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opposed, so this task was left up to individual militants who attended the meeting.
In stark contrast to the jamborees being organised by the official trade union leadership are the meetings conTerences and pickets organised in Jocal areas by trade unionists, student unions and women's groups around the demands of the Charter. This has given a firm basis for building a national campaign. In some areas work around the Charter developed in the first instance by setting up support committees for women workers on strike against low pay or for equal pay - both demands of the Charter.
### NATIONAL RALLY
In Manchester a national rally was organised for women workers on strike for equal pay at Salford Electrical Instruments. Since then some of these women have become active in the Charter organising committee in Rochdale. Similarly, in north London, the Brent Charter Campaign supported women workers locked out at Hoovers, and the women said they were interested in joining the campaign once their dispute was over. In other cases, the Charter Campaign organising committees themselves launched local campaigns around particular demands in the Charter. The planned nursery campaign in Birmingham is a case in point.
### PRECONDITION
It is these sort of actions which will guarantee the success of the Charter campaign. The importance of the Charter is not that it is some perfect document, totally detailing every aspect of the oppression of women workers. Of course we need full discussion about these demands, to clarify why and how we fight for them. But the writing of the perfect document" is not a precondition for organising action around the dem -ands. Rather we should see the Charter as a weapon, a springboard with which we can begin to help organising. the fight of women at work both inside and outside the home.
In a period of deepening social crisis the trade union bureaucracy will try to keep the lid on these developments. They will attempt to accommodate the activity of working women by passing paper resolutions. We can exploit these token gestures of the bureaucracy to develop the campaign inside the unions. But this means preparing the groundwork carefully at the base of the trade unions. It is no good trying to get a Trades Council or trade union executive to adopt the Charter if we haven't first got the support of the membership In London, an effort was made to build this kind of support by organising a meeting on the Charter at a large architectural firm employing several hundred women. Although the meeting itself only attracted 20 people, it provided the initial impetus for a nursery campaign which has since been planned. The Charter campaign has also been active in supporting existing women's groups struggles such as that launched by the Essex Road Women's Centre to keep open Liverpool Road Hospital in north London. This hospital caters particularly for the medical care of women.
It is through the development of more actions of the type outlined in this article, actions which begin to win the support of the organised strength of the working class, upon which the success of the Charter campaign depends.