Friday, Oct. 11 at 8:00 pm

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Abortion foes out-mobilized in NYC NEW YORK-Right-wing anti- marchers chanted, "Shame! Shame!" a four-mile-long "human cross" on the turned out to be a straggling line of streets of midtown Manhattan on people, half-hidden behind police barBut their publicity stunt was over- blocks between them.

6000 women's rights supporters- mobilization was especially sigwho out-mobilized the anti-choice nificant in that it was organized on tion rights demonstrators roared as sored by a broad coalition of groups, they marched down Fifth Avenue from including the Women's Health Coalia rally at Columbus Circle. As they tion, the Reproductive Rights passed St. Patrick's Cathedral, a sym- Coalition, and the National Organizabol for the anti-abortion fanatics, the tion for Women. for the whittling away of women's reproductive rights. The setbacks in employment, pay equity, and affirmative action can also be laid at the door of these capitalist political parties.

Many years of NOW support for Democratic Party "liberal" candidates have produced no gains for women. In fact, women's rights have been set back during the years of increased dependence on the strategy of electing Democrats (and a few Republicans).

Now, the Commission on Responsive Democracy, set up by NOW two years ago to hold hearings on the issue of setting up a new pro-feminist political party, has reached the conclusion that such a new party is needed and should be established.

But the very idea of independent politics stirs up the political waters, and the pro-capitalist media has responded with an outcry. The media is working overtime to convince those who work to defend and expand human rights that they must work only through those "legitimate" channels established by the rulers themselves.

A local example The San Francisco chapter of NOW provides an example, in the negative, of the problem. A broad coalition of organizations (ranging from the League of

Mass action strategy

There are reasons for optimism however. Pro-choice opinion is at an all-time high. Young people are unwilling to give up the right to abortion, which has been legal for their entire lives. Activists note a tremendous response on college campuses to the call for pro-choice action.

This means that there is great potential for mass mobilizations for women's rights. Such mobilizations are the only means available at this time to defend Roe v. Wade. Without them, women will continue to lose ground.

The lack of nationally-coordinated pro-choice actions this fall, when women's reproductive rights are under such an escalated attack on all fronts (Congress, the courts, and the Administration) including the extra-legal attacks by Operation Rescue on women and abortion clinics in Wichita, hurts the fight to save Roe v. Wade.

National NOW's call for one million people to demonstrate in Washington, D.C., on April 5, 1992, will be a real test of strength of the women's rights movement. Activities should be launched in every city and town across the country to begin building support for this demonstration.

The Young Feminist Conferences organized nationally and statewide by NOW will, most likely, help spur the organizing for mass mobilizations. Last year's Young Feminist Conference held in Akron, Ohio, adopted a more militant approach in calling for a series of mass actions in defense of women's rights.

California NOW is sponsoring a abortion groups had promised to form Sept. 29.

shadowed by an outpouring of over people by more than five to one.

"New York is pro-choice!" the aborYoung Feminist Conference in San Jose on Nov. 15-17. This conference should get the ball rolling in California for actions to build April 5. It can also continue the important discussion needed in the women's movement on the need for breaking definitively with the Democratic and Republican parties.

Meanwhile, the anti-choice "cross"

ricades, sometimes with gaps of entire The size of the pro-choice counterjust two-weeks' notice.

The counter-mobilization was sponAGAIN

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Pro-Chore Kan. Similarly, women in Illinois face esclating it. "We don't need vandalism in this town along with any other crime, and we probably don't need what he does here either," Mayor Pierce stated. He compared an abortion clinic to "a toxic waste dump or a nuclear power plant."

But many of the doctor's neighbors have opposed the vandalism. Phyllis Doyens, his next-door neighbor, told the Beacon News, "our neighborhood has been ruined, not by Dr. Jacubowski, but by these people who call themselves Christians."

Local people have poured out to support the doctor and the clinic. Two local NOW chapters helped train between 80 and 100 people to do clinic escort when the harassment first started. The volunteers met in area churches and received support from the local chapters of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) and the League for Women Voters, among others.

A support demonstration of over 100 people held at the doctor's office on Sept. 21 showed the breadth of support for access to abortion. Many local people came to the rally because they had read about the attack.

Several women high school students explained that they were for keeping