[As a member of the sex that actually…]

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As a member of the sex that actually forms the majority of the population I would just like to point out to comrade Jack Burnett that-contrary to common belief-the "average person" is not male!

This is in reference to a paragraph in the final part of his series on Prior's Anti-union laws (SP 213) which starts: "It might be thought by the average person' •.. and ends "he thinks to himselt the primary purpose of disrupting supplies must be ... to disrupt supplies".

Specific attacks

Comrade Burnett has written one of his articles on the way Prior's Act specifically attacks women, through the sections curtailing maternity leave, etc.

I think it is vital to stress that women are not only hit by those specific sections but that, as trade unionists, they too will be hit by these attacks on the right to strike, to picket or to have a closed shop.

In fact it is from the experience that Prior has had from many of the struggles actually led by women (Chix, Grunwicks) that he is deterEDITOR'S first point fairness it. Jack Burn Prior's Act, mined to limit these the working class.

Sexist language is insidious. It can slip in very often unnoticed, so that sexist notions like the average person being male become established as basic assumptions.

I can only presume that comrade Burnett holds these assumptions for though he points out the "schizophrenia" in the quote from satirist Michael Frayn which he uses to introduce his article, he does not in any way point out Frayn's sexism in the quote: "Public opinion as far as I can judge concedes the right of a worker in a free society to withdraw his labour"

It is a fundamental responsibility of all Trotskyists to fight to destroy sexist notions that presume that all workers, all trade unionists and "average people" are male, as these concepts play a fundamental part in the double oppression of women workers which we are seeking to end.

AMS NOTE: Cde AMS'S is well taken. But in should be noted that ett's article was on not media sexism. Dear Comrades, Recent issues of Socialist Press have mentioned several times that while supporting the struggle of Tameside Trades Council for reaffiliation to the TUC, the WSL doesn't support the central demand raised by Tameside which led to its expulsion by the pro-imperialist TUC bureaucrats-'Bring the war to Britain'.

The only reason given for opposıng this demana 1s inat lt is 'ambiguous'.

But in the war of oppressed nation against imperialist oppressors there no ambiguity comrades.

It is simply a question of choosing sides-for or against British imperialism.

Trotskyists in the oppressor (British) nation must unconditionally support the struggle of the oppressed (Irish) nation in their fight to rid themselves of their imperialist oppressors and determine their own future.

The slogan 'Bring the war to Britain' unambiguously states where Trotskyists in Britain stand on the question of the Irish War.

We stand alongside the Irish people against the British statewhether the Irish guerrillas literally choose to wage war in Britain or not.

But more important than that the slogan demonstrates the surest way in which revolutionaries in Britain can support the Irish struggle-by taking up the class war against our own bourgeoisie.

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