OR Now we are in a period where large scale redundancies and unemployment are immediately on the agenda for both women and men workers. As things stand, women workers are in a weaker position to resist this attack on their jobs, but by launching struggles for equal pay, women could gain experience and confidence in confronting employers. Such experience would be of great value in future redundancy struggles.
It is vital that women are not made scapegoats for capitalism's inability to provide jobs for all, nor for the Government's failure to solve which could unite the maximum be held back. This is because of and as worker. Their domestic role makes them more vulnerable in the labour market. If a child falls ill, it is the mother who takes time off her husband's, a woman feels oblig ed to make it up' by doing most of *concentrate on the minimal demands number of rank and file trade unionists. A report of this appeared, without comment, in Socialist Worker. wollen.
Without these kinds of demands, the struggles of women workers will women's dual role in society both as custodian of the home and family.
work. Because her income is less than paign. defcated, And even in raising these demands, male trade unionists will be forced to consider their backward attitudes and ideas with regard to For example, in North Kensington wonten are lighting for council laundry fucilities, complete with creche and snack bar. The old public baths are due to be pulled down and the council had no intention of replacing the existing laundry (much cheaper than launderettes) until the women mounted their camThis type of struggle which, if won, closely to her role in the family, Il is precisely on this latter point that the women's liberation movement has so much to contribute. During the past four years, the movement has gained valuable experience both practically and theoretically on the oppression of women in the family.
As the economic crisis deepens, the necessity for unity within the working class will become ever more urgent. It women are left to fend for themselves _aning the summer months, the hope of u strong unity in the auturn wage battles will be seriously damaged.