Jim F.
On Thu, 12 Aug 1999 09:08:11 -0400 (EDT) bhandari at phoenix.Princeton.EDU
(Rakesh Bhandari) writes:
>The struggle over access to abortion as less serious seems to me a
>great
>blunder. To be forced to carry to term against one's will either due
>to
>restrictive law or lack of means is a form of torture--no more, no
>less
>(too bad Max does not understand this); moreover, to treat women's
>health
>as less serious only says quite loudly that the labor movement is
>willing
>to treat women in all their concerns--from health to workplace
>concerns--less seriously in order to fry bigger fish. The fight for
>free
>access to abortion thus cannot be marginalized as a merely cultural or
>non
>labor concern; it reveals how one values the freedom and autonomy of
>women.
>Moreover, any labor movement that refuses to take a stand here on the
>ground of tolerating religious authority simply cuts its own throat by
>legitimising the invocation of that authority in political debate. If
>the
>party says it's fine to invoke religion to silence feminists and
>dilute the
>plaform, then the party can only be weakened in its response to those
>in
>its ranks who will invoke religion or same papal authority to
>attenuate the
>class struggle. Refusal to sanction religious appeals now mean
>greater
>hesitation by some to join the ranks of a secular and feminist party
>but it
>lays the grounds for the kind of decision making process that will be
>necessary if labor is serious about assaulting capitalism instead of
>domesticating itself in some new corporatist arrangement from which
>only
>the leaders of labor will benefit.
>
>Yours, Rakesh
>
>
___________________________________________________________________ Get the Internet just the way you want it. Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month! Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj.