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p In our day and age working women in capitalist countries constitute an inalienable part of the anti-monopoly, anti-imperialist movement. The example of the socialist countries where the 166 equal rights of women^have been guaranteed and conditions enabling them to exercise these rights created inspire women in capitalist countries to intensify the struggle for their economic, social and political rights. This struggle is developing in the difficult conditions of state-monopoly capitalism.

p “State-monopoly development,” states the Resolution of the 24th Congress of the CPSU on the Report of the CPSU Central Committee, "results in an aggravation of all the contradictions of capitalism, and in a rise of the antimonopoly struggle. The leading force in this struggle is the working class, which is increasingly becoming a force rallying all the working sections of the population. The large-scale actions by the working class and the working masses herald fresh battles which could lead to fundamental social changes, to the establishment of the power of the working class in alliance with the other sections of the working people."  [166•1 

p Working women who together with the other working-class people are coming out in defence of their economic rights, for peace and international detente, for democracy and social progress constitute the leading force of the democratic women’s movement in advanced capitalist counries with specific features stemming from the historical development, cultural traditions and present-day economic and political situation of each country.

p Western Europe occupies a place of its own in the world working-class and general democratic movement owing to the historical role of the working class and working women of the West 167 European countries in the revolutionary and mass democratic movements on the continent in modern and contemporary history. The West European proletariat has a developed class consciousness, and long-standing fighting traditions accumulated in the course of class battles.

p The working-class and mass democratic movement in West European countries has covered a long and arduous path and the part women have played in it can hardly be overestimated. In this connection it is appropriate to recall the names of some glorious women of the French Revolution of 1789, among them Olympe de Gouge, author of the Declaration of the Rights of the Woman and Citizen, and the actress Theroigne de Mericourt. The latter was prominent chiefly in the first stage of the revolution, while Claire Lacombe, Lucile Desmoulins, and Elisabeth Lebas are connected with its Jacobinic period. They were ordinary French women who shared the ideas of the extreme Left-wing political movements.

p In the 19th century the struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie unfolded chiefly in Europe’s industrial countries. Women fought on the barricades of the 1848 Revolution in France, Germany and Austro-Hungary. The women’s movement of that period began to acquire a class character because capitalist production could not develop without the exploitation of women workers.

p Having become cognisant of their class interests, women began to establish their first workers’ organisations. In France, for example, they set it]) a number of trade unions in that period. Women played their part in the Risorgimento, a liberation movement in Italy in the middle of 168 the 19th century which was of a bourgeois democratic character and was aimed at unifying and liberating feudal Italy. The dauntless Anita, friend and associate of the legendary Giuseppe Garibaldi, lost her life fighting fearlessly for the freedom and independence of the Italian people.

p Working women who fought selflessly to safeguard the gains of the Paris Commune in 1871 inscribed a vivid page into the history of the international working-class movement. Women’s committees which played an important role during the rule of the world’s first workers’ government were headed not only by French women such as the teacher Louise Michel, but also by many foreign revolutionaries, including Russian women Y. L. Dmitrieva, A. V. KorvinKrukovskaya, Y. G. Barteneva and others.

p The women’s movement in the European countries received great impetus from the Great October Socialist Revolution. Working women from France, England, Germany, Italy, Norway and other European countries took part in defending the world’s first socialist state against the aggression of foreign interventionists.

p Many women perished in the grim and unequal fight for the victory of the proletarian revolutions in Germany and Hungary. V. I. Lenin spoke very highly of the outstanding German Communist Rosa Luxemburg who together with Karl Liebknecht gave her life for the cause of the socialist revolution. "...She was—and remains for us—an eagle. And not only will Communists all over the world cherish her memory, but her biography and her complete works ... will serve as useful manuals for training many generations of Communists all over the world."  [168•1 

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p Aware of the threat inherent in fascism which was rearing its head in some European countries in the 1930s, progressive women joined the antifascist struggle in an effort to prevent the reactionary forces from coming to power. The World Congress of Women held in Paris in August 1934 set up the International Women’s Committee Against War and Fascism. More than a thousand women—workers, housewives, intellectuals, office employees, peasants, businesswomen, students, women with and without party affiliations—took part in its work. They represented the broad united front of women fighting against fascism and war. Support for the Congress was expressed by such prominent personalities as Maxim Gorky, Henri Barhusse, Remain Rolland and Paul Langevin.

p The Congress called upon the women of all countries to come out against fascism and war, support the liberation struggle of the colonial and oppressed peoples, uphold democratic freedoms and fight for the complete emancipation of women.

p The International Women’s Committee worked hard to draw women of all ages with the most diverse political and religious convictions into the common struggle in support of republican Spain, and the fight against fascism both in Germany and elsewhere. On its initiative the first women’s delegations were sent to the USSR to establish contacts with Soviet women.

p The International Women’s Committee which functioned until September 1939 was something in the nature of a training centre for women who played an active part in the Resistance and later in the peace fighters’ movement and the democratic women’s movement.

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p In the period from 1930 to 1939 women antifascists in European countries joined the International Brigade which fought on the side of the Spanish Republic in its war against fascist aggression. The glorious daughters of the Spanish people headed by the legendary Passionaria—Dolores Ibarruri—with the support of women from other countries were in the vanguard of the fighters against the Franco regime and German fascism.

p During the Second World War working people led by Communist Parties mounted an antifascist Resistance movement in the occupied countries not only to win national liberation, but also to attain the social emancipation of the working people in countries such as France and Italy. Women took part in this movement together with men. They joined partisan detachments, became messengers, nurses, scouts, supplied the partisans with food and medicines, sheltered the wounded and fugitives from fascist concentration camps. Women employed at factories took part in organising and carrying out acts of sabotage which crippled the output of production intended for the fascists.

p In the course of the Second World War hundreds of thousands of women in European countries lost their lives in battles against the occupying forces or perished in fascist jails and concentration camps. The world will never forget the names of Danielle Casanova, Berthie Albrecht of France, Juliette Herman and Gilbert Voorms of Belgium, Elektra Apostolu and Lilli Koula of Greece, Maria Teresa Gulacci, Irma Bandiera, Anna Maria Enriquez of Italy and many other women who died for the freedom and happiness of their peoples.

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p The forces of democracy and peace with the Soviet Union in the lead achieved a world historic victory over the forces of reaction and war; nazi Germany capitulated on May 8, 1945. Men and women, with the tragic lessons of the past fresh in their minds, pledged to do everything in their power to prevent a repetition of fascism’s horrible crimes. In 1945 women, former inmates of nazi concentration camps and heroines of the Resistance, appealed to the women of the world to unite against oppression, poverty and war, and build a future where progress, freedom, justice and peace would reign.

p The cohesion of women’s democratic forces in the Second World W"ar became the basis for their unification on an international scale in the postwar period. As early as the end of 1945 women’s democratic organisations, which subsequently united in the Women’s International Democratic Federation, were established in some W^Test European countries on the basis of antifascist women’s committees and groups. They were the Union of Belgian Women (now Association of Belgian Women for Peace and Welfare), the All-Greek Federation of Women, the Union of Spanish Women, the Union of Italian Women, the Union of the Women of Luxemburg, the Union of French Women and other organisations which consistently pursue the course which had been charted in the years of the Second World War.

p As they fought against fascism and for the social emancipation of the working people in the period of the Resistance, the women of W^Test European countries at the same time fought for genuinely democratic constitutions ensuring 172 women equal rights with the men. And this struggle yielded results. Many of the democratic rights and freedoms now enjoyed by working women in West European countries were won precisely in the course of the anti-fascist struggle which was led by Communist and Workers’ Parties.

p The main problems now facing the working women in West European countries are of a socioeconomic nature: full employment of women, creation of conditions for women to receive general and vocational education in keeping with the requirements of the scientific and technological revolution, equal pay for equal work, reduction of working time, effective labour and mother-and-child protection, assistance in child upbringing, creation of requisite conditions enabling women to combine professional activity with their family duties. The community of the demands put forward by West European women in defence of their vital interests is due to the similarity of the conditions in which the women’s movement is developing in their countries although each of them has its specific problems.

p In Britain there has been a considerable increase in the scope of the movement to end wage discrimination against women. A vivid demonstration of their resolve to win their cause was the strike of women employed at the Ford factories in June 1968. The reason for the strike was that their tariff rates were 85 per cent of the men’s and that the factory management employed a lower grade scale for women workers. The strike was officially supported by the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers and the National Union of Vehicle Builders. Secretary 173 of State for Employment and Productivity Barbara Castle appointed a commission of inquiry. For the first time in Britain’s history the demand for equal pay for equal work developed into a national issue.

p As a result of the strike an agreement was reached at the Ford factories to have the tariff rates for women raised from 85 to 92 per cent of that of the men. But the struggle for equal wages continued. There were strikes at three Rolls-Royce factories which ended when the women’s tariff rates were raised from 75 to 83 per cent of that of the men. After that there was a strike of women workers of the Brook Motors in Yorkshire, and they too, had their wages increased by 27 shillings a week.

p With the participation of 50 women’s organisations the British Human Rights Committee convened a conference to discuss equality in payment for work. It adopted a resolution which not only touched upon women’s wages but also other questions, including greater opportunities to receive vocational training, the establishment of social insurance for housewives, abolition of discrimination against women in the field of civil rights and other issues.

p The campaign for equal pay for equal work developed into a struggle to end all and any discrimination against women. In June 1973, several hundred women on behalf of a large number of organisations in Britain in letters to the Prime Minister demanded the adoption of legislation outlawing any discrimination against women without which the law on equal pay would be nothing but fiction.

p In the FRG women become the first victims of mass dismissals in industrial enterprises and 174 firms. At the end of 1973 the women’s committee of the workers of the chemical, paper and ceramics industry representing more than 110,000 working women launched a campaign in protest against the arbitrariness of the monopolies and continuously rising prices and for better working conditions. In many towns women came out in protest against the hoisting of prices on meat and meat products. In Dortmund, Duisburg, Diisseldorf and other towns housewives boycotted some shops for their exorbitant prices and thus drew the attention of the public to the matter.

p The general trend in Belgium in the past few years has been the folding up of the national economy and its growing dependence on foreign capital, and dismissal of workers, particularly women, who as a rule are employed in unskilled and auxiliary jobs. The struggle to end discrimination against women in getting jobs and their inequality in wages and for the provision of adequate opportunities for women to receive professional training is on the agenda of the working-class and women’s movement in Belgium, which has been on the rise since the 12-week strike of women workers at munitions factories in Herstal in 1966. At the time they established a strike committee and with the support of the trade unions got the administration to comply with their demands. Many women’s organisations in the south of Belgium and Flanders joined the committee which is functioning to this day. It concentrates on fighting discrimination against women and for the extension of their participation in the country’s political and social affairs. In the vanguard of the struggle for women’s rights are members of the Belgium Front for the Emancipation of Women and the mass 175 women’s organisation Alliance of Belgian Women for Peace and Welfare which is a member of the Women’s International Democratic Federation.

p In France working women have always displayed militancy and at times genuine heroism in the fight against the monopolies and for the extension of the democratic freedoms of the working class. Three of the eight people who were killed by the police during the anti-fascist demonstration on February 8, 1962 were women, members of the General Confederation of Labour.

p Launched in 1965 by the Communist Party, trade union and women’s organisations, the campaign for a 40-hour working week for women, with two days off and no cut in pay was conducted with the extensive support of French women. The working people enthusiastically welcomed the slogan "Give women time to live!" Under the impact of this movement collective agreements envisaging gradual reduction of the working week for women first with a partial and then full compensation for the working hours, have been signed at a fairly large number of enterprises.

p Backed by the working men, the working women of France are fighting against rising prices, unemployment and for better working conditions. At the end of 1973, workers at Renault factory in Le Mans stopped work for 90-120 minutes on several occasions in support of demands to put an end to discrimination against women. On their part women took an active part in the march on Besancon, a demonstration of a hundred thousand people in support of the demands of the workers and office employees of the Lip watch factory who over a period of several months fought against 176 the closure of the factory and mass layoffs, better working conditions and higher wages.

p A prominent role in mobilising French women to fight for their rights is played by the Union of French Women, a mass democratic organisation. Working in concert with the General Confederation of Labour and other progressive organisations it consistently upholds demands for lower taxes and prices on consumer goods, introduction of a sliding wage scale, increase in family allowances, full employment of women, fair remuneration and labour protection for women.

p Signed in 1972 by Communists, socialists and Left-wing radicals the agreement on the joint Programme for a Democratic Government of Popular Unity states that the democratic government will create conditions enabling women to advance in their work and will promote the participation of women in the country’s economic, social, cultural and political life. For this purpose steps will be taken to accord and guarantee women equal rights in pay, professional training and employment. In view of the twofold social function of working mothers, the Programme envisages a reduction of their working time, extension of the system of public services and children’s institutions and also special measures such as the lengthening of maternity leave to 16 weeks with full pay, paid leave for mothers to care for a sick child and so forth.

p In Italy, too, the postwar period has been marked by an upsurge of the anti-monopoly struggle in which the working women and the entire Italian working class achieved considerable gains. Experience shows that unity of action is of decisive importance for the victory 177 of the working women. A concrete example of this unity is the cooperation of women’s organisations of the most diverse trends. On the initiative of the Union of Italian Women a Committee for Equal Pay embracing a number of women’s organisations was set up.  [177•1  Eventually this Committee became a permanent agency to coordinate and guide the joint struggle of women’s organisations in Italy for the emancipation of women, full employment of women, creation of conditions for their vocational education, assistance to working mothers, institution of a pension scheme for housewives, admittance of women to government service and various professions from which they had been barred, the inclusion of more women into the lists of candidates nominated for election, etc.

p Thanks to their effective cooperation and unity, women’s organisations in Italy have made considerable headway in narrowing the wage gap between them and men. In some cases they even managed to win equal pay with men and achieved the adoption of laws prohibiting the dismissal of women in the event of their marrying, allowing them to work in courts for juvenile criminals, on the protection of the labour of people who work at home, on admitting women to responsible posts in judicial organs, government offices and the diplomatic service and a law on the grounds for divorce.

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p The women of Italy demonstrated a high level of consciousness in the May 12, 1974 Referendum which was to determine the fate of the already adopted law on the grounds for divorce. If this law had been revoked, which the most reactionary elements hoped to achieve, it would have meant a return to the old, outmoded morality. Women who constituted the majority of the electorate voted in favour of the law.

p The women’s organisations of Italy are fighting for women’s rights in close contact with various trade unions  [178•1  which also act in a single front in the struggle for the interests of the women.

p The main objective of the movement for the emancipation of women in Italy, as Communist Senator Marisa Rodano declared at the Eighth Congress of the Union of Italian Women which took place from November 1 to 3, 1968 in Rome is "full, free and competent inclusion of female labour into the modern production process, in other words, the implementation of the right of women to work”. Priority which is being given to this problem is due to the fact that as a result of a considerable fall in production in Italy there has been a sharp decline in female employment. Unemployed women provide a permanent source of unskilled labour power for the monopolies which use them to sustain favourable market conditions and intensify the exploitation of the working people. Therefore the struggle for full employment of female labour is an important aspect of both the economic and sociopolitical struggle against capitalism.

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p The active involvement of increasing numbers of women in the struggle for social progress formed a notable feature of the internal political situation within the United States of America during the 1960s and 1970s. Together with other radical democratic movements, the women’s movement emerged as the result of the intensification of American imperialism’s fundamental contradictions.

p From the mid-1960s, the fight of women for equal rights and the elimination of all forms of discrimination took on the proportions of a mass movement. An important indication of the growing role of women in the struggle for essential rights is the part they are taking in the workers’ and, above all, the strike movement. Women participated in the long struggle of the California:! agricultural workers between 1965 and 1970, in the strike by "General Electric’ workers in 1969 and in mass action taken by civil servants, teachers, shop assistants, etc Their demands included equal pay for equal work, equal opportunities for promotion, the introduction of essential measures to protect mothers and the establishment of a network of pro-school children’s centres, financed by the government. The actions of women workers demonstrate their determination to attain equality in the field of labour relations.

p However, the women’s struggle would have been more effective had their militancy met with matching support from labour union organisations. But the reactionary leadership of the country’s largest trade union association, the American Federation of Labour-Congress of Industrial Organisations (AFL-CIO), has shown an utter disregard of the needs of working women. 180 Throughout the history of the Federation, nol one woman has been elected to its Executive Committee. At the 8th Congress of the AFL-CIO in 1969 only 18 of the 894 delegates were women, although some 90 per cent of women trade unionists belong to this organisation. The leadership of national and international trade unions includes only an insignificant number of women. At the end of the 1960s there were a total of 24 women among the country’s 1,200 labour union leaders.

p Special resolutions are adopted at every AFLCIO Congress demanding equality of women in the labour market and indicating the necessity for broader involvement of women workers in trade union activity. However, no practical steps to implement these resolutions are taken by the Federation. As a result, American women have to fight on two fronts: in society, for recognition of their right to fill any job, and in the trade unions, for the right to equal participation with men in union activities.

p Many trade union organisations do not regard defence of the rights of working women as their function. In concluding collective agreements their leaders do not demand recognition of the principle of equal pay, the creation of adequate working conditions for women or the adoption of measures to protect mothers. The conclusion of separate collective agreements for men and women, with the resultant wage-rate differentials and limitations on the employment of women is still sometimes practised.

p In face of this situation in the mass workers’ organisations, American women are forced to conduct a determined struggle to bring about changes in the attitude taken by the majority of unions towards the protection of their rights. 181 Clear and positive changes in this area have taken place in the 1970s. The demand for equal participation of women in trade unions and similar organisations occupied a prominent place on the agenda of a conference of rank-and-file American trade unionists, which was held, contrary to the desires of the AFL-CIO leadership, in Chicago in June, 1970. The conference approved a special resolution on equal rights for women in the field of labour relations and also expressed itself in favour of equal opportunities for women in employment, promotion and vocational training, six-months’ maternity leave with retention of seniority and full pay and of the establishment throughout the country of public children’s centres. The resolution laid special emphasis on the necessity for giving women the right to hold any labour union position.

p Creation of the Coalition of Women Trade Unionists marked an important new step towards organising American women workers in the struggle for equal rights. At its conference held in Chicago in March, 1974, 3,000 delegates representing 58 industrial unions called upon all trade unions in the country to redouble their efforts to draw working women into the ranks of the organised labour movement. Participants in the meeting emphasised that unions must undertake practical measures to ensure that equality in pay, hiring practices, grading of workers and promotion became a reality.

p Various American women’s organisations are taking part in the struggle to implement the right to work free of any discrimination, eliminate barriers in political and civic life and upgrade the role of women in society.

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p The women’s movement in the USA has longstanding traditions. Many women’s organisations were formed in the last century and have, in the intervening period, accumulated valuable experience in working with women from different sections of society. The general upsurge in the struggle of women has led to the birth of a number of organisations whose recent emergence has not prevented them from exercising a definite influence and authority. More than 100 different women’s organisations are presently functioning in the country, with individual memberships ranging from a few dozen to several million people. The political spectrum covered by women’s organisations is also wide, extending from extreme right to democratic ones.

p Characteristic of the women’s movement in the 1960s was the broadening of its social base. As participation by working-class women grew, so, too, did middle-class representation in the movement rise.

p In 1968 the Women’s Liberation Movement, representing a coalition of ideologically distinct groups, came into existence in the USA. Its participants support equal opportunities for women in education, in employment practices and in trade unions and other organisations. The biggest and most influential of the groups forming the coalition is the National Organisation for Women, which was formed in 1966. Its programme demands that talk of equality be abandoned in favour of immediate granting of equal rights to women in all fields, above all in their choice of occupation and in promotion.

p The Women’s Liberation Movement initiated the mass strike by women across the country 183 which took place on August 26, 1970. This became a truly national day of protest. The strikers’ main demands included the elimination of discrimination against women in employment practices, practical implementation of the principle of equal pay for equal work and the development of a network of pre-school children’s centres. American women do not confine their activities to the field of economic struggle. Their demands also include the extension of political rights, which is the goal the National Women’s Political Caucus, founded in 1971, has set itself. The printed materials of its first national congress in 1973 contained condemnations of the government’s social policy and the reductions made in budgetary expenditure on social needs as well as a call for struggle against rising prices and the increase in the cost of living.

p Black women are playing an increasingly prominent role in the US women’s movement. Class and social oppression intensified by racial discrimination make their position especially difficult and stimulate the development of class consciousness among them.

p The women who came together in 1966 in the National Welfare Rights Organisation declare as their aim the just distribution of wealth. The organisation draws the majority of its members from black women living in city ghettoes and rural areas and has 350 branches across the country. It speaks on behalf of millions of Americans, including children, the elderly, those unable to work, mothers burdened with large families and unable to find places for their children in children’s centres in order to free themselves for a job and those who cannot find work. People in all these categories live on 184 meagre welfare benefits insufficient to maintain them even at the official poverty level. The members of this organisation demand that poor people receive an income, in the form of wages or benefits, guaranteeing them a basic minimum living standard. People are poor or are living on benefits not through any fault of their own but because the country’s economic system is not functioning correctly, states the programme of the National Welfare Rights Organisation.

p Despite significant bourgeois influence, democratic forces within the women’s movement in the USA have developed and increased in strength in recent years, while cooperation and links among various women’s organisations in practical aspects of the struggle for equal rights have broadened and consolidated. This led to proposals at the beginning of the 1970s for the establishment of a national centre to co-ordinate the activities of all women’s organisations in the country.

p Intensification of the women’s struggle for equal rights has had an effect on the social policy of the US government. A number of laws defending women’s rights have been adopted under pressure from the women’s movement and as a result of the broad support the movement has received among the public. The most important of these are the Equal Pay Act of 1963, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the resolution of 1967, in accordance with which the government can dissolve agreements with any firm or organisation infringing upon women’s rights.

p However, adoption of these laws has limited injustice only on the juridical level. A hard struggle to put them into practice and establish 185 genuine equality between men and women in the labour market still lies ahead. Its success will be in part conditioned by a higher level of organisation of the working class and the broader involvement in the struggle of all strata of the working people.

p Broad sections of Japanese women play an energetic part in all action taken by the Japanese working class at individual enterprises, over entire industries and on a national scale. Working women not only put forward their own specifk’ demands relating to improvement in working conditions, vocational training and living conditions, but also confer special features on the revolutionary struggle of the working class, which leave a deep imprint on such traditional forms of the class struggle as strikes and street demonstrations. Japanese women regularly participate in the annual “spring” and "autumn offensives" for improved pay and working conditions.

p The strike at the Miike mines represented an important landmark in the history of the Japanese workers’ movement. On November 9, 1963, the greatest underground catastrophe the Japanese coal industry had ever known occurred, killing 458 people and disabling hundreds more. When the mine administration announced that payment of benefits to those unable to work would cease, wives took the place of their husbands in the strikers’ ranks, themselves descending to the coal face and holding a sit-down strike there for four days. In January, 1968, 29 of them were forced to resort to the extreme method of a mass hunger strike, which lasted for 130 hours; the administration was forced to retreat. The strike by 4,000 workers of the Sumitomo cement plant 186 against the practice of firing married women was also an important event in the workers’ struggle.

p A characteristic feature of the Japanese workers’ movement is clearly seen in these actions, in that those taking part in them were not limited to the 30 per cent of working women who belong to trade unions or even to working women generally, but included housewives, struggling side by side with their husbands and their women friends employed in industry for the essential demands of the working people.

p A growing awareness of their own capacities and their increasing role in social and political life is typical of Japanese women and the Japanese women’s movement.

p Many different organisations operate within the Japanese women’s movement: their number has been placed at approximately 20,000. A large number indubitably play no essential role in the country’s political life.

p One of the most active bodies within the movement is the Federation of Japanese Women’s Organisations, which was formed in 1953 with the object of uniting all progressive women’s organisations in the country. The association now includes 14 national and local organisations with a total membership of some 300,000. It is the only women’s organisation to belong to the Women’s International Democratic Federation. The Federation of Japanese Women’s Organisations has been guided by the Communist Party of Japan since its formation. Its fundamental aims are protection of the life and rights of women, the happiness of children, peace and national independence.

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p The Congress of Japanese Women, which was founded in April, 1962, by a decision of the llth Congress of the Socialist Party of Japan, occupies a prominent place in the country’s democratic women’s movement. It has a membership of approximately 20,000. The Congress’s fundamental aims include active resistance to changes in the constitution and campaigning for the strict observance of its articles, defence of the vital interests of the people, the struggle for women’s rights and the happiness of children, for peace and the expansion of the democratic women’s front.

p Special mention must be made of the women’s divisions of trade unions, which operate in immediate contact with working women. Best known are the women’s divisions of trade unions belonging to the General Council of Trade Unions of Japan (SOHYO), which guides the work of approximately 1 million working women. The women’s division of the General Council functions as a headquarters for the women’s divisions of trade unions belonging to the council.

p The National Council of Housewives’ Societies, which is an independent organisation, is guided by the SOU YO. It was formed on the basis of an already existing organisation of housewives, connected with the mine-workers’ trade union, which had come into being in 1951 and which supported the strike campaign being conducted by the trade unions. However, the National Council’s sphere of activity soon broadened and its concerns now include setting up a variety of groups to upgrade the levels of general and political education of housewives, organising women’s actions to ensure the satisfaction of 188 their vital demands and carrying out campaigns in defence of their interests.

p The struggle of Japan’s working women is complicated by the fragmentation of their trade union movement. However, the General Council of Trade Unions of Japan, together with other central trade union bodies, is trying to organise a unified movement, aimed at solving problems common to all working women. Unified action is producing excellent results: for example, women workers belonging to the Japanese Federation of Synthetic Chemistry Workers’ Unions and the National Metal and Machine Trade Union of the General Council of Trade Unions have succeeded in wiping out the discrimination that formerly existed in determining the wages of newly-hired women. Under the direction of the General Council, women primary and secondary schoolteachers belonging to the Japan Teachers’ Union and women belonging to the National Council of Local and Municipal Government Workers’ Unions have obtained an increase in maternity leave.

p During each “spring” and "autumn offensive" working women hold a day of unified action, in which they protest against increasing consumer-goods prices and the rise in the cost of living and insist that their other just demands be met.

p The struggle conducted, day by day, by working women in the capitalist countries demonstrates that, under the conditions of state monopoly capitalism, only partial improvements in the position of women can be obtained. A radical change in women’s lives is possible only as the result of fundamental changes in society, the attainment of which is the aim of the communist parties in the capitalist countries.

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p The struggle by women in the developed capitalist countries for the solution of social and economic problems is inseparable from their struggle for peace and actions in support of peoples defending their freedom and independence.

p Immediately after the end of the Second World War, a broad campaign in defence of peace got under way in almost all the capitalist countries, in which a most active role was played by women. At the end of the 1940s women’s organisations began to collect signatures for a petition demanding reductions in armaments and the prohibition of atomic and all other weapons of mass destruction. The Union of Italian Women alone, which initiated this campaign, collected 3 million signatures, while the Union of French Women collected some 1 million declarations in its "peace notebooks”, in which Frenchwomen supported the aims of the petition. In Britain, women campaigning for peace called for international agreement on the control of atomic energy and the prohibition of any form of propaganda directed towards fomenting or preparing for war.

p In the struggle for peace women have not been acting in isolation. The women’s democratic movement has cooperated closely with the World Peace Movement since its establishment in April, 1949, and women’s organisations took an active part in collecting signatures for the Stockholm Appeal to ban the atomic weapons, the Appeal for the conclusion of a Peace Pact, between the great powers, the Vienna Appeal of the World Peace Council against the threat of atomic war, etc.

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p Women were in the 1’orei’ronl of the struggle to halt US military aggression in Vietnam. Women’s organisations in France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Britain and the Scandinavian countries led campaigns to collect food, clothing and medicines for Vietnamese women and children and sent delegations to US embassies demanding the ending of this bloody war.

p The escalation of the war in Vietnam caused the rapid growth of anti-war sentiments in the USA itself and from the middle of the 1960s action against this bloody and expensive adventure took on a significant sweep. American women displayed the utmost self-sacrifice. Virtually all women’s organisations in the country came out in opposition to the aggression in South East Asia, while the "Women Strike for Peace" movement became one of the principal constituent elements in the anti-war forces. In January, 1965, this movement led a campaign for the holding of open hearings by the Senate commission investigating the government’s Vietnam policy. Women presented petitions to congressmen containing signatures collected throughout the country, organised a visit to Congress by 350 mothers from 35 states, demonstrated in front of the UN building and, with other organisations, took part in peace marches.

p New and more effective forms of protest were developed during the struggle to halt aggression in Vietnam. Mass actions, including enormous demonstrations, peace marches, the picketing of induction stations, appeals to heads of state and the UN and the holding of international conferences replaced letters, telegrams, petitions and telephone calls to congressmen.

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p Characteristic of the anti-war movement in the USA was that those who took part in it were conscious of the interdependence between the criminal external policies of American imperialism and the unsatisfactory state of affairs within America itself.

p The 1970s have been marked by new mass actions of women against the aggressive policies of reactionary circles. On March 18, 1970, 400 representatives of the "Women Strike for Peace" movement from a number of states came to Washington to present to congressmen a Women’s Declaration of Liberation from Military Domination. This staled, in particular: "Despite the protests of millions, the war (in Vietnam) goes on and now engulfs Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand. But the Pentagon demands still more—$ 73,000 million this year for the military establishment, additional billions for the ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missiles), and more of our sons and brothers to be brought home in coffins.” The women demanded from the congressmen an immediate end to aggression in South-East Asia.

p In Japan, a women’s organisation, the Discussion Society on Vietnam, came into existence during the struggle in support of the Vietnamese people. Its members, representing a variety of women’s organisations regardless of their political affiliation or religious conviction, came from the Federation of Japanese Women’s Organisations and the Society of Women of the New Japan as well as intellectuals’ organisations such as the Democratic Women’s Club, the Union of Christian Women, etc. The society’s activities were conducted under the general slogan "End the dirty war in Vietnam" and included an 192 appeal from the women of Japan, which was sent to the USA and called upon America’s mothers and women, whose husbands and sons had been sent to war and were killing and dying far from home, to ask their government whether it could preach the right to kill people with napalm and gas. Members of the society worked to disseminate postcards containing the text of the appeal throughout the USA and Japan, as well as postcards calling for the rejection of participation in the Vietnam war.

p It can be stated with absolute justification that much has been owed in attaining peace in Vietnam to the women’s democratic movement in the capitalist countries, which is continuing to make an invaluable contribution to the restoration of peace in the Middle East.

p One of the most pressing political questions to confront the working people and the entire population of Western Europe since the last world war is that of European security. Women are continuing to take an active part in resolving this question.

p During the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s European women’s organisations of various political complexions decided to unite their efforts in opposition to the threat of atomic war. A number of European-wide measures were implemented in pursuance of this objective, typical of which were two European Women’s Meetings on the Responsibility of Women in the Atomic Age. The first of these took place in Brunate (Italy) in 1959, while the second was held in Salzburg (Austria) the following year. Women taking part in the meetings came from both capitalist and socialist countries, including Austria, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, the 193 FRG, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Poland, Rumania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the USSR and Yugoslavia. Among the women were physicists, biologists, doctors, lawyers, teachers, workers and housewives, holding different political and religious convictions and belonging to different organisations and movements. Among the subjects discussed at the meetings were the danger of nuclear tests to the health of children and future generations, the economic and social consequences of using nuclear energy for military purposes, the threat of atomic war in Europe and cooperation of the women of Europe to reduce international tension and bring about disarmament.

p Documents adopted at the meetings were addressed to governments and the United Nations and contained demands for the ending of atomic weapons tests, the creation of nuclear-free zones, prohibition of the production and use of all forms of nuclear weapons, the destruction of stocks of nuclear weapons and international control to implement all these measures.

p Both these meetings played a positive role in mobilising the women of Europe in the struggle to reduce international tension, prohibit the testing of nuclear weapons and the use of nuclear energy for military purposes and establish cooperation among the women of Europe on questions of European security and the preservation of peace throughout the world.

p Women have also taken an active part in discussions of collective security in Europe at many subsequent international forums. In particular, a great deal of attention was devoted to the necessity for finding a way of ensuring peace in Europe at the World Peace Congress in 194 Helsinki in June, 1969, and this was recorded in the Congress’s fundamental document. Democratic women’s organisations belonging to WIDF supported the call, made by the socialist countries of the Warsaw Pact, for the holding of a Europeanwide conference on security and cooperation in Europe, the agenda of which should include such questions as the rejection of force or the threat of its use in relations between stales in Europe and the expansion, on the basis of equality, of trading, economic, and scientific and technological links directed at developing cooperation between the European countries.

p From the end of the 1960s the struggle for security in Europe entered the stage of practical action, demanding the broad participation of all European states and the most diverse sections of society. This was stated unanimously by participants in the Conference of Spokesmen of European Public Opinion which took place in Vienna from November 19 to December 1, 1969. The women’s democratic organisations of Europe, both Western and Eastern, were confronted by the task of mobilising public opinion in the struggle to create a system of European security. This idea formed the dominant theme at the Consultative Meeting of European Women and Women’s Organisations on European Security and Cooperation which was held in the summer of 1970 in the Swedish town of Ystad. Those taking part in the meeting expressed their conviction that women’s organisations could and should conduct an active information campaign to implant the idea of a European-wide conference in the minds of the broadest sections of the population. Delegates called for recognition of the frontiers that resulted from the 195 Second World War, in particular, those on the Oder and Neisse and between the two Gorman states, recognition of the fact that two sovereign states existed on German soil, the establishment of relations with the GDR on the basis of universally acknowledged norms of international law and observance of the special status of West Berlin as an independent political entity.

p The fruitful exchange of views that took place in Ystad encouraged further meetings between representatives of broad sections of the European public and, above all, of women’s organisations promoting the intensiiication of preparations for a European-wide conference on security problems.

p A seminar of European women was held in Moscow from September 18 to September 20, 1971. Those taking part included leading political, state and public figures, the heads of international and national women’s organisations, teachers and scientists from 19 countries. Ensuring peace and security on the European continent was the focus of attention for these representatives of Europe’s women.

p In October, 1971, 60 women from 11 European countries gathered in Dortmund (FRG) at the initiative of the West German Women’s Peace Movement to discuss European security once again. At the centre of their attention was discussion concerning the convening of a Europeanwide conference on security and cooperation. Every speaker noted the energy displayed by women and women’s organisations in working, both independently and in conjunction with other movements and organisations, towards the attainment of security and cooperation in Europe. They expressed their hope that the FRG would 196 make its contribution to the relaxation of tensions in Europe by the speedy ratification of the treaties signed in Moscow and Warsaw and the normalisation of relations with the GDR on the basis of international law, thus permitting both German states to join the UN. Participants in the meeting adopted an Appeal to all peoples of the world, to all men and women and to organisations and individuals, calling on them to support every effort towards reducing tension in Europe. All women and all women’s organisations were called on to express still more resolutely their fervent desire for the establishment of a system of genuine security in Europe.

p The Committees for European Security and Cooperation, which were formed during the period of preparation for the Assembly of Public Forces for European Security and Cooperation (Brussels, June, 1972), have had an important role to play in the struggle for peace on the European continent. Women have taken an active part both in them and in the Assembly itself. A communique adopted at the Assembly emphasised that the preservation and strengthening of peace was an important condition for the social advancement of women and that peace-loving forces can, by their joint efforts, create conditions for establishing a durable peace in Europe and developing multilateral cooperation among European states and peoples.

p It was within the context of the practical measures mapped out by the Assembly that 173 representatives of women’s organisations in 26 European countries met in Finland for a conference in August, 1973. European security and the position of women in Europe were discussed and a series of measures linked to the holding 197 of "International Women’s Year" in 1975 were denned.

p The successful expansion of the women movement’s active role in defending the rights of women, opposing capitalist exploitation and supporting peace, democracy and social progress in large measure is connected with the work of the communist parties of the capitalist countries among women. In mobilising women to struggle for their most clear and immediate demands, Communists demonstrate to them on the basis of practical examples that without struggle against the omnipotence of the monopolies and for the democratic and social renewal of society, the problems connected with the position of women cannot be solved.

p Communists take into account the unique nature of the social structure, historical traditions, position in society and economic and political interests of the female population when devising forms and methods of work among women. Under the conditions of the capitalist system the activities of Communist Parties in drawing women into public and political life are confronted with a number of difficulties and communist parties are obliged to overcome the influence of reactionary organisations, of bourgeois, clerical and reformist ideology and also the social inertness of certain groups of women. The French Communist Party has built up valuable experience in the struggle to resolve the problem of the status of women and involve them in the anti-imperialist movement. French Communists regard work among women as, first and foremost, one aspect of the struggle for the unity of democratic forces. Their unwavering purpose is to ensure women identical rights with 198 men in respect to pay, within the family and in public life, to obtain guarantees for the protection of mothers and children by means of the introduction of longer maternity leave and an increase in the number of children’s centres and to demand a fundamental solution to the problems of public health, housing and transport, which are directly connected with the problems of the women’s movement. In supporting the just demands of women, Communists show them that a genuine solution to their problems is inseparable from profound socio-economic and political changes.

p The French Communist Party, in implementing this strategy, is carrying out a major programme of practical and ideological work among women. Scientific conferences on Marxism are organised at the initiative of the party: for example, the "Week of Marxist Thought" that took place in January, 1965, was concerned with the subject of "Women in Society”. The Communist Party has founded a quarterly journal specially designed for women, with a circulation of 500,000 copies which is disseminated chiefly in residential areas and at enterprises. Many meetings aimed at helping women learn about the common programme of the left forces were held. The French Communist Party is concerned to see that Communists and communist sympathisers increase their knowledge of theory; the CP federations have organised special week-long courses, while the Central Party School sponsors one-month and five-month courses.

p The 20th Congress of the FCP, which took place in December, 1972, emphasised the importance of the agreement on a common governmental programme signed by Communists, socialists 199 and left radicals, the purpose of which was to promote the formation of popular unity and map out the prospects for satisfying the needs of the popular masses in all spheres, including improvement of the position of women. A statement by the Politbureau of the FCP of May 21, 1973, noted that the joint programme alone answered the aspirations of women seeking active participation in the life of society and that socialism was the only society able to offer women a genuine choice, ... liberate them from their present shackles, ensure them full advancement and promote the flowering of all their abilities; that only socialism could ensure the plenitude of family life.

p The Italian Communist Party regards the problem of the status of women as a central question in the life of the nation, on a par with the peasant and southern questions. It was noted at the 13th Congress of the ICP, which took place in March, 1972, that Italian Communists fully share the aims for which the democratic women’s organisations are successfully struggling. These include complete and universal access by women to employment, acknowledgement of the social significance of motherhood, a radical change in mutual relations between family and society, protection of the rights of children and school reforms, beginning with pre-school institutions. The general strategy of the ICP in its struggle for advancement towards socialism, includes realisation of these goals.

p ,The Communist Party of the USA views the upsurge of the women’s movement as a consequence of the intensifying socio-economic and political crisis of American imperialism. The party devotes much attention to improving the 200 position of working women, seeing in them a significant force in the struggle against monopoly policies and for peace, democracy and social progress. At the 19th Congress of the C.P.U.S.A. the party’s General Secretary, Gus Hall, noted the growing role played by women in the class struggle of the country’s working people. The Congress gave its approval to the demands of women workers and called on the party to step up its activities to improve the position of women. "Women are in the thick of all major contemporary struggles.... They are a powerful force against monopoly,” the programme of the Communist^ Party of the USA stated.

p The role of women in society was the subject of special discussion at the 32nd Congress of the Communist Party of Great Britain, which was held in November, 1971. The Congress emphasised that the CPGB was the only force capable of uniting working women in the struggle for a radical] change in their position. A programme was adopted which included the following immediate demands concerning women’s rights: equal pay for work of equal value, equal opportunities for education, vocational training and jobs and the provision of nursery education for children. The CPGB has formulated a series of measures to involve women in the movement to implement this programme. All district party committees were asked to step up the work of women’s party groups, formulate practical measures taking into account features peculiar to their district, hold meetings of women party members and non-party women, etc. The CPGB has expanded its activities with regard to publishing pamphlets and leaflets concerned with the problems of the women’s movement.

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p The struggle to ensure that the demands of working women are met is one of the most important tasks confronting communist and workers’ parties in the capitalist countries. A document adopted at the International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties in June, 1969, noted: "The Communist and Workers’ Parties, in whose activity women members participate on the basis of complete equality, emphatically support their demands and regard the emancipation of women as an important element of the general democratic movement.”   [201•1 

p The problems of communist work among women masses were discussed at the Meeting of West European Communist and Workers’ Parties in 1974.

Progressive women in the capitalist countries are responding actively to the most pressing problems of today. The increasingly active role of the women’s democratic movement and its organic link with the international workers’ and general democratic movement represent an important feature of the present stage of development of the peoples’ struggle for peace, democracy and social progress.

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