Part 3 - DW062 001 029 003

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3 HACKNEY ABORTION CAMPAIGN Abortion facilities in Hackney are among the worst in the country. Some women there have been campaigning to get a day-care centre organized. At day-care centres it is possible to have a very early abortion before 14 weeks of pregnancy are out. At this stage, the foetus is still in the process of being formed; it is poss- ible to induce an abortion without an anaesthetic. The woman has the abortion, goes away, has bleeding slightly heavier than a normal period, but is gen- erally all right afterwards and can usually return to work the next day. Unfortunately, women in this area have to go through such a complic- ated process of getting their abortion that even if they do finally manage it, it is much later in pregnancy, when it is much more painful and dan- gerous to their health. It doesn't make economic sense either. Not only does the woman having an abortion take up a much- needed hospital bed, but she also has to have time off work. She very often requires pain-killing drugs or an anaesthetic. Contrary to popular opinion, abortions are not mainly done for working class fifteen year olds who have been "totally irresponsible" abortions are needed by women over the whole range of ages when they may become pregnant, and from all classes too. Often it is the most sensible thing to do under the circumstances. To bring up an unwanted child is no good for the child or parents concerned. No child asks to be born or to be buffeted from foster mother to children's home and back to mother. The economic and social system of this country make life very hard for unwanted children. Historically, when industry developed away from the home, the traditional family and com- munity life changed. Chil- dren moved away from their parents and familiar sur- roundings to seek better houses, employment, etc. In doing this, they became more isolated and more dep- endent on having a family. An individual without the support of a family was in a very difficult situation and the unwanted child is in this position. An un- wanted child is really un- wanted in this society. Socialism is by no means utopia, but the emph- asis in a socialist society is on the well-being of everybody. Children are not two people's commodity, to be used and abused accord- ingly, but belong to the whole community. In such a situation, if a family has more children than they can cope with, their neighbours help out. If that were the case in this country, abor- tions might not be so nec- essary. As it is now, women need to have good abortion facilities easily available for when they want, as soon as they want. Family Life 'NF Style' The future the NF has in store for women. This cartoon comes from a leaflet produced by Hackney Socialist Feminist Group and Hackney Committee Against Racism. and distributed in thousands in the area. nat.front, nat.press (The following article was contributed by a reader. We would just like to make the point that many people have opposed the fascists, not only those who belong to "socialist movements.") The national press, al- ways avid for sensational headlines, is getting good mileage from the Fascist Movement these days. A rec- ent fracas in Wolverhampton, instigated by National Front supporters, was widely rep- orted in the national press as a race riot involving hundreds of black youths attacking policemen and the insidious implication that our inner cities are violent ghettos. It is true that black kids hang about on street corners in my town-if you are unemployed and getting £12 per week what else is there to do? And when you know that the percentage of unemployed kids like yourself is higher than for white school-leavers, it must seem a ridiculous farce to go to the Careers Office when you don't stand much of a chance of a labouring job, let alone a "career." And if I was black and I read in the paper that the rank and file of the police force had a leader of a racist party to speak at their conference, I wouldn't have much faith in our famous "British Justice" either. As for our inner cities, a lot of them are ghettos, caused not by black people, but by racketeer landlords, who rent out slum property to lower paid work- ers in general. A prime ex- ample of this is Glasgow, a city with a very small imm- igrant community. Govern- ment expenditure cuts force councils to slash housing projects-social evils like this must be fought by the labour movement. The national press does much to foster racial hat- red, with its sensational reporting and its reluct- ance to condemn outright the National Front. Bast- ions of capitalism like the Daily Mail and the Daily Ex- press pomtificate through their leader columns, "The National Front are entitled to have free speech" they say "Suppressing them is wrong" and then go on to condemn socialist movements who actively fight racism. This is the classic tech- nique of divide and rule, set worker against worker, play on his fears and prejudices and when he is weak turn on the screws. The National Front is a product of capitalist soc- iety, it is vicious and evil and must be fought at all costs. We should refuse to work with fascists and treat them like the scabs they are. After all, how can they do their jobs impartially, es- pecially in something like the benefit service? As ind- ividuals we must guard our- selves against their poison- ous attitudes, and collect- ively, through our unions, fight against fascism. A united labour movement can never be defeated. NATIONAL ABORTION CAMPAIGN July, '77. National Abortion Campaign march to Downing Street to protest against the Benyon Bill, which sought to restrict further a woman's right to choose whether to have an unwanted child or an abor- tion. Practice has shown that restriction of the right to free abortion on demand leads to many women being forced to turn to back-street abortionists, with all the dangers to health-and even life-that that involves.

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