Defending womens rights in the austerity offensive
In this and previous issues of 'International Viewpoint' we have
In this article we look at some general trends in how women outlined the scope of the worldwide crisis of capitalism and how in particular are suffering the effects of the capitalist crisis in the world capitalist class is attempting to force the exploited Western Europe, and how far the workers movement has moved and oppressed throughout the world to pay for this crisis with to their defence. This article is based on a report given to a their jobs, living standards, and the everpresent threat of war. While this attack affects the whole of the world working Fourth International cadre school in August 1982 on the present situation facing women in Western Europe.
class, certain sectors of it are more adversely affected because of In future issues of 'International Viewpoint' we hope to look their structural position, and because they are singled out for more extensively at the themes and countries treated in this particular attack in an attempt to divide the working class and ideas of women's equality and liberation the war was over and men returned to 1967 Abortion impede its unity in the face of attack. Penny DUGGAN Throughout Europe the theme of Women against the Crisis' is becoming increasingly familiar in meetings, conferences, and demonstrations. Under this slogan women from trade unions, political parties, women's groups, and campaigning organisations are coming together to protest at the way women are suffering from the combined effects of the capitalist crisis, and demand that the labour movement act in their defence.
While over the last ten or fifteen years women's position in Western Europe has improved considerably in a number of ways there is a real risk that these gains will increasingly be lost.
Both because of their position in the family and in the workplace, women are in the front line of the capitalists' attack. Cuts in social spending on childcare, health care, and other social services; cuts in the real level of wages; all place the greatest burden on women in their role as the mainstay of the home and family. As workers women are regarded as expendable, after all they only work for pin money' and so can be brought into the workforce or excluded as suits the needs of the employers. Along with all this is a massive ideological offensive to justify the material attacks being made on women's rights, which are trying to roll back the gains that women made during the 1970s, benefitting from the momentum of the women's movement in a period when the crisis was not so deep that concessions could not be made.
The scope of attacks on women in the present situation is raising the question of how women can organise to fightback with increasing urgency.
The women's liberation movement which grew up all over Europe in the 1970s is in an organisational decline. This movement developed primarily outside the organisations of the labour movement, resting on women-only groups that were often initiated by women from the student or professional sectors.
The impact of this movement was enormous. In every layer of society, the article. prompted discussion and response. Thus, although the women's groups and organisations have lost some of their organisational strength, and political perspective, the ideas remain strong, and in much broader layers of society.
The commitment of the mass organisations of the working class to defence of women's rights, uneven though it is, can joint action of women in defence of their own rights, within the context of an overall workers solution to the crisis of capitalism.
BACK TO THE FAMILY
To quote Patrick Jenkin, Secretary of State for Social Services in the present British government, 'You know, if God had meant there to be equal rights to work he would not have created men and women.' Such sentiments are not specific even to such right-wingers as the present Thatcher government in Britain. Within the labour movement itself there are those who believe that women should sacrifice their jobs to provide jobs for men, or the young unemployed.
This ideological onslaught comes after over a decade of increasing opportunities for women. It is used to justify the cutting back at women's rights on every front - their right to work, particularly in qualified and fulltime. posts; their right to state-provided childcare facilities; their right even to decide when, and whether,
Such an attempt to turn the clock back is not new. During World War II women in many countries were encouraged to go out to work, to fulfill necessary production tasks previously done by men. In order to facilitate this in Britain childcare centres, public laundries, and subsidised restaurants were instituted to some extent. A campaign was waged to convince women that they could, and should, do such jobs, many of which in the munitions factories were both heavy and dangerous. For many young women it gave them a taste of social and econoindependence that they remember all their lives. However, once civilian life there was a dramatic turnaround in attitudes. Suddenly Dr Spock began to be acclaimed as the great theorist on childcare, with his position that women had to devote themselves to their children for the first five years of their life, unless they wanted their babies to psychologically Women were told it was now their duty to give up their jobs for men. The social vanished. Everything - the Paris fashion designers lengthened skirts and whittled down waists for the return to femininity', after the practical short skirts of the war years.
Today it will not be so easy to drive women back to the home. The gains that women have made over the past years have been as a result of their own struggles, and the broad layers of women who consider that they have the right to determine the course of their own lives will not be easily persuaded otherwise. The enormous entry of women into the workforce in the postwar boom has brought about a structural change in the position of women that cannot be easily reversed.
However, this does not mean that the present attack taking place on women's rights is not serious. It is vital that women and men together, as a united working class, fight every inch of the way to extend women's rights.
### ABORTION UNDER ATTACK
One of the central campaigns of the women's movement in Europe has been for the right to abortion and contraception. Women know that unless they can decide when, and whether, to have childrights become almost meaningless.
the mid-1960s, some advance has been made on this front in almost every European country. Even where the laws have not been changed, the campaigns of women have provoked a discussion on this previously taboo subject, and quite often in practice laws have been less strictly enforced.
But today, even where the laws are increasingly on the defensive. The British
it system and taken out of direct control by attempts in parliament to amend restrictively since it was passed, thanks to massive campaigns that have won the support of the trades union movement and the Labour Party. However, 'backdoor' attacks continue: increasing bureaucratic procedures that doctors and their women patients have to go through, prosecutions brought by the virulent anti-abortionists against well-known doctors, hysterical propaganda about aborted foetuses being left to die in hospital sinks, and, of course, cuts in the health service provisions for abortions.
In other "liberal' countries in northern Europe, the women's movement is preparing itself for defence action. A government commission in Sweden is preparing a report on the functioning of the abortion law there and, although it is not expected to propose any changes, it is thought that anti-abortion groups will take the opportunity to do so.
Where abortion remains completely illegal, there are even attempts to harden attitudes. In the South of Ireland, where it is not allowed for any reason, there is an being put which would make any law mitigating this prohibition tional and thus severely increase the difficulties in making any progress on this front. In Belgium, where it is also illegal, prosecutions of women and doctors were restarted in 1982, having been de facto suspended since 1973. Although the sentences passed so far have been quite light, the doctors concerned are continuing to practice abortions, and thus run the risk of further prosecutions.
In the Spanish state a relative victory was scored when women and doctors charged with having had or performing abortions in the 'Bilbao trials' were given minimum sentences or acquitted. However, the newly elected Socialist Party government has made only the most minimal promises on abortion - a feeble depenalisation of abortion which in fact would deny this right to women,' the October 8 issue of Combate, the weekly paper of the Spanish section of the Fourth International explained. In Portugal, the Communist Party recently presented a bill to parliament that would have introduced some limited right to abortions in the first twelve weeks. Although the bill was defeated by 127 votes to 105 votes, it represented a step forward, insofar as it was the first time the subject had ever been raised in the Portu-
One of the successes of the 1970s was the introduction of a law permitting abortions in the overwhelmingly Catholic country of Italy. However, this law was always fraught with difficulties in funetioning - the clause allowing medical staff to refuse to do abortions on conscience grounds for example is considerably more of a barrier in Italy than in although the vast majority of women consulted in referenda have supported the right to abortion. Now, the special women's clinics - the consultiori - have been incorporated into the state responsibilities for the old, drug addicts, etc, and so are less able to help women.
The only real success on this question recently has come in France where the Mitterrand government has, after much prevarication, agreed to introduce 70 per cent reimbursement of the cost of abortions. This was originally promised before the May 10, 1981, election but only announced in December 1982 (Interna-
Viewpoint No 16, November 1,
The attack on abortion rights constitutes the centrepiece of the ideological attack on women aimed at denying them a role outside their traditional place as the support of the home and family. As it has been one of the central campaigns of the women's movement, the fight for the right to choose is one of the questions of women's liberation that has been most widely debated within the labour movement and the workers political parties.
Although the British labour movement is in advance of the majority of Western European countries, with both the Trades Union Congress and the Labour Party being in support of abortion and prepared to take action in defence of the existing abortion laws, most Social-Democratic federations and political parties, the Communist Parties and their associated trade-union federations, have gone some way to supporting women's demands on this question. However, this is not the case for example in the Netherlands where women are a particularly low percentage, 20%, of the workforce. In Belgium the debate within the labour movement has broadened to involve the Catholic trade-union federation.
This came about because, in order to achieve unity between the Social-Democratic and the Catholic trade-union federations for a 'Women against the crisis' demonstration for March 8, 1982, it was agreed to leave out the question of abortion. However this prompted a debate particularly among the women at the base of the Catholic federation, (International Viewpoint No 6, May 10, 1982).
However, not surprisingly, it has been the problems of women as workers that have drawn the most response within the workers movement.
WOMEN'S RIGHT TO WORK
Alongside the demand for women to have control over their own bodies goes the demand for the right of women to enter into paid employment outside the
As the economic crisis cuts the real wages of workers, and unemployment hits harder, it is becoming more and more glaringly obvious that women's wages, including for married women, are in no way just for inessential 'extras' and luxuries. but are an essential form of income. Of course for the increasing numbers of women who live alone or who are the breadwinner for a family this was never in doubt. And for all women an income of their own has always been a guarantee of independence. UNEMPLOYMENT AMONG WOMEN
During the period of the economic crisis women's unemployment has been at a faster rate than men's. For unemployment among women is rising at twice the rate for men: 16.2% to 29.4% of the total in 1973 to 1978. In Belgium only in 1982 did men's unemployment begin to rise higher than for women. responsibilities, make up the majority of the 'reserve workers for capitalism, part-time jobs, on short-term contracts, or simply forced to move in and out of the workforce at different times to fit in with family needs. Women are also in general a less skilled sector of the workforce, who increasingly find it more difficult to get jobs again having once left employment for whatever reason.
One major area of women's employment that had been steadily increasing, the state sector, is now static. This also is an important factor in the rapid increase unemployment, increasing number of women on the job market are now finding the former opportunities in the state sector drying up.
However, even the figures do not necessarily illustrate the full extent of women's unemployment. Many women, particularly married women, do not register as unemployed, because they are not entitled to unemployment benefits, or because they do not regard themselves as truly unemployed.
Women's right to work can only be defended by taking up a specific defence of women's right to jobs in the framework of defence of jobs by the working class as a whole. The demand for the 35-hour week which will increase jobs, and for wages to be linked to the cost of living, would be of enormous advantage to women as a layer for whom unemployment is high and wages low; in Britain women's average wage is still only 60% of the male average wage.
However, women also have to be given encouragement and increased opportunities to enter into new areas of employment that have traditionally been male dominated. countries the Affirmative Action programmes of the United States, which placed a legal requirement on employers to reach certain quotas of employees in jobs such as mining, have been studied with interest.
A WAY TO RIGHT THE WRONG
Women historically have been denied the training that would give them access to skilled jobs, both in industry and in other sectors. Unless rapid steps are taken to overcome this historical disadvantage then the notion of 'equal access' to jobs is meaningless. Women just are not qualified to take up many jobs. For example, in Britain where many skilled jobs in engi-
forefront of struggles. For example, in to defend their interests.
neering, electricians, traindrivers, etc, require apprenticeships, women are almost only found serving apprenticeships to become hairdressers.
The idea of positive action to help women get into different jobs is becoming more and more widely discussed. In Austria the Social-Democrats made some limited attempt to encourage women to take courses in electrical engineering, and themselves in favour of positive action in general. In Germany a special apprentice programme for young women was established at a factory in Cologne, but it was found that the young women finishing this course then found it difficult to get permanent jobs. This has happened in other countries where one particular company or educational institution has courses when this has not been part of an employers to also positively discriminate in employing workers. This is one of the many weaknesses in the Sex Discrimination Act in Britain which allows for posidiscrimination in education training for jobs, and for advertising, but not at the point of employment. However both the TUC and the Labour Party in Britain have adopted policy in favour of positive action, some employers, often local councils, have declared themselves 'equal opportunity employers, who are thus committed to employing women on an equal basis, in traditionally
Italian workers in Fiat cars have won a significant step forward There the unions forced the management to agree that 50% of all new recruits should be women. In Sweden companies that establish themselves in particularly crisis-hit areas with government grants have to employ at least 40% women. In addition if Swedish companies employ women in traditionally male jobs they can get large state subsidies. These are some of the most significant practical steps that have been achieved. But it is significant that this question is getting increasing attention throughout Europe, from the Spanish state, where a planned conference of the Women's Commission of the Comisiones Obreras (independent has scheduled women's right to work and positive action as a major item for discussion, to Sweden. As Italian women wrote in motivating a European conference on
"Even the themes of feminism have changed since this massive entry of women into the labour market (in the post war boom). "What kind of work?" has become the central question?
PART-TIME WORK = PART-TIME
UNEMPLOYMENT
Part-time work is often seen as being a good thing for women, giving them a chance to combine a job that offers them a little independence and some extra money for luxuries with taking the responsibility for the children and the family.
The truth of course is quite different. First of all women have the right to work and need a full wage, and a satisfying job. Secondly part-time work is in the inte rests of the employers. It allows employers to use the workforce more flexibly, in a way that is dictated by their need to increase their profits. It makes employment more precarious and breaks up the organisation and solidarity of the workforce. Employers can use the labour power prowomen without having to pay either individually or through the state for the social services such as childcare which would make it easier for women to
In many countries of course part-time workers do not have the same benefits in terms of holiday entitlement, sick pay retirement benefits, or job security full-time workers. For example, France, part-time workers on average get the equivalent of 15 to 20% less than the rate of pay of full-time workers. This is despite the fact that the position of part-time workers has been recent decrees of the government.
Often part-time work is dressed up as "job-sharing', or a new emanicpated way of organising working which allows people to give more time to other activities. But, in contradistinction to the workers demand for "jobsharing with no loss of pay, part-time work does mean loss of pay. And it is quite clear by looking at the statistics that it is not women's choice to work part time. Can it be that, for example, 40% of all women who work in Britain have freely chosen to accept badly paid and insecure jobs?
Many trade unions have formally criticised moves towards institutionalising part-time work but there has been very little practical action on this front. For example, the CGT trade-union federation in France which was opposed to part-time work, reacted quite differently when the Mitterrand government announced decrees enshrining it in the employment laws. CGT-leader Krasucki was asked what the CGT would do; he replied that they had organised a press conference, and beyond that the workers would know what to do in their factories!
Such passivity in the face of new attacks on women, despite formal policies
WOMEN AGAINST THE CRISIS
The scope of attacks taking place on women today poses political questions sharply - how to defend women's rights as part of the defence of the rights and living standards of the working class. Is defence of women's rights, for example to work, counterposed to men's right to
Despite the advances that have been made within the workers movement in formal positions on women's rights it is too often obvious that this is just demagogy, and that in concrete struggles to defend jobs the labour bureaucracy will sacrifice women.
Yet often women have been in the the clothing industry there have been some notable struggles. Women in the Lee Jeans factory in Scotland occupied their factory after it was announced that it was going to be closed, meaning the loss of all their jobs. They organised a campaign of solidarity throughout the British labour movement, which resulted in the factory being bought by another manufacturer. Their determination was saluted by many other workers as giving a real lead in the fight against unemployment. In Sweden, which women from Lee Jeans visited, there was also an important occupation of a textile factory by women workers which waged a successful solidarity campaign among other trade-unionists, and also provoked discussion on the use of occupations in the fight against unemployment.
Women are prepared to counter every attack by the capitalists - not only to take action against immediate threats. In Belgium the International Women's Day demonstrations in the last two years brought together many women, and the trade-union federations, under the slogan 'Women against the Crisis. The Labour Party in Britain was forced by its growing, active and leftwing women's organisation to hold a national festival for women's rights in 1982, involving trades unions and women's groups, which built on the momentum of a Women against the Tories' festival organised by women's groups in 1981, and the series of unemployment marches the Labour Party had organised over the past year.
In some countries the trade-union bureaucracy has blocked this type of unity. This happened, for example, in West Germany. The national union federation, recognising that women workers were increasingly turning to the unions, organised a series of events around this theme for International Women's Day 1982.
In France one of the most successful events in recent years was a conference on 'Women and Work' organised in April 1982 which attracted 2,000 women and many of whom were trade-union to discuss all the questions facing women in the crisis.
Increasingly, under the impact of the crisis, women are coming together from different standpoints to defend women's rights. And it is also being shown that it is women within the mass organisations of the working class who can use that organisational strength to reach out and give a lead to all women.
This process is uneven, in some countries even the women's commissions in the unions of workers political parties are un-
But the historic success in Britain, where the national trade union federation, the TUC, called a national mass demonstration to oppose attacks on women's abortion rights points the way
This success was achieved by a determined fight by women through the trades unions to force their leaderships