Madam, - A report in your edition of February 16th states that "more than 162,000 women workers suffer domestic violence, according to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions". This, of course, implies that approximately 162,000 male workers perpetrate domestic violence. There is no explanation as to how the ICTU arrives at this figure.
Perhaps it is based on that other spurious statistic that one woman in five is abused by her partner. By implication this must mean that one in five men is a wife-beater. So, by subscribing to this feminist propaganda, is the ICTU saying that 82,000 of its 400,000-plus male trade union members are wife-beaters?
As Senator Joe O'Toole (president) and Mr David Begg (general secretary) have allowed this anti-man propaganda to be issued in the name of ICTU it is incumbent on them to speak out clearly and honestly to the public and their male members. Do they believe that approximately 82,000 of their male members abuse their wives/partners?
Another interesting inference of this statistic is that five members of the ICTU national executive beat their wives/partners. It can be argued that accepting the one-in-five statistic in relation to men generally does not mean that it applies to any particular sub-set of men. It could be fewer or it could be more. While this argument has validity in relation to small numbers it has less validity when larger numbers, such the 400,000-plus male trade unionists, are involved.
The ICTU guide Domestic Violence and the Workplace is written exclusively from women's perspective as victims. It totally excludes the experiences of male victims. To compound the sexist, anti-man nature of the document, it contains a list of support groups but excludes Amen, the support group for male victims of domestic abuse. Is this an indication of the ICTU's concern for the well-being of male trade unionists?
This document appears to be the work of ICTU's women's committee. Its chairperson, Rhona MacSweeney, who is quoted in the article, is a civil servant employed in the Department of Education. Isn't there a prohibition on civil servants making political statements of this nature? - Yours, etc.,
MARY T. CLEARY,
National Co-ordinator,
Amen,
Navan,
Co Meath.