Nation of women as wage workers.
Because of the myth that womco's role is in the home, the family system provides capitaiism with an exceptionally dexible source of lubour which can be drawn into the labour force or sent back into the home with fewer social consequenees than any other component of the reserve army of labour. Capitalism has a built-in mechanism for perpetsating the employment of women in unskilled jobs, unequal pay rates and deep divisions within the working class itself along sex lines, PILLAR OF CAPITALISM The patriarchal family is a powerful ideological pillar of class society, a repressive and conservatising structure which fosters the possessive and competitive attitudes necessary to the perpetuation of class society. It forces women into cconomic, lepal. social and emotional dependence on men and belps to isolate women trom political and trade union actaily. It encourages male workers to think they can be king' in their own home.
The tamily isolates and disguises the violent and personal relationships that exist under capitalism, including extreme physical violence. Any movement which challenges the oppression of women and reveals the nature of Ute family must play a vital and powerful part in the class struggle as a WELL.
Control of reproduction is essentjal for the maintenence of the capitalist state. Even more than economic discrimination and fundamental to its justitication is the idea that women's natural and incet important function is motherfood This ideology is backed up by the repressive apparatus of the state and its instirutions which denies a woman the right to control her own reproductive funct Jons. In this way the state controls a woman's Life.
For this reason, and because of the growth of the youth and women's movements generally, abortion is emerging internationally as a major question for the women's movement, Massive demonstrstions in France. Canada, the US, Switzerland, GermRed Weekly 20 March 1975 Pace 8 together in action against the state.
by the toroes of reaction to prevent women from gaining control over their own bodies and even to roll back the limited gains won so far, likewise illustrate the recognition by the state of the implications of wom en controlling their own bodies.
In Britain a campaien for the right to free abortion on deniand and. against the reactionaries attempts to restict the 1967 Abortion Act is urgent. The right of a woman to decide for herself if and when to have a child is a fundamental precondition for her liberation. Aslong as she is denied this right she does not control the most basic factor determining her life. Science has made it possible for nial of safe, efficient birth control and abortion are therefore among the most brutal aspects of women's oppression today, and especially for working class women who are nost often the victins of the abortion racketeers 'RIGHT TO CHOOSE The 196: Abortion Act does not guarantee the right ofa woman to choose whether or not to have an abartion. Doctors, not women, have the decision-making power, leading to a marked variation in the availability of abortions in different parts af the country and the continued a fundamental prerequisite for women's liberation that it would first moves of the Soviet Government under Stalin.
of the 1967 Abortion Act to guarmust also delend at all costs the gains of the 1967 Act Itom the attthe existing gains from the attacks posed by the White Bill and the Select Committee set up by the Labour Governmeat to investigate the misuse of the 1967 Act.
The work carried out by the jon Campaign (WACC), the opportunities crealed by the launching of the Right to Choose' campaign of Jon (ALRA), the counter mobilisations to the SPUC marches, and the est against the White Bill show that tive, batianal action campaign for the right to abortion on demand Alreudy there are forces ready anit moblised for such a single issue and chauvinist. be a necessary provision in the constitution of a healthy workers' state.
Outlawing abortion was one of the While fighting for the extension antec a woman's right to choose, we acks coming from SPUC, LIFE, and other reactionary groups, including many Labour MPs We must defend Women's Abortion and Contraceptthe Abortion Law Roform Associat rallies of hundreds of women in prot the busis exists for building an effec buremucracy will be revealed for what it is - reactionary, hypocritical An abortion movement uffers the best possibility for building the women's aberation movement and the IMG. A strengthened and successful women's movoment would allow for more effective work on other issues. Trotskyists should support the campaigns for child ship. care facilities such as those mounted by the Student Women's Action Group, the Natiunal Union of Students and the London Association of Teachers in Technical Institutions.
We support the strugpies of wonen workers for equal pay as the Equal Pay Act will bring little real change in the status of women, since fems have regraded wonten workers to evade the law. We should support anti-dischintination legislation while criticising the Labour Government's white paper 'Equality for Women' for its outlawing of reverse discrimination and its weak enforce ment procedures. However, as a national focus against the state. abortion is key to building the inde pendent women's movement.
This is necessary because the opp Tession of women is historically intertwined with the division of society into classes and with the role of the family as a basic economic unit of
ish workers in relvtion to Ireland today.
In Glasgow, are clearly steps in this direction.
On the other hand we see antiTrish chauvinlam being whipped up in an attempt to split the working dais even further on a question on which it has always heen backward, und so destroy its ability to fight against the effects of the capitalist. crisa. The dangers here have already been illustrated by the lack of resisIt was Marx who first pointed out that a nation will never be free while it oppresses another. This is graphically true for BritOn the one hand, we see the north of Ireland being used as a kind of lahoratory in which to develop new repressive techniques for possible future use against workers here. The police/army manocuvres at Heathrow and elsewhere, and now the use of troops bath.
What is missing. of course, irany recognition of the fact that it is the presence of those troops which, by Continuing to hoost tlie confidence ofthe Loyalists while at the same time wearing down the anti-Unionist resistance to their sectarian altacks. i actually preparing the way fora
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*Our class struggle methods are geared to awakening the initiatives of the masses of women, to bring them is the root of women's oppression and its elimination the only road to liberation.'
This will help to destroy their domestic isolation, their lack of confi- dence in their own abilities, intelligence, independence and strength. We aim to show that class exploitation