When they're retreating, hit 'em harder \DUK I LUI RIGHTS

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Over 350 pro-choice supporters attended a meeting at Laney College in Oakland, Calif., on Jan 21 to celebrate the 17th anniversary of the historic Roe v. Wade Staff: Paul Colvin, May May Gong, Hayden Socialist Action (ISSN 0747-4237) is published monthly for $8 per year by Socialist Action Publishing Association, 3435 Army St., No. 308, San Francisco, CA 94110. Second-class postage is paid at San Francisco, Calif.

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2 SOCIALIST ACTION FEBRUARY 1990 After losing two gubernatorial elections which focused on the candidates' stand on abortion, the Republican Party—whose previous platforms included a demand for a constitutional ban on abortion-is struggling to "accommodate" a diversity of opinion on the issue.

"We are not going to be a party that excludes," claimed Vice President Quayle in an interview with Boston station WBZ-TV. "We are going to be a party that includes, and therefore the Republican Party is open to both pro-life and pro-choice Republicans.

"Long-time anti-choice supporters expressed anger and betrayal at the party that was once their bastion. "Right now we've got people caving in left and right," complained Randall Terry of Operation Rescue (O.R.) to the San Francisco Examiner.

Terry's organization itself is on the skids. Last month, federal authorities seized O.R.'s hefty bank accounts to pay off mounting fines assessed against it for its illegal blockades. O.R.'s national lobbying office in Washington, D.C.—opened just last November-has already closed due to lack of funds.

Hit 'em harder

In a Dec. 15, 1989, letter to O.R. members, leader John Forman admits that O.R.'s situation is bleak. "While the organization may well be over," he says, "we'll still be there in spirit." And Randall Terry, jailed since last September for refusing to pay his fines, is no longer vowing to stay in jail until the fines are withdrawn. Now he is the real Jane Roe.

pleading to be paroled, presumably so he can shore up his waning power base.

The troubles of the anti-choice movement, however, shouldn't distract pro-choice activists from continuing to organize in their own name to secure abortion rights. To paraphrase Clausewitz (the pre-eminent Prussian authority on war), when the enemy is in retreat, hit 'em harder.

It's too early to tell just how far the anti-choice movement has retreated, or whether they're just regrouping for another frontal assault on women's rights. For example, while the national organization of O.R. is unstable, local chapters of O.R. continue to blockade family-planning clinics across the nation.

In the Boston area, O.R. has begun staging major "hits" again after a long period of small-scale Joseph Ryan/Socialist Action picketing at local clinics. Last December, a Boston-area judge threw out an injunction against O.R.'s blockades, claiming that O.R. had a "demonstrated purpose" to be at the clinics. This represented an invitation for O.R. to deny women access to reproductive health care by blockading clinics.

O.R. quickly accepted the judge's invitation, staging vicious blockades in December and January. While O.R.'s numbers are decreasing, their violence is increasing, despite often being outnumbered by pro-choice activists by three-to-one ratios.

Search for "new tactics"

Alexei Folger, a Boston NOW member and clinic defense organizer, speculates that O.R.'s increased viciousness indicates "a sense of frustration and a search the Los Angeles area. On Jan. 20, about 800 pro-choice activists mobilized against a blockade attempt staged by approximately 150 O.R. fanatics. Finding themselves heavily outnumbered at every clinic they attempted to blockade, O.R. finally "attacked" a clinic that wasn't even scheduled to be open. Los Angeles pro-choice activists are gearing up for another assault on Feb. 17.

While groups like NARAL and Planned Parenthood have argued that the fight for abortion rights is not in the streets but at the ballot box, O.R. continues to threaten the accessibility to abortion services—with the tacit approval of the ruling class in this country.

ACTiON Editor: ALAN BENJAMIN Asst. Editors: MICHAEL SCHREIBER Somburu, Sylvia Weinstein.

Business Manager: DAVID KIRSCHNER St., No. 308, San Francisco, CA 94110.

These are expressed in editorials. who switch their positions with each opinion poll-the women's movement must continue its winning strategy of independent mass action. Activists must also continue to organize mass clinic defense against O.R. These antichoice thugs must be defeated whenever they attempt to close a clinic.

There are those who say that the task of the movement now is not to march, but to lobby. I say that the best lobbying the women's movement ever did was when it marched 630,000 strong on April 9, 1989, and again on Nov. 12, 1989. That's what caused the Republicans to flip-flop and the Democrats to scramble for votes. And that's the kind of lobbying that will win.

Closing date:

Jan. 30, 1990

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decision that legalized abortion. Appropriately, the featured speaker was Norma McCorvey (shown here,