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SOCIALIST ACTION JANUARY 1990 5 "single-issue voting."

Their argument goes like this: NOW and the women's rights movement has gotten nothing by subordinating the movement to the Democratic Party. Therefore, NOW will take a "non-partisan" approach to electoral politics and support only those candidates who take a strong pro-choice position in the This means that NOW will support candidates based on their claimed pro-choice positions without regard for whether they are Democrats or Republicans (or what their positions are on other issues). Some NOW leaders claim that this stance represents independent political action.

The form this approach is taking is that NOW is organizing voter-registration campaigns asking those who support pro-choice positions to register to vote in the upcoming state elections. As the elections draw nearer, NOW and the other groups that share this strategy will announce which candidates deserve the "pro-choice" vote.

Politicians rush on board Now that polls show that the pro-choice position has gained majority support among the population, many politicians are rushing to wear the pro-choice mantle.

Dianne Feinstein was introduced by NOW President Molly Yard at the 300,000-strong pro-choice rally last Nov. 12 in Washington, D.C., as the NOW-endorsed candidate for California governor. But Feinstein, who has a poor record on women's rights as the former mayor of San Francisco, has not yet gained the endorsement of either California NOW or San Francisco NOW.

Feinstein is hoping to be able to trick more of the people more of the time now that the pro-choice winds are blowing.

Another interesting example of jumping on the pro-choice bandwagon centers around the recent Ragsdale y. Turnlock case. The case, scheduled to be heard by the Supreme Court in the fall of 1989, was taken off the Court's calendar after a consent decree was signed by Illinois state officials and health providers. [See accompanying story below.] Neil Hartigan is the Illinois attorney general who appealed the state court's decision CHICAGO-Women here and around the country heaved a sigh of relief last November when a consent decree was signed in the Ragsdale v. Turnlock case.

The 11th-hour settlement-signed Hartigan, the American Civil Liberties Union (representing healthcare providers and Illinois women), and the state health department—prevented the case from being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.

If the Court had upheld Ragdale, abortion clinics in Illinois would have had to comply with strict licensing requirements that would have driven up the cost of abortions and made them inaccessible to most women.

But the settlement was not an movement to repeal anti-union legislation (such as the Taft Hartley bill) and by the women's movement to win passage of the ERA. But this tactic-of rewarding your "friends" with your vote and punishing your enemies by denying your vote—has always failed.

For example, support for the ERA grew during the years when NOW used a mass-action approach to fight for ratification. But when this successful approach was abandoned for a strictly electoral one, the ERA met its defeat.

The dead-end of supporting candidates of the Democratic or Republican parties should be underscored by recent events. Democratic politicians control most of the city governments in this country. Yet when Operation Rescue rides roughshod over women's legal access to health clinics, these governments are unwilling to enforce their own laws and direct their police departments to ensure access to the clinics. unqualified victory for women. Women more than 18 weeks pregnant must now have their abortions at a hospital or special surgical center, subject to Ragsdale's regulations.

Very few clinics perform late-term abortions (only one in the Chicago area. Moreover, Cook County General Hospital, the largest public hospital in the Chicago area, has banned abortions in its facilities since 1980.

The 18-week limit continues a pattern of whittling away at the right to choose established after the Roe v. Wade decision of 1973. A Chicago Tribune editorial drew the logical conclusion when it lauded the settlement but then asked, "Except in lifethreatening or other extenuating circumstances, why should any abortion be legal after 18 weeks?"

abortions.

Because the Democratic and Republican parties only put up those candidates who are committed to upholding the capitalist profit system—which is based on inequality—use A new fighting spirit The year 1989 saw a major offensive against women's rights in the form of the Webster decision, Supreme Court attacks on affirmative action, and Operation Rescue's extra-legal attacks against women's health clinics that offer abortion services.

These attacks cannot be separated (by the tactic of "single-issue voting") from the other major issues affecting the lives of women, children, and all working people in the United States-issues such as homelessness, poverty and hunger, declining real wages, and inequality in healthcare.

The women's rights movement has acquired a new fighting spirit in response to the attacks against it. Thousands of new activists are engaged in the struggle. This is the time to involve even more pro-choice supporters in protest rallies and marches and in defending the abortion clinics.

On the other hand, an electoral strategy that ties the pro-choice movement to the two capitalist parties will only serve to deflate and diminish the movement. "Single issue voting" will mean certain defeat—just as it led to the defeat of the ERA.

We must develop a strategy of mass, independent action, rather than using mass actions as a tactic in a strategy of electing capitalist politicians. Keep the movement in the streets!

The Fight for Women's Rights Today Weinstein ($1.25)

Marxism and Feminism: The Worldwide Struggle for Women's Equality ($1.50)

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