On Friday, March 13th, the two of us decided to go along to the Raleigh anti~strike wives! meeting, which had boon so blatantly advert~ ivening Post, Apart from the more obvious reasow for going, such as to find out how many people attended the meeting, we wore also interested to seo what sort of women attended and whether or not they had any political leanings, or evon any cloamcut political ideas.
So; flashing wedding rings and explaining that our hsubands had been laid-off, we got into tho meeting, hold in the hallway of a local church hall. It was not well attended (18 women, including us and the reporter), or formal in any way. Women constantly interrupted each other, and we formed the opinion that they might have been friends prior to the striko, . Handley, tho leader was the only one with anything like initiativo. Sample Dialgouc: ‘"Hore'’s the Queen's letter if anyono * wants to soe it." Squeals of delight. “Oh, yes. She must have received it the . day she had the baby."
In view of the amount of publicity accorded these women by tho ° local press, we were struck by the inefficiont, rather p.thetic nature of this group, and by their unreasoned foar of the A..U.,