What kind of 'equality' can women find in the military?

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'Women also suffer the additional burden of child care. A number of women were torn away from nursing babies and small children when SOCIALIST ACTION MARCH 1991 З Women"

Rights

Send order to 3435 Army St., postage and handling. children in their parents' absence. This burden was placed on the families, many of which shifted the burden to grandmothers or aunts.

Defending women's Socialists defend the right of soldiers to have the same rights as other citizens—the right to vote, to oppose policies of the military they do not agree with, to organize themselves around their own demands, and to Saudi choose their own officers. Socialists also defend the many women and men who resisted going to fight in the Gulf.

Organizations supporting women's rights have opposed the U.S. government's role in the Middle East slaughter. Unfortunately, the National Organization for Women (NOW), which has strongly condemned the war, passed a statement demanding women have equal access to participate in the slaughter.

In a resolution on "Women in Combat" passed by the NOW Board of Directors on Sept. 16, 1990, the leaders of NOW contend that "women are effectively eliminated from most high-ranking leadership positions in the military by being excluded from careerenhancing, command positions defined as 'combat. 988 The resolution therefore calls for repeal of the 1948 military law preventing women from serving in combat positions in order to Suite 308, San Francisco, CA 94110. Include $0.65 Make checks payable to Walnut Publishing C "remove what has been an overwhelming obstacle to women's equality and the Equal Rights Amendment."

The resolution is a continuation of NOW's policy on the draft. In 1980, when Congress reinstituted draft registration, NOW called on the government to require 18-year old women—as well as men—to register. Their logic was that because men attain power and status in society through military service, women must have equal access to military service to allow them to attain equal power and status.

However, because the military is an institution of a class system, it reflects all the discrimination, inequality and injustice of the ruling class. Its hierarchical structure accentuates the inequality. The rich and privileged become the officers and the poor and disenfranchised become the grunts.

To expect women to receive equality in the military when they are denied equality in society is utopian. If NOW wants to eliminate inequality in the armed forces, they must first challenge the class nature of society.

Until women receive equal pay for equal work, for example, why should they fight and die in wars to protect the ruling class's ability to discriminate against them?

Ironically, as the "Women in Combat" resolution also points out, "80-90% of the casualities in conflicts since World War II have been civilians and the majority have been women and children."

Why, then, is NOW demanding that women be on the front lines to kill their sisters abroad when women are already on the front lines of the army of the unemployed, underpaid, exploited and oppressed?

NOW's opposition to the Gulf War, unfortunately, is undermined by its support for registering women for the draft. It would better serve women's interests-and serve as a pole of attraction to young, draft-age women-if NOW opposed the draft for both women and men.

We need to fight a war at home against discrimination, inequality, poverty, hunger and homelessness. Money for human needs, not for war!

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the colonial world by force of arms (if neces-

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Pamphlets on Women's Liberation The Fight for Women's Rights Fight for Women's Sandy Doyle, Shirley Pasholk,