Time the expansion of capital was serving not to maintain but to break up the exsting race and gender relations in the Porking class.
This already shows why it is false to lace gender and race as 'parallel' and mre ated to c'ass. What took nace atter Vorld War II was not a development mong women and the black communiy outside the working class but involved drastic development within the working class. It was a period which saw a massive orocess of the proletarianisation silen, ana tre cicanoll I Drilall 0l d ew black working class. It was not a non-class' but totally evelopment.
The situation with employees, the earest approximation in the statistics to orkers, clearer. aployees today are made up of 55 per ent white men, 43 per cent women, 2 per at black men. Given the concentration I white men in management there is little loubt that today the employed working ss in Britain is divided 50:50 between en on the one side and women and black cople on the other.
The consequences for the labour movement were drastic. Between 1948 and 1981 the proportion of women in rade unions increased from 18 per cent ding their membership.
ed further.
The same structure current divisions movement.
The single largest group workers is in manufacturing.
male and above all white male make up only workforce. This working class.
After largest concentration of ministration.
labour force struction, communication workforce.
and related sector -other water supply -males.
and administration, and water supply white male workers. concentrated in these industries Officially dominated by white male workers.
completely different.
Centrate to 31 per cent. The trade unions became essentlany aepenaent on women and black people for maintaining or expanBetween 1948 and 1981 the number of white male workers in trade unions increased by only 500,000. But the number of women and black male workers in trade unions increased by 2,400,000. Under the Thatcher recession the proportion of trade union members who are white males has declinof transformation becomes still clearer if the internal structure of the working class is considered. Table 3 shows the employment structure by type of occupation. Table 4 shows the by industry. The differences revealed are clear and show the underlying social base of many of the in the of male However within manufacturing there is a sharp distinction between metal and electrical manufacturing — which is virtually all other sectors of manufacturing. Men make up 96 per cent of the workforce in electrical and metal manufacturing white men make up 92 per cent of the workforce in these industries. The white women male predominance in unions such as the AEU and ISTC, which dominate this sector, is evident. However in other sectors of manufacturing white male workers cent or ine distinction within manufacturing must be borne in mind when considering the structure of the manufacturing by far the white male management Management ministration account for 1 in 5 men in the - compared to less than 1 in 10 women. The other major concentrations of white male workers are in conwhere 92 per cent of the worktorce are white males, and transport where white males account for 94 percent of the In the service sector the highest proportion of white male workers are in the relatively prestigeous scientific, artistic, - where white males constitute 83 per cent of the workforce. Turning to the industry classification the major feature is the complete domination of white men in energy and with 85 per cent of workers in these industries being white The pattern of white male employment is therefore clear. White men are completely dominant in management science and arts, metal and electrical engineering, mining and construction, transport, and energy — with none of these industries having less than 70 per cent The implications in the labour movement of these facts are evident. These as the AEU, EETPU, ISTC, NCU. The 'hard right of the labour movement has its base in the white male dominated sectors. The skilled manual worker sector, showed the largest pro-Tory swing of any social group in the 1979 and 1983 elections. These sectors also undoubtedly include, as a small minority, unions such as the NUM, and the NUR, but the overwhelming bulk of the hard right of the labour movement is based in industries If we turn to women the situation is Table 3 women are overwhelmingly concatering cleaning, clerical jobs, education, retailing, and in manufacturing outside the metal and electrical industries. Women are concentrated in the worst paid service jobs and well paid sectors of manufacturing These facts show the dialectic between class, race and gender - and just how ridiculous it is to separate class issues from 'race and gender' instead of showing how they are intertwined. They also show the dynamic taking place in the working class today — the relation between class, race and gender.
As noted, the bastions of the hard right are in the white male sections of the working class — large areas of which are dominated by the AEU, EETPU, ISTC, EMA, NCU and similar unions. The Cools concentration of women workers and in some cases black workers, in unions such as the CPSA, NALGO, NUT and NUPE helps to explain the continuing radicalisation in them. It is in these types of unions that the great mass of the oppressed female and black workforce created since World War Il is concentrated.
There figures also make clear how decisive was the role played by the NUM and its leadership in the strike of 1984-85 It was not simply the tremendous strug gle waged by the NUM itself, but that this was a 'classical', largely white male dominated, industrial oriented towards not simply the working class as a whole but in particular towards - and a union which began to take up the demands of the black community. In short the NUM began to forge precisely the social alliances which are necessary to create the unity of the entire working class. It was exactly the reverse dynamic to that, of the AEU, EETPU and similar unions which orient away from the demands of the most oppressed sections of the working class, women and the black community, and towards the narrow concerns relatively privileged white male sections of the working class.
Finally this relationship helps explain some of the developments taking place in SuCH GMBATU USDAW. These were unions which were traditional bastions of the hard right but which have begun to move towards the centre of the Labour Party - and have, NUPE.
GMBATU and USDAW are today totalshifting their policies. The fact that the TGWU has also launched a campaign to recruit part time workers who are overwhelmingly women, may also have very interesting consequences for that union.
The conclusions are clear. First, a stated, it is ridiculous to separate, and not examine the interconnection, of "class', 'race and 'gender. The reason for the dynamism of the demands of women and black people within the labour movement, and the fact that campaigns such as WAC and the Black Section are on the offensive, is evident. It is not a development but one precisely moulded by the massive entry of women and black people into the working class since World War II. Women and black people today are the most forward moving force in the working class and the Finally, and this is the most fundamental, there can be no class policy today, let alone one which makes the other alliances necessary for the working class, which does not have as an integral and central feature the demands of women women and black people are a product of a class system of domination which goes case of women predated even capitalism itself. But the demands of women and the black community are also precisely the demands of the most oppressed sec tions of the working class itself.
demands of women and black people are not pursuing a class policy but one based on the privileged sections of the working class — a policy of the labour aristocracy. Table 1 White Men Black Men Women White Men Black Men Women Table 2 White men Black men Total black Women White men welles Black men Total black Women Table 3 that is Management & Admin of the Other manufacturing Metal & Electrical manuf Transport Science & Arts Clerical Construction & Mining Education Selling & Retailing Catering & Cleaning Total Employees!
1. Includes miscellaneous Table 4 Other services Distrib., Hotels, Catering Engineering & Metal Construction Other manufacturing Transport & comm.
Finance Mining & Ores Energy & Water Supply Total' Employees' Table '5 North/North East England Scotland Wales East Anglia South West South East outside London Yorkshire North West East Midlands West Midlands London Source: Calculated British December 1985. Gender and racial composition of the employed working population 1851-1984 1851 1871 1891 1911 (millions) 6.5 : 8.2 10.1 12.9 Changes in the employed working population 1851-1984 1851- 1871- 1891- 19111871 1891 1911 1951 2.7 1.9 2.8 2.7 1.6 % of change in work force accounted for by dife rent groups (3) Sexual and racial structure of jobs in Britain (1984)
(thousands)
White Black men men 2,548 2,180 1,520 1,205 1,062 13,009 11,111 Sexual and racial structure of employment in industry in Britain (1984)
(thousands)
White Black men men 2,354 1,997 1,902 1,570 1,350 1,088 1,002 13,009 11,111 Distribution of the black working class 7 of the total black working population British Labour Statistics, 1886-1968, HMSO, 1971 p195; Matthews, Feinstein and Odling-Smee, Economic Growth 1856-1973, Historical Supplement no.
Barber, Ethnic Origin and Economic Status' in Employment Gazette, 1951 1973 1984 1951- 1951- 185l- 19511973 1984 1951 1984 - 0.2 - 2.4 9.1 - 2.4 .5 .8 2.2 2.4 4.2 2.4 • 17 (%) % white % black Women men men wollen 2,820 1,136 2,227 9.517 8,565 (%) % white % black % Women men men 3,758 4,4L/ 9,517 8,565 % of the total working population which is black Historical Abstract p563; Employment Gazette, Employment Gazette April 1985;
Socialist Action IN THE last month a dramatic 23 Jan 1987 of USSR or China can be solved. Stalin
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