THE recent wave of strikes and campaigns has seen millions of women rise up and shout loudly that enough is enough.

Consistently having to bear the brunt of successive governments’ vicious anti-working-class policies, women across the country, in their unions and communities, are making their voices heard, demanding fair pay and an end to the cost-of-living crisis.

The government’s only response is to try and gaslight us by saying it’s all down to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, despite their austerity agenda pre-dating the war by over 13 years. They are also trying to undermine union action and democracy itself by bringing in an anti-strike Bill to enforce “minimum service levels.”

With women making up 75 per cent of the teaching workforce, 77 per cent of the NHS and 82 per cent of social care staff, this draconian law, if it ever gets passed, will disproportionately affect the rights of women workers.

With housing, childcare costs and food prices rising, more and more families are falling into poverty.

Shelter estimates that over 2.5 million renters are either behind or struggling to pay rent — an increase of 45 per cent since April 2022 and childcare costs for a full-time nursery place for a child under two is a staggering £14,836.

Action for Children estimates that 4.2m children in Britain are now living in poverty, the equivalent of nine children in a class of 30.

All this is happening at the same time as the rich are getting richer and wealth inequality is increasing. The Covid pandemic saw a 20 per cent increase in the number of billionaires with the global wealth of billionaires rising more in the first 24 months of the pandemic than in the last 23 years combined.

It is against this backdrop that women delegates from affiliated unions and members from around the country are coming to Liverpool on June 10 for the annual general meeting of the National Assembly of Women (NAW).

A panel-led discussion on women and violence, including the violence of war, as well as in the home and in the workplace, will help guide our work during the coming period.

The AGM is also a chance to celebrate victories, including the equal pay claim brought by Unison, the GMB, Unite and Action4Equality resulting in Glasgow city council paying out a total of £770m to over 19,000 women workers to settle this long-running dispute.

Established in 1952 at the height of the Korean war to campaign for peace, equality and international solidarity, the NAW has always had strong links to the labour and trade union movement, and this year we are particularly honoured that general secretary of the BFAWU Sarah Woolley has agreed to be one of our honorary vice-presidents, joining Gloria Mills from Unison and Vera Baird KC.

As a founder member of the Charter for Women and signatory to the People’s Assembly Against Austerity, we continue to work with all those campaigning for a fairer, more equal Britain, and as an affiliate of CND and the British Peace Council, we firmly believe that without peace we cannot achieve an equal and stable society.

As the only British women’s organisation affiliated to the Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF), we have a unique connection to the international women’s movement, attending conferences and sharing experiences with our sisters in struggle across the world.

Our journal Sisters regularly carries articles from women on the front line, including Afghanistan and Iran as well as those here in Britain.

Our aim for the coming year is to strengthen those links, especially within the WIDF and its affiliated organisations, and to promote further the demands set out in the Charter for Women. The tide has begun to dramatically turn against this government and we must not lose the momentum.

For more information about the NAW visit www.sisters.org.uk