The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.62/No.19           May 18, 1998 
 
 
25 And 50 Years Ago  
May 18, 1973
Some people say that feminist demands are of no concern to Black women. But 700 Black women who met in Detroit a few weeks ago say the opposite. The Women's Conference of Concerns was called by Black Detroit Councilwoman Erma Henderson for Black women to discuss "the many problems affecting employment, career opportunities, child care, the legal status of women, consumer problems, equal pay for equal work."

The large conference held workshops and passed resolutions on a variety of issues, including the terrorist police unit in Detroit called STRESS ("Stop the Robberies, Enjoy Safe Streets"). When the reporter from the workshop on STRESS told the conference that the workshop decision was to take no action on the STRESS issue, a mass outcry of objection came from the audience. The chairwoman decided to handle the dispute by a stand-up vote. When those in favor of demanding abolition of STRESS were asked to stand, almost the entire audience was on their feet. Those who favored STRESS or were undecided were a tiny minority.

Another theme, however, was the recognition that Black women must join forces and form alliances with other oppressed people in order to be effective. They noted that Blacks, women, and Chicanos must unite to fight a common enemy.

The demands being raised by feminists today are in the interest of Black women. Black women and other women from the oppressed nationalities, suffer the most from lack of child care, and unequal pay and job opportunities. They also suffer because they are Black, and because Black women in their vast majority are working women, they are also oppressed as workers. They are triply oppressed.

May 17, 1948
75,000 Auto workers in Michigan, Indiana and California struck against the Chrysler Corporation on May 12 after talks between the union and the company broke down completely. "We'll give them the damnedest strike they ever had," Norman Matthews, head of the union Chrysler department told reporters, as he emerged from a meeting with 100 rank and file representatives of the Chrysler locals.

The union representatives, in the last meeting with the company, scaled down the original demands for a 30 cent hourly wage increase plus 5 cents an hour for supplementary demands to a straight across-the board 17 cent an hour increase. The company turned this down and offered no counter proposal. In big ads run in the Detroit daily papers, the auto union pointed out that Chrysler profits in 1947, after taxes, came to 25.6 % of its investment; greater even than the industry averaged, which was 17 %.

In contrast, the Chrysler workers are forced to live on an income thirteen dollars below the minimum weekly income fixed by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics as the bare subsistence budget for a city worker's family of four.  
 
 
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