25¢ No. 555 10 July 1992 Free Abortion on Demand! HDI WqMENfS'L ERA rlo~ THRO H SOCIAL T REVOLUTIO'NI wv Reactionary drive to gut abortion rights could provoke explosive opposition in the streets. Left: Philadelphia protest over Supreme Court ruling. Right: March 29 abortion rights rally in San Francisco. Last week's high court ruling on Souter motivated the decision on explic­ pro-life movement in the back." movement. The campaign to rip abor­ abortion read like it was hatched in itly political grounds. He warned from Both the anti-abortion bigots and the tion rights away from American women an underground parking garage halfway the bench that overturning Roe "under "pro-choice" liberals are pitching the is the spearhead for a general offen­ between the Supreme Court and the fire" and "under the existing circum­ coming election as one which will deter­ sive, organized by the White House and White House. By a five-to-four vote, the stances" would cause "profound and mine the next appointment to the its Supreme Court appointees, against Court endorsed the core of an odiously unnecessary damage to the Court's legit­ Supreme Court and the fate of abortion. women's rights and black rights. restrictive Pennsylvania law requiring a imacy, and to the nation's commitment At the age of 83, Justice, Blackmun, Some 1.6 million abortions are per­ mandatory waiting period for women to the rule of law." With the bourgeoisie author of the Roe decision, says he "can­ formed every year in this country. Barely seeking abortions and forcing teenagers split wide open over the question of not remain on this Court forever." But two people out of ten favor an outright to notify their parents. At the same time legalized abortion, this elitist arbiter for it was not particularly the political com­ ban on abortions, while even among it claimed to reassert the "essence" of the ruling class -is clearly worried. position of the 1973 court-whose chief Republican voters nearly two-thirds the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing The "legitimacy" the black-robed justice, Warren Burger, was a Nixon oppose such a ban. In recent years, par­ abortion nationwide, while in fact under­ judges seek to protect is their position appointee-which led to the legalization ticularly since the 1989 Webster ruling, mining the "fundamental right" to abor­ as the judicial guardians of American of abortion. This was a concession to an hundreds of thousands of people have tion by allowing any restrictions which imperialism's "New World Order." The upsurge of mass social struggle. The taken to the streets to demonstrate do not entail what they deem an "undue same session asserted a U.S. license to women's liberation movement arose as against the reactionary assault on this burden." The decision by the Reagan­ kidnap abroad, and in the guise of strik­ hundreds of thousands of radicalized most personal of rights. But the "pro­ Bush court was consciously crafted to ing down a misguided law against "hate youth took to the streets in the struggle choice" liberals offer only the most timid split the difference with the aim of taking speech," defended KKK cross-burnings for black rights and in opposition to the pressure politics. the explosive abortion question off the as "freedom of expression." Appointing dirty imperialist war in Vietnam. According to National Abortion agenda and saving George Bush's ass itself chief high executioner, the Court Even the most minimal gains for Rights Action League (NARAL) presi­ in the November election. Instead, the chillingly swept aside legal impediments working people, women and minorities dent Kate Michelman, the answer is to ruling made abortion an even bigger to the death penalty, working through have been achieved only as a result of elect "a pro-choice President" and "a election issue. the night to insist that the state murder social struggle, riot through the ballot, veto-proof Congress," in other words, a With the population strongly in favor machine go into high gear. Already more and certainly not through lobbying the Democratic president with a Democratic of the right to abortion, and Bush 'sink­ people have been executed this year on Congress or Supreme Court. But under Congress. In a picture that spoke two ing in the polls against" "pro-choice" disproportionately black and Hispanic capitalism, every reform remains emi­ thousand words, Michelman was photo­ contenders Democrat Bill Clinton and Death Row U.S.A. than in all of 1991. nently reversible, as the onslaught on graphed on the steps of the Supreme the sinister Ross Perot. the Supreme This ruling aimed at pleasing every­ abortion rights demonstrates. In its drive Court as she rushed to report on its deci­ Court ruling was meant to take "the edge body in fact satisfied virtually no to rearm U.S. imperialism and restore sion over a mobile phone to her supreme off a recurring Republican nightmare." one. National Organization for Women its erstwhile hegemonic power in the leader, Democratic presidential candi­ as the New York Times (30 June) com­ (NOW) president Patricia Ireland ~de­ world following its humiliating defeat date Bill Clinton. NOW, N,ARAL and mented. Yet the worries of the new e1ared, "Roe is dead, despite the flimsy in Indochina, the American bourgeoisie the other liberal abortion rights groups "moderate conservative" center of the stay of execution today from the Court." launched an all-sided reactionary on-, are firmly tied to the Democratic Party. court, which the media has been playing The rad-lib New York Village Voice slaught aimed at reversing the gains of Indeed, the challenge to the Pennsylva­ up, went further. Reading from an opin­ (7 July) carried a huge front-page the civil rights movement, ending the nia law in the Supreme Court, initiated ion coauthored by Sandra Day O'Connor headline reading: "Court to Women: "war on poverty" and crippling the labor continued on page 8 and Anthony Kennedy, Justice David Drop Dead!" Even the Wall Street Jour­ nal (30 June) noted, "Frightened Teen­ Agers, Poorer Women Likely to Suffer Most From Court Ruling." At the same time, the head of the National Right to ~ife Committee denounced the ruling as "a loss for unborn children and a victory for pro-abortion forces." Operation Res­ cue terrorist Randall Terry railed, "Three o Reagan-Bush appointees stabbed the Parti§dD Defeu§e £o...... ittee CLASS-STRUGGLE DEFENSE NOTES Jailed Steelworker Bob Buck Free Robert Buck, refused to fink on union; shown here with his baby Labor Prisoner! daughter. Robert Buck, 27 years old, a popular charge outside the home of a scab on member of Steelworkers Local" 5668 at 4 March 1991. The feds' "evidence" Ravenswood, West Virginia, has been in consisted of the testimony of the scab, prison since last January, railroaded by Edward Piggett, and Church, who turned have rather spent three years in prison as much as they look out for where the federal government for defending his fink and got off with a year of house myself than to see him wear a wire into the big money and campaign contribu­ union and his job from the scabs and arrest for his "services." a union hall." tions are." thugs brought in by Marc Rich and Bob Buck's "crime" was to defend his Mrs. Buck described how the feds "They want to come and bust a union Ravenswood Aluminum Corporation union-not just on the picket line but invaded their home and, brandishing a hall. I think anybody that stands up to (RAC). Bilck was slapped with a prison by refusing to become a rat for the feds. gun, kept her and her husband in Buck's them scares them. They see an outfit like stretch of 33 months, sent far away from Prosecutors and federal officers threat­ . bedroom as they rifled through his our group there, old men, old women, home and family to the hinterlands of ened to send him away unless he wore personal belongings, including pictures young women, young men and every­ Hinton, Oklahoma. a wire and spied on his brothers at union of his young daughter. For sheer spite thing standing up to them, I think it Buck was arrested in the fourth month headquarters. Buck told the Partisan they confiscated Buck's pickup truck, scares them. Anybody that steps out of of the class battle at RAC, convicted of Defense Committee, "The first time I and 15 months later they still haven't . line or opens their mouth too much, two charges of possessing an explosive ever saw these people, the first thing they returned it. they've got a place for them right here device, after the feds alleged that he and said was 'You're going to prison for 40 Buck told us how the state's resporise at Hinton." another U8WA member, Gerald Church, years.' Reminded me of the bullies at to the struggle at Ravenswood has By refusing to wear a wire, Buck aid threw a small homemade black powder school." Buck's mother told us, "I would firmed his resolve: "When they threw a great service for the entire labor move­ us out of that plant, I thought in a ment. The fight for Bob Buck's freedom few days, we'll go to court, the state must be th.e fight of the entire labor cops and everybody would come down movement. When the PATCO air con­ '~n Injury to One here and straighten this out. They trollers union leaders were marched off Is an Injury to All" showed up all right, but to what? To to prison in chains in 1981, and the labor escort the scabs.