UK abortion jailing poses fight to meet social needs of families

Vol. 87/No. 25 - July 10, 2023

LONDON — The jailing of Carla Foster for having an abortion during the eighth month of pregnancy has stirred discussion here about the broader impact of the deepening capitalist crisis on working people and the fight for women’s rights. Foster,…


‘The woman question can’t be divorced from the class question’

Vol. 87/No. 20 - May 22, 2023
Women workers from coal processing plants join miners’ protest demanding payment of back wages on Independence Square, Kyiv, Ukraine, June 30, 2020. Evelyn Reed wrote that beauty comes out of humanity’s evolution through labor, not profit-driven fashions and cosmetics.

Cosmetics, Fashions, and the Exploitation of Women by Joseph Hansen, Evelyn Reed and Mary-Alice Waters is one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for May. What began as a 1954 debate in the Militant over how big-business marketing of cosmetics…


Profit-driven hospital bosses cut back on maternity wards

Vol. 87/No. 11 - March 20, 2023
Protest against closing Petaluma Valley Hospital maternity ward in northern California, Feb. 15.

Bosses at hospitals in rural areas are shuttering maternity wards, claiming it’s no longer profitable to maintain them. This throws into disarray the health and lives of millions of women, their families and their newborn babies. The employers’ actions come…


Road to women’s emancipation debated at US women’s marches

Vol. 87/No. 5 - February 6, 2023
From left, nursing students Jessica Forsgren, Ashley Morgan discuss way forward with SWP Chicago mayor candidate Ilona Gersh and member Naomi Craine at Jan. 22 women’s rights rally in Madison, Wisconsin. SWP explains there is no “road to Black liberation or women’s emancipation separate and apart from working-class struggle to confront capitalism’s social crises.”

MADISON, Wisc. — Some 2,000 people took part in a women’s march and rally here Jan. 22 calling for the overturn of an 1849 state law banning nearly all abortions, and for the reopening of clinics that provide the procedure.…


Protests hit Scottish rulers’ attacks on women’s rights

Vol. 87/No. 3 - January 16, 2023
Hundreds have protested Scotland’s “Gender Recognition Reform Bill.” Action outside Parliament in Edinburgh Oct. 6 denounces policies of Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

EDINBURGH, Scotland — Hundreds gathered outside the Scottish Parliament here Dec. 21 to protest the passage of a bill based on anti-scientific notions that “men” and “women” are merely subjective categories that can be changed at will. Such views undermine…


Antifa assault is blow to fight for women’s emancipation

Vol. 86/No. 45 - December 5, 2022

NEW YORK — A peaceful demonstration by women’s rights campaigners critical of gender ideology was attacked by antifa thugs and so-called trans activists here Nov. 14. Police arrested nine attackers after they surged against police barricades and hurled threats against…


UK women’s conference takes up fight for equality, rights

Vol. 86/No. 44 - November 28, 2022

CARDIFF, Wales — Some 1,700 people joined discussion about how to advance the fight for women’s equality at the conference of FiLiA here Oct. 22-24. FiLiA, which describes itself as part of the women’s liberation movement, means daughter. Support for…


California referendum is blow to women’s emancipation

Vol. 86/No. 42 - November 14, 2022

OAKLAND, Calif. — The Socialist Workers Party has a long history of backing decriminalization of abortion, a part of the broader battle to advance the rights, interests and fighting capacity of women and working people as a whole. But Proposition…