BY NATHALIE CAMIER
PARIS - "Let's move forward together. And all together let's defend women's rights." Despite a strike by public transportation workers in this city, close to 40,000 people answered this call. They marched November 25 to defend a woman's right to choose abortion, contraception, and work, and for equality for women and against the rise of the "new moral order." The demonstration was called by the Coordinated Association for the Right to Abortion and Contraception (CADAC), and by more than 140 political, union, and community organizations.
This was the first such strong mobilization since abortion was legalized in France 20 years ago. It reflected growing concerns by working people and youth in face of increased attacks against women's rights.
Groups with links to the "pro-life" movement in the United States, the Vatican, and the far right in France have organized more than 100 actions some violent against abortion clinics or medical personnel performing voluntary interruption of pregnancy (IVG).
In January of this year, 8,000 people demonstrated against IVG with the support of bourgeois politicians.
On November 25, some 100 rightists participated in a counterdemonstration at the Bastille under the protection of the riot police (CRS), singing canticles in Latin and chanting, "Abortion is murder."
Among the demands put forward by the November 25 pro-abortion rights action was increased government funding for contraception and IVG centers. The lack of sufficient resources forces 5,000 women every year to travel to other countries to get an abortion because they have exceeded the legal limit of 10 weeks into pregnancy.
Demonstrators also demanded equal rights for women, most of which, even if formally recognized, are not applied in practice. Women are discriminated against on the job market. They are proportionally hit harder by high unemployment, part-time, and seasonal jobs. Women's average wage still represents only 80 percent of that of men doing the same job.
Nathalie Camier is a student at Paris VIII University at St. Denis and is currently on strike.