British miners' wives testify
1985 1985-03Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 9 →
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SOCIALIST ACTION MARCH 1985 9 The following is an interview with Sheena Stapleton and Margaret Coulson of the British Women's Committee Against Pit Closures. It was conducted last December in Switzerland by La Breche, the newspaper of the Swiss section of the Fourth International.
La Breche: What daily activities like?
Margaret Coulson: Every day, 15 to 20 women prepare more than 200 meals. We organize meetings and demonstrations in order to collect money and clothing.
La Breche: Why you begin to organize yourselves?
Sheena Stapleton: We were compelled by the desperate situation in which we found ourselves. We called all the women in the town to an emergency gathering. At first, only a few women were present. Now almost everyone participates, whether they are housewives, working women, or unemployed. We understood that we had to unite to break down the barrier which separated us from men and that we could not continue to deal with accumulating problems individually.
La Breche: How do you coordinate with other wives' groups?
Stapleton: Our villages are quite close together, and we can meet easily without any formal structure. We discuss things over a cup of tea. Everywhere wives have had the idea of organizing themselves to support the strikers.
La Breche: What relations have you had with other groups in the women's Coulson: The Greenham Common women have met with the miners' wives.... What is important is that women are up in arms. Some are struggling against the threat of war. We ourselves came here to provide testimony about the strike that we are conducting... We all represent the same struggle: that of women. All of us must fight for representation everywhere in order to spread our ideas.
La Breche: How have the men reacted?
Sheena: They understood that our participation was necessary for their survival and the success of the strike. At night, they are on the picket lines. By day, we organize the life of the community. We prepare the collective meals; we attend meetings... The men have to learn to take care of the children and the household. They do it very well, and they say that they enjoy it. The roles are completely reversed—which is not so extraordinary if you start from the assumption that we are completely equal.
Coulson: I would like to repeat that for the wives, for us, nothing will be the same as before. And, as for the men— what would they do without women?
Scan page 10
ARENA dispute been the nearly 50,000 workers and peasants who opposed both the Duarte regime and the far-right parties, many Christian Democratic elected officials have also been found assassinated by the death squads.
In the past, the U.S. Embassy has thrown its support squarely behind Duarte. This policy was necessary in order to garner additional international support behind the Salvadoran government. It was also designed to try to either drive a wedge into the FMLN by holding out the possibility of a negotiated settlement to the civil war or, if that should fail, to gain support among war-weary sections of the population.
Far from bringing peace, Duarte's policy has led to the acceleration of the air war against FMLN-controlled areas. Civilian casualties under Duarte's presidency have actually increased.
The breakdown in the negotiations with the FMLN has been a serious blow to Duarte's position. The diplomacy involved greatly concerned the far right, while the failure of the effort dashed the hopes of many of those who had supported Duarte because of his stance on negotiations. Duarte now demands that the FMLN lay down its arms as a prior condition for future talks.
Crisis of system
The crisis of the Salvadoran political system is reflected in the rise of assassinations of both far-