An allegory on women's oppression

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challenged Fraser to explain why he negotiated overtime clauses into all UAW contracts Runnels was quick to rule the question out of order.

Such leaders have presided over the post-war reconstruction of capitalism and all subsequent capitalist attempts to alleviate the deepening crisis at workers' expense.

Between 1953 and 1977 production in car, railroad, shipbuilding and aeroplane factories increased by 93% whilst the workforce dropped by 16%.

In steel and other metal industries production rose by 53% and the workforce was cut by 19%.

In coal there was a 7% rise in production accompanied by a 55% cut in the workforce!

The case of New York City's downward spiral of the crisis of capital and the role of the union bureaucracy.

The estimated budget deficit for New York in 1979 stands at $457 million.

This figure is quoted in the media with the proviso:

66 •.. and that is without allowing for wage increases for municipal employees"

Derisory 'deal'

It is not just the capitalist press that is fighting to block wage increases. In June, Victor Gotbaum (head of the New ‹ York section of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees)

engineered a derisory 'deal' with Mayor Koch.

FOr his 200,000 members Gotbaum secured two tiny 4% rises staggered over 2 years. This means in reality a pay cut of over 10% after inflation after 3 years of total wage freeze!

This latest sell-out came at the end of a period in which municipal workers in New York had shown increasing signs of shaking off the combined 'we're all in this crisis together' line of their leaders and the City officials.

At the end of March, for example, New York State had to take out an injunction against bus and underground workers who were about to strike.

The last strike by transport workers was in 1966 and lasted for 12 days, bringing "economic disaster" to the city.

Union leaders in New York have given full support to unelected bodies like the Emergency Financial Control Board (EFCB) and the Municipal Assistance Corporation (MAC).

Gotbaum for example is on record as saying that he thinks the EFCB should be in control for another "1015 years"!

The financial collapse of New York is mirrored by its appalling inner-city decay, a problem it shares with most large American cities.

To cope with this the Carter administration has fostered 'the growth of private voluntary bodies like "The Peoples Development Corporation" and "Adopt a Building"

Carter has also proferred the 'softest' of all 'soft' public works programmesmainly designed to sop up a few of the chronically unemployed for short periods.

In such a situation Carter is looking to the force of US Nazis on parade in Chicago the state.

The army was alerted to deliver mail if postal workers press their 13% pay claim and demands for a 35hour week and state troopers were out in force against the miners' strike.

These conditions , of rising inflation, high unemployment, cuts in social services, deterioration in housing, and lack of principled alternative to the capitalist parties have inevitably led to the growth of extreme right and fascist groups.

ARETIN

ENGLAND KAKABI DANERAN APAN INLAND Dollar continues These groups, like the Nazis who paraded in Chicago recently also profit from the bourgeois liberal 'free speech' illusions of the middle class (the American Civil Liberties Union fought for the Nazis "rights" in the The first requirement for the labour movement in the US must be to break its links with the two main capitalist parties and move towards the formation of a Labour Party to represent the independent interests of the American working class.

There continual evidence of the willingness of the workers to fight.

The recent historic struggle by the miners is the most significant evidence, but there are others.

For three days in New York last month thousands of workers picketed the Daily News eventually forcing the employer to back down. In St. Louis, thousands of workers mobilised to drive the Nazis off the streets.

In San Francisco dockers have blacked shipments of arms to the Chilean junta for nearly 2 months.

Several large unions are putting in wage demands of between 30-40% and railroad workers have already! won in excess of 30%., Unionisation and recognition struggles are numerous and often violent BITEK its fall in the money markets and bitter-like the 2 year battle at the Blue Diamond coal mine in Stearns, Kentucky.

The recent firemen's strike in Memphis led to a state of emergency and a court order to return to work after 3 days.

Such struggles will only be betrayed however under leadership welded to capitalist parties.

*Scrap all anti-union legislation!

*For the nationalisation of all major industries without compensation and under elected committees fo workers!.

*For work sharing on full pay and a massive programme of public works to combat unemployment!

*For workers defence squads against the fascists!

*For a sliding scale of pay to cope with inflation!

*For a Labour Party to fight for socialist policies for the US working class! This is a brilliant film by Bryan Forbes on the oppression of women. He picks for his vehicle small-town USA-a very wealthy small-town.

Into this town comes Joanna Eberhart (Katherine Ross) and her lawyer husband, Walter.

Very quickly the viewer is drawn into their relationship and specifically the conflicts within it.

In a quarrel early on we learn that they always do what the husband wants* though he always wants to make it look as if its what she wants.

Deposit

He had carefully prepared even the move to Stepford while ensuring that Joanna feels she made the decision. And, though she thinks she has chosen the particular house they buy, it turns out he had already paid a deposit on it!

This is the kind of relationship that Walter-and in Forbes' opinion all American men in this social grouping is looking for.

But Joanna rebels: She has desires of her own, and is not content to be an object.

Successful

The film shows her longing to be a professional photographer or to be in some way remembered in her own right and not as "Walter's wife"

Some of the best scenes show her attempts to get her work recognised-a fight which is eventually successful.

Meanwhile she notices that the majority of the women in the town are very strange. They are completely servile to their husbands and spend their whole day doing housework, gardening, or just ensuring that they look good.

This is revealed most sharply when Joanna and two other "rebel' wives, who seem normal and have their own interests, get together a "consciousness raising" women's group.

She and the other two complain about their husbands: but all the others talk about baking cakes and the best flour to use.

Joanna discovers in the, local library that some of these same women had been in a women's group in:

Stepford, and yet now are completely servile.

Hanging in the background to these developments is the mysterious men-only men's club which Walter has joined.

When one of the two "rebe!' wives goes away and returns completely changed and as servile as the others Joanna and her friend decide that something is directed by Bryan wrong.

They go to an ex-boy friend of Joanna's and ask him to test the town's water for drugs. But he only tries to pick her up.

Then her friend is also transformed and Joanna gets really frightened.

Escape She goes to a woman psychiatrist outside the town, who is the only person to show her real sympathy.

She advises Joanna to grab her children and make her escape from Stepford.

But this is easier said than done. When she gets back she sees her children have gone-the sign, that she, too, is to be changed.

Joanna goes round to her friend's house to see if the children are there. In desperation she stabs her friend to see if she bleeds. She doesn't. She is a perfect mechanical model of a human being.

Joanna is caught and herself transformed. The man who supervises killing her and replacing her with a machine asks if she wouldn't like to reverse the situation and produce a perfect stud, who would rush to carry out her every wish.

The film concludes in the town's supermarket, with all the "women" doing their shopping, greeting each other, smiling and carrying on.

The strength of the presentation is in the way the specific husband/wife relationship continuously links in with the general theme.

Logical conclusion

The use of science fiction is effective and in no way cuts across the director's presentation of women's oppression. Rather it points to its logical conclusion.

The film does not, and does not attempt to show any way forward. The wealthy small town is not in any financial worries that some of this social stratum would normally have in this economic crisis.

The element of science fiction emphasises the unreality of the film. It cannot be compared with Westworld' and its sequel, which were science fiction films showing robots taking over the world.

Stepford Wives, for all the classless nature of Forbes' ideas, is not set in the future. It uses science fiction to emphasise the continuing reality of women's oppression. is a brilliant film.

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