PARTISAN!

Sylvia Ruhl critiques the politics of the recent rallies in Brisbane to defend abortion access, and stakes out a way forward for the women’s movement.

On the day following the election of David Crisafulli’s LNP, the National Union of Students (NUS) Queer Office called a rally in the Brisbane CBD to defend abortion access for the following Friday, the first of November. The NUS Queer Office is currently held by Socialist Alternative (SA), and effectively acts as a proxy for SA to call protests. I attended this first post-election protest along with comrade Edith, and several RCO sympathisers. About 400 or so fellow travellers attended, and whilst small, the protest was lively and energetic. Many visibly queer and trans comrades were present, along with members of SA, Labor Left, and a surprisingly small Greens presence (perhaps still shaken by their underperformance at the previous week’s election). The remainder were made up firstly by generally apolitical women, and secondly by the final cohort that we refer to as “the boyfriends”.

The politics of this first protest were tepid to say the least. Speakers from SA put forward a reformist politics that essentially tailed the ALP; they did not attempt to wrangle the economic causes behind the push to restrict abortion access, rather blaming an amorphous coalition of “bigots”. The speeches by both SA and the Labor Left member simply appeared to call for more protests to defend against any potential attacks on reproductive access, hardly a way forward that can not simply be ignored by a government with the bulk of its petit-bourgeois support base located in the regional and rural towns. A CFMEU delegate spoke of the need to defend queer rights and abortion access, and the role that CFMEU organisers have played in opposing the worst excesses of sexism in the workplace. Disappointingly, no mention was made by any of the speakers to the previous Labor government’s failure to provide equitable access to abortion. Despite the progressive reforms of the last government, abortion in Queensland remains costly, and often impossible to reach for women in regional and rural areas.

Worst still, no mention was made of the ability of the religious concerns of certain doctors to allow them to not give a referral for an abortion. If you are hundreds of kilometres from the nearest abortion clinic, and the one doctor in town is a Catholic conservative opposed to abortion, you are out of luck; you will be made to care for a child against your will. This situation is allowed because the Labor government did not enforce their own laws that required doctors to provide a duty of care. Though of these speeches, perhaps the only one that could reasonably be called objectionable, and even appalling at that, was one by a professional who thanked the Australian Medical Association! The very same labour cartel that is the main obstacle to free healthcare in this country! The doctors that make up the AMA support abortion being legal, not because they support women’s liberation, but only because it is a way for them to fleece women of thousands of dollars who lack any other options (so much for being ‘pro-choice’!). They do not support the necessary step to women’s reproductive autonomy, which is not just legal abortion in a legalistic, bourgeois sense, but abortion that is totally free and universally accessible; because if it is not free, then for many working-class women, it might as well not exist.

The second protest called by NUS for the following Friday had markedly better politics. SA speakers openly demanded for free, and accessible abortion, and several speakers had made mention of workers’ struggle, including the use of strikes to achieve political demands. Whilst the church was mentioned this time along with the LNP as being behind the push, the complicity of the ALP and AMA in inhibiting universal abortion access remained unmentioned. Fortunately, however, this time none of the speakers promoted either of these bodies. The protest itself carried over the high energy from the previous week, whilst slightly growing in size. Roughly 500 people attended, and the crowd was notably younger, and more queer than the previous week. We had no issues handing out several dozen copies of Partisan, and over a hundred flyers for our CWF information meeting the following day.

The movement to defend and expand abortion access already has momentum before the new Parliament has begun sitting. NUS have since called for a demonstration outside Parliament on the the 28th of November, the first sitting date since the election (as of the time of publication, this date has yet to pass). This indicates some sort of strategy behind the movement, as opposed to seemingly calling for protests at random. This is a positive development and combined with the more radical posturing by SA organisers at the second protest, has to some extent allayed fears held by RCO comrades that SA will fall into Labor tailism.

As there is no longer a Communist Party, it is a given that the ALP will recuperate this current struggle in its entirety. The question we then ask is, what direction will the left-wing of the movement go? There have already been discussions and moves towards establishing a united front for women’s liberation, not just within the RCO but with other sects in Brisbane. In the absence of a Party, a United Front is the best way forward, as this will create a small (roughly 20-30) Brisbane-based group of comrades from the sects who can coordinate the movement of all member groups in this struggle. A successful Front will help with building the class consciousness of the advanced layers of the proletariat and bringing them into the struggle. Through both its work between the sects, and the creation of radical women’s publications that serve as a running commentary on the struggle (such as Bread & Roses), they will also act as a ground of critique and political refinement for the whole of the communist movement. All of the above are invaluable steps towards rebuilding the Communist Party. This is necessary if we are serious about eventually wresting control of the women’s struggle from the Laborite careerists, that is not to even speak of taking state power. If either of these are to happen, communists need to move past their deep-rooted sectarianism, and begin the work in building the Communist Women’s Front as the next step towards re-building the Party.