Clarify abortion terms
In the past two weeks, there have been several articles on abortion in the Militant, which, while clearly reaffirming the paper's position in favor of reproductive choice, refers to a woman seeking abortion as "the mother."

"The mother" necessarily implies a child. Many women seeking abortion are also mothers, previously had children by birth or adoption. But merely being pregnant does not make a woman a mother, unless one believes the fertilized egg is a child. Anti- choice organizations, when forced to refer to the woman at all, always refer to her as "the mother" in an attempt to convince people that the fertilized egg is indeed a "child," that it has "rights" that supersede the rights of the woman, and that to have an abortion is to "kill" a "child."

Obviously, this is not the Militant's position. In the past, you have referred to a woman seeking an abortion as "the pregnant woman" or simply "the woman." The Militant is normally very careful about its terminology, so I really don't understand this change.

Carol Sholin

Oakland, California Cost of `welfare reform'
A recent article in the Des Moines Register shows the human costs of President Clinton's attacks on the social wage. The article is about Arturo Zamora, a 36-year-old legal immigrant who lives in Des Moines. Zamora left Mexico and became a seasonal agricultural worker in the U.S.

After working a stint in a New York City restaurant, Zamora traveled to the Midwest where he worked in the packing houses of Nebraska and Iowa.

Last December he was involved in a serious car accident, resulting in paralysis below the waist. He was denied any health care benefits through his employer, the Swift pork processing plant in Marshalltown, Iowa, because he worked there one month shy of what was needed to collect benefits. He lives on $450 a month in disability benefits through Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and $90 a month in food stamps.

But even that could be cut as a result of "welfare reform." Iowa officials estimate that 3,200 people may lose SSI payments, 200 households may lose food stamps, and 4,300 may lose Medicaid under Clinton's measures.

Zamora is one of these people. Legal immigrants have to work and pay taxes for ten yeas to be exempt from the proposed cuts. Zamora only has five years; his years as a migrant agricultural worker don't count. Zamora's wife is on a long list to apply for a green card; until she gets it, she and her children are considered "visitors" and not factored into Zamora's food stamp allotment.

As Zamora explained to the Register reporter, "This is not the life "we envisioned for these many years." He also explained that he wants to fight to "overcome these challenges."

Bill Kalman

Des Moines, Iowa 6,000 rally for redwoods
Some 6,000 people joined a spirited rally here September 15, to stop the Pacific Lumber Company from cutting down old-growth redwood trees in the Headwaters Forest in California's north coast region. The 60,000-acre Headwaters Forest contains the largest stands of unprotected ancient redwoods left on Earth, including the 3,000-acre Headwaters Grove and five other smaller groves that have never been cut for lumber.

The protest was organized by the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC), Earth First!, the Mendocino Environmental Center, and other organizations involved in the fight to save the huge trees.

"We celebrate together the work we've done to bring Headwaters to national attention, and how close we've come," said Cecelia Lanman of EPIC at a pre-rally news conference. "It is invigorating. Thousands of people are joining with us today to say that they have had enough."

Other speakers included Sierra Club president Adam Werbach, musician Bonnie Raitt, and a number of activists from area environmental groups.

A pro-company, "property rights" rally protesting endangered species laws was held at the same time in Eureka, some 30 miles from the Headwaters protest. The rally included floats with mock tombstones carrying the names of closed-down lumber mills. Earth First! activist Judi Bari took this issue up at the rally. "The loggers are pawns in this game. They are victims. Their livelihood is being destroyed by an out of town corporation," she explained.

"We've used every method we can to save the redwoods," Bari told reporters. Protest actions have included rallies, blockades of logging operations, and numerous court challenges. EPIC "has won 14 lawsuits, all they've filed. We're still here, and we're still fighting," said Bari. In 1990, in the midst of a campaign known as Redwood Summer, Bari and another Earth First! activist, Darryl Cherney, were nearly killed in a car-bomb assassination attempt in Oakland. A demonstration here last year drew 2,500 people.

Supporters of the Socialist Workers campaign were well- received by rally participants. Many wanted to discuss the relationship between the fight against environmental destruction and socialism. Others, seeing the depressed conditions of California mill towns, sought the socialist candidates' views on how to ensure jobs for mill workers and loggers.

Jim Altenberg

San Francisco, California

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