60,000 march to defend women's equality and protect women's lives

Scan page 3

Marching through downtown San Francisco Joseph Ryan/Socialist Action MO MY CUNIRY TISHOF THEE MY BODY BELNES TO ME AMERTE FREED Chanting "Our Bodies, Our Lives, Our Right to Decide," close to 60,000 pro-choice supporters marched in San Francisco on Sunday, Oct. 15. The theme of the march and rally was: "Defending Women's Equality, Protecting Women's Lives."

Organized by the San Francisco chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) and the Bay Area Pro-Choice Coalition, the huge march was seen as a potent warm-up for the national pro-choice rally in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 12. It was the largest locally initiated pro-choice march in U.S. history, doubling the 30,000-strong abortion rights march held in San Francisco on April 2, 1989.

"This march proved that people are out there to defend reproductive rights," said Helen Grieco, executive director of San Francisco NOW. "This march demonstrates loud and clear that the country is pro-choice and willing to come out."

The composition of the spirited march was representative of fresh young forces that are mobilizing to defend a woman's right to choose. Thousands of high-school and college-age women paraded briskly through the streets, defiantly waving coat hangers and militantly shouting, "Never Again, We Won't Go Back!"

An atmosphere of celebration pervaded the march in the aftermath of two events that occurred a week earlier: the Florida legislature's refusal to act on anti-abortion proposals from Governor Bob Martinez and the U.S. House of Representatives' vote to use federal money to fund abortions for victims of rape or incest. Although the U.S. Senate also approved this bill, President Bush vetoed the proposal on federal funding.

Bush's veto should further fuel the gigantic outpouring expected on Nov. 12. As Helen Grieco told this reporter, "This march should be seen as a kick-off for Nov. 12. Reproductive rights have to be mandated on a federal Two different political events The program of the rally at the Civic Center was in stark contrast to the independent spirit and militancy of the march. Many of the marchers, not interested in listening to speeches, dispersed as soon as the march ended. March and rally organizers indicated that while 60,000 marched, only 30,000 stayed for the rally.

Unfortunately, the rally, a three-hour parade of Democratic Party elected officials and supporters, had only one political theme: The focus of the movement should now be to elect "pro-choice" candidates (Democrats) and lobby state legislatures.

Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) stated that "the fight is now in the state legislatures and the ballot box." The speakers' list included Congresswoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who unabashedly took full credit for the House's vote on federal abortion funding for victims of rape or incest; Kim Cranston, the son of Sen. Alan Cranston (DCalif.); California Attorney-General John Van DeKamp; former S.F. Mayor Dianne Feinstein; and Assemblyman Tom Bates.

Other speakers, like those from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the League of Women Voters, also underlined the theme of walking the precincts rather than marching in the streets. Scant mention was made of the need for clinic defense against Operation Rescue. And the significance of the Nov. 12 demonstration was lost in the crowd of Democratic Party politicians on the prowl for votes in the 1990 elections.

"Stay mad"

The few bright spots among the speakers were Norma McCorvey, who was the Jane Roe plaintiff in the historic Roe v. Wade 1973 Supreme Court decision, and Sylvia Weinstein, co-chair of the march's logistics committee and Socialist Action columnist.

McCorvey stated that she was "mad as hell" and that women should stay "mad as hell and mobilized" if they want to prevent a return to the days when the right to choose was illegal and women died from botched back-alley abortions.

Weinstein, a long-time feminist and socialist activist in the Bay Area, said that "mass independent mobilization was the way Blacks won civil rights, it was the way we got the United States out of Vietnam, and it's the only way we'll be able to protect our right to choose."

"No politician," she said, "ever gave us anything we didn't have to take for ourselves by demonstrating massively. Let's all get to Washington, D.C., on Nov. 12."