Prepare for action to def Corrie's law

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Unless firm action is fought for within the labour movement, February 8 1980 could mark a major reverse in the struggle against women's oppression.

On that day the anti-abortion bill tabled by Tory John Corrie is due for its Third and final reading in the Commorot with an odds-on chance being substantially carried by an unholy alliance of Tory and right wing Labour votes.

Under the Corrie proposals up to two-thirds of the abortions carried out in the 12 years since the present Act came into force would have been illegal: and charities and clinics set up to provide abortion facilities which the NHS refuses to provide would be forced out of operation:

The consequence would be' that while the opportunity of safe, legal abortion would be drastically reduced, thousands of women each year would continue to face the problem of unwanted pregnancy.

Hazards

They would then have to choose between the torment of having an unwanted child or the hazards and suffering of an illegal abortion.

Prior to the 1967 Act, over 3,000 women each year were admitted to hospital as the outcome of illegal abortions: in 1975 after the limited gains of the Abortion Act had made themselves felt, this figure was cut to 600.

In Spain, where abortion is admitted to die: in Britain in 1976 the figure was only 7:

Corrie's Bill is a blank cheque for the most barbaric suffering and for the death of hundreds of women in the years to come.

Coupled with the cuts already savaging the National Health Service, the Bill threatens above all working class women, who cannot afford the expensive private abortions that -regardless of the law-have always been available to bourgeois women.

And with no method of contraception being 100% safe, the possibility of abortion is essential to allow any woman the elementary right to control the workings of her own body.

Without this right there is no possibility of women achieving genuine equality of opportunity with men, or shedding the bonds that tie them to domestic labour in the home, and prevent them from playing their full role in the labour movement.

Right wing:

It is no coincidence that it is Tory politicians like Corrie and Labour right wingers-each dedicated to forcing women out of the labour force and back into the confines of the home and domestic labour-that have taken the lead in attempting to Demonstrators on October 28 restrict abortion rights.

They are of course eagerly backed up by the money and apparatus of the religious bigots of the Catholic Church, which believes it is fine to kill women in back-street abortions, and to force unwanted children into a lifetime of misery, but unthinkable to carry out a simple, sate and free abortion.

Not even the most vigorous campaigner for the right to free abortion on demand wishes to propose that abortion be made compulsory-simply that it be available for those women who choose not to have a child.

The only issue of "conscience" at stake, therefore, is that facing the women concerned, who must decide how best to approach her own problems and circumstances.

This is why the right to abortion is a basic, democratic right that must be defended by the labour movement in struggle against the Tory government.

The Corrie Bill seems set to become law. But history shows that democratic rights have onty been won in struggle against reactionary laws: the ground must be prepared to mobilise the labour movement to oppose and resist the new restrictions.

This means fighting in trade unions and Labour Parties to:

1) Build maximum delegations for the mass lobby of Parliament on February including the fight for strike action.

2) Call on the Labour Party to enforce its policy of "tree abortion on request" by al imposing a three line whip on Labour MPs to vote against the Corrie Bill and b) pledging the next Labour government to the immediate repeal of all anti-abortion legislation.

3) Call on trade unions to ensure that sponsored MPs vote in accordance with Labour Party and TUC policy.

4) Call on union national executives, particularly ASMTS/ MPU, to commit their unions to strike action in the event of any member being prosecuted for continuing to provide abortion in defiance of the law.

5) Support trade unionists who take action, including strike action or occupation, in defence of abortion or other health service facilities threatened by the government's public spending cuts.

The price of gold has continued its giddying climb during the last week, peaking out at a colossal $838 per ounce.

But what are the implica tions of this for the vast mass of us who neither own nor expect to own substantial quantities of gold? Why should we take any interest?

Same content

The fact is that the soaring money price of gold is not so much an indication of an increased value of gold itselfwhich still contains essentially the same content of necessary labour time for its production as it did six months ago, before the latest 'runaway price increase.

* Rather it is a stark retlection of falling confidence in the value of paper currencies internationally, and the flagging confidence of important sections of capitalists in the continued stability of their system.

Money invested in gold may provide a short term speculative profit: but in the longer term it yields neither interest (as with bank deposits) nor profit from the exploitation of the working class.

Asset stripping

For substantial amounts of capital to be channelled in that direction is therefore a warning of further cutbacks to come in investment, more asset-stripping operations and more closures in And the falling value of paper currency in relation to gold can also already be felt in relation to the rising price of other commodities-in particular other metals and, of course, crude oil.

Wallets :

As the gold dealers celebrate and look forward to the $1,000 ounce, workers will look to the shrinking value of the pounds in their wallets. Every golden lining has its cloud!

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ABORTION KEEP IT LEGAL illegal, 3,000 women a year are