Women ask'What's in it for us?' Only socialism can lift burden of-housework Roots of male violence

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line, 'That is why I am a social- 1975 Judge Sutcliffe remarked ist'' didn't seem to fit too "It is well known that women in snugly with what she argued particular, and small boys, are According to popular myth the involves a degree of violence rapist is a Jekyll and Hyde which if it occurred in the character, a maniac, a beast. street could result in heavy LAST WEEK we carried a piece by Ken Livingstone calling for the labour movement to shift from the Alternative Economic Strategy (increased public spending, import controls, planning agreements, etc) to a much more radical approach.

Livingstone's call broke a long-standing consensus. It is the first time that a major figure outside the organised Marxist left has argued for a left alternative to the AES.

However, there has already been a strong criticism of the AES, if not an outright challenge to it - from many feminists in the labour movement. This criticism is summarised in a new pamphlet, "What's in it for us? Women and the AES', from the South East Region TUC.

In many ways the pamphlet is excellent. It is well-written, raises crucial issues, and its criticism of the AES are telling.

"If 'full employment' simply ELIZABETH Wilson, in her book 'What is to be done about Violence against Women" marshalls a great deal of evidence and provides us with much ammunition for smashing the cultural stereotypes in our society. The book, published by Penguin in association with the Socialist Society, is one from a new series of 'Crisis in the Eighties' issues.

She uses, almost exclusively, a feminist analysis, and i found it difficult to reconcile this with her plea at the end of the book for a "more socially cooperative" society. She locates rape, domestic violence, harassment at work, incest, etc., within a general understanding of women's oppression in which the source of men's power is seen to be patriarchy, made possible by the 'superior' social, political and economic power of men. Her penultimate means cutting down as far as possible the number of registered unemployed, it will not tackle the problem of women as the 'hidden unemployed' If Anita Prestor reviews the new Penguin book on violence women throughout her book.

However, she does explode many of the myths surrounding sexual violence. the 'full employment' goal is pursued without changing the way domestic work is shared between men and women, it could • reinforce existing inequalities...

And in public services: "the last thing women need is more of the same ...." Nurserybuilding has to come first rather than being an optional extra. Health and education services need remoulding to fit the needs of women.

As for new housing: will it "be designed with access not only to adequate child-care facilities but also to community laundries and restaurants, and with sate, easy access to shops, transport, play areas, etc? Will old housing stock be overhauled with similar aims in view? What kind of priority will be given to eliminating damp and improving cooking and homes faciities in individual Y abili tacilities in The pamphlet stresses Rapists such as these are atypical. Rapists are ordinary, their behaviour is indistinguishable from much of 'normal' male behaviour.

And what's more, it will be other 'normal' folk, largely men, who will decide whether a woman has been raped or not. An acquittal means there was no rape. The woman's actual experience is denied.

In what other crime is the 'victim' accused of having encouraged the crime? Is one encouraging muggers by carrying a handbag? As recently as liable to invent stories. " untruthful and Wife beating, still looked on as a music hall joke, often Youth Youth CND conference: July 2-3, UMIST Student Union, Manches ter. Open to YCND mem bers and to visitors. Delegates from YCND groups: 1 delegate per 4 members. Visitors must notify YCND office before conference. Registration fee £1.50 for visitors and delegates. that, "It is action now that's important." ''Women" • • points out, "are already taking action on issues seen as integral to any alternative economic strategy aimed at benefitting all working people" • It cites the NHS dispute, Lee Jeans, Piesseys, the Liverpool typists, and cuts struggles.

But how does "action now" link up with the overall strategic questions? That's not at all clear.

The pamphlet does make some links: shorter working hours as a central issue both in "action now" and strategically. "shorter working time shouldn't just be seen as a strategy for tackling unemployment. It is a precondition of genuine equality and the sharing out of unpaid as well as paid work"

It also talks about local "alternative plans" for public service prison sentences. "The family is a very violent place." Ms Wilson asks us to consider how we would feel if there were 40,000 victims of soccer hooliganism in London? But the estimated number of beaten women - 40,000 - produces very little indignation.

Elizabeth Wilson is highly critical of the conservative bias of many social workers using a 'family therapy' attempt to reconstruct the 'family' '. It is amazing, in a society where we can be sent to prison for a small social security fraud, that incest aggressors, who are a real danger to their families, are not.

Ms Wilson also charts historically the violence of pornography, the nature of sexual harassment at work, the parallels between prostitution and marriage, and the way that feminism has brought many horrors to light.

The silence is over. In the '50s and '60s there was a blanket denial that women were oppressed at all. More recently the taken-for-granted behaviour of men has meant a new leap into a new definition of the political. Men, faced with a challenge, in many instances showed what their true colours were, and replied with insults, anger and contempt.

Midway in the book she uses a quote from 'Shrew' , a quote that highlights the radical reappraisals that women engaged in the struggle are obliged to make.

"One has to deal with the uneasiness that comes with. shift of loyalties from one's husband or lover, maybe, to the group of women. The safety and reflected power that makes it comfortable to identify with one's oppressor has to be given up and strength found to identify with one's oppressed group and other oppressed groups." provision - though without mentioning the issue of opening the books of the relevant authorities, which should be part of that struggle.

But there is no mention of workers' control - which, surely, provided there is positive discrimination for women in the workers' committees exercising the control, can be a crucial bridge between immediate struggles and transforming society.

Instead, the pamphlet implicitly assumes that all its criticisms can be dealt with by tacking bits on to the AES or shifting priorities within it.

Despite the many important things it says about the between women and men wee , the pamphlet thus relies fundammentally (as the AES does) on reforming action from above by the thoroughly male-dominated captalist state machine.

The "shifting priorities" argument is actually quite dangerous. "Many unions have a strong commitment (in theory) to state, child care provision, but" , the pamphlet asks, "will this be carried through to the point where it is given priority over other forms of public spending?"

Whether nurseries or universities should be a priority might well be a real question in a socialist state. But the pamphlet operates entirely within the framework of the AES - i.e. of private profiteers owning and controlling crucial chunks of the economy. As long as those 1983 No 26 June Movement Labout campaign the women's Paper of for Women's Fightback Rights STOP TORY WITH HER?

JIMBOREHAN è 1983 Jim Borgman-Cincinnati Enquirer private profits continue, it is disastrous for the labour movement to get caught in arguing about one public service versus another, rather than about getting wealth out of the hands of the capitalists.

Essentially . the pamphlet assumes that the AES is fine for men and only needs adjusting to serve women as well. ;

But even if the AES were fine tor men, the issues of women's oppression are : sufficiently subversive to blow it to bits. In its opening pages the pamphlet shows clearly how women's unpaid labour in the home dovetails with their position as cheap and disposable wage-labour. But then it goes on to discuss ways to alleviate this system of domestic labour/wage labour, rather than to overthrow it.

The pamphlet does talk about the need for child-care provision and for "new services, such as community laundries restaurants, to ease the burden of domestic work" - but only as added priorities for the AES.

The socialisation of housework - for that's what's implied - cannot, however, be just another item of public spending in the AES. Its implications for the reorganisation of the economy and for capitalist control over wage labour are too far-reaching. It can only be won together with the ending of that capitalist control.

*'What's in it for us?' 30p plus postage from SERTUC, Congress House, Great Russell St., London WC1.

----- pull-quotes -----

WILL YOU BE TIDYING UP THE CABIN? HAVE THE CREW MEMBERS WHAT WILL YOU DO IN YOUR

I TOLD YOU WOMEN WERE TOO EMOTIONAL FOR THIS KIND OF WORK!