1

 

This Issue

 

This issue which deals mostly on WOMEN comes quite appropriately at a time when the United Nations sponsored Decade of the Women (1975-1985) is at mid-point. We remember the big hoopla and propaganda/media barrage which ushered the Year of the Women in 1975. Most organizations, governments, even churches got taken up by that celebration all in the desire to help in the escalation of the emancipation of women in a largely male-dominated world in which we all live.

In July last, there were. two conferences which were held in Copenhagen. One was UN/governments sponsored, and the other nongovernmental organization (NGO) oriented. There were a lot of the usual speeches, positions, demonstrations, dramatic appearances and walkouts, press conferences, etc., which attended the said meetings. Among a number of developments there, two stood out quite prominently; one, that most, if not all, the women who made it there belonged to the middle class or elites in their own societies, and two, that not only were the UN delegations government sponsored, but that even the non-governmental groups took cue from their respective governments. This second reality did not augur well for the coming up of genuine women's real feelings and conditions. It was indeed difficult for the just aspirations of the millions upon millions of women around the world who are basically 'powerless', destitute* disenfranchised not to say disinherited to be heard. An assertion was made by some voices within NGO conference that the lot of women all around deteriorated instead of improved during the last five years!

This last assertion is the main theme of this issue. Although we do not have here an exhaustive treatment of the issue, there are nonetheless glimpses of the real condition of women in Asia and the Pacific today. If some articles sound positive in their appreciation of the lot of women» they are put here to highlight the usual apologies on the betterment of women, coming from semi or quasi-official circles. The thing is to concentrate on a reality where today's women in Asia are subject to a double type of oppression: That they live in a society which is oppressed economically, socially, culturally by other nations, and that in such oppressed society they are further oppressed by the men.

Two articles - Dr. Abu Mahmud's article on the political economy of Bangladesh and the Open Letter corning from the Three-Self Movement of the churches in China - are meant to alert us on matters of moment!

 

2

 

ANALYSES

 

The Participation of Women in the social reform, political & labour movements in sri lanka

by Kumari jayawardena

 

1980-23.jpg

 

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Today women in many countries are taking part in various types of movements of protest, some of which are serious struggles for economic and social emancipation . One of the important tasks of the politically conscious women's movements has been the writing of the history of the struggles of women for economic and political rights. There have been a spate of new books, in Europe and the U.S.A.. in which little known facts relating to women in protest movements, have been unearthed and publicised. This article cites a few examples of women who have been active in various protest movements in Sri Lanka, in the hope that more research will be done into this topic.

In the history of Sri Lanka, there have been numerous examples of outstanding women, who as mothers, wives and daughters of great kings have made their own contribution to the religious and political events of their times. For example, Sri Lanka was once supposed to have been ruled by a "demon" queen Kuveni, wife of Prince Vijaya who had come with his retinue to Sri Lanka from India. Our history books also record the visit to Sri Lanka of Sanghamitta, daughter of the Emperor Asoka, and give accounts of famous queens such as vihara Haha Devi, Anula Devi, Dona Catherina, Somadevi, and Lilavati. However these exceptional women from royal families did not reflect the prevailing position of women in patriarchal, feudal Society, where women's role was a subordinate one. With the advent of Imperialism to Sri Lanka, the political and social structure of the country underwent basic changes. During Portuguese and Dutch occupation of the country in the 16th and 17th centuries, the traditional religions were suppressed and new political and educational institutions were imposed on the people. The plantation form of economic organization which had been introduced by the Dutch was rapidly developed during British occupation. It was the expansion of plantation capitalism that led to the rise of a Ceylonese bourgeoisie and a working class in the latter decades of the 19th century.

From around 1880 onwards, the Ceylonese bourgeoisie began to make demands for democratic rights, for equality of opportunity and for political reforms. In the 19th century, they expressed their demands through religious and cultural movements, and in the early years of the 20th century, through political movements for reforms. The working class too, from 1890 onwards, began to strike, to form trade unions and to agitate for economic demands and the right to unionise. While these religious, nationalist and working class movements were led by men from the Ceylonese bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie, there were always a few women who supported and joined these protest movements. However it must be stressed that women's participation in the political and social life of the country was and has remained, marginal. Relics of feudalism such as arranged marriages and the dowry system still exist, and even today in Sri Lanka, since capitalism prevails, women play a subordinate role in society.

 

3

 

In order to describe the various forms of struggle in which women in Sri Lanka were involved over the past 100 years, it is necessary to distinguish between two classes of women, first, the working women in the estate, urban and rural sector who were part of the working-class struggles for economic & political rights and second the middle-class women, some of whom campaigned for equal status with middle-class men, and others who fought for the radical changes in existing society.

 

THE WORKING-CLASS AND PEASANT WOMEN

Capitalists have always treated women and children as a good source of cheap labor and Sri Lanka has been no exception. In the 19th century the most exploited group of workers in Sri Lanka was the large semi-proletariat of women workers on the tea plantations, victims of every form of oppression & exploitation. The life of women workers on a plantation was one of endless suffering. They worked from dawn to dusk and then had to cook and look after the family. Wages were paid infrequently and they were then cheated of their money by unscrupulous Kanganies (overseers). Up to the early 1930's wages were 33 cents for men on estates but 25 cents a day for women, although the women did the more important work of plucking the tea leaves. Among estate women, the wage rates were the lowest in the island, and the illiteracy, general mortality, maternal mortality and infant mortality rates were the highest in the island (in 1911, 98.5% of estate women were illiterate today the figure is 52%). Even today, the general mortality, maternal and infant mortality rates on estates are the highest, and the literacy rates the lowest in the country.

In the towns, the worst paid workers were women employed in unskilled work, in factories and other menial occupations. In 1908, the rates of pay of women and girls employed by the Public Works Department to break stones, was between 12 and 36 cents a day. There was also a large group of servants, 67,000 in 1911, mainly women, who worked as semi-slaves for board and lodging and a pittance of a few rupees a month; in this case too, women servants receiving less than men servants.

Another group of women toilers were the peasant women who were subject to feudal forms of oppression and exploitation in the countryside. Not only had they to work and give a part of the crop to the landlords, but according to feudal custom, they did domestic work in the landowners' houses. Today a significant proportion of peasant women work as wage labour and sharecroppers and receive lower wages then the men.

 

THE MIDDLE-CLASS WOMEN

The Ceylonese bourgeoisie composed of land-owners, contractors, arrack renters and professionals arose in the late 19th century, but in spite of their education and wealth, this class had no political rights. The struggle for democratic rights began with the Buddhist revival of the 1880's, the temperance movement and the early nationalist agitation. In these campaigns against foreign rule and foreign cultural domination, many middle-class women came to the forefront. When, in the twenties & thirties, more radical political parties and trade unions were formed, there were women activists in these bodies.

In discussing the women who came forward to assert their economic and political rights, we can distinguish 3 types of struggle.

 

1.   THE CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS REVIVAL

The revival of Buddhism and Hinduism in the 1880's, the temperance campaigns of 1904 and 1912, and the Buddhist education movement were the first manifestations of anti-imperialism that emerged in Sri Lanka. Many wealthy Buddhist women came forward to help in this challenge to foreign and missionary cultural domination. When Colonel Olcott and Helena Blavatsky arrived in Lanka in 1880 and started the Buddhist Theosophical Society, they were the guests of Mrs. Wijeratne of Galle, wife of a P & O Contractor, Mrs. Andrew Persia of Galle and Cecilia Illangakoon of Matara. The latter entertained Olcott at her home, where a meeting for 2500 was organized; she joined the Theosophical Society and financed the 1st editions in English and Sinhala of Colonel Olcott's "Buddhist Catechism". This book which spearheaded the Buddhist education campaign became a text in Buddhist schools, and according to Olcott, was very popular in Buddhist homes.

Apart from Helena Blavatsky, there were several other remarkable foreign women who influenced the Buddhist revival and education movement. Among these were Annie Besant, fearless critic of Christianity, champion of the London Match girls strike and founder of the Fabian Society. As a Theosophist she visited Sri Lanka, in 1893 and 1908. Several influential foreign women, Ethel, wife of Ananda Coomaraswamy, Museaus Higgins and Mrs. A.E. Preston, and in later years Hilda Kularatne, Clara Motwani and Doreen Wickremasinghe, also made valuable contributions to the cause of educating Buddhist women.

Several Tamil women were prominent in the cultural field, among them Hangalanayayam Thambiah, who in 1914 wrote a very popular novel criticising the system of arranged marriages, and Mrs. S. Sellammal ,who wrote novels in the early twenties on social reform and the problems facing women. Another Tamil woman who was prominent in the twenties was Sellachi Amma who invaded a hitherto male preserve - the vocation of mystic saint and "guru". She was radical in outlook and advocated freedom for women.

 

2.   THE STRUGGLE FOR POLITICAL RIGHTS

Professional middle-class women, especially teachers and doctors, began to become politically conscious in the first decades of the 20th century and a few of them joined nationalist organizations. Associated with the earliest radical nationalist organization, the Young Lanka League formed in 1915, was Nancy Wijekoon, a school teacher, who was well known for her stirring nationalist poetry. During the 1915 Riots she came under suspicion and was followed by the police. Reports by the Inspector General of Police, H. Dowbiggin, mention her "seditious" poetry, which reminded Ceylonese of their past glory and urged them to rise up against the foreigner.

When the Ceylon National Congress was formed in 1919, here were several women delegates at the first sessions. They were Dr. Nalamma Burugesan (who later married the estate trade union leader, Satyawagiswara Aiyar), Miss I. Ganguli a Theosophist teacher from Bengal, and Mahesvari Seqararasingbam, daughter of Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam.

Sarojini Naido who visited Sri Lanka in 1922, inspired the Ceylonese middle-class women with her eloquent speeches on nationalism. Within the Ceylon National Congress, the women campaigned through their organizations allied to the Congress. For example, at the Congress Sessions of 1925, a resolution of the Mallika Kulangana Samitiya that " a limited suffrage be immediately extended to the women of this country," was proposed by Aseline Thomas and seconded by Agnes de Silva (wife of George E. de Silva ), a leading nationalist politician of the time.

 

4

 

When the Donoughmore Commission on the reform of the Constitution came to Ceylon in 1927, the Women's Franchise Union was formed to give evidence before the commission demanding the franchise for all women. The main activists were Agnes de Silva, Lady Daisy Bandaranaike (mother of S.W.R.D.), Mrs. R.S.S. Sumana Gunewardene, Mrs. Satyawagiswara Aiyer, Mrs. H.H. Gunasekera and Mrs. A.B. Goonesingha.

After adult franchise was won in 1931, middleclass women formed several organizations including the Lanka Mahila Samiti and the Women's Political Union both inspired by Dr. Mary Rutnam, a doctor of Canadian origin who was at the forefront of many social service organizations. She also started the Tamil Women's Union in Colombo along with Annamah Muttiah, later a teacher of Ladies College, Colombo. Another leader of the feminist movement in the thirties was Mahesuari Navaratnam, who had studied at Tagore's Santiniketan and had been influenced by the Indian cultural and political movements. She edited "Tamil Mahal" (Tamil Woman ) which advocated the emancipation of women.

The first woman elected to legislative was Naysum Sazavanamuttu in 1931, and since then there have been several women in parliament and women Ministers and Deputy Ministers. Middle-class women, through various organizations such as the Ceylon Women's Conference led by Ezlynn Bsraniyagala, continued to press for certain rights such as jury service for women and the right of women to join the Ceylon administrative service and the diplomatic service, (which have been subsequently granted ) and general questions concerning the status of women.

 

3.   STRUGGLES OF WORKING WOMEN

Women have also been active in the trade union movement and in radical and Marxist political parties. In spite of the high rate of exploitation on plantations there were on trade unions on estates until 1931 - a hundred years after the opening of the first coffee plantation in Sri Lanka. This was because the workers were not free to organize and were kept in a semi-serf condition. One of the early methods of protest against oppressive conditions on plantations was the "bolting" of workers from their places of work. This was one of the many offences under the Labour Ordinance of 1865 under which many women were sentenced to terms of imprisonment with hard labour. In 1916, Ponnambalam Arunachalam referred to an advertisement in a paper offering a reward of Rs. 50/- for any person who arrested half a dozen "bolted coolies" including a woman described as "sickly, with a baby in arms and two other children". The Workers League in 1915 protested against cases of women and children imprisoned for labour offences and referred to two women sentenced by the Badulla Magistrate on a charge of "insolence". The Attorney General in 1916 was against exempting women from the provisions of the labour ordinance on the ground that "labourers employed on estates are very primitive and a woman may be quite as capable of giving trouble as a man". Subsequently this law was repealed.

The early strikes among the urban wage workers were in trades that were purely male occupations - printers, carters, laundry men, and railway & harbour workers. But during the general strike of 1923, led by A.E. Goonesinha and the Ceylon Labour Union, when 20,000 workers of Colombo, in both the private and public sector struck work , the women workers at factories joined their men comrades on strike. This was the beginning of the staunch support that A.E. Goonesinha acquired among the urban working-class women. The band of militant women dressed in red, became an impressive feature of every subsequent strike, procession, demonstration and May Day rally organised by Goonesinha's Labour Union. Those who opposed Goonesinha used to denounce them as "fishwives", but these women, some of whom have factory workers and others itinerant hawkers, were fearless, militant women who courageously came to the forefront of all working-class struggles. The women in Goonesinha's Women's volunteer Corps included Emalias Hamy of Hunupitiya, an active and militant fighter who is remembered for an incident that occurred during the famous tramway strike of 1929, when she garlanded the tram company owner, Cedric Boustead, with a snake! Other activists were Isabella Hamy of Wanathamulla, Pavistina Hamy who worked at Hayleys in Maradana and Emmy Nona, a worker at Harrisons and Crossfield.

By the early thirties, sections of the middleclass women had become more ideologically and politically class-conscious, and were therefore willing to join the urban and plantation workers in their struggles. In the plantation sector, the first trade union was formed by K. Matesa Aiyar and Satyawagiswara Aiyar in 1931. Mrs.Satyawagiswara Aiyar who was a doctor,devoted her time to work on the plantations and Mrs. Natesa Aiyar made a sensation by appearing at public meetings and thrilling the crowds with her songs describing the sufferings of the estate workers. In the period after 1945, many Tamil women from estates became active in the trade union movement that grew in strength. Among them Kokilam subbiah is best known for the novels she wrote on the degraded position of men and women on plantations.

In the urban sector, many women became active in the labour movement after the formation by A.E. Goonesinha of the Ceylon Labour Party in 1928 , and Agnes de Silva contested, but lost the Galagedera seat as a Labour Party candidate. The other women who were on the Executive Committee of the Labour Party included Dr. Satyawagiswara Aiyar, Mrs. A . B . Pres ton , the English Theosophist, Mrs. A.E.(Caroline) Goonesinha. Mrs. Richard de Silva, Mrs. Cyril {Madlin) Jayawardena and Eva and Jennie Ferdinando. Madlin Jayawardena who was a nurse by profession, was one of the most active women in the Labour Party, and was a member of the Dehiwela - Mt. Lavinia Urban Council during the 2nd World War.

In the early thirties, the Youth Leagues of radical nationalists and Socialists had been formed all over Sri Lanka and many women were active members, including Susan (de Silva) Caidera. When the anti-imperialist Suriya Mal Movement was formed in opposition to the sale of poppies ( for British ex-servicemen) on Armistice Day, its best known members were women, including the President Doreen Wickremasinghe, wife of Dr. S.A. Wickremasinghe. She was the Principal of Ananda Balika Vidyalaya and many teachers of that school, Lilian Bandaranaike, Eva de Mel, Helen de Alwis, Violet (shirani) Carnage and others, were active in the campaign.

In a pamphlet on the importance of the Suriya Mal Movement, Eileen Wirasekera and Helen de Alwis wrote:

"Wear the Suriya flower on November 11th and demonstrate ... Your self-respect and independence.... Register your refusal to encourage participation in Imperialist War. Every Suriya Mala is a blow against Imperialism, Fascism and War. Wear the Suriya mala for Freedom and Peace."

 

5

 

Many of these women teachers and their students made the yellow Suriya mal emblems and sold them on the streets in the face of opposition from the police and colonial authorities.

During the malaria epidemic of 1934 (when around 100,000 people died) all the Suriya Mal Organizers and other politically minded women like Selina Piens (Mrs. N.M. Perera), worked in the Kegalle and Ruanwella areas where the epidemic was at its worst. When in 1935, the island's first Socialist party, the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (L.S.S.P.)was formed, the party consisted of many women militants including Susan de Silva, Doreen Wickremasinghe and Selina Perera. In 1931 and in 1937, one of India's best known women nationalists, Kamaladevi Chattopadyaya, made visits to Sri Lanka. During her visit in 1937, she attracted the attention of the police & government as she made a speaking tour of the country along with the L.S.S.P. leaders.

In the late thirties and early forties, a few young women graduates of the Colombo University were active in the left movement - among them Vivienne Goonewardena and Sita Wickremasuriya who were militant members of the L.S.S.P. and the Communist party respectively. The L.S.S.P. leaders were arrested in 1940 and subsequently escaped to India with their wives. The women members of the L.S.S.P. in India during the war were Selina (Sheela) Perera, who stayed on in India and became known for her trade union work in Calcutta, Caroline Gunewardena, who married trade union leader S.C. Antonyillai and stayed on in Madras, Kusuma Gunewardena, (wife of Philip Gunewardena)who was arrested in India and deported to Ceylon and Vivienne Goonewardena (wife of Leslie Goonewardena) who evaded arrest during this period. Florence Senanayake, Trixie Mendis, Seelawathie Lassie, Jean Moonesinghe, Irangani and Kamini Heedeniga, and many other women members of the L.S.S.P. were active in politics and trade union actively in the post war years.

During the war years (1939-1945), Hedi Keuneman, an Austrian by birth, became very popular among the Colombo workers because of her political work for the Communist Party (of which she was a founder member in 1943 ) and her militant support of workers' demands. Many working-class women took a more active interest in union activities during the war - especially the women workers in the tea- packing and fibre factories of Colombo. The best known of these are ponsinahamy of Wanathamulla, a worker at Hayley & Kenneys, who was one of the militants of the Ceylon Trade Union Federation. She was one of the group of women workers, led by Hedi Keuneman , who during the tramway strike of 1945 lay down on the tramrails to prevent the trams from moving and were involved in fisticuffs with the Police. She was a well-known speaker at C.P. meetings, one of the star attractions because of her fiery oratory. Another woman famous in the trade union sphere was a Muslim from Slave Island, Maimoon who worked at Hendersons, and was a C.T.U.F. activist.She was a well-known platform speaker in Sinhala and Tamil and a familiar figure during the strikes of war and post war years. These two women leaders, Ponsinahamg and Maimoon were influential both at their places of work and in their neighbourhoods .During elections the left candidates agents would canvass for votes along with these two, as they wielded enormous political influence among the working class of their areas. They were class conscious women, who were politically more advanced than A.E. Goonesinha's militant band of women. They used to attend study classes for women held by the C.P.& during the post war period of industrial unrest and general strikes, they led the women workers in strike activity and demonstrations.

In the post war years, the women activists in the C.P. included Pieter Keuneman's wife Maud ( nee Robertson ) who had worked closely with R. Palrne Dutt in the British Communist Party. Maud Enema, until her death in 1971, was the editor of the Communist Party English journal "Forward".

 

THE POSITION TODAY

There are women in almost all middle-class professions and several women are among the country's leading specialists in certain branches of medicine. There are also a few women Professors at the Universities, and women have distinguished themselves in law, architecture, literature, journalism and in many other professions. All these women receive equal pay and there is no discrimination against women at this level.

However, the exploitation of women is today one of the crucial problems to be tackled. Of the workforce around 38 to 40% are women workers. In the tea and rubber plantations, the majority of workers (nearly 300,000) are women. In industries such as spinning and weaving, finishing of textiles , garment manufacturing and the manufacture of beedies over 50% of the work force consists of women workers. Women are employed in almost all categories of unskilled work and are a source of cheap labour. In agriculture there are several lakhs of women employed in paddy cultivation, a large proportion of them working as daily paid wage-labor.

All these working women, whether in industry or agriculture receive lower wages than men for similar work.

The disparities between wages of working men and women vary. For example in the tea industry the daily minimum wage for a man is Rs. 3.38 ( about U.S. 75 cents), but for a woman it is Rs.2.93( US 40 cents). In rubber, the figures are Ks.3.93 and Rs.3.08, and in coconut Rs.3.93 and 2.98 as between men and women. The tea and rubber industries which account for 74% of the country's exports and are the major foreign exchange earners  are based on the cheap labour of women workers, who account for over 50% of the labour force on these plantations. The question of equal pay is one of the main issues which women in Sri Lanka have to take up. Hitherto the question has not been raised as a major issue, but with the growing political consciousness among women, the question is bound to become an issue of vital importance.

Today among both men and women - in political parties, trade unions and other organizations - there is a new interest in the struggle for full equality between men and women. While it is true that the emancipation of women in Sri Lanka cannot be achieved under conditions of capitalism, based as it is on the exploitation of the working people , nevertheless, the awakening that is taking place among women about the nature of their exploitation, is a necessary condition of their participation in the general struggle of men and women for liberation.

 

_____________

From LOGOS, vol. 13, No.2

 

6

 

Women in Politics

by Khur Shid Jalal

 

1980-25.jpg
 

 

The women of Bangladesh have political and legal rights comparable to any developed country, but in reality they have yet to make their existence felt. Women have entered few professions. By all standards a political career for a woman is one of the few, if not the most unusual professions. In order to find out the socio-economic background of women in active politics, their attitudes towards various social and political issues concerning women and the problems they themselves face in having an active political career, a small survey was carried out in 1974. Only those who entered politics (student or mass politics) in the fifties and are still in active politics were interviewed.

 

_____________

From "WOMEN FOR WOMEN", University Press Ltd., Bangladesh.

 

7

 

The entry of these women into active politics shows two definite patterns. For the older group who took part in the first election in 1954 it was a chance of entry. They were in no way connected with active politics before contesting the election. They did seek the nomination of different parties but not because of strong affiliations for that party. Almost all those interviewed became members of the political parties just prior to their filling in the nomination paper. When asked why they did not join the other parties some of the UF women candidates said they had no particular option as the women's seats were distributed among the constituent parties of the United Front according to a certain formula. They played the game keeping in mind that entry into a certain party would give the best chances of winning the UF ticket -— the surest entry to the legislature. Political conviction was of secondary importance — the arithmetic of winning the party ticket was the dominating criterion coupled with family connection, and the persuasion of friends. Social work was their only interest outside their family except for a few who were teachers.

The younger group came into active politics quite early. They were in student politics during their school/college days and continued their interest up to university level. This gave them the chance to establish themselves as student leaders and therefore to become automatically acceptable to the elder politicians. From student politics they graduated to their respective parent parties. These women displayed a firmer faith in their party policies compared to the older group. They were more categorical and firm in their political convictions. At least one of them, as a major functionary of the organization, used to wield great power in party matters.

 

FAMILY BACKGROUND

Our women political leaders, old or young, all belong to the middle or upper middle class. They came from a privileged background. Although many came from purdah-observing Muslim families they were fortunate enough to have education up to graduation level or above.

It is interesting to note that all my interviewees were married and had children. These housewive-politicians spoke of the help and cooperation received from their husbands. In the life of a woman political leader family encouragement and support is essential. This can be seen clearly if one looks at the women winners of the 1954 election, which included a grand-daughter, a daughter and finally a daughter-in-law of a political figure.

 

POLITICAL APPOINTMENTS

That women politicians are relatively new in politics compared with their male counterparts, was adequately reflected in the occupation of party positions by the women leaders. Only one of them acquired a party position in competition with men. All others held positions specifically reserved for women. They figured in the central body of the party by virtue of being the President/Secretary of the Women's Branch which is usually treated as a sub-committee of the party. Their exclusion from the main body did not significantly disturb the women members, nor did they feel left out.

Did this reflect an unfavourable male attitude? The interviewees general reply was negative. They felt the fault lay with the women political workers themselves and not with their male colleagues. On one occasion after the senior colleagues had been gaoled the Secretary of the women's branch was made the party Secretary. Her leadership was accepted by all without protest. 'This shows a woman's acceptability to male politicians.

When questioned about the greater participation of women in politics most respondents said they were gratified by the increasing number of women now in the political field. In 1974 after partition this degree of political awareness was not present. Women's participation in the elections was not at all competitive. They took part in the election without much opposition. And before women could participate in real politics, martial law suspended all political activities for several years. From 1969, after the mass upsurge politics were revived and political developments moved rapidly. Women's participation would have been more apparent, women leaders believe, if they could have contested elections directly rather than receive the protection of reserved seats. They also complained that the lack of incentives and proper guidance for party work disheartened the new entrants. Only a few very enthusiastic members could overcome these initial difficulties and remain with the party. In the absence of set rules and definite objectives party work became uninteresting. The tempo set by the party's election campaign dies down soon after the election is over. A woman politician remarked , "Ours is a party which functions only as an election forum".

 

RESERVED SEATS FOR WOMEN IN PARLIAMENT

Their reaction to the existing constitutional provisions for reservation of women's seats is, to say the least, not easy to comprehend. This is in fact a continuation of the arrangements made in the Legal Framework Order of 1970 under which the general elections were held. Fifteen women's seats are reserved under the Constitution; the electorate is constituted by the members of Parliament elected directly by the people in general seats. In effect women have an essentially male constituency. Their attitude seems confusing or even contradictory. The leaders do not like the present system of indirect elections in theory, but they do not oppose it either and talk of possible alternatives only in loose and vague terms. It would seem that the merit of the existing system appears to them so clearly and unequivocally, an interim measure; , that they could not reject it nor was it possible for them, from a theoretical and a long-term point of view, to support the postulates upon which the provisions are built. It was evident that with the exception of one, all of those interviewed were exceedingly pleased in getting fifteen women's seats reserved as it would have been impossible, probably, to get a fraction of this figure elected through direct elections.

Women politicians feel that this is certainly the best they could achieve under the present circumstances. They are, however, of the view that in future this should be replaced by direct election by women for women's seats. "The longer we enjoy these sorts of small favours the slower will be our progress towards achieving our rights said the dissenter. Some members protested against this system, but agreed that the Liberation War had disrupted our communications system to a colossal extent and it would have been impossible for, all women candidates to reach their constituencies during the March 1973 elections even if the electorate had been formed by women only. In any case they appreciated that if women were eager to contest through direct election there was no bar to their doing so. In fact a few female candidated did contest in the general elections and if the situation had been better in the country more could have done so.

The enormous problem of having over one million 

 

8

 

voters per constituency spread over nearly four thousand square miles plus attendant logistics problem does not suggest that this would be the ideal solution. The 1954 system of women legislators being elected exclusively by the women voters living in municipal towns did not also commend itself in these days of mass politics. On this point, a very frank opinion was expressed by one politician. She said that because of weighty practical considerations she accepted the present system and felt it would have been impossible for any party even to name fifteen competent female candidates in general seats, and to see all of them win would be impossible. Hence it was advisable to accept the present arrangement until women were strong enough to claim their rightful place. But she was a staunch supporter of direct elections with no reservation for women. On this issue another member was of the view, "Let us wait and see, we might even go for direct election in reserved seats for women for the next few terms before we ask for equal treatment; we should not ask for something which is beyond us". Their acceptance of the reserved seats provision of the constitution might apparently look contradictory in view of their strong views but their reaction shows a shrewd acceptance of the reality.

The collective opinion gathered from the persons interviewed is that, by and large, the male attitude towards women in politics was favourable. With women politicians men colleagues showed special consideration but none would say it was due to the fact that they found the ladies less competent. It was so just due to the social taboos that influenced them. In fact in the party meetings at times the men did resist if any favour was shown to the women. They accepted them as co-participants and co-workers. As workers they did not generally show any discrimination. They believed that as members of the party they were in no way less qualified than their male counterparts; also that the few prominent women politicians we have were in no way inferior to the general standard that was reflected in the party rank and file. At times the women feel and act in ways injurious for the women members. "Why blame the men when we women are incompetent in work and fail to prove our worth"? was the remark made by a veteran woman in politics. The younger women in politics integrate more easily. She usually associated with her colleagues in student politics and for her, life in the party was the easiest thing to handle. With her the main female problem of immobility was also of limited importance.

 

POLITICS AND HOME

When questioned as to the effects of a political career on a women's home life, the reaction of more than halt the interviewees was that they faced the usual problems a women as a member of a "conservative society has to face while working outside the home." They were of the opinion that as politics was an unusual profession where less women were involved, initially they were frowned upon; but with an enlightened and understanding home front these difficulties are not insurmountable. They also thought that politics was a game which does not have any fixed rules so a participant had to be on guard all the time. For women who had to look after a full time job this imposed some difficulties but such problems were common to most working women. In view of this the respondents felt it would be wrong to say that politics is not for women, "When we say that a home and a career are not incompatible, it applies to and includes a political career as well" - said one with a long political career to her credit. A political career, it was felt, was within the reach of any educated, conscientious , hard-working woman.

 

WOMEN'S LIB

When asked to say something on the 'Women's Lib" movement in the West some expressed complete ignorance. One labelled it as a meaningless and purposeless whim of some of the women of capitalistic society, and she felt very strongly that this would never bring any permanent good to women. The general consensus of opinion was that it was inapplicable and irrelevant to our society because we already had our rights. The task here was to translate these rights into reality, to make the best use of them. Our women were still far behind the women of many advanced countries. They were yet to be freed from the curse of illiteracy. Their economic and social conditions were much worse than those of other emancipated women. It would be incongruous to think of such a movement in the present context of our society.

The majority of the interviewees were of the view that being a woman was not a handicap for political participation. The liberation movement and the war made women politically more alert. The dormant feminine political spirit had been awakened and conditions were favourable for the women of our country for participation and recognition not only in the field of politics but also in other fields as well. The heroic deeds of a number of female freedom fighters during the Liberation War had earned us some real credit. They believed that if only our women could recognize and utilize the expanding opportunities they could go forward without much resistance. In future we could expect significant women leadership to emerge in some of the political parties. In fact all the interviewees believed that women with their innate understanding, orderly, compassionate and sincere natures could give better leadership. The very fact that women were coming forward in large numbers both in urban and rural areas, mainly due to economic pressure, proved that there has been a great awakening among our women. This was bound to be reflected in politics and their participation would be substantially broad-based. In future participants will not be just from the privileged section of society.

 

WORKLOAD

It is difficult to get any clear picture of the exact workload of the female politicians. Except in one case where she had some definite duties to perform as a leading office bearer of her party, most of them talked of attending party meetings only. During election time the women members took part in election campaigns and went for relief work after a natural calamity. In some areas they were also making efforts to set up cooperatives, family planning and child-care clinics. But all this work was being done by those who were involved in or connected with some social welfare organizations. These politicians felt that as social welfare is complementary to politics and vice versa the end goal of both being the same-public service, it was a part of their political activities to be in social service also.

Their other task lies in their effort to emancipate our women. Some of them admit that the very fact of their being in politics and working shoulder to shoulder with men does encourage others to come forward. At times while on a visit to the remoter places of the country, they came across many rural women who were more eager to listen to them rather than to the male workers. They had an easy approach to our rural women and would influence them greatly. The only question was how frequently they would visit remote areas.

 

9

 

Bangladesh: The Bottom of the World-Capitalist Pit (Part III)

by Dr. Abu Mahmood

 

We turn to the mode of production and the nature of the superstructure that have emerged. Given the dependent pittance of industry and its extension to agriculture in the form of Green Revolution technology, those who call the state "neo-colonial" & run by a bureaucrat-military comprador state-apparatus are not far off the mark. As a matter of fact Bangladesh is sandwiched between two powerful constraints: one international and the other national. After the formal Independence from direct colonialism, neo-colonialism took this form. We are ruled by a class who are denationalized mercenary group backed by imperialist finance and military force. Although country is still maintaining a stance of independence, and proclaims parliamentary democracy being practiced, it is a cruel facade for ruthless oppression, extermination and unprecedented exploitation at a scale never done even in the colonial days. The international constraint is maintaining a dependent capitalist mode of production & utilizing the non-capitalist subordinate mode of production to finance the colonial mode of capitalist production to the benefit of monopoly and multi-national phase of world capitalism. To characterize the present mode of production as "semi-feudal" and "semi-colonial" inspired by Mao would be wrong because it does not analyse how non-capitalist sector is being utilized for strengthening the process of capitalist exploitation instead of liquidating it.

 

IDENTIFICATION OF THE MODE OF PRODUCTION

The task of delineating the mode of production is an extremely complex one. It has to be historically rooted, structurally determined and culturally situated. The continuity of Bengal's history has been broken several times before the British came on the scene. But never before was it shaken up so violently and linked up with the world capitalist mode of production in a structurally dependent sort of way. Bengal had a highly developed native community with indigenous long-distance and cross-country trade with Europe via the Middle-East starting from Indonesia to Western Europe. It used to carry oriental handicrafts, spices and other artifacts which had good market in Europe. But as middle-men the Arabs played a dominating role in transport and distribution.

But with the arrival of Clive and subsequent defeat of Sirajudollah, the penetration and extension of the capitalist mode in its predatory commercial phase started. Since then, in every aspect of social, economic, institutional and political life of Bengal's history, we find both in the basic structure and superstructure colonial relationships imposed by an alien ruler. Two sets of forces, one characterized by the level and growth of the capitalist mode of production in the metropolis and the other, the pre-capitalist mode of production with its natural economy, and thin layer of handloom and cottage industry to cater for the needs of the feudal lords and their retainers in the cities and parts of very low level of productive forces, the prevalent social differentiation and politics of intrigue and subversion that ruled in those outlying states of the Moghul Emperor - became fused and struggled for supremacy. The correlation of these forces explains the occasional regional disparities that happen under the same colonial system and results in extremely diverse colonial types.

In the case of Bengal, the land system was reorganized, plantation-type of agriculture introduced , subsequently cash crops of various types were introduced and forcibly culturated at the behest of the colonial rulers for maximizing surplus extraction and appropriation and export to metropole. Although much sophistication in trade and methods were introduced, the basic relationship of exploitation and use of merchant capital of European industrialists and their state-power to stabilize the relationship of structure-in-dominance and structure-insubordination remained more or less the same even today.

On the basis of the recent debates on the mode of production that were published in the Economic and Political Weekly of Bombay (EPW) and the debate on the interpretation of the 19th century Indian history, it is possible to interpret the Bengal's mode of production in a very different way. The debates in the EPW, though extremely sophisticated & carried on abstract level, were helpful in clarifying con-

 


 

10

 

cepts but were inconclusive due to the lack of historical rooting of the entire discussion. It is really surprising that most of the participants used Marxist concepts and terminology, yet very few of them paid attention to Marx's works on the issues, particularly Capital, vol. Ill, Chapter XXXV, and Part IV, especially chapter XLVII, and V.I. Lenin's the Development of Capitalism in Russia, especially Chapter II - section XIII, which provide important reference points to the Indian debate. For example, Utsa Pathaik argued in the course of her debate that neither the existence of landless labourers nor production for the market indicate that capitalism had penetrated or altered the production relations in the countryside. It is true that production for market or differentiation by themselves can mean capitalist-relations. But it is a historical fact that with the defeat of the Nawab of Bengal, and after the concession the British got from Delhi, the eruption of capitalist relation happened in Bengal and there is no evidence that the stranglehood of European capitalist ever waned in history. The introduction of plantation-cultivation, trade-concession, and induction of merchant capital in trade, all done through state-power, had the objective of dominating the native mode of production. For that purpose, they made suitable changes both on the superstructural level through legal, ideological, political and institutional mechanism, and on the level of basic structure they used new cash crops, plantation, and subordinated the non-capitalist mode of production to subsidize the capitalist mode of production dominated by the European merchant capital.

In the light of these observations, Rudra's mechanization-criteria, Patnaik's emphasis on the reinvestment of surplus in expanded reproduction can be an argument to show that development of capitalism was not taking place as it happened in Western Europe, their reference points, but their argunent does not nullify the fact that capitalism penetrated into the local mode of production, and dominated the system through state-power and superior-technology & and capital accumulation. The function of such foreign merchant-capital is to introduce colonial exploitation through forced production and unequal trade, and export surplus value thus appropriated to the metropolis for turning into industrial capital. And Chattopadhyay's defence of Lenin's position that the existence of generalized commodity production - is not a convincing argument in the case of colonial economy. He does not take into account of Marx's key statement in Capital, vol. Ill...... "it is the mode of production - whether that of the conquering nation or of the conquest or of the new system brought about by the merging of the two that determines the new mode of distribution employed Although the latter appears to be a precondition of the new period of production, it is in turn a result of production, a result not simply occasioned by the historical evolution of production in general, but by a specific historical form of production. " (emphasis added). Marx warned us against a schematic conclusion, and never denied that there can be more than one mode of production in a transitional society.

The changes in the modes of production, and the dominance of the colonial forms of capitalism took place through the stages of penetration, consolidation, dissolution, and domination of neo-colonialism. This point was high-lighted in succinct terms by Ziemann and Lanzendorfer: "The type and structure of the peripheral production relations have to be seen as a product of the encounter of the worldwide economic system with technologically backward societies, in which elements of the original society interlock with the elements of the dominant society." (State in Peripheral Societies", Socialist Registrar, 1977, p. 157). Their main contention is that peripheral societies are marked by a dynamic element as well as ''a static element of stagnation where "thro" the spread of capitalist production relations, the non-capitalist are themselves produced and reproduced. (see op cit. p. 159)

The dominance of the capitalist mode of production can be traced back to indigo-cultivation and more clearly from the beginning of the tea plantation & jute cultivation. In order to undertake such ventures elastic supply of labour forces was needed. The ascendancy of capitalism for the imperialist relations as the predominant form of production relations and profound consequences for Bangladesh mode of production characterized by the allocation of land by the conquest of the native "Zamindar" (rich peasants or landlords ) on permanent settlement and extraction of surplus production mainly in the form of sharecropping, rent collection and other multiple forms of tribute collections inspite of incursion of capitalist forces through plantation and fibre cultivation for exports. The Nengals' non-capitalist mode of production were largely self-sufficient with occasional marginal short-falls that they were able to produce - the products required for the reproduction of their population. Handlooms and cottage industries supplied the local needs for industrial goods. It was this self-sufficiency that necessitated to be broken if labor-forces were to be produced on the scale at rates required both for the cultivation of export-goods and to fight for the empire. The result was to employ extra-economic coercive measures. The net-result of these measures was to undermine the self-sufficiency of Bengal's non-capitalist mode and hence guarantee an adequate supply of labor power for capitalist production. However, the proletarianization of the production of the Bengal's non-capitalist modes was only partial in the sense that while Bengalees sold their labour power in the capitalist mode they retained their access to land in the non-capitalist mode, and periodically went back to live on this land or usually kept their families there. It was because of partial proletarian system, and the migrant labour system that went with it, that was functional to capital accumulation that it was needed to be perpetuated. Most importantly, famility production with the non-capitalist mode (NCM) served to supplement the wages paid in the capitalist mode (CMP). This enabled capitalists to pay a wage far below what they would have otherwise (in the absence NCM) to pay and the rate of profit and capital accumulation were accordingly higher.

Secondly, NCM provided a non-expensive sector for adding to the pool of the reserved army of labor, not immediately required in the capitalist production, at minimal cost to the state. This reserve army fulfilled the usual function of keeping down the wage of, and disciplining, the semi-skilled & unskilled workers.

Thirdly, the NCM offered a way of providing, again at minimal cost to the state, for those who were permanently marginalized, that is permanently excluded from the production process in the capitalist mode as capital intensity increased.

It also provides a means for maintaining the young, aged, sick, etc. These factors explain the "articulation of the dominant CMP and the NCM and the over-riding tendency to conserve rather than dissolve these aspects of the latter which were functional to capital accumulation.

The explanation for the continued stranglehood of feudal forces in the agricultural sector, in the extraction of labour power from NCM for capitalist production. An important feature of the NCM in Bengal in the limited extent of commodity production and therefore very weak tendencies present for the undermining of the traditional powers of the "jotdors" (landowners) as a result of com-

 

11

 

modity production, the reason for this is that if Bengalis were to be forced to sell their labour power, they would have to be denied the option of providing/selling or alternatively production / selling agriculture goods which must be appropriated by middle interests subservient to the capitalist sector. The result was that the general pattern, commodity production in the agricultural sector must be monopolized by rural bourgeoisie, but the industries of commodity production reserved for the ruling class and production in the NCM to be used for subsistence purposes to supplement wages paid in the CMP. Although in the early stages of capitalist development and in Pakistani days Bengali peasants commodity production had been significant their share started progressively falling since state-sponsored planning with private enterprise started, and it fell multilinearly during the Shaik's time to accommodate his political hanger-on. Trading interests emerged as commercial bourgeoisie with the help of local bourgeoisie and the ruling class, and subsequently foreign merchant capital stepped up through foreign banks and insurance and by various economic measures taken by the present government to facilitate profit extraction and capital flight.

 

THE BENGALI RULERS AND THE BENGALI MIDDLE CLASS

In order to distinguish them from peasantry and workers, the groups will be referred to collectively as the Bengali "middle-class".

The classical "petty bourgeoisie "such as traders & small-scale producers employing non-family labour was quite strong before the Partitian and since most of them belonged to Hindu community and had indirect state patronage, they left Bangladesh leaving fields almost vacant for the Muslims to step in. Though handloom and other cottage industries, fisheries, oil-crushing, etc. were taken over by the Muslims, the entire domestic supply of industrial goods were monopolized by West Pakistani organized industries started under state patronage. The production and distribution of such commodities were captured by non-Bengali vested interests because of trading licenses and bank loans though issued by East Pakistan government were centrally controlled. The activities of petty producers supplying wage-goods, including food, came to be controlled by a new class "jotdors" and "arat-dors". In addition there were other problems related to finance, technology and knowledge, market structure that tended to discourage the emergence of a strong patty bourgeoisie particularly during the Pakistan period when the group lacked access to power. The Kulak class that had emerged during Ayub-Momen regime got further help under Mujib regime providing multiple opportunities for further expansion of the class.

The traditional ruling class who gained control of the state apparatus at independence were part of Bengali "middle class", their control of state power gave them opportunities for self-aggrandisement. Most important of those was the opportunity to strengthen their economic base. Those who were in strategic economic positions like economic management, banking , commercial policy-making and in the control of external resources, soon aggrandised themselves both economically and politically to be incorporated in the upper levels of the state-apparatus particularly during the Mujib regime and further assisted in the process by the Zia regime because of his lack of political base. Thus the "upper levels" and those close to them secured positions in trading , medium-sized agricultural production and small-scale manufacturing. But because of smallness of their numerical size, they constituted themselves into price-determining enclaves, controlling both domestically produced goods and aid-financed imported goods. Less important, but not insignificant in their access to the "fruits of office" including high salaries, bank financed residential housing in posh areas and other "fringe benefits" provided by positions in the state apparatus. It is this monopoly of privilege that laid the basis of conflict within Bengali middle-class, each layer of this class to organize in order to obtain their "share of the cake".

During the Pakistan period, colonialism prevented the emergence of an economically viable bourgeoisie and since the peasants and workers were not able to constitute a coherent challenging force, thanks to the "bourgeoisie" left parties, the power came to the middle class. During Pakistan rule, their plunder in the name of economic planning far from being inimical to the interests of the local bourgeoisie, was seen as being strongly supportive of their interests particularly because of the opportunities for control over the people that such attributes afforded. The conservatism of the peasantry and their docility & economism of the trade union leaders and their "dalal" counterparts allowed the Pakistani rulers to exploit people.

 

NEW BOURGEOISIE

After the killing of Mujib, a succession of coups within coup followed in Latin American style. The changes or extension of existing tendencies in foreign policy have been largely manifestation of important changes in class formation within Bangladesh and in the class nature of the state. Whereas the Awami League was powerfully influenced and its ruling class was hand in bound to the Soviet-Indian hegemonic influence, the Zia regime came out with a complete change in its foreign policy largely geared to suspension of Baksalite stance, and vociferous anti-Soviet stance, which largely neutralized whatever nationalist independent policy though fundamentally populist in character were attempted by the progressive sections of the ruling class. Not only there was a triumph for USA and China in forcing the military government to accept their hegemony, its subsequent tendency to forge its foreign policy became more responsive to local owning interests , largely created by Mujib government, whose own appearance and strength have in turn been sponsored, to a large extent, by state policy. As a result, this regime spawned overnight billionaires which has been variously estimated from 50 to 100 in the super-exploited society where 65 to 68% are living below the breadline. It is to a fuller consideration of the growth, character and influence of this element that we now turn.

In common with the experience of many Asian and African colonies and neo-colonies, the development of indigenous Pakistani capital though mainly concentrated in West Pakistan, was blocked beyond certain points and channelled in particular directions to avoid competition with foreign capital or to make the country more dependent and non-self-reliant-Thus after the crackdown, and emergence of Indo-Soviet sponsored Bangladesh as a nation, while a substantially organized proletarian class existed, the petty bourgeoisie of traders, self-employed artisans, fishermen and handloom owners, cash crop and labor-employing farmers were both tiny and weak and overwhelmingly dominated by ruling class because of aid financed help upon which they depended. Mujib not only nationalized most of the organized industrial sectors and handed their operation over to the former owners, selected corrupt civil servants, but used his personal influence to distribute licenses and permits to indent essential yarn, fertilizers & other chemicals needed by the petty-bourgeoisie. Since the privileges were distributed among the Awami League supporters in the countryside, he helped the creation of a small but profit-hungry "jotdars", "aratdars" (wholesalers) and usurers who combined land ownership with leadership in the Union Councils. Such a combination of political power with access to state finance helped this new emerging class to get rich quick and enter into an unholy alliance with local officers to establish one party bandit rule in the rural Bangladesh. In the national election, these indigenous "owners of means of production" occupied leadership position in the Awami parties, while the other parties were biding their chances to seek opportunity for their turn. The Left parties by now, splintered into many factions, were at feuds with one another and failed to put necessary emphasis on political rights for all uniting against the fascist Mujib regime. Whatever effective opposition Mujib faced against his regime, it came from one of the factions of his own party called Jatiya Swamajtantrie Dal. The character of their movement at this stage was diluted because of the same strategy they adopted which antagonized the rural people who were already exhausted their patience due to the plunder and murder of the hoodlum of Mujib's fascist Rakhi Bahini, which Mujib raised to neutralize the army and police. The Zia regime which took over the government from Mustaque, took no time to consolidate its position by killing Col. Taher of Jasad and banning his party and clamped martial law forbidding all political parties and their activities. It received immediate support from people, and his anti-Indian stance was quickly transformed into pro-Pakistani without losing any time. He reversed whatever progressive steps that were taken by Mujib at the behest of the Soviet Union. Given its base and objectives and its complete dependence on US, the regime was at least initially oriented toward improving the level of general social welfare, law and order situation and stopping spiral inflation which caused amongst other reasons the 1974 famine. Apart from sharply raising the salaries of the army, and allowing all kinds of allowances and fringe benefits, it also raised wages and salaries seeking to ingratiate the civil servants so that they would accommodate military personnel in civilian jobs. The entire policy was to promote institutional interests of the armed forces to win over the support of a politicalized cantonment. Its economic policy of allowing wage increase and seeking to promote reconstruction of infra-structure, development of cities, ports and public utilities was consistent with a general acceptance of capitalist production relations and its emphasis on the development of rural economy was consistent with improving the supply of food and wage-goods and also with its programme of counterinsurgency, and its emphasis on development of local government and union council served the same purpose. One can use the same goal in the rapid installation of cantonments, telecommunications and radio and T.V. channels of the present government.

Secondly, while policy was formulated to enable the rural owners of capital to take up commercial agriculture, fishery and market gardening, nothing was done to change the land-tenure system, grabbing of "khas" (government's land) by "jotdars" (rich peasants) and usurious practice of money lenders, hoarders and "ijaraders" (lease holders). As mentioned earlier, most of the new middle class was the creation of Awami League, and it was not possible for Zia regime to take any steps against this renegades usurping the union councils and rural economy as the regime had no alternative political base of its own. The full brunt of the Zia's oppression fell on Jasad and factions of Left Parties who have not hailed him as national bourgeoisie and begged for protection from the wrath of their own followers . Such a policy enabled the new middle-class to monopolize the domestic production sectors like jute, tea, tobacco, hides and skins, spices and market supply to the urban areas involving the smallest & least technically complex units of production and distribution, the state itself tried to gear up unsuccessfully the nationalized industries, jute mill and cotton while allowing the chief foreign exchange earner jute trade to languish in the hands of the "aratdars" and corrupt officials of the jute corporation. A number of foreign owned multi-nationals were allowed to start their manufacturing industries in medicine, processed food, chemicals, electrical goods, etc. and these new enterprises were initiated either independently or through so-called "joint-ventures" with multi-national corporations. Our private sector has one unique aspect. Only around 18% of its total capital belonged to the private capitalist and rest 82% belongs to the government sector. Even that tiny 18% happens to be black money appropriated during Mujib's time. Thus under the present regime, the state policy promoted a parasitic growth of an "indigenous profit-hungry group, the state sector investment in the economy is hemstang by corrupt officials. Investment increased and a relatively important sector (natural gas) as state capitalist sector, emerged, and it is alleged that all types of conspirational actions are being taken to mortgage it to multinationals for increasing the credit-worthiness of the country for more aid and loan.

 

PETTY BOURGEOISIE AND FASCISM

Classes struggle simultaneously at two ideological levels: as a class and as the people. For petty bourgeoisie, identity as people plays a much more important role than identity as a class. But the ideology of the petty bourgeoisie is too diffused to "organize its own discourse and can only exist within the ideological discourse of the bourgeoisie or the proletariat."

There is a critical insight in the work of Hannah Arendt: "It was not interpellations (Althussers concept) as a class but interpellation as "people" which dominated fascist political discourse. Fascism far from being the typical ideological expression of the most conservative and reactionary sectors of the dominant class was, on the contrary, one of the possible ways of articulation of popular democratic interpellations into political discourse. (See Ernesto Laclau: Politics and Ideology in Marxist Theory: Capitalism - Fascism - Populism, Humanities Press, N.S. 1977, p.111 ).

The working class, because of the theoretical reductionism of its leadership, erected a class barrier and thereby seceded the "arena of popular democratic struggle" to the "monopoly fraction." The possibility of revolutionary confrontation arrives when the ideology of the working class is able to present itself as the heir to national tradition and when the anti-capitalist "struggles becomes the culmination of the democratic" struggles of the entire society over the "dominant bloc". It has been overlooked, and here is one of Laclau's insights that while democratic struggle is dominated always by class struggle, "popular democratic interpellations" do not have a "necessary class belonging". This Tito, Mao and Berlinuer understood.

During the rise of fascism, the working class failed to articulate itself as a "hegemonic popular alternative" to the dominated classes as a whole . The working class isolated itself ideologically and politically which the "monopoly fraction" interpellated the middle classes en route to absorbing and neutralizing them. Unless the working class can avoid the dual perils of class sectarianism and social democratic opportunism, it will never be able to develop "hegemony over the remaining popular sectors". The need to understand these perils is particularly critical today when the European working classes is attempting to widen its influence over the middle classes.

 

THE RURAL POWER STRUCTURE

To indicate the rural power structure, we are summarizing an article by Md. Salimullah Khan: "Pattern of Leadership in Bangladesh Villages. A comparative study of socio-economic background of the Union Councilors" Jahangirnager Review, Vol. 2, NO. 2, Nov. 1978.

In 1973 all the Chairmen were new entrants except 17% of members having previous experience a structural change since 1977. Post independence corruption, political chaos among the leaders gave rise to serious dissatisfaction and frustration among the people. It indicates the rural people are politically conscious. It has been observed that majority of the representatives were directly or indirectly associated with local school committees, cooperative association, young clubs and other social organizations. In fact, these are important tools in rising into rural hierarchy.

 

AGE COMPOSITION OF THE CHAIRMEN AND MEMBERS OF THE UNION COUNCIL WITHIN 45 AGES.

CHAIRMAN

MEMBERS

1973

1977

1973

1977

73.33%

63.60%

74.51%

75.00%

 

EDUCATIONAL STATUS OF CHAIRMEN

93.3% below secondary to graduate of which 27% are intermediates and 27% graduates.

 

OCCUPATIONAL STATUS OF THE MEMBERS & CHAIRMEN

 

CHAIRMAN

MEMBERS

 

1973

1977 (%)

1973

1977 (%)

Landowners/Farmers

20

12.5

55.88

50

Businessmen

26

50

39

42.5

Teachers

20

25

1.9

3.33

Professionals, Lawyers, Doctors, Technicians.

27

12.5

Nil

2.5

 

ANALYSIS IN BRIEF:

1.       In 1973, 20% of chairmen were landowners/farmers, in 1977 the figure came down to 12.5%. In 1973, 26.67% chairmen were businessmen, it increased to 50% in 1977. 20% of the chairmen were teachers in 1973, in 1977 the figure was 25%. In 1973, 26.67% or representatives were professionals and in 1977, it came down to 12.50%.

2.       55.88% of the representatives were landowners / farmers in 1973, it came down to 50% in 1977. In 1973, 39.22% of the representatives were businessmen, in 1977 the figure increased to 42.50%.

3.       Analysis of 1973 and 1977 data clearly shows that the proportion of peasants representatives in local administration has declined. In 1961, and 1964 respectively, 81.80% and 70.35% of chairmen were farmers. In the same years, the representatives of members of this class were 87,4% and 80.89 % respectively.

The conclusion is growing participation of the businessmen in local administration took place.

4.       It appears that major source of income of the chairmen elected in l973 and 1977 were either agriculture (40% & 31.25%) or agri/business (40 % & 56.25%) and a sizeable number of chairmen (20% & 12.50%) had other source of income as well.

For members as well, major source of income is either agriculture or agri/business. The proportion of business group is gradually increasing. In 1973 it was 47.06% and in 1977 it increased to 56.67%. Most of the chairmen elected in 1973 and 1977 possess above 5 acres of land. Among them, a great proportion of the chairmen own above 20 acres of land (20% and 37.50% respectively). It appears that richer section of the rural population in respect of landed property, have greater potentialities in getting into rural leadership.

5.       Besides, both members and chairmen own some other properties. These include factories, godowns/arat, shops, houses in town, etc. Of these properties, a large number of chairmen (33.34%)and (43.75%) respectively and members (32.35% and 27.50%) shops. All these sources contribute a handsome amount of their income. These local leaders are more wealthier than their predecessors in former Union Councils or Basic Democracy institutions.

Since the introduction of self-government in Bengal in 1870 (Chawkidari-Panchayat Act), landed aristocracy was in dominance in the rural areas. The situation was more or less the same during the early periods of Pakistan. Changes occurred in the late fifties and sixties, when traditionalism began to decline. S.M. Hafez Zaidi (The Village Culture in Transition, 1979) observes with the increasing number of young educated men in the villages, the pattern of authority and social organization are facing a great challenge. A new middle class has emerged, better educated , changing a traditional agrarian society into a business one. But the trend is not significant because their proportion is still low. Increased proportion of leadership emerge from well-off families and as the members of such families are countable in rural areas, most of them would have been relatives through marriages. Such type of bonds are typical examples of their class character. It has been observed that the bulk of the Union Councilors (Chairman: 40% and 68.75%; Members: 43.13% & 46.67% respectively in 1973 & 1977)have the same sort of blood relationship with their fellow persons.

The socio-economic relationship within the village is not conducive to the poor peasants. This is an usual phenomenon in India too. The existing system in India - the Panchayat Raj - has been unable to circumvent the power of rich farmers, rather it has provided an additional statutory framework within which they can consolidate their class superiority, (see Exploitation and the Rural Power, a working paper on the rural power structure in Bangladesh, BARD, 1976, p.249). So the village cannot be democratized without democratic property-relations.

In Bangladesh, the striking features of the pattern of leadership in the rural areas is the predominance of surplus farmers. The real tillers of the soil are hardly represented in the present structure of the rural hierarchy. Local administration has become the stronghold of certain vested interests linked vertically with the bureaucratic military state-capitalist apparatus.

 

PRESENT GOVERNMENT'S EFFORTS TO PUSH "POVERTY   ORIENTED" RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME:

AN EVALUATION

 

It now remains to explore what the effects of the government's "poverty-oriented" rural development programme is likely to have on the group totally excluded from the cooperative - the landless. The following facts show the seriousness of the problem facing landless labourers.

+         33% of households in rural Bangladesh are landless and another 15% own less than half-an-acre of agricultural land which is far less than subsistence requirements.

+         The proportion of landless households in rural areas has increased from an estimated ^g^ in 1961 to 33% in 1977; this during a period of consistent agricultural growth.

+         The rate of increase of landless households over the past decade (4-5% per annum) was higher than the population growth rate (3% annually) and is likely to increase further.

+         Because of a combination of an increasing supply of labour (growth of landlessness) and decreasing demand for labour through subdivision of holdings (which concentrates land in the hands of smaller peasants who are less likely to hire in labour) there was a decline of about 50% in the real value of agricultural wages between 1965 and 1975.

+         As a result of these trends, the proportion of 'absolutely poor' households increased from 52% to 87% from 1963/64 and the proportion of 'extremely poor' households jumped from 10% to 54%.

It is not without reason, then, that the government's new rural development programme stresses the need for a 'poverty-oriented' rural-development programme. However, when one examines the budget of the rural development expansion programme in Intensive IRDP than as over 80% of the expenditure has been earmarked for production-oriented activities (minor irrigation works, TCCA/KSS, rural credit and agricultural extension activities) and most of the remainder has been allocated to public works programmes which may benefit the rural poor in the short run by creating employment, but in the long run serve the interests of those with land often by, e.g. building embankments that protect land from flooding and enable an extra crop to be grown. Despite a call for 'target group oriented programmes for benefiting small farmers and landless' there has been almost no allocation of funds to either rural industries or special schemes for this group. The rural development expansion programme would be better described as a 'production-oriented' strategy.

Given this rider, what are the likely effects of the new rural development strategy on the employment problem and rural poverty? To answer this question it is necessary to examine the employment generating effects both of intensifying agriculture through the adoption of high-yielding varieties and of the public works programmes.

 

DOMINATING CULTURAL MILIEU

The culture of a class in a class-anchored society is an expression of a consciousness of life in which there are three aspects - of thought of ideal, of creative self-expression; and of practical and outward formulation. In other words, its philosophy and religion, its arts, poetry and literature and its society and politics. E.B. Taylor puts it in a slightly different form : Culture is that complex whole which include knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. However, the various parts of the pattern mesh with each other so that a balanced equilibrium is maintained between the various parts of the whole. This complex model (whole) is the social heritage of a ruling class or may be that of the ruled. But the culture about which the bourgeois intellect-workers talk about is that of the privileged class, state-sponsored, nurtured and nourished for the purpose of legitimization and rationalization of their exploitive social system, for strengthening and consolidating the allegiance of workers and peasants usually catered through the prevailing educational system and publications - literacy or otherwise, & news-media, all designed to channel the thinking process of the citizens. With the shrinking of the modern world, and world being clearly divided into two halves - developed and under-developed, the dependent countries are spending huge amount to create and project a national image of respectability having a distinct culture of its own which might enhance their credit-worthiness for "aid" & loan.

However, the various parts of the pattern mesh with each other so that a balanced equilibrium is formed, and that the culture of the dominant class influences and distorts the culture of the subordinate class, can be shown if we choose to pause and think about the impact of the 1971 military crackdown on the people of Bangladesh. It did not begin or end with the military machine that was unleashed on our people by the Pakistani sub-imperialism. It has to be traced in morals and religions, social life that our people were living before the crackdown and the impact it has made on our culture, has to be fully assessed in the context of serious disruption, breakdown of families and their traditional means of livelihood, the way they escaped from complete annihilation, the gradual emergence of the resistance movements the class of people who took to arms, the age and sex composition of the freedom fighters, the role played by different stratas of the same class, the class and stratas of that class that collaborated with alien forces, and the hatred and vengeance that were generated against them amongst the patriots - all created a sudden leap in consciousness as regards exploiters and exploited. "In a revolution, when the masses erupt on the political stage, their class consciousness becomes practical and active. Hence a year of revolution gave the Russian proletariat the kind of education that thirty years of parliamentary & trade union struggle failed to give the German proletariat". (Rosa Luxembourg: The General Strike)

Such a genesis of the ruling culture is relevant to comprehend how deeply rooted and meshed up with other component elements of culture of the present ruling elites. For "the ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling idea: i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of every society is at the same time the ruling intellectual force. The class which has the means of mental production... " (Karl Marx : The German Ideology).

The origin of the Bangladesh army which is ruling us today lie more than 200 years back in the mercantile period of British expansion when the representatives of its commercial capital arrived in India to trade and plunder. When the British government took over direct rule, the East India Company's army became the Indian army, which with the help of a bureaucratic apparatus ruled the country. This army was ultimately developed into one of the largest and most effective colonial army in the world, and its bureaucracy grew in size, discipline and training and became the steel frame of the British rule in India. The Indian army and its civilian counterparts were effectively insulated from the growing nationalist movement in the 1920's and 1930's against which it was often used, although during the World War II this insulation began to break down with the partition of British India. Pakistan did everything to insulate this army from being politicalized. Thus, this conservative and virtually "antinational" military establishment and bureaucratic administrative apparatus inherited from the empire became the armed protector of the post-colonial state of Pakistan. From the very inception of the creation of Pakistan, the politicians in Pakistan played the comprador role having very little experience of the nationalist struggle which the Indian politician could claim. So, they made no attempt nor even thought of tampering with the anti-national and pro-imperial predilection of the traditional military-bureaucratic structure of Pakistan. Though Pakistan was officially an Islamic state it cared to introduce nothing which could be remotely associated with the teachings of Islam. Its rulers had not even the pretension of being anti-colonialist and had little of the socialist secular and non-aligned character of the Congress Party government in India. The U.S. began providing it with military and economic assistance which suddenly jumped four-fold with the take-over of the state by the Sandhurst trained Ayub Khan. The present regime takes legitimate pride in retaining his model of government in tact in spite of the genocide that was unleashed by Ayub's army on our people. However, when Pakistan joined Dulles' two anti-communist alliances, SEATO and CENTO that aid was increased several times. One of the Pakistan's representatives to CENTO is a member of the cabinet of the present regime.

By 1969 Pakistan had received up to $2 billion in American military assistance and more than $3 billion in economic aid. Incidentally, according to Washington's Center for International Policy Report May 30, 1978, Bangladesh during the last 3 years receive a promise of U.S. aid to the tune of $2.5 billion which is more than the total volume of US aid it received during the last 25 years. On the average, it is receiving about $ 1 billion every year and this year Bangladesh tops the list of the countries currently receiving US aid. It occupies the next position to India with respect •to aid from the World Bank and AID. These tangible evidences of the credit-worthiness of Bangladesh prove how successful the present regime has been in selling out the country to imperialists' interest. In spite of our separation from Pakistan, we have succeeded in continuing the policy initiated by President Ayub, a policy of total dependence on US hegemonic imperialism. A US government report stated in 1962 : "From a political viewpoint, U.S. military aid has strengthened Pakistan's armed services, the greatest stabilizing force in the country...." Thus, the U.S. military assistance converted the Pakistan army into the dominant political force and chief defender of the propertied classes in the country. The increased strength and confidence of the army was demonstrated in its seizure of power in the 1958. The fact that Ayub led the coup after consulting US officials, including the director of the CIA, Alien Dulles, was later admitted by Ayub himself. The military used to consume as much as 60% of Pakistan's budget, and the bulk of its foreign exchange was derived mainly from jute from the East - it was drawn upon to purchase foreign weapons specially after 1965 war with India when most U.S. military assistance was cut off. Ironically enough the same weapons were used by the Pakistan army to butcher the jute-growers in the countryside in 1971. However, accumulated grievances against the high-handed and ruthless policy of exploitation by the ruling-elite of West Pakistan burst forth in large-scale students and workers riots during 1968-69, leading to the fall of the Ayub regime. The West Pakistani military rulers answered this political challenge with one of the ruthless and brutal onslaughts which in sheer loss of human lives was second only to the 1965 Indonesian massacre in the whole of S.E.Asia. In this massacre and calculated genocide, Islam and Muslim brotherhood saw its future.

When the Pakistani army began its crackdown on the night of March 25, 1971, the first objective was to disarm the Bengali units of the armed forces which ignited their nationalist sentiment for the first time in the whole history of Pakistan. But the Awani League who led the country to confront the Pakistan army, most well-equipped in the whole of South and South-East Asia, made their pilgrimage to Calcutta or other hording parts of India with such a remarkable efficiency that 99% of their elected representatives could answer the call of register right in Calcutta in their physical and financial form. Most of them carried with them bushels of Pakistani currency looted out of treasury and banks and carried away as a trophy of liberation fighter which was readily cashed by the Indians for mutual benefit. For most of the leaders and their close associates, it was a  premeditated course of struggle to leave fighting part of the game to those who were least able to leave the country - the productive section of the population. This ideal division of labour both in peace and war was left undisturbed while the people were being butchered in thousands, the Awani League leaders were on a parole for "Rest and Recuperation" in the cities of India. In Calcutta they were having an intimate experience of the gay life about which they heard so much and took the full change to quench a long linger hunger for a taste of it.

 

WHAT IS TO BE DONE?

As regards the possibilities and difficulties of a socialist oriented development in Bangladesh, the immediate objective would be a fight against the present ruling-class, which also means to bring about an end of neocolonialism in the country. It is though not the ultimate goal but a necessary station along the road leading into the future of a society where there is no exploitation of man by man. In this program, one should make a necessary distinction between the concrete goals attainable for a society in the historical situation of Bangladesh, and the type of theoretical thinking necessary to come to grips with the reality of such a society : an economically and technologically underdeveloped agricultural country, marked by the mechanism of colonial dependency. The social and political analysis applied to it can and should be socialist in the sense of using Marxist points of departure and consequently viewing socialism as a natural and desirable goal for the development of the society. In this context, socialism is synonymous with human emancipation and liberation from exploitation. The basic Bangladesh ideology concerning the struggle for national independence would then be theoretically coherent and well elaborate. It must include anti-imperialist ideology and a socialist class consciousness, implying that our people will have to count primarily upon our own forces in order to achieve liberation and national development in our own interests. The basic tenets of the ideology of the Freedom Fighters were and must be in future, such that the people must learn to see for themselves the connection between the goals of realization, and in the simultaneous realization of what obstacles must be removed in order to make possible the attainment of those goals, that we find focal point of the political mobilization process. From the very beginning of the struggle by a revolutionary party, the basic problem of political mobilization must be posed within the Party's Manifesto:

"People do not fight for ideas, they fight to gain material advantages to live in peace and to improve their lives, to experience progress and to be able to guarantee a future for their children, and they accept the necessary sacrifices for attaining those. National liberation, the struggle against colonialism, working for peace and progress independence - all these will be empty words without significance for the people, unless they are translated into real improvements of the conditions of Life. It is useless to liberate a region if the people of that region are left without the elementary necessities of life. This is to emphasize the necessary material basis of political work. Concrete improvement in the life of the people give meaning to politics. We may define political mobilization as the process through which the people's empirically grounded interests in social transformation is converted into conscious political action in organizational terms with leaders in whom the people have confidence and on whom they have a measure of control. The possibility of control arises from the leader's dependence upon people's support. In order to achieve the goals they have stimulated the people to express politically. Political mobilization may well involve some compulsion but differs from oligarchy and dictatorship in two important points : (1) the starting point, which as the people themselves experienced interest in social transformation and (2) the possibility of controlling the "participation", instead of political mobilization".

The process taking place in India differs significantly from that which occurred in Western Europe and U.S. and also from the capitalist development, which Marx at the time believed was showing the future of India and other colonies. Capital has now become monopoly capitalism and attained imperialist phase and the fact of that (other underdeveloped countries) has questioned different pattern on development - the policy of import-substitution industrialization has not resulted in much of net reduction in imports - food, intermediate and capital goods have substituted for the earlier reduction in imports. ISI has not produced an internal dynamic in dominated national economies. Development and growth are instead predicated on the continued growth of exports, not on the national economy purse.

There has been dramatic reduction in the output of the food for the domestic market and a consequent increase of imports of basic foods.

The government has played a more dominant role as employer, producers and financier than it does in many developed capitalist of nations, to alleviate

some of the worst problems created by the process of capitalist industrialization - poverty, unemployment, worsening income distribution and partly to save local capitalists, and to facilitate-the export of surplus enforced by imperialist.

 

"DIFFUSION OF THE OWNERSHIP OF THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION"

 

Landownership: Here ruling politicians and academicians are full of a coup de grace : a more expressive idea has it that there is not enough land to go round. Pick up any of the several studies of man/land relationship: elaborate techniques are used to tell us how production varies with the size of landholdings and whether Cobb-Douglas or some other, production - function "explains" the agricultural trends, as regards land distribution subjective statements without offering anything in that analysis - use "too small", "unviable, or "uneconomic", heavily loaded terms to come to a hasty conclusion.

No discussion of what problems small-holdings create, or whether such problems can or cannot be dealt with through cooperatives and the like. The cooperative movement in India has remained a non-starter because the rich farmers hogged most of the benefits. Would not the movement stand a better chance in an environment with small land-inequality relation? Could not cooperatives hire out implements of production to small farmers? We have mentioned the Indian case only to show that the bourgeoisie in power either in India, Bangladesh or any country for that matter, in South, and South East Asia following capitalist path of growth, will not be able to make a dent in the social structure which is kept intact by the important forces in the social-economic structure of these countries. The path of liberation, the path to radical social change is through revolution led by the proletariate dedicated to establish a socialist state.

 

12

 

REPORTS

 

Japanese Women: Working Housewives

by Alfonso B. Deza

 

1980-26.jpg
 

 

The family is the prime concern of most Japanese women. This was gathered from a census that showed 98% of women over 50 were married or had been married.

The importance of having a family seems to rest on the traditional belief that "every woman is not a complete person as a woman unless she gets married."

 

TRADITIONAL SYSTEMS

For many centuries up to the end of World War II, Japanese society was based on the patriarchal system that stressed continuing the family line to ensure succession to family property and proper rites for ancestors.

The basic unit was the house. Members were officially entered into the kosekl (family register) and grouped together. Changes in status of members took legal effect only upon recording. The head of the house was legal representative. His consent was needed for marriages, divorce, adoption, admittance of new members, etc.

Normally, a wife entering a new family was registered only after she proved herself capable of being a good daughter-in-law and bearing healthy children. As long as the marriage was not officially registered, the wife could easily be sent back to her parents for a number of reasons.

Education for girls goes back to the 10th-11th century. Girls' education, specially in the last couple of centuries until the war, prescribed the following behavior for the well-bred woman :

Her destiny, on reaching womanhood, is to go a new home, to live in submission to the father-in-law & mother-in-law..... The parents must not allow the daughter to express self-will so that she will be prepared to accept the father-in -law's instruction without dissension. Obedience, chastity, mercy and quietness are qualities which should be acquired. A sharp line of demarcation separating women from men should be observed from earliest youth, the rules of propriety must always be obeyed, absolute submission to her husband is required, finding no fault in him, and bearing his children. The traditional ethic for women has been succinctly summarized as the paths of three obediences - obedience to a father when get unmarried, to a husband when married, and to a son when widowed.

The traditionally inferior status given to women in Japan, influenced by Confucian and Buddhist doctrines, was further reinforced by the very nature of women. Preoccupation with pollution and its purification, for example, is a characteristic of the Japanese people from the earliest times. One of the major causes of pollution is bloodshed. Menstruation and childbirth were also considered forms of pollution.

Thus, menstruating women and women after childbirth, were required to move to a special hut or to a special part of the house. Food for these people had to be cooked separately so as not to defile the sacredness of the fire. They were "not permitted to officiate at important ceremonies in some areas of Japan, the assumption being that the pollution in womanhood is not removable even through the most rigorous purification ritual.... The notion of female pollution was taken over by organized Buddhism and some temples.... forbade women from entering their premises."

 

EFFECTS OF MODERNIZATION

Modernization came about to bring modifications, if not counter-reaction, to traditional values.

 

13

 

A nationwide survey from 1972 to 1973, instigated by the Prime Minister's Office, concluded that the family still plays an important role in the lives of Japanese women. However, contrasted to the traditional family where husband-son solidarity was ideally stressed, mother-children relationship now has stronger bearing. Strong emotional •ties with children place the mothers, rather than the fathers, in the strategic position to influence their socialization.

In reply to the question: "what makes your life more meaningful?" women ranked children first (52.6), followed by family (13.2), occupation (9.0), and husband (2.7). Men ranked occupation first (43.9), followed by children (28.8), hobbies (15.9) and wife (4.8).

Both men (83.8) and women (83.2) agreed that the husband should earn for the family and the wife should stay home and take care of the children.

Another survey done by the Women's and Minors Bureau in 1972 found that Japanese women hold the purse strings and are responsible for managing household economic affairs. The husband hands in his pay envelope and the wife gives him his daily "allowance".

As for divorce, more divorces are now filed by women rather than men — a sharp deviation from the prewar pattern, an indication, perhaps, of the approaching equality of women to men. However, there are still many economic handicaps a divorced woman must face, like supporting herself and her children.

 

EXPLOITED HOUSEWIFE WORKERS

The employment of housewife workers may be traced to 1963 when the governmental economic council stressed the need of drawing in more women into the labor force to cope with the shortage of workers brought about by rapid industrialization.

Most housewives were employed as "part-time" laborers, paid either by the hour or the day. They were usually employed at jobs that had no relation to their previous job experiences, like unskilled factory labor that pays ¥300-400 an hour. They were not unionized and their jobs were outside the regular employment structure where pay raises, bonuses and social security are had.

Consumerism and inflation pushed the erstwhile housewife into the job market. In the sixties, the slogan was "three electric appliances (washing machine, refrigerator, TV ) in every home. "In the seventies it changed to "the three C's (color TV, car, cooler )." Usually, the housewife stops employment after her husband's salary reaches a satisfactory level.

As of 1975, 17.4 per cent of part-time workers were female. Housewife workers made for a sizeable part of the labor force yet they were not considered real workers. They were isolated and alienated from the main working sector and had little consciousness of themselves as laborers. While the problems of the economy that originally gave rise to the recruitment of housewives have changed, industry continues to hire them under the same exploitative terms.

Housewives going to work may give a semblance of greater liberation, but in Japan, it smacks of exploitation detrimental not only to the interest of women but to the interest of the entire working class as well. Unfortunately, most labor unions have little interest in their plight.

 

_____________

From IMPACT, June, 1978.

 

14

 

Women in Rural Northern Vietnam:  new role in production & social life

adapted from an article by

 Ngo Thi Chinh

 

NEW ROLE IN PRODUCTION AND SOCIAL LIFE

89.34% of the women living in northern Vietnam are peasants, and they make up about 60 percent of the agricultural labor force.

Enquiries at two ordinary agricultural cooperative in Vinh Phu province (Bac Bo upland) reveal that in Thach Vu cooperative 738 of the 857 working members are women. 204,108 of the 254,816 workdays (80.1%) spent on the cooperative’s 1975 10th-month rice crop were provided by women. In Van Hung cooperative, 867 of the 1,216 working members are women. In the 1975 10th-month rice crop. 175,096 out of the 283,328 workdays (nearly 62%) were provided by women.

Women also put more workdays into the individual family economies.

There are many reasons for these high percentages. First of all, women's political emancipation after the triumph of the August Revolution; secondly, the large number of men in the armed forces; moreover, industrialization of the North has drawn many men to mines, factories, and construction sites, leaving relatively few men in the countryside.

Bearing the demanding objective conditions in mind, if women did not have a spirit of collective mastery, initiative and enthusiasm, they could play their important roles. But they have done the work entrusted to them by society satisfactorily, and brought into full play Vietnamese women's traditional qualities: industriousness, perseverance , endurance, and acceptance of hardship. In the past, women peasants used to work to keep themselves and their families only, but now they also work to develop production, rid the countryside of poverty and backwardness, and contribute to socialist construction.

The division of labour in the countryside has also undergone a change. In addition to the rice transplanting, harvesting, weeding and manuring jobs they have always done, women now do all kinds of production jobs, including those formerly done by men only like ploughing, harrowing, & rice-threshing. During the war of resistance against US aggression, they had to replace the men who joined the army everywhere in the North, and women enthusiastically learnt to plough, many of them very quickly. Figures from the two cooperatives of An Ha (Ha Bac province) and Phu Lo (Vinh Phu province) show that now nearly 80% of working-age women there know how to plough. With the mechanization of agriculture, there are many places where women drive small trucks, operate tractors, rice-threshers, and rice-huskers.

Another difference from the past is that women peasants are now involved in a great deal of the technical improvement in the cooperatives. Every cooperative has its scientific and technical brigade responsible for introducing technical innovations to all production jobs, and not least to seed selection, rice-transplanting, and animal husbandry. Most of the members of these brigades are women. In 1976, the cooperatives of Binh An and Liet Ha (An Ha commune. Ha Bac province) had 24 women agricultural technicians (as against 9 in 1971) while Tu Xa commune (Vinh Phu province ) had 29 (as compared to 15 in 1971).

In 1965, Luong Thi Mai, a woman co-op member in Ha Bac province , was awarded the title of Labour Heroine by the Government and the National Assembly for her outstanding achievements in improving pig-breeding techniques and developing ways to achieve high economic efficiency in this branch. Mai 's example led thousands of eager young women peasants to learn new techniques and apply them in production.

 

15

 

Women receive State assistance in their studies. All girls attend school from childhood .Every Conmune (smallest administrative unit) has both first and second-level general education schools (4 and 3 years respectively). All districts have a third-level general education school (3 years). Adult women are offered complementary education courses in the cooperatives. Statistics on the educational level of people of working age in An Ha commune (Ha Bac province) show that most of the total women have first-level general education. 620 have followed complementary education courses, 35 have second-level general education and 7 have third-level general education.

In the agricultural cooperatives there are now many women with sufficient education to assume managerial work and production guidance. According to incomplete statistics, 30% of all heads of production brigades, scientific and technical brigades, clerks, heads and deputy heads of cooperatives, i.e. cadres managing production in the countryside, are women. In An Ha commune, there two women in the 12-member co-op management committee in 1970, but their number rose to five in 1976, one of whom was a deputy head of cooperative.

In the past, women peasants were not allowed to play an active part at all levels in society, but now they participate in increasing numbers both in government bodies as well as in other social organizations. Today the percentage of women in commune people's councils is 33.15% and in district people 's councils 37.87%. 48 of the 137 women deputies to the National Assembly (32.29% of its membership) are women peasants. There is a growing number of competent chairwomen of commune people's committees. At the congress of advanced women in 1977, which discussed women's mastery of production and social affairs, a report by Nguyen Thi Thep, chairwoman of Tien Tien Commune People's Committee (a commune with a population of 7,000 people) in Van Lam district, Hai Hung province, aroused great interest. She had assumed this post when she was 19,and been re-elected six times, for a period of nearly 12 years; she made full use of her leadership ability, and turned her backward commune into one of the more advanced ones in the district.(1) The women peasants' role in production and social affairs ensured them high status in the family and real quality between men and women, to the betterment of marriage and family relations.

 

CHANGES IN MARRIAGE AND FAMILY RELATIONS

The feudal ethics governing the position of Vietnamese women in their families taught them to accept the "Three Obediences" rule: obedience to their fathers when young, to their husbands when married, and to their sons when their husbands died. Men were so favored at the expense of women, and women were so dependent on men that such evils as polygamy, child marriage, persecution of daughters-in-law, neglect of daughters were widespread. There have been radical changes in the position of women. The 1959 Constitution of Vietnam stipulates : "Women in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam have equal rights with men in political, economic, cultural, social & family life. They receive equal pay for equal work."

To defend the interests and the status of women in marriage and family affairs, the State promulgated a law on marriage and the family in 1960, which was based on four principles: free and progressive marriage (i.e. free union and an end to bride-prices & the like-- Ed.); monogamy; equality between husband and wife; and protection of the interests of women and children in the family.

A new and egalitarian relationship between husband and wife, based on them helping each other in all aspects of life, is now emerging in families in the countryside. They discuss everything together, from production to their own lives and their children's upbringing.

Their management of family property is also different. It is no longer necessarily a man who takes charge of this. All important means of production, such as land, cattle, and farming implements are collectively owned by the co-op. As for other family property, the law stipulates that husband and wife have equal rights of ownership, enjoyment and use.

Equality in husband-wife relations can be seen in their participation in family affairs on an equal footing.

In the past, husbands ignored family chores, which were regarded as "women's work" but now husbands help their wives cook the meals, look after the children and tend whatever animals the family may be rearing. In many cases the husband automatically takes on the bulk of the family chores when the wife is busy with production and social work.

Over the past years, the status of daughters-in-law living in the husband's family has changed radically. In the old society, the daughter-in-law had only minor status, despite her great contribution to the upkeep of her husband's family. Private ownership of property and the mercantile character of marriage meant that the daughter-in-law had no ownership rights over her husband's property, only over what she herself brought into the marriage. This made her economically dependent upon her husband's family, and this, coupled with the feudal ethics, tied women in an oppressive way to their in-laws. A woman was ' bought' by her husband's parents (according to a system of bride-price bidding), and once married the daughter-in-law was duty bound to do all the production jobs in the field as well as all family chores she was told to, and was treated no better than a servant.

 

1980-28.jpg 

 

 

 

 

 

Equality and mutual respect now characterizes relations between daughters-and mothers-in-law as well as between son's wives and other members of their husbands' families. Now their work consists in no more than their part of the rational division of labour among all members of the household. Many families entrust their daughters-in-law with managing the family finances and property. Something entirely new is that now the parents-in-law to participate in social life outside the family, particularly for 'national salvation against US aggression.

The advent of free and progressive marriage in the countryside has brought about many other changes. As young people are free to get to know whoever they please, nearly all families are established on the basis of real love and mutual respect now. Husbands no longer beat or ill-treat their wives for not having children or for not bearing sons.

Child marriage was common in the countryside in the past, but now young men and women choose to get married- later, generally between 20 and 26 in the case of women. The discrepancy between the ages of each couple has also been reduced. In the past many young girls were forced into marriages of convenience with old men, and mature girls made to marry child husbands. Polygamy was accepted, so many women had to accept the common fate of sharing a husband, but their role was rather as extra labour force in their husbands' families. The age difference between couples getting married nowadays is rarely more than 5 years, and they are usually about the same age.

Marriage customs that place women in a less than dignified situation, particularly the practice of the bride-price, are on the wane. Statistics for the first six months of 1976 show that 655 (or 24%) of the 2,590 weddings in Ha Bac were rated "A" class weddings, that is celebrated merrily and simply with no bride-price involved; 1,995 (or 58%) were rated "B" class, that is celebrated with a certain amount of over-indulgence and a bride-price involved; and 428 (or 18%) were rated "C" class, that is celebrated with much over-indulgence, and involving a high bride-price.

An important factor in the above-mentioned changes in the countryside is the activity of the Women's Union - There are Union branches in every cooperative, and they work to motivate women to emulate their fellow citizens in implementing the law on marriage and the family. Thanks to the active and efficient work of the Union branches, many bad practices, indeed illegal and covert such as concubinage, wife-beating, maltreatment of daughters-in-law.... have been exposed and dealt by the law. Where local authorities do not pay great attention to enforcing the law, the Women's Union has perseveringly and resolutely struggled to get each shortcoming remedied. The Union branches in the countryside have done a good job defending women's rights.

The revolutionary change in the role of women peasants in production, social life and marriage-family relations is more than an emancipation for these women. In a largely peasant agricultural country like Vietnam, it also has a great bearing on the general progress of the whole society.

 

_____________

(1)     See Viet Nam Courier, No.46, March, 1976, A Woman Village-Head.

(2)     In the Vietnamese countryside a married man continues living with his parents, in a big family, especially when he is the eldest son. When the family grows too big, the younger sons may live separately when married.

 

From Vietnam Courier, April, 78.

 

16

 

Be More Concerned About Women Workers

by Chi Dong Sheng

 

There are 1,100 workers in our factory, 700 of them are women. The enterprise has been in good shape for the last ten years, and there is now an upsurge of enthusiasm for still higher productivity.

In China's factories, the leaders are not merely concerned with production, they also have the responsibility of organizing various services to make the lives of the workers better and easier. Any bureaucrat who may arise within the leadership are both liable to criticism by higher bodies and have their shortcomings pointed out to them by the workers at all in the factory meetings. Those of us in leading positions do everything possible to provide adequate welfare services for everyone concerned,

In China today, women still do most of the domestic jobs although husbands are encouraged to do household chores, and as women constitute the majority of our factory workers, we pay close attention to their particular problems.

With this purpose in mind, we opened a dining-room but it failed to attract many people. The meals were too expensive, customers had to queue up for service, and the better dishes were usually sold out before late-comers arrived. Times of service were inconvenient for mothers with breast-fed babies. They would arrive in a hurry in the mornings and go without breakfast when they saw the long queue at the counter. This was certainly not good for their health.

We interviewed a number of them. One mother told us "I have to get up at 5 o'clock, prepare breakfast S lunch for my older child, and then get the little one up. You know what it's like to wait at the bus stop and then find you can't get on because it's already full. So when I do get here, I decide to go without breakfast to avoid being late. And I'm not the only one in this situation."

Following talks with the workers and in cooperation with the managing staff and cooks, we worked out ways of improving the service. Our collective effort resulted in a greater variety of food at a cheaper price. Now there are many customers. An extra foodstall set up at the factory gate to serve snacks at check-in time has proved a great success. Young mothers happily comment, "The leadership and cooks are very thoughtful to have adopted this idea."

Most of the older employees work on the third and fourth floors of the factory and their lunch is served hot by dining-room assistants who convey the food upstairs direct from the kitchen. This reduces by half the number of people eating in the dining-room, and the queues are now much shorter. Time is saved, and the workers appreciate the improved service.

Many workers prefer to have their breakfast & lunch at the factory and enjoy a family dinner at leisure after finishing their day's work. As most northerners like noodles, the kitchen prepares and sells quantities of this staple food to the workers to take home. Many also buy steamed buns or cooked rice in the dining-room and eat them with dishes prepared at home. Our workers are very satisfied with the dining-hall kitchen service.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have set up a nursing-room and a kindergarten to lessen the burden of mothers with small children. Babies from eight weeks to one-S-half years old are looked after in the nursing-room and the mothers breast-feed them twice a day for half-hour periods. They collect their babies after work. Children from one-&-half to seven years old are looked after in the kindergarten on weekends or every evening as the parents prefer.

The extra burden on women is not altogether lifted with the setting up of these services, and in the early stages, we didn't have enough toys and facilities for the children. The teachers and nurses were inexperienced and many children objected to staying amid strange surroundings. Zhang Shouhui, a woman worker, was one of the mothers who always had trouble when taking her son to the nursery. The boy would cling to his mother and refuse to be separated from her. She often said to others, "I'm worried about my son and I just can't keep my mind on the work." Like many other mothers, she would get nervous if there was a telephone call for her during working hours, for she was afraid her child might be ill and must be rushed to hospital.

We decided to solve these problems and relieve the mothers of unnecessary anxiety. The factory allocated part of its funds for the purchase of toys and the equipment of a new clinic with a medical officer in attendance. The Educational Bureau was asked to help with the training of a number of teachers, and the situation in the kindergarten very much improved. The varied and interesting activities there became a great attraction, and a close feeling between staff and the children gradually developed. One day when Zhang was working the middle-shift and wanted to keep his son home until later in the morning, the boy cried and insisted on being taken to the kindergarten at the usual hour because he wanted to be on time for the story-telling session.

The mothers are very pleased with the clinic because they no longer have to take their children to the hospital for minor illnesses. "The children like the kindergarten now," the mothers say, "and we are very happy to see our children growing healthy mentally and physically."

The leadership of our factory also pays attention to the health conditions of the workers and the management staff. They have free medical care, & get a 50 per cent subsidy on their children's medical expenses. It is very convenient for workers suffering minor illnesses to go to the factory's own clinic, which is equipped her physiotherapy and medical treatment. Doctors and nurses are provided with educational facilities to improve their skill. An extra health station adjacent to the workshop has been set up on the third floor of the factory building. The clinic keeps a record of all those with chronic illnesses and regularly delivers medicine direct to such patients. One of them said jokingly, "When the doctor is on the spot and kind and considerate, you get over your sickness almost before you know it!" Many workers have expressed their appreciation of the medical service.

Quite a few women workers have been found to have gynaecological trouble. The clinic doctors give them regular check-ups and timely treatment, thus reducing the rate of incidence. The factory has built a bath-house for the women workers and a special retiring room for use in their periods. We are thinking in terms of still better facilities for women workers.

We are keenly aware that as leaders of socialist enterprises, we have the responsibility to provide the workers with various welfare services. Our experience shows that these services and productivity interact on each other. Workers are likely to rally around the leadership closely, and cheerfully get on with their jobs when there is an efficient factory welfare system in operation.

 

_____________

From WOMEN IN CHINA, No. 4, 1979.

 

17

 

 

Tourism and Prostitution

From team paper,

wscf asia

women's workshop

 

 

 

This working paper is a report and conclusion of a study which lasted for about four months. From the various sources which enabled me to make this paper, we expect to clarify the relations between tourism and prostitution. Therefore we can see that the problem of women will become the ultimate target of this study.

In explaining the problem of tourism and its relation to prostitution, there has been a lot of discussion with people who are connected with this problem. The study was concentrated in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. The choice of this place is considered reasonable, for Jakarta is the centre of development activities and also industrial development, but at the same time it is a doorway to tourist centres throughout the country.

1980-213.jpg 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Majority of Asian women are still oppressed and exploited. Not only because they are women, but because they live in an unjust social set-up.

 

2.   INDONESIA AS A COUNTRY OF TOURISM

Indonesia is an archipelago consisting of more than 3,000 islands, which lie on the equator, between Asia and Australia and also between the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

Many beautiful beaches have become tourist objects of the trade, such as Bali (Sanur, Kuta, Legian & other beaches), Java (Carita, Pelabuhan Ratu, Pangandaran, Parangtritis and other beaches),Sumatera (Cermin and other beaches).

Many mountain areas have become rest and recreation sites, such as Berastagi (North Sumatera), Puncak (West Java), Tawangmangu (Central Java), and so on.

There are also small islands which have become tourist places, such as - Nias on the west side of Sumatera, Pulau-Pulau Seribu (Thousand Islands) on the northern part of Jakarta, Pulau Kayangan on the west side of Ujung Pandang (South Sulawesi), and so on.

Besides that, Indonesia has a wealth of tourist attraction, such as Sekaten Fair at Yogyakarta, corpse burning in Ball, corpse burial in Tana Toraja, South Salawesi, Jakarta Pair, and many provincial arts. We can also note some specific tourist attractions, such as Borobudur temple, Jepara handicraft, and batik.

Economic development of Indonesia is now actively pursued by the Government, which also has a big influence on the tourist infrastructural progress There are no less than 25 international & 7 domestic airways operating in Jakarta.

Inter-city transportation in Java can be done by train. And there are at least 10 bus companies which support the tourist industry. Besides, in Jakarta and some other cities we have also local transportation, such as becaks, bemos, buses, trains & taxis.

One of the supporting factors in tourist industrial development, beside some other factors as mentioned above, is to provide entertainment centres.

In Jakarta, there are scores of night clubs & discos, steambath and massage parlours, and some shopping centres. There are also some cultural centres, such as Taman Miniatur Indonesia Indah (Beautiful Indonesia in Miniature), museums and recreational centres as Taman Ria, Taman Ria Remaja,& Ancol.

Supporting factors for the tourist industry opens new opportunities and new employment schemes. Such employment opportunities are especially widely open for women.

Many opportunities demand high or junior level skills, such as hotel personnel, airline companies, and so on. But there are many which just need some special skills for certain work.

In the survey, which is done in night clubs, and massage parlours, the labour force does not have high school diplomas.

 

18

 

In such openings, women are required to be able to serve their guests according to their skills. If they are beautiful and courteous, such jobs are always open for them.

At Shanti beauty salon in Menteng (Jakarta), from its 33 women employees, such as hairdressers, beauticians, masseurs, only three are high school graduates. There are 11 housewives and 8 widows.

At Ibu Bandung traditional massage parlour, Kebayoran Baru (Jakarta), where masseurs are about 30 to 40 years of age, of 28 people employed - mostly women - no one has ever studied in high school.

At Flamingo night club, Ancol (Jakarta), from its 80 hostesses there are a few of them who graduated from high schools and one fifth are secondary school graduates.

Text Box:  
Credit: ‘The Bread is Rising’

From the above mentioned data we can conclude as follows: 

(1)     Many work opportunities relating to the tourist industry are provided for women. In this case, no university education is needed.

(2)     The tendency to look for jobs in the tourist industry faces the applicant with hard competition, because there is no balance between the number of the labour force and the existing labour market.

(3)     Many women who are willing to work in the tourist industry are influenced by their daily needs.

Therefore there is a tendency to work at the formal jobs but at the same time utilize them to do prostitution. We will discuss this later in this paper.

 

3.   THE WORLD OF PROSTITUTION

This paper defines prostitution as physical surrender of a woman to the sexual needs of any male who desire it on a payment basis.

This definition should be noted before we see the relation of the problem of women in general and tourism specifically.

As it happens everywhere, the people on the prostitution stage are the prostitutes, customers, keepers, intermediaries or merchants of women. In this paper, we will deal more widely with the prostitutes themselves and their practice attached to tourism.

In fact there are two kinds of prostitution. The 1st one is legal prostitution, the 2nd one is covered prostitution.

The legal prostitution is:

-    brothel prostitutes in certain locations. In Jakarta there are five separate locations, based on the municipal government policy.

-    call girls (prostitutes), where in practice prostitution goes on by introducing the girl to the customer in a certain place. In Jakarta, this belongs to high class prostitution, because the price is very expensive.

-    street walkers, prostitutes who look for customers in public places. Such practices can be found on the pavement of the streets, where lights are not shining brightly, such as public recreational places at Jakarta Fair, Jakarta, beside the bridges, etc.

The covered prostitution is utilizing other works as a cover of the prostitutes.

Such practices are found in entertainment centers in Jakarta.

Many hostesses in the night clubs function as prostitutes with their customers after working hours. Many massage girls in steambath and massage parlors function also as prostitutes. Many score girls in billiard centres can also be utilized as prostitutes. Many beauticians in beauty salons function as prostitutes.

Last September the municipal government of Jakarta Raya closed down temporarily 16 beauty salons. The reason was that they also provided rooms for prostitution, although they denied it by saying that such rooms were used as massage rooms.

 

4.   THE BACKGROUND FOR BECOMING A PROSTITUTE

The following results from conversations with prostitutes are noted down. They describe how they became prostitutes:

 

WARISH

Native of Central Java, near Sala. She is now active in the prostitution complex at Block P, Kebayoran Baru south Jakarta. When she was asked why she became a prostitute, she answered, "It is better to be a prostitute, than to be taken to Lampung or Jambi (transmigration project sites)". More than 100 friends refused to go for transmigration and chose to become prostitutes. She herself has "worked" for four months; she is one of the 300 active prostitutes of Block P.

 

MEITY

Native of Manado. She is a prostitute who also functions as a hostess at Sunset Bar, Taman Impian Jaya Ancol, north Jakarta.

She never thought of entering this kind of world. She even angrily called it as a dirty thing.

On one Sunday, four years ago she was raped by her own stepfather. He promised to give her a motorcycle and had intercourse with her 20 times. But what she got was only contraceptive pills. This might have happened on and on, had her mother not caught them in action and immediately sent her away. She could not bear the shame, because this event was announced to all the relatives and neighbors. And she decided to become a hostess in Jakarta. She has no more desire to return to Manado. "Never. Even until death".

 

CORTUM

Native of Karawang, 27, coming from a family of good reputation which also has a rice field and water buffaloes. White skinned, sharp faced, still having the beauty of her younger days, but an empty smile. She had even been married to a man of her parents' choice, but they were not happy. They always quarrelled, because according to her, her husband was restricting her very much. But that marriage left 2 children of 9 and 6.

 

19

 

One night she was upset. She attempted to strangle her husband, while he was sleeping. She does not know whether he died or survived, but the same night she fled to Jakarta, met her friend who invited her to become a prostitute. She accepts this whole heartedly, and she is still doing her job at Bongkaran Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, where she has worked for 5 years.

She lives near the brothel, without any future plans or ideals.

 

TUKIYEM

Native of Subang, West Java. Married for five times. She became a prostitute because of "dombret" , a kind of "troubadour" traveling from place to place to entertain people during harvest.

At 13 she was sent by her parents to join that group, with the reason being that she had to collect money before her marriage. She became a singer and dancer and followed the travel of such an entertainer. This was a custom in Subang, Indramayu, Karawang, that girls are encouraged to earn money before their marriage.

She is now doing her job at Kramat Tunggak, North Jakarta, near the harbour. She earns about Rp.8.00 every night and she works seven days a week. She has a fiancé now and is planning to get married for the sixth time, when there has been enough preparation.

 

5.   HOPE AND FUTURE INSIGHT OF THE PROSTITUTES

There is one question which each prostitute finds very difficult to answer - either legal ones or the covered ones, and those who work under hostesses of entertainment centres. 

The question is, "How long will this work last?" Each time when this question arises they seem to think seriously and answer carefully. There are those who answer the simple question. But many of them are quite open to discussing it, involving in the discussion the meaning, significance and aim of human life, beginning from this question.

When the discussion begins with how long they have done this work, they try to cover their answers. The answers like, "Just for two weeks. Uncle", or "just one month. Brother" and other kinds of answers show that they recently began their jobs. Therefore the questioning man will conclude for himself that he is facing a new "thing". Of course, the price will be decided after bargaining and it can reach-to a higher one.

But when the question above arises and is discussed together seriously, the prostitute will see that her future is dark, full of uncertainty. From various serious answers of how far they can go, will come thoughts on the struggle of humanity.

Someone who has involved herself in such work tells that it is very difficult to get out of it and begin a new life or look for a new job. Here we can see that she wants to leave the world of prostitution, but she does not know how to get out of it.

But there are also prostitutes who really want to get out of it and they have taken serious steps through saving their money. They think to begin a new work.

But there are a number of prostitutes, both legal and the covered ones, who discuss this question seriously, and give their answer that they want to leave this work as soon as possible. But they need some one else to accompany them (her), to look for a way out, and show the possible and necessary steps.

 

6.   THE RELATION TO TOURISM

When we relate prostitution and the development of tourism, it seems that there is an interdependent relation. Prostitution, legally or covered, is increasing because of the supra-structure of tourism which supports the tourist industry.

Development of tourist supra-structure, such as hotel facilities and entertainment, night club steambaths, billiard centres, etc., will become supporting factors for developing prostitution practices. This statement is also confirmed by some other discussions with some girls who work in these places.

There is a massage girl at Jalan Blora, Central Jakarta, who has some customers from other cities. They come to Jakarta periodically for business. They always demand an "all in" service. But she also earns a big amount of money.

There is a prostitute in the locality of Kramat Tunggak, who has many experiences of serving foreigners. Many of the customers are sailors, whose ships are anchored at the harbour of Tanjung Priuk, not far from the locality. She is proud to serve them, although they do not speak Indonesian nor English fluently.

The prostitute can only say in English, "three thousand rupiah" or "five thousand rupiah", while showing her fingers to explain the requested amount. They both can understand that they are now bargaining. I have seen such actions myself.

Two of these examples show the interdependent relationship, as mentioned above. The practice of prostitution will increase especially in big cities, such as Jakarta, where prostitution is inseparable from the development of the tourist industry.

From this survey and study, seeing Jakarta as one of the industrial cities in Indonesia, and therefore also developing the tourist industry, let me note down some problematic points to be studied:

(1)     The development and expansion of a city, from a non-industrial one towards an industrial one, cannot avoid the tendency to make tourist attractions.

As it has been explained previously, such city development, to become a tourist city, will have close relations with the increase of prostitution practices, either the legal or covered ones.

(2)     The involvement of a woman in prostitution with all kinds and all forms of practice in public, is closely related to the problems of educational level, labour market, and the shape of human relations among men and women, or husband and wife.

Therefore these urgent problems have to be met before we begin our efforts on the so-called "prostitution abolishment". We must accompany her in seeking a way out from her world.

(3)     Prostitution practices as mentioned above, happen in various places in Indonesia and are related to the status and role of women within the family and society, as we see from the discussions with various women in this kind of practice.

There is also an impression that many women flee to and enter the practice of prostitution as a protest to the problem of their status which is a level below men.

 

____________

From WOMEN & MEN IN ASIA, WSCF Asia, Book No. 5.

 

20

 

Prostitution in Olongapo

by Ayako Miyoshi

 

Text Box: Credit: ‘The Bread is Rising’

INTRODUCTION

In Olongapo City there is the US SUBIC Naval base which is the largest one in Southeast Asia. It has the largest rest and relaxation center for the crews of the US 7th fleet. An average of 12 fleet units are in port any one time, which means there are an average of about 9000 sailors and marines at Subic Bay each day. And also 32,000 Filipinos are working inside the base. Their salaries are 2 or 3 times higher than those of Filipinos who are employed by the Philippine government or private sectors. That's why those Filipinos can keep even a mistress besides indulgence in prostitution. However, they are discriminated against compared with American coworkers .

Here is the announcement on the wall of the Municipal of Olongapo-Bulletin Board, Base Industrial Relations Office, US Naval Base, Subic Bay.

Applicant Supply file announcement (for Filipino citizens)

 

CARGO CONTROL CLERK, PG 64-68

Salary:             P4.83 - 5.79 per hour

Location:   US Naval Base facilities

Purpose:   this announcement Is issued to augment the register of eligible which may be used to fill current and future appropriate vacancies, indefinite or temporary, whichever is applicable.

The register is applicable for one year unless otherwise cancelled.

1.   SSS number (from the SSS office)

2.   Current Residence certificate (from the Municipal)

It is said that US bases in PI directly contribute a measurable P200 million annually to the Philippine economy, with the total contribution including secondary benefits, considerably higher,5 percent of Philippine GNP.

However, their existence has affected the Philippine society in various ways, such as prostitution, corruption of bureaucracies, illegal drugs and PX smuggling, etc.

 

PROSTITUTION

Approximately 16,000 hospitality girls live in Olongapo. They are registered in Social Hygiene. And 3,000 waitresses are working there, as nonregistered prostitutes. They are not so young, unexpectedly, while the youngest is 14 or 15.The average age can be estimated at about 27 or 28. Most of them have children. Some of them are widows .They are divorced or illegally separated from their husbands. Many cases are caused by the maltreatment of husband to his wife. While they are released from their husbands, under the present situation of PI, there is no other way for them to feed their 4 or more children except prostitution. A 43-year-old prostitute tries to convince her four children that she is working inside the base, not in the bar. Needless to say, many American infants are born every month. These children usually have white complexions and features which make them easily identified as illegitimate children.

The success stories with Americans have influenced to entice a continuing flow of new recruits. Most of them come from Visayas, in particular Samar or Leyte. Valuable US dollars have still fascinated girls to come to Olongapo. Another motive is related to psychological and ethical elements in the Philippine society. What I mean to say is that they feel deeply ashamed to their relatives and also their friends of this job. As long as they work in Olongapo, which is far from their province, they are free from at least relatively much feeling.

If you like to work in the club, first you must contact a floor manager. He introduces you to the owner of that club. If he accepts you, you are given some money for the preparation for the register in the Social Hygiene. You must get some medical certificates and also a municipal permit from the Mayor. Every year you have to pay 500 pesos for "hostess fee" to social hygiene. It includes tax and fee for medical care. All hospitality girls have the obligation to check up on VD every two weeks.

We usually think of prostitution as an easy job, but actually they are left behind any kind of social welfare which makes their lives stable. They don't receive either salary or benefits. Besides prostitution they make money through ladies' drinks bought for them by customers. Their standard commission is 50 percent of the purchase price which varies from $1 to $3. Some of those hospitality girls even take a peculiar kind of medicine to stimulate drinking. A man who likes to take a girl out of that club pays a bar fine. It is classified from $40 to more than $200 based on the hierarchy of the clubs. After that the woman is given a pass to leave and is free to negotiate her purchase price. Slipping out without the pass would expose her to arrest as a street walker, a system which is rigorously enforced by the police in cooperation with her owners. If a hospitality girl fortunately gets an American steady, he gives her monthly allowance, which varies from P500 to P2,000. However, their monthly income is closely related to the frequency of calls of ships. According to their saying, there is no ship and no honey and so no money while some of them can get 1000 pesos per night, sometimes, more than that.

Approximately 750 night clubs are there all over Olongapo city, mostly owned by ethnic Chinese. There are two kinds of clubs, which means for Filipinos and the other for Americans. Those clubs that are classified as first are mainly located in the Magsaysay Drive, which leads directly to the gate of the US Naval base. They can get P2000 or P3000 a night, while the rest of them can hardly earn P1000. To get the license for business, which is called "prestige", a club owner must pay P4000 to the Bureau of Internal Revenue and also P1000 to the Municipal.

 

21

 

You can realize how the Municipal Office is closely related to such industry, once you read the bill as following for such as night clubs, hotel, beer halls, disco house, etc., while there is no other industry except those related to REST and RELAXATION for American and Filipino workers inside the base.

Medical Week Celebration (Sept.23-30) provided by Municipal

What:  Education Seminar for hospitality girls, waitresses, combos and other club workers.

When:  Sept. 23, 1979, 1-5 pm.

Where: FIL-AMY Youth Center

Topic:  VD and other Sexually Transmitted Diseases

Danger of Abortion

Cancer Detection and Protection

Family Planning

Notes: Certificate of Attendance will be given to each participant. 

Through such authority's help those hospitality girls can get something concrete to certify their high consciousness regarding VD and other sexually transmitted diseases, in other words, strengthen safety as sexual means. I wonder if they are preaching the danger of abortion to those prostitutes without any guilty sense, meanwhile they are making money through their labor. This occasion represents no more than collusion between sections of the club owners and other businessmen who are getting profit out of the prostitution industry and the authorities concerned.

Those hospitality girls feel desperate at heart.

They feel they have nothing to do without waiting for the chance to get married with Americans while they are passing their prime. Some of them are already beyond 40 years old. To escape the reality many of them indulge in alcohol or drugs. For example, one of the prostitutes whom I met spends P10 for two marijuana sticks a day which means it costs her about P300 monthly. Ironically there must be no job but prostitution that can provide her with such a big amount of money. They never doubt marriage must be the final solution to their problems although some of those married with Americans are suffering a lot from ethnic discrimination and even hostility to Filipinos in the US.

 

CONCLUSION

There are two things they are running after. One of them is money that make them enjoy their relatively luxurious life compared with other Filipino living standards. It means how the people have been deeply influenced by the capitalistic values, namely consumerism. It should be noted under the capitalistic economy the people cannot be satisfied with what they possess so far. They feel hunger to buy commercial goods which they have not yet possessed. That's why it is very hard for them to sacrifice their handsome income, even though they are eager to quit their jobs so much. Another one is marriage, especially with Americans, as I have mentioned repeatedly, however in my understanding marriage is nothing more than dependence on HUSBAND economically and psychologically unless women could be emancipated from men's domination and encouraged to participate in the socio-economic process . They seem to be willing to be a slave, namely a so-called good wife, who should be indefinitely obedient to her husband,

In short, their problem could be solved only when society integratedly is changed to make possible that every individual engages in creative and productive activities in the context of integrity of their life. Prostitution reflects clearly various social contradictions which the Filipinos face under the capitalist and feudal system.

 

_____________

From Frontier Internship in Mission Interns Reports, Spring-Summer, 1980.

 

 

22

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

23

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

24

 

Women on Warpath in Moresby

 

Text Box: Credit: ‘We Women’
 
They damaged the conference room, breaking glass, ashtrays and blinds and scrawled on the black-board.

Earlier they had thrown stones at the Public Service Association building in Spring Garden Road.

And they promised to return the following.

The demonstrators numbered about 1200 but at times the crowd swelled to around 2000 during the long siege of the Chief Minister's offices.

The women stormed the office just on lunchtime after police had been asked to let them through by a senior Government officer.

That order was withdrawn after the women rampaged through the conference room and the crowd threatened to push through the glass partitions of the lobby.

Police managed to get the crowd back down the steps of the offices and a three-and-a-half-hour meeting cum sit-down protest began.

The Police Commissioner Mr. Brian Holloway, and his senior officers came down from headquarters & formed a barrier across the bottom of the steps.

The MHA for Central Regional, Josephine Abaijah led the placard-carrying women from Koki Market to Konedobu and made numerous speeches throughout the afternoon.

She gave Mr. Somare a petition summarizing the women's demands.

They are:

*         All prices to be frozen until wages have their money value restored.

*         All low and medium wages be Increased as an interim measure pending substantial wage increases.

*         No price rises.

*         Government and employers to stop exploiting workers.

*         Salaries of all Members of the House of Assembly to be halved to put them in touch with the people.

*         The Ministers' overseas trips to be cut so that the Government is not in the hands of wealthy local people remote from the needs of the common family.

*         Any employer who raises the price of goods should raise the wages of his workers.

*         Remove unemployed people from Port Moresby so that his cheap labor cannot be exploited.

*         Provide a proper roads system for rural people so that they can supply food at a reasonable price.

The Chief Minister, Mr. Somare, tried to speak to the crowd several times along with the Minister for Defence, Foreign Relations and Trade, Mr. Kiki.

They were shouted down by the women and returned to their office.

Superintendent G.M. Feeney, the superintendent of Papua division, asked Miss Ajaijah to get the women to go home.

She said they wanted Mr. Somare to answer their demands and Mr. Somare returned to the steps.

"I am sorry that you have been sitting and waiting," Mr. Somare said.

"I feel sorry that you have come a long way and we are not getting anywhere - unless we talk face to face.

"I said earlier 'that the Government has a committee that is looking into wages and we're still waiting for the report.

"The Government is aware of your problem,& he said. "Our Papua New Guinean fashion is we sit down and solve our problems and finish it."

Several times during the speech the women shouted "koikoi" (lies).

Miss Ajaijah : "We have been here since this morning and we haven't heard any good answers. "

"We want our demands to be answered point by point.

"Are you coming back tomorrow?"

The crowd: "Yes, with our men and children."

 

_____________

From Papua New Guinea Post Courier.

 

25

 

REFLECTION

 

Questions of A Woman Agricultural Leader

by Bhaskar Jadhav

 

Text Box:  
Credit: Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars
Chorus:        All our life is on fire, all the prices rising

Give us an answer, O rulers of the country!

A handful of American wheat, a kilo of milo mixed with chaff

Doesn’t our country grow crops

Or do we have only mud-mixed grain? Give us an answer…..

We have forgotten the color of milk,

Coconuts and dried fruits have gone underground,

Our children have only jaggery tea for nourishment, Give us an answer…..

 

Sweet oil for cooking is the price of gold,

Coconut oil for our hair is not to be found,

Without rock oil for our lamps we have grown familiar with darkness.

 

We burn in the summer, we are drenched in the rains,

We bear the rigor of winter without any clothes,

Why don’t we yet have any shelter? Give us an answer….

We toil day and night and sleep half-starved

While the parasites fill their bellies with butter,

Why does the thief get nourishment while the owner is cheated?

There are pastures for the cattle of the rich,

For forest development, land is preserved,

Why is there no land to support living men? Give us an answer…..

Tall buildings rise before our eyes,

The roads cannot contain these motorcycles and cars,

On whose labor has such development been built? Give us an answer…..

We filled the jails for independence,

We hurled bombs into the cars of the white men,

Did we do it to fatten the sacred cow? Give us an answer….

When we ask for a rise in the wages, for work for the unemployed,

When we demand land for cultivation,

Why are we met with jail, beatings and bullets? Give us an answer….

Now you have taken a new disguise

And appear in the form of socialism,

But we no longer want for today the promises of tomorrow! Give us an answer….

Now we will stand on our own feet,

We will throw caste and religious differences to the winds,

We call for the brotherhood and sisterhood of all boilers!

We vow today to fight with our lives,

We will bury capitalism in the grave

And sound the drums of our state!

 

____________

From BULLETIN OF CONCERNED ASIAN SCHOLARS, Vol.7, No.1.

 

26

Between 2 Cultures

 

As an educated woman, I find I am torn between the traditional and the modern western-style of life. In western society it is the man who proves that he is a man by working, while in traditional society it is the women who do the hard work.

It I want to go back to live in the village, people do not accept me, because I am educated like a white man. To them the white man is superior. But I do not fit into modern western-style society either. When I talk about western society I am also talking about the educated Papua New Guineans. In traditional society men made decisions affecting the whole village, while women were responsible for decisions affecting themselves. But in western society all the decisions are made by men. There is a great clash between an educated woman in a developing country and her male counterpart. The educated men have taken advantage of both worlds and they are much worse than men in a society like Australia or any developed country.

Even so, I do not support the western woman's liberation. It is very difficult for us, as we are trying to uplift our own people, or even the black race, and at the same time trying to uplift the woman. I can't be on the side of women's liberation and forget about the black race. I don't think women's liberation will find itself in any developing country as the women there are fighting for their own rights as well as the rights of the men.

For instance, take the case of those women who demonstrated for two days in Port Moresby last year. They marched, not for themselves but for pay rises for their husbands and for better education for their children. These were not educated women who were striking, they were women from traditional villages. The strike was organized by United Church Women. The churchwomen's groups in Papua New Guinea are very strong and very active in the villages. After this demonstration the Chief Minister, and the Minister for Finance took action to try to control the price of rice and fish. So in Papua New Guinea woman are wielding political power at the traditional level.

The Government in Papua New Guinea are beginning to realise that women have considerable political influence. In the Eight Point Improvement Plan introduced by the government in 1973, Point 7 reads "Equal and active participation of women in all forms of economic and social activity". I do not know whether it was deliberate or unintentional for the POLITICAL activity to be omitted, because there are women councilors and women are on Government committees.

The only woman in Parliament is Josephine Abaijah who has formed the Papua Besena movement which is calling for separate nationhood for Papua. In 1884 Papua was annexed by the Queensland Government at the request of the British, while New Guinea was annexed by the German Government. This situation lasted until the second world war, when all territories under German rule were confiscated by the United Nations, and New Guinea became a Trust Territory under the guidance of the Australian Administration but controlled by the U.N. Since then both countries have

 

27

 

been known as the Territory of Papua and New Guinea. Papua has been ignored by the United Nations who have concentrated their development work in New Guinea. Josephine began by calling for separate statehood for Papua but members of the House of Assembly discouraged her, and ridiculed her and now she is calling for a completely separate nation. But she has done a lot for Papua by raising issues. It has led to more development in Papua.

I would like to see a United Papua New Guinea, but under a united Federal system whereby Papua has its statehood, but is under the Federal control of Papua New Guinea. Papua New Guinea could be divided into four states of New Guinea, Papua, Bougainville and the Highlands, each with their own state governments. But I would not like to see a separate nation -- look what happened in Vietnam which was divided into two and people had to suffer. What Josephine is saying is listen to us now, listen to the voices of the Papuan people now, before it's too late.

Initially the missionaries came to Papua New Guinea. I have nothing against the missions because they gave me my education. But they disrupted the traditional society, the traditional systems: they discounted many of the traditional ways of life customs. One result of this is the cargo cults, where village people just sat back and relied on the missionaries or the white people to bring them the goods because in the Bible it says if you become a Christian, God will grant grace, he will give you this and he will give you that. Naturally, the people forgot their own customs, they just sat there and waited for the goods to come. When this did happen, the people were disappointed and just gave up hope.

Australia has given large amounts of aid to Papua New Guinea, but this destroyed people's initiative to do things for themselves. They relied on aid being given to them. But, I would like to see more assistance given to the women because they are responsible for agriculture. There should be more women involved in making decisions about aid, both in the donor and the recipient countries. At the moment, aid is administered largely by men, and very little goes to the women. I would like to see money going into women's organizations and to organizations for young people. This would be development from the bottom up. But rather than monetary aid, I would prefer people from developed countries with technological skills to come to Papua New Guinea to teach the people these skills.

When Michael Somare's government came to power, they took measures to outlaw racial discrimination. There was a lot of discrimination against the Papua New Guinean people. People now are trying to get rid of the colonial government, because of what they have experienced, or what their parents experienced before — being treated as an inferior. Young educated people are aware of this inequality and deplore it and try to get rid of any signs of colonialism in the country.

One thing that really hurt me was in Port Moresby a couple of years ago. I was with a group of friends, some Australians and Papua New Guineas. We walked into a restaurant and someone said 'Oh, not the blacks again'. I had never been so hurt in all life. When I was in Australia I had received the same treatment and it didn't worry me, but in my own country I couldn't stand it. Other Papua New Guineans experienced similar sorts of things -- we were treated as inferiors in our own country. But now I walk down the street, and it doesn't affect me. I just stick my head right in the air and I say I am me and you don't even know me.

When Papua New Guinea is finally independent, I would like to see a completely multi-racial society. I would like to see more women getting to the top positions, and more women being given a chance to travel and see other places. These days it seems to be the men who travel and who are given training. But it is the women who are the food growers and I would like to see more women being given training in agriculture, not in institutions, but on farms.

I would not like to see more multi-national companies coming in to Papua New Guinea. Industrialization means that people leave the villages and come to the towns looking for employment. Even now, young men are drifting to the towns, leaving women to carry a double burden in the villages. The government is putting more emphasis on village development schemes and is trying to encourage the young people to go back to the village. I would like to go back, but it is very difficult. For what would I, as an educated woman, be able to do? The village people do not want me to work with them in the gardens, they regard me as a sort of white person who is incapable of hard physical work.

Sometimes I think to myself "why the hell did I get educated, there are so many problems that I can't face as a person". My mind keeps saying, you have got to do something for the country, but another part of me says, get out before you kill yourself. Sometimes I wish I wasn't educated, and that I was just a village person. I would like to feel that I am a woman who belongs somewhere, and know what my role is. And that is not degrading myself. In our society we regard ourselves as people with our own dignity. Sometimes I get angry for being educated. I am between two cultures, with responsibilities on both sides.

 

Interview by Kate Moore

From WE WOMEN, Australia.

 

1980-219.jpg

 

28

 

open letter continued1.jpgOPEN LETTER:      to brothers & sisters in christ of whole China

 

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ In all parts of China:

First of all we greet you in the name of Christ. We cannot but thank God for being able to address you once again openly in this manner. His rod and His staff were never far from us as we moved through the valley of the shadow of death. His promise to Joshua, "I will always be with you/ I will never abandon you," (Jos. 1:5) has been actualized in our midst these years.

Today, through this letter, let us speak to you about things of our common concern.

For the first time in over then years the Standing Committee of our national Three-Self movement met in shanghai during the last week. As we listened to colleagues' reports on church conditions in different parts of China, we felt specially close to our brothers and sisters in the whole household of God and prayed with special fervency for God's blessing on you.

In closing our meeting today we are struck by the fact that the meeting has been so similar to the one in Jerusalem as recorded in Acts 15. We did not have a set agenda. We just let the Holy Spirit guide us as we entered into all subjects of deep concern to us.

Although in the recent past the policy of religious freedom was trespassed upon in the Lin Piao and the "gang of four" cliques, and although many of our clergy and leaders of Three-Self organizations had to suffer all sorts of persecution alongside leading cadres of religious affairs bureaus and of other governmental organs, as well as many intellectuals, yet it heartens us to learn that large numbers of Christians all over China have persisted in their faith, that their service, prayer and waiting before God has not ceased and that they have witnessed well in places where they work. We have seen that the Church has not let her light to be put out but has gone through trials and been strengthened, and that our witness to Christ also has not been dimmed but has in quietude borne fruit. All these years we have firmly believed that the correct line of the Communist Party would return to New China, We have firmly believed that the policy of religious freedom laid down by Chairman Mao and Premier Chou En-Lai was correct and could not be permanently abrogated by anybody. We have firmly believed that the Chinese church, through the Three-Self-movement, would become cleansed and fair, an abode for the Lord. We have firmly believed that upheavals would pass and stability would be restored, bringing a bright prospect for New China. And we have firmly believed that we Christians who cherish a love both for our motherland and for our religious faith would surely be able to work alongside the rest of our Chinese people and make our contributions to our motherland.

Brothers and sisters, today, China has indeed returned to the correct orientation. As we met and listened to all the encouraging reports summarized above, we were greatly moved and inspired by Christian examples. They turned our hearts to thanksgiving. Our faith in the gospel of Christ became strengthened. We are resolved more than ever to unite and do the work entrusted us by God and by the fellow-Christians of the whole country, so that what we have firmly believed can all be turned into facts.

We need to develop and strengthen further our movement.

The Three-Self patriotic movement has achieved a great deal in the course of the last thirty years. As a result of this movement more and more Chinese Christians have come to cherish our motherland. There is a heightened sense of national pride on our part as Chinese and we are now much closer to the people of China in our thinking and standing. As a result of this movement Chinese Christianity is no longer a tool exploited by imperialism or by other reactionary forces. It is now basically a religion adhered to by Chinese citizens. Also as a result of this movement more and more of our Chinese people and cadres have changed their attitude towards Christianity. It is no longer a foreign religion encouraging its adherents to be unpatriotic but is a religion governed, supported and nurtured by Chinese Christian ourselves. These are all very important changes from the perspective of Christian witness in China during the long, coming historical period. And we cannot possibly see these changes had there not been the initiation of this movement by the late Mr. Y.T. Wu and other faithful servants of God.

Today, we fellow-Christians all over China are rebuilding our Temple with the same zeal as that of the Old Testament prophets Haggai, Zechariah and Zeruhbabel. We believe that under the guidance of the eternal God our Father the glory of the latter Temple will be greater than of the former.

We gave heed to the yearning of our brothers and sisters in all parts of our country for the publication of our own Bible and have decided to hasten this work.

We gave heed to the big demand for other Christian publications and have decided to go ahead to meet the need.

 

29

 

There Is a big need -for well-trained clergy and church workers and we have decided to resume the work of preparing such personnel.

In some parts of China the policy of religious freedom has not been very well Implemented and we want to do our best to assist our government and other related bodies in putting the policy Into effect.

We need to strengthen our relations with Christian communities everywhere, help solve their existing problems and help Christians In their endeavours to glorify God and bring benefit to men and women.

We also need to help elevate the consciousness of our constituencies so that all Christians in China will love our motherland, adhere to state laws and prevent anyone with ulterior motives from using Christianity as a cover for activities detrimental to social order, endangering our people and defaming our church.

In short, we need greatly to strengthen the pastoral work of our Christian communities-This Is an urgent task which calls for our Seep commitment and leads us in a most concerted way to see the necessity of the formation of a Christian national structure. After earnest prayer and long deliberation we have decided to proceed with the preparatory work for this organization. This organization aims at giving the necessary pastoral help to Christians and Christian communities across China. It is above all a serving agency. In any question that has to do with our faith our principle is to practise mutual respect and not to interfere with or to make uniform oar beliefs.

The relation between this new national structure and the Three-Self organization Is going to be like that between the two hands of a body. There will be no question of one giving and the other accepting any leadership. The formation of the new body does not at all imply the winding up of the work of the Three-Self movement and its organizations. The latter work is rather to be carried forth more extensively and deeply. We need to continue to uphold the banner of the motherland and give encouragement to Christians to unite with the rest of the Chinese people, contribute to the task of the four modernizations, safeguard the stability and unity of our country and oppose aggression and defend world peace. We need to continue to uphold the banner of national independence, of self-government, self-support & self-propagation, promote Three-Self re-education among our Christians, raise further the sense of national self-respect, defend the fruits of the Three-Self movement, enhance the love of the brethren and the practice of mutual respect In matters of Christian faith which have become the heritage of our movement, and guard against the divisive tactic of those trying to undermine the movement.

We are aware that in churches abroad there is a small number of people still hostile to New China today. They attack our principled stand on Three-Self and put their hands into our church life in the name of "evangelism" and "research". Regardless of the colour of their skin, they are trying in reality to push Chinese Christianity back to the colonial past and earn for It again the onus of a foreign religion taking its stand against the Chinese people. We hope that these individuals would not receive the support of the other Christians abroad and their leaders. We are sure their pursuits will not bear good fruit in the long run.

As to those Christians abroad that assume an attitude of equality towards us and respect our principled stand on independence and self-government, we are ready to enter into friendly relations and fellowship with them.

In order to turn our intentions into facts, we have decided to call a national Christian conference in the near future in which, aside from the discussion of other Important questions, we will produce the new national committee of the Three-Self movement and go into the question of the formation of the Christian national organization. These are questions which concern every Christian and we request you to put the conference in your prayers. If you have any opinion regarding our Christian work in China today, please write to us at 169, Yuen Ming Yuen Road, Shanghai, so that we can take it into consideration at an early stage.

As we meet we remember with love our brothers and sisters in Taiwan and sincerely hope for the return of Taiwan to the bosom of our motherland within this new decade. Then we will be able to join together in rendering our common worship to the One Lord. Let all our fellow-Christians pray and work for the dawn of that day.

In spite or the fact that we are unworthy servants of Christ, let us pray that, in God's blessing, a Chinese church befitting the new countenance of our motherland will soon arise on the beloved soil of China.

The Enlarged meeting of the National Standing Committee on Self-Government, Self-Support & Self-Propagation

March 1st, 1980.

 

From the standing committee of the christian movement for self-government, self-support and self-propagation

 

 

-Pages 30-34 are continued pages-

 

 

35

 

NEWSBITS

 

THOSE STUDENTS AGAIN…

 

The Year 1980 is proving to be a banner year for student activism so far in both the Philippines and Korea. It is only August and we have already witnessed some of the more dramatic interventions the studentries of the two countries make with their respective governments. Let us give some salient points.

1980-223.jpg 

           

 

 

 

KOREA

The Kwangju Incident of May 16th was the culmination of several factors attending current development in Korean life: resistance against military and martial rule, demands for the scrapping of the Yushin Constitution, and also current economic problems. Students were at the forefront of the May 16th incident together with Christian leaders known for their militancy, which covers the period March to May which we quote from the July 15th issue of Korea Communiqué: "The 2-month period covered...can be roughly divided into four phases of student demands and activities - 1) democratization of the campuses, March 19 to April 30; 2) opposition to the intensive of f-campus military training, April 4 to May 1; 3) social democratization, and end to martial law, and emphasis on laborer's rights. May 1 to 12; and 4) Massive off-campus demonstrations calling for more rapid democratization and end to martial law. May 13 to 15. The call is for us to express our solidarity to the heroic efforts to restore democracy in Korea.

1980-224.jpg 

 

                                                                                          

 

 

PHILIPPINES

Militant students meanwhile have began intensive confrontation with government beginning June 10th when leaders of the League of Filipino Students (LFS) were arrested. It is known that 27 such leaders were served warrants of arrest to prevent them from leading demonstrations on June 12, Philippines' Independence Day. Confrontation and arrests also followed on July 4th, traditionally celebrated in Manila as Philippine-American Friendship Day. This month of August, several mass actions have taken place in several Manila campuses and also at the University of the Philippines and this time on the issue of academic freedom specially in light of current moves to modify or change the traditional independence of to the University of the Philippines from the Ministry of Education & Culture. Some informed groups say that there appears to be the beginning of the stormy days of the late sixties and early seventies - events which led to the declaration of martial law. We are called upon to express solidarity towards the plights of students and other groups in the Philippines who work towards genuine freedom, democracy, and peace.

It is generally admitted that the deteriorating economic condition in the Philippines can be a very important factor in any development which takes place there in the coming days.

 

 

NEW STAFF ARRIVES IN HK....

 

JAEWOONG AHN

After half a year of intense negotiations, one of the two in-coming staff of the Asia Pacific region of WSCF arrived at the regional office in Hong Kong in the month of June.

Jaewoong Ann was born in Chungpuk Province in Central Korea in the year 1940. He obtained a degree in Christian Education at Soongjun University and did advance graduate work at the Presbyterian Theological Seminary both in Seoul. He served for sometime as Executive Secretary of Korean Student Christian Council, and was, prior t'o his election and appointment to his present job, the General Secretary of the Korea Student Christian Federation (KSCF) which job he held for twelve years.

In 1970, he took part in the First Asian Leadership Development Centre (ALDEC), a program of WSCF Asia Region that was held in Tokyo, Japan. He has served in a number of youth/student voluntary organizations in Seoul, both secular and religious. He has done several translations from English into Korean, some of which on books produced by WSCF Asia Pacific. Jaewoong is a third generation Presbyterian and is married to Kyungae Lee, a graduate in Literature of Ehwa University in Seoul. They have two children: Joonhyun, 5 and Moonhyun, 3. Meanwhile, search for second staff is still on.

 

 

NEWS FROM SCMs

 

PHILIPPINES

Philippines SCM held its biennial General Assembly last April 7 to 11 and had for their theme -"Student Solidarity in the Struggle of the Filipino People". Dave Rodrigues, current Chairperson of the Asia Pacific Region was re-elected Chairperson of the SCMP while Liddy Nacpil, a student at the University of the Philippines, was elected Vice-Chairperson. Elmo Manapat, a theological student at Union Seminary, was elected General Secretary.

 

BANGLADESH

SCM of Bangladesh met in National Assembly last May 22-25 at Baalavpur, Khustia. The meeting was attended by around sixty delegates. It was followed by a one-day "Camp Festival" where the whole village of Baalavpur participated. Wilfred A. K. Das remains as General Secretary.

 

KOREA

Mr. Sangbok Chung, Associate General Secretary of the Korea Student Christian Federation was elected the General Secretary following the departure of Jaewoong Ahn for Hong Kong. The Board of KSCF" made the election last July 24th. Sangbok has been active in the-democratic movement in Korea and had been imprisoned twice arid arrested several, times.

 

JAPAN

The Student Department of the National Committee of the YMCAs of Japan (Japan SCM) will hold its annual assembly in Tozanso Conference Centre of the YMCA last week of Aug. In a letter from Masumi Nakahara, Student Secretary, an invitation was extended to our new Staff, Jaewoong Ahn to visit Japan and join the conference.