How we built Nov. 12 rally in Boston area

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Protesting Supreme Court Webster decision in Boston. Many of these women went to Washington, D.C., on Nov. 12.

SOCIALIST ACTION DECEMBER 1989 3 BOSTON-For the last year or so, Massachusetts, like many other places across the country, has been a hotbed of activity around reproductive rights issues. Recently, local pro-choice activists were responsible for organizing 25,000 state residents to go to Washington, D.C., for the 300,000-strong Nov. 12 National Mobilization for Women's Lives.

The Boston chapter of the National Organization for Women (which has already earned a national reputation within NOW for the level of its activism and its success in fighting the attacks of "Operation Rescue") was at the forefront of these organizing efforts.

The chapter had come out early in support of the NOW leadership's call for a fall national demonstration. It opposed those in NOW who wanted to postpone such an action (in order to concentrate on electoral politics), and others within the pro-choice community who didn't want a national action at all.

Boston NOW began working on the mobilization shortly after the July 3 Supreme Court Webster decision, setting up a structure of nine committees responsible for different aspects of the organizing (such as campus outreach, leafleting, and phonebanking).

Another important organizing tool was the weekly general organization meeting. These meetings were widely publicized on leaflets and on the NOW hotline and provided an opportunity for new activists to get informed and volunteer to get involved on a committee.

Although NOW was the central force in building the mobilization, there was a concerted effort to reach out to other groups such as union, women's organizations, and campuses. It was clear by looking at the crowd in Washington that it was the students who were most responsible for turning out large numbers of demonstrators.

Socialist Action spoke to Nassim Assefi, a leader of the Boston-area college feminist organization "Wellesley Women for Choice." Wellesley College filled seven chartered buses and had a delegation of roughly 500 people in Washington, including 16 homeless women from "My Sister's Place" who were sponsored by the group. According to Assefi, this made the Wellesley group the largest campus contingent at the mobilization.

Educating people on campus about the Webster decision proved effective. "A lot of people were awakened by the decision; people who had never been active before began to get involved," Assefi said.

As an example of how participating in a big demonstration helps get people aware and involved, Assefi pointed out that she herself was not politically active before taking part in the march last April. All of the recent demonstrations have been important, she said, because many people have "finally realized that rights they have taken for granted aren't necessarily theirs anymore.

On-going campus presence Organizing for the mobilization also helped build an on-going pro-choice presence on the AID THIS the membership of Wellesley Women for Choice swelled to well over 350, making it the largest student organization on campus.

The group also went into "emergency advertising mode," sponsoring "Get psyched/ Get involved" banner-making parties and posting over 30 kinds of flyers with eyecatching slogans such as "Are you a woman?" (Wellesley is an all-women's college).

The events at Wellesley College were similar in many ways to what went on at colleges in the greater Boston area and across the state such as Brandeis, Boston University, and Smith. Almost all of these schools now have active pro-choice student groups.

When asked what she thought Wellesley and other campuses would do next, Assefi said, "I'm a little worried that after the mobe, people will settle down. We're going to try to keep them excited and active. We're going to organize more for clinic defense."

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