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proportions for the Catholic minority — reaching as much as 50 per cent in the Belfast ghettoes. But in the job creation scheme women have been heavily discriminated against. Out of 6,864 extra jobs provided in 1972, only 622 were for women. The Equal Pay Act as applied to the Six Counties is even weaker than in Britain, since it allows for separate women's grades, which is particularly accentuated by the high number of 'women only' jobs - the 20,000 women in the textile industry for example. Similarly the Sex Discrimination Act does not apply, nor does the 1967 Abortion Act, which means that it is practically
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in weakened the struggle for women's liberation in the framework of the fight against British imperialism.
BLOODY SUNDAY, DERRY, 1972 ITISH TROOPS MURDER 13 CIVILIANS. NEVER BE AT PEACE ned by the Peeds Thrsogh Frescom Cuiel., Bt Mayton Bl., London NP. impossible to get an abortion. Given the weakness of any socialist movement, and the collaboration of the trade unions with British imperialism, and the ascendancy of unionism, Catholicism has symbolised opposition to Unionism and this has strengthened the hold of the Church and its reactionary positions on abortion and contraception, together with its equally reactionary exaltation of women as the defenders of the family, with all its pacifist and anti-class connotations.
Subordinate In spite of the heroic involvement of women in the anti-imperialist struggle over the last eight years, their role has been firmly subordinate. The specific oppression of women in the Six Counties has not been challenged by the left, and there has been no systematic attempt at their organised integrations into the resistance. This has meant that they have been forced to suffer the imprisonment and killings of their friends and relatives and to face the raids and harassment of the army in the isolation of the home. In these conditions, and without an autonomous women's movement able to organise women against their oppression within the framework of an anti-imperialist position, it is little wonder that sections of Catholic women fall prey to the appeals of the Peace But has the 'Peace Movement' anything to offer women? Its central slogan is "Peace' — at any price. A peace on these lines will mean the strengthening of everything which has made the lives of women in the Six Counties intolerable. This is clear in the language of the Movement — the rosary and the hymnal -which aims to split women from 'politics' (the left), while bringing them onto the streets to defend peace, the family, and traditional values (the right). Unlike the Women Together, an earlier 1971 version of the current movement, the latter takes up no demands relating to women. Instead in the world of Mairead Corrigan in a speech in Derry, the movement must be strengthened by winning the support of strong men (the army?) to help win the struggle against violence. Just as it aims to organise women into sujugation to the church, so it directs them to an alliance with the Army and RUC as the defenders of peace. But peace for the Army and RUC means the elimination of the IRA. The phone number of the 'Peace Movement" is constantly advertised on Belfast Radio, with an encouragement to people to give information to the "Peace Movement' about violent offences. The result, according to army official information, is that there has been an increase in arrests as a result of anonymous tip-offs. No Ambiguity The role of the "peace Movement" is to capitalise on the exhaustion and demoralisation of broad sections of the Catholic minority. The refusal or inability of the anti-imperialist forces to organise women actively and fight on issues facing women, together with the lack of an autonomous women's sections of smashing the IRA.
But already there are signs that its support among those women is being eroded. The consequence of the "Peace Movement", the greater harassment by the Army of the Catholic ghettoes has led to a renewed resistance. In October a preojected peace march in the Falls Road was pre-empted by a massive turnout organised by the Provisional Sinn Fein. More recently the establishment of a no-go area in the Turf Lodge area has been achieved through the mass involvement of women in the area, who have used the 'Peace Movement's "whistle' technique to a good purpose — to mobilise for the occupation of the streets against the army.
The lessons, however, from the success of the "Peace Movement" must be liberation in Ireland which takes the anti-imperialist struggle as its starting point. learned,and the vital task begun of developing a movement for women's Here in Britain, we should not allow the 'Peace Movement" to retain any credibility. For sections of the women's movement and the left to be ambiguous over the character of the "Peace Movement' is to aid the repression of the minority in the Six Counties, and the deepening of oppression which the women of the minority are facing. To defend women's liberation in Ireland, the women's movement in Britain must campaign to expose the 'Peace Movement', and give active support to the 'Peace Through Freedom' Committees. Similarly in Britain, the fight for women's liberation demands that we take sides, because behind the "peace" supporters in Britain are those forces most active in attacking the rights of women - SPUC, Lord Longford, and the Church.
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tribution has an exciting richness of see their book as an intervention into Women's Movement politics, though rather differently from the way that I have suggested. Admitting that the
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its ranks and how that has, reality.