Conference toasts 80 years of the Star

Louise Nousratpour in Eastbourne
Friday March 12, 2010
The Morning Star

WOMEN trade unionists celebrated the 80th birthday of the Morning Star at a TUC women’s conference fringe meeting in Eastbourne on Thursday evening.

NUJ delegate and PPPS management committee member Anita Halpin opened the session with a brief history of the newspaper and its vital role in the labour movement.

She argued that the Morning Star, through its online presence and international subscription, could help strengthen solidarity with movements around the world.

South African ANC MP and Communist Party member Joyce Moloi-Moropa spoke about her country's struggle against inequality and social deprivation.

She reported that progressive women's organisations were engaged in policy-making and that the government was tightening the system to improve laws around domestic violence.

Community-based programmes were also empowering ordinary people to improve health and education in their area.

"We are faced with many challenges," Ms Moloi-Moropa said, highlighting the scarcity of drinking water and land as major problems.

"We have to rely on neighbouring countries for water and most of the land is privately owned, making housing development programmes very expensive."

Ms Moloi-Moropa stressed that progressive politicians like herself were working hard to ensure that solutions to the country's problems were based on a socialist agenda.

"Because we believe that for South Africa, socialism is the future," she declared.

Ms Halpin highlighted that the media in South Africa was as right-wing and hostile to progressive policies as most other countries.

Veteran socialist and feminist Mary Davis stressed the importance of an international women's movement to fight capitalism "which can only survive through dividing the working class along the lines of gender and race."

She called for a "bottom-up mobilisation around the agenda outlined in the People's Charter and the charter for women.

"We should pressure every single parliamentary candidate to take a stand on these progressive demands if they want our vote at the general election."

Ms Davis, who chaired this year's TUC women's conference, expressed disappointment in Equalities Minister Harriet Harman's address to conference earlier on Thursday.

"The essence of her argument was that the Tories are much worse than Labour. We know that. The question is will Labour still implement the draconian spending cuts?

"We say, don't do it. Make the bankers pay for the crisis."