by Marcus Otono
The US state of Alabama recently made news and possibly history, by enacting the harshest abortion law in the US in this year of harsh abortion laws. Following on the heels of laws to restrict abortion, enacted or introduced in 28 states since January of this year, the Alabama law makes abortion in the state into a Class A felony, equivalent to murder, rape, and armed robbery. The Alabama statute not only makes abortion a crime punishable by imprisonment for up to 99 years for providers, but it allows no exceptions for victims of rape or incest. With this law, it’s probable that a brutal rape that results in pregnancy, will receive a lighter punishment than the doctor who terminates the pregnancy.
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International Secretariat of the League for the Fifth International
March 8, International Women’s Day, will see millions of women worldwide rally in demonstrations and mass meetings. In a number of countries, they will respond to the call for a global women’s strike, as they did in recent years. In Spain, an unprecedented six million took up the appeal issued by women’s organisations and feminists, joined by rank and file trade unionists, who successfully initiated strike action and were able to pressurise their leaderships into giving it tacit support.
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At a time of increasing political instability and tension that has produced Donald Trump, it’s reassuring to see one old tradition reasserting itself against a global lurch to the right. With the call for strike action on International Women’s Day another major festival is returning to its working class and socialist roots in textile and garment workers’ strikes at the turn of the 20th century.
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