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The following interview is with MARIA DUGGAN, activist in the women's liberation movement, an executive member of South Bank Polytechnic Students Union and the co-ordinator for the Tribunal For Women's Abortion Rights to be held on 29 January at Central Hall, Westminster.
Why has the National Abortion Campaign initiated the Tribunal, and what is it about?
If we look at the developments in the abortion campaign over the last year I think we become aware of certain extremely important developments — both for the campaign on the abortion issue and for the many areas of attacks on women generally. To illustrate this point, one only has to think about the large numbers of women that have been made redundant, or the attempted closure of the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital. These attacks on the EGA are especially important since this is a state service provided specifically for women. We are beginning to see, that in a generalised crisis situation, women are actually affected by a very specific attack. Therefore the attacks on abortion provision are simply a link in the whole chain.
The Tribunal arose directly out of the re-convening of the Select Committee. We have to understand the enormity of the act of reconvening this body. It is an anomaly in Parliamentary terms to re-establish a Select Committee to consider a Bill that has already fallen. The terms of reference of the Select Committee were those of the James White Bill, and to re-convene it is just one aspect of a specific ideological attack on women's rights and issues which concern women. So, when NAC and other pro-abortion organisations boycotted the Committee, we became aware that there was a need for an alternative forum in which to present our particular types of evidence - the sort of evidence that would illustrate particularly the way in which the attack has been concentrated on abortion rights. At the same time, within that, we hoped we could build up a picture which would inform us more generally of the way in which women have been coming under attack in the past year.
In motivating the Tribunal we have to say first of all that it is going to be a mass event. It's going to be an open event, based on the evidence that has been campaigned for in the localities by women and women trade unionists, and other representatives of the labour movement. The open nature of the Tribunal is extremely important _ this is our answer to the biased, closed, secretive Select Committee. We are approaching it almost from the point of view of a working class enquiry.
This will be our day of evidence, when For the rich - the option of the private abortion clinic is always available! we will state our case for our right to choose.
If the Tribunal is to be seen as an alternative forum to the Select Committee, as you suggest, how is this the case in terms of its structure for example, what difference does it make that it is organised primarily by First of all, I would like to agree that it is an event that will be organised by women especially, around their own issues and it will be based on evidence from the grass roots of the women's
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movement and of the labour movement. Therefore it will have an immediate impact that goes well beyond the walls of Central Hall. The sort of evidence we are going to base it on will be the ongoing experience of many throughout their lives generally. It will include areas outside the big cities, such as London, where often the issues don't appear as polarised as they do in the provinces.
Further, the fact that it is an open event, and the philosophy on which it was founded, indicate again the contrast between the Tribunal and the Select Committee. We are saying. 'We have enough faith in our evidence, and the way we can mobilise to present our case to reach an informed verdict about why abortion is a woman's right to choose.* How exactly is the Tribunal being organised?
It is being organised with the support of the women's movement, the National Abortion Campaign, and the various interested bodies among the labour movement who are sufficiently aware of the importance of the demand, sufficiently aware of the ramifications of liberal access to abortion for women in this country, and internationally, for their own self-determination and their liberation.
The Tribunal is being organised by a Mobilising Committee, which is an open committee, meeting in London every Tuesday evening at the London School of Economics, Houghton Street. Il is open to all people, although we try to encourage organisations to send women as responsible representatives.
There have been criticisms from the women's movement about the abortion Leaving aside the allegation that the campaign is run by men, how do you feel about the criticisms that NAC is a non-feminist organisation and that it concentrates on a single issue?
As a representative of the National Abortion Campaign I would like to say that we are extremely sensitive to these criticisms - and I think I speak on behalf of the whole campaign in saying that. But my approach is different. I don't counterpose NAC women's movement — I see it as being part of the women's movement, working around one of its specific demands. Also, I think that those who say that the abortion campaign is not feminist have to clarify what they mean by "feminist', and what they mean by "feminist practice'. I feel that the best thing which would enable us to take up their criticism seriously, and help to evolve a practice more n accordance with what these critics would agree with is for them to come and join us and raise their criticisms within NAC itself - both at the national level and With regard to the criticism of concentrating on a single issue campaign — well, yes, we do. To win this particular campaign for the right of a woman to have free access to abortion is of the utmost importance for women in this country. But within that fight I think that NAC has never ever failed to draw the links and to say why it is so important for women's liberation. I think that through concentrating on abortion, we have been able to lay the basis for raising consciousness about all areas of sexuality and about a wide range of other related issues. In that sense, 1 think that this criticism is It could be said that NAC has responded in the past purely in the direction of Parliament, rather than concentrating on self-help and the self-organisation of women. Do you think that this latter aspect would help been seen as an alternative to the Select Committee signify a move in the direction of the campaign?
Firstly, it is not possible to ignore the parliamentary situation. However, I would say that we are not going to put all our faith in Parliament to win reforms for us. This is why the Tribunal is a correct initiatve, because we are saying that we are not going to put all our faith in a Select Committee, but we are going to provide our own forum for our evidence. We are going to draw in women from all over the country who are working on and campaigning around evidence _ about women's lives and experiences. I think that this is important to reiterate this because in organising the Tribunal we are giving the lie to people who say that we are directing our energies towards Parliament, not towards considering the experience of women themselves. This is an alternative forum, with women in the forefront of its organisation, and we must never lose sight of the aim of the Tribunal, which is for a woman's right to choose.
On the more direct question of self-help I think that we have to realise that NAC is a political campaign, attempting to force the state into providing women with the sort of abortion facilities that they need. So for those who raise the plea that NAC should concern itself with self-help, we would reply that they could be accused of trying to patch up the situation, instead of directing our forces against the state, in order to get those facilities for all women.
However, I don't think that there really is that kind of crude counterposition, because I feel that the evidence we will gather from the Tribunal will inform us about how women are attempting to struggle round the issue themselves - and to develop the sort of practice which will enable them to carry out self-help, if need be. But 1 think that the main point of not losing sight of NAC as being a political campaign, attempting to force the state into providing free abortion on demand on the basis of a woman's right to choose.
What can women in the women's liberation movement do for the Tribunal?
Firstly, I think that women in the movement must support the Tribunal. As an initiative, it is incredibly important as it is concerned with a demand that has come under concentrated attack for the last two years, and indeed is coming under attack again because of the Private Member's Bill which is being introduced by William Benyon. I would like to see the women's movement involving themselves in the Mobilising Committee, and more importantly to take the lessons of the Tribunal back into the localities to ensure that the women's movement is able to put forward a coherent, very direct feminist presence in the campaign during the following months. The pro-abortion fight will not end with the Tribunal.
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to women giving birth to deformed babies, inexorable witness to the