Women’s Liberation Follow

Imagine living where the prime minister believes in creationism, the chair of your parliament's health committee believes "it is the duty of government to implement god's law" and the chair of the education committee calls for creationism to be taught alongside evolution in science classes. That place is Northern Ireland (NI).

One of the common accusations thrown at Marxism by others in the movement is that it is "economistic" - it reduces everything to the economy and class relations and therefore can't deal adequately with questions of oppression.

The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) has been reducing the amount of compensation it gives to rape victims by up to 25 percent if it judges that the woman was drunk when she was raped.

New Labour has announced that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, due to be debated and voted on in the Commons this week, will be delayed until the autumn.

After successfully beating back a parliamentary attack on abortion rights in May, activists now have a chance to improve abortion law.

Migrant workers have historically found it difficult to organise and fight. John Newsinger writes of a furious strike over conditions in New York, 1909, waged by newly organised migrant women garment workers who fought bitterly to the brink of victory, despite hired thugs and conservative union leaders

We finally have an opportunity to extend abortion rights in Britain. Amendments have been put to the government’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology bill that seek to increase access to abortion services.

Some 850 women sewing-machinsts at Ford Dagenham in east London struck against sex discrimination in their job grading on 7 June 1968.

Forty years ago this week a strike for better pay by women machinists at Ford’s Dagenham plant began. Their fight thrust women’s demands for equal pay with men to the centre stage.

Pro-choice activists won a significant victory on Tuesday last week when amendments to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology bill that sought to lower the legal time limit for abortion were defeated.

Three senior cabinet ministers – Ruth Kelly, Des Browne and Paul Murphy – voted to cut the time limit for legal abortions to just 12 weeks, the lowest limit stipulated in any amendment tabled last week. All three are sponsored by trade unions that are affiliated to the Abortion Rights campaign.

Attempts to limit women’s access to abortion were defeated on Tuesday evening. Anti-abortionists had tried to hijack the government’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology bill by putting various amendments that would restrict a woman’s right to choose – including cutting the current 24-week time limit to between 12 and 22 weeks and forcing pregnant women to undergo compulsory counselling.