On March 9th, over 100,000 responded to the TUC call for a mass demonstration against the Tories Employment Bill. Chanting slogans from 'Support the steelworkers!' to "Thatcher out"', miners, engineers & car-workers left little doubt as to their attitude to the Tory anti-union curbs.
Such a mood reflects the growing teeling among wide layers of trade unionists, up and down the country, who have been drawn into bitter battles with the Tory government over cuts, wages & - as with the steelworkers - jobs.
VACILLATION The militancy of the marchers could be detected most clearly at the end of the rally in response to the TUC leaders' speeches.
Murray's offer to sit down with the Thatcher government to 'discuss' the problem was drowned in a barrage of heckling.
No doubt the demonstrators recalled that - apart from giving support to the anti-Corrie march last November the TUC has revealed a masterly inactivity in the face of the Tories' offensive.
Refusal to organise the growing opposition to the cuts has been matched by refusal to support the steelworkers (if not actual sabotage of solidarity actions -such as that planned by the S.
Wales TUC last February).
Now, when the unions themselves are under threat of being taken back to the days of Taff Vale. the TUC intends limiting to Downing Street to negotiate with Jim Prior. Calling on the Tories to drop their legal curbs, they have promised to deal with "militant pickets' themselves POSTPONE The reason for the TUC refusal to give a fighting lead is, of course, because they see the situation in electoral terms. As far as they are concerned, hope lies in gritting one's teeth before the Tories' attack and waiting for the return of a Labour government in five years.
Such a perspective is also that of rights and economically dependent on the husband.
And what type of family life do the Tories want to maintain? The family life of people crowded 10 to a room in Liverpool or a Glasgow slum? The family life of wifebeating or child-battering?
THREAT If the Tories succeed in their offensive, it will not only be a setback for women's rights but for the whole labour movement. The Thatcher government knows that by creating the climate that a woman's place is in the "home', they can weaken and divide the labour movement in its fight-back against their policies.
They know that it will be easier for them to turn 'men' against 'women' in the scramble for jobs that will increasingly open up as their unemployment plans begin their allies in Parliament who -while denouncing Thatcher in words - have argued against mass actions and have actually denounied the see! pickets for their coerce vi wages and jobs.
Unfortunately, unless the labour leaders can be pushed into action • or replaced by rio jobs or social services left to defend in five years time. What is involved is a life-and-death struggle to defend working people from the most class-conscious government for decades.
ORGANISE No doubt as a response to growing pressure, the TUC has now called another one-day 'protest' action against Prior's Bill on May 14th. While calling such an action, however, they have tried to limit its effect by leaving it up to individual unions to decide whether to strike or not.
This weak-kneed approach has to bite.
They also know that, by making women economically dependent on their husbands, they can set up a reactionary brake on the militancy of male workers and their readiness to strike. The action by wives of Hadfield steelworkers -who refused to support the ISTC strike - is the type of situation the Tories want to encourage in the years ahead.
COMMON FIGHT This is why the struggle against the Tory offensive is not just of concern to women - who stand to lose most - but of the entire labour movement. It is only by that movement taking up & pioneering the rights of women that the Tories' divisive tactics can be defeated and a united resistence mounted.
The support for the anti-Corrie Campaign by the TUC last November was a massive step in that direction. For the first time, the token pledges of support were already been denounced even by trade union leaders like Sid Weighall of the NUR who has valed foreto beared into a Te may genera strine.
taken up and raised in trade those who wil! there hi. turn May 14th from a one-off protest into the start of a longterm campaign to stop the Tory anti-union curbs in their tracks.
FIGHTBACK Pressure on the labour leaders should not be limited, however, to taking a stand on the Prior Bill. They should also be forced to spearhead opposition to all aspects of the Tories' anti-working class policies. They should be urged to organise the mass opposition to the cuts; to lead the fight against unemployment by pioneering the demand for the 35-hour week, and to fight turned into mass action, drawing thousands of Labour Party and trade union activists into the struggle against attempts to take women hack to the stone age.
That step forward has to be built upon. It is not just a question of fighting to get the Labour Party to include abortion rights in its Manifesto - and to implement that Manifesto when it is returned to power. Other issues are also at stake.
Ireland - now! the test.
Such a demand must clearly be union and Labour Party branches labour leaders must be forced to DEMOCRACY ORGANISE leave.
for wage increases to keep pace with the rise in inflation.
Moreover, they must also be forced to support the struggles of layers doubly victimised by Thatcher's policies. The TUC support for the mass anti-Corrie rally last November is a clear example of what is possible.
Under the mass pressure from women - both inside & outside the labour movement - the TUC was forced to throw its decisive weight behind a movement that stopped the anti-abortionists in their tracks. Similar pressure must be brought to bear to make them support the fight against racist immigration laws and to get the troops out of LABOUR PARTY The fight to make the labour leaders act in the interests of their members cannot be limited to the unions. It must also be carried into the Labour Party where figures from Callaghan to Tony Benn must be put to Where do they stand on these issues? Are they prepared to turn their anti-Tory rhetoric into concrete action now? Will they support the anti-cuts fight. the steelworkers' strike or the campaigr against racist immigration aws which the Tories have insiderably tightened)? It is oniy by pressure to make the labour leaders act - or to replace them by those that will - that a reall! united defence can he muried agains: the Thatcher government's attack.
It is also the surest way of guaranteeing that, when a Labour government is returned to office, it will be committed to a prog ramme of action in the interests of working people.
As part and parcel of this fight, the question of democracy will come ever more to the fore.It has already raised its head in the Labour Party as the last conference dramatically revealed.
It is only by fighting to extend democratic control over labour leaders - in the unions as well as the Labour Party - that we can ensure that they will carry out policies in their members' interests and that they can be replaced if they won't.
The mass opposition developing to cuts in social services has also to include real guarantees to preserve - and extend - nursery facilities and womens' right to a job. The opposition building up to Whitelaw's Immigration proposals has also got to include real antagonism to its blatent discrimination against Black women. And the mounting fight-back to Prior's Employment Bill has got to be based on pledges to restore women's rights to maternity Such moves will not develop by themselves. It is only by women in the labour movement organising and fighting for their rights that the unions and Labour Party will begin to take them up.
Sabina Roberts (Streatham CLP)