Date Nov '73 Nov 74 Nov 75 Nov '76 White males West Indian and Bangladeshi men Indian men White males West Indians Indians Pakistanis African Asians From 1976 Department of Employment Gazette Type of shift % of whites Night shifts Day shifts/others Total on shifts from Smith's 'Racial Disadvantage in Britain' 1970 Men 67.4p 136.3 Women 42.5p Women as % of men 63.1 Source: New Earnings Survey 1970-79.
All ages women Source: Department of Employment Gazette case in the United States In a famous over 'affirmative action' for blacks aget professors Cohen, and Scanlon defended Black unemployment rate Blacks as percentage of all unemployed 2.2 2.6 3.7 4.1 from Department of Gazelle Percentage of men employed in professional, white collar and managerial jobs 40 per cent 8 per cent 20 per cent Percentage of men in unskilled and semi-skilled work: 18 per cent 32 per cent 36 per cent 58 per cent 26 per cent Shift working by black and white workers % of blacks on shifts on shifts Average gross hourly earnings, excluding overtime, employees Waged 18 and over 1975 1977 1979 177.4 226.9 98.3 133.9 165.7 72.1 75.5 73.0 Women at work 1911 9.6% 1921 8.7% 1931 10.0% 1951 21.7% 1961 29.7% 1971 42.3% 1979 51.3% Preferential employment minorities thus: 'Blacks were excluded because they were thought inferior and undesirable: thev were And a Federal judge in the same case remarked: 'Like the infections of the human body which are cured by injections of the same poison, the affirmative action justified remedy to the toxin of discrimination.' The fear of 'reverse discrimination' only arises because there is a genuine fear of job loss the current situation of high unemployment. This fear of redundancy is a tool used by the ruling class to divide and weaken the whole workforce and to depress wages.
Fightback Allowing women and blacks to be the first to go 'down the road' does not help the fight for jobs. It weakens the united tightback of al men and women, white and black Nor should high unemplovment be used as an excuse to put off the fight for positive acGON Rights If the labour move ment could be convinced of the rights of black and women workers to their jobs this would strengthen the case for a militant, united fight by the whole labour movement for jobs for all. It would strengthen the case for policies which could provide jobs for all, such as the campaign for a 35-hour week no loss of pay, and for a useful public works. Priorities Positive black women workers points to the need to create a new society society against women outlawed, where the economy is organised to provide jobs not bombs, a society organised by the workers tor the workers: socialism.
Socialist Challenge 12 February 1981
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