Last November, over 500 trade union delegates attended a conference to discuss the issue of abortion rights. The conference, called by NAC and LARC*, was sponsored by 5 national unions and attended by delegates representing a wider spectrum of the labour movement: teachers, engineers, transport workers & the public sector, The fact that the conference so well attended is indicative the wide impact upon the labour movement that the struggle by NAC to secure abortion rights has had over the past few years.
Threat much Many trade union leaders addressLed the conference, extension of abortion facilities and pledging opposition against further was attacks upon women's present abortof ion rights.
While the latter is not an immediate threat, it is clear that it could well become one after the next election when SPUC might try to get another Private Member's Sabina Roberts!
calling for an union like the NUT, Bill into an excuse for inactivity, iust does not bear close examination. In a for example, ions in it has been the members who have been far ahead of the leaders in trying to get the union committed to the struggle for abortion rights. If in other unions there has been then it is up to the 'lead' by raising the issue and trying to mobilise wide support for all actions to defend 'Paper support' - like the resolutions passed by the I. U. C. and Labour Party conferences in 1976 - are not sufficient to stop anti-abortion moves and pioneer a woman's right to choose. Only by raising the issue in the unions and by mobilising mass support for action in the streets can the labour movement become an ally for women in direction. wide layers of trade support of women's rights would make it much more difficult for the Labour government to 'flout' the democratically arrived at decisions by the TUC or Labour Party conferences both the TUC & choose In the post-war years, Joe Labour Party - mainly in response to the Benyon Bill - passed resolutsupport of a woman's right to abortion on request. The Labour government ignored such decisions however and - backing down before SPUC's reactionary pressure - set up a Select Committee to investigate abuses under the 1967 Act.
The result was a major inroad into women's rights since access to abortion for 'foreign' women was severely curtailed as was the time limit under which abortions could legally take place.
International Woman's Day Mobilising mass action to force the Labour leaders to abide by conference decisions should be the focal point of all those involved in the struggle for abortion rights. The action proposed at the Conference, to support International Woman's Day, could be the first step in this This day, on which millions of women around the world will be demonstrating against reactionary laws, could become a springboard in the ongoing fight to make Labour leaders oppose all anti - aborti on moves and support the right to Tony against Healy's Stalinist slande r s.,