'Beholden to no one, champion of all the oppressed'

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onto the American political landscape in the early 1970s, some of the issues which mobilized the greatest numbers were: 1) Abortion-the right to control one's own reproduction; 2) Childcare- the right of children to have quality care while their mothers entered the workforce; 3) Legal rightsthe right to equal access wars against other countries?

with men to jobs, property, access to all institutions and professions, and freedom from all forms of sex discrimination. he Vasa Each of these goals remain unachieved try. despite some important victories in the decades since the struggle re-emerged. Let's look at one demand that the vast majority of women consider to be a right.

In 1973, right in the beginning of the second feminist wave, the U.S. Supreme Court armea iorces is ine aemand to ur couaren. legalized abortion by outlawing the hundreds of state laws which placed restrictions on abortion. The Court claimed that the decimachine. sion to terminate a pregnancy fell within the Abortion Rights private domain of the patient-doctor relationship, and that this right to privacy was guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. This was a major concession to the fledgling women's rights movement.

But this concession was not solely due to the power of the movement; it also met the secure a firm victory for abortion rights. needs of the employing class to move women into the workforce with greater ease.

Reproductive Rights Since the Roe v. Wade decision, however, U.S. women have considered the right to control our own reproductive lives to be a the Rust v. Sullivan case) this retrograde policy. fundamental human right. In fact, defense of the right to abortion has generated more powerful mass actions than any attempts by women to win new rights, such as the Equal Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. Rights Amendment.

The right to abortion has been steadily eroded since the Roe v. Wade decision was handed down. The first and most serious eroher own body. sion was the denial of public funds for abortion the Hyde Amendment passed by a Democratic Party-controlled Congress in 1977. Effectively, this removed abortion as a choice for those women, the unemployed, saved by the legalization of abortion. who rely on publicly subsidized health services.

Abortion has gone the way of other "rights" in this inherently unequal capitalist one of 630,000 and one of over 300,000. society. That is, if you've got the bucks, you've got the rights. For the rest of us, rights are transitory and must be won and rewon in hard struggle.

Since the funding restriction was enacted by Congress, a plethora of other restrictions those who profit from the capitalist system of inequality.

have taken away the right to abortion from Independent political action young women (who in many states are required to attain parental permission before getting an abortion) and others. The women's movement has explained the life and death nature of all the restrictions on But we in Socialist Action have a proposal. Illegal, or highly restricted, abortion simply means women will die. The movement has documented the case of the first woman to die as a result of the Hyde amendment (Rosie Jimenez) and the first death from a newly enacted parental consent restriction (Becky Bell). could bring it to fruition are not yet resolved to do so.

The Supreme Court has allowed so many of these new restrictions to stand that most women's rights groups and court observers are convinced that the Court will overturn the Roe v. Wade decision altogether when they see the opportunity to do so.

Around the world, abortion rights has also been a cornerstone of the women's movemovement to which abortion rights cannot be denied. ment. Catholic countries have been forced by the women's movement to legalize abortion or modify harsh restrictions. France has in tying the leadership of the women's movement to their coattails in exchange for promises to support some of our pressing issues.

What is needed is a radical rupture of the bonds between the women's movement and the Democratic Party. The movement has already broken with the Republicans in order to move closer to the Democrats. This has not advanced women's rights one iota. The only victories we have achieved have been the result of our independent action.

The politics of abortion rights The leadership of the women's movement has allowed itself to be fooled by the tokens who now adorn the Democratic Party apparatus. The unwillingness of the National Organization for Women and other major national women's rights organizations to decisively break from their alliance with capitalist politicians is a major stumbling block in the road of effective action that can win victories.

Yes, during the 1970s and '80s women did win some access to jobs, professions, and institutions from which they had been excluded. But in the present economic situation all these gains are as transitory as our vanishing rights to abortion. The recessiondriven rise in unemployment is wreaking havoc on women's economic well-being.

A reasonable solution to unemployment is to distribute the available work to all who want to work with no pay loss. This means shorter hours for all. The employers would have to absorb the additional costs.

In order to advance this reasonable plan, however, anyone who claims to represent women workers would have to break from the representatives of the bosses—who have no qualms about imposing the harshest of economic conditions on working people and their children.

Billions of dollars were spent on a moment's notice to terror bomb the Iraqi people, including their children. Where is the call from the women's leadership to stop all war spending and start feeding, sheltering, caring for, and educating our children?

Of course, some reforms can be won without the revolutionary changes we ultimately need to build a world of equality and justice. But we must stake out our own ground on which to struggle for reforms such as abortion, childcare, and legal rights.

The stance of women's rights fighters must be one of "beholden to no one, champion of all the oppressed."

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were more likely than non-hungry families

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