01-359 8180/9. 91-359 8371. religious thugs.
deprive them of their rights.
now the obscurantists are saying:
exists as a religion in countries which are less which bound women.
The demonstration solidarity to their sisters in Iran. Solidarity with Iranian women FOR THE last two weeks tens of thousands of women in Iran have been demonstrating for their democratic rights. It is they who must determine how they live, what they wear and where they work.
We stand in total solidarity with them against all obscurantism. We recall the Muslim women in the Soviet Union who discarded their veils immediately after the revolution and were killed by The Iranian government has passed a law making it a crime to attack any women's demonstration. But it is women and their supporters who must continue to mobilise against any attempt to All the women now protesting were strong opponents of the Shah. In retrospect they made a mistake when they donned veils to join the mass mobilisations which toppled the Pahlavi regime. For 'Where were you when we defeated the Shah? All the women on those marches wore the veil.' Not even the most liberal reading of the texts of Islam can lead to the view that it regards women as the equals of men. All other religions also discriminate against women in either theory or practice. This is more pronounced in the case of Islam because it But there have been Muslim nationalists who have fought against this regression. And the alternative to Khomeini is to cite the example of Kemal Ataturk in Turkey in the 1920s. There too s king was overthrown, a religious monarch no less. A veritable Caliph. But Ataturk removed the shackles of religious oppression organised by ICAR (International Campaign for Abortion Rights) on 31 March should give women in this country the first major opportunity to extend their THE business section Sunday's Observer was quietly "Hugh Clegg', inscription, Christmas.
The accompanying was satisfied that, in- make any developed Clegg can'.
The appointment of Clegg to head the standing commission pay the public sector is one of the shrewder moves of the Labour COYCLICHL.
He was, after all, sacked by none other than Edward Heath from his position as son of the Arbitration Board 1971, he played his part in the Scamp inquiry government manual workers' pay which produced what was judged to be an inflatiorary deal.
On the other hand, there was a degree of honesty in Heath's treatment of Clegg which has been missing from the Labour government's 'comparability' in the same Civil Service arbitration proce dure from which Clegg was dismissed The Labour government has merely ignored the recommendations of the Pay Research Unit which pronounces on pay for civil servants. current industrial action Even government does time whatever Clegg and the rest of his there is the problem that by the time August comes along and the first stage of the recommendation is to be acted upon, the Labour government could very well be no longer in office.
Nor can guarantee that Clegg will award hefty pay rises for public sector workers. The comparison he is charged to make is with those in similar jobs.
Take the ancillary workers - or, to be more precise, those who work in hospital laundries. Can they expect a bulging wage packet in six months time?
Not if the comparison is made with other laundry workers. The wages council has just reported "typical adult grade' for those photo-caption in the for its readership.
Iran the a Father article *If anyone / sense of the new comparability, comparability Civil Service when, into local attitude to Hence the the Labour accept this decide, -CROCES supposed be any case of hospital London at of £34 a week. concerned that the lity in the Hugh Clegg: Not a Father Christmas.
working in laundries outside the end of November was the princely sum union leaders and The more the whole standing commission on pay comparabiBut the is can after examined, the more obvious it becomes that what the trade who bought it then sold it LU their membership purchased was the proverbial pig in a poke.
pigs can be vicious Our socialism will be infinitely more democratic than what exists in do not take up arms againsthe socialist state. The stalinist modek af 'socialism in the USSR and Fastern Europe have discredited socialism in the eyesef the millions of workers throughout the world. We are opposed in animals. They can maim and injure; the real concern over Clegg's comparability board is threat posed the independence of the unions involved.
Leaving the long term future of the pay of public sector workers to some "neutral or question the real function of If there is a Hugh Clege deciding on what is a 'fair wage for workers to receive where does that leave unions whose job is to secure through their own strength what they consider "fair"?
question which concerns more than public sector workers. The suspicion that Clegg's standing commission is a stalking horse.
That the Labour government with not a word of protes! from the leaders of the TUC, is planning a long-term incomes board to cover all of industry.
The arguments used to sell such a scheme can already be imagined. Michael Foot stands up and declares:
*The low paid workers have accepted such a procedure. They have accepted permanent wages board.
*Are the rest of you, miners, car workers, lorry drivers going to turn round and say you wil not agree to be treated in the same way? Are you going to say that might be fair for the under-paid but you will have none of it?
'What trade union principles of fairness and equal treatment custify such a stand quote you possibly This is only too possible. The public sector commission is, child of concordat, which has alread! promised a yearly 'forum' a which government, unions and employers will get together to discuss level settlements should be stricted It would be wrong to get too alarmist too soon. The Labour government still has a long way to go before it achieves the statutory incomes policy dream of all capitalist governments.
But equally it would be wrong to dismiss the public sector as short-term gimmick, just as it would be wrong to dismiss the concordat as no more than an election manoeuvre. They both need to be taken seriously and resisted.