The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-12-08

made in organizing the women for
the relief work. The mothers of the
children who were fed in the kitch.
ems, some of the striking women and
others like the cigar, handkerchief
shop workers and housewives were
organized into Working Women's
Councils. These Working Women's
Councils, at this time, number ten
with membership of from thirty to
fifty in each, and they are of several
nationalities. These women had no
previous training in organizations.
They did not know how to conduct a
meeting, or how to act as secretary
or chairman From the beginning,
these women were made to serve on
committees and to talk in their own
language. Business meetings were
conducted in English, and those who
could understand this language ex-
planned to those who could not under
stand all that was transacted at the
meeting. A class for all Council Elk
ecutive Committees was organized in
order to train the women how to con
duct meetings. In short time the
women had learned and now the
meetings are becoming very lively.
Lectures are being held jointly for
all the councils. Outline of lectures
follows:
Why the Workers are Poor.
The Workingclass Mother and her
Children.
What the Unions do for the Work
ers.
Workingwomen's Movements.
The Workingclass Woman and her
Home Life.
Sanitation.
Maternity.
On All Committees.
THE women in the Working Wom-
l ems Councils are serving on all
committees, committees in the kitch-
ems, on the Fairgrounds, committees
visiting organizations, collecting food,
arranging affairs, and committees for
raising funds to feed the children.
| Iney have learned by this time that
the strikers are helped not as charity
but as solidarity in order to help win
the strike, and that it is expected that
the Passaic textile workers viii do
likewise when other workers shall he
engaged in a struggle with their boss
es to better their conditions. Tho
the women in the councils are mostly
strikers themselves or the wives of
strikers, who have been engaged in a
/ bitter struggle for eight months and
are in need themselves, they are now
raising little money for the British
miners.
The Lesson of the Passaic Strike
HOUSEWIVES have often been con-
4 4 sidered of no use except to re-
main at home and attend to house.
mold duties. These housewives have
proven, during the Passaic strike
what a great help they can be in all
labor struggles when they are organ
lzed and made to understand. It
should be remembered that due to the
llgh cost of living the Workingclass
housewives are leaving home more
and more to work in the different in.
dustries. 1t is now almost imnossible
Tor worker to support his family. It
should be understood by organized
labor that there is already a great
mass OF working women in the differ.
ent industries and that more are com.
ing IN and that these women are To
great extent unorganized.
Now Important Factor.
ME working women as well as the
working class housewives are fast |
becoming an important factor in the
economical and political life OF the |
workers. The master class has learn
ed this long before the workers. This
class is doing all it can to use the
workingclass women to its ADVANTAGE
The railroad workers wives are being
organized into an auxiliary of the
company union.
ms Passaic strike proves that the
great mass Of workingclass women in
the factories, shops, and homes can
De made to serve, economically and
politically the interests of the work.
ers. IL must be understood bv all
nose interested in the labor move
ment and by the working men and
women, that all the struggles Of tba
workers to better their conditions
no matter whether they are lighting
ior union, against low wages for
petter homes. cheaper rents. better
schools, against child labor or for
maternity protection, that these strue.
sieS must be carried on unitedly by
tne women and men of the working.
class. "oiAins'