as a byproduct that will be used in the US and elsewhere to make atom bombs.
We have a common enemy — the government. It has been trying for a long time to break up the camp at Greenham Common by means of police violence. At the same time, it is using dogs, horses and clubs against the strike pickets. We have united because we know that if the miners win, then we will also have come a long way toward winning our objectives.
Q. Do you want to go on working
As its first Miners' wives in conference A delegate conference of women representatives of all the coalfields involved in the miners' dispute met in Chesterfield on November 10 and 11. As a result of this highly successful conference, a national women's organisation has been established. Delegates endorsed the statement below and seaffirmed their total commitment to the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in their struggle to retain pits, jobs and mining communities.
vented from speaking at rallies or doing after the strike, and if so, what do you
We want to bring together all the women fighting against Thatcher's reactionary policies. The government has already declared its intention to privatize more branches of the economy, health, for example. That will mean a loss of jobs for thousands of women. make contact with them, share our experience, and support them.
We also want to other questions, for example,
Statement of aims
To consolidate the national women's organisation and ensure victory to the NUM in the present struggle to prevent pit closures and protect mining communities.
To further strengthen the organisation of women's groups which has been built up during the 1984 miners' strike.
To develop relationships between the NUM and the women's organisation
To campaign on issues which affect mining communities, particularly peace, jobs, health and education.
To promote and develop education for working-class women.
To publicise all activities of the national women's organisation at all levels.
International Viewpoint 26 November 1984
NUM press release our collective strength into the balance to bring the government down. In November we are organizing the second national women's conference.
We are delighted to have been able to make a lot of contacts with women in West Germany. We hope that these will remain active, that German women will come to Britain, where we can show them how we are living and fighting. We hope that the contacts will go beyond the strike and provide a basis for building an international women's movement.
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