opportunity to do just that. on women's role in the unions. ENORMOUS changes have taken place in the composition of the labour force since the Second World War. 48 per cent of the workforce in ritain today is female. The economic crisis has not meant the exit of women from the workforce. Their labour is sufficiently cheap, flexible and semi-skilled for women workers to be difficult to replace.
Since the war the proportion of women trade unionists has almost doubled. In 1940 women formed 18 per cent of all trade unionists. In 1990 they formed 34 per cent of the membership of TUC-affiliated reflecting the rise in white col lar/blouse unionisation. The response of the trade unions to this influx of women can be divided into two periods - the late 1960s/early 1970s and post-1979.
Initiative -In the late 1960s and early 1970s, women at the base of the unions clearly had the initiative. The degree of combativity and self-organisation was immense. Struggles around Equal Pay forced reluctant employers to implement legislation. The liberation movement (WLM) in Britain was formed out of an organisation campaigning in support of Equal Pay - the National Joint Action Campaign for Women's Equal Rights (NJACWER).
With the decline of the NIACWER, the Working Charter was launched to fight for a popular version of the demands of the WLM. It was this campaign, backed by several trade unions, that called the first national pro abortion action in 1975 against the James White anti-abortion Bill. The defeat of this attack was a huge victory.
The labour movement was Fighting for our Saturday 23rd November 1991 10-5 Wesley House, 4 Wild Court, London WC1 Sept. 14, 1991 No.7 The bosses call it'Opportunity 2000'. Getting more women into the boardroom and making some cosmetic changes to equal opportunity legislation looks likely to sit alongside the 'Citizen's Charter' in the Tory election manifesto. Meanwhile women workers are under attack, as the Tories and the employers try and strip away the few gains made in pay, conditions and union rights. It has never been more important for women trade unionists to come together to develop strategies to defend and extend their rights. The 'Women in the Unions' national meeting in November (see advert), organised by Women for Old-guard male bureaucrat: Jimmy Knapp on the offensive during this period, having brought down a Tory government and defeated anti-union legislation. Despite discrimination and job segregation, women workers were making real economic gains and finding new confidence. Pro-abortion policy was accepted and eventually the TUC adopted its Charter for Women Workers, a slightly watereddown version of the Working Women's Charter. In 1979 the TUC not only called, but built a mass demonstration to defend women's abortion rights. Since 1979 the initiative on women's issues has shifted away from the rank and file. The continued increase in the unionisation of women has put pressure on the bureaucracy ut the lack of successful struggies nas alterea the relanon or orces between the rank and file and the bureaucracy. Women have made steps forward in the trade unions however, as a result of their increas ing presence and the successes of previous years. Their Paresence is now an accepted Sophisticated The new realist leaders of the TUC, aided by eager feminist researchers, have been forced to adopt quite a sophisticated ap proach to women's issues today. They have chosen to prioritise recruitment, training and representation- the 'glossy leaflets' strategy. This can involve many changes that revolutionary socialists and feminists support-establishing a minimum wage, non-sexist codes of language, advice on sexuall harassment, new methods of training (including women only training sessions), childcare provision, establishing equal opportunity of ficers /departments, quotas an reserved places for women. But the concentration of women workers in low-paid manual and clerical jobs, combined with low levels of combativity and self-organisation, has made it difficult for women to make real economic gains in a period of austerity and a ruthless employers' Without strong unions women will face the sack if employers are no longer free to pay them low wages, or employers will just subvert any minimum wage legislation brought in by a future Labour government.
Representation of women in the trade unions has improved with special measures. But there is no cause for complacency. One in three trade unionists are women, but they make up only four out of 75 general secretaries. The Confederation of Health Service Employees (COHSE) has a 79 per cent female membership, 1990 conference only 34 percent of delegates were women.
The ideological and political offensive of the Tory government has also not left women unscathed. Whilst a small layer of professional women may have benefitted from the Thatcher years, the vast maiority of working women have got poorer. This is while watching a media campaign that makes women judge themselves by ever more impossible standards of perfect mother/ wife/career or glamour girl.
Fundamentals
Although the Labour Party manifesto does have a committment on low pay, it does not address the fundamental economic problems - the dual burden of work and domestic labour - that women face. The new realists do not encourage the kind of self-organisation of women that really will challenge the bosses' profits, win improved childcare facilities and protect the most oppressed workers.
Women workers are clearly better off in a union than out of Healthworkers fighting redundancies at Guy's, the flagship of opted-out hospitals. Now even more hospitals, ooted out and directly-managed, are in financial problems. Women's hospital under the axe OUR HEALTH NOT FOR SALE CREDIT: Andrew Wiard
Socialism and the Socialist Movement Trade Union Committee, is the best In the run up to this meeting VALERIE COULTAS kicks off a series of articles