WOMEN WORKERS AND CLASS STRUGGLES 57 the Communist Party combined with their high level of political consciousness ensured this shift. The dispersal of the production units also contributed to a loss of political base for many of these workers. A similar explanation lias come recently from a group of women activists from the freedom movement days from Last Bengal. The partition of Bengal, according to them, disrupted their family economics—forcing all of them into taking up some job to help the family survive. This compulsion, added to the loss of their political base in East Bengal, virtually ended their active involvement in politics. Their withdrawal was not due to any loss of commitment or interest.19 A third possible reason was the increasing involvement of some of the leading activists with the women's organisations (Mahila Sanghams) without the supporting link with the workers5 organisation. The president of the Coir Workers Federation, Susheela Gopalan, observed that dual membership and active involvement in a live women's movement was vital for the growth of women's consciousness, and their issues receiving adequate consideration from the political leadership.20 The Emerging Issues and Conclusions This story of the struggles of women coir workers destroys many myths. The widely prevalent idea of women's passivity in the face of oppressive situations or their reluctance to participate in collective protests or trade union activities cannot be maintained in the face of tlie evidence of the militant struggles of these women. Such participation was possible because of the specificities of the struggle which involved women from a particular class, its ideological orientation and forms of organisation which had an impact on women's productive and reproductive roles. Glass consciousness developed from shared experiences. Women workers found a chance to articulate organisationally the identity of their interests at three levels: (1) within the trade union, where they recognised their identity with other workers against another class whose interests were opposed to theirs; (2) in the women's organisation and (3) through the interaction of the latter with the trade union and political party. Women's participation at sucli different levels opens up new prospects for the future for destroying in practice the value systems which relegate them to an invisible and voiceless role in society. In other words, such participation forces the pace for a process of social transformation. The women's movement is increasingly becoming conscious of the powerful role of the family in influencing women's participation in the working class movement. What shape this analysis is going to take is still not clear. One belief, articulated by the president of the Coir Workers Federation, Susheela Gopalan, is the need to involve the family in the movement. It was her experience in the general working class movement and struggles of women workers in particular that led her to