[The size of the NCC march stands in…]
Socialist Press1976 1976-05-05Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 4 →
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The size of the NCC march stands in stark contrast to that of the recent massive National Abortion Campaign march in support of free abortion on demand from the NHS.
How do the members and supporters of the NAC imagine that this demand can be won unless the NHS is defended from the Labour government's slashing cuts? Why weren't they on the demonstration?
Where also were the Working Women's Charter contingents -whose recent conference discussed the cuts in the social services and decided to include the fight against them in their list of demands?
Again the role of the IMG in the leadership of these groups is thrown into the spotlight. Their refusal to risk treading on the toes of the bureaucrats - reformist and Stalinist • with whom they coexist, by fighting for programme and principle, results in no way forward being given to the layers attracted by these protest campaigns.
One of the first cases to be taken to the Industrial Tribunals set up under the Sex Discrimination Act more than vindicates the WSL's call to boycott these diversionary bodies.
Five women workers lured into the tribunal were claiming an extra £12 per week to give them equal pay to men doing the same job.
Management argued as one of their reasons for not paying equal rates that the women were unwilling to work wearing skirts on a catwalk above the men.
The upshot was that the women lost their case at the tribunal, although the chairman admitted that one of the women had greater skill and responsibility than a man. Since hers was not "like work" he argued, the provisions of the Equal Pay • Act and Sex Discrimination Act did not apply.
A similar fate awaited a noman