OVER 150 people met in Edinburgh last Saturday at a conference organised by the Labour Co-ordinating Scotland to discuss the labour movement's response to Tory attacks on women.
The majority of delegates were Labour Party members, but there were representatives from the trade union and women's movements. The growing interest by the Labour Party in the position of women.
The early discussion attacks on women. not without criticism of the last Labour government's record.
Margaret Curran, the only woman member on the LCC executive in Scotland, outlined the need for mass participation by the working class in the Labour Party 'to achieve a socialist transformation of society'.
Ine Labour rarty was basea too mucn on men around ine political fight industrialisation, she explained. The party had failed to reach women.
Jo Richardson MP emphasised the need to involve women in the party and sketched the attacks by the Tories on even the small progress her Committee in conference showed powerful centred Tory Tories "Tory portunitics.
all levels. against deenthusiasm women had made. She pointed out that anti-women slogans such as forced existing prejudices She covered many important topics within speech, including missiles and the need for an increase in social services, especially nursery facilities. should be able to choose whether or not they wished to work, Jo Richardson argued.
the Parliamentary fight against we corne sil she congratulated the Edinburgh MPs for their role in this fight and said she was in favour of further Parliamentary action to extend the 1967 Abortion Act.
However, she made no mention of the extra-parliamentar! against the Bill, headed by NAC In the 1980s she saw women under the becoming poorer being educated, forced back to the kitchen sink and Victorian morality' attempting to hide the harsh realities of capitalism.
She went on to call for better training opequality in education women to take a vital rôle in decision-making at The attack on women workers was discussed during the workshop session. The topic was introduced by Mary Harrison, women's advisory committee. She criticised the Labour similar policies to Thatcher's.
was expressed for the idea of 'Ditch the Bitch' reinopposition to Cruise Women •were required, Party could campaign less well She wanted to facilities, improving and for of the STUC for implementing Much of the discussion concerned the Employment Bill as it affected women and the need not only to fight for better education but for women to organise within the trade unions to take up women's issues.
The other workshops dealt with women under capitalism and women's rights and the law. Legal changes in divorce and abortion laws the speaker Women's Charter argued. in order to allou women to look at the wider struggles.
The latter part of the conference was mainly concerned with what women in the Labou do Gay : Johnson, counsellor for Darlington, pointed out that "policies on women's rights needed to be part of a socialist manifesto' to be implemented on the return of a Labour government see legislative changes including the extension of abortion on the NHS, a policy of non-sexist education, child-care supplementary allowances for women, and perhaps the setting up of a trade union development fund to encourage the participation and organisation of women within the labour movement.
A dominant theme was the involvement of women in the Labour Party and the relationship between the party and the women's moveFive places are already reserved for women on the Labour Party's national executive. LCC •OT would-be on it.
Scottish district liberation led by Sheila Gilmore burgh (labour thrown Women benefit past decade.
Mass speakers argued that in every constituency the Parliamentary candidates should have at least one woman and one worker 'Regional meetings to discuss women's position within the Labour Party were suggested -the debate on Jemocracy having highlighted the under-representation of women. Women were also urged to pass resolutions through their local Labour Parties calling for a special meeting of women in the Labour Party in A workshop on left politics and women's from Edin Party, accused the far left groups of concentrating too much on "the point of production' and not on women's concerns and of putting off the struggle for women's liberation until after capitalism had been overthe women's movement pointed out that the Labour Party's record was not so hot. It had ignored the women's move. ment and had dismissed it as 'apolitical' for the action against the Tories was not discussed at the conference, neither was there a great deal of attention paid to actively organising women in the trade unions. Nevertheless, it marked a big break in the Labour Party's traditional attitude towards women and shows that the audience for feminist ideas is growing.