Anti-abortion nutjobs SPUC are holding their “International Youth Pro-Life Conference” this 19-21 March in Clydebank.

We’ve fought the racists and fascists on the streets of Glasgow and Edinburgh -- now it’s time to fight the woman-haters.

SPUC not only want to stop women getting abortions -- they’re also against condoms, the pill, and sex education. WTF?!

A woman’s right to control her body is a fundamental human right. Women should have total control over their reproductive system, being able to make free and informed decisions about how they live. Every undermining of a woman’s right to choose whether, when and how to have children is an attack on all women.

Every day, 200 women die because they couldn’t access a legal abortion.

After the general election in May there’s the very real prospect that abortion rights will come under heavy attack. Tory MPs want to make it more and more difficult for women to access abortion. If enough of them are elected there could be a majority in the Westminster parliament for gradually taking women’s rights to control their own bodies away piece by piece. That means we need to get organised now, and start undermining the ability of anti-abortionists to meet and organise against women. Just as we do with racists, we also need to do with misogynists.

Women’s abortion rights need to be defended.

FUCK SPUC!

Protest! Saturday 20 March, outside Beardmore Hotel, Clydebank. 8.30am.

At some point in the next couple of months there’s going to be a General Election.

It’s looking frighteningly possible that we’ll be under the rule of Dave “I’m just an ordinary bloke” Cameron and his gang of merry buffoons.

Scared yet?

You should be.

Leftfield presents the Top 10 Tory Terrors…

1. They want to strip back women’s abortion rights, piece by piece, until we’re left with no choice and nowhere to go.

2. They want to force people on Jobseeker’s Allowance for more than 12 months to do community service. That is, effectively creating a slave workforce of the unemployed.

3. They want to cut benefits to single mothers in order to ‘encourage marriage’ – or just punish women stupid enough to get pregnant to men who’ll leave them with the wean.

4. The Conservatives plan to repeal the fox hunting ban, making it perfectly acceptable to rip an animal to shreds just for a laugh.

5. Their determination to stop immigration has caused them to come up with some crazy ideas – not only are they going to set up a Border Police Force, but they’re going to force any woman entering the country with a man other than her father or husband to a private interrogation. WTF?!?

The Tories on a YBF school trip.

6. They plan to allow anyone to open up a school, in the ridiculous belief that exposing schools to the capitalist free market and competition will improve standards, in a move criticised by the Association of School and College Leaders.

7. Tory candidates and activists are trained by the terrifying Young Britons’ Foundation, who want to scrap the NHS and shoot environmentalists. The YBF took the young Tories to meet scary American right-wingers and shoot machine guns. Sounds like one of those terrorist training grounds they’re so worried about…

8. The Tories have promised to bring us a new age of austerity, slashing public spending, freezing pay for public sector workers and putting thousands of people out of work.

9. They want to completely privatise the Royal Mail, and have already been in talks with some private vultures bidders who are up for buying it. This will lead to a crappy service, posties out of work, and those kept getting shite pay and conditions.

10. In return for the support of the right wing papers he owns, the Tories have basically offered to let Rupert Murdoch and family write their media policy. This means major cuts to the BBC, weakening of regulation of his media empire, and generally much less good telly and media, as Rupert expands his stranglehold with government support.

Young David and chums in their uni days. Cameron is second from the left in the back row, Boris Johnson is sitting on the right

Jacob Zuma, the President of South Africa, has been in the UK meeting the Queen and causing a stir.

The Daily Mail has whipped itself into a frenzy, calling Zuma a “vile buffoon” and a “sex-obsessed bigot”, as well as repeatedly calling him “Zulu Boy”.

The Telegraph is appalled that he has been invited after  describing the British as “condescending imperialists” and think Her Maj ought to teach him some manners.

The BBC is obsessed with his multiple marriages.

The Guardian’s front page pictured the Queen next to Zuma’s wife Thobeka Stacey Madiba, as if to contrast liberated white womanhood against Mrs Zuma as chattel.

Let’s get some things straight. Jacob Zuma isn’t a very nice man. He’s a corrupt, homophobic, misogynist, rapist.

But most Heads of State and people of power are pretty distasteful, if you look in to it.  The Queen has hosted Mugabe and Ceauşescu, for goodness sake, as well as being big buddies with George W Bush.

So how come the media aren’t reporting on Zuma’s corruption, or his politics, or what he’s done in his role as President? How come they’re not using his actions to talk about issues of rape, women’s rights, gay rights, and equality in South Africa and the rest of the world today?

All we’ve learnt from the media coverage of Zuma’s visit is that we can all point and laugh at the crazy brown man, mock him and his culture and call him ‘Zulu Boy’ and get away with it. It all stinks of racism and white supremacy.

If the British media wants to criticize Zuma, maybe they could have reported on the South African feminists fighting for equality under Zuma’s regime, such as Pumla Gqola, whose wonderful myth-busting article on polygamy cuts right to the chase:

The point of the matter is not whether in a feminist republic we’d force Zuma to choose one wife or banish him… We’d probably banish Zuma for many more reasons, least of which his preference for multiple partners.

How come the white ruling class only give a shit about women’s rights when they’re trying to justify their own racism?

On 8 March, International Women’s Day comes around once more.

As the Scottish Socialist Voice explained in a previous IWD special (scroll down to centre pages):

For over 150 years, women and men across the world have demonstrated on International Women’s Day. On that day in 1857 in New York, hundreds of women workers in the textile industry went on strike, protesting casual labour, low wages and poor working conditions. The women were attacked and beaten by the police – their stand was one of the reasons 8 March was officially recognised as International Women’s Day in 1910. So why do we still mark the day now in the 21st century?

The multinational bank HSBC is a major sponsor of the ‘official’, or at least biggest, International Women’s Day celebrations in Britain now. Their website explains:
“Many companies have actively supported International Women’s Day… This is essential if they are to recruit and retain the best female talent, sell their products/services to them, and see more women investing in them.”
But for others, including the Scottish Socialist Women’s Network, the reasons we march on International Women’s Day are the same as why the New York textile workers marched – because we are still fighting low pay, exploitation and oppression.

Photo by Eva Merz

Socialists in Scotland will be marking the occasion with our annual International Women’s Day protest outside HMP Cornton Vale.

Cornton Vale is the only women’s prison in Scotland, and it is notoriously overcrowded – despite the fact that most of the inmates shouldn’t be there in the first place. Just one per cent of women in Cornton Vale are there because they have committed a violent offence. Previous reports have found that 90 per cent of women imprisoned in Scotland have committed crimes related to poverty  – through drug and alcohol abuse, non-payment of fines, or just struggling to cope with living below the breadline.

In 2006, it was found that 98% of the inmates were struggling with addiction; 80% had mental health problems and 75% were survivors of abuse.

Former Scottish Socialist Party MSP Rosie Kane was held in Cornton Vale in 2006 for non-payment of a fine. One of her fellow inmates was there for nothing more than throwing some candles and a James Blunt CD out of a window during an argument. You can read about Rosie’s experience in Cornton Vale here.

It costs £37,000 a year to keep one woman in Cornton Vale – that’s money that could be investing in helping women with drink and drug problems, helping poverty stricken women from having to turn to prostitution or theft to feed themselves, their families or their habits. That is money that could help women rebuilt their lives after abuse and trauma. Instead women are being locked up and mistreated over and over again.

Socialists and feminists protesting outside womens’ prisons is often misunderstood or deliberately misconstrued. We DON’T think women are inherently good and gentle and should therefore don’t belong in jail. The fact is that women receive disproportionately high sentences when compared to men who have committed similar crimes. As previously reported in Leftfield, shoplifters (mainly women) are more likely to be imprisoned than sex offenders (mainly men). Women taking a tiny bit of profit-making opportunity from private companies are considered more dangerous criminals than men who pose a serious risk to the safety of women and children. That’s FUCKED UP.

Stop the war on women!

Join us this Sunday, 7 March at 12 noon at Stirling Train Station, to march on Cornton Vale and PROTEST.

Please bring ribbons and flowers to decorate the fence.

If you are a driver, your help ferrying protesters from the train station to the prison would be much appreciated.

Just a quick update to the issue we previously reported about the abuse of women detainees in Yarl’s Wood immigration detention centre.

Meg Hillier, liar and knobhead

The women have now been on hunger strike for three weeks,

demanding their freedom and better conditions in Yarl’s Wood. However, Meg Hillier, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for ‘Identity’ apparently, has written to MP’s with a bunch of straight up lies about the situation in the centre. Never mind, I’m sure she knows what she’s talking about,

the government people working on Identity clearly aren’t clueless.

She writes that women aren’t really on hunger strike, and they are getting food brought in by visitors. In fact this is banned by the guards. 34 women have written from the centre to deny Hillier’s claims. She also argues that the way immigration cases are examined is fair, that women didn’t face serious health consequences as a result of recent events, and that no racist abuse took place. This is all contradicted by the women who are actually there.

Here’s the letter that they’ve written to let people know they’re still on hunger strike:

“We the undersigned have been on hunger strike since the 5/02/10 to date.. At no particular point in time have we gone to eat in the dining room, got food from the vending machines or at the shop. We would also like to point out that Yarl’s Wood has a no food, no drink policy, this has always been the case therefore saying that “visitors bring us food” is untrue.“

Scandalously, Hillier also claims that those on the outside campaigning to help the women are spreading lies that “cause unnecessary distress” to the women in Yarl’s Wood. In fact everyone helping to publicise what goes on in this private prison, run by a textbook creepy company, SERCO, are helping the detainees in their own small way. Publicity and public pressure on the government helps keep these women safe from further abuse. The Black Women’s Rape Action Project are in daily contact with them, and they ask for all of us to tell the world what’s going on to try and prevent the situation getting any worse.

They’ve also asked for supporters to email the government demanding freedom for detainees and an investigation into conditions in Yarl’s Wood. You can email:

· Phil Woolas MP, the Minister of State for Borders and Immigration woolasp@parliament.uk or http://www.philwoolasmp.org/emailPhil.html

· Alan Johnson MP, Home Secretary johnsona@parliament.uk or public.enquiries@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

· Meg Hillier MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State Home Office meghilliermp@parliament.uk or apc.secretariat@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

You can also find your local MP and email them via WriteToThem.com. I’m not generally a fan of writing to MP’s, you could do it all day on different important issues and it’s often quite a passive way of protesting. But in this case I think it might actually do some good to make the government feel under pressure, so why not take five minutes to support women in Yarl’s Wood.

You can ask your MP to support Early Day Motion 919, put in the Westminster Parliament by Lefty Labour MP John McDonnell. It says:

“HM Inspector of Prisons urgently carries out an independent investigation into reports of violence, mistreatment and racist abuse from guards, being kettled for over five hours in a hallway, denied access to toilets and water and locked out in the freezing cold, which women have made, and a moratorium on all removals and deportations of the women who took part in the hunger strike pending the results of that investigation”.

In a grim sign of what’s to come in Austerity Britain 2010, Glasgow City Council have pulled out of funding one of the most important services available in Scotland for women and children who have suffered abuse or are vulnerable.

The Women’s Support Project is a voluntary organisation that, since 1983, has provided support for thousands of women, in particular those whose children have been abused. It also does all kinds of crucial research into violence against women, prostitution, pornography and protecting children. If you’ve heard any kind of reliable information on these issues in Scotland in recent years it’s likely they were involved. The project works to provide training and information to organisations and individuals that will help build up services for women.

But now, as local government funding is slashed everywhere to pay for the various bouts of government insanity we’ve seen in recent years (wars in Iraq, giving rich people loads of money, duck houses etc.), Glasgow City Council has decided to withdraw 100% of its funding for the project.

Workers at the project are determined not to close, and to continue providing vital services. They’ve launched an urgent appeal to raise £10, 000 so they can keep afloat over the next year while they look for alternative funding. Their aim is to get 5000 people to pledge £20, so if there’s any chance you can spare it, then head here to donate.

Of course there’s also things you can do if you haven’t got anything to spare, the main one being asking Glasgow City Council wtf they think they’re all about. The Save the Women’s Support Project Facebook page has got more on this, but you can find out who your local councillor is here. Or you can go straight to the top and email Councillor Archie Graham, Executive Member for Social Care, at archie.graham@councillors.glasgow.gov.uk

While you’re at it, you can also email Deputy Executive Member for Social Care and Equalities Councillor Ruth Black, at ruth.black@councillors.glasgow.gov.uk. Politics nerds everywhere will of course remember that Councillor Black was originally elected for Solidarity, but defected to Labour in order to “assist with the equalities agenda.” Let her know she’s got a great chance to make good on that commitment by fighting the Labour council’s decision!

While it’s a bit far away for any SSY members who aren’t living in exile down south to make, there’s an important protest in London tomorrow against the brutal treatment of women detained in Yarl’s Wood Imigration Removal Centre.

Since February 5th over 50 women in the centre had been on hunger strike in protest against their detention and conditions. On Tuesday guards went in to break the protest up violently. Many were “kettled”, that is trapped by guards, in a small airless corridor for 8 hours with no access to food, water or toilet facilities. Others were trapped outside in snow for hours without warm clothes or shoes. Emergency services were denied access to the centre, and the women have been unable to access medical treatment.

But most shocking have been the reports of abuse by the guards. There has been widespread verbal racial abuse, as well as brutal physical assaults that left one woman unable to stand and another with a finger nearly severed.

Cristel Amiss, of Black Women’s Rape Action Project, told The Guardian: “Over 70% of women in Yarl’s Wood are rape survivors, many are sick and vulnerable. Why are they being punished for raising serious injustices?”

Yarl’s Wood, which is just outside Clapham in Bedfordshire, is a privately run facility controlled by a genuine British 21st Century evil megacorporation, Serco Group. As well as running detention centres and private prisons, they operate electronic tagging services, airports on behalf of the occupation in Iraq, provide fleet support to the navy and run an unprecedented private contract for the maintenance of the UK’s Anti Ballistic Missile System at RAF Fylingdales. They’ve been called the biggest company you’ve never heard of, because behind the scenes they are slowly taking over a whole raft of things the state used to do.

Yarl’s Wood holds 405 women and children in detention, usually awaiting deportation back to countries which they have fled for their lives. Since it opened in 2001 it has been a site of constant protests and hunger strikes. Between 2002 and 2003 it was closed for over a year following a fire.

Today (Thursday 11th) activists in support of the women are taking part in a running protest at their treatment, culminating in a previously planned mass demo tomorrow outside Serco’s offices in London, which are at:

18-22 Hand Court (off High Holborn), London, WC1V 6JF.

If you fancy going mental and murdering your wife or girlfriend this weekend if shes been sleeping with someone else, but are scared you might face some significant jail time, breathe a sigh of relief as the Lords have sunk a bill that would have stopped men who kill their spouses getting away with a manslaughter charge if they were cheating on them.

There’s a lot of stuff Harman has come out with thats total nonsense – saying Lehman Brothers wouldn’t have crashed if it were Lehman Sisters, and that she’s much more concerned about getting women to the boards of directorships as opposed to getting women fair pay in hundreds of Labour-run councils where they have been ripped off.

But most of the attacks on her have been because she is a woman who occasionally tried to bring in some progressive measures for women, like the law above that was torpedoed, or trying to improve rape convictions. And most of the attacks have been part of a misogynist campaign against her.

This torpedoing of a law which would have stopped murderers escaping with manslaughter shows that the Conservative right are hypocrites when it comes to attacking stuff like the Human Rights Act for defending the criminal over the victim. They are quite prepared to make excuses for crimes men commit, whether its murder – “she cheated”, down to rape – “she was drunk”.

It also exposes the Lords for what they are, a group of the unelected old boys club totally unaccountable to anyone.

Hopefully in 2011 the SSP can return some feminist MSP’s to Holyrood to make the case for an independent Socialist Republic where an unelected medieval anachronism like the Lords can’t continue to excuse violence against women.

The Venezuelan government has attempted to ban Family Guy because they think it promotes Marijuana use. Cable TV stations which don’t stop airing the show will be given hefty fines.

Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami said the programme should be pulled from the airwaves after being outraged by a recent episode in which the show’s characters started a campaign to legalise the drug. You can see the episode in question here.

Venezuela’s radical government has a lot of support amongst socialists, but there’s a lot of controversy about TV.  Cable television stations are used as a front to undermine the government and their radical policies, leading to attempts to ban the cable TV companies altogether and set up state-owned TV. It’s a question of priorities – should people or companies with offensive views still have a right to freedom of speech?

(In November last year, a revolutionary Venezuelan band called La Redonda visited Scotland and were keen to meet other young socialists – several SSY members met up with the band to discuss various issues, and the whole meeting was filmed on shown on Avila TV, Venezuela’s radical stated owned TV station.)

Anyway, I’m sure you all know that Leftfield is definitely in favour of freeing the weed and supports Family Guy in the struggle.

If Family Guy should be banned for anything, it should be for its treatment of domestic violence and rape – they make so many ‘jokes’ about violence against women that they’re practically promoting it.

Knobheads Korner is back! After spending the summer holidays sitting about watching cartoons and eating instant noodles, it’s time to get back to work, pointing out knobheads and putting them in korners.

So who’s in the korner today?

No, not Jordan.

Just every other fucker who’s been using her as a punchbag over the past few months.
Katie Price has gone from being the nation’s sweetheart and Celebrity Mum of the Year to being attacked and spat at in the streets; branded ‘vile’ and ‘disgusting’ by most newspapers and magazines; accused of not caring for her children; and of the few people that believe her when she talks about having miscarried, been abused as a child and raped multiple times as an adult – most of them treat her like it’s her own fault.

And what did Katie do to deserve this barrage of hatred? She got dumped by her husband. And instead of becoming celibate, she got back on her feet and started meeting new people. What a scandal!

No woman deserves to be blamed or disbelieved when talking about rape. The fact is that 1 in 4 women have experienced rape or attempted rape. No woman is immune to this fact – it doesn’t matter if you’re young or old, ugly or beautiful, virgin or not.

Katie Price’s former career as a glamour model and her reputation as a ‘promiscuous’ woman are absolutely irrelevant when it comes to discussion of her rape. Current or former glamour models (or indeed sex workers of any kind) can be raped in just the same way as any other woman. Agreeing to be photographed naked or to have sex with someone in exchange for financial or any other benefit does NOT mean that you have now automatically consented to all and any sexual activity in the future.

Most of us know how devastating it is to be dumped – I think Katie Price has been amazingly brave just being able to get on with life in the public eye after a blow like that, let alone being able to be strong in the face of people disbelieving or blaming her for having been raped.

It’s an awful fact, but the majority of rape survivors (if they even do report it – it’s estimated that 75-95% of rapes are never disclosed) do have to face being disbelieved or blamed for their ordeal. In Scotland, a 17 year old girl committed suicide after the humiliation of her interrogation at the trial of her rapist.

Katie Price deserves our support at the moment, and all the journalists, editors and people on buses, school canteens, student unions and staff rooms across the country who’ve been vilifying her belong in KNOBHEADS KORNER.