SECTION III: WOMEN TAKING CONTROL OF NEW TECHNOLOGY

We have chosen the following articles as they illustrate how women on the one hand are beginning to organize themselves in the struggle against global corporations and secondly how' some women are putting new technology to work for themselves.

International Solidarity

An excerpt from "Integrating Women into Multinational Development" (see introductory article for address).

Because of the global nature and power of multinational corporations, international solidarity and organization are needed to combat effectively the negative effects of multinationals. This is vital since corporations try, and often succeed, in dividing workers, pitting the employees in the factories of one country against those in another. In addition to the essential organizing and consciousness raising of women workers in local plants, there are a number of things which could and are being done. Some of these are.

— forming networks and communications channels to share information and research, organizing international solidarity for local struggles and activities;

— working for national legislation to curb the power and exploitative activities of multinationals, for health, safety and environmental regulations, and to prevent the exportation of pollution and the dumping of unsafe products abroad;

— pressuring United Nations agencies to include women in any codes or negotiations dealing with multinationals;

— monitoring the enforcement of national legislation and international codes;

— researching the activities of multinationals and of development agencies, international financial institutions and United Nations organizations in regard to multinationals.

— pressuring non-governmental organizations researching and organizing around multinationals to take seriously the exploitation of women and to include a feminist perspective in their work;

— organizing local, national and international campaigns against the negative effects of multinationals, such as the infant formula campaign;

— providing workers in local factories with information about the activities of the multinational elsewhere;

— questioning the model of development promoted by multinationals and the concept of integrating women into the labor force at any cost;

— providing alternatives to employment by multinationals

Women must ensure that they and their problems are taken seriously and are an integral part of these activities, not relegated to secondary or peripheral positions. Feminists have often neglected the issue of multinationals in the past, but they can make an important contribution by bringing a feminist perspective to the analysis of multinationals and the oppression of women. This oppression ties women together globally and must be fought globally and in solidarity around the world.