[page 2]
In South Vietnam, as in Cambodia, a national liberation struggle has just triumphed. It took the mobilisation of a whole population to defeat an enemy that was infinitely stronger materially. The active participation and autonomous organisation of women during the long hiWe demand the Ford Adminstration return all the Vietnamese children abducted to the United States of America and other countries to their parents and relatives so that they can live in their families and homeland as other children of the world.
The same US aircraft carriers and warships which once committed brutal crimes in Vietnam were sent back to assist the 'evacuation of the refugees": thousands of forced evacuees, including children, were drowned in 'shipwrecks", hundreds were shot dead by Thieu's men at the ports. On 5 April alone, 50 children died on ships of starvation, thirst and sunstroke...
We call on all women to condemn and check the perfidious schemes and criminal acts of the Ford administration and the Thieu junta, and to demand that they put an end to their scheme of abduction of Vietnamese children under the signboard 'human¡tarian evacuation'.
South Vietnamese Women's Union Liberation News Agency story of anti-imperialist struggle in Vietnam-evident in the South since 1930- will be revlewed in the next issue of Socialist Woman.
[page 3]
In spite of the Labour Government's commitment to International Women's Year-on paper at least! - few real steps have been taken to push forward the struggle for women's We are celebrating International Women's Year • ainst the backdrop of the serverest economic crisis since the 1930's. Following the Tory Government's attempts to deal with the crisis by directi confrontation with the workial responsibility and voluntary wages cuts instead of enforced ones. But now the social contract is not enough to meet the deepening crisis and there is talk of a return to incomes policies.
ATTACK ON LIVING STANDARDS An incomes policy will be a further attack on the living standards of the working class which must be met with a firm commitments from the entire workers' movement against such moves. The organisations of the working class are intact-no major defeats have been inflicted since the 1926 General Strike, the living standards of the working class are just beginning to fall once again since the Labour Government has come to power, and increasing numbers of men and women (the latter, in particular) are joining trade unions. However, the organisational strength of the working class which will be of utmost importance in the coming months, is not matched by a political clarity on a number of extremely important questions. Racism, national chauvinism, and sexism are all central questions on which there is a real backwardness amongst the working class.
It is around these questions that the ruling class will try to weaken the workers movement. Throughout this issue of Socialist Woman we have articles which reflect the extent of the crisis both on an economic level, as well as in terms of social relations. Low pay, cuts in social spending and strikes involving a male bread-winner all have a particular impact upon women and upon the stable funetioning of the family. The opening of battered women's refuges demonstrate the level of tensions and frustrations which are imprisoned within the family unit. But what is the response of the workers' movement to this situation?
DANGERS FROM LACK OF CLARITY The response of the stewards at the May Day Rally in Dublin (see article Report from Ireland, p.10) shows only too clearly the dangers which flow from the lack of political clarity within the working class. Traditionally, the labour movement has refused to take up "social' questions-like abortion and contraception, the battering of women and children, the provision of nursery facilities. All these questions are seen as 'individual problems which the Labour Government can deal with at best or which must be sorted out individually at worst. In maintaining this practice, the labour movement is opening up a flank to be utilised by reactionary forces! At a time of deep crisis, there will be continual attempts to draw the links between issues taken up by such groups as the Festival of Light, the nanti-pornography crusaders. and the numerous anti-abortion groups. The thread running through the propaganda of all these organisations is social stability-stability that will come ultimately through preserving such institutions as the Church, the family, and the bourgeois state. And this kind of stability rests upon the role of women tied to the family.
The campaign against James' Whites' Abortion (Amendment) Bill thus has a particular significance. The fact that a Labour MP has introduced it is exceedingly dangerous. It clouds over the class nature of the issue of abortion and has made it easier for the Labour Government to refuse to take a position on the Bill-treating it as a 'non-sectarThe fight in the National Abortion Campaign to gain the widest possible support for the 21 June demonstration (and for the aims of the campaign) has been successful to date. The list of sponsors for the 21 June demonstration is grow"ing daily and there are not insignificant trade union branches that have agreed to sponsor it.
For us, as socialists in the women's liberation movement, there are many special tasks. First, we must ensure that we build the campaign in such a way as to involve the broadest possible forces, drawing in not only those already organised, but also women who have never been active before. This means the types of actions we use to build the campaign must reach women who would otherwise remain isolated. The examples from the South London NAC group are worthy of following-street theatre on High Streets, leafletting markets, picketing hospitals and leafleting patlents as well as workers, etc.
### TASKS FOR SOCIALISTS
Second, we should try to use the campaign to develop confidence in ourselves and new women who will be joining the campaign. This means when we go to the labour movement for example, we should thoroughly motivate why we think it is important for them to elect women delegates to attend steering committee meetings, ete. (At the same time we should not bar the possibility of men participating in the organising committees the example of the National Union of Railwaymen branch in Manchester who passed a resolution against White's Bill should be dragged into the organising committees, if necessary). In waging this political fight in the trade unions, we bring to the fore a discussion about the traditional chauvinism which exists in the workers' movement. An integral part of ensuring that we, as women,emerge with confidence and ability to wage a strong fight on all fronts, is the encouragement of women's caucuses within unions, the development of women's groups in housing estates to campaign for particular needs, etc.
These are the concrete ways that the workers' movement will be clarified on the question of sexism, and will be armed against attempts to split the working class around questidns relating to the family.
In addition, as socialists we must have absolute political clarity in the campaign. In past issues of Socialist Woman we have pointed out the dangers of this lack of clarity-without an understanding that the starting point for this campaign must be the right of women to control their own bodies-their fertility and sexuality - both reactionaries and proabortion forces can line up to demand free abortion and contraception on demand.
FREE ABORTION ON DEMAND!
Of course, we must continue to put forward the demand for free abortion and contraception on demand. Women will never have the right to choose until this demand has been met. And in the context of the massive cuts,in NHS spending we must ensure that we fight against the de facto limitations that are already being imposed (through hospital closures which provide abortion facilities, for example) on the limited gains that were achieved under the 1967 Abortion Act.
In many cases, the basis for taking the question of abortion in to the trade unions, has already been laid by the Working Women's Charter Campaign. In many localities, much of the resources of the WWCC are being put into the question of abortion. If we can demonstrate in the Abortion Campaign how White's Bill can be used as a rallying point for forces dommitted to weakening the worker's movement, we can ensure that all attacks launched in the future are met by a united working class response.
[page 4]
Thu contribution below is the second in the series of articles on domestic labour. invitation is extended to the readership to participate in the debate. ROSA OCHTI examines the relationship netween imperialism and domestic labour. The editorial board wishes to make clear that the article below does not represent its views but feels that the contribution raises a number of interesting questions worthy of debate. All contributions recieved by the editorial board -taking up points raised in any of Domestic labour under international capitalism is just another factor by which the system tries to rationalise itself, to make its capital more productive. This process can be called the capitalist socialisation of domestic labour.
What this means is that the domestic labour carried out unpaid inside the famaly is separated from the family unit, and carried out outside of it by the State or private capital. The interest of this process to the bourgcoisie, tied to imperialism is paramount. As Jean Gardiner has argued, domestic labour is neither marginal nor outside capitalism, but directly integrated into it. Her work shows that housework is part of the total surplus value produced in the society, alongside productive surplus value.
in socialising domestic labour, the capitalist system releases women more effectively into the labour force, at least in the dominant countries: Taiwan, For mosa, India, etc. there is no socialisation of domestic labour. But in the dominant/dominated countries countries dominated by international capitalism (yet at the same time part of the chain of domination over the formationst surrounding such as Iraq (Kurds), Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, (colonisation of Amazon peoples), Algeria (Mali, Mauritania, joint ventures in SAHEL, patron of the ANE, FRELIMO, the future governments of possible new formations), Zaire (Angola, Brazzaville) etc. - there are other aims for the provision of creches, ete. But they are to spread capitalist relations among the dominant classes, without necessarily intending the women using them to work.
DOMINATED COUNTRIES The dominated countries provide the international bourgeoisie with an already reared workforced, Clearly the cost of importing workers in unthinkably cheap er than rearing from birth your own 'national children. Especiälly when internatjonal workers can be thrown out and with their families excluded from consuming or benefiting from the standard of living and services allowed" to the national workers. The women of the dominated countries are rearing the workforce of Europe. In emigration we should see not only the exploitation of the immigrant worker, but also the unpaid domestic labour of his family.
Domestic labour in the dominated countries of the world undergoes radical changes This is a debate which has been opened in the pages of Socialist Woman and an the articles in this series-will be considered.
as international capitalism and its national corporations penetrate these territories. The women of the dominated countries, in keeping home and raising the present and future workers of the dominant countries, are transferring their domestic labour into the heart of the metropolitan countries-be they isolated peasants or working class. This transfer must be seen as part of the unequal exchange that takes place inside the imperialist chain. The surplus value of the exploited immigrant workers is divided, always unequally, between the international bourgcoisie who exploit them and the government or bourgeoisie of their country of origin who accumulate from their wages (which) they are compelled to send home through government exchange rates and banking systems), Ireland's emigrants are its single biggest source of invisible revenue. Algeria's emigrant remittances are equal to its oil revenues!
The woman in the dominated countries, through her reproduction of labour power, is directly integrated into the exploitation in dominant countries.. obliged to stay at home while her husband emigrates, forced to export her children. Finance capital is well aware of the value of this domestic labour. They are relieved of the burden of reasing feeding, educating and nursing the labour force which they draw into the metropolis. The fact that they are 'aware' does ---not mean that they will destroy the different mode of production in which this domestic labour will take place.
In the dominated countries, two modes of production can exist, For example, matrarchy as a pre-capitalist mode and wage labour can co-exist. Finance capital will try to integrate these other modes without trying to destroy them...yet.
In Algeria, where a household can contain up to 20-30 people, or on a South African reservation, or in a commune, domes tic labour may be apparently communal or classiess, but that doesn't mean communalised or communist. These forms of pre-capitalist life-style present no contradiction to finance capital, which rips off the labour power produced in them just the same.
The technological developments of birth control are entirely dominated by the international capitalist system. This entials the bourgeoisie to control the rate of reproduction of labour power.
If we now-see the USA, the most powerful of international interests, pushing birth control on a world scale, we should not be surprised: under new productive forms of exploitation they no longer need masses of unskilled workers flooding into their European and other factories of the world...Irish to England.., Uruguayans to Buenos Aires.. Moroccans to Algeria... Algerians to France. With the present crisis of capitalism, the international bourgeoisie clearly doesn't need immigrant workers on the scale of the 60s. In fact, the present English Prevention of inside Britain, but could also on a wider scale dispose of its unwanted Irish workers who are suffering from the redundancles in the building trade.
### BOURGEOISIE
Although the international bourgeoisie is bombarding the dominated countries with birth control propaganda in the name of women's liberation, it is resisted - particularly by the Latin American proletariat.
Inside Europe, birth control and abortion are vigorously resisted by bourgeois interests (eg SPUC) despite demands from
[page 5]
working class women for control over their own bodies. These anti-abortion lobbies and religious fanatics are the national bourgeoisie opposing the international bourgeo isie and trying, usually unsuccessfully, to bring the working class along with it, This is perhaps just another side of the rise of neo-fascist ideology spouting motherhood and racial superiority. The glaring example is Sir Keith Joseph's recent speech on the "degeneration" of Britain caused by unmarried mothers, and his comments on Thatcher's election: "The values for which Mrs. Thatcher standsthe family, responsibility, work, and thrift- are shared across the nation'. The same with the struggle for abortion in France: demanded by working class wo men, refused by the Gaullistes, and legalised now that big monopoly capital is in power.
### ENGLAND
In England, as in other dominant coun tries immigrants and working class wom en have the same use for capital-cheap labour. When the needs of the economy dietate, immigrants are deported. In the same way, working women are pushed back into the home and their time filled with "home-making'. The Daily Mirror has run a series of articles this winter on How to Survive in 75 which include 'How to Bake Your Own Bread", "to Dig Your Own Compost Heap', etc.
The creation of home and home atmosphere' is central to the reproduction of labour power in the working class: there is no 'end to housework' (as has been said of Eastern Europe).
In middle class USA where the drudgery of housework has to some extent been abolished, the re-appearance of home-making becomes a new ideology. This bourgeois ideology (these new forms of home-making) is imposed on the working class and trans formed into work: -bourgeois-dig your own swimming pool; petty bourgeois-bake your own bread. It appears in commodity form as well, for sale to each class: G Plan furniture, Habitat homes, Brew Your Own Wine kits, etc.
The political manifestation of international capitalist domination over this area of peopie's lives is that, while the new "home ideology" is being sold to class which are in one way or another represented in the power bloc, a complete underdevelopment on a world scale hits the dispossessed. Dormitory cities, shanty towns, transit towns, caravan dwellers, and squatters all must survive alongside Ideal Homes. Their revolt is subversive and finance capital will crush it....
If the central contradiction of international capitalism is the tendency for the rate of profit to fall, forcing capital to be more and mote productive, the family will inevitably be socialised. And this socialisation will destroy the family as we know it.
Before the last World War, in England, 1 in 10 married women went out to work. Now it is 6 out of 10. The consumption of convenience foods" like TV dinners has increased 25% in the last 20 years; clothes that used to be made in the home are now made in factories; laundrettes are mushroomsery and playgroup provision for children under school age. All so that more women can go out to work.
### ALIENATION
But once put on the labour market, the alienation of women's work can be not so much a new factor of class struggle as another invitation to consume-and in unity with other working class housewives to sell commodities to her neighbours. The saleswoman selling to her friends on behalf of Avon, John Craig, Julian Hodge, or Redoute in France, pushes commodity relationships into the hidden interpersonal relationships of the working class itself.
Above all the ideology reproduced in the home-the families function as educator in bourgeois values-is breaking down. *...With the present crisis of capitalism, the international bourgeoisie clearly.
Children brought up in state institutions from their first year (nurseries) can be dir ectly indoctrinated.-Nurseries, schools, borstals, television, are taking over the families ideological function at the dominant end of the imperialist chain.
The socialisation of the family is producing certain contradictions for the statein the shape of "juvenile delinquents". soaring crime statistics, children in care, ete. These contradictions are inevitable.
### FAMILY
Capitalism needs the tamily as an instrument of ideological control.,.and its economic development destroys it.
It is not for us to oppose this break up of the family. We must on the contrary seize control of playgroups, nurseries, schools, laundrettes, and attack the denationalisation and desocialisation of these structures under crisis. The fight for a health service that truly serves the people (and against hospital clos ing; there has been an overall increase in nurser ures) is as important as the fight for control over the science and technology of birth planningOnly when housework is understood as part of the process of production-as domestic labour-can community and factory struggles be seen as part of the same struggle to fight capital's constant movement to screw more productivity out of every worker, in the home and out of it. This implies a certain conflict with those who advocate wages for housework, and lays greater emphasis on the fight for 'community control' in a class not reformist sense-in relation to domest-. ic labour.
We use the word formation rather than country to show that international capital has relationships which tie it to the ruling classes and capital which do not co-incide with geographical frontiers.
----- pull-quotes -----
ing class, the Labour Government's social contract attempts to do the same thing under the guise of reasonableness, soc-
Terrorism' Bill will neatly and conveniently dispose not only of unwanted opposition
8 p IMG Pamphlet doesn't need immigrant workers on the scale of the 60s.**