6,000 at International
Some 6,000 women attended the international women's meeting in Paris May 28-30. (See INPRECOR, No.5, 28 April 1977.) They came from many countries, mostly from Europe (nearly every country was represented), but also from other places: Iran, Lebanon, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, the Camerouns, Zaire, Mali, Australia. The speeches in the general assembly and the discussions in the workshops, which were held all day May 29, were extremely rich. The themes discussed included the struggles of women in the factories, unions, and women's groups; the right to jobs and collective facilities; domestic labor; abortion and contraception; sexuality, heterosexuality and lesbianism; maternity and relations between women and children; women's health centers; women's neighborhood centers; rape, violence, and repression; the struggle of women as it relates to the mass media, to nuclear energy, and so on. These discussions were lively, sometimes difficult because of the translation problem, and rich in varied experiences. But there was no idyllic unity of views. Two positions on how to pose the problems of women clashed on the final day of the meeting: that of women who are part of the "class struggle" current, who had initiated this meeting, and that of women for whom the women's liberation struggle takes 10
Women's Meeting
priority over the struggle to liberate the working class as a whole. But the desire of the majority of women present emerged clearly in the May 30 general assembly: This meeting must be the first step toward further international initiatives and must help to strengthen the struggles women are waging in their respective countries. Several specific proposals came out of a meeting synthesizing the workshop discussions:
*a. campaign against political and sexual repression in the prisons leading to a first international action in February
*a common campaign of all the women's movements for March 8, 1978, centered on the right to jobs and for free abortion and contraception on demand;
*the prospect of an international tribunal against rape and violence against women. The idea of an international information bulletin to centralize experiences was also raised as a way of helping these various initiatives to take shape. A meeting of delegates of the various movements was called for October 22-23 to prepare a really international March 8 next year. Before that meeting the texts of the speeches made in the general assembly as well as written summaries of the workshop discussions will be sent out to the various countries.
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