December 4, 1970
SASKATOON, Canada - Over the Nov. 20-21 weekend between
200 and 300 women converged on the University of Saskatoon
for the first national conference of the Canadian women's
liberation movement. The attendance and breadth of the
conference were considered a great success by conference
participants.
The conference was dominated by a debate over the nature and strategy of the women's movement, with some of the participants condemning the whole women's movement as it exists now as "middle-class" and "liberal."
Toward the end of the conference, however, when it became clear that the conference was in essence split, a workshop was held by women who were concerned that some coordinated, common action should come out of the conference. The workshop accepted a proposal for a campaign of activities on the issue of free abortion on demand, culminating in a day of protests across Canada on Feb. 14. This was the only action proposal to come out of the conference.
December 1, 1945
DETROIT, Nov. 21 - The biggest industrial strike in the
nation's history started at 11 o'clock this morning when
225,000 members of the CIO United Automobile Workers poured
out of 102 General Motors plants from coast to coast, to
fight for a 30 per cent wage increase.
This strike is a culmination of unsuccessful negotiations begun with the world's largest industrial corporation three months ago in an attempt to bring take- home pay more nearly in line with the cost in line with the cost of living.
Angered by the refusal of the corporation to negotiate in good faith and goaded byeond enduranne by company provocations in the plants, the GM workers have met the corporation's arrogant, insulting, union-busting tactics with the grim determination to fight it out on the picket lines.
Precisely at 11 a.m., as whistles blew in the distance and gongs rang out inside the plants, those waiting outside the gates shouted "Here they come!" The strikers began pouring out, first in tens, then hundreds, then thousands.
Although most of the GM plants here have laid off women workers, and hired men to take their places in violation of seniority rights, Ternstedt, a unit of West Side Local 174, proved to be an exception. This was evident from the many women workers on the picket lines, and conformed by a conversation with picket captain Robert Walker.
He reported that the women, comprising about half the Ternstedt employees, were "very solid" and ready to fight the wage issue through to the finish. "They would holler their heads off," he said, "at any proposal from the company to accept the union's arbitration offer at this late date. They're out and they're going to stay out." Attractive picket hats, designed in beret style especially for women and bearing the Local 174 insignia, were being issued to the women pickets.