TONI GORTON is a long-time committee of the Labour Abortion the 'Governmental' session of the DOCTORS TOr La womans choice La woman's campaign enjoys the support of over (Edinburgh), right to choose'. discussion skills freely actual decision about snould de ennrei unar or tne woman Non-directive for Rally ine tundamental step in re leasing women from their isolation in the home is the provision of nurseries, to allow women to play a full part in social and that when -seen women are necessarv in Government policy has ensured that nurseries are provided. For example, . durinc the Second World War chilc care facilities were rapidly exto free women for *Now, in a period of high unemployment and inflation women are the ones who will have to bear the brunt of the social and economic crisis.
Vera Stephens, the speaker, is a member of the Union of Post Office Workers (UPW) and chairperson of the Lancashire Women's Action Comwith a child in a nurAction Contre. is calling for a public meeting in Preston on 20 January as : first step to organising a meeco-orellicle throughout the county.
regional HINE demonstration will be discusresponst tempts of Lancashire County increase nursery charges. For a single parent one child and net income of £34 per week, this mean that nursery would £11 per week - one third to a quarter of the family's total income.
As Vera Stephens says: "The will mean that women will either withdraw their children from the nursery and unregistered, and ill-equipped childminders, or they will give up men jous. The hardships abortion provision were discussed. However a note of began to emerge in the discussion after a resolution was put for recognition oppose cuts in public expenditure to detend even the presentleve or aborion services. rom me prattor Or Bury said that the question of public expenditur cuts was outside the frame of reference of the cam paign, while Dr Gordon (London ASTMS) suggested from the floor that an alliance with any movement acainst ine cuts mient alenate many doctors would otherwise support the campaign. The resolu tion was overwhelmingly defeated In an earlier discussion the conference had already taken the position that it would confine sinale issue campaian on the question of abortior The first priority was apposition to the Benyon Bill. However the form o this opposition as proposed by accepted by a majority of those present was confined to applying pressure on Parlament throug letters to MPs. etc., placing great reliance on the social prestige o the medical profession as a lever in these quarters Despite these weaknesses, however, tion is undoubtedly an important step forward for the National Abortion Campaign and sponsorship caused by the increases will obviously be immense. nas to be seen in the contex of a wage freeze another unacceptable cut living standards.
Preston Trades A call by Council for a campaign by all the Lancashire trades councils could mean that, al least ir area issue of women's rights is being taken up by the organised labour movement. Others involved include Lucas Aerospace shop stewards in Burnley.
Preston-based WoMPOS ACIOn Committee ha: circulated a letter asking for suppon tor te campargn and Rally for Women's Rights to be held at Alexandra Palace on 26 February. The Rally will peone •wav paigns like those Lanca shire can be discussed. SUS ported and extended to other areas of the country.
Vera Stephens has already drawn her conclusion: Ate time when women's rights are supposedly at the forefront of Government's mind, see The double-think Labour on one hand they introduce legisiation to allow women partial financial and social independence in the form of the Equal and Sex Discrimination Acts and on ine otner ine direct consequences Government's social spending cuts have meant that women cannot take advantage of the legislation'.
next Rally Planning Meeting is taking place ir Manchester. on 22 January ir Meeting Room 1, University Students Union Oxford Road - starting at 12 noon a anterestea geoge art urged to come.
of itself to a correctiv as organisin organisers and oboles. aboearances inme medid the estab Through its affiliation to the
The executive of the National Union of Mineworkers was meeting again on 12 January to try to find a suitable formula which would permit them to sell out the decisions taken at last year's annual conference on retirement. The vote at conference, and the recent ballot of all the union members, snowed tnat miners were prepared to take industrial action to win neir demands The demand for retirement at 60 on full pay threatens to blast wide apart the whole fabric of the Social Contract. It is, however, the determination right wing to defend the Social Contract at all costs that is preventing the executive from carrying out the democ ratically agreed decisions of the membership.
The NUM leaders have made it clear that they intend to go cap in hand to ask the Government and its TUC watchdogs whether early retirement for surface workers and the payment of a lump sum to who leave the before the age of 65 breaches the Board's offer of retirement at 62 for men with 20 years underground service is dependent on getting the nod from the Government and the TUC.
collision with the Government, it nas also occh Droposca inartente ment at 62 will not now come into effect until next August -the end of the present phase of incomes policy All these shoddy compromises flagrantly contradict the decisions of their own members - but that is what Gormley and company mean by democratic socialism!
The right-wing leaders have no intention of fighting for the full claim - they have swallowed the reactionary policies of the Government hook, line and sinker. But their path is eased by the failure of member Carl Gardner. They the left - particularly the CPindustry Scargill group - to take the initiative themselves.
Even the Coal Only an outright fight against the right wing can force through ne calm. suffer as a minority on the national exccuuve. our mey overwhelming majority thermore, they have the support of land, South Wales, Yorkshire and alIC Kent.
areas would strike a blow at the planned sell-out by the leaders, and set an example to the majorities in other areas whose vote is being frustrated by their own leaderships. Such would have to be based on an oper declaration of war against the Social Contract, and a preparedness to take all-out strike action. It would also other areas for support.
ship.
The left may have to riest the on this issue. FurA campaign for action in these standards.
campaign Callaghan and Healey mean going into the BOB PENNINGTON A fight on these issues could transform the situation inside the NUM, and prepare the way for the removal of the right-wing leaderThe votes by the CP and the left on the executive against the proposals are only the first steps; if they are not followed up by action, ten tney will go down as notning more than futile gestures. What is amongst miners and other workers more. mney will rentorce the nood of that nothing can be done to change the situation of declining living Right now the miners stand at the foretront of the struggle resolute lead by the CP and the left can be decisive both in winning the miners' claim and in giving an impetus and example to the rest of the working class on the way to fight the pro-capitalist policies of ON FRIDAY a major rally in London will be addressed by leading figures of organisations on a world scale claiming to be Trotskyist.
They will be drawn together on the same platform for launched by the Workers leading figures of the Socialist Workers Party of America Joseph Hansen and George Novack Fourth International. This meeting will be our reply to the WRP's call for a commission of enquiry to investigate the ridiculous Charte that tor revolutionary militants have been accomplices of the KGB in the revolutionary Marxist would not normally need this effort to refute - the record Hansen and Novack as sufficient in itself. However, for too long the WRP and it leader Gerry Healy have radicalising young Trotskyism. This must be brought to an end Healv and his party are totally isolated on this issue amongst all forces calling themselves Trotskyist. Despite the squandering of huge resources, the WRP's investigations have not been able to unearth one fact which could in any way prove or give credibility to their preposterou: charges. One-time associates of Healy inside the 'Interna tional Committee' like the OCI in France, as well as British organisations like the Workers Socialist League and the International Communist League, figures like Tamara Deutscher, condemnation of Healy's charges and methods. RED WEEKLY 13 January 1976 1 Revolutionary Party against and against the forty years these two movement. Such charges revolutionary militants been identified some workers as the authentic and even prominent have all added their