Services in the area, and already has the support of neil, local NALGO and NUT branches, Hackney arty, and Hackney South & Shoreditch Labour re also being made to link up with other nursery h have been aunched in Lambein. vorwood ower Hamlets, Brent, Enfield, etc. A joint policy ist of demands is to be drawn up by a steering ch can pave the way for a co-ordinated campaign don.
Local NAC groups will be able to us the setting up of a national Tribunal by NAC in opposition to the Select Committee as a focus for building local activities as part of a co-ordinated national campaign.
Locally we have already produced a pamphlet, Abortion in Leicester Now, which outlines the appalling abortion facilities for women in Leicester. Many of une avnaecologists are ant abortion, ds d result, over 60 per cent of women who wanted abortions in iro nao to nave tem pertormed privatery ourside Leicestersmire We have shown that in reality the 1967 Abortion Act is not being implemented -and this, of course, is not peculiar to Leicester We have been using this pampniet to build for the demonstration as well as leafleting and organising motorcades through the centre of town. However, because of the very favourable response to our pamphlet, we are planning to use it as Dart or a campaion tor tne orovision oi out-patient abortion tacities in Leicester ine oroanisation or a nationar riona will undoubtedly help us to develop our campaign. Firstly, it gives us a very good opportunity to initiate a workers' enquiry through the National Health Service unions into abortion facilities in Leicester. Secon dly, it will involve forces outside NAC in the conection ana preparation orevuence In this situation it will be vital for us to link our campaign for out-patient abortion facilities with the local campaign being waged against the cuts by tne public sector committee which has recently been formed by Leicester Trades Council. We have also decided to support the 25 April national demonstration against NHS cuts and private practice. Actions like these are essential it we are to realise our main demand - free abortion and contracesuon on demand, freely available on the NHS.
In the run up to 3 April we have been speaking at a lot of trade union branches, ANNE CESEK, a militant in the Leicester National Abortion Campaign, describes how they have been building for the demonstration and what they plan to do after 3 April committee to support tne demo select committee. movement.
IN *Equal Pay Act useless to most working women'; Jobless married women are ignored'. These are just two of the headlines in a recent article from a women's magazine - not one of the growing number of radical journals springing up from the women's liberation movement, but that mothers friend Woman's Own.
This magazine, taking the royals as its starting point, usually provides the pap to consolidate the myth of the happy family. So why the about face? After conducting a survey of 5,000 of its readership, they found the results were an 'eye-opener in - this "age of equality"
Only 43 per cent of the women surveyed were covered by the Equal Pay Act, and only 10 per cent of these were not receiving equal pay. But the remaining 57 per cent of women workers were out шлеш таке-пое pay was ds Of course, for many working women - the unemployed - - the Equal Pay Act is irrelevant anyway. Woman's Own concluded that the official figure of 317,095 wo men registered unemploved should be topped up to one million, because their survey snowed tnat to per cent or wo men do not bother to register. Despite the cosmetic job done by Michael Foot, this means that the real figure of jobless is now at least two million!
PRISONERS The survev also looked at women ir the home. Woman's Own found that: "Many women are prisoners in the home One third of mothers at home say the only reason they haven't got a job is that they can't find reliable care for their | sure your views are represented nationally? Two out of three said that they could not think of anyone.
This is certainly a slap in the face for the Labour Government quacks who offer women the Sex Discrimination and Equal Pay Acts as a sugar coating for cuts it social spending, low pay and unemployAnd little wonder that these wo men see no alternative from the workers movement, when the likes of Jack Jones cal ror ake unw wu me coversment around these policies.
SUFFOCATING The resentment of women against this leadership can only find expression through demands which link the oppression of wo men at home and at work. The demands of the Working Women's Charter expose the suffocating web revealed by the Woman's Own survey.
The Working Women's Charter is holding its first national conference on 10-11 April in Coventry as a part of the fight for women's rights. Proposals will be put to the conference for activities to unite the campaign with those sections of the workers movement which have already adoptee me narter wich receivca near ly three million votes at last year's TUC Congress).
Such action will have to address itself to the inadequacies of the present legisla tion through workers enquiries to mon lor us weakness I actual practice TO resIst me curs. to son or tHe nent of women to choose whether to have babdes or nor ane me nant or women to worr As well as getting the maximum number of labour movement delegates to the confer ence, every effort must be made to ensure that the left' leaders take up the needs of women and campaign for recall TUC and Labour Party conferences to prepare such a fight.
Only such policies can ensure that the
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THEIR 35- SERIES in is being taken up as part of the general fight to