Jean Devanny, Sugar Heaven

“Organisation is for the purpose of developing the latent talents of the women. See how we live! Nothing uplifting about our lives is there? We’ve got no objective. We live and breed and die. Life isn’t meant to be like that. Life is meant for joy and expansion and objective living. I think it’s the job of women to rear a race of young who will live better lives than we live; who will be able to create a better world than we, their elders, have been able to create. It’s not a question of what women can do; it is what can’t they do? We’ve got to bring the women closer to the men, to an understanding of the men’s work problems. Look at the Country Women’s Association! It’s everywhere in the North. There’s its big hall in the next street. But does it benefit the working women? What part has it played in the strike? As an organisation it has been utterly opposed to the strike. We should have been working in that…” (p246).

...

“It’s easy to work up here compared to down south, all the same”

“Why is that?”

“Well, it’s the result of years of work, of course. The union officials have been isolated from the workers. Their treachery has been so open. And we’ve done some good work.” Very modestly. “The non-party workers know what to do with the minimum of guidance from the Party. On one side stand the bosses; on the other the men. We haven’t the complicating factors they’ve got down south in the industrial areas. The non-party workers can see the struggle, therefore its easy to wage it. Comparatively. They know the Communists are fairly decent chaps, too. They live with us and know all there is to be known about us. Experience has taught them that we know what we’re talking about.” (p298).