WOMEN
ACTION

By NAN McDONALD
A RECENT _ CROSS-
“CANADA SURVEY of the
§0vernment’s appointed
Status of Women Committees
and Councils finds that Cana-
dian women concerned with
€quality in legislation will wait
Some time before it really hap-
pens, because governments in
this country move slowly. But
if we have a long time to wait it
1S not only because of govern-
Ment inaction. For as the sur-
vey of the Status of Women
Committees show, these wo- ‘
men themselves have along way to goin their own understanding
of what equality is all about. : :
| THESE WOMEN ARE SO FRUSTRATED that in Hamilton,
- Ont. their chairman has recently resigned and they are consider-
ing disbanding the-committee. They can’t understand why they
are not making very substantial progress. However, the reasons
are really very simple. They haven’t made any progress because
they have set themselves objectives so vague such as “encourag-
- ing women to participate in all aspects of society that the
Struggle for women’s, equality is reduced ‘to the level of a tea
Party.

* OK OK

- ANOTHER ONTARIO WOMAN and former chairman of that

-Province’s Status of Women Committee, Laura Sabia, showed
her commitment to women’s equality by quitting her post. Her
Teason, as stated in the Globe and Mail of Oct. 22, 1976, is in
effect that the government had not yet emancipated women. On
the other hand we who have chosen to stay in the fight bid Lauraa
glad farewell. We won’t miss her regressive proposals such as the
Complete withdrawal of the family allowance program to Cana-
dian families.
OTHER STATUS OF WOMEN councils across the country are
Not yet threatening to throw in the towel, but neither are they
championing the cause of women. In Saskatchewan the main
issue seems to be sexism in advertising while in Alberta some
Well-heeled women spent $75,000 last year ona ‘information and
referral agency’’. After.10 years 0 ‘‘informing”’ and referring
their director bemoans the fact that men are still traditional in
their ideas about women. Perhaps it is because her committee has
Never done anything to change the situation. ae
THE ONLY GLIMMER of hope from the Status of Women
Councils seems to come from Winniipes where they report that
they are hard at work and are addressing themselves to the
question of women in the work place.

* * *

WOMEN’S EQUALITY will never be won.through middle class
- Status of Women’s Councils that consistently avoid the basic
questions of equal’ pay for work of equal value, universal access

to free daycare facilities, consultative health centres for mother

and child, and most of all for the complete withdrawal! of wage

Controls.

IN SHARP CONTRAST to the survey of

Councils would be a survey of provincial fe

conventions across Canada. At these conventions both men a

Women will debate the real issues, the class issues, for genuine

equality of women.

THE LABOR MOVEMENT will show that they are not about to

quit, and in fact will show that this is only the beginning. Perhaps

the women of these very same Status of Women Councils could
find some inspiration themselves by attending one of these labor

Conventions.

“Status of Women
deration of labor
and

The real issues in the fight for women’s equality must Comme
from the labor movement.

Seca

Peace, détente, coo
among people of al

TORONTO — Finland is a
prime example of the benefits de-

‘rived by countries as a result of

the increasing influence of détente
between the capitalist and social-
ist systems, a Finnish member of
parliament said in a public ad-
dress here, October 24.

Mrs. Mirjam Vire-Tuominen,

MPandalso secretary of the Finn-

ish Peace Committee, stressed
the importance of the campaign
for disarmament -in furthering
détente and developing mutually
valuable relations. :
“The struggle for disarma-
ment,’’ she declared, ‘‘ is in-
separably linked with the every-
day struggles of the people — the
struggle for national indepen-
dence, development, the fight
against inflation, high prices and

taxes, for a solution to cultural

and education problems ...”’

She spoke of the Stockholm
Appeal and the Finnish Peace
movement’s collection of 860,000
signatures on it, but she dealt too
with U.S.-Soviet agreements
which limit the arms race, and the
positve influence of the Soviet
Union’s peace program.’

European Security

A major contribution toward
growing détente, she said, was
the Conference for Security and
Cooperation in Europe held in
Helsinki in 1975. She reminded
listeners that the Final Act of that
Conference, of which Canada
was a Signatory, ‘‘concerned the
principles of peaceful co-exis-
tence, the equal rights and
sovereignty of every state.

‘All peace forces need to de-
mand the full and complete im-
plementation of the Final Act,”’
she added.

In her own country, said Mrs.
Tuominen, they were now reap-
ing the benefits of good relations
and agreements on trade and
scientific and cultural’ exchanges
with the Soviet Union. For 20
years before World War Two,
well-organized anti-Sovietism
was spread widely through the
media and official channels. The
spreading of facts about the
USSR ‘‘ was punishable as a
crime.”

Normalized post-war relations,
based on treaties of peace, friend-
ship and cooperation had brought
‘*trade and economic cooperation
on the basis of mutual advantage
(which) means to us important
employment and economic de-
velopment,”’ she said.

These conditions the speaker
indicated, ‘“‘have increased the
possibility of our small country
(4,000,000 population) being
heard in international forums.”
Never before did Finland have
the opportunity to be host for
such gatherings for peace and
cooperation. It is because of the
policy of peaceful co-existence,
that Finland has achieved its pre-
sent stature, she said. | :

Arms Race Impedes

Mrs. Tuominen charged that
the NATO generals, reactionary
circles

“‘backed by the military-

industrial complex’’ are using the _

myth of a Soviet threat “‘to in-
crease military spending y
That is very old cold-war prop-
aganda, she said. ?

She praised the agreements so
far reached between the USA and
the USSR, saying that this step-
by-step negotiation was neces-
sary.. But there was work for all
peace-oriented people to do also.

secretary of the Peace Council.

‘‘All the biggest political parties

and important mass organizations

-of Finland participated in the pre- .

parations”’ for the recent (Sept. )
World Conference to End the
Arms Race, for Disarmament and
Détente held in Helsinki. It was
opened by Finland’s president,
Urhu Kekkonnen. There were de-
legations from 90 countries, in-
cluding Canada, and from 52
international organizations. Its
documentation’ showed these
facts, Mrs. Tuominen reported:
The arms race impedes de-
velopment of economic coopera-
tion between East and West. It
aggravates deep differences be-
tween industrial and developing
countries. While not armament
producers, in developing coun-
tries ‘‘the growth of arms expen-
ditures ... is eight times faster
than in other countries, and four
times greater than the growth of
their per capita national product.
It capitalist lands, the arms race is
a major source of inflation and
negative balance of payments.
Disarmament would benefit the

people in all systems — socialist, .

capitalist and developing. ‘‘Re-
search done in the USA and Eng-
land confirms that only 3% to 4%
of manpower needs to be re-
trained’’ for non-military jobs.
Concrete Program

The round table on trade

unions there recommended to all

countries to accept the principle: .

Put all military budgets below the
level of the social welfare budget,
(as is the case in the USSR).
Speaking on the Soviet peace
program, the Finnish parliamen-
tarian pointed out that ‘‘it is the
Soviet Union which has continu-
ally presented new initiatives and
drafts of treaties for banning

weapons of mass destruction, for ©

disarmament, for refraining from

‘| Canada, the Manitoba Federa-

eration
nations

Mrs. Mirjam Vire-Tuominen is a member of the Finnish Parliament and

the use of force in international
relations, and for simultaneous
dissolution of the NATO and the
Warsaw Pact.’’

The Soviet Union’s Finnish —

neighbors can readily see, Mrs.
Tuominen told her audience, that
the ‘‘Soviet Union needs peace
for the gigantic socialist construc-
tion of that vast country.’’ The
peace program, adopted by the
25th Congress of the Soviet
Communist Party, she said, is a
very concrete program aimed at
achieving peace, détente and
international cooperation.

_MFL backs |
peace appeal

Jumping the gun on provin-
cial labor federations across

tion of Labor has become the
first to endorse the Stockholm
Appeal for ending the arms
race. A motion to this effect had
been referred to the executive
board, which decided in favor.

The newly-elected president
of the MFL, Nels Thibault, ad-
ded his own signature to the
Appeal while attending the
Saskatchewan. Federation of
Labor Convention.

Saskatchewan premier, Al-
lan Blakeney, and his minister |
of social services, Herman
Rolfes, have also signed the
Appeal, joining with federal
New Democratic Party leader,
Ed Broadbent in so doing.

The Appeal is circulating on
all continents, and in Canada
has acquired more than
200,000 individual signatures
and endorsements of organiza-
tions representing 800,000. Col-
lecting of signatures and en--
dorsements will go on into the
spring of 1977.

in many countries, .

Solidarity with apartheid victims
‘The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) —

has called on all working people of the world to
strengthen solidarity with victims of apartheid by tak-

ing concrete actions. The statement expresses sup-
port for UN General Assembly resolutions which eondemn the
genocidal apartheid policy of the Vorster regime in South Africa
and recoginze the legitimacy of the liberation struggle against the
Vorster regime. The WFTU expressed its solidarity with the
peoples and liberation movements of South Africa, Namibia and
Zimbabwe, the peoples of Angola and Mozambique.

It declared that arms shipments to the Vorster regime must
be halted, and economic and other cooperation with it must be
ended. The WF TU urged working people and their trade unions to
put such demands to their governments.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOVEMBER 26, 1976—Page 9