'It's worse than school. If we sit with our legs to the side of the work tables the supervisors come up and slap them back inside.' That's horror story numher one, ahout the Salford Electrical Instruments factory at Heywood near Manchester where 400 women and one man are in their second week of occupation after a seven-week lock-out.
BLATANT Women workers told me about the blatant discrimination in the factory. Women in the General Mechanical Engineering Department do exactly the same work as backs the campaign so far has been the attitude of the International Socialists. At the Trades Counci their members spoke against discussing the Charter at the conference, on the grounds that it was 'too broad". They wanted to limit the conference to dise -ung what they called trade union" issues, like equal pay Such a position does nothing to deal with the particular problems that women workers face. You cannot expect women to be in the front Ene fighting for militänt demands while they are still stuck cooking Sunday lunch.
The decisions of the Birminghamn Trades Council is a recognition of this fact, and an important step towards actually doing something about it. job they will kick you off.
LOWEST The wages at SEl are among the lo west in the north-west. worker at SEl said; It's laughable. In one factory down the road a woman who cleans and makes the tea gets the same puy as a semiskilled woman worker here.
Nor is it just wages that anger the women. They have a stream of complaints about filthy toiletsand they are outside, buy our own overalls, We can't talk. If we laugh some supervisor wants to know what the joke is?
No wonder 400 women said 'enWomen occupying the switchboard room at SET-the only room in the factory they could hold onto when manegement, helped by the male workers, broke in ought, and went all out for the claim submitted hy their union the AUEW The claim is for equal pay with the semi-skilled men on all aspects of the wage. This would include the piece work rate, bonus rates, the minimum time rate and the standard performance.
The claim was submitted in the two SEl factories at Heywood and Eccles, in August 1973 When the taiks finally collapsed, the Heywood women gave a monti's notice to end the piecework scheme and to begin day work on 29 July LETTER Brian White, managing director for both plants, sent each woman at Heywood a letter saying that if they did not retten to piecework they would not be paid any wages, On 15 August the company made good its threat. Supervisors went up to individual women on the line and told them that tbey would no longer he paid any wages. agusnst this. women at the Eccles factory did not join them, and meetings held А котал There have friled to bring them out co date. Half of the Eccles labour force is non-union.
SUPPORT
suppost from the APEX workers at the Eccles tactory. fought a successful |1-week strike We have to last ycar over equal pay.
to other factories in the area, to pool dockers and come out in support of them wood not only refuse to come out times, we have gone too far.
could get back to work. How can they say they are union men alter this?", was one woman's exasperated comment.
ing the picket line, escorted in by four reported sick.
tugh. One said: You don't think but you always do. I'd rather cal grass than go back in there Unfortunately, the The women have however had These workers The women have put their case the Hull dockets- who have agreed to black all SET goods-and to the LiverOnly one man at Heywood is on strike, although when the men were on strike recently the women agreed to give seven day's notice to the firm The women had already bad a one-hour rotating sympathy strike but did not think that was enough. However, two days before the women were due to come out the men returned to work JEERING COMMENTS In spite of the support they got from the women then, the men at Hey. out.
now, but make jeering comments at the women as they cross their picker "They say we are being silly and The day alter we occupied they helped the supervisors break some windows so they About 20 women have been cross male scabs. But they are getting fed up: several have lett and last week The morale of the strikers is still you will be able to last much longer SOLIDARITY But we must make sure that they do not have to cat grass. This struggle demands the unflinching support of Women workers on the picket lines outside the where they are on strike for equal pay. Me scabbed on this struggle and aided the ma the entire trade union movement Workers in the Manchester ates should organise solidarity strikes and send contingents to the picket line to support this official dispute.
A number of trades councils and ulion branches support the demands of the Working Women's Charter.
Others claim to support the demand for equal pay. Now is the time to turn that verbal support into action. Inside the AUEW, members must insist that action be taken against the male scabs at SEI and the AUEW workers at Eccles who have refused to follow the AUEW directive to come organile meet this struggle, SEIgh demonstration on how to fight fo equal pay. The lessons of the figh - including the strike committee's decision to alleviate the domesti responsiblities of the women by orginising a daily creche-mun b hammered home in the labour On Saturday 19 October the IMC is calling for a national picket out. side SEI. We ask for maximum sup port for that action Red Weekdy 12 October 1974
West German decision to veto oned EEC food price innd then rapidly reverse that widely reported in the Brias merely a row over farm as only a tiny part of the Behind agriculture lies the bich the West German ruling s played, and is continuing in Inter-imperialist competd the fortunes of internatNader to understand that role which different rates of inf tion can affect competition.
Given the great decline in the rate profit, the only way the cconomy of any imperialist conomy can be Plated is through vastly increasthe amount of money in circu toe. This, however, creates a rapid rate of inflation which tends to make a country's goods uncompetIt on the world market or which noes devaluation and a still faster rate of inflation.
However, if a particular economy a lower rate of inflation than its then if gains an increasing comuve edge over them while the con ed expansion of their economies vides an additional market for its poods and thereby prevents its econmy falling into complete recession.
There are several problems. FirstBy it can only be operated by those with an extremely strong competitve economy otherwise the increase in in exports necessary to keep the eco lomy from rapid collapse cannot be achieved. Secondly, it is absolutely rital that all countries do not try the ame policy simultaneously -if that occurs then everyone loses a market and all economies fall into violent The task is to keep the lid screwed Sown tightly on the economy but avoid provoking other countries by your gains into an uncontrollable emeralised recession.
COMBINATION The reason the West German econmy has been able to carry out such a policy successfully over the last two years is because of the particular relation of the West German economy to the world economy. The combination of losing two imperialist world by John Marshall The consequence is that the West German economy is overwhelmingly deminated by exporting industries such as automobiles, chemicals and electronics and depends on exports for 30 to 50 per cent of their sales. Under these conditions the West German bourecoisie had a tremendous incen inherently strong coonomy, has kept the German rate of inflation well below that of any of its rivals- in the compared to 3.3 percent in the United States, with none of West Germany's European rivals having an uncrease of less than 4.2 per cent Joyment up in Germany by 137 per cent in the last your, although staning from a very low level, and it is continuing to rise. balance of payment's stakes has been truly stagpering. In the second quar ter of this year not one of West Ger many's major rivals had a balance of payments deficit running at an annual rate of loss than 3,500 million dollars, and none of its European rivals had a deficit of less than 6,000 dollars. West Germany bowever had a surpius running at an annual rate of over 10,000 million dolLars.
RESPONSE ist powers to this policy is naturaily first quarter of this year prices increas ed in Germany by a mere 1.9 per cent is very limited.
These policies have sent unempThe effect in the one cise:
The response of the other imperialto demand that West Germany inflates not going so far as to bring the whole its economy and shills its whole orientation. However given that the West Gerasm economy is precisely getting stronger in relation to its competitors the power of its rivals to influence it The only weapon which France, Britain, etc. possess is the threat that if the West Germans do not budge then everyone will have to deflate. That will not merely create the bigBest international recession since World War Two-that is inevitable anyway hut could produce a 1929 type collapse, Such a collapse could hit the export-dominated West German economy even harder than anyThe sudden discovery of internationalism by Dennis Healey, and the 'new European initiative of Giscard d'Estaing, are simply demands that the Germans, and on a different scale the Americuns, should bail out everyone else in the BEC.
The West German bourgeoisie naturally sees no reason why it should undertake any such task of charityhence its increasing obstructiveness in the EEC and elsewhere.
Bonn.
InE Class. about.
But even the West German bour geoisie cannot face with egnanimity the complete collapse of the interna bional economy. Therefore they have in the past period been carrying out a patchwork policy-not fundamentall reflating their own economy and seizing all they can in the EEC, but structure down. This is way they backed down on the farm veto and have poured hundreds of millions into the Italian economy with the fourfold objective of preventing the complete collapse ol the Italian coonomy, stopping Italy from in des peration rupturing the framework of the EEC irreparably, making a large profit, and allowing the German bourgeoisie to have a crucial say in determining the Italian Govcrnment's economic policies NOT SUFFICIENT Now, bowever, West Germany's avas point out this patchworking is no longer sufficient. If the West Germans and the Americans do not reBate, the international recesion may become uncontrollable A Dew increase in the rate of inflation, which is what is necessary to head off the threat of a 1929, may be extremely dangerous for the international bourgeoisie, but it is less hazardous than the likely response of the working cluss to an attempt to unpose mass unemployment.
The international bourgeoisie considers 15 million unemployed in the imperialist countries and a 15 to 30 per cent rate of inflation is marginally Iess dangerous than 30 million unemployed and a 10 per cent rate of infl ation. Hence the hig squeere and the covert threats to Washington and One thing is certain however. What won't be on the apends in Bonnis any thing which is good news for the work As Trotsky said, the task of the working class is not to decide whether it wants to have its throat cut by the razor of unemployment or the hacksaw of inflation. The task is to destroy the executioner That, we can be absolutely sure is the one thing Social Democratic Chancellor Schmidt is not thinking
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THEY'RE THAT ENOUGH!'
TROUBLE WITH WOMEN IS NOT MILITANT