[A REVIEW OF "WOMEN AT WAR" SERIES, 'THE…]

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A REVIEW OF "WOMEN AT WAR" SERIES, 'THE ARSENAL BBC 2 SHOWN ON MONDAY MAY 9. By GILL BLACKWELL of the Mediterranean.

The development of the notion of plate tectonics has only been possible since the setting up in the 1960s of the first world-wide network of stations containing instruments to detect earthquake shock waves.

These developments were accelerated by the desire of the military to detect underground nuclear explosions and distinguish them from earthquakes.

But for more detailed predictions of what time and where earthquakes are to take place much more elaborate monitoring needed.

There are at least 15 different tell-tale signs which indicate an earthquake is approaching. These include: regional changes in the height and distance between survey points; tilting of the ground, changes in the frequency of smaller tremors; changes in electrical resistence of the ground; changes in the emission of radioactive gases from underground water; changes in the level and taste of water in wells; and unusual behaviour of animals.

MONITOR

Obviously to monitor all these factors is a huge task. Japan is one of the few capitalist countries businesses move away so that many of those left behind would become unemployed.

With dwindling financial resources they would be unable to afford even a short stay away from home during the most dangerous period unless they sell any property they might have at give-away prices.

WRANGLES Whether the earthquake occurred or not there would be complicated legal wrangles over who was responsible for the economic loss of a prediction. Earthquake scientists are already involved in such disputes, threatened with legal action for lowering property values by a false earthquake prediction.

At present, however, earthquake prediction is full of uncertainties as witnessed by the false alarm given of an earthquake at Haicheng, China, in 1973 when buildings had to be evacuated in bitterly cold weather, and the more recent Chinese failure to predict the Tangshan earthquake which claimed perhaps as many as 750,000 lives.

But should the worst happen, it is important to realise that the cost of strengthening structures to withstand the effects of a large earthism" of the British working class were well shattered by this compassionate insight into the shop floor of the Woolwich Arsenal where shells and ammunition for the 1914-18 imperialist war were manufactured.

Prior to the outbreak of the war the Arsenal functioned with a small male workforce producing a small output of ammunition by obsolete technology.

The slaughter in the trenches of France by British, French and German imperialism required shells in hitherto unprecedented quantities. For example in 1915 in three days of shelling the British forces used as much as in the whole of the Boer War.

These increased requirements meant the wholesale recruitment of female labour into the arsenalsince male workers were sent to the front lines as cannon fodder.

Recruited from domestic labour jobs as servants to the bourgeoisie where they earned 5/- a week, the £4 offered by the Arsenal was a sufficiently big enough carrot.

Far from these women "doing their bit" for British imperialism they of course leapt at the chance of increasing their standard of living and that of their families. By 1918 27,000 women worked in Woolwich Arsenal They did this, however, at enormous risk to their healtheven, of course, risk of death.

On the other side of the Thames the Silvertown Explosives factory blew up, causing such enormous devastation and loss of life that the details of the enquiry were covered up for 50 years.

The most dangerous jobs in the Arsenal-in the 'danger buildings' which were each surrounded by water to reduce spread of fire and explosion,-meant leaving off all metal and changing into "clean area" garments to lessen the risk of sparks.

The job entailed a fortnight about system of two weeks filling shells and two weeks weighing TNT since exposure to the explosive was extremely dangerous.

After two weeks their skin was tanned yellow-they, were nicknamed "canaries'-and they were issued with two daily pints of milk and given frequent medical examinations and blood tests.

The working conditions were generally appalling with 12 hour shifts-7 days a week.

Initially there were no toilet facilities for the women-a fact which employers argue in 1977 prevents them taking on female labour-so men and women had different shifts throughout the day for the common facilities.

Speed-up was continuously demanded-the blackmail of "think of the boys at the front" being a convenient weapon.

However this was not achieved easily, and the women workers interviewed on the programme had many anecdotes to tell of management being ridiculed and evaded in their efforts to discipline the women.

Many of the women workers were mothers whose children were cared for in the creches provided by the Arsenal.

Children also slept in the nurseries when their mothers worked the night shift. This of course was a widespread practice in both imperialist wars for capitalism to concede nurseries when they required female labour.

CYNICISM The cynicism of this move is of course revealed by the tiny fraction of those nurseries which are avail able today for working mothers.

At the end of the war the problem for the bourgeoisie was how to force these women back to their old jobs as kitchen maids and parlour maids.

The women of course preferred the wages and conditions of being an organised work force and appealed to their trade union leaders.

Lloyd George offered them fl each severance pay. Their union leaders rejected this and led a strike and a march to Guild Hall-demanding-25/-!!

With this complete sell-out of their jobs by their union leaders the capitalists got the women out of their factories but the women chose the dole rather than go back to domestic labour.

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