NAC march misses point

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Feminist contingents dominated the march The head of the March 31 demonstration "Women decide was the sole theme of Saturday's march in London called by the International Campaign for Abortion Rights (ICAR), the National Abortion Campaign (NAC) and the Labour Abortion Rights Campaign (LARC).

3,000 demonstrators marched from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square as part of an international "day of action" which saw similar mobilisations in the U.S., Europe, Australia and Latin America.

Conference.

NAC and LARC had supposedly built for the demonThe Poisoned, Well NOW OUTI The WSL discussion document adopted for submia.

sion to the USFI Xith World Congress, price 20p plus 10p peep from WSL. 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NWS 1HR. stration from their trade union conference in November, a conference • which had correctly aimed at the organised labour movement.

However, the small number of union banners on Staurday's march testified to the continued blinkered feminism of the NAC/LARC leadership.

Back of march

At the start of the march trade unionists were arrogantly ordered to march far down the column behind the banners of women's groups and organisations like "Rock Against Sexism"

The WSL contingent and our supporters with union banners focussed on the need to fight the cuts to safeguard and extend abortion rights.

We see free abortion on demand as an essential democratic right and a vital step in fighting to end the oppression of women. But such a fight can in no way be carried out through blindly-led single-issue campaigns, which take no account of the massive cuts in the health service and pay only token attention to the organised strength of the working class.

The hard-line feminism and overall barrenness of ICAR's perspective became all too apparent at the rally in Trafalgar Square.

Non-political

A selection of speakers from the USA, Spain, India and Iran seemed to be holding some sort of competition amongst themselves te see who could talk about abortion the longest without bringing in politics.

Political direction simply consisted of each speaker (including the NAC representative)

repeating 'Women decide" with sufficient fervour to match the emptiness of the slogan.

Only two speakers made more than a gesture towards pointing a way forward, Erika Laredo from the NUSS, and Vanessa Wiseman, an NUT member.

However falteringly, these two did at least attempt to make the point that women are a part of the working class and that the demand for abortion rights must be raised in every union branch and Labour Notable by their absence were the many Labour and trade union lefts who have sponsored NAC and LARC, the same Tribunites and bureaucrats who have refused to take up any fight against the cuts which threaten the already meagre abortion service.

Cuts Just as at last November's NAC/LARC trade union conference, only the WSL's intervention raised the question of the cuts in the health service.

The IMG leaflet was virtually indentical to ICAR's own, repeating the same demands and avoiding the same political questions.

By some strange oversight the membership form ICAR's leaflet did not appear on the IMG sheet: that was the major difference between the two.

The IMG Pabloites have clearly given up tail ending bourgeois feminism and are now happily grovelling before it.

Only a policy of occupation linked to supporting strikes can defend the health' service against the cuts and make free abortion on demand a reality.

Such democratic rights can only be safeguarded by building for independent workers' control of the health service.

LATRONENS ne OF ACTIO ASTERILISATRON

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