Communist Party's LINK with values of

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seem to have heard oflet alone read -their women's journal Link.

If you are in this position, I would like to reassure youyou are not missing much.

The most striking thing about the three issues of Link produced so far this year, is the total absence of articles about working women actually involved in struggles whether for state nursery provision, in workplace disputes, or whatever.

There are many articles about unions, written mainly by trade union bureaucrats (like Terry Marsland, deputy general secretary of the tobacco workers union).

There are reports of conferences like the National Abortion Campaign Trade Union Conference.

CHILDCARE

There are numerous articles on childcare. But there is no indication from cover to cover of what grass-roots struggles for women the Communist Party is engaged in.

This should not surprise us: the record of the Communist Party in the struggles of the working class and the oppressed is certainly nothing to boast about.

In fact, even their reports of various conferences only tell part of the story. Their reports of two conferences in which members and supporters of the Workers Socialist League played a significant part, are la case in point.

NAC Link No. 24 carries a report of the NAC trade union conference, in which their only comment on the crucial policy debate is the smug declaration:

"The conference ended with a debate of the action proposals submitted by the organising committee. Delegates voted their support for these proposals, which included support for a TUC-organised demonstration against any proposed restrictive legislation and support for campaigning against the 'conscience' vote for MP** This statement completely covers up for the role that CP (and International Marxist Group) members played in that debate. Delegates did not just vote their support for the organising committee's proposals. In fact there was a sharp confrontation between the CP and IMG dominated platform, and supporters of the WL who fought for an amendment which committed the conference to a campaign against the cuts- a campaign which is crucial to the defence of existing abortion facilities.

The report on the SouthEast Region TUC conference on the Under-5s covers up for the CP's manoeuvres in a similar way.

The dominant theme of 1979's Links is the International Year of the Child-hence the proliferation of articles on childcare.

There are several articles on nursery education, but with no mention of how to fight for free, adequate nursery provision.

For instance, their support for the TUC Charter on the Under-5s is completely uncritical of its silence over the question of how to achieve its recommendations.

The other aspect of this concentration on childcare is a "debate' on how to bring up children in a 'communist (i.e. CP) household. These articles, especially those by Jean Styles and Margaret Bowden in Link no. 25, reveal the CP's attitude to the norms of 'family life" under capitalism.

Even the illustration of the article is revealing: it is a photograph of a statue of Madonna and Child.

Jean Styles' article completely accepts the bourgeois notion that children grow up happiest and healthiest in the nuclear family unit. She paints a rosy picture of her loving, caring family, for whose sake she chose to give up her job.

Fisher argue that the reality of working class family life under capitalism is very different to ideals that workers and the Jean Styles of this world would look to.

In reality, the individual family unit under capitalism is an instrument of oppression -both of women and youth.

As Communists, we fight to replace the bourgeois family. In concrete terms, this means that society as a whole has to take responsibility for the practical functions of the family.

Childcare, cooking, washing clothes-all the household drudgery carried out by the over-burdened housewife, should be organised at a social level.

Of course, this will only become an immediate possibility when the economy is planned on a socialist basis. Only then will the functions of the family be replaced, so that personal relationships can be based on choice rather than economic necessity or the pressure of ideology or convention.

The family is not the only institution of capitalist society glorified by the CP. An article on new technology by Renee Blackburn, a District Official of the Amalgamated Textile Workers Union begins:

"The textile industry in Britain has a history to be immensely proud of, in that in spite of all the hardships experienced by our forefathersterrible working conditions, long hours at the looms and very low wages-children leaving school were still prepared to follow their parents into the traditional industry in the north-west of England."

No doubt the capitalist profiteers of the textile industry are very proud of their success in maintaining extreme exploitation. Renee Blackburn is probably also proud that she has prevented the members of her union from fighting back.

She obviously accepts redundancies as inevitable-as we see from this passage:

.. I have to (!) visit mills to discuss their closure with management. What a feeling of sadness and futility! When a mill closes its gates on employees, it makes you wonder whether all that our parents and grandparents fought for was worth while."

It certainly should make you wonder what she or the CP has done to prevent such closures.

The CP's alliance with the present reformist Labour and trade union leaders is central to all their political practice. Link shows (provided one can read between the lines) that their treacherous strategy is also central to their work' on women's questions.

Any campaign to defend or extend the democratic rights of women-whether it is a campaign on abortion or nursery facilities or unemployment-will come up against the manoeuvring of the CP and will require a sharp battle against them.

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Address WSL, 31, D artPark Hill, NW5 1HR.