Why Ms. Magazine has 'differences' with NOW

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for NOW president Molly Yard to call for a mass demonstration on Nov. 12.

SOCIALIST ACTION OCTOBER 1989 5 Ms. Magazine subscriptions are sent to all members of the National Organization for Women (NOW). As a NOW member, I was surprised that the October issue contains several attacks on NOW. In particular, it attacks NOW's big fall initiative, the Nov. 12 pro-choice mobilization in Washington, D.C.

Ms. Magazine was an enthusiastic supporter of the 600,000-strong NOW March on Washington on April 9-as was the rest of the pro-choice movement. Ms., Planned Parenthood, National Abortion Rights Action League, and all the national pro-choice organizations all had contingents and speakers at the event.

But Ms. seems to have reconsidered its earlier support. An article by Peggy Simpson reports that NOW agreed "to sign onto a mobilization focused in the states," with NOW "carryling] the load for the Nov. 12 rally in Washington, D.C."

Simpson's article is titled "Reconcilable Differences." Apparently, the author considers the differences between NOW and the other pro-choice groups to be capable of reconciliation only if NOW buckles under the pressure to adopt a state-by-state strategy and retreats on the central importance of the national action focus.

This view is reinforced in the same Ms. edition in an interview of Planned Parenthood President Faye Wattleton by Ms. executive editor Marcia Ann Gillespie. The interviewer comments, "NOW has called for another rally in Washington this year, which seems a waste of our energies now that the battle has shifted to the states."

A debate on two fronts Since the Supreme Court's Webster decision in July, which undermined a woman's right to choose abortion by allowing individual states to regulate and thus limit women's access to abortion, a debate has emerged in the movement over how to respond to this assault on women's rights.

The debate among the pro-choice organizations occurs on two fronts: One, is whether the fight for abortion rights should be organized on a national basis or whether it should, as Ms. says, "be defended at the state legisiature level."

The second front of the debate is over NOW's call for a commission to study the possibility of establishing a political party committed to women's rights outside of the Democratic and Republican two-party framework that dominates U.S. political life today.

The two debates are closely linked, as Simpson makes clear in her article. She quickly dismisses "the tactical value of a third party effort," while she highlights plans to target "anti-choice legislators" in selected state elections.

The same forces who want to keep the women's movement inextricably tied to the capitalist political parties are cool to the best example of independent political action to... Nov. 12 (continued from page 1: “Ms. Magazine VS. See article page”) make comparisons [to April 9]. It's a different situation with the coalition."

The coalition Avril speaks of is the newly formed National Pro-Choice Coalition. It consists of 50 organizations—including NOW, Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and Zero Population Growth. As part of its endorsement of Nov. 12, the coalition reached an agreement which diluted the national focus of the event.

The agreement calls for "a rally in Washington, D.C., and state-by-state organization efforts to demonstrate that millions of people have the political will, resources, and numCorrections The September 1989 issue contains various mistakes. The Toronto pro-choice demonstration (p. 3, "Canadian women,") had 800 participants, not 8000. In the article (p. 5) on the U. of Cincinnati workers, Shirley Rosser, Cincinnati NOW president, should have been identified as the first African-American woman union pipefitter in the Cincinnati area. Finally, one photo on page 7 (Chicago) was erroneously credited to Joe Ryan. It was taken by Tina Beacock.

DAVIS Ms. Magazine believes it was a mistake day-the Nov. ton, D.C.

Pro-choice movement gains power The reformist leaderships of most of the national pro-choice organizations have already conceded the national battleground for abortion rights to the anti-choice forces. They want to retreat to a state-by-state fight in each individual legislature.

This stance ignores the enormous power expressed in large national mobilizations, power that is capable of influencing the governmental agencies that are now arrayed against women's rights. The power of the April 9 march is still bearing fruit, with NOW's membership currently up to its historic high (reached during the fight for the Equal Rights Amendment) and still growing.

We cannot allow the anti-choice forces to shape the strategy and tactics for our pro-choice campaign by spreading the entire fight in 50 directions. Yes, we must direct some of our energy toward the state legislatures, but not at the expense of building a truly national During the 1950s and '60s, the prosegregationists sought to uphold states' rights to limit the rights of Black people to full and equal participation in all areas of life (housing, schools, public facilities of all kinds). The civil rights movement organized a bers to effectuate the legislative and political changes necessary to maintain and restore the constitutional right of a woman to make her own decision without interference from court or government as to whether or how many children to have."

These state actions include "canvassing phone banks, [voter] registration, local lobbying of national and state legislators, petitions," all of which funnel the anger generated by the Supreme Court's decision away from independent action and into the hands of Democratic and Republican politicians.

"Major organizing going on"

O'Dell defends the two-pronged approach, insisting that NOW activists are focusing on Washington. "That's where they want to be," she said. "The ones who won't come [because of local actions] couldn't come to Washington anyway."

''There's been major, major organizing going on," she added. More than 200 campuses are organizing; 15 buses are already coming from Harvard, with more likely to be filled. A "freedom train" will leave Los Angeles and make stops in three cities before pulling into Washington for the rally at the Lincoln Memorial.

"An awful lot of people know about it," she said. "It's going to be fine." Indeed, from all indications, activists are ignoring the agreement and mobilizing for Nov.. 12 in Washington. In many areas, there is even more organizing for Nov. 12 than for April 9.

"Constitutional rights cannot become a national campaign to end jim Crow segregation laws, which included sit-ins, boycotts, marches, and much more.

People from all over the country were mobilized to go to the South, to march in Selma, Ala., to send cars to Montgomery, Ala. (during the bus boycott), and to march on Washington, D.C.

The civil rights movement was able to change the arena of the battle from the individual Southern states to the country as a whole. Indeed, they were able to bring the United States before the jury of world public opinion and use that as a powerful tool in the struggle. The lessons of the civil rights movement are relevant to the abortion rights battle today.

Electoral politics

The main strategy employed by the pro-choice organizations at the state level is to support so-called pro-choice candidates and defeat those who are against choice. They ignore the inescapable fact that the Equal Rights Amendment went down to defeat using this very same state-by-state electoral strategy. After they were elected to office, the Democrats and Republicans backtracked on their campaign pledges to support the ERA.

The women's rights movement is hampered in its struggle by the absence of a mass working-class party—which could represent the interests of women in the electoral arena.

states' rights issue," said O'Dell. "We can't turn over to the states this power. It's a national issue, it affects every women in this country. It's imperative to have a national focus."

Nov. 12 will also have an international flavor. Simultaneous actions are planned for France, England, West Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Mexico, and Greece. Many of these countries will also send delegations to the Washington march.

Other regional actions Momentum is building for the West Coast pro-choice march and rally that will take place on Oct. 15 in San Francisco. Weekly working parties continue to attract new activists. Buses and special trains from Santa Cruz, Calif., and San Jose were filled up weeks ahead of the action.

In Chicago, the Des Plaines chapter of NOW is sponsoring a pro-choice rally on Oct. 15 in Park Ridge, a Chicago suburb that has been the victim of several rightwing anti-abortion attacks. Chicago area NOW chapters are also planning to send more buses to Washington for the Nov. 12 march than they sent to the April 9 action.

In Los Angeles, a building rally for the Nov. 12 protest is planned for Oct. 22 at the West Los Angeles Federal Building. It was called by L.A. NOW.

Likewise, a March for Choice Ohio will take place in Columbus on Oct. 29. The Cleveland NOW News urged participation P.O. Box 404830 Brooklyn, N.Y.

11240-4830 But until such a party is formed, it is essential to maintain complete independence.

Concretely, this means mobilizing all supporters of women's rights in marches, mobilizations, and other forms of independent political action on the national and local levels.

Traditionally, NOW has been a "mainstream" organization, seeking women's rights within the framework of the present political system. But many feminists recognize that this system (the capitalist system) is based on inequality and exploitation. It is not capable of providing full equality and dignity to women.

Thousands of feminists who have joined NOW have developed this insight; during its last national conference, in July, they helped to push the organization into a more militant stance.

In her Ms. column, Simpson notes that NOW President Molly Yard attributes NOW's militancy to a response to the grassroots. She quotes a statement by Yard that the attacking organizations do not meet with their memberships or seek their members' opinions.

NOW must not succumb to the tremendous pressure to become nothing more than an electoral and lobbying group tied to the coat-tails of the Democratic Party. NOW members should continue to push the organization to fight militantly for abortion rights at the national level. All out for Nov. 12!

for both the Oct. 29 and Nov. 12 actions, explaining that "unless we focus on a national solution to the abortion issue, we will have 50 abortion laws and complete chaos."

As we go to press, endorsements of these actions are pouring inespecially from the labor movement. The UMWA, UAW, ILGWU, SEIU, AFT, IAM, NEA have endorsed either Oct. 15 in San Francisco, Nov. 12, or both. Unions are realizing that abortion rights are just as much in the interests of working people as is the right to a job at a living wage.

There is no question that massive, politically independent action is needed now more than ever. The Supreme Court will hear three more anti-abortion cases in its next term, all of which could further restrict access to abortion. Anti-choice forces are gearing up to pass restrictive legislation in many states. And Operation Rescue continues its campaign of fear and terror at family-planning clinics nationwide. • Socialist Action supports the call for mass actions. All out for Nov. 12!

IMPACT Affordable photos, cartoons, and illustrations for the movement and the progressive press,

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about the question of jobs. Drugs and crime

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FON Joseph Ryan/Socialist Action