Cold storage for elderly

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‹Pro-lifers' harass women seeking abortion services To our readers: Our August issue will be a reduced summer issue.

! SOCIALIST ACTION JULY 1985 Board and care homes-good ones, that is—are not easy to come by. For low-income survivors of the capitalist rat race it's a hard fact of life that there's often no place to lay your head when you get old.

I recently had the experience of looking into a board-and-care home for an elderly relative. I came away from that experience with more dread than ever of growing old and being alone.

We were told it was one of the "better" places, so we went to look for ourNOW (continued from page 1: “United pilots return to work after hard-fought strike”) away from a strategy of mass action. Under the slogan, "Out of the streets and into the mainstream, all of NOW's energy was turned toward electing "good guys, male and female, who promised to vote for the ERA in state legislatures.

Nevada was an example of the results of this real "exercise in futility."

Ten Nevada legislators who vowed to vote for ERA ratification were elected with the backing of NOW. In the first test, all 10 voted against the ERA! Nevada NOW women came to the following national convention wearing buttons that said "Remember the Nevada Ten!"

But the national NOW leadership learned nothing. This debacle continued in state after stąte. NOW pushed its chapters into wine-and-cheese fund-raisers and precinct-walking for Democratic Party candidates. The "out of the streets, into the mainstream" strategy had the devastating effect of demoralizing NOW activists.

NOW leaders purge activists San Francisco NOW was an example of the effect of this disastrous policy. S.F. NOW had been known nationally as one of the most militant, active chapters in the country. In order to turn S.F.

essary to red-bait and purge the chapter of its most devoted members.

Christine Vaughn, an office worker and member of the National Organization for Women, is an escort for Planned Parenthood in San Francisco. Escorts are required to accompany women through the anti-abortion picket lines at Planned Parenthood.

Socialist Action asked Christine to describe her reaction to the constant harassment by "pro-lifers" of women who need abortion services.

It's scary to be an escort after all the bombings and threats against abortion clinics. We get some really arrogant and selves. We were met at the door by a woman who said she was the "caretaker."

She escorted us through the house. Even though it was still bright daylight outside, there was not a sound coming from the house.

As we were shown into the bedrooms, we saw that all of the old people were lying in their beds. They were not asleep, just in bed.

I had hoped to find senior citizens playing cards, watching TV, or just sitting around munching cookies. No, not the case. But there was a TV room, so BILL Leaders of the chapter who had headed up the reproductive rights committee, the equal rights committee, the "Day In The Park" committee and the newsletter, and who had built the chapter, were driven out on trumped-up charges of "organizing a reproductive rights march."

Jeannie Foat, acting California state coordinator, swooped -into San Franobnoxious know-it-alls in San Francisco. They are at the clinic every Saturday almost without fail. (Saturday is the day that many college or working women have their abortions.)

Both men and women are on the anti-abortion picket line. Some of the "pro-lifers" bring their children. One thing is interesting—we have never seen a Black person picket the clinic.

One of the regulars is Rev. Charles Mcllhenny, who is pastor of the First Orthodox Presbyterian Church in San Francisco. Many of the pickets wore their Reagan-Bush buttons to the picket line.

We escorts have given some of them The kitchen was spotless; so was the dining area. Dishes had been washed and put away as had the old people. A shining chain with a lock was wrapped around the refrigerator.

Perhaps the food was so plentiful that the "caretaker" was worried the old people would eat too much. No, not so. The menu for supper consisted of one hotdog on Monday, one grilled cheese sandwich on Tuesday, one slice of quiche on Wednesday, etc.

No wonder the refrigerator was locked up! Those hungry old people might drink some milk, eat an apple, or something else disastrous. You know the criminal mind of the elderly.

It was the quiet and the chain that did it. We walked out, disturbed by the quiet, the deadly quiet. No card playing, no TV, no late night cake and milk capers. Just quiet, orderly, cold storage.

cisco and brought members from other Northern California chapters to vote against the S.F. NOW activists. Over 75 of S.F. NOW's most active members left in disgust.

The trial was effective in its divideand-conquer effect. The conquest was very short lived. The S.F. NOW chapter, which stood out for its visible, militant actions in defense of women's rights, was reduced to an ineffectual shadow of its former self. And it has yet to recover.

Symbol of hope

The National Organization for Women, before its transformation into a vote-getting vehicle for the Democratic Party, was a symbol of hope for millions of women stifled by a sexist economic system which thrives on the misery of women, children, and oppressed minorities.

But NOW remains an organization of 250,000 members,, with 800 chapters and an annual budget of $6.5 million. Just imagine how much it could do for women's rights with that force if it were not in bed with the same politicians who represent the oppression and exploitation of women.

If NOW is to survive, it must turn from the electoral arena and go back into the streets. It must once again mobilize women for action. It can begin by reducing its membership fee to $l per person.

It should go onto the street corners, into the office buildings, union halls, and factories-wherever women work— and recruit those millions of women who are willing to fight for their rights.

nicknames, like the Dragon Lady who got too aggressive with an escort and came out the loser. We haven't seen her since.

Another picket, who makes antisemitic remarks, took photographs of all the escorts. Another "pro-lifer" flips open brochures of supposedly aborted fetuses and tells passers-by, "They kill babies in there."

The worst offenders are students from the [Catholic] University of San Francisco. They directly accost anyone walking on the street and try to force literature into their hands. People in the neighborhood are really angry that they have to walk through these fanatics Closing news date: June 19, 1985 Editor: ALAN BENJAMIN Assistant Editor: MICHAEL SCHREIBER Staff: Paul Colvin, Suzanne Forsyth, May May Gong, Millie Gonzalez, Mark Harris, David Kirschner, Hayden Perry, Joe Ryan, Carole Seligman, Kwame M.A. Somburu, Marion Syrek, Sylvia Weinstein Business Manager: Don Mahoney Circulation Manager: Ralph Forsyth Socialist Action (ISSN 0747-4237) is published monthly for $6 per year by Socialist Action Publishing Association, 3435 Army St., No. 308, San Francisco, CA 94110. Second-class postage is paid at San Francisco, Calif. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Socialist Action, 3435 Army St., No. 308, San Francisco, CA 94110.

Rates: 12 issues for $6.00; Canada and Mexico $12.50; $30.00 airmail for all other countries; $14.00 surface mail for all other countries. Signed articles by contributors do not necessarily represent the views of Socialist Action. These are expressed in editorials.

Right-winger pickets abortion clinic in San Francisco.

every Saturday morning. Many of them extend signs of support to us escorts and even say, "Thank God you're here"

Many of the "pro-lifers" have made remarks alluding to the clinic bombings, saying things like, "It's too bad they didn't bomb all of them."

They yell at the escorts, "What do you get paid for this? Are you ready to admit you're wrong?"

Well, I can tell them, we get no pay. We get nothing except the comforting feeling that we have helped one more woman in her right to choose. And we will be there as long as needed. We will fight the "pro-lifers" until they disappear from the doors of the clinic.

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NOW from an activists' chapter into an arm of the Democratic Party, it was nec-

PROTECT YOUR FREEDOM TO CHOOSE

PLANNED PARENTH •SO BUS CHILD ABUSE