Joining the Communist Party
1975
"I finished college and went to night school to do a Sociology A level, where I met a woman who was in the Communist Partyand I just liked the things she was talking about politically. I obviously came from a Labour voting family, a Trade Union family, but I’d always been aware that the Labour Party didn’t do a lot for people. I joined the Communist Party in Birmingham which is relevant because it was through them that I got interested in and became part of the [Women’s Liberation Movement]”.
“The Communist Party was very top heavy, blokes ran it but the women were giving them a lot of stick at that time and a lot of arguing went on. It was the only place really that a socialist feminist would feel comfortable. The Trade Union movement then was still very very dominated by white working class politics, miners, engineering workers, all of that, every industry worker. You’d have never got away with calling people Chairwoman or Chairperson in those situations but you did in the Communist Party, they adjusted to fit the membership which was in their interests because hundreds of women joined”.
Contributed by: Jean Turley, 72