The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-03-08
CURRENT EVENTS
By t. J. o'FLAHERTY.

THIS day is set aside by the Com
4 munist international to stress the
Importance of women in the class
struggle. We do not waste our time
discussing whether monogamy is de-
sirable, whether a husband should
paddock his pockets on pay day, or
whether a young woman vacillating
between the choice Of professional
career and a happy home with chill
dren should keep bulldog with a
taste for male blood so that she may
decide the momentous question in
peace. We are now concerned with
the working class woman, with the
slaves Of the factory and the kitch-
ca. The great majority of women
would not recognize an inferiority
complex if they met him on the
street; nevertheless they are treated
as interiors for the same reason that
the Chinese were subjected to abuse
and humiliation until they exchanged
their pigtails for bayonets and
turned their pruning hooks into
swords.
Women workers must organize.
Millions of them participate in in
dustry. With the development of
machinery they left the home and
entered the factory. Today there are
few industries that women do not
participate in. Of the millions of
women employed in industry compar-
atively few are organized. They are
at the mercy of the employers who
babble of the glories of womanhood
and the dangers of radicslism. Wo-
men workers should have their fill
of mush by now. tho the workers,
male and female, are gluttons for
punishment.
Today, in every country where
there is section of the Communist
International, speeches will be deliv-
cred, leaflets will be distributed and
the Importance of organizing the
better half Of the army of labor will
be stressed. Women are the chief
sufferers in strikes and lock-outs.
They have to face the hard-boiled
butcher and the proverbially greedy
landlord. The thought of children
crying for food is not pleasant The
husband is in the thick Of the strug-
gle and understands the why and the
wherefore of the strike. The women
do not.
They read in the capitalist press
that the strike is due to the maehin-
ations of "reds" or to walking dele
gates" The latter, however, do not
do much walking nowadays. They
park themselves in the old armchair
and move only to their meals, to the
cashiers window or to bed. The old
fossilized trade union leaders are no
longer interested in organizing any,
body. Because the wives of strikers
do not always understand the mean
ing of a strike, they are oftentimes
used by the employers TO weaken the
morale of the strikers.
Women have played an important
role in past revolutionary struggles.
In the Russian revolution thousands
of them gave their lives on the bat
tlefields fighting side by side with
the men. The same is true Of every
other struggle great and small where
labor was pitted against the ruling
classes. During the British general
strike and the long drawn out miners
strike their services were invaluable.
The same can be said of Passaic. 1t
is, therefore, the duty of the revolu-
ticnary workers to organize the wo-
men workers politically and indus
trially side by side with the men in
trade unions and in working class
political parties. The task is a big
one. 1t must be accomplished. In
its accomplishment the members of
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