'We need independent mov't in the streets'

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The following are excerpts from the presentation by Tina Beacock to the Feb. 15, 1986, Discussion Group on "Women: Which Way in the '80s" held in Grand Rapids, Mich. Beacock is a member of Socialist Action in Chicago.

One has only to remember the old images of women to realize what changes in consciousness the women's movement has achieved since the late '60s, both here and internationally. It put to rest the myth of women's inferiority.

The women's movement raised a myriad of demands, from legal and economic equality, to the right to abortion and reproductive rights, child care and control over our sexuality-including lesbian and gay rights.

Further, while it included many different interpretations, the women's movement made a far-reaching critique of women's oppression, the roots of that oppression, and the institutions which preserved it-establishing the social and nonbiological basis for that oppression.

But the status of women today is not good. Women's basic condition remains unchanged, and every legal and economic right which was gained is under attack. Although more women than ever work for wages, we still earn 59 cents on the dollar. Of thousands of occupations, women predominate in 20-the lowest paying ones. And women have been thrown back out of jobs where layoffs have hit. Affirmative action is eroded daily.

Statistics establish the feminization of poverty. Women are hit hard by the continuously shrinking federal budget. One of the more chilling statistics shows the connection between the cuts in the WIC [Women, Infant, Children] program and the largest rise in 18 years of the national infant mortality rate. This is occurring while Congress debates whether there's a $100 million for the contras in Nicaragua.

One of the most dramatic assaults on women's rights is against abortion rights. This issue is fundamental for women to be able to control their own lives. Reagan, who is all for 'life' as long as its not women's lives or the lives of Salvadoran peasants, annually addresses the semi-official rally against the Supreme Court decision of 1973 that legalized abortion.

There have been cuts in Medicaid funding for abortion and health insurance coverage. In addition there have been 50 bombing or arson incidents against clinics which per -form abortions in the last two years.

And the last time I checked the TV, the most serious fight for women's rights, I Rebick (continued from page 4: “Judy Rebick: 'Labor party must fight”) from the beginning-from the Ontario Federation of Labor. The reason for this is that we, in the Ontario Coalition for Abortion Clinics, have had a very strong orientation toward the labor movement and have tried to win support from it. In Ontario there is a very strong feminist influence in the labor movement.

Labor women have fought very hard in the movement for choice. And it's an ongoing struggle, as it is everywhere, because anti-choice people are always organizing against us.

Brunelle: You are running for president of the Ontario New Democratic Party. Can you tell me a bit about the party and why you are running in this campaign?

Rebick: The party is basically a labor party. It's different than any of the parties in the United States in the sense that it has a structured relationship to the labor movement. It's basic support comes from labor and working people. It doesn't get any money from corporations. And in this sense, I see it personally as a potential was told, was the fight to be bosses-the struggle of women executives!

What happened? Is it really true, as Betty Friedan said, that we asked for too much? That we weren't concerned enough about the family?

Paying the cost of the crisis Not at all. Women, along with all working people, and oppressed nationalities in particular, are being made to pay the costs of capitalism's crisis. From the members of Local P-9 in Austin, Minn., to the working women being told that they're depriving their children by not being home, we are being asked to pay the cost of the crisis of the corporations and their system.

No matter how many times we fight for and get our rights, this system cannot guarantee women's rights because it is based on inequality. It depends in so many ways on the oppression of women.

Not just direct profits-the 59 cents—made from wage discrimination, but through maintaining women as the ones primarily responsible for all the social tasks-domestic work, childrearing within The following are excerpts of an interview with Ann Michelini, Ohio secretary of NARAL (National Abortion Rights Action League) and chair of the Reproductive Rights Committee of Cincinnati NOW. The interview was conducted for Socialist Action on Feb. 15, 1986, by Kate Curry.

Socialist Action: What is the situation of the pro-choice movement in Cincinnati?

Ann Michelini: Here in Cincinnati we are dealing with a conservative community with many Catholics. In addition, we happen to have the national leader of the right-to-life movement living in our community. This has made Cincinnati a target.

We have been subjected to legal harassment and the bombing of abortion clinics. And we have had big and increasingly loud fanatical demonstrations instrument in the electoral arena of working people. And I think it's very important to make the NDP represent working people and women.

We in the pro-choice movement have seen NDP support as essential in our struggle. And we have fought very hard inside the party to get the party to support the clinic and to support and defend Dr. Morganthaler. And the women in the party, of whom I am one, won that fight two years ago after quite a long struggle.

I'm running for president not only because of that experience, but because a number of us in the women's movement, in the international solidarity movements, the peace movement and the labor movement, feel that the NDP is not doing what it could be doing in order to support our struggles.

So we're organizing a campaign inside the party to change the party to be much less like the other two parties and much more an activist party which gets politically involved in the various campaigns and social struggles that take place—not only speaking as their voice in Parliament but also being involved with them in the streets. the family as "private" work.

Sexism, like racism, also performs another function in dividing up the working class: Capital seeks workers' compliance in their own exploitation, seeking to buy men's collaboration with the small coin of their domination over "their" women. The only real winners in such a system, of course, are the tiny minority of rulers.

The only lasting break with this cycle is the abolition of capitalism and the capitalist class which profits by it—the establishment of socialism. This entails the reorganization of society from bottom to top to produce for human needs, not for profits. It means the socialization of the means of production and with that the socialization of all those tasks now consigned to individual women. In this manner, society as a whole takes on the collective responsibility for childrearing, housekeeping, cooking, and cleaning. This would lay the basis for eliminating the oppression of women.

The Russian Revolution started on this course by providing legal equality for wo -men, eliminating the status of 'illegitimate' children, and liberalizing divorce. It pro -vided the right to abortion, to a job, and to education. It was only with the dege -neration of the revolution, and the rise of the Stalinist bureaucracy, that the travesties in front of the clinics each Saturday.

Partly as a response to this, two clinics decided to stop doing Saturday procedures, which was perceived as a victory by the so called right-to-life anti-abortion forces. These people stated they intend to make Cincinnati an "abortion free zone."

So the sequence of legal pincers, intimidation, threats, harassment, and bombings all work together. That's what we've seen here in the last few months.

S.A.: Reagan, in his state of the union speech, called for cuts in healthcare services and also a ban on abortions.

Michelini: Well, what can we say about such an administration and such a politician? Reagan wants to destroy the federal government's role as a provider of any services whatsoever. It should operate, according to his view, only as a purveyor of defense and weaponry. And that increasingly is what he has succeeded in doing to us.

Politically he states he is opposed to the interference of government in the private lives of individuals. But what he means is he is opposed to interference by the government in the economic lives of wealthy individuals. He is strongly in favor of the interference of government into the private lives of others.

S.A.: How can the majority of people who are pro-choice respond to this type of attack?

Michelini: That would be twopronged. In Cincinnati we are going to try to get these rascals out of the City Council. On Jan. 25, following the bombings, we held a rally at a local church at which rabbis and ministers spoke. This rally was heavily attended. We had upwards of 400 people present. I have never seen more political energy in one place at one time. People were excited. They were eager to do something about it.

In the last election we lost representation on the City Council from two female representatives who had been strongly pro-choice. So at the local level that's what you do. You get into local politics and you realize that this issue, which many people thought was a peripheral issue, is at the core of human rights issues and is at the core of the women's revolution. If women can be forced to undergo pregnancy against their will, then they have no other human arose-like the recriminalization of abortion and medals for motherhood. This happened the very year Stalin announced the arrival of the "era of socialism."

So is there nothing to do but wait for the glorious era of socialism, when women's oppression will be automatically abolished? Not at all. The defense of women's rights today demands the continued organization of women, independently, to fight for our own interests, to organize and develop our confidence in our own forces. And it demands that we seek allies among the working class and the oppressed, who are also struggling for their rights against the same enemies.

But in this fight for day-to day demands, we must not rely on the capitalist politicians-Democrats or Republicans, women or men—to give us our rightful due. They have never given us anything without a fight. The right to abortion, for example, was won in the streets from the Supreme Court during the Nixon administration. And the ERA lost to Democratic Party controlled legislatures.

Women are organizing-for clinic de -fense, against the military (like at Seneca Falls), for comparable worth. And on March 9, women are organizing to march in Washington to defend the right to abortion. I urge everyone to go.

cincinnati Crisis Pregnant Center Free Preena Ann Michelini picketing rightwing clinic rights. That is a simple fact.

Now on the national level we have got to get rid of Reagan. But the American people still like this man. The polls indicate, they are through with their love affair with Ronnie, we may get somebody a little better. I feel very discouraged, I'll admit.

S.A.: What is being done to build the national demonstration for abortion rights and how is that coming along in Cincinnati? Are there any new people who hadn't really been around NOW or other organizations that are being brought in?

Michelini: Yes. Other political groups with a broader political base have gotten involved. And a lot of private individuals are calling the clinics to tell them of their concern and their eagerness to get involved.

The problem about the pro-choice issue-and we should never blame ourselves for this--is that we are passive, while they are active. They actively attempt to destroy peoples' human rights. We passively attempt to keep them from destroying human rights. So, many people have felt lulled into a sense of security by the fact that human rights are guaranteed by the constitution and presumably women have the right to choose in this country.

But in this city people are beginning to realize how this can be taken away. Step by step this is occurring with the use of tactics which, to my mind, resemble precisely those of the Ku Klux Klan in the old South.

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membership.

The USWA International began the process of selling concessions to the membership by holding meetings for local union officers in Cleveland, East Chicago, Canton, and Pittsburgh. Notices for these unprecedented meetings promised a thorough review of the Locker/Abrecht study, confidential information on the company's finances, and

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961-7777 PRORLEM ocialist Action/Kate Curry

however, that they don't agree with any of his policies. So, it is to be hoped that once