The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 1st July 2022
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 1st July 2022
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
THE SUPREME COURT giveth and the Supreme Court taketh away. In 1973 the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled in the case of Roe v Wade that the Constitution of the United States generally protects a pregnant woman’s liberty to choose to have an abortion. Last month the same court completely reversed this decision, saying that the same 18th Century document said nothing of the kind and that “States’ Rights” in the USA is generally a reactionary slogan to justify discriminatory laws and the gerrymandering of congressional constituencies. The latest ruling has effectively seen the end of access to abortion in conservative southern and mid-western states.
As is all too often in the case in US politics, the judges of the Supreme Court decide major issues of policy with reference to the Constitution, a document which amongst other things endorsed the institution of slavery. The nine justices have largely been appointed by successive Republican presidents, whilst those appointed in more liberal times have died off.
This happens in Britain as well as when the defeated and well-funded Remainers turned to our more recently created Supreme Court to sabotage and reverse the Brexit referendum result.
President Joe Biden, himself a Catholic, denounced the ruling as “Un-American”. ‘Left’ Democrats such as Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez of New York think the matter can be resolved by the simple act of voting for her party in the November mid-term elections. Maverick Senator Bernie Saunders has called for national legislation to over-rule the recent ruling and embed the original 1973 one in federal law.
This is not going to happen, the Democratic Party, whilst it can mobilise liberal opinion many of its own supporters will pay no heed. The party, which purports to be the party of downtrodden immigrants and, more recently, African Americans, in reality regards them as nothing more than useful voting fodder.
While African Americans might be radical in industrial, peace and civil rights battles, abortion is often a different matter. America is a very, very ‘Godly’ country, and it is not just the proverbial ‘White Christian Nationalists’ who disapprove of abortion.
Growing numbers of African Americans have taken up Pentecostalism, which is a form of fundamentalism with dancing. The growing Hispanic population, being Catholic of sorts, are also not natural supporters of reproductive rights. One of the reasons for Hilary Clinton’s failure in her 2016 tilt at the Presidency was that she alienated a small but significant part of her natural constituencies.
Widespread protests took place across the USA, both in states where the measure was immediately implemented and in liberal states unaffected, at least for the present, when the leaked ruling was made official.
On the communist front the Communist Party of the USA (CPUSA) endorses a range of action ranging from phone calls to elected officials to civil disobedience. Its anti-revisionist offshoot, the Party of Communists of the USA, has pointed out the necessity of greatly improving health care including the provision of easy access to free and quality birth control in order to prevent unwanted pregnancies.
And Workers World is calling for a strong, unified, independent fighting movement with all oppressed peoples, workers, those of all genders and all progressive forces to lead the fight-back.
While defending the vital importance of access to abortion the struggle for women’s rights does not begin and end with the right to an abortion. Far too many feminists only focus on increasing the number of women in the boardroom.
Struggles for trade union rights in factories which moved from the north to take advantage of lower wages in the south, are important not just to the workers involved but also for their wider communities, both female and male.