Getting it wrong on May 24

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SOCIALIST WORKER of April 30 carries an article criticising the May 24 women's day of action. A lot of the points SW makes have some validity, but their conclusion is wrong.

"It is possible that in a few places ... there will be some response to the May 24 call, Socialist Workers Party members will back such activity, just as we back any demonstration against the Bomb." I.e. the SWP will not positively campaign for SW puts three arguments. First, and most important, is the inadequate - "Strikes are a much more powerful form of action than demonstration. But they are also much harder to organise."

SW goes on to argue that "an all-out sustained strike" could arise only from a general revolutionary upsurge, not from a simple call from antiwar activists on the single issue of peace. True enough, but not very relevant, since no-one is suggesting that May 24 strikers should stay out May 24 will be a protest strike, and no less worthwhile for that. But SW correctly points out, "even that can only be successful on the basis of a massive amount of propaganda and agitation. Look at the massive number of delegations and pickets that had to be sent out by hospital workers last year in order to get solidarity from other workers."

It's true that with longer and better preparation - so that, for example, the various official labour movement statements of support had been got in time for rank and file activists to really use them - May 24 could have been a bigger success. It won't now be a general strike, or But isn't this almost inevitable for a first attempt? Why can't we make the best of it, and learn lessons for the future - make the contacts between peace campaigners and experienced trade unionists that will perSecond, SW argues that "those behind the women's day of action have not made the links between the question of the Bomb and the other questions worrying millions of workers - jobs, living standards, the cuts This is not true. The Greenham women have long been making such political links. On June 6 they blockaded the Stock Exchange, on September 22 they sent a contingent on the NHS pay demo with a banner saying. 'Hospitals not Holocaust', they demonstrated against. the Falklands Victory Parade, and they have made links with Lucas AeroThe East Midlands leaflet for May 24 says: "By withdrawing our labour ... we will make a powerful statement about our opposition to all weapons of mass destruction, whilst at the same time drawing the links between low pay, unemployment, the cuts and the increasing amounts of And in Haringey, north London, to take another example, women will be holding a rally outside the threatened Prince of Wales hospital specifically to make a link between the Bomb and cuts.

On the other hand, SW's attitude has often been not simply to try to link the fight against the Bomb with the working class economic struggle, but to dissolve it into that struggle. Repeatedly in SW there has been the suggestion that the Bomb is an effete middle ciass issue, while the real working class issues are jobs and wages. (The highpoint has been a letter from a SWP supporter saying that the Greenham women are just concerned about the effects of nuclear war on "their middle class lifestyles" . So working class people aren't bothered about the effects of a SW also criticises May 24 for being a women's day of action, just as it has criticised previous specific women's events organised by the Greenham women. This will cut across working class support, says SW.

But the Greenham women have had more impact among working class women that SW (or SO) has ever had. May 24 is an effort to turn that "Are women workers to strike while men workers go in ... Or are opponents of the Bomb supposed to try and picket out both men and women? If so, why call it a 'women's day of action'?"

The Greenha' women have explained: "Men are asked to take supportive strike ar tio. and to organise creches in workplaces, and look after the children at hore, so that women can be free to take action". Yes, this way of putting it may well make it more difficult to get men out.

But the Greenham women wanted a day on which women would take the lead. Hasn't their success so far shown that this sort of action is a The Greenham women start from a cal! for all women - unwaged and maged - to take action on the 24th, and propose strikes in this context. This is different from the usual trade unionists' approach to industrial action. But that doesn't make May 24 a matter, as SW puts it, "that workers are simply one group alongside others to be won in support of a CND is a channel for rallying working class support behind a middle cass movement as long as and in so far as it remains focussed on UN disarmament sessions, petitions to government, and general appeals to the conscience of the world. But the Greenham women have decisively May 24 is a further move towards an active anti-Bomb women and the working class. Socialists should support it.

Advisory Committee, Labour CND, CND National Committee and NALGO are the main bodies offering support for the May 24 women all out for disarmament' It is an international women's day of opposition to nuclear May 24.

weapons (women in 25 other countries are supporting it), and preparation for May 24. the call came from Greenham in January.

Women everywhere in paid employment, in unpaid domestic work at home, and at college are being urged to take action against the bomb. Women are in the foreindefinitely. front of the struggles against cruise and the new call for action is a logical extension.

So what's going on and where?

The national May 24 Coordinating Committee has issued an action pack and has managed to establish regional contacts in most areas of the country. Women's centres, local union, branches, anything like that. Labour Party women's sections and councils are initiating action.

mit better planning next time? NALGO NALGO Equal Opportunities Committee is supporting the and so forth."

event. NALGO has issued posters Making links calling 'women all out for peace' Although NALGO is not officially supporting strike action, the leadership will 'consider' requests for " strike action from local branches. • Several branches, including Haringey, Brent, Ealing and space shop stewards. Southwark have applied. NALGO members in the Labour Party have backed this by demanding their councils take no action against strikers. money being spent on nuclear weapons." So get your resolutions • to NALGO nationally now, calling for strike action.

In Scotland the May 24 organisers have planned a tour of factories with the slogan 'Jobs not Bombs. There is also to be à rally in Glasgow.

Similarly in Manchester there will be a factory tour. In Bury there will be a march to the Town Hall, and the plan is also to holocaust on their "life-style". ...?) petition and leaflet locals in the precinct. The Rochdale co-ordinating committee is planning similar activities, including leaflet in Urdu.

impact into action. War Museum There will be an all-London event starting at 6pm in Trafalgar Square, besides all the local events. In Haringey there will be rallies at Wood Green Shopping Centre and at the Prince of Wales Hospital. The aim here is to •a id element in the movement? directly link the action for disarmament with an ongoing fight at the hospital against closure.

Islington has organised - a picnic! This will be joined by a joint Camden/Islington demonmainly middle class movement." stration which starts at Kings Cross.

In Southwark, peace campaigners will march on the Imperial War Museum. stepped away from that focus. In Coventry both the women's centre and the Labour Party women's scction - are planning events. dic-in is scheduled The Nuclear Family paigns of women in the dis ament movement, they den ced it as 'separatist, divisive, towards such movements, then wresting power from the bosses and generals becomes more realis-