Source: Socialist Organizer

Photo by Phil Pasquini/Shutterstock

Flames shot through the roof – the fire too intense for firefighters to contain it. By New Year’s Eve, Planned Parenthood’s Knoxville, Tennessee facility had burned to the ground, destroyed completely. Investigators with the Knoxville Fire Department and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) concluded that the cause was arson — a fire set purposely by one or more individuals.

At least no one was killed. The Knoxville clinic, which provided essential health services, including abortion, to people (cis women, trans, and non-binary) from the eastern part of Tennessee, northern Mississippi, and Arkansas, had been closed temporarily as a $2.2 million renovation and expansion was nearing completion.

That cannot be said for the mass shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Nov. 27, 2015, which left three dead and nine injured.

Those murders brought the death toll from violent attacks targeting abortion clinics and providers across the United States to 11. The violence does not end there. Just in the 38 years between 1977 and 2015: 17 attempted murders, 42 bombings, 186 arson attacks, 91 attempted bombings and arsons, 619 bomb threats, 655 anthrax threats, 153 incidents of assault or battery, and 100 attacks with butyric acid, known as “stink bombs,” were reported. (statistics from The New York Times, Nov. 29, 2015, Vox, Dec. 1, 2015, and the National Abortion Federation)

In 1986 — one year alone — almost half of all abortion providers (47 percent) across the breadth of the United States also reported incidents of anti-abortion harassment and intimidation, including inflammatory pickets as well as illegal activity, such as vandalism. The impact was overwhelming as these providers served more than four out of five (83 percent) of all abortion patients!

This is a war on women. Access to all reproductive services is essential healthcare. Nearly one in four U.S. women will have an abortion in their lifetime, most of them between the ages of 20 and 45. Denying access to abortion “is gender-based violence against women, no question,” declaimed United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Kate Gilmore. (The Guardian, June 5, 2019)

It is a class issue, too, with women subject to a double yoke of oppression from ruling class social, economic, and political forces. Poor women have been and continue to be the overwhelming majority of those who seek an abortion to terminate an unintended pregnancy. According to a study by the Guttmacher Institute, three-quarters of all women in the U.S. who opted for abortion in 2014 were low income and most of them lived below the federal poverty level.

It is, additionally, an attack on people of color. Anna Rupani, executive director of Fund Texas Choice, noted that 70 percent of its clients are people of color, and 60 percent have children already (Texas Tribune, Dec. 1, 2021). Nationally, the situation is the same. “It’s people who don’t have access to health care, access to contraception, who when facing an unintended pregnancy, don’t have the resources to have another child,” reported Rachel Jones, a principal research scientist at the Guttmacher Institute. (New York Times, Dec. 14, 2021)

This is a concerted war against women and their families, particularly working-class women, carried out by those who wield state power across the country.

The record speaks for itself.

Since the Supreme Court handed down its 1973 decisions in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, states have constructed a lattice work of abortion laws, codifying, regulating and limiting whether, when and under what circumstances a person may obtain an abortion. They were given the green light by the Supreme Court’s subsequent 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey which replaced the strict standards of Roe with an “undue burden standard.” In so doing, the Supreme Court gave states license to impose substantial obstacles in the path of a woman’s fundamental right of choice. In the last decade alone, state legislatures have passed over 500 anti-abortion laws.

As a result, 90 percent of U.S. counties have no clinics providing abortions. More than one in three women (39 percent) of reproductive age live in these counties and have to travel – many for great distances — multiple times as most states require a waiting period with counseling, often biased, and some require additional invasive procedures.

These laws were devastating for most women in the United States even before the spate of cases now before the Supreme Court, particularly Whole Woman’s Health v. Jackson — the Texas S.B. 8 (“heartbeat” vigilante law banning abortions after six-weeks) and Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization — Mississippi’s request that the Court set aside Roe entirely by reverting all control of abortion back to state legislatures as it was pre-Roe or, at least rule in favor of Mississippi’s law imposing a 15-week abortion ban instead of the Roe-Casey standard of the right to terminate pregnancy until fetal viability, recognized now by medical professionals as 23 weeks.

There is no doubt that the gavel will drop all-too-soon with decisions that at best gut Roe substantially and may end the federal protection of Roe entirely.

The Guttmacher Institute presents a harrowing though realistic picture of the impact of the next Supreme Court decisions:

Twenty-six states — more than half of the United States — “are certain or likely to ban abortion.” They have “laws or constitutional amendments already in place that would make them certain to attempt to ban abortion as quickly as possible.”

Nine states – Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Michigan, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Texas, West Virginia and Wisconsin – have unenforced pre-Roe abortion bans already on their books.

Seven states — Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio, South Carolina —have passed “heartbeat” bills cutting off abortion after six weeks, some of these mimicking the structure of the Texas vigilante law.

More than 100 million women, including those living in nearly every Southern state and many throughout the Midwest, will lose access to legal and safe abortion in the United States.

“In some ways, a post-Roe America would mirror the pre-Roe one,” states The New York Times 0n Dec. 5, 2021. “Then, abortion was generally legal in only four states, and 13 more allowed abortion for various health reasons. Women who could afford it would travel out of state to seek the procedure. But many women turned to coat-hangers, chemicals, unskilled abortion providers and other dangerous methods. In the early 1960s, Cook County Hospital in Chicago was treating more than 4,000 women a year for life-threatening effects of botched illegal abortions.”

Anger, frustration, a return to barbaric times.

What will we do about it? How do we create an effective fightback?

All are aware that we cannot rely solely upon the consistent and determined efforts of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Reproductive Rights, Planned Parenthood, and others who struggle day in and day out against a repressive judicial apparatus. Their cogent and forceful legal analysis held no sway with the reactionary majority of the current Supreme Court. As Justice Sonya Sotomayor stated succinctly, this Court “betrays not only the citizens of Texas, but also our constitutional system of government.”

Planned Parenthood, with its network of healthcare clinics across the nation, has focused on a workaround: “We’ve been preparing for a post-Roe world.” A new Planned Parenthood reproductive clinic has been constructed in Fairview Heights, Illinois to accommodate people traveling from Texas and elsewhere. Built on the southwest border of the state just 15 minutes from St. Louis, Missouri, in preparation for abortion bans and restrictions, the clinic can handle up to 15,000 patients per year. Illinois, with its own Reproductive Health Act protecting the right to choose, is considered to be a lone refuge in the Midwest.

The Hill Top Women’s Reproductive Clinic, which had been the only abortion clinic in El Paso, Texas closed last year after 36 years, and then re-opened just over the border in Santa Teresa, New Mexico.

In contrast to the 1960s, pills to terminate pregnancy (Mifepristone and Misoprostol marketed as ulcer medicine) can safely and effectively end pregnancy up to 10 weeks for most women (four out of five). Today, many women who seek abortions in clinics before 10 weeks of pregnancy choose pills, but the majority of women across the United States do not have easy access to a clinic.

This lends greater significance to a recent Federal Drug Administration modification of its restrictions on Mifepristone. Physicians can prescribe it during a telemedicine (Internet) visit and the medication can be dispensed through a mail-order pharmacy. In this ongoing war against women, however, almost half the states in the United States already have banned or tightly restricted the use of abortion pills.

Funding and logistics:

What can be anticipated from public funding? Since 1976, the Hyde Amendment to the budget excluded abortion from comprehensive services provided to low-income people by the federal government through Medicaid with few exceptions. Most states have followed the federal government’s lead. The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 made the situation even worse. It permits health maintenance organizations (HMOs) serving Medicaid recipients to refuse to cover counseling or referral for services, such as abortion, to which the HMO objects on moral or religious grounds.

Mis-appropriation of public funding is rampant with taxpayer funds diverted by states to Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs) — largely non-medical, faith-based facilities whose central mission is to dissuade pregnant people from obtaining abortions. There are nearly 200 CPCs in Texas — the most in any state — including about 60 that received $100 million of state funding during the last two years. Nationally, CPCs outnumber abortion clinics three to one. (Mother Jones, Feb. 2, 2022)

Pre-Roe, when abortion was illegal throughout most of the country, an underground network — “Jane” — was created in Chicago that counseled and helped women who wanted to have abortions. The service, launched in 1965 by a 19-year-old student at the University of Chicago, found doctors who were willing to perform the procedure secretly. Eventually, the women in the Jane network started performing abortions themselves.

Today, a National Network of Abortion Funds including 80 organizations in its network works to remove financial and logistical barriers. Some organizations assist clinics with the expense for an individual’s abortion procedure. Others offer support such as transportation, childcare, translation, doula services, and somewhere to stay if travel is necessary.

This private fundraising effort, while valiant, is a stop-gap measure. The organizations cannot keep up with demand for funds created by evermore restrictive laws. Texas Choice already is hard pressed to meet demand for assistance. It has gone from fielding 10 and 15 calls per week to getting 80 to 100 calls per week since the imposition of Texas’ six-week abortion ban often forces women to travel far and wide.

Our demands must be loud, clear, and irrevocable: legal access and public funding for all aspects of women’s health, including reproductive education, contraception, and abortion services for all.

Lastly, organizing in the critical political arena where the laws are created that have brought us to this point today.

On January 20, two major longstanding abortion rights organizations, NARAL (the National Abortions Rights Action League) and Emily’s List (a political action committee) announced that they were withdrawing support for Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) after she voted with Republicans against changing Senate filibuster rules which would have allowed for the passage of voting rights legislation (Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act).

Emily’s list, created in 1985 to support women Democratic Party candidates who would back abortion rights, is considered to be the largest resource for women in politics and often is the make-or-break difference for women candidates. Its $405,000 was the largest contribution by far to Sinema’s run in 2018 (her first), and its endorsement led inevitably to other funding as well as to the votes that placed Sinema in the Senate for six years.

NARAL, which boasts 2.5 million supporters, also spends lavishly to elect Democrats, but it doesn’t put a restriction on gender.

If you haven’t asked already, the time is long overdue for a re-assessment and to make a new strategic choice.

What has the Democratic Party done to preserve abortion rights during the 49 years since Roe? For the most part, it has stood silently by as access to reproductive care has become difficult and, in many places impossible, for women, particularly women of color without economic resources. President Joe Biden, who as a senator supported the Hyde Amendment curtailing federal funding for abortion, has uttered not a single word to defend abortion as an essential woman’s reproductive right. As for Democratic Party legislators in the House of Representatives, it has been almost a decade before the token vote last September on the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA), token because the legislation will fail inevitably in the Senate as long as the filibuster, supported by Democratic Senators, such as Krysten Sinema, remains in place.

It isn’t sufficient to say occasionally that you are pro-choice. It is imperative to walk the walk to ensure that choice is a reality.

It does not matter that 80 percent of the country, according to Gallup polls, believes that abortion should be legal under any or certain circumstances, if we, the people, do not control decision-making. Nor is it just a matter of abortion rights. As Julia Kaye, staff attorney at the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project states succinctly, the fight for reproductive choice/abortion rights is a fight for us all. “Make no mistake, she declared. “Today it is abortion rights that have been targeted; tomorrow it could be any other freedom people hold dear.”

Historical change through collective action is essential. Whatever reforms are in place today were the result of mass action, concessions made by the ruling class to upsurge —  be it the long struggle of women to gain the right to vote or the quest for reproductive choice, be it the civil rights movement to end discriminatory laws with respect to education, housing, or voting rights, be it workers’ persisting through brutal and violent attacks to win the right to organize into unions and use their collective power to gain better wages, benefits, and working conditions.

Change is not writ in stone. Whenever there is quiescence from the working class, the ruling class takes back the hard-fought-for gains, whether restrictive abortion laws since Casey, the Supreme Court’s Janus decision with respect to public unions, or its many decisions with respect to voting rights.

There is another crucial factor at play. For the struggle to be consistent until victory, that struggle must be independent of the ruling class and the one big property party with two names (Democratic and Republican parties). It requires the development of the organization of the working class into a conscious class and consequently into a political party that can lead to the conquest of power and our emancipation.

That is why we in Socialist Organizer have been so persistent in the United States and internationally with our efforts towards the formation of a Labor Party and internationally towards the formation of a Workers’ International. That is why we encourage and organize through Labor and Community for an Independent Party for the development of labor and community coalitions across the country as building blocks towards creation of a working-class party. That is why we have supported the efforts of the Ujima Peoples Progress Party in Maryland to develop a Black working-class party that will be aligned with a working-class party rooted in labor and oppressed communities.

That is why, we are participating in and preparing a delegation to the International Working Women’s Conference (IWWC) to be held in Paris, October 31.

As the appeal launched by Rubina Jamil, General Secretary of the All-Pakistan Trade Union Federation (APTUF) and Christel Keiser, National Secretary of the Democratic Independent Workers Party (POID), France states eloquently: “Subjected to double oppression and double exploitation in every domain, as working women but also as mothers and as women, women are standing up against all forms of oppression, discrimination and violence, and against patriarchal domination.”

Specific demands elaborated in the appeal and shared by women worldwide include: Equal pay for equal work; legal equality, in the struggles for civil and human rights as well as for the ERA specifically; reproductive rights — birth control, abortion, pre-natal care and safe pregnancies; family leave and the provision of childcare; an end to sexual harassment and acts of violence to which women are subject as women; and, more generally, the right to self-determination. [See Appeal below with initial list of endorsers.]

Last year, on the occasion of International Women’s Day, Socialist Organizer held an expansive forum via zoom after which a preparatory committee was formed to build the delegation to the IWWC. The committee to date includes: Donna Dewitt – South Carolina AFL-CIO, president emeritus (id only); Andrea Williams-Muhamad – Nzuri Malkia Birth Cooperative; Reproductive Health Equity Alliance Maryland; Desirèe Rojas – Labor Council for Latin American Advancement Sacramento chapter; Carolle Alexis Magloire – Haiti Liberté; Independent Workers Party of Haiti; Connie White – Labor and Community for an Independent Party (LCIP), Los Angeles and two leaders of the Rwanda National Congress Women’s League in exile here in the United States. Please consider your participation, too.

This year, we, too, will honor International Women’s Day with an online forum (date and time to be announced) with a focus on how we can intervene in the current struggle to guarantee reproductive rights (including access to abortion) and the day-to-day struggle within the immigrant community of working women who have been denied basic services and representation afforded to citizens.

We also are preparing dossiers on issues pertaining to the demands articulated above. This article with respect to the right of abortion as integral to the right and access to health care is but a small contribution towards that effort and we would appreciate your input and your contributions. The dossiers will be made available through a journal created specifically to mobilize for the International Working Women’s Conference.

It is as we link our efforts together — independent of the ruling class — that we strengthen our movement, reinforce our organizations, and integrate the particular demands of women as part of the more general struggle of the working class for its emancipation.

* * * * * * * * * *

Appeal Issued by Rubina Jamil and Christel Keiser:

“Our Proposal Is to Hold an International Conference of Working Women”

All around the world, women are mobilizing more and more in the fight for true equal rights between women and men.

Subjected to double oppression and double exploitation in every domain, as working women but also as mothers and as women, women are standing up against all forms of oppression, discrimination and violence, and against patriarchal domination. We, engaged as we are in those struggles and mobilizations in our respective countries, know that the particular demands of women are part of the more general struggle of the working class for its emancipation.

However, and this is not contradictory, women have specific demands: equal pay, professional equality, legal equality, the setting up of structures for childcare, the right of women to self-determination, the right to choose regarding reproductive rights, and an end to the harassment and acts of violence they are subjected to as women.

This is why we propose that an international meeting be held before the workers’ conference called by the IWC*, involving working women engaged in the struggle to defend their existing rights, to win new rights and to win back the rights that have been lost.

In 1910, the Second International Conference of Socialist Women, held in Copenhagen, decided to organize the first annual International Women’s Day on March 19, 1911, to commemorate the Revolutions of 1848 and the Paris Commune. And on March 8, 1917, Russian women marked International Women’s Day by demonstrating in St. Petersburg to demand bread, peace and freedom. From 1920 onwards, International Women’s Day has been celebrated on March 8.

We propose that on the occasion of the initiatives taken in each country to celebrate on March 8 (public meetings, demonstrations, rallies, etc.), the proposal to hold an international meeting of working women be put to the participants and discussed, and that delegations of working women begin to be formed and mandated to attend it.

 

Endnote

* The International Workers Committee Against War and Exploitation, for a Workers’ International (IWC), was formed at the end of November 2016 in Mumbai, India, at an international conference bringing together 350 delegates, workers, trade union and political activists from some 40 countries. Website: coi-iwc.org

INITIAL LIST OF ENDORSERS OF APPEAL ISSUED BY CHRISTEL KEISER (FRANCE) and RUBINA JAMIL (PAKISTAN)

Afghanistan

Hasina Ghafar, Left Radical of Afghanistan (LRA)

Algeria

N.G, UGTA Sonelgaz, trade unionist; M.A, UGTA Sonelgaz trade unionist; H.H, UGTA trade unionist, civil servant; H.B, UGTA trade unionist, IT; Ch. L., student; M.B student; A.H social worker; Ch.D retired; Nadia Sabry journalist; A.B, teacher
(Due to the repression, we are only publishing initials for some of the endorsers.)

Azania/South Africa

Fatimata Motloatse, Gender Activist and Chairperson of Black Women Caucus; Bu- sisiwe Seabe, Gender Activist, « Fees Must Fall»; Charlotte Tshabalala, Gender Ac- tivist and former EFF MP.

Bangladesh

Shirin Akhter, Teacher, Teachers’ Association; Nadira Sultana Helen, women affairs secretary, SAARC Humanity Foundation; Salma Akhtar Shilpi, general secretary Dhaka district Democratic Workers Party; Rahana Rupa, Working women Association; Razia Khandakar, women’s editing, Bangladesh Jatiyo Sramik Federation (BJSF).

Belgium

Muriel Di Martinelli, CGSP-ACOD ALR-LRB Brussels federal secretary; Marie Verselle, student; Camille Pieron, trade unionist, teacher; Laëtitia Coucke, student, Belgian dele- gate to the Mumbai Conference; Amal Kadiri, CGSP member, teacher and worker; Anne Vanesse; Pauline Joly, student; Nathalie Colson, CGSP-Vivaqua delegate.

Benin

Omonyémi Yvonne Okpeicha (married name, Gbaguidi), teacher, trade unionist; Liliane Gnonlonfoun, trade union officer healthcare sector; Bake Gnire Sero, trade union offi- cer healthcare sector.

Britain

Sarah Woolley, General Secretary BFAWU; Jane Doolan, UNISON NEC, Secretary Is- lington UNISON; Cllr Jane Gebbie, Bridgend, UNISON; Cllr Mouna Hamitouche, Isling- ton; Fiona Monkman, chair, Islington UNISON; Margaret Kristin Taylor, Treasurer Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Trades Council; Doreen McNally Liverpool Unite Com- munity Branch; Sophie Dodd, Liverpool-Wavertree CLP member; Sussan Rassoulie Khataie, Islington UNISON Branch Committee member ; Ann Green British Pensioner Magazine ; (all pers. Cap.)

Brazil

Thaís Souza, Black Women’s Network, state of Paraná; Alessandra Cláudia de Oliveira, Curitiba municipal employee, former trade union officer SISMUC; Ângela Maria de Castro, teacher, Curitiba; Carmem Regina Ribeiro, sociologist; Clair da Flora Martins, labour lawyer; Juliana Mildemberg, teacher, former trade union officer SIS- MUC; Marina de Godoy, primary school teacher Curitiba; Soraya Cristina Zgoda, Cu- ritiba municipal employee, former trade union officer SISMUC; Mônica Giovannetti, member of the Jornal Resistir editorial board; Valéria Villalba, student; Amaraji Ubiracira Pires da Conceição, teacher, Rio grande do Sul, Núcleo sindical 39; Vera Lucia Moreira Garcia, financial advisor, union of municipal employees, Pelotas (Rio Grande do Sul); Neide da Cunha Pinto, teacher, member of ATEMPA trade union; Maria Torii, school staff, member of the trade union CPERS.

Burundi

Aline Havyarimana, shopkeeper, PTD (Workers and Democracy party) member; Liliane Kayuku, bank employee, PTD member; Alice Irambona, teacher, OK trade unionist; Alice Nininahazwe, accountant employee, private sector, trade unionist.

Canada

Rachel Tremblay, Agent Customers Representative, Transportation sector, Ottawa; Christelle Buzubona, teacher, Windsor, Ontario.

China (Hong Kong)

Yuk Yuk, Worker Empowerment.

France

Camille Adoue, Student (Hauts-de-Seine) ; Lilla Ahmed, Secondary school technical staff member, trade unionist, (Seine-Saint- Denis) ; Nadia Amara, secretary of the CGT branch of CROUS Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme); Marie-Christine Aribart, CGT trade unionist Monoprix (Ille-et-Vilaine) ; Céline Augès, member of APF, France handi- cap Association, trade unionist (Hauts-de- Seine) ; Houria Bailiche, employee adviser (Seine-Saint-Denis) ; Maïa Bahloul, student (Hauts-de-Seine) ; Brigitte Baudran, mili- tant for the defence of unsupported minors (Loire-Atlantique) ; Malika Benslimane, ATSEM, [public nursery school support staff] trade unionist (Paris) ; Jacqueline Berrut, trade unionist social worker (Vendée) ; Béatrice Bique, ATSEM, trade unionist (Paris); Claire Bletterie, teacher, FO trade unionist (Bouches-du-Rhône) ; Cllr Caroline Bou- caux, mother, teacher, senior councillor Néron (Eure-et-Loir) ; Nathalie Callanquin, trade unionist social worker (Puy-de-Dôme) ; Cllr Aude Canale, Communist Party Cou- lommiers (Seine-et-Marne) ;Cllr Sandrine Chaigneau, mother, senior councilor in charge of education, Amilly (Eure-et-Loir) ; Brigit Cerveaux, retired teacher, trade unionist (Val-de-Marne) ; Cllr Victoria Chakarian-Bavage, Méry-sur-Seine (Yvelines) ; Cllr Françoise Cottin, Fontenay-Trésigny (Seine-et-Marne); Géraldine Delaye, FSU trade unionist (Bas-Rhin) ; Cllr Stéphanie Desclot, Terraube (Gers) ; Manon Dorat, stu- dent (Essonne) ; Martine Dupuy, POID [Independent Democratic Workers’ Party] (Bouches-du-Rhône) ; Lydie Fentzel, CGT trade unionist (Bouches-du-Rhône) ; Irène Galitzine, ceramist (Seine-Saint-Denis) ; Helen Grasso, teacher, trade unionist (Isère) ;Pauline Guinard, professor-researcher (Paris) ; Lucette Hohmann, general secretary CGT trades council Haguenau (Bas-Rhin) ; Sylvie Hamitouche, trade unionist (Seine- Saint-Denis); Gabrielle Houssin, Student (Seine-Saint-Denis) ; Angélique Huet, trade unionist Dreux hospital (Eure-et-Loir); Béatrice Jaffrenou, FO trade unionist, pae- di- atric assistant nurse Dreux hospital (Eure- et-Loir) ; Céline Jastrzebski, trade unionist URSSAF [social security] (Côtes-d’Armor) ; Gabrielle Joseph, teacher, FO trade union- ist (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence) ; Christel Keiser, national secretary of the POID (Seine- Saint-Denis) ; Glareh Khadjé-Nouri, CGT trade unionist at the FNAC (Paris) ; Vanessa Lanteri, teacher, trade unionist, POID (Val-de-Marne) ; Geneviève Marchal, CGT Com- mittee of the miners’ wives and widows (Moselle) Isabelle Michaud, La France In- soumise, [Unbowed France] CGT trade unionist (Yonne) ; Aurélie Morin, teacher, trade unionist mother of two children (Rhône) ; Donatille Nierat, mother (Rhône) ; Anne Per-

nice, retired teacher, POID (Bouches-du-Rhône) ; Olivia Queysselier, teacher, trade unionist (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) ; Chantal Ribail, teacher, trade unionist (Alpes-de- Haute-Provence) ; Cllr Lucie Rodriguez, Maignault Tauzia (Gers) ; Isabelle Roudil, trade unionist, social worker (Tarn-et-Garonne) ; Chantal Rublon, CGT trade unionist, hospital worker (Ille-et-Vilaine) ; Christelle Simon, ASEM,[private nursery school sup- port staff] trade unionist (Paris) ; Fatima Tacheboubet, employee adviser (Seine-Saint- Denis) ; Stéphanie Vezie, secretary of the CGT trades council Dinan and of the general hospital of Dinan (Côtes- d’Armor)

Germany

Justine Hauptmann, SPD member, ver.di trade unionist, former Works Council chair; Sidonie Kellerer, GEW trade unionist; Barbara Ludwig, SPD member, GEW trade unionist, Ober-Ramstadt DGB local Union; Heidi Schüller, IG BAU trade unionist; Anna Helena Schuster, Ver.di trade union delegate (all in their personal capacity)

Greece

Sotiria Lioni, unemployed (Nafplio); Irini Morou, teacher (Athens)

Guadeloupe

Olu-Fèmi Peter, teacher; Emma Baltus, teacher

Haiti

Isabelle L. Papillon, Haiti Liberté newspaper; Marie Laurette Numa, Haiti Liberté news- paper; Mona Péralte, Haiti newspaper; Léonia L. Volmar (Peta)

Hungary

Horváth Mihályné, teacher; Dr. Artner Annamária, economist; Morva Judit Közgazdàsz,economist; Somi Judit, labour activist

India

Sujata Mody, President, Penn Thozhilalargal Sangam (Working Women’s Union), Chennai; Palani Bharathi Gen. Secretary, Garment and Fashion Workers Union, Chen- nai; Sabina Martins, women activist, Panaji, Goa; Juliet Theresita, activist in the infor- mal sector, Tuticorin (Tamil Nadu)

Ireland

Karen Gearon, Mandate, Ex Dunnes Anti-Apartheid striker of the ‘80s; Denise Curran, Mandate NEC, Shop Steward and member of the Tesco EWC; Karen Burke, Mandate Shop Steward; Sandra Stapleton, Mandate Organiser ; Jane Crowe, Mandate ; Lisa O’Connor, Mandate ; Liz Tomlin, Mandate ; Gillian Denby, Mandate ; Lorna Langan, Mandate ; Helen O’ Keeffe, Mandate ; Sandra Byrne, Mandate ; Muireann Dalton, Mandate.

Italy

Valeria Busicchia, teacher, trade unionist; Rosanna Capello, retired; Alessandra Cigna, teacher, trade unionist; Angela Fenocchio, teacher; Monica Grilli, teacher, trade unionist; Simona Marchese, nurse; Valentina Palma, teacher; Agata Pantella, teacher; Claudia Poggio, teacher; Betty Raineri, teacher, Tribuna Libera editorial board; Teresa Silvestri, teacher; Barbara Strambaci, teacher; Elena Troglia, teacher; Giulia Venia, teacher, trade unionist; Vanna Ventre, teacher, Tribuna Libera editorial board; Maria Grazia Viotto, retired

Mexico

Liliana Plumeda, OPT member (Political Organization of the People and Workers); Ale- jandra Rivera, OPT member; Diana Arangure, “Mexicali Résiste” coalition; Vanessa Lira, lawyer (former worker, fired from the company Rockwell); Catalina Miranda, teacher, trade unionist SNTE local 37; Irma Moran, “Lower California Résistance ” Collective; Andrea Valladolid, IAYS (International Alliance of Youth for Socialism) – Mexico; María Consuelo Sánchez Lora, neighbours’ committees of the Villa del Álamo district, Tijuana ; Ana Miranda, UABC student, Tijuana; Maidaly Martínez Sosa, student and worker at Subway (fast food restaurant); Margarita Ávalos Salas, Ollin Calli; Neryda Gaspar Castillo, Ollin Calli; María Rivera, Tijuana; Julieta Morales, veterinarian school student, “Aquelarre Cachanilla” Collective; Dana Dominguez, stay-at-home mother, “Aquelarre Cachanilla” Collective; Monica Vazquez Vargas, student in International Re- lations, “Amicushgo” Collective; Miriam Edith López González, sociologist; Miroslava Callejas, journalist; Hassly Moreno Montoya, student in International Relations, Femi- nine Collective RIFUA (Red Anáhuac); Tania Espinoza, psychologist; Jocelyn Gamboa, historian; Ana María de Paz de la Cruz, trade union officer SNTE- CNTE CCL local 40; Claudia Berenice Serrano, SITAACOBACH trade unionist (Chiapas); Claudia Ibeth Aguilar Cruz, former candidate to municipal elections in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, OPT sympathizer; Mirna Cruz Díaz, OPT sympathizer, Cintalapa (Chiapas); Karla Janeth Aguilar Cruz OPT sympathizer, Cintalapa (Chiapas); María de Lourdes Sánchez Liévano, Real el Bosque, AEOS; Ana Lilia Escalante Orantes, OPT Women’s Commission, LCI- OCRFI activist (Chiapas); Laura Lidia González Cedeño, retired, SUTERM trade unionist, Democratic Front for Malpaso, Mezcalapa; María Antonieta Bertoni, “Bertha Von Glummer y Leyva” delegate; Margarita Zepeda López, trade union leader in the administration (Chiapas); Jovita Aurora Vásquez Hernández, Communist Proletarian and Popular Coordination CCPP-FREDOC; Ana Laura Ruíz Ozuna, SNTE-CNTE sec- tion 40 trade unionist (Comitán); Rosario de María León Aguilar, indigenous teacher, SNTE- CNTE section 7 trade unionist.

Morocco

Sakina Jardim, local government employee, FNOFCL-UMT trade unionist; Sanae Ahayek, student; Kaoutar Lemkadmi, social worker

Pakistan

Khalida Ashraf, Garment Worker; Saeeda Ilyas, Home based workers; Shahida Jamil, Factory Worker / Workers Union Longman; Zainab Gulistan, Factory worker/US ap- parel; Sadia Rashid, Emmi Garment; Shumaila Abdusattar, Pepsi Cola workers union; Dua Fatima, Student; Farzana Shaukat, HICO Ice cream; TayyabaAbdul Majeed, Long- man Workers Union; Nazia Mushtaq, Nisar Art Press/ Workers Union Nisar Art; Khalida Nazir, United foam Employees Union; Irshad Mushtaq, Hamdard Waqaf Employees Union; Rubina Afzal, Stalco Employees Union; Sabrina Younas, Punjab Teachers Association; Shamim Akhtar, Domestic Workers; Hameeda Shabbir, Cook; Mussarrat Ilyas, Stiching Tailore; Farzana Hameed, Domestic Workers; Ayesha Hameed, Student; Asia Hameed, Botique; Akbar Khan, National Bank Employees Union Punjab; Anwer Gujjar, Railway Workers Union; Nasim Latif, Food Seller; Abida Parveen, ShahKom Garment Factory; Khalida Parveen, Food Seller; Faizaan Latif, Eagle Mobile worker; Shamim Bibi, Worker in Jawa Pharmeutical Co; Malik Jabbar, Workers in Automobile Co Sakhi Khan, Railway Workers Union; Tasneem Waseem, Parlor Worker; Kamran Sagheer, Workers Union Nisar Art Press; Rehmat Ullah Khan, Democratic Youth Association; Dr. Ashraf Nizami, President, Pakistan Medical Association; M. Ilyas, Joint Sec APTUF; M. Parvez, Rickshaw Driver Union; Khatija Parvez, Student Democratic Youth Association; Sonia Ilyas, Student, Democratic Youth Association; Saeed Gujjar, Retired Workers as- sociation; Samina Amin, Teachers Union; Samina Fayyaz, Pink Rickshaw Union; M. Zahoor, Gulzar Welfare Society; Nisar Khan, Gulzar Welfare Society; Allah Diddat Bhatti, Gulzar Welfare; Nusrat Bibi, Domestic worker association; Shabbir Hussain Shah, Wasa Employees Union; Salah Uddin Ayubi, CWD Employees Union; Malik Hu- manyun, Local Bodies Employees Union; Zulfiqar Ali, President Power Loom Workers Union-Kasur; Mubarik Ali, RWS- Rawalpindi; G.N. Barohi, APTUF-Balochistan Seemi Gul, Parlour; M. Salim, Longman Workers Union; Khursheed Ahmed, WAPDA Hydro Electric Central Workers Union.

Philippines

Judy Ann Miranda, Secretary General, Partido Manggagawa (Workers Party – Philippines)

Poland

Beata Firoń-Bencolurska, Polish activist

Portugal

Clara Tur, coordinator of the Assemblea Nacional Catalana for Portugal

Russia

Olga Okuneva, Group of OCRFI supporters

Senegal

Alang Sene, JIF’AFRIQUE (Nguekokh); Awa M’Baye, Senegalese Revolutionary Studies Group (Dakar); Mounima Dialo, student nurse, activist against woman abuse (Kaolak)

Turkey

“Women from IKEP/Workers’ Own Party”

United States

Donna Dewitt, President Emerita, South Carolina AFL-CIO (id. only); Desiree Rojas, President, Sacramento, LCLAA (id. only); Nancy Wohlforth, Secretary-Treasurer Emerita, OPEIU (id. only); Andrea N Williams-Muhammad, Nzuri Malkia Birth Cooperative, Ujima Peoples Party (id. only); Galina Gerasimova, AFT local 2121 (id. only); Colia Lafayette Clark, Steering Committee, International Workers Committee; Millie Phillips, Labor Fightback Network (id. only); Marlena Santoyo, Philadelphia Federation of teachers (id. only); Mya Shone, Editorial Board, The Organizer Newspaper; Kathy Black, Treasurer, Philadelphia CLUW (Coalition of Labor Union Women) (for ID only); Linda Ray, Delegate to the San Francisco Labor Council from SEIU 1021 (for ID only); Connie White, LCIP-L.A. (for ID only); Lita Blanc, Past President, United Educators of San Francisco (id only); Kilaika Shakur, George Jackson University; Coral Wheeler, LCIP- L.A. (for ID only); Sheryl Bruce, Ujima Peoples Progress Party; Betty Davis, New Abolitionist Movement; Suzanne Ross, International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal (for id. only)

Zimbabwe

Mafa Kwanisai Mafa, chairman of Chimurenga Vanguard a Zimbabwe section of the OCRFI; Arasiah Phiri, Secretary of Women Affairs in the Chimurenga Vanguard; Isabel Shumba, Secretary for Gender in Zimbabwe Movement of Pan African Socialists.

---