Pe ree nme eee

Militant women a
force for change

General secretary of the Com-
Munist Party, William Kashtan,
Speaking to a meeting of Toron-
to women, welcomed the upsurge
in the militant mass activity of
Canadian women for equality.
We must, he said, find ways to
help: this movement to be an
effective force for social. change
in Canada by bringing into it
the class character it doesn’t
have,

It’s a very real, vital part of
the growing demands of Cana-
dians for a change in their lives.

It is important to note that
Women in struggle are, them-
Selves, turning to Lenin’s works
to find answers to their prob-
lems, today, said Kashtan. That
indicates to. us the role the
Communist Party can play, arm-
€d with the science of Marxism-

ninism, which belongs to it.

He warned his audience that
the Trotskyites are trying to
assume control of this upsurge
among women and that, if they
did so, they would misdirect it.

He proposed that the Party
Should promote younger women
as spokesmen on the problems
Of women, for party women to
20 into the mass movements of
Women, and for a party pro-
gram of study to deepen the
€ntire party’s Leninist approach
to the woman question.

Elsie Beeching, chairman of
the Women’s Commission, said
the meeting had been called un-
der the pressure of the exciting
events of mass demonstrations
of women for equality. It is a
situation of which we ought to
be fully aware, which we should
Welcome and be participating in,
and which we should assist in
8iving leadership to.

Over several decades, she
said, the whole women’s move-
Ment has suffered from a bour-
Beois stifling. Now we have the
remarkable phenomenon, spark-
ed by the Women’s Liberation
Movement in the United States,
Which turned the 50th anniver-
sary of the struggle for the vote
for women, into something more
than a mere celebration.

Lenin quoted

In the spirit of that earlier
struggle, the young women of
today are dealing with prob-~
lems of inequality. The inequal-
ity and discrimination against
women has its roots in econo-
mic disparity, in the special ex-
ploitation of women by capital-
ism.

Changes have taken place
since the end of the Second
World War. Now a third of our
work force is women. Women
make up as much as 90% of
some industries. Any examina-
tion of the wages structure in-
dicates an appalling picture of
exploitation of women.

We have called his meeting,
she said, in order to strengthen
our ability to go into action for
changes. It is our responsibility
to direct the attention of the
party and progressive movement
as a whole, to dealing with these
issues. The women of today are
increasingly aware of their own
strength. Action is the key for
us — the need to take the lead-
ership of the Communists among
the masses.

Women, she said, are a very
militant and Vital part of all the
struggles today — on the eco-
nomic front, in the fight for
peace, in the struggle for social
reform, and in community af-
fairs.

Small numbers of women, in-
cluding women communist par-
ty members, have done work far
beyond their size. There is a
problem now of developing our
understanding of this problem
by updating our theory in close
alliance with active participa-
tion.

No group of. women in our
country are suffering the degree
endured by the Native Peoples,
whose women endure poverty
and humiliation every minute
of their lives.

Elsie Beeching announced that
the discussion of a program for
women would be held far and
wide, and that consideration
was being given to the publica-
tion of other materials.

Women us & USSR

In a special issue of the U.S:
Department of Labor’s Monthly
Labor Review (June) Edmund
Nash, an economist in the divi-
sion of Foreign Labor Condi-
tions, quotes from a recent book
of International Publishers. The
title is “The Woman Question”
and the U.S. economist quotes
V. I. Lenin, “The working wo-
men’s movement has for its
object the fight for the economic
and social, and not merely for-
mal, equality of women.”

The Nash article gives a
scholarly summary of the condi-
tions of working women in the
USSR. For example, it says that,
“For some time now women in
the Soviet Union have had more
than equal access to profession-
al and technical training.” It
notes that women constitute
about 52% of all college train-
ed specialists in the USSR,
about 70% of the medical doc-
tors and about 70% of teachers.

They make up about 64% of
the economists, 40% of the
agronomists and veterinarians,
31% of the engineers and 63%
of all specialists with secondary
school training.

By contrast, another article in
the same issue of Monthly Labor
Review by Elizabeth Waldman,
an economist in the Division of
Labor Force Statistics, Bureau
of Labor Statistics, reports that
in the USA the great majority
of working women are concen-
trated in relatively low-paying
occupations in which women
outnumber men—‘“domestic ser-
vice, teaching, clerical work,
nursing and retail sales.”

“One of the largest single oc-
cupational groups among women
today,” says Miss Waldman, “is
still the clerical one—stenogra-
phers, typists, secretaries — a
category that first gained prom-
jnence in the occupational dis-
tribution of women over half a
century ago. The broad category
of professional jobs is a notor-
ious example of a field divided
along sexual lines. Here, about
two-thirds of all women are em-
ployed as either nurses or teach-
ers, and even as teachers, most
women teach in the primary
grades, while most men teach in
high school.” (Economic Notes).

oo eT

YCL delegation visits USSR

By YEVGENI RUDKOVSKY
Novosti Press Agency

A group of six active members
of the Young Communist League
of Canada visited the Soviet
Union in August. They were
headed by Charles McFadden,
General Secretary of the League.
On their arrival in Moscow, the
young Canadians went to the
Anglo-Soviet Camp which has
been functioning under the aus-
pices of the USSR Committee of
Youth Organizations for the last
few years. This summer, the
camp was located in Rostov the
Great.

Besides Soviet and English
young people, a group of Ameri-
cans was also there.

“As soon as we learned of the
camp and the discussions held
there we decided to go at once,”
the only woman on the YCL dele-
gation, Karen McFadden, 28,
Secretary- Treasurer of Metro
YCL, said. “You will understand,
no doubt, that it is not often
that one may get a chance of
arguing in such a representative
company. And as for arguing, we
all like this, and then they
wouldn’t display so much re-
spect for me’as they do now,”
she said smilingly with a nad
in the direction of the politely
listening young men.

Since this year marks the
100th anniversary of the birth of
Lenin, the following subjects
were. chosen. for discussions:
“Lenin on the Role of Youth in
the Revolutionary Transforma-
tion of Society,” and “Lenin on
the Construction of Communist
Society.” According to camp
regulations, three hours a day
were devoted to discussions.

“The subjects were worth-
while and, of course, three hours
were not enough,” Peter Gehl
from Regina, Provincial Organi-
zer, YCL, Saskatchewan, joined
in. “Very often, our time was up
but we went on and on.”

But discussion was not all the
people in the camp did. They
also amused themselves and saw
the sights of the city famous
for its ancient architecture.

. “Before my visit to Russia,”
Claude Demers, Montreal, Presi-
dent YCL of Quebec, remarked,
“some 17th century houses in
Quebec did not amaze me in any
way except by their being so
old. I had no idea that ancient
architecture could be so beauti-
ful as the 16th century Rostov
Kremlin.”

Our photo shows the YCL delegation in Rostov. Left to right: Karen

After a week’s stay in the
camp, the Canadian delegation
went to Yaroslavl.

“It was one of the most signi-
ficant aspects of our tour,” said
Charles McFadden. ‘‘Yaroslavl is
obviously an industrial centre,
but it would not be recognizable
in Canada as such. We observed
Yaroslavl as a clean and beauti-
ful city with exceptional facili-
ties for recreation, culture and
sport. I thought it would be a
tremendous place -in which to
live and work. In contrast, indus-
trial centres in Canada, such as
Hamilton, are the least suitable
areas in which to live.”

The young Canadian YCL
delegation visited the Yaroslavl
Motor Works, .a major Soviet
maker of car engines and trac-
tor diesels.

“The comparison with Canada
is quite striking,” McFadden
said. “In the first place, the
hardest and most dangerous
work, that in the foundry of the
YMW, is the best paid with the
shortest hours and the longest
vacations, among other benefits.
It is just the opposite in Canada
—the most dangerous and hard-

_McFadden, Peter Gehl, Dave Frazer and Charles McFadden.

est work is frequently the poor-
est paying without any special
benefits.”

“Speaking of benefits,” Cary
Robson, Treasurer British Co-
lumbia YCL Provincial Commit-
tee, cut in, “Soviet children get
more’ than anybody else.” ©

The Canadian YCLers visited
the Young Pioneer Camp of Or-
dzhonikidze Tire Plant, in a pic-
turesque spot near Yaroslavl.

“Many of those in the camp
are about my age,” Cary went
on to say. “I was struck by the
very spirit of their relations, the
spirit: of sincerity, friendliness
and unclouded merriment.”

“That was like a children’s
planet,” Dave Fraser from Ed-
monton, Provincial Organizer
YCL, Alberta, recalled. “All chil-
dren live together in the camp
and every one of them enjoys all

the benefits, irrespective of who
his parents. are. The fee for the
camp accommodations is quite
insignificant and in the case of
parents with many children and
having difficulties in paying, the

children stay in the camp free.”

Daycare for ‘Peg women workers

WINNIPEG — A contract has
been signed between Manitoba’s
NDP government and Monarch
Wear of Canada to establish day
care to accommodate 40 to 50
children, aged two to six, whose
mothers have been engaged to
work in garment factories in
Winnipeg.

The centre will provide day
care, enabling unemployed moth-
ers on welfare and others to ac-
cept work. The garment industry,
which employs mostly women,
has been plagued with the prob-
lem of a stable labor force.

Day care should be subsidized

by the government and industry
so that it is a free service to all
working women. However, the
day-care scheme in Winnipeg
will charge $2 a day. The aim of
the government and industry is
simply to find a means of trying
to keep married women on the
job, at a cost which will take a
big chunk of their wages.

However, it marks an advance
in social legislation, and it is to
be hoped that it will become
well established across Canada.
It doesn’t, of course, deal with
the question of higher pay in
that industry, or any other.

The Manitoba government will

finance initial capital costs of ap-
proximately $20,000 and operat-
ing expenses. The garment com-
pany will support the program
with half the capital costs during
the first year and, at the end of
August 1971, if the project has
been judged, by all parties to the
contract, to be successful, the
company will assume full operat-
ing costs, and will reimburse the
government the full amount of
the capital costs.

The province’s department of
health will supervise and admin-
ister the centre. There will be
play rooms, study areas, and
wash rooms.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1970—PAGE 5