letariat letariat.
This shift is even more dramatic when its impact on married women is considered. Prior to World War II the proportion of married women in paid extremely static. By 1911 only 10 per cent of all married women - and the same pro- WOLKCIS portion of married women aged 15-6- were in paid work. By 193l, the last census date before World War II, still only 10 per cent of all married women, and only 11 per cent of married women were in work. (See Table 2) jobs.
By 1951 there had been a significant mercase In women in paid work — will cent of married women aged 15-64, in the labour force (although a considerable part of this change was due to the sharp increase in the proportion of women who were married which took place between 1931 and 1951).
From 1951 onwards, however, the married women in work constituted a veritable by lyls me percen in paid work day • from 22 per cent to 44 workers. per cent. By 1983 49 per cent of married The married aged between 15 and 64 in paid work also - increasing from 24 percent to 48 percent by thẹ cell 15 and 59 alone re considered (ie taking into accoun Wage for women) then by 1983 56 per cent of all women of working age, and 56 per cent of marwere in however proportion of women workg part ume than men 1s tion taken into account - and the effect of not be exaggerated as by women workers were working at least 36 hour a week -then there is no doubt what this shift through The movement of marrie vomen into the paid workforce durin people onwards con stitutes the greatest single change in the structure of British society in the twenwas created alongside, overlapping with the new female proFinally these immense shifts in the position of women and black people within the working class also accompanied the other great change - the increase in the proportion of white collar, and to a lesser degree public sector, This was both a process of change within the working class manual workers shifting into white collar and part of the process of proletarianisation those not previously in the worktorce entering white colla Social Between 1948 and 1979 the number of manual workers declined from 14 million to 12 million — a decrease of 14 per cent. But the number of white col. lar worker almost doubled from 6.2 million to 11.7 million. The proportion of white collars workers increased from 31 per cent to 49 per cent. The number of white collar workers toexceeds the number of manual The shift into the public sector in the period of the post war boom was significant but not as massive as the increase in the number of workers, black workers, or white collare workers. The number of workers in public sector increased from 4.6 million in 1948 to 6.3 million in 1979: the proportion of workers in the public sector increasing from 25 per cent to 32 The really big expansion number of workers in the public sector came during and the immediate post-war period -not during the post war boom. number of workers in the public sector since 1979, has of course somewhat decreased with the process of privatisaTaken overall the nature of this process is quite clear. The post-war period saw not a shrinking of the working class but its massive extension - an extension La massive entry of women. above all married women, and black into the workforce. stitutes a social revolution in the composition of the working class equivalent in us scope to that or the industrial revolution or the period of the creation by the working class against British imperialism that a true mass socialist current will emerge in the British working class. The creation of such a current however will be enormous y reinforced by the massive proletarianisation of women and black people and their huge entry into the labour movement - botr the fact that these are the least privileged sections of the working class and, in the case of black people, because of their direct links with those struggling against imperialism in the semi-colonial Countic process. Marx Communist Manifesto 'have no interests separate and apart from those of the working class as a whole.' Class consciousness constitutes moving the defence of the interests of the workWing class as a whole ticular layer or group within it no matter how large or militant.
Britain itself rested only on specific sectons of the obstacles existed to the development of mass class consciousness. That the narrow privileged craft unions of the mid•Table 2:
Women in work in Great Britain of the Year in labour force war i • The 1881 1921 1931 1951 1973 19791 1983 1.Uk It conSocialist Action what I call where black people are concerned, go read the history of John Brown. That
La white liberal.' tative in government. We must not be bullied, hectored or cajoled into supporting just one group at this junc