"Support Our Unborn Troops?"

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"Support Our Unborn Troops!" This slogan was prominent at an Operation Rescue rally on Aug. 25 featuring the Rev. Pat Robertson. The rally was held in Wichita, Kan., where Operation Rescue thugs had tried to stop women from exercising their lawful right to have an abortion.

No, I didn't make this up. One of Operation Rescue's deep thinkers must have thought that since the slogan "Support Our Troops!" seemed to work so well for the American assault in the Middle East, it would also lead to victory for them.

But the slogan might have been more appropriate if it read, "Support Our Unborn Storm Troopers!" That, in any case, is closer to what they really mean.

The Right Rev. Pat Robertson exhorted his thugs with statements such as, "We will not rest until every baby in the United States is safe in its mother's womb," and "We will not rest until this land we love so much is once again truly one nation under God." These ravings brought the crowd to its feet.

What is this movement all about? It certainly is not about By saving children in or outside of women's wombs. We know that young children and their mothers are the number-one victims of poverty.

Last year, in this country that Pat Robertson "loves so much," 3.4 million preschoolers could not be immunized against measles because they were too poor. This year, it is expected that 10,000 children will die because this rich country cannot afford to pay $15.33 per child for their immunization. And every night in this country 100,000 children will sleep in the streets because they and their parents are homeless.

Of course, these are "born" children, which the fascist-like leaders of Operation Rescue couldn't care less about.

Future storm troopers The rantings and thuggery of Operation Rescue serve a larger purpose than what appears on the surface. Besides serving as a battering ram in the combined attack by the courts and state and federal governments to knock down the hard-won right of women to choose, they are experimenting with tactics that future storm troopers will seek For Chattanke to use against the coming rise in working-class militancy.

The American ruling class knows that the economic crisis building up will soon break out of control. Increased unemployment and inflation will force working people to fight to defend their living standards. When workers in this country take the road of class struggle, the forces of "law and order" will not be enough to beat us down.

That's why the ruling classes of Italy, Germany and Spain financed fascism in these countries during the crises which erupted after World War I. They were not able to put down workers' uprisings without the help of extra-legal shock troops.

The fascists in Europe also hid behind so-called "moral" issues to whip-up their followers against the victims of capitalism. The German fascists did not start out by saying they were going to murder six million Jews, uncounted numbers of gypsies and other "inferior races," trade unionists, gays, communists, and socialists. No, they claimed to have "noble" aims: To bring class peace and a New Order to Germany and the world.

Today the American ruling class needs the option of turning the "Right to Life" gangs into "Right to Work" goons. In coming days, I can see the same types breaking through union picket lines saying the strikers are denying God-fearing citizens their right to work.

That's why the wealthy of this country are financing the Pat Robertsons and other demagogues, whose real program is the right to luxury for the rich and the right to starve for the poor and oppressed.

"Civil rights" tactics?

The so-called "Right to Lifers" claim they are using the tactics of the civil rights movement, which resorted to civil disobedience to defeat inequality and racial injustice. But the Operation Rescue bums are using civil disobedience to deny liberty and equality to millions of women.

I watched the hearings on the nomination of Clarence Thomas for the Supreme Court. Thomas is the hope of the "Right to Lifers." But what will really happen in this country if Roe v. Wade is overthrown is that millions of women and men who support liberty, equality, and justice will take to the streets.

I do not care who is on the Supreme Court. The courts, in the last analysis, do what's best for capitalism. Whether it is to extend or to take away rights depends on how well organized are those fighting for the rights of the real majority, the exploited and oppressed.

Women will defend their rights against church and state and maintain their right to choose if they organize together with their natural allies.

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