We join with others in condemning the murder of Dr. Barnett Slepian, who was killed by a sniper in his home in Amherst, New York, October 23 after receiving death threats because he performed abortions -a constitutionally protected medical procedure. We call for the arrest and conviction of all those responsible for this heinous crime. Massive protests by working people and others are crucial to pushing back this attack.

Slepian was the seventh doctor, clinic worker, or volunteer escort killed because of their support for the right to choose abortion since 1993. These murders have been accompanied by other acts of terror: the bombing and arson of clinics; physical assaults on doctors, staff and others; picketing of people's places of work as well as their homes; death threats; and other acts of intimidation. Two clinics in North Carolina were just firebombed on September 8.

It is the U.S. government, not just the individual rightists who committed these crimes, that is ultimately to blame for the death near Buffalo. The federal government allows states to pass laws restricting the civil rights of women when they become pregnant, and has stood by while clinics have been bombed and doctors threatened and killed. The U.S. Congress has repeatedly passed bills that would ban "intact dilation and evacuation" procedure that has been demagogically called "partial-birth abortion" by opponents of a woman's right to choose. In most parts of the country it is harder today than a decade ago to get a competent and safe abortion.

In the last four years, three Canadian doctors who provide abortions and a doctor in Rochester, New York, were wounded by snipers. Dr. Slepian himself had been the target of rightist pickets and death threats. Despite this knowledge, governmental officials did nothing to protect Dr. Slepian, a well-known defender of abortion rights, from what eventually happened.

These acts of terrorism are the latest flashpoints of the "culture war" waged by rightist and incipient fascist forces on a number of fronts. As the world capitalist system sinks into deeper crisis, ultraright demagogues such as Patrick Buchanan seek to scapegoat women, homosexuals, immigrants, and Blacks, as well as corrupt politicians and the "elite," for the supposed "moral degeneracy" of society. They draw on the insecurity and panic of many in the middle classes to begin to build a cadre willing to take action in the streets, which will ultimately be used to try to smash the organizations of the working-class in a struggle for power.

We can see the seeds of this in the racist lynching of James Byrd Jr. in Jasper, Texas; the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming; the killing of Dr. Slepian; and the increased use of "security" thugs by the employers against workers who go on strike or try to organize a union.

What is needed are protests in the streets, like those that have taken place condemning the murder of Matthew Shepard, to demand that those responsible for this crime be arrested and convicted. Mobilizations to defend the clinics in Buffalo succeeded in pushing back the thugs of Operation Rescue in 1992. We urge all supporters of democratic rights to join the rally called in Buffalo October 31 to protest Slepian's murder and similar actions across North America.

The entire labor movement has a stake in this fight. People like those who killed Dr. Slepian are not just dangerous individuals. They are part of the beginnings of a fascist movement whose ultimate target is not women, but the institutions and fighting will of the working class.

Defenders of abortion rights have a big stake in the outcome of labor battles like the United Auto Workers strike against Standard Motors in New York, the coal miners strike against Freeman in Illinois, and the Steelworkers walkouts against Titan Tire and Kaiser Aluminum. And fighting workers being on the front lines of demonstrations against every rightist attack on democratic rights will give a big impetus to bringing the murderers of Dr. Slepian to justice.

Mobilize to defend a woman's right to choose abortion!  
 
 
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