We will not be moved from our goal!

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BEHIND THE LINES Recently I saw the documentary "How We Got The Vote." I had seen it many times, but this time was a little different. It was shown after the march of 30,000 abortion rights supporters on April 2 in San Francisco and after the massive march of 600,000 in Washington, D.C., on April 9.

The documentary includes news film from the early fight of pioneers for women's suffrage. It reveals the absolutely indomitable spirit of those women. They picketed, marched, petitioned, lobbied by the hundreds, participated in nationwide elections to defeat politicians who did not support suffrage, were jailed, went on hunger strikes, were brutalized in the jails, and were force-fed.

When they were finally released from their prisons, the women organized a "jail bird" train which traversed the nation. They told their story wearing their prison garb.

In the midst of the First World War, they carried out a fight against President Wilson by burning his speeches in front of the White House. Every time Wilson made a speech about "bringing democracy to Europe," they demanded that he "bring democracy home to the United States" for women. They refused to abide by unjust laws.

What is important is the lesson: Massive actions in the streets and in the factories serve to educate and place into motion those layers of the population who are waiting for leadership. From a small band of rebels, ridiculed and scorned, those women were able to reach the vast majority of people in this country, both men and women.

Giving them a bone We are faced with a major problem today. The right of women to control their reproductive organs and to choose when to have children is being challenged.

The politicians, both Republican and Democrat as well as the real rulers in the boardrooms of corporate America, have decided to throw the radical, fanatical right wing a bone. That bone is to begin to take away the right of women to get an abortion. The ruling class needs to encourage these right-wing fanatics because they could serve as their future " storm troopers."

On April 26, the Supreme Court began its review of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal in this country. This review is far more than an attack by the conservative judges appointed to the Court by ex-President Reagan. Such a risky project would not be even considered without the support of decisive sections of the ruling class.

The Court has started something which will be hard for them to stop; if they whittle down the right to abortion even a little, they know from the massive marches and the repeated declarations and chants of "Never Again!" that millions will come into the streets and will threaten to further radicalize the entire population.

On the other hand, if they completely back off and entirely reject the "states rights" challenge to Roe v. Wade, this will inspire women and others to demand all the human and democratic rights still being denied them.

Keep the clinics open!

Even a small victory in the Supreme Court for the right-wing anti-abortion forces will give them a shot in the arm. Although they will scream that "it is not enough," they will not be happy until they force women to go to Mexico for condoms, let alone abortions.

They will increase their forces EXON and—if given "states rights" by the Supreme Court-will then proceed to aim at those states that still allow abortion. Our clinics, where they remain legal, will be under siege by these potential shocktroops of reaction.

In the 1930s, there was another movement in opposition to rightwing mobs. It was the labor movement. Workers wanted to organize themselves into unions so they could face their exploiters in a united way. All of the laws in this country said that workers had no right to organize. The laws gave bosses the right to arm and deputize thugs to intimidate and even murder striking workers.

So the workers, being of sound mind and body, said to the bosses, the courts, and the politicians, "Take your laws and shove themwe are not going to obey unjust laws. We will force you to change the law to suit the needs of the vast majority, not to suit the needs of a small minority." And they did.

They sat in, sat down, and shut down the works until the Congress changed its laws. Workers were doing just what the suffragists did. They defied in massive numbers the unjust and anti-democratic laws.

Now that's our job. We must mobilize masses of supporters at the clinics to keep them open. We have to take on the "Operation Rescue" mobs in force. We have to let the Supreme Court know that whatever it does will not force us into illegal, botched abortions.

Mass action at the clinics will let the politicians, the judges, the ruling class know that there will be defensive street actions until our right to choose legally and safely is carved in stone. We will not be moved from that goal. "Never Again!"

Nothoff told me. At least 27 California coastal communities have passed ordinances that prohibit processing facilities in their areas. For that reason, the oil will have to be carried in ships from the oil rigs to refineries further along the coast.

Proposed drilling off the shores of Mendocino and Humboldt counties alone, it is estimated, will increase tankers entering San Francisco Bay by some 250 trips a year. The tides in San Francisco Bay can be treacherous, and there are numerous shoals and reefs. Yet, conservationists warn, tankers in the Bay are not required to come equipped with double hulls.

Nationalize Big Oil!

At least two-thirds of the country's oil is carried on tankers. According to Coast Guard records, tankers are the largest single source of oil leaks. But most oil pollution results not trom shipwrecks but from "routine" discharges from tankers, runoff from refineries, and even "fallout" from oil in the atmosphere.

Oil platforms are surrounded by a "dead sea," where sea life is smothered and poisoned. Lubrication for oil drills is dropped onto the ocean bottom by the ton. The oil companies dump some 1500 different industrial chemicals into the sea.

Says Jane Preskienis: "We can't trust the oil companies' assurances on safety. Only S percent of oil reserves are in the United States anyway—so we should stop being foolish. We need a commitment to alternative energy sources."

It is the government's responsibility to establish strict controls over our natural resources. This must include taking the oil industry (and the lumber companies and mines) out of the hands of the capitalists—whose sole concern is private profits. Nationalize these big corporations and let the workers manage them.

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