fight Women's support for miner's wives.
radicalise the working class, resulting in the level of strikes (other than the miners) going up rather than down since miners' strike began. The car industry is the strongest reflection of it since that is where exploitation has been pressed the hardest.
Austin Rover workers are now on strike and that is a very important second front. If the strike sticks, and turns into a longer struggle, it will create very important new conditions for the miners' raise the political temperature and exacerbate the already serious economic conditions created by the miners strike. same "viability' argument, which is the basis of the NCB case, is used by the management.
The most important -Anne-Marie Sweeney describes the experiences of the Oxford Women's Support Group. THE Oxford Women's Support Group was launched at the end of May, organising around food collections, response to the desperate appeals from the newly formed Maerdy Women's Support Group in South Wales.
It was clear from major rallies held in Oxford that the most moving and popular speeches came from the women irom the mining communities.
We wanted to offer encouragement for them to come and stay and campaign in Oxford along with the NUM. We knew that this would be no easy task - staying away from home in strange places; speaking in public, mostly for the first time in their lives, to large and often sophisticated audiences. The women were nervous and needed the support of other women who they could talk to, have a drink and a laugh with, stay in their homes and teel they were not amongst strangers.
Women understand the pressures they are under - like the worries of having to leave early Ill the morning Rhondda wondering if your little daughter will have got over the night's sickness and be all right with her father; and hoping that he will not be too resentful that he is missing a week's picketing to look after the kids while you are away in Oxford.
But it has not been a one-way process: we have learned and drawn inspiration
howeer, is that the Austin Rover strike violates the Tory 1984 anti-union legisla- tion. Yet instead of confronting the laws the head-on and creating a much broader se- cond front with the miners, there are signs that at least some of the Austin Rover unions are trying to duck a confrontation with the law by refusing to call the strike official. his week sees the end of th for Ford workers, substantially the on strike. It will alngside the miners. these strivide a stevegic cannot tor These strikes, thom he Nu to Bud on it and de com The direct support — which is a qualitatively higher level of action. If this is to be the case, mainly in politically the trom *3
ed this tould buil movement strike miners however, stations then the NUM must utilise the VICTORI Miners' wives lobby the TUC Congress. Socialist Viewpoint, No. 2, November 1984. Page 5
novement, and fight to break the isolation authority they have in the trade unio the strike is now in. NUM militants must fight for this kind of political turn if the consequences of the events of last week are to be reversed
*Strike in defence of the NUI
*For a recall TUC Conference t light the sequestration
*Call for strikes alongside the
*Mass pickets on the power
*End the compromise with the TUC right wing SEX SSUP
trom these women facing the odds stacked against them, who show courage determination, compassion, humour and a talent for speaking on clear class lines in meetings with a simplicity and honesty that is so rare.
"We're not behind our men, alongside of them... We've stayed in our homes too long, sat back and them take away our railway, shut down our nurseries, put up our rents and close our hospitals - and done nothing. they want to take away our pit and destroy our community, and now at last we're fighting, and by God we won't stop until we win. And when we win this, we won't be able to go back to where we were before. Once we've started battling against all the unjust things, we see how much is to be done; you can't just stop.
Thatcher's attacks on the munities have unleashed a phenomenal mass movement of working class women that — if given the right leadership from the labour movement - could threaten the existence of her government.
Anyone on the August 11 womens march in London will have recognised this. There were thousands of class women; many not trade unionists; many on their first ever demonstration. They marched singing and slogans... "I'd rather be a picket than scab" "We want 30,000 coppers on the dole" unique march of organised not through workplaces, through the communities.
In Oxford the Meardy women asked the Women's Support Group to banner. The slogan they chose was "Your Fight is our Fight" , with symbols of cuts stongside "Coal not Doleace struggles
When we were painstakingly painting it, one miner said, joking "This strike will be over by the time you're through painting.
"Never mind, said another, it in the Rhondda museum.
"Oh no you won't, " replied a woman, showing him the design, service after the strike as well."
"You mean that when I get back from a
day's work in the pit my dinner won't be on
the table because she'll still be going out to some meeting?"
The women face many battles ahead -
and one which the Maerdy
Women's Groups share is that of tighting the sexism of male comrades and fellow
trade unionists.
This can take the blatant form - judg-
women at support meetings not in
ing
terms of their political contribution but in
terms of their legs — or more insidious
- speaking too long at women's
forms
meetings; putting the women's report at
the bottom of the agenda; not encouraging
women to take part in decision-making or
political discussion; relegating them to the
issue of food collections and distribution,
on the unstated view that "that's all they
understand"
It is tue that none of the NUM speakers
can convey the hardships endured in the
mining communities as well as the women
can. But that is not all that women can conpelitical awareness during the course of rapid development
the strike has meant that the women are
eager to watch the news, find out what has
gone on in lodge meetings, and are now
prepared strongly to challenge
husbands' assessments of an event. They
will speak out in meetings attacking
bureaucratic moves,
own virulent condemnation of Kinnock
and the TUC leaders.
In discussions around a dinner table you
witness the women's ability to link the per-
sonal and political. They may be discuss-
and we are watched But now pit com- working shouting women but their paint movement "We'll put "It's for active and Oxford ing recipes: but in the same breath as talk. ing about the 101 things they have learned do with to what should be equestrations in South Wales. occupation Waterhouse offices in Birmingham, toxing the guards security chips, window! their and express their challenged this came that Oxford was full of feminists
MANTE FUTURT JOP corned beef since the strike began, they'll be condemning Bill Sirs or discussing the tactics on a picket line or done against the put down The women were furious at the loss o hard-fought for, desperately-needed funds It was a woman from Maerdy and her husband who initiated the Price of the jamming the lifts, fish agdut press hoisted through the in hoisted through the homehelps When the miners first came to Oxford, they expected their beds to be made, food hospital cooked and dishes to be washed by the Nomen in the houses they stayed in. Wher their response was you, You're not one of those feminists are The women were warned before they and not to pick up any of their "strange" Socialist Viewpoint, No. 2, November 1984. Page 6
The Miner ideas. Of course the ideas were not so strange to Maerdy women, and it wa not a question of the 'liberated" enlightening the "oppressed" so much as a sharing of experiences of women from different communitiies, on how we felt oppressed and
Tand what we were doing about it. Involvement in struggle has changed us all. We talk about many things
women's health; the knowledge and contral of our own bodies; the waiting lists for operations like hysterectomies. A number of the women are in other jobs in the Rhondda - part-time shop workers or
the caring,
Tor hospital work. about attacks on these jobs and services. One of the women works in a geriatric
Funder threat of closure; we discuss our personal coup ones re
- the pressures of being a single parent, of jealousy, of experiencing male violence in the home.
During the time of the Oxford rapist hitting the headlines locally and nationally, terrorising women in (as it was sensationally put) the "triangle of fear" of East Ox-
MINEP ford, Mardy women and miners were staying with women in the area.
There were many discussions about rape; about the fact that police were putting resources into smashing picket lines instead of trying to catch this man; the relationship between rape and nography; the attitude of men women ask for "it" whether being battered in the home; the question of men looking on women as their property or solely in terms of their bodies.
There is a very good statement from the Bristol Rape Crisis Line & Incest Survivors Group sent with a £95 donation to the
"We declare our complete support for the miners and are holding collections.
We see a clear link between us and you - that is one of dignity. women to regain their dignity, you are fighting to maintain yours.
What goes on in society is reflected in the rapes we come across. is raped she is often made to teel it is her own fault.
The ruling class and their media use society's prejudices in such a way that those who suffer injustice end up being blamed, whether it is women being raped or people fighting for jobs. Part of our job is to challenge the myths that keep us all divided.
Victory to the miners."
The Women's Support Group in Maerdy have come together on the basis of strike, but this strike has taken over their lives. The women are no longer coping with their problems (or not, as is so otten the case) in the isolation of their own homes; they are now organised together siste hood that makes them strong it wen, sisterhood that makes them strong. one of the speakers, has just had an operation on her spine "I couldn't have coped but for the girls, I've lost so much weight none of me the esothes I need. hans to and got me the clothes I nee have salt baths daily to help me heal. Of course my hot water and everything is run on coal. They're getting me coal, organising special foods I can eat, like Complan.
My husband and I are only on £9 a week and I'm gettig special needs, I'll never forget everyone's kindness." isn't just But it motivates the women, it is a determination to show that whatever is thrown at them by por- this government they will not be beat. As believing Gwen herself has said "We won't be starv- "it" is rape or ed back, we'll eat every last sheep on the mountains before we're done, and we've started on the rabbits. class cent conscious RoSalia Civil War hon ane to of Rhondda. the Spanish Civil War with the loss of Rhondda miners in fascism. In the close communities of the regular valleys, aware of past hardships and battles. On a picket line in Port We fight for woman was being police for throwing an egg at the lorries. A small woman getting bruised because an egg hit the wheels of a scab HGV. Glynnis When a woman from Mardy said: what they were doing to her you had to do something. somiceman and said Get your hands off her!' He shouted at me 'Get off you, back o your kitchen sink 'I told him back with me next time and wrap it round your flaming neck.' "He said abusive; he was only doing his duty! and the difference between you and me is that I'm not being paid £500 a week to do it!' " special reason to recognise the critical eed for wives to organise in support o husbands strike. on eyland management and the media spon sored a strike breaking "Cowley campaign by strike at the Assembly Plant. during the miners Socialist Viewpoint, No. 2, November 1984. Page 7
no extra help for these that compassion totally failed. They are every bit a part of the magniti- tradition the all know The the fight against children and grandchildren are Talbot, one and Holland. the manhandled by "I've got no courage, but when you saw to pull 'Yes, I will, and I'll bring it developing there was no need to be " 'And I'm only doing mine,' I replied, The The Oxford trade union movement has 1974 Britisl 'Back to Work wives" during a One of the organisers of that movement - a Mrs. MacGibbon — has re-emerged strike as a media-
conscious Kent "miners wife" attempting to organise yet another "back to work' campaign - supported by the shady right wing Freedom Association. An attempt to foster a similar move in South Wales has
The community is solid: but the Maerdy women are bitterly aware of the deprivation of their valleys, with the roads full of potholes; many houses with only an outside lavatory; 70% youth unemployment and nothing for kids to do. Wages in the South Wales pits have lagged behind with falling investment, using out of date equipment passed down from modernised, more "productive" pits in Notts and Yorkshire.
Oxford Women's Support Group has visited Maerdy and been welcome despite the hardships, into the homes of mining families, who have received delegations from as far afield as Belgium
When the women from Maerdy have come up to Oxford we've shown them around the tourist attractions. I've seen the women stand dumbfounded at the beauty of some of the colleges, and then expres anger and frustration at the privilege bestowed under capitalism to the children of the upper class, while they are fighting for the right of theirs to go 60 f underground in harzardous, oppressive conditions to work digging up coa.
The women are realising through their
Apolitical consciousness that he struggle they are involved with hits a
They recognise a solidarity with the counties of Ireland and women in their similar struggles against institutionalised state violence, arbitrary arrest, intimidation and curtews.
tragedy would be if this phenomenal movement is betrayed, left isolated by other sections of the working class held back by trade union leaders who are on their knees to the Tories.
Victory can be ours it the miners are joined in a struggle against the government on all fronts. There is a quote from a black woman in Soweto: "Now you have touched the women you have struck a rock, you have dislodged a bolder — you will be crushed!" Thatcher look out!
Austin Rover: 5 years of
wage cuts. Hoorays, anting is second week as we go to press. THE explosion of militancy throughout the car industry is the outcome of years of small increases coupled with a huge increase in company profits and productivity on the shop floor.
After a successful two week strike by Vauxhall workers wrung concessions from the employers and a deal worth as much as 13%, Jaguar and Austin Rover workers have been the next in line, unions also rejecting the miserable pay otter.
Austin Rover, however, place to organise a strike. This is due not to any lack of militancy amongst workforce In the Cowley Plant alone there have been 168 strikes this year so far - but because of the leadership given to the rank and file.
For more than ten years union leaders have had a "special relationship" with BL management; they have, in short, been willing to give anything away rather than mount a real fight. They have argued that each sell-out has been to British car manufacturer" - at the exPense, In each case, of the British car worker. No betrayal has been below them.
In the mid 1970s, under the Wilson government, union leaders collaborated with management in the scheme designed to undermine the shop stewards' movement and transform it into an obliging arm of management. Then,
1978.
tion' Combine Committee wages taneous strikes in stewards were isolated and defeated. tions and standards with Ford company's document of conditions. is the hardest the Assembly ment of labour and dustrial Engineers' studies. settled on November leaders kept talking. The tually held a ballot in february "save the only strike; they kept on talking. "participation" tional ballot. to argue them back to work on the basis of Who seems to be in charge? Edwardes and MacGregor preside over BL Board in Socialist Viewpoint, No. 2, November 1984. Page 8
when Michael Edwardes came in and scrapped the whole charade of "participa- , union leaders sat back and watched chair strike call. union officials was to ensure that spon- defence of these In wage review after review the same of- ficials have given away all of the condi- of living that had made BL workers the best-paid and best. met the first big move. They put forward a 5% negotiating wage-cutting offer and a 92-page "blue" This document took away all union power on the shop ahead floor over such things as seniority, move- "mutuality in In- That review was supposed to have beer 1979; but the union national steel strike began on January 1 1980; still the BL negotiators kept on talking. They even- Duffy's was which showed a 2-1 majority in favour of a strike plants But still the union leaders would not call a The talks went on until the day the steel work. strike ended: April 8. Then they left it up to individual BL plants to decide what ac- tion to take; ignoring the result of the na- tories. Even then a number of plants came out on strike. But Moss Evans then intervened tions the
I a new and meaningless clause being added to the "blue" document.
Despite this betrayal, feeling built up strongly again in the run-up to the 1981 pay review. Mass meetings all over the country voted for a strike from November 1. Most national officials supported the
But in the week running up to November 1 every imaginable person was wheeled in to try to stop the strike. Michael Foot had a go; the TUC became involved, with Clive Jenkins, for example — who represents BL foremen - speaking out against the strike.
On October 31 the General Secretaries of all of the BL unions - including some with a BL membership of only dozens
management, quite outside the procedure. Management made an 'even worse offer.
The outcome was that the strike went
— but with recall mass meetings arranged two days later.
Moss Evans retreated from support for the strike to sit on the fence. But there was no doubt which side Terry Duffy was on as he broke a trip to Kenya to become first item on all news broadcasts, rushing back hot-foot to argue for a return to work.
Othe only clear statement of position. In the confusion, while Cowley
voted to stay out, Longbridge workers followed their "Communist" convenor Jack Adams and voted to return to
Although the 1981 strike lasted only two days it created a tremendous feeling, with thousands of pickets at each of the fac-
This made the demoralisation which followed the sell-out even stronger. Not surprisingly at the next wage negotia-
company was able to make
another major gain, and force through a
This history of sell-outs is at the back of most Austin Rover workers' minds as they go into the 1984 pay review. Yet militancy has been on the rise as the review date has
One reason for this is that for the past two years the company has been on the offensive. At Cowley, for example, management now brags that each worker is producing 2½ times what they did in 1980 This means that by imposing flexibility and document" and with the help of repeated workload by 250% at minimal cost.
At first bonus payments were increased. But recently they have been dramatically cut back. In the past few weeks Cowley workers have been earning less money for a full week than they did before the 1982
It is this continuous management offensive that has led to the spate of strikes in Cowley Assembly, and an overtime ban in the neighbouring Cowley Body Plant that has lasted four months. And it also helps explain the current Austin Rover claim: while Longbridge called for a £22 claim, Cowley argued for getting rid of the bonus
Longbridge leaders won the vote - thus excluding from the claim the issue which most affects Cowley and which alone has cut Cowley wages by 225 per week
16 the company offered the unions another 2-year deal, with 4.6% this year and 4.4% next.They also offered to consolidate some of the bonus -already being earned. And a clause was to be included whereby any unconstitutional duration would stop all provision for lay. off pay. This would severely affect wages.
The obvious choice was: to strike, or not to strike? But this not the way the meetings would be called on October 25. But a delegate conference had been called for October 22: how could they avoid a resolution for strike action? Enter Jack
Longbridge's Stalinist successor to Derek Robinson. He moved a resolution
company's offer but called vaguely for "any action necessary" to win the claim. No amendments were amend the resolution and call for a strike from Novemebr 1 was ruled out of order — even though the 120-strong delegate conference is plainly more representative
The outcome was that the mass meetings would leave all further decisions, on further negotiations or what form of action to take, in the hands of the JNC
When shop stewards met in Cowley, resolutions in both plants demanding that the JNC call a strike from Novemebr 1
Plant, but receiving votes in the right-wing controlled Body
Nevertheless as the mass meetings took place the whole of the media proclaimed that the JNC resolution amounted to a
The company too issued that the resolution was a strike vote.
So whatever the actual wording, believed they were voting for a strike. And the mood of the membership was shown by the near-unanimous vote in every sizable plant. At Cowley Assembly, platfornı declared it to be a strike vote, there were 30 against out of 4,000. In the
Cowley Assembly workers during the 1983 "washing up" time strike: now an end to all official AUEW strikes? Body Plant, out of 2,500 TGWU members, only 2 voted against. There is much more at stake than wages. The stewards' movement in BL has been decimated through endless sell-outs, with demoralised militants taking voluntary redundancy, leaving the plants or in a few cases capitulating to management. Getting the 1984 strike off the ground. By Alan Thornett IT was hard to escape the feeling in the run-up to the current