• • Women's Lives in the (Notebook for Study and Research), edited by Penny Duggan and Heather Dashner Revlewed by Terry Conway THIS COLLECTION of essays reflects the diverse reality of womens lives and the attacks on us in a series of countries from Turkey to South Africa, from India to the United States It is framed within an understand. i wat natever those diversities the ruling class offensive has a particular impact on women and de pend for its success on the continued oppression of women.
The introductory text argues that there has been a contradictory pro. letarianisation of women on a world scale "forcing them into the work force and at the same time using their role in the family and in society to justify job insecurity and casualias well as attacks on welfare Provens The effects of the European Un. ion and the Maastricht criteria in particular are increasingly familiar to women in this country. Less familiar are erects of the vorth American Free Trade agreement (NAFTA) which has for example challenged pre-existing environmental laws as "unfair trade practices" in a situation where fork waite causes com can cers of womens' reproductive sys. tem and severe birth defects. mal trade blocks, with their goals of nomic and social policies to remove barriers to the free movement of and the maximisation of profits sim. ply codify and deeden trends al. ready well under way".
Carmen Valdez Prez gives a damning account of the ellect of the "maquiadora" factories on Mexico's northern borders. Half a million workers, 70 per cent of them women, work on semi-finished manufactured goods imported duty free for processing. final assembly and re-export to the US. This indus was launched from a programe 1965 and a key aim of NAFT agreement is to extend these conditions to the whole of Mexico. and 14 hours. At some factories women have to present doctor's notes proving they are not pregnant and many are forced to take contra. ceptives including unsafe injections.
Such free trade zones are used by multinational corporations to carry out low soiled and labour intensive work throughout the Third World. The goal of the bosses is to create such zones on a broader regional barither highlighes of this valuable work for me include Trupti Shah and Bina Srinivasan's piece on India In winian they explan that the in. creased violence against women in Indian society particulary with uk growth of dowry death and abortion of female foetuses is a new modern tional values". While such an analysis on honorn to tract is common to many Ina an socialist feminists it is not understood by many in the west.
un a onterent note, and closer to home, Eva Nickell tells of the death of the "Swedish model" and explains wity women in the ordic countries are more hostile to the European Union than their male counterpart A greater understanding that women the world over are facing snid batdes to our own can only strengthen our campaigning. A timely text to read or re-read for In. ternational Women's Day.
Socialist Outlooki