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fortunately she is right. As feminists we haye fight for FREE ABORTION ON DEMAND. This year the TUC Women's conference passed the following resolution:
"In line with TUC and TUC women's conference policy for a woman's right to choose, and against restrictive legislation on abortion, this conference calls upon the women's advisory committee to press the general council to support campaigns: -a-For amending legislation with a view to improving the existing facilities available through the NHS and b-For publicity and education to extend contraceptive knowledge; for early pregnancy diagnosis; skilled counselling; and outpatient abortion clinic free on the NHS; and against any further restrictive legislation whether by Government or Private Member's Bills.
c-Conference calls upon the General Council to organise a national demonstration against any restrictive legislation before a final vote on it is taken in parliament, so that MP's are aware of the weight of feeling in the Labour Movement against such Jegislation."
In response to the passing of this motion a leading Trade Unionist said 'Women must be made if they think male trade unionists are going to march en mass on the streets to defend abortion rights.* Una choice, we can accept the backwardness of the trade union movement and make do with a deputation of a handful of trade unionists with a letter to 10, Downing St. or we can take the issue of abortion to the base of the trade unions ourselves and fight for this resolution to be implemented.
NAC has decided to do the latter. It is holding a Trade Union Conference on Abortion. The success of this conference will depend on how far we as feminists are prepared to fight within our own un ions and the unions in our Towns and Cities for a debate on abortion as a class issue directly affecting the right of women to control their bodies and consequently their lives.
Since the passing of the 1967 abortion act the ruling class/using it's ideological front the Catholic Church, has set the scene for a legal offensive against women. The capitalist class not only needs to control reproduction as a mechanism to adjust population but more importantly to maintain ideological control over women in the family. At present women are taking the brunt of the crisis through unemployment forcing them back into the home, and social spending cuts resulting in the crisis being unloaded onto women in the family. Attacks to further restrict abortion laws have a central position in this offensive.
The ruling class utilizes any opportunity to organise backward layers of the working class to it's own interest. The issue of abortion gives the capitalist class the opportunity to mount a campaign to divide the working class. They use emotive talk of 'murder and 'unsocialist behaviour' to confuse workers and to exploit their sexist attitudes. Most working class men see abortion at best as; 'nothing to do with them", at worst as "castration of the male'. Women isolated in the home lacking collective strength have often been prey to calls to bolster the family and the sanctity of life." And even if sections of the labour movement have resisted the ideological attack from SPUC, as yet they have not put their collective weight behind the The strength of SPUC will continue to grow as the economic situation worsens. The success of the ruling class attempts to make women bear the brunt of the crisis depends on their ability to undermine the rising consciousness the labour movement is developing on the nature of women's oppression, The weakest link in the struggle for women's rights and the issue most likely to divide the working class is woman's control of her reproductive capacities. The struggle over who legally controls a woman's fertility centers around the abortion law. It is this law that asserts legally and ideologically that women are subject to their biology and therefore second class people in the workforce.
The trade union movement has not yet reached an understanding of fertility control in the fight for women's emancipation let alone liberation. Un der the impact of the growing WLM and the NAC major white collar unions and the 1975 Trade Union Conference voted for Free Abortion on Request. This is a major step forward but the ideological battle is far from won. Major unions and many union branches are actively anti-abortion. This is probably the manifestation of an antiwoman consciousness which can be consolidated around a direct offensive against the abortion law.
Even where union branches endorse the demand for free abortion the majority of the major unions voted at last years Labour Party conference to retain the free' vote for MP's on this issue. This vote shows the extreme backwardness of trade unionists in understanding abortion as a class issue which must be voted on along class lines not the individual conscience of male MP's. In reality this means the unions see women as less than whole individuals and therefore believe men the best people to make decisions for them.
The national abortion çampaign has traditionally gained it's support from the women's liberation movement and through the work of local NAC groups. Women are now fighting inside working class organisations and are exposing the sexist nature of class politics. Until now NAC has not worked closely with union activists. It is hoped that the projected conference will provide the opportunity for trade unionists to discuss the relationship of abortion to the class struggle and to provide an arena where Trade-Unionists can organise within their own unions and make alliances with sisters and brothers active in other organisations in their localities.
The organisation set up at such a conference will be essential to both counter the right wing mobilisations and to extend the law nationally and
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Delegates to Women's TUC vote unanimously for abortion rights - will the labour movement as a whole support them? the ties locally. In the long term it will be a base from which to further extend discussion and understanding in unions that have few women to raise the issue of abortion at branch meetings. If the TUC Woman's conference resolution is to be passed at the TUC and implemented by the Trade Union move ment as a whole; if the Labour Party Conference is to reject the 'free" vote; if the ruling class are to be halted in their attempt to further restrict abortion and divide the working class; the trade union movement has to follow the example of the Women's Liberation Movement and show united opposition and a determination to decrimin= alise abortion and extend facilities.
To build this conference on abortion NAC has to gain sponsorship from your union, your trades council and the union branches in your area which have no connection with NAC. To de this NAC needs activists to speak at union meetings other than their own, to talk to activists in their area, to distribute leaflets and delegation ra torial to delegates at National conferences and to rank and file members in their area. Delegates to both the conference and the conference planning meetings are from any level of the union; all are welcome. London WCI -Trade Union Conference on Further information and delegate forms from:
Conference Organising Committee 374 Grays Inn Road Cheques payable to "Trade Union Conference Fund'.
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Caxton Hall November 25
will you be represented?