CP BRITAIn
CP BRITAIn communist-party.org.uk
march 2019
Workers of all lands, unite!
out five women did not report it to their employer for fear it might harm their job prospects or workplace relationship. Left unchallenged this behaviour will continue and we are already seeing this becoming as issue for girls and women teachers. Delegates will be asked to support the creation of a robust ‘gold standard’ complaints procedure that gives members confidence in the process, and campaign to protect women’s rights to respect and dignity at work, with compulsory sexual harassment training by employers. Another aspect of harassment is the way pregnant women workers are treated. A government commissioned report in 2018 found that 54,000 women may lose their job due to pregnancy or maternity leave every year – that’s one in nine pregnant women who have been fired, made redundant or felt forced to resign. Although pregnancy and maternity discrimination is illegal current laws are just not strong enough to deal with this problem.
s Equal pay victory for Glasgow City Council workers
Anita Wright looks at the agenda for this year’s TUC Women’s Conference T COmES as no surprise to find that once again income inequality; the gender pay gap; poverty, and dignity at work top the agenda at this year’s TUC Women’s Conference. Employers are getting away with daylight robbery. In 2018, according to the Office for national Statistics, the estimated average gender pay gap for all employees including those who work part-time, was 17.1 per cent. The 2016 legislation requiring employers to publish their gender pay gap showed that 7,795 of 10,016 employers pay men more. The gender pay gap is a vital issue for the labour movement with the proportion of women in the workforce up to 78 per cent in 2017 compared to 57 per cent in 1975. The proposal from Unite on collective bargaining makes these issues central for the
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whole of the movement. For too long the struggle for equal pay and the representation of women in workplaces has been seen as ‘a women’s issue’ without recognising the wider impact of work and pay inequality. As the probation officer’s amendment makes clear: “Women are more likely to occupy insecure, low status jobs with little or no decision making authority. Those in such jobs experience higher levels of negative life events, relationship, housing and mental health problems, physical and emotional abuse, and reduced social support.” Unions must make sure that women are at the negotiating table for all sectoral collective bargaining discussions, not just in workplaces with a majority of women workers. In the workplace Workers have the right to be treated with dignity in the workplace yet, according to the TUC, over half of working women experienced sexual harassment and/or bullying in their workplace. Despite this four
Women and poverty Four million workers are living in poverty, a rise of more than half a million over five years. This rise in in-work poverty has been driven almost entirely by the increase in the poverty rate of working parents, particularly lone parents, 91 per cent of who are women. Half of children in lone-parent families live in poverty and the introduction of Universal Credit has worsened it. The government seems determined to push ahead which is why the transport staff ’s motion calls for an immediate halt in the roll-out and an entirely new scheme. Women are going without food so their children can eat and malnourished mothers are giving birth to underweight babies. For many women the impact of poverty, pay and welfare cuts can mean choosing between food or sanitary wear. Unions have been campaigning against Period Poverty, notably the communications workers and UnITE. The train drivers’ motion commends the Scottish Government for introducing schemes to offer access to free period products to low income families and in educational institutions and the Welsh Government for ring-fencing £1 million for free sanitary products for those most in need and calls on the UK government to follow their example.
Women’s health The World Health Organisation recognises that women and girls have specific health needs and that many health systems are failing to meet the needs of women and girls. Women are the main care givers in our society, and as such are the custodians of family health, playing a critical role in supporting other family members including children, the elderly and disabled. The strength and endurance of women is often key in keeping a family going. Underfunding of the nHS and mental health services has led to shortages of qualified staff including school nurses, midwives, sexual health advisors and psychologists which in turn means that many women and girls are not getting the support they need. A recent nHS survey of over 9,000 young people found nearly 1 in 4 young women has experienced mental illness. young women aged 17-19 were twice as likely as young men to suffer; and nearly half of those in their late teens with mental health problems had self-harmed or attempted suicide. The International Council on Women’s Health Issues says that the physical and mental health of women and girls determines the health and well-being of our modern world which is why we need to step up the campaign for proper funding levels for our health services. Women and the far right Prolonged periods of austerity and the increasing gap between rich and poor has led many people to become disillusioned with traditional social democratic parties. This is fertile ground for the far-right and we have seen these forces reinventing themselves as “populist” parties, most notably in Brazil, Ukraine and Italy. For the first time since 1932 Germany now has members of the fascist Alternative for Germany (AfD) elected to its parliament. In such dangerous times, international solidarity is vital which is why the university and colleges union is calling for support for Brazilian academics that face growing restrictions on free speech and expression, especially in relation to anti-fascist history and activism. AnITA WRIGHT IS PRESIDEnT OF THE nATIOnAL ASSEmBLy OF WOmEn
Celebrate International Women’s Day of liberation SOLIDARITY
may match factory in London’s East End won a stunning victory against excessive fines and the health hazards of working with white CAROL STAVRIS phosphorus. Sparked by the sacking of one nTERnATIOnAL WOmEn’S DAy was born of the women, the community of women workers fought together to force the owners from women’s struggles to free themselves from wage exploitation and for sex and racial to come to terms. Small chain making was the first industry in equality. Our demands have included women’s Britain to obtain minimum wage legislation suffrage, control of reproductive rights, ending of domestic violence and progress on numerous when, in 1910, women chainmakers working in small shops in Birmingham’s Cradley Heath other issues affecting women’s lives. many of International District were led by the founder of the these struggles continue today. Women’s Day national Federation of Women Workers, by Alexandra Kollontai Women craftworkers have participated in mary macarthur, on a 10 week successful £2.50 (plus £1.50 p&p) strikes since medieval times but it was the strike for a living wage. manifestopress.org.uk Industrial Revolution that thrust women In Latin America, Asia, Germany and forward. Poor wages and bad working conditions led to women becoming organised France during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, women’s labour strikes won and active within their workplaces. One of concessions from employers which mitigated the first recorded strikes was in 1824. their harsh working conditions and developed Women and men went on strike in Rhode women’s trade unionism. Action united Island, new England, when the cotton mill women against racial discrimination both from owners planned to increase the workday by employers and from some male workers. In one hour and cut wages by a quarter for 1933, Hispanic women, working in the Texan women powerloom weavers and it set off a pecan industry, led by a prominent activist in wave of similar strikes across the region. In 1888, women workers at the Bryant and the struggles of Hispanic workers, Emma
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Tenayuca, went on strike and were supported by their white women comrades. In 1968 at the Ford motor plant in Dagenham,187 women sewing machinists making car seats covers walked out, protesting their unskilled workers classification. men doing the same level of work were paid more. The Dagenham women's strike, later joined by 195 women from another Ford plant in England, completely stopped production and led to the important Equal Pay Act of 1970 making it illegal to have separate pay scales based on sex. Gains like this, and the Sex Discrimination Act of 1975 were later undermined by the policies of the Thatcher government. The Grunwick dispute of 1976 and Gate Gourmet strike in 2005 were led by inspirational Asian women, gaining recognition within the British Trade Union movement. It was the women’s strike in Petrograd on International Women’s Day 8 march 1917 (23 February in the old Russian calendar) that sparked the Russian Revolution which shook the world. The women's action came from
economic need (bread shortages) but it was informed by revolutionary ideas and it ignited a political crisis culminating in the great October Socialist Revolution. By making their demands political, the women of Russia had begun their own process of emancipation. Every march since 1989, we have been celebrating Oxford International Women’s Festival. An expression of popular resistance by feminists and trade unionists to the market economics and individualism driven by the Thatcher government, it followed the establishment in 1984 of a women’s Committee (later a Collective) aimed at coordinating the Labour-controlled City Council Women’s Training Schemes. Financial aid from the Council supported the Rape Crisis Centre. The Collective includes women from local Black and Asian communities who design their own events. The Festival continues to encourage women’s diverse cultural, trade union and political presentations. CAROL STAVRIS IS THE COmmUnIST PARTy’S WOmEn’S ORGAnISER