ber of the NAC Steering Committhe 3 April demonstration. lists marching in silent praver met with a Saturday. They were blocked from enteranding a woman's right to choose, organisI supported by women's groups, political forced to walk through the picket to reIFE, amid chants of 'Every mother a willVomen must decide their fate, not the church, wed through Newcastle by TAC supporters, atting forward in a very positive way the c I's right to choose'.
icies they have adopted. So for example, in the Labour Party and in the trade unions, we would hope that people prepared to fight for the implementation of last year's conference decisions for "free abortion on request on the NHS would begin to organise within their branches and constituences on this basis.
Calls for workers' enquiries will be particularly important amongst hospital workers. It is hospital workN ers who often know best how women s riguis to doornon are beng restricted.
This isn't just a question of facilities — it's also a question of an ideological fight we have to wage against the reactionary gynaecol ogists. On the basis of this material - which clearly involves demanding that the books be opened - a plan which will serve women's interests will have to be drawn up, and actions organised to fight for this plan. Of course this shouldn't be just limited to hospital workers - it is a question which affects the entire working class.
It is clear that most trade unions won't spontaneously see the need to call for special enquiries into women's right to abortion. At a time when drastic cuts are being made in the NHS, the first response could be that abortion facilities are a luxury which can go. So even to get the demand for a workers' enquiry taken up will entail the independent organisation of women within the trade ENQUIRIES It will be women who will have to fight to get their fellow workers to take this attack seriously and begin to organise against it. We have to be clear that workers enquiries are not enquiries which male workers will carry out and then they will ing role.
rent further restrictions. reactionary ideas, and so on doctors surgeries -can reach these women on the NUS decide for women. Workers' enquiries will have to be democratically organised, and particularly in this case, women will have to play a leadWe also have to find a way of getting evidence from women who have themselves been victims of the sabotage of the 1967 Act and of the curThis could be started by calling on unions heavily dominated by women to collect such evidence from their members.
Teachers' unions could also build for the Tribunal by launching campaigns based on evidence collected on the availability of abortion information for students, how SPUC uses the schools to imbue students with To be successful, this Tribunal will also have to reach women in the home or in non-unionised jobs. This means organising meetings in housing estates, leafleting markets and anywhere we - to ensure that their experiences are taken into account in any plan to carry on the fight for women's right to choose and for free abortion on demand Nor should the Labour MPs who resigned from the Select Committee be let off the hook. We should demand that they are in the forefront of the campaign for the Tribunal.
and a number of them together with Leicester Trades Council are supporting the demonstration. Last week a local branch of TASS, the white collar section of the engineering union, affiliated to the campaign and it will be urging its District Most importantly, it has asked us to draft a resolution which it will send to TASS-soonsored MPs calling on them to support NAC in its boycott of the Select Committee and urging them not to in the cold.
replace those who have resigned from the low as E23 Select Committee. TASS nationally has already written to its sponsored MPs asking them to vote against the reconvening of the Hopefully we will be able to get the same sort of response from other unions in our area - several AUEW branches are already affiliated to the campaign.
This kind of activity can help to build the widest possible support for our campaign in the labour movement on both a local and national level. After all, free abortion and contraception on de mand is a fight for the whole labour children.
e new women's uestionnaire ome to fill in. We hy thev didn't hat problems they questionnaire heir replies WOMEN AND WORK: OUR NATIONAL SURVEY RESULTS Women with children need more neup • One third of mothers t home wants to go ba
Mothers
forced to take poor jobs •Having children makes a woman three times as
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No you are not getting what the law says you should
womans OWNs up