meeting on 2 June, to return to work. ditons they have returned remains unclear.
When the offer was originally made to Chrysler's 26,000 workers throughout the country it was accompanied by a strong threat from Peter Griffiths, industrial relations director, that if it was not accepted Chrysler workers would be "looking at a rather bleak future, with major changes in the size and structure of the company. In other words, if the workers took the money they also had to accept the rest of the deal scrapping plant bargaining and introducing worker participation'.
For Chrysler, worker participation is seen as the key to a radical increase in productivity, meaning speed-up and sackings. to get it accepted they even offered two additional £50 lump sums. The three week-old strike by 4,000 production workers at Chrysler's Stoke, Coventry plant is over. On 4 June a mass meeting accepted a stewards' recommendation, passed by 71 to 50 at a stewards But on quite what conrejected by the mass meeting along with the £100 carrot. Moreover, the company s t8 a week final' offer has only been accepted by the strikers as an interim offer - the exact sum they were after ards have made it clear that they will continue their campaign for f15 from The principle of national negotiations - which the workers fear would lead to the Ford-style negotiations which have allowed Ford pay rates to fall behind those of other car workers - has also been turned down. In fact Linwood stewards have rejected the same £8 offer because it does not give enough money towards parity to improve terms through local and national discussions.
return reflects the scepticism that struggle has simply been the first ler management to get national neg- and the shop stewal rationalisation of its plants.
mittee for all Chrysler workers -which would link up with other car sackings, and keep the whole workforce geared up for struggle through regular mass meetings on their negnany and ta worrand At the 4 June meeting Transport & General Workers Union convenor Bob Morris claimed that they hoped The large number of stewards who voted against a some of them hold about this promise But it is obvious that the Stoke battle in the war launched by Chrysotiations as the first step to a nationThe establishment of a fighting national shop stewards combine comworkers also facing speed-up and mass otiations and proposals - can defeat Chrysler's plans in the trial of strength which is developing between the com ...or this ?
What is the National Abortion Campaign?
The National Abortion Campaign has on it representatives from the International Marxist Group, the Communist Party, the International Socialists, the League for Socialist Action, the National Assembly of Women, the National Union of Students, the Women's Abortion and Contraception Campaign (WACC), and a series of women's groups.
When the James White Bill amending the 1967 Abortion Act was presented, there were a number of different ideas on how to fight it, reflected in various organisations. There were the women Labour MPs. There was the Women's Right to Choose Campaign, a section of the Abortion Law Reform Association (ALRA). There was WACC. And of course there was the general women's movement.
The National Abortion Campaign was set up to go beyond the particular aims of each of these organisations. At the same time NAC has set itself the job of bringing them all together in a united campaign against the White Bill.
The aim of NAC has been to launch a national campaign against restrictive legislation on abortion and to fight for the right of women to choose. In the last four months, by turning the campaign towards the organised labour movement, the basis has been laid The activities of NAC inside the labour movement have led to a whole series of resolutions being passed opposing the Bill. Many of these resolutions have also taken up the demand for free abortion on demand.
The 21 June demonstration is mobilising support simply on the basis of opposition to restrictive legislation. But what has become RI the IMG clear to many people who first supported the campaign solely on the lines of opposition to the White Bill is that the 1967 Abortion Act is also restrictive and does not give women the right to choose.
NAC is against all restrictive legislation on abortion. It does not however have an official position of support for free abortion on demand. Many of its supporters - myself included - - do of course support the right of women to free abortion on demand. The basis of the continuing struggle on this matter will be discussed at a national conference which NAC is organising this autumn.
Why should the workers' movement support NAC?
Women form an oppressed section within both the working class and society as a whole. The fight against capitalism does not simply take place on the wages front but has to be concerned with all the oppression and exploitation which capitalism inflicts.
Inside the workers' movement there are three main positions on this issue. Firstly there are those who say that matters like abortion are private questions and not the concern of the labour movement.' Then there are those who say, 'yes, it is the responsibility of the working class, but women will only be free under socialism." This type of thinking ignores issues like abortion and falls into the trap of thinking that male workers can act on behalf of women.
My position - and that of the IMG - is that women have to learn to fight for their own liberation. the struggle to control their own fertility this brings them into conflict with capitalism. Of course that does not mean that they automatically draw anti-capitalist conclusions. However, if the socialist movement supports them in this fight the divisions between.men and women can be broken down and millions of women can be won over to socialism.
By taking up the fight against the abortion laws and giving its full support to women's right to choose the workers movement can strengthen the overall struggle against capitalism. Capitalism offers women nothing red weekly 12 june 1975 As the build-up for the 21 June demonstration gathers even greater support, Red Weekly interviews LINDA SMITH, a militant activist in the National Abortion Campaign. Linda is a member of NAC's Steering Committee and is also a member of movement think class question.
By involving themselves in More than 500 people marched in Manchester last Saturday against the White Bill better than a future of unplanned and unwanted pregnancies - its alternative is the butchery of the back-street abortion.
Capitalism tries to restrict the scope of women's lives and attempts to strengthen the family as a means of doing this. This is not a moral issue, as some people in the labour - it is a class question. Just as the struggle for women's liberation is a The labour movement, in its own interests, must support the resolution passed at the Women's TUC in March which called for free contraception and abortion on demand provided by the National Health Service.
What does this mean in practice?
Women should not have to bear the cost of the crisis of social expenditure. It is not their responsibility that capitalism cannot function either efficiently or humanely. Cap Can Demea italism is trying to cut back on the social services. It does not want to spend money on what it calls private and individual questions. The labour movement must fight these attacks.
It should therefore take up the struggle for NO RETURN ABORILA out-patients' abortion facilities at all hospitals. It means insisting that medical people who are not doctors are trained to carry out abortions. It means full and adequate education about contraception and abortion in schools Local authorities should wage a massive campaign on contraception and abortion facilities. These were the recommendations made by the Lane Committee which spent three years studying the workings of the 1967 Act. The Lane Committee reported back to Parliament stressing that above all else the existing Act should not be restricted It is time the labour movement took seriously its own promises and took up these questions in International Womens' Year.
We need to have workers' inquiries set up throughout the unions. These should find out the needs of women workers and produce concrete plans on how these needs Through the women officers in the unions and by the use of women's committees and women's caucuses, a direction can be given to the entire trade union movement on how to put into practice the policy of free contraception and abortion on demand
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free contraception and abortion
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