En Passant

The one tactic the refugee movement hasn’t tried to date, apart from activists undertaking essentially stand alone actions, is arguing for and then trying to mobilise the thousands who turn out to rallies around a specific call for civil disobedience. My suggestion is that the left begin agitating to occupy the centre of the capital cities until Abyan is bought back to Australia for medical treatment and try to build just such a movement in the next week.

Here was a great opportunity to build a united mass movement against the oppression of women and indigenous Australians. Instead the focus was on getting the state to take top down action that does absolutely nothing to address domestic violence, anti-abortion bigotry, racism or women’s oppression. This is the very state which drives and reinforces that racism and oppression. There is nothing to cheer about in banning Brown and Newman.

It should be really simple: the state keeps its hands off women’s bodies. Yet abortion is currently the subject of criminal law in all states and territories except the ACT, writes Roz Ward in Red Flag.

Why won’t one of the Labor Left or Greens politicians make the obvious call – the only way to defend our side’s gains from attack by Abbott and Bernardi is by striking and with massive demonstrations?

Access as well as “rights” is crucial for working class women, so issues such as the cost of contraceptives, doctors’ bills, access to hospital care and the like still need to be campaigned about. Stella Browne summed up what we’re still fighting for: “Abortion … should be available for any woman without insolent inquisitions, nor ruinous financial charges, nor tangles of red tape. For our bodies are our own.”

An all-out offensive against abortion rights isn’t on the agenda at this point, and the crew at the bigot rally are, for now, an isolated minority writes Jessica Lenehan in Red Flag. But they are a minority with serious financing and political connections. Under an Abbott government they will be seeking to increase their clout. We’ll be ready.

Only a mass movement from below can force the do-nothings from Labor to legalise abortion.

The Stupak Amendment passed during the House debate on health care in the US is a blow to women’s abortion rights–poor women in particular.

The majority of Australians support abortion on demand; the majority of politicians don’t or, more accurately, won’t. According to a new study in People and Place Journal 57 percent favour a women’s right to abortion without restrictions. One third support abortion in specific circumstances.  Only 4 percent oppose abortion on any grounds. 45 percent of Catholics […]

Anna Bligh is a classic example of the futility of joining the ALP to change the world. A major Brisbane hospital has now banned abortions because of the lack of clarity in the criminal laws, the laws Bligh said yesterday she would not change. The ALP host has taken over the leftist parasite. I have a […]