The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

‘Women build the new Grenada By Baxter Smith , ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada—‘‘This is our revolution. We know what we want and we know where we are going,”’ Patsy Romain declared in the opening speech of the December 6-7 congress of Grenada’s National Women’s Organiza- tion (NWO). — For two days, more than 300 delegates gathered here from throughout this east- ern Caribbean island. They discussed the advances that women have made in Grenada since the beginning of the revo- lution that toppled dictator Eric Gairy in 1979, the problems that they continue to face, and their role in the further ad- vance of the Grenada revolution. Reflecting the crucial role of workers. in this revolutionary process, more. than two-thirds of the delegates to the con- gress were working women. The NWO congress also reflected the internationalism of the Grenada revolu- tion, and the interest that it is arousing among working people in other coun- tries. Overseas guests came from Cuba, the Soviet Union, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Jamaica, Guyana, the United States, and a dozen or so other countries. - Beginning as a group of 60 women in December 1977, the NWO today has some 6,500 members, or 27 percent of all Grenadian women above the age of 14. There is an NWO group in every village. The NWO has been a driving force behind the revolution, here and women have received many of the benefits of the revolution. Women hold ministerial and deputy ministerial positions and other high government posts. There are wo- men leaders of the trade unions and of the National Youth Organization. There is a Ministry for Women’s Affairs, the only one-in the English-speaking Carib- bean. . One-quarter of the People’s Militia is comprised of women. Women map goals The congress delegates unanimously. mechanics, adopted a three-year work plan to help advance the fight against unemployment in Grenada and to further the education of women. This capped several months of inten- sive preparation. Women in every-parish and in the sister isles of Carriacou and Petit Martinique studied and discussed the draft work plan in workshops, pre- sentations, women’s parish (county) council meetings, and other forums. According to the NWO _ newsletter Scotilda, more than 2,000 women attended women’s parish council meet- ings where the plan was discussed. Many of the suggestions offered at these meet- ings are incorporated into the final plan. In reviewing the highlights of the work plan, NWO President Phyllis Coard told the congress that in the “‘new socialist society that we are aiming to build,’? women will be ‘‘marching together with all sections of the working people of our country.”’ ~ The NWO president pointed to the oppression of women from = slave through capitalist societies. She said that following the March 13, 1979, revolu- tion, ‘‘many women’s groups formed spontaneously out of women’s desire to be organized.’’ In May 1980, after the NWO opened its ranks to all women, it grew rapidly. , Women, Coard declared, have gotten ‘‘many material and physical benefits, yet the greatest benefit has been the equality of opportunity that the revolu- tion has offered us.”’ Employment A major goal of the NWO over the next three years will be preparing women for the thousands of jobs expected to come on stream in agriculture and con- struction, fields in which women have not traditionally - been employed... The NWO hopes to help women learn the necessary skills to become drivers, carpenters, masons, and farmers. ? According to the latest unemployment . CG CLEWAII A ~ Workers at Agro-Industrial plant in Grenada. Grenada’s National Women’s Orga- nization has helped women learn job skills. figures, one woman in every five who want to work is jobless. This equals a 17 percent jobless rate for women. Un- employment overall is 14 percent, far less than when the revolution began in 1979, but still a major problem. Because the revolutionary government is viewing agriculture and construction as prime avenues to develop the econ- omy, Coard told the congress that ‘‘if women do not enter these fields we will _ find a situation where jobs will become available, yet women will still be out of work.’’ Moreover, if women do not take _ these jobs, it will hamper the economy, because the jobless figures show there are not enough unemployed men to fill them. “We want to seek to alter women’s at- titudes about what is women’s work,”’ the NWO president said. To help with this, she urged that agriculture and con- struction become compulsory in schools for boys and girls. Much of this false conception about what is women’s work is bound up with the ideological and class underpinnings of women’s oppression. During her speech, Coard got the loudest applause when she touched on matters that cut to the heart of women’s oppression in the family. Unlike before the revolution, no longer do women have to degrade them- selves by offering sexual favors when seeking or keeping employment. But there is still abuse of women in the family. And this abuse, Coard said, ‘‘must be stamped out.’’ She encourag- ed efforts to educate police officers about the seriousness of women’s com- - plaints against assaults in the home. Coard also spoke about ‘‘false con- ceptions of morality’? whereby social pressures prevent some pregnant teen- agers from continuing their education. Congress participants cheered when Coard announced that the Ministry of Legal Affairs has agreed to meet with the NWO. to. draw.up. new. legislation _ that would make children born out of wedlock ‘‘legitimate.’’ Under such legis- lation no child would ever have to suffer the social and financial stigma of being ‘‘illegitimate.’’ Coard also spoke about the problems of child support when fathers skip out on the need to support their offspring. She said that this problem and others in- volving family matters might be better handled through the creation of family courts, where members of the mass organizations could play a major role. Coard said adoption of these types of * measures would create in Grenada a ““new type of human being with an all- rounded human personality.”’ Prime Minster Maurice Bishop also addressed the congress. He saluted the ‘‘tremendous exercise in democracy’’ that was seen in preparation for the congress. He also paid tribute to the role of women in the struggle to topple the former dictatorship. Bishop rebutted the proimperialist slanders leveled at Grenada for alleged human rights violations. The prime min- ister spoke about the expansion of human rights for women that has gone on since the revolution. Bishop explained to the congress that adoption of the maternity leave law, equal- pay-for-equal-work law, trade union laws, and others have expanded the human tights of women. giro Intercontinental Press