News briefs

British feminist speaks

ADELAIDE — On May 8, a meeting organised by the South Australian Women's Caucus heard well-known British feminist Beatrix Campbell speak about the impact of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's policies on women.

Campbell said that for women not connected to the labour movement, Thatcher had offered the illusion of power and freedom of choice. In reality, through privatisation, attacking the public sector and unions, and strengthening the traditional family, which ties women to the kitchen sink, Thatcher had attacked women. Thatcher also used a law and order campaign to attack people trapped in poverty.

Campbell noted that the British public service was among the first to formally offer women equal opportunity, but privatisation meant the loss of opportunities and a drop in wages for most women workers.

WA union to leave ALP?

PERTH — The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union in Western Australia has pulled out of the state ALP broad left faction. Most of the complaints from the AMWU focus on the lack of even "Labor-style" accountability from the Jim McGinty leadership of WA Labor. McGinty has publicly boasted about his "hand-picked" candidates and has alienated much of the union officialdom. The AMWU is now threatening to disaffiliate from the ALP.

From GLW issue 232