been the prominent role played by women strikers in to LIZ SHORT, the role of women in this dispute. THERE are about 500 women on strike, all bar one of them are in the clerical oranen wollicH cleaners There no women in the production rooms or in the NGA. the Times clerical chapel there are adoul twicc many men women.
dispute the heTere union had taken up a couDle oi compagns tnal Darticularly affected women, cervical cancer screening. At the moment there Tour Vis o Iwo roc. (Mother/Father of the Chapel) the joint chapels committee.
When the dispute started the women reacted in the same way as the men, Wien! surprised some of the men in the roonCo CIaeS.AU of the 'lions' in Fleet Street have been shown to nave no teeth, and a lot of the men have been surprised y the grit and determina ion of their female colall the activities of the fight. Socialist Action spoke Chapel, Simes Clerici Chapel tf SOGAT, ablue deputy Mother leagues.
prop sate for the women in I don't think it was aporganise seperately, hut it mistake not to get the involved There anics meeting for husbands and should have been wives to organise them.
A lot of the wives O1 the production workers have been regularly, but an incident i witnessed shows some of the problems they face. nere wa an NGA meeting to which a lot of the men came with their wives because it was the day of one of the women's marcues lo going. A point came in the UCCLIY when aul" nouncement for NUTA members had to be made about the court order.
The wives were politely thanked for their support, were then asked leave and go into an adjoining room, and a metal shutter was clanged down Newee e wo oOs. was as if the men were not goll lol lell what wals going on anyway!
The Labour Party women's conference was an eye-opener for me - partly because I had never been lo a big labour movemen conference before. I could not belleve there was motion on When woman een o o ee! on the head by police LEUC CUT tried to get an emergency they said police violence happens all the wasn't LuNC emergency!
To me, everything on the agenda such as health and child care, depends on having strong Laue organisation. Although was allel y issue was not discussed, from what I heard of the aebales 1 was very impressed with their militancy.
Brenda Dean has given women trade unionists a bad name because she will not fight for the right •organise, and women will main losers in the be ine unorganised, temporary low paid that will 'A lot of men have been surprised by the grit and determination of their female colleagues' result if Murdoch and his kind win out. I voted for Dean president, but after seeing way she operates I didn't vote for What we have in SOGAT general secretary is a woman leader who is more concerned with her TV image than she is the WEW WOR issues stake in the dispute.
The women strikers understand the issues and anev de cac lo cail! on the fight for their rights because they understand low important it is to wi this strike DENNIS SKINNER. Skinner reviewed the miners strike and said it the most honourable strike in his lifetime. "They used every weapon establishment's to try and defeat the strike he said. But had been lost 'because some of TUC and in LAOSE the labour movement failed to respond in our hour of need'.
The fight against miners had put skids Tories, Skinner went. on. He pointed out LORIL gone cap in hand to the in- the Tories had just ternational bankers. 'Arthur Scargill told you throughout the strike that it would cost between £6 and £8 billion to finance the fight against dividual loan taken out by any government since the second world war. Three days ago they went one billen. Add om wei Se And I'm waiting for Roy speak up about it.
Skinner gave a damn ing indictment of "That cher's reference to the TUC discussions targetted sensus Some leading will tell SHOOIC!
Porem tomorrow case der "jam they your • nose clean, the management, don't get into any these wondertul things conflict will come your way". But should have destroyed _a lol these notions, Such collaboration paved the way for MacGregor's we don'i : wint any CUS. consensus.
'I give way to no one in my desire beat this Thatcher government. I'n not prepared to spend my time the Labour Party organising • witch-hunt to drive socialists out' he said to bu audubo
AS THE News International dispute moves into week 34, GEORGE HALL, SOGAT News Group clerical FOC draws the lessons of the last few months and argues how the fight can be won.
the so-called have signalled the start of the new campaign to build the strike. This wasn't to be. At the SOĞAT Biennial Conference General Secretary Brenda Dean attempted to strangle this new found confidence by launching a tirade against the London delegates.
The London leadership led Campaign Group caved in Communist under the onslaught and agreed to support 7-point resolution put the strike firmly back into the hands of the naLONEI leadership. resolution made it plain all y aCiUI which jeopardised the union's funds would not be countenanced and that the TUC would continue OOK IO an cotaDic negotiated settlement' with the Company. Jobs recognition were completely absent let alone proposals for escalating the dispute. The London officers were firmly put in their place.
No more challenges to the 'LETS GO forward with the fervour of the old The magnificent no-vote early in June against 'Dean-Murdoch' final offer should NEC by 'unconstitutional mass meetings calling for ТАМО ДО SAM HONP All meetings had to be controlea Dy uie Urlicels. Despite this people in the CCG and others claimed a victory at Scarborough.
Murdoch aid not sutfer the same delusions. As the resolution was SUVl as passed he was back to the courts, taking writs outside NI plants in the picketing outside knowledge that SOGAT leaders would under circumstances take on the Tory laws.
Within hours of the court case being won by Murdoch the terror-struck hierarchy delivered directives to all ting them to obey to the letter Judge Stuart's verdict. Incredibly, certain leading members CCG called the court judgement a victory BIOI the printers, and further claimed that Kinnock and Willis fully behind As for the NGA, after the rejection of the Murdoch 'final offer' Dubbins cleverly headed off any militant moves in his own Dubbins proposed tangible steps to esCaae dispute wanting to place the NGA in contemot of court bu he made left-sounding NoCCCucs won the union to support a motion almea a the TUC Congress attacking the role Hammond and the EETPU leadership.
His policy was to pur Murdoch via DICOSUIS Hammond (!) to reopen negotiations, saying that if talks don't take place the motion would be amended to call for the suspension of the electricians union.
wrees was passed overwhelmingly wil towe arcu cil.
Despite the policy of the leadership at the national level the struggle can still be won An elected strike committee is needed to give much-needed new direction to the strike: taking the strike into the other houses Fleet Street; fighting in the first place 44-лour stoppagt leading extended action: stomoing scab coD being transferred across the wire to Wapping; stop used in printing house in Fleet Street; extending the boycott into all printing factories up and down the country to ensure MITOOCR products are boycotted.
The danger is that the national leadership will come with another 'final offer with an increase compensation out of the present round of MCCoLaLols, alu dileald to use their control to push it throueh. , Standing firm against any deal that does include traditional 1101 trade union organisation is absolutely vital if we're to chart a course for victory.
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those who believe 'you can get rid of all that by con-
quiet" say listen to
so prepared to defeat this government that I'm