TT |

5
|

ae Bem mee

John Williamson
LONDON

No equal pay for
women with Labor govt

ESPITE the commitment in
its Election Manifesto to
bring about equal pay for

Women, the Labor Government
has just announced that “equal
pay for women was not possible

in Present economic circumstan-
ces,”?

The employers and the Tories
have always opposed such legis-
lation. To this day Britain has
never ratified the Convention
100 of the International Labor
Office on this vital question.

The T.U.C. has paid lip ser-
Vice to equal pay for women but
little real fight has been made
for it. Back in 1888 the T.U.C.
first passed a resolution for
qual pay for men and women

doing the same work.”

But in 1967 the T.U.C. could
Still say “Congress deplores the
low earnings of many women
Workers and notes that the gap
between men’s and women’s pay
1S Increasing.”

After 80 years, 1,750,000 out
of a total of nearly 9 million
Women in the labor force, re-
ceive equal pay. These include
teachers and civil servants in the
non-manual grades and bus con-
ductresses in industry. This was

Won through militant struggle

based, on a high level of trade
union organization.

The year 1968 marks the 50th
anniversary of the women win-
hing the right to vote in Britain.
But the scandal of so-called “‘wo-
men’s jobs” and “women’s rates”
for the job remains.

The Observer quotes a Gov-
€tnment-sponsored report, on
Women at work, that is to be
Made public in the New Year,
4s stating that more than half
Of Britain’s working women earn
less than 60 cents an hour and
Only 4 percent of these can ex-

The ministers of the interior
Of the West German provinces
€nnounced on October 12th that
It would be perfectly legal for a
new Communist Party to be
formed in West Germany with
its old name and its old mem-
bers; but it would have to have

ifferent aims.

: A spokesman said: “It is per-
€ctly clear that the Communist
Pen. was banned in 1956 by the
€deral Constitutional Court be-

pect to ever earn as much as
$1.20 an hour.

At least 3.5 million women
do a full week’s work of 40 to
42 hours for half a week’s man’s
wages. Another 1.5 million,

Industry

Metal Manufacture

All manufacturing industries
Food, drink & tobacco
Textiles

Transport & Communication
Retail Food Distribution

Administrative, Technical and Clerical

mainly in the distribution indus-
tries, earn 50 to 70 percent of
the male wage.

Some typical examples of
weekly earnings for 1967 fol-

low:

Here we see graphically how
this outrageous form of super
exploitation, based on _ sex,
takes place. Entire departments
within certain factories, where
men and women do exactly the
same work for unequal pay, get
reclassified as “women's jobs”
and an all-women crew get the
lower pay.

Clearly the employers use this
large sector of low pay ‘women
labor to keep down the general
level of all wages.

Many of the working women
are married and have’ children.-
Two out of every three working
wives had full-time jobs and
half of them had children. More
than 2.5 million children had
working mothers and two out of
five had mothers who worked
full time. :

As the extent of poverty in
Britain widens—1 out of 7 are
admittedly living in poverty—
more and more women with
children must take jobs. The
absence of nursery schools for
children is another burning is-
sue.

Communists
ooo if not Re

cause its aims were anti-consti-
tutional, and.that any successor
party with the same aims would
be banned. But if a new Com-
munist Party were to be formed
tomorrow, even with the old
members and under the same
name then it could only be ban-
ned if its aims and the activities
of its members were obviously
anti-constitutional.”
Commenting on this delphic
announcement, the Central Com-

Plot to spread the war.

A WIRE TO THE PRIME MINISTER
_ United States government reportedly considering ex-
tending its South East Asian aggression to Cambodia. No
Pretext about “right of hot pursuit” can conceal fact this
Would be new very dangerous escalation threatening peace
_ 9f Asia and world, and further gross violation of Geneva
Agreements Canada is committed to uphold. In view of
‘Qrave reservations you have already expressed urge Cana-
i now join with other countries to jointly condemn this

Central Executive Committee, —
Communist Party of Canada

Today the one-seventh of the
population living in poverty are
the elderly, the chronically ill,
disabled, the unemployed, the low
paid, the large families with
children below working age, the

Average Male Average Female

Wage Wage
$51.88 $23.88
50.36 24.48
48 24
44,76 24.80
49.08 33.36
24.72 18.48
63.96 3,.13

fatherless families and a large
proportion of immigrant fami-
lies.

The consequences of devalu-
ation, with its already soaring
rents, (70 percent increase in
rents in Greater London hous-
ing projects), higher prices, in-
creased taxes and holding down
of wages all intensify the suffer-
ing amongst working women
and the 7.5. million people liv-
ing in poverty.

The Labor Government, while
rejecting its own pledges on
equal pay for women workers,
establishes another of the never-
ending list of commissions “to
study the cost” of equal pay for
women for different sectors of
industry. A

The Communist Party calls
for united action of men and
women workers to implement
the T.U.C. resolution and this
should be seen as part of the
fight against the Government’s
income policy.

It also demands the Govern-
ment should ratify the I.L.O.
Convention 100 and as an em-
ployer, take the initiative to es-
tablish the principle of equal pay

for women in all nationalized in-

dustries.

mittee of the banned Communist
Party stated: “The ministers of
the interior obviously wish to
hinder the growing strength of
the movement for a cancellation
of the ban on the Communist
Party. The ministers of the in-
terior apparently wish to tackle
the problem by allewing the for-
mation of a party which would
be a Communist Party in name
only as an answer to the critic-
isms made both at home and
abroad. The only fit solution,
however, must be the removal
of the ban from the Communist
Party, which continues to exist
under conditions of illegality.
The Communist Party in the
Federal Republic fights against
militarism and revanchism, op-
poses the Emergency Laws as
part. of its struggle for the de-
fence of the constitution which
is being destroyed by the Fed-
eral Government, and supports

a normalization of relations be-~
_tween_the two German, states. . |

These aims are all constitufion-
al.”

INDIA

Increase seen
in popular
struggle

By Y. GOTTLOBER and
Y. SHTYKANOV

HE END of November wit-

nessed events on the Indian
scene which further complicated
the situation and introduced
more changes in the political
alignments. Government chang-
es took place almost simutlane-
ously in West Bengal and Pun-
jab, and in Haryana state presi-
dential rule was introduced.

Regarding~the Haryana situa-
tion, it will be remembered that
the Congress government form-
ed after last February’s general
election fell when a group of
legislative assembly members
left the Congress camp to join
the opposition, and was succeed-
ed by a government formed by
the Haryana and Jan Sangh par-
ties. But this government too
proved short-lived, due, accord-
ing to the state governor, to its
inability to muster stable sup-
port in ‘the assembly in view of
the frequent shifting of assem-
bly members from one party to
another.

Such defections have litterly
become rather. common among
Indian bourgeois politicians, who
often see in this a way to jockey
themselves into cushy govern-
ment jobs. The Hindustan Times
has called them “political cham-
elons.” Just before the ousting
of the latest Haryana govern-
ment a group of Vishal Haryana
members and one Jan Sangh fol-
lower went over to the side of
the Congress.

In Punjab the general election
resulted in the forming of a gov-
ernment consisting of several
parties in opposition to the Con-
gress, including the Communists.
On November 22, however, 17
members of the legislative as-
sembly left the government coa-
lition and founded a new local
party, the Punjab Janta (Peo-
ple’s Party). The coalition gov-
ernment had.to resign, and the
leader of the new party, to whom
the local Congress organization
had pledged its support, was
asked to form a new Cabinet.

The tensest situation of all
developed in West Bengal, where
the state governor dismissed the
United Left Front government
on November 21. In response to
a call issued by a number of
political parties and trade unions,
a two-day general strike was
held in the state in protest
against this undemocratic move.
Demonstrators and police clash-
ed in the streets of Calcutta, the
administrative centre of West
Bengal. Casualties were report-
ed.

The Calcutta events were pre-
ceded by prolonged machinations
against the United Left Front
government, which included the
Communists. The government,
formed after the telling victory
of the United Left Front in the
February elections, was headed
by Ajoy Mukherjee, the leader
of the local Bangla Congress
founded by former national Con-
gress followers. The defection
from the Front of Food and Ag-
riculture Minister P.C. Ghosh and
17 of his supporters in tht as-
sembly was a stab in the back
for the. government., When this
happened, the state governor in-

cation of the legislative assem-
bly in order to ascertain the new
alignment of political forces. The
United Left Front rejected the
demand as untimely inasmuch
as the harvest season had not
ended and the government was
in duty bound to concentrate on
the problem of food procure-
ments. The Front government
was anxious to build up ample
grain reserves to take care of
the state’s requirements for the
coming year. The Left parties
believed that effective steps in
this direction would heighten the
government’s_ prestige. This,
however, was the last thing de-
sired by those who had long
sought to oust the bloc of 14
Left and democratic parties
from power. The Mukherjee Ca-
binet proposed convening the
legislative assembly in mid-De-
cember but at that point the
governor ordered its dismissal.

The governor motivated his
decision by the “need to put an
end to the period of uncertainty
and instability in the state.” The
same day, November 21, P. C.
Ghosh, who literally the day
before had headed the new poli-
tical grouping calling itself “The
Progressive Democratic Front,”
was sworn in as Chief Minister.
The inaugural ceremony was per-
formed in’such haste that he had
time to name only two Minis-
ters.

Members of the legislative as-
sembly from the Congress and
other parties formerly in the op-
position have announced their
support of the new government.
The leaders of the parties and
organizations affiliated with the
United Left Front have portested
against the dismissal of the
Mukherjee government as illegal
and have refused to recognize
the Ghosh Cabinet. The Commu-
nist Party of India has condemn-
ed the actions of the West Ben-
gal governor. 2

The Indian press notes that
the feudal elements and monop-
olies opposed to the ‘progressive
reforms effected by the United
Left Front had a@ and in the
ousting of the Mukherjee gov-
ernment. The journal Link ob-
served that the feudal and big
business interests had formed
an alliance with the Ghosh group
and “received full support from
the vested interests in the Con-
gress.” The journal also points
to the fact that the group which
split the United Left Front
emerged as an organization after
the West Bengal government
had announced “its decision to
amend the Land Reforms Act in
order to give relief to the poorer
sections of the peasantry, main-
ly the share-croppers.”

Indian political observers re-
gard the dismissal of the United
Left Front government in West
Bengal and the introduction of
presidential rule in Haryana as
an indication that the Indian Na-
tional Congress is out to restore
some of its lost positions..

The latest changes in the In-
dian state governments can
hardly be expected to ease poli-
tical tensions in India. The strug-
gle is being increasingly joined
not only by political parties, but
by the people at large, as is evi-
dent, among other things, from

sisted in the immediate=convd+* ‘the events ‘in West-Béngal. »(

JANUARY 5, 1968—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 9 *

ie Re

a NS nan a