[NOW can, as it did for April 9…]

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NOW can, as it did for April 9, get the endorsement and involvement of labor unions. April 9 was proof of that. CLUW had no problem joining with NOW to build the action. Labor support was very high. Hopefully, as the groundswell of support for Nov. 12 grows, those organizations that previously abstained will now turn around.

Electoral vs. independent mass action But one dangerous flaw in NOW's fightback strategy is its single-issue focus in the electoral arena. The NOW leadership has developed the tactic of the single-issue voter. This means that for NOW the one issue that counts in the local and legislative elections ahead is where the candidate stands on This can mean: to hell with all other issues of importance-gay rights, childcare, the the environment, war, workers' rights, education. Choice is the only issue.

NOW's stance on this, unfortunately, dovetails with the other major pro-choice groups: Planned Parenthood and NARAL.

Already, projects are being organized to get newspapers to publish the voting records of legislators on the choice issue, raising PAC funds for pro-choice candidates, moving towards making choice the "centerpiece of the Echoing this line, the Communist Party had a banner headline in a recent issue of its People's Daily World stating that the next stage in the abortion fight is at the ballot box.

However, it's hard to see how a radicalizing movement would go for a single-issue vote.

An important tactic in the abortion fight is the legislative one. Legislative attempts to rid states of any restrictions on women's right to privacy and choice should be supported.

Pro-choice ballot initiatives will be used effectively in some states. Efforts to repeal all anti-abortion legislation and restrictions such as requirements for parental consent, waiting periods, and clinic restrictions will be an important component of the fight ahead.

Unfortunately, one of the legislative proposals some NOW-backed legislators (such as California's Maxine Waters) are putting forward calls for state support for all children born against the mother's will. While we are in favor of state support for children's needs, we cannot tie this support to abortion and imply a willingness to trade women's rights to abortion for state support for children.

Population control

In her keynote address at the NOW Conference, President Molly Yard's linking of abortion rights with population control constituted an important political retreat. Fortunately, no resolution with this position was passed at the NOW conference. Yard's support to state-imposed fertility control— legislating family size—would cut NOW off from its potential base of support among African-American women and Latinas, who understand that such a stance is aimed at women of oppressed minorities.

Since the advanced capitalist countries with a degree of prosperity (and therefore a generally lower birthrate are white, such colonial world and its destruction of the planet's environment.

Support for a woman's inalienable right to control her own body is the best answer not only to Randall Terry and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, but also to anyone who would link abortion rights to population control schemes.

Build Socialist Action

Socialist Action wholeheartedly and actively supports NOW and the call for the Nov. 12 mobilization in Washington, D.C. Because we are firmly convinced that only a thoroughgoing transformation of society will secure women's rights, we seek as well to build our organization—a revolutionary socialist party.

Socialist Action newspaper—and our forums and classes—will be an important tool for educating activists in the movement. We have an important contribution to make to the abortion rights movement and to the National Organization for Women.

Our program, our knowledge of how working people have struggled and won victories in the past (as well as our knowledge of what methods have produced defeats) are vital to the success of this movement.

There is no contradiction between working actively within the feminist movement and working at the same time toward a totally transformed society—a socialist society built on the institutions of workers' control of all we produce, production for human needs—not private profits, democracy, peace, and full human rights for all.

The women who ded from illegal abortions 350,000 woren suffered from medical complications 4 and Latina We want go back!

Joe Ryan/Socialist Action Chicago pro-choice supporters protest Webster decision. The stakes are high for women.

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5000 women ded each year before 1973. The majority of these women were Blac