"YOU'VE been had," was the message for women trade unionists delivered by USDAW president Audrey Wise MP.
At a packed fringe meeting at Women's TUC over 100 delegates heard the case for common ownership and the defence of Clause IV.
The 'New Clause IV' does not include race or gender - as was hinted in Blair's attempt to persuade women to support the rewrite.
Audrey Wise argued that the key issue of how Labour is to control the economy was better expressed in the present Clause IV than in the rewrite.
Michele Emerson from the Communication Workгасу. ers Union spoke about how workers in a privatised industry had faced the rigours of competition' in BT. write of Clause IV.
So far it has meant 80,000 jobs lost and condiration for a Labour tions of work continually attacked. The future of the communications industry in Britain needs common ownership to spread the benefits of new technology and the information super highway to working women.
Jennifer Davis from UNISON warned that "The New Clause IV does not speak to Labour's real constituency. Women who are active fighting for their communities are seeing the Labour Party increasingly irrelevant to their politics."
Doreen Cameron from NATFHE said she defended Clause IV as it stands as a vision of a different society based on economic democDelegates at the meeting expressed disappointment and anger at the forced reMany viewed the ditching of Clause IV as a prepaScargill: Blair's new Clause 'could have been written by Jeffrey Archer'