BY JACOB PERASSO AND JENNIFER PONCE
This column is written and edited by the Young Socialists
(YS), an international organization of young workers,
students, and other youth fighting for socialism. For more
information about the YS write to: Young Socialists, 3284
23rd St., San Francisco, California, 94110. Tel: (415) 824-
1429. E-MAIL: 105162.605@COMPUSERVE.COM
SPRINGFIELD, Illinois - Young Socialists members and other socialist workers are participating in a regional team here. In the last few days, the team has visited striking workers, local coal mines, a farmers convention, campuses, and other sites.
At nearby Crown coal mines, where members of the United Mine Workers of America were recently on strike, several workers reported that relations between bosses and miners were more tense than before the strike. Miners bought seven Militants. Several were familiar with the paper and were eager to read the latest issue. Truckers coming in and out of the mine also bought four Militants.
At the Tazewell Machine Tool picket line in Pekin, Illinois, United Auto Workers (UAW) members have been on strike since last September. Striking workers there spoke about the solidarity they had gotten from other workers, including UAW members at Caterpillar and Mitsubishi. One striker bought a subscription to the Militant, and another bought a single copy.
The team also went to the University of Illinois at Springfield, Lincoln Land Community College, the National Farmers Organization Convention in St. Louis, and other plant gates in the area. In those locations, the team sold one subscription, seven Militants, and met many interested people.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Some 150 people turned out here January 23 to defend several area abortion clinics against anticipated blockades by antichoice forces. This was the final of three days of mobilizations organized by the Washington Area Clinic Defense Task Force (WACDTF) around the 26th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, which codified a woman's right to choose abortion.
In a victory for women's rights, no clinics were blockaded or closed over the entire weekend. Many of the participants - the majority of whom were young women - decided to join in the clinic defense efforts as a result of the intensified violence against clinics in the past year. Katherine Sanders and Tanya Carulli, both 19-year- old American University students, were at their first clinic defense.
"I've been meaning to do this for a while," Carulli said. "A woman's body should not be in the hands of white males on Capitol Hill. This is a legal right, which needs to stay that way." Sanders agreed, adding she was there to defend access to the clinics "because I feel strongly about the right to choose and am opposed to the violent harassment women have had to face."
The night before, the Capitol City chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) held its annual candlelight vigil for a woman's right to choose abortion. About 100 people attended the event, including delegations from the women's groups at Georgetown University, George Washington University, and American University. Patricia Ireland, the national president of NOW, addressed the crowd.
Participants then lit candles for the women who died from unsafe abortions before the right to legal abortion was won, and all of the clinic doctors, staffers, and escorts killed by rightist violence since then.
In conjunction with the anniversary, antichoice forces held a weekend of activity in Washington. The largest event was the annual "March for Life," which was smaller this year than in years past. Another activity was the fourth annual Banquet of the White Rose. The gathering, which consisted of nearly 70 rightists, honored those who have been imprisoned for violence at clinics, including firebombings and murders. The banquet was organized by the Rev. Michael Bray, author of the book A Time to Kill. According to the Washington Post, Bray told a news conference that "violence against `abortionists' to prevent them from `slaughtering innocent womb children' is entirely justifiable." The antichoice forces planned to picket and possibly blockade several area clinics over the duration of the weekend, as they had in previous years. Only one picket of several dozen people occurred and all patients were safely escorted to the clinic. Members of WACDTF attributed this to the fact that defenders of abortion rights were visibly mobilized in large enough numbers to deter anti-clinic violence.
LOS ANGELES - About 45 people attended a candlelight vigil outside Glendale Memorial Hospital January 21, on the eve of the 26th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. The event was sponsored by the San Fernando Valley NOW chapter. Chants included "Ho Ho, Hey Hey, abortion rights are here to stay" and "What do we want? Reproductive rights! When do we want them? Now!"
The demonstration was called in part to protest Glendale Hospital's decision to eliminate reproductive services following the hospital's takeover by Catholic Healthcare West. It was also to remember the thousands of women who lost their lives in unsafe abortion attempts before Roe v. Wade, the flyer for the event explained.
Signs held by protesters read, "Women must have control of their bodies" and "Abortion rights NOW." While many organizations were present, this reporter found many women and a few men that had come to the demonstration on their own just to be part of the fight.