so I'm going to introduce the speakers in turn um and first is breed Smith um TD or the equivalent MP um for people before profit um for Dublin South Central so over to you Reed you want me to hold [Applause] [Applause] as we say in Dublin when we're embarrassed we just stop the lights we had to put up with there we had to put up with a lot of this uh Huggy feely congratulatory stuff on the day in Dublin Castle when the result of the referendum was announced and it got so bad I had to hug the minister for health so what was I going to say how was I going to say get off me you know there were everybody was huging everybody and everybody was delighted but I can tell you to wake up in a country that is utterly and fundamentally changed forever is a great feeling and I hope we all live to experience it it is absolutely wonderful to you know go to bed late at night realize the exit poles are really favoring us and to wake up the next morning and know that this is it we beat the bastards they never stick their head up again in the same way and that we did it people did it it wasn't an acted Parliament it wasn't uh two great guys called Le over ader or uh Simon Harris who went on a journey hello you know they had a journey only a year a year and a half ago I have quotes here from them both I won't waste the time quoting them but they both explicitly said that they had difficulty with the question of abortion that they believed that the fetus had a right to life over and above the woman and therefore they were not pro-choice now a year and a half later they've gone on a journey as did many politicians but by Jesus it was nothing like the journey that 170,000 women had to do for the T 4 years [Music] previous and actually it was that journey of 174,000 women plus that uh that when when when those things were spoken about when people felt the courage and the confidence and the need to talk about what happened to them and their particular situation why they made that choice and how it affected them Etc I believe it was that uh fundamental question question and the idea that it must be a woman's right to make the choice to make the decision not an ethical Catholic moral uh decision o of the individuals who are about to vote but the woman who faces The Crisis Pregnancy has to make that decision and once that message came across loud and clear we swung the vote by a huge majority of uh of two3 and it was it was some achievement and it and it still tastes lovely and you still keep meeting people are smiling oh yeah and hugging each other in fact the day of the vote and the day before everywhere you went in Dublin anyway because I was I was in Dublin for the days leading up to it although all of us and people before profit everywhere in Ireland and I'll go into the details of that in a minute played a huge role in the campaign but everywhere in Dublin people were bearing their repeal t-shirts or their yes badges or whatever it was and walking up to each other like as if you know they were wild dogs that had just recognized each other in the wilderness ah look at you and the taals were wagging and all the rest of it on the Lewis line on the buses people were really excited and you really felt it in the last few days that this is going to be something because the the the cat was out of the bag everybody was out proud and shouting mommies Granny's uh grandads uncles everybody was convinced that this was about their daughters and their future and their grandchildren and their future and Ireland has indeed fundamentally changed now I just want to say a little bit about the campaign because I'm sure some of you here would like to know what it was like and Judith said to me I hadn't actually thought about it in this way although I'm sure thousands of women and men who knocked on doors in Ireland had thought about it but when you've been an activist all your adult life for abortion rights and you go knocking on doors and saying to people we're here to talk to you about the right to choose and we'd like to to to see have you an issue with we're voting yes would you vote Yes and and open up a conversation about abortion and Judah was just saying to me that seems extraordinary that that would happen and I I think for probably tens of thousands of younger women in particular it was extraordinary an extraordinary Brave step that they took to do that uh and I hope in the discussion B people like Marney halber Mary Smith and Tina McVey who are here in the room who worked really hard to convene the groups at a local level and to give those young women the structures the organization and indeed the arguments and the confidence to feel that they could knock on doors in some of the poorest areas in some of the not so poor areas and very white color work class white color working class areas and in some very tough areas indeed that they had the confidence uh to knock on doors and pose the question will you vote to give women the right to choose now I have to prefix that by saying that the the campaign itself was a a conglomerate of All Sorts so um in the beginning when the repeal the the referendum for appeal was on the agenda and really this is not thrown B at the left but it would not have been at the on the agenda in Parliament to give the people a referendum had it not been for leftwing TDS like CLA Daly who put the the the the prospect of it happening in 2012 followed up by ourselves when we got elected Ruth CER and myself constantly pushing bringing forward bills we need a referendum for fatal fetal abnormality we need a referendum for repeal we need to decriminalized abortion in this country you could get a 14year sentence actually you still could technically because it isn't change yet for taking uh the abortion pill um and and uh before that went on the agenda um there was very little discussion about it until a really really bad horrible ugly tragedy I hope never happens to any woman again on the planet when svita halap panar a young dentist died in gallway having consistently requested an abortion uh because she was going through a serious miscarriage and her body was beginning to fail and her blood was poisoned and they denied her the abortion and she died and when her death became public knowledge it brought tens of thousands of people out onto the streets with the sorrow and the sadness that went with but with the anger that said never again this cannot happen we need to get rid of the Eighth Amendment and just so you understand the the eth amendment was a constitutional mechanism that was used to prevent the medical profession from carrying out abortions and to prevent women from having them and did it did indeed carry 14year sentence for either the medical professional or the woman and so when sevita was dying the doctors took legal advice and decided based on the legal advice the Constitutional advice that they couldn't intervene and this 30-year-old woman as has often been said she would be alive today living in gallway we wouldn't know her name and she would probably have a family where it not for the brutality of the uh of the system we live under and this brought tens of thousands of women onto the street and again when the annual choice March happened the annual Choice March was happening for a number of years and it started off quite small 2,000 5,000 10,000 but each year it mushroomed and after saa's death it sort of became a massive big big fungus almost because it was like 50,000 people on the streets of Dublin and then 10,000 in gway and more all around the country that then led to the strike for appeal which was inspired by the idea of the Polish women who came out to fight for their abortion rights and that was amazing day we it was International Women's Day 2017 and uh when we walked from the doy up to uh oconnell Bridge there was just like thousands of young women pouring out of colleges off trains off buses flocking onto a conell bridge and we held up the whole city for the whole afternoon nothing happened nothing moved it wasn't actually a worker strike but it was a strike that stopped everything working and it was all about uh repealing the Eighth Amendment and that was what forced Le over ader Simon Harris and later on mial Martin the head of fena fall the conservative elements of our society and even later a bit again Shin Fain that's what forced them to go on a journey and to realize that it was about time that women had the choice it wasn't a change your heart it wasn't a sort of a sit down and think about this sure I'm a great liberal Amai and I should be pursuing the liberal agenda it was the movement and it was the movement that forced the vote and that's the key thing to remember organizing that move movement was um was difficult because all of those who had the journey whether they were F of fall fil labor Shin ourselves and people for profit the farle farmers doctors lawyers and all these groups were formed Farmers for Choice doctors for Choice lawyers for Choice students for Choice gay for choice you know there was all sorts of lobbying and pressure groups being formed they all became part of the together for yes campaign and within that the great and wonderful wisdom of the guys who do marketer and do lots of spend lots of time in college to work out how you sell goods and how you Market things through these massively complicated graphs and came up with the idea that actually we can't talk about Choice it's not a good idea to talk about choice this was to give cover to the liberal element who don't believe in talking about bodily autonomy Choice Liberation any of those things and so we on the Left fought very hard with them argued hard try to get it changed but that didn't really matter because What mattered was that when it came to the campaign being organized in Ros common or Rialto or clant or cork we were there and we were giving young women the confidence to say you speak your language and if your language tells you that this is about your bodly autonomy and your choice then that's what you say to people don't allow yourself be uncomfortable or awkward about this it's your future it's your life it's your experience and that's exactly what they did they knocked on doors and they said I want to have a choice in this country country your daughter should have a choice your granddaughter should have a choice will you vote with me and once people got that of course they were going to vote uh for the future of their children and their grandchildren in fact every Red Sea mrbi poll that was taken from 2016 when the referendum was first moted Sometimes they went like this for the no and that for the yes and all over the place the way polls do but the one consistent through each of them when asked the question do you believe every woman should have the right to make that decision for herself 62% of the population to 64% of the population consisteny said yes I believe she should have the choice and once we broke the barrier that nonsense marketing stupid yes together language and started to talk about Choice that's what the population got and therefore we got the amazing results and I do want to say hats off to all of our comrades uh in the Socialist Workers Party and people before profit who gave every ounce of energy they had into that campaign whether they were in the hardest parts of dyal or in you know the leafy suburbs of Dublin every single one of them pulled our away and I know for sure that they made a big difference to the outcome of the referendum so I just want to I think it's important to say that um look at there's also another element to this that uh you know Ireland was always seen as the conservative Catholic country the Father Ted image and all the rest of it and indeed that hasn't fully gone away you know only the other day in the doll we were um arguing about about a Heritage bill which would allow Farmers to slash and born more uh more of the countryside and after I argued against the bill the Backwoods men who were all you know oh Jesus save the baby save life you know all that type got up and said you hear Deputy Smith now she wants to save the Hedgehogs and kill all the babies so they don't get over themselves they don't get over themselves but it was nice to be able to say dry your eyes you lost that one and to be sh your but the other element of this of course is that Ireland has changed fundamentally and materially because when you look back to uh the the recent decades women have now formed a much more uh different view of themselves they play much more of a role in industry in science in education um I think it's something like um well I just see me me I hate [ __ ] figures but something like 78% of women between the age of 25 and 35 are in the workforce that's a major difference to what it was even when I was a young woman your your role in light then was to get married and have babies and stay at home and keep getting pregnant and have more babies and stay at home and an awful lot of uh an awful lot of that fundamental material view that women have of themselves has changed and that's why you have those kind of figures women now outnumber men in third level education not not by a huge amount 51% of uh those in College are women so there that in the cell force is a a material change but remember that this was all against the backdrop of a serious decline of the Bishops and the Catholic Church it started with the revelations of the clerical sexual abuse of Bishops having babies and not not not looking after them and not telling anyone about them the sexual abuse then you know sort of rambled on and on and on and the the revelations were really horendous you know from convents to Christian brother schools to industrial schools and of course there was at the heart of that the idea that women who got pregnant outside of marriage cannot be seen in our society so they stuck them in the magd laundries enslaved them all their lives made them work for nothing H and over the and the last magd laundry only closed in 1996 1996 it's extraordinary to think about it um and and the mother and baby homes where young pregnant women went and had their children stayed there for a while but the babies were taken from them and we've recently discovered actually it was after the eth amendment one we won the eth amendment uh that there a big Scandal came out about the adoption services um where the the the there was a study done by the minister for children's department on the adoption services and they discovered that most of these uh children who were born in the mother and baby homes were secretly adopted in America and elsewhere and their mothers uh never knew about it and they never knew about uh their own Origins and this is another big scandal of the state and then we also had uh the tune babies of course a real real tragedy where they discovered a historian in gway discovered the bones of nearly 700 babies uh buried at the back of of an industrial School in an L slurry pit and that is still uh rumbling on so the the the the extent of how the Catholic church and its moral compass was devalued and undermined and thrown down the toilet ours side it's unbelievable how much people just are angry with the Bishops angry with the idea that they have a right to say anything to us about our bodies our choices our lives really furious with I I got a couple of minutes left and I would like to finish in this that throughout this campaign when we talk to people on the doorstep at public meetings we used to do loads of stalls on the streets giving out literature and talk under people we talked about Choice as having a a a two-way Dynamic one should have the right to choose to control one's own fertility and body 100% And that had to apply to women uh in Ireland and that's why the ath amendment had to go but one should also be able to choose to have a family and that choice has been denied to women in in Ireland currently the fastest growing economy in Europe the Mr liberal uh t-shock with the liberal government that'll do everything have more children in homelessness now than in the history of the state nearly what is it between of the figures three and a half thousand children nearly 4,000 children live in homeless emergency accommodation 10,000 families daily even the day I left to come over here we are dealing as counselors and TDS with people entire families usually women with two or three children who are being evicted from private rental accommodation and the local authorities the councils have nowhere to put them so where do they go into hotels and hosts fundamentally if we are to give women real choice we have to fight to change this we have to fight for homes we have to fight for realistic and properly funded child care it's nearly as much as a mortgage of a house now to have your children managed uh on a weekly basis if you need to go to work we have to fight for contraception it's hugely expensive and part of the process when we were bringing this bill forward to darl Ain was to say that there are other issues that feed into crisis pregnancy and that is not having access to proper sex education 94% of the national schools are still dominated by the Catholic church and they provide sex education I don't think they provide Catholic [ __ ] to young kids and they don't tell them about their bodies their choices and in particular they don't help young people uh around LGBT uh plus issues develop a Consciousness and awareness of themselves and that leads to a huge issue with mental health so on all the issues housing health education access to contraception child care and fundamentally underline all that the separation of church and state we have to to move to a situation where we get it out of our system that the church do not dominate Health they do not dominate uh the the the education system they have stopped dominating Our Lives literally in terms of our heads H and they have to now be systematically taken out of the state the state uh Services the the Public Services the way we uh the way we do business but that does mean that we've a long way to go that we've won a huge amount H in winning repeal the Eighth Amendment for choice and for equality but we've still got a huge agenda of choice and equality to follow and I brought all the leftovers I had from the campaign here if you want to help us build that campaign for choice and equality please dip in and leave a few Bob afterwards what we want to do and what we put to our groups up and down the country is that rather than you know disbanding the brilliant networks we created with young people and young men and women throughout the country who came out with us day after day night after night putting up posters knocking on doors doing stalls Etc who really took a big courageous step because it's easy for me uh having done it for years I could do with me eyes shut doing that sort of stuff but young people took a real courageous step and we've put it to them that we want to keep this battle going that the choice and equality networks that are exist throughout the country let's keep them going let's come together in the Autumn when there's a big demonstration organized for for for equality on housing Let's Stay Together for the next choice step demonstration in September because I have no doubt that a m MCG and the hey Ray and the horrible maggots that are in D Erin will try to undermine the bill and we'll try to take back our right to 12 weeks access and and other stuff so that's our message it's just been an amazing period as I said at the start to wake up in your own country and realize it has fundamentally changed for the better is a joy and it's a joy I think we all uh still feel every day and I hope we'll continue to feel it and have lots more victory thank [Applause] you thank you thank you very much breed um and as breed said um a lot of the stuff uh from the campaign she's brought over from Ireland it's on the stall here so please do come and check out at the end of the meeting um I'm going to introduce our next speaker now um that's Judith or a lead member of the s P um also on the executive um committee for the abortion rights campaign in the UK J is the author of a few books that we have here today quite relevant to the discussion um Marxism and women's Liberation and of course um abortion Wars as well so you can get them at the end of the meeting here and also a book marks um on the first floor I think um so yeah Jus thank you very much well can I just say that it's it's an absolute privilege and a pleasure to speak on the same platform form as bried today and I'm sure I speak for other comrades here from Britain and I know there's people here from other countries around the world that all of us who followed the repeal the eth campaign find it the most inspiring and moving and fantastic thing and really you know to have a victory on that scale in Ireland to be honest I think it's you know we did we did share in the joy you know when that uh when that poll came out on the Friday night and on the day you know following it and seeing Dublin castle and people saying it was going to be you know it couldn't have the joy that that met with the equal marriage referendum because abortion was a bit sort of difficult and it and of course there was Joy because it was liberating and it was something that people felt that they were recognized their own country and their lives were going to be accepted so it was absolutely tremendous and it has a ripple effect which I'll come back to in terms of uh Northern Ireland where I'm from where abortion is still illegal and even here in Britney and I'll come back to that but I want to talk about somewhere where it's actually going backwards fundamentally going backwards and that's in Trump's America because on Monday Trump is going to announce the latest nominee for the Supreme Court and it is B to be somebody who's anti-abortion in fact one of the people that he's considering is a woman who belongs to a religious cult where the women call themselves wait for it handmaids to the patriarch men in the family now she may not be the one who's picked but she's in the running and so already there's been one nominee to the Supreme Court that Trump made and uh and he was straight away and that meant that the Supreme Court made a decision only uh a week ago that in California the um the uh Supreme Court said it was okay that uh some clinics didn't tell women the whole truth about the services that were available to them in the state of California they could lie so they'll have a clinic that looks like a reproductive uh clinic for Women's Health but will actually be an anti-abortion organization who will not tell them abortion is legal in California will not tell them that they can get help with funding and this has now been upheld by Supreme Court with the new majority that even the first nominee by Trump is in so with the second nominee people believe that the the the Supreme Court decision I mean abortion is legal in America on the basis of a Supreme Court decision in 1973 which isn't actually about abortion it's about the woman's right to privacy for family life which is into as part of the Constitution but if a Court comes up court cases who come up to the Supreme Court they've always been held and that stayed since 73 and so that's a federal law which means that women have a right a legal right to abortion what states can do they can't challenge that at the moment but they've been able to make access difficult you know they've said that certain clinics have to be kadite like small you know trauma hospitals even though most women are going there and taking pills all sorts of things that have made it difficult I have a series of interviews at the back of my book one of them is with a um African-American doctor who works in the only clinic in Mississippi because of the other ones having been closed by state laws and this is what's happened um recently currently 29 states in the US are considered hostile or extremely hostile to abortion rights 58% of women of reproductive age in the US live in a state that hinders their ability to safely terminate their pregnancy and 401 401 abortion restrictions have been adopted by States across the us since 2011 and 71 of those have just been in the past year and in Iowa there's currently a legal debate over a new law which says that abortion will not be allowed to happen beyond the time when a fetal heartbeat is heard now that's around six weeks loads of women don't even know they're pregnant then let alone know what they want to do about it and this is state law which has been challenged by a reproductive rights organization and the state's attorney in Iowa the longest serving State's Attorney in in America he is refusing to defend that law he's a Democrat who's Pro Choice he says I will not I will abstain from this defending that state law because it goes against women's rights so that's a battle that's still happening but this is the level at which the anti-abortion lobby in America has been filled with confidence with Trump and Mike Pence um having got into the White House because he campaigned to his base you know right-wing populist that Trump is to his base which was anti-abortion and so if if the Supreme Court gets a case that then means that the RO versus way decision of 73 gets overturned immediately there are four states that would automatically ban abortion they've got trigger laws ready for if that Supreme Court decision goes and nearly half of all US states could ban abortion within two years so this is a serious a serious threat and I think that situation when we're looking at that we have to sort of say that this is something that you know is linked to what H Trump is giving confidence around um around the world to people who are anti-abortion who are racist and all the rest of it but actually even within even before a law has changed there is a difference death threats death threats against abortion providers have doubled since he became president and in terms of the people picketing and let's remember picketing we have some of that in Britain and it's file and it's been inspired by America but in America they blockade doors they actually physically assault receptionists they have shot dead doctors they have shot dead receptionists and even people who help women go in to try to um avoid the pickers and actually there's been over 78,000 incidents of picketing in one year of 2017 this is the highest level since they began recording these in 1977 so this is a polarized fight it's one that Trump is at the front of with all his misogyny and everything else and of course there this hasn't happened without a fight the Magnificent women's marches the day Afters in oration inauguration and again um a year later and when you look at the polls it's interesting because there's there this polarization two-thirds of Americans don't want to see Row versus Wade overturned and when you come to women of a reproductive race age it's no surprise that that that rises to three quarters don't want Row versus way changed but it's not just in America where Trump's election has had an impact on women's rights and on their Reproductive Rights in particular people will be aware of the Global Gag this is something that other Republican presidents have brought in but Trump has brought it in even harder and Mary stopes International who do a lot of Reproductive Rights um around clinics around the whole world they issued this week the figures on what the Global Gag the impact it's had because what happens is the Global Gag means if you provide any sort of abortion services or advice you don't get American foreign aid even if you use money that you've got from somewhere else you don't get us Aid so this means they say that by the year of 2020 1.7 million people will go without access to their services 2.1 million unintended pregnancies will happen 720,000 unsafe abortions will happen and that would lead to over 5,000 um and more avoidable maternal de maternal deaths and already they say around 14,000 and more women die every year from illegal and unsafe abortions can I just quickly just say that when I talk about Trump inspiring others the far right um around Europe have actually often linked the question of abortion with the racism against immigrants Golden Dawn in Greece say abortions are a crime against the race in Italy which is really Italy has been legal since 73 but actually conscientious objection which so many doctors do that there was one woman who had to visit 23 hospitals last year before finding one that would end her pregnancy because so many doctors say there's they they object to it but look what the northern league and let's remember this is now you know what who is in control in Italy in terms of the the Coalition there um Masano Romano he's a senator with the northern League he said 6 million children have been killed in the womb since 78 when abortion became legal then they say we have to import migrants to boost the population so the two key issues you know for the far right in terms of migration and racism but also linked to the idea of Reproductive Rights of abortion of social conservatism keep that in your mind in Poland I know we've got commer here from Poland there's still attempts to try and restrict laws that are already one some of the most restrictive in the whole of Europe worldwide look at Brazil there is an average of four deaths every day of women in hospitals after illegal and unsafe abortions today four women died in Brazil just because they tried to end pregnancy they didn't want to to go on with and there's a new proposal 181 which wants to restrict the few legal abortions that happen even more but there's also positive change in the last meeting somebody referred to the Fantastic uh demonstrations in Argentina where that now the the a law to legalize abortion is now going to the next stage to the Senate and tens of thousands of women took to the streets through the the night for a debate that actually won um that that next stage and so we could be seeing a situation where we're on the brink of Reform it's so fiercely contested why is abortion such a fiercely contested issue in the 21st century we're still talking about this basic fundamental right to control our bodies to control our fertility why is it why can't it just be like breast screening or cervical screening just ordinary part of women's healthare we have to go back and it is absolutely right back to that have been discussed at different meetings here and um BR alluded to it in terms of the whole way that women are regarded in Irish Society in particular I'd argue but also it's part of the the broader sense of the structures of women's oppression in modern Capital Society the role that women are expected to play in the family now the family is a contradictory thing it can be a loving wonderful thing a place where you get unconditional support it can be a place of violence abuse neglect and oppression but it's the role that women are expecting to play now of course women majority of women work most of their adult lives and all the rest whether they've got children or not but actually so the family's changed but it to be honest in an austerity of Europe it's playing an even more important role because of all the services that have been cut back the family is still expected and for the family read workingclass women to pick up to pick up the burden and therefore what you've got as a situation for women it's laid out what our natural role is meant to be we're naturally the ones who are meant to be the child carers because we can be bear children or most of us can bear children so that sense of we are expected to be the ones who sort of biologically programmed to know what to do when a baby cries you know to be able to be the best person to change a nappy you know and also then throughout whether it's looking after um somebody who's ill or the elderly this is meant to be isn't it our natural Affinity to these things so when a woman in some job gets asked well how do you cope you've got children this comes from somebody who might run a bank or somebody you the men are never asked how do you cope you've got children because it's just assume the wife or n or somebody else is looking after them and so having an abortion wanting to end a pregnancy is seen as an absolute aberation isn't it it's the ultimate betrayal of what women's true natural biological rues should be in society and that's why it's so hotly contested and that's why it's still an issue because we're still fighting the very fundamental sense of what women rool should be and I think that even for example here in Britain where in many under many conditions um abortion is legal there is still a sense of stigma there is still sometimes a sense of shame I mean I've gone around the last eight months or so doing talks on my book sometimes in Trade union meetings sometimes in public meetings s swp meetings and other meetings and abortion rights conferences and stuff and I've had people come up to me afterwards and said you know I had an abortion I didn't tell my sister my best friend somebody got up in a meeting and said you know I've never said this to those any this many people at once but I had an abortion other people have said funny I said to people at work I was coming to a book launch about a book about abortion and we had a discussion we've never had in my workplace about abortion and this is why I was saying to breed you know the sense of knocking on the door saying oh I want to talk you about abortion you know actually even somewhere where there shouldn't be a stigma anymore it actually runs deep and that is because we keep going to the heart of it's seen as a portrayal of our natural selves but let's remember how common it is in Britain 2,000 200,000 women every year have abortions the majority of those are taking pills before 12 weeks that's one in three women will have or have had an abortion in their lifetime that is completely common and yet this is something that's treated with with a stigma and you're meant to feel ashamed of it in actual fact most people and I I put in the book you know the studies show most people feel relief so I don't actually agree with some even pro-choice campaigners to say every abortion is a tragedy now every abortion is different for people in different circumstances so but the fact is I think what is the real tragedy is somebody being forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term or who's so desperate who can't get access to abortion services will actually do take measures to end the pregnancy that could risk and often have risk their own life that's what life was like in Britain before the 1967 act when people threw themselves downstairs ingested poisons in fact lots of the knowledge about poison in modern Britain is because of what women did to end their pregnancies 100 years ago and 50 years ago that's what life is like and the only reason actually some people say that Ireland was able to pretend that abortion wasn't happening for so long was because actually Britain was near now I you've got a situation when you're looking at um the uh the sense of that and I interviewed some women who had Backstreet abortions pr67 and also some who had them shortly after and how people used to treat them in the hospitals even just after the act it was pretty harsh because of the how people were were told and I think that's why when we talk about stigma how important the stories that women told in Ireland but clearly How brave it was too to overcome that and it really had an impact didn't it on people and I think that sense of you know um people being vilified and I really want to agree with what breed shed about choice because this idea that it's just about having the right to end an unwanted pregnancy it's also about the right to have children and be able to economically and have the resources to bring up children as well I think that's why you thank you that's why I think it's so important and I went and wrote quite a bit about the whole thing about forced abortions and uh and the maget laund and the idea that babies were being sold weren't they to America and the state was helping you know facilitate passports for these babies and everything else and actually let's remember this is not just an Irish problem and it's not just a Catholic Church problem there were magnet aaries here there was Protestant mother and baby homes as well and actually interestingly within about a year and a half of the 67 act there weren't mother and baby homes because women had choice and actually also because of the period the ideas of bringing up a child on your own began to change so those who wanted to hang have their children perhap were more more able to do it but I think that sense of actually understanding that this vilification that if a woman isn't you know you can say the most natural thing in the world is for a woman to have a baby but will be tied a working-class woman who has a child in circumstances that the establishment doesn't agree with you know then they're factless then they shouldn't be responsible maybe they should have their child taken away from them but maybe if you gave them support financial and otherwise then people could look after them but that sense and actually this has been racism as well I I talk about in this book in my previous one about the racism of the American Scythe where women went to host sometimes for a assist or something and only years later found out that they had been sterilized without their knowledge or consent because of what happened there was one Hospital in Mississippi in particular that used to do this to women and this sense of actually Eugenics behind what fertility from the control from the top can be like this happened to indigenous populations around the world it happened to people that were deemed feeble-minded in Britain and America um that they were sterilized forcibly sterilized because people didn't want them to have children and we have to see that this is actually how workingclass women were also treated they were encouraged not to have children because it was seen that these this would lessen the the breed you know the the Imperials sort of wanted to have good stock if you like with something that they wanted to CL clamp Dar on so I do think we have to see that that if you're poor that actually it's not just about ideology that you're being attacked for being fs and everything else in Britain for example you know the the new legislation that says if you're on benefits a family on benefits that if you have more than two children you won't get tax credits for your third or subsc children and they've recently they've recently published the figures on this 70,000 families in Britain have lost their benefits because of that new law 70 and guess what you know it was called the rape Clause that you're Exempted from this if one of your if you can tell the benefit officials that one of your children over two children was a product of rape and so 190 women have had to disclose to benefit officials that one of their child is a product of rape in order that their benefits don't get taken away from them what sort of a Society do we live in because it can be you know this idea we people might look to Ireland and say isn't it terrible they didn't get access to legal abortion we also have to look closer to home at the sort of stuff that's coming down the cruel laws from our government because they can they can R the family Revere women in the family but actually when they use these cruel laws it's about making the working-class family carry the burden that they don't want to carry with social responsibility for the state for whether it's education or anything else they want people to Quee at food banks rather than give them proper welfare and that's why reproductive right is a class issue and that's why it's absolutely right in Britain every major Trade union is Affiliated to abortion rights that why working-class people have taken to the streets and defended the abortion act limited that it is but it because it never gave us real Choice it's the only medical procedure you need two doctors to give their consent to you most hospitals ask for your consent for something to be done to you it's the only thing it's the other way around and it's actually two doctors but just look at it you see I want to finish here the impact that it's having on the debate in Northern irand is fantastic because actually it's funny because you've got a lot of politicians who not suddenly want to be on the right side of history after the repal campaign you what women in Northern Ireland don't have access to abortion you know it's like I'm sorry we've been telling you this for decades now may had to give in to pay and fund abortions for women from Northern Ireland after she lost her majority in the snap election and people were so horrified at her getting into bed the dup she was forced to do it and interestingly it shows the impact of class because from 724 before the election it's gone up to 919 Northern Ireland women came to Britain for abortion so those are more women coming over because they're getting funding so it shows what would have happened to those women if they hadn't got funding but some women can't travel they've got kids they've got an abusive relationship they've got health problems so the fight has to still go on and that's why the idea now of saying we have to do something about what's going on in Northern Aron that it is a little Backwater where they don't have equal marriage and there isn't right to abortion and what's interesting and this is also the the effect the the repeal campaign is it's exposing the fact the law in Britain itself is backward it's still a criminal penal servitude for life if you give yourself an abortion or your your your um a doctor gives you an abortion if it falls outside of the conditions of the 67 act we still live under the 1861 act it's prehistoric but this has been exposed by this and I think we're in a moment this is where I'll end we're in a moment where Women's Rights me too enough is enough is in the picture equal pay and all the rest but Reproductive Rights at entral and the the ripples coming from the repeal Campaign which W an argument right throughout Society about women's right to controler body is something that we have to be absolutely taking advantage of here you know and say it's about time we decriminalized abortion in Britain it's about time those 19th century laws before women could even let vote let Lum be in Parliament were scrapped and repealed our sales because actually if we look at it it's become a political issue of the day so seize the moment and really a so you know we've got a terrific tradition in terms of Reproductive Rights and the fight for abortion rights throughout history we have to say that actually for us it's a fundamental part of fighting for women's Liberation isn't it how can we take part in any struggle in building a new society and fighting for a new Society if we can't control our fertility it's a fundamental right that we have to fight for and actually so absolute hats off to the repeal of the eth campaign everybody who fought and we want to take advantage of that moment and that opportunity that it's helped bring and fight to decriminalize and make abortion rights something that is just part of women's General Healthcare like it always should have been thanks very much Judith um what a brilliant introduction we're going to open up to the floor now for discussion so just to say if you want to make a contribution if you just raise your hand indicate by raising your hand and I'll like gesture to you if you want to come up to the front to make the contribution that would be good you can use the mic I'm going to call you in twos as well just to save time so after maybe 2 minutes I'm going to tap on the desk after 3 people ask ask to leave the festival just kidding h no you'll be shot no I'm just kidding um just really keep it try please try and keep it to three because we want to get as many people in as we can I want to start by congratulating rtds I'm I'm obviously as you can gather from my accent not a resident of of this state any longer I live in IR congratulations to people before Propet to breed and the comrades who struggled and struggled very hard to get the legislation moved very quick anecdotes and I'll tell you why in 1977 when I first came over here we were still bringing contraceptives into the country illegally which my wife had been doing for some 10 years before in 1979 in the county of Tipperary there wasn't a keist who would provide you with a contraceptive and if you were looking enough to find one you have to have aop certificate to get it the call was illegal always is due to the Catholic church because Charles McCade the bishop in conjunction with devila in 37 introduced all this rubish into the Constitution the only thing that we're faced with now is despite our wonderful Victory we have the problems of implementation and we have to continue with the struggle to make sure that we get it abortion should not be in any part of the Constitution it should be nothing to do with politicians it should be purely the choice of the individual concerned free available legal thank [Applause] you the point that breed made about uh people before the vote have made up their mind five or six years before 3ars of the people had made up their mind before in Ireland is really really important because it destroyed a myth that the Irish people are somehow conservative no they have a repressive State institution and and repressive politicians that had stamped on it plus a repressive another institution the Catholic church and that's so important for the struggle for abortion rights elsewhere because Jud is absolutely right it's the alt right that are getting the wind on the thing but we have to remember under Obama it was also the case that 33 anti restrictive abortion laws were passed in 13 states and so what you have here is even though Ireland seemed like an exception it is the extreme end of a system that has put women down in all sorts of ways and that's so important now from our point of view the resistance that has been so fantastic you I can't tell tell you how transformative it has been for all of us because although we were at the center of it the Revolutionary socialists were at the center of it people before profit were at the center of it we also it was that word self-activity was never more so more evident in our group in Dublin Bay north for example a young woman of 17 who actually couldn't vote because she was too young suddenly stepped into the Limelight spoke at public meetings she was doing her leaving search at school took time off school she wasn't even voting she just wanted to be part of it subsequently of course he has actually joined people before all profit as have many people from the campaign we have 60 or 70 people from the campaign so this can transform the left but two things are really really important the type of resistance that Reed has spoken so inspiringly about is the type of resistance that will push it back and the bankruptcy of the mainstream liberal feminists are really very important in Ireland the mainstream liberal are trying to claim this as their Victory it wasn't their Victory as breeders explained they came in lately there were the Johnny come lat of the thing they were anti-abortion etc etc but we have to understand that this is part of a system capitalist system that puts women down in inequality has got worse there's no automatic War march to gender equality so in order to win women's Liberation you have to be anti- capitalist and her revolutionary socialist [Applause] politics um yeah I'm just actually overwhelmed listening um to to like the the reaction of you guys when breed was outlining um that the kind of the repressive Catholic state that that we've lived in all our lives and the gasps coming from you all kind of I just actually got really emotional because I jesus like we have become desensitized to the kind of [ __ ] that we had to put up with and I don't have an abortion story but I do have a story of childhood sexualized trauma and I was silenced and shamed and not allowed to be uh spoken about I wasn't allowed to speak about it I was drugged to keep me quiet as a child um on the morning after we won the repeal victory for the first time in 50 years I stepped outside of my house and my head was held [Applause] [Music] high we we beat the bigots but the fight is not over yet but we're well ready for them now but I just wanted to say um well speaking of the bigots the pope is coming to Ireland which uh and they he doesn't matter anymore they think he matters but they they actually timed this International Conference of the family I mean what even is that an International Conference of the family to take place in Ireland now I don't think it was that contrived that the referendum date and then they said it was kind of a coincidence but the point is they chose Ireland at a time when the the repeal campaign was was at its height and just goes to show you like the the the length that they will go to and here's a little laugh for you as well we have a hose pipe ban in Ireland because of the hot weather and that came into effect last Monday on Monday afternoon Council workers were out spraying this massive big white cross that we have in the Phoenix Park that's that was there since the 70s when he last came housing it down that was put up by wealthy Capital that was put up by wealthy Catholic capitalists but just very quickly I just want to make again a reference to the point about the language of the campaign and the importance of having we revolutionary socialists at the heart of all social movements because when this uh together for yes campaign they actually issued a manual which was this thick um of you know what we could and couldn't say and to be honest with you we just kind of went yeah whatever and when we went out into the campaigns like there was one night that we had about 60 people turned up to canvas in in one small part of of the area that myself and breed represent and like because we were there and we were leading the campaign or leading the canvas we're able to say to people listen when you knock on the door like you're here for a reason you know most most young women told me that they came out because they had no they had anti anti-abortionists and anti-choicers on their on their doorstep and they realized arguing with them that they're well able for it so they came out to Canvas saying to them you just you just use the arguments that that you which is the reason that you're here and for them all it was choice and the reason why the reason why we know this the reason why the the the the the the people for profit in particular but the left groups involved the reason why we know what people you know want and what people motivates people it's because we're the ones that have been working with people on the street streets for all of those 35 years uh that the count the Ed has been in place it's been the left parties the radical left parties that have been on the ground listening to people and we trust people we trust people to run Society we trust women to know what they want we trust women to have choice and our arguments won that we were at the heart and we were at the heart of it and I just want to pay a special credit uh to breed and to Mary because they have been fighting the battle in Ireland for the last 35 years and Mary Smith I don't know if she's here in the room they have been beating there you are is beating down the path so absolute full like total respect and and and to the comrades because if it wasn't for them we didn't we wouldn't have these shoulders of giants to stand [Applause] on um I just want to come back to uh the point about politicians who jumped on the bandwagon to uh to claim a victory that was none of theirs um the breed talked about the right-wing polic itions our Minister for health and our our t-shock the equivalent of our of the Prime Minister uh they were kind of made the poster Boys by a media uh who are from the same class as them basically so they were the ones who did try to Elbow out uh the farle and as Tina just said it was the farle ourselves and others uh that uh that that that were actually the backbone of of the campaign but just a little bit about the soft left and the Irish labor party uh the Irish labor party in conjunction or or rather in Coalition uh six years ago with the right-wing party brought in a piece of legislation called the protection of life during pregnancy act this was in response to a demand for do something after the death of that woman that Bri described svita halapin so they did something they brought in an act that would give you 14 years for taking an abortion pill this was their great you know token of Mercy uh the basis on which he was uh merciful was that you could get an abortion if you were suicidal enough and 28 women proved themselves just about that they were suicidal enough in a year there's 12 women a week coming to England for an abortion or take sorry daily H or taking an abortion pill so this was their great Act of uh of solidarity with women at the protection of life during pregnancy act breed brought a a an amend or tried to bring an amendment before the the Irish Parliament to reduce that 14year sentence to a onee fine just to you know decriminalize it effect effectively every bloody left Winger and right- Winger and shin fainer in that in that H in that do not every you know all the soft left the the labor party types voted against that H and then of course course you know now that we've had the victory they're all on the bandwagon so you know you have to remember where it lies you know who are the real champions it relies on people like you it relies on a hard left to make sure that the arguments are brought through and that a campaign that is fought by young women they can then have the sense of ownership after the fact because that is what they do have they know that despite [ __ ] from the you know the the the band wanger the the jumpers on the bandwagon that despite that it was their Victory and that allows them to go on and make common cause for a real demand for equality you know h control over your fertility allows you to make obviously the for step in equality for a woman how can you control your life if you can't control your fertility but how can you have real choice if you don't have a quality so now we can make the argument to them you have to keep moving left in order to get a quality it and not just [Applause] Choice yeah congratulations to the Irish comrades it was a fantastic inspiration for us in Poland uh when the victory was clear we had our anti- capitalist weekend just the same time you had the referendum and we were over ourselves with joy um so uh bried talked about about how the protest in Poland inspired the Irish protest and vice versa of course for us it's extremely uh important and there's also of course very many common features between Poland and Ireland when it comes to the power of the church especially um we have very many similar situations like you've had we've had women dying because doctors have failed to refuse to to give them medical treatment because they were pregnant and they were afraid that the fetus might be damaged we have had um women been forced to give birth to a fetus that was basically they knew would die very soon after the birth was forced to go through with the pregnancy and give birth so we have very many similar situations we have people women being lied to about prenatal um you know what do you say um yeah you examinations you know because they the doctors won't tell them that actually there is something wrong with the fetus because then there will be a problem about abortion Etc so but we also have a difference with the our situation because we actually have four to five million Polish women that have had abortions because abortion has been legal before in Poland so that that experience is there among women and uh when the antiabortion is basically call women murderers you know that people react react to that yeah okay yeah so have to speed up so we had fantastic protest and we forced back the government now all together three times first they wanted to ban abortion totally basically and give a five years prison sentence the the the laws are already very very restrictive but this was even more restrictive massive protest the black protest and women's strikes forced them to retreat on that but they didn't give up and they came back with a new proposal that was not as extreme but basically would ban 95% of all abortions because it was with when the fetus is seriously damage would would be banned again there was a massive mobilization what happened was that the Bishops came out and said to the parliamentarians you have to you have to speed up this law into Parliament you have to take it up into Parliament and in record uh time it was up in Parliament and in record time we also protested and forc them back again and now in June again we've forced him back for the third time yeah so okay so uh I think activists in uh in Poland now see that what we thought was really impossible just a couple of years ago is possible [Applause] um yeah I just want to say that you know what what they've done in in southern Ireland changes everything it's absolutely massive it changes everything Judy talk about you know the battles of women in America and the rest very very serious I think Ireland will be a beacon for them but what I want to talk about is what we're doing here that really it is now the first challenge we have ever had to go beyond the 1967 abortion act and you know the anti-abortionists are not going to give up easily they are organizing they are always completely and utterly bankrolled you know they're loaded they can they always have lots of money I think we've now got to take this really seriously there's an urgent need now that we build a movement to win our rights for abortion in this country and actually that means we start we look first of all I think to our trade unions we won the argument in the trade unions in the 70s and the 8S because abortion is so clearly a class issue because it's always working class women who end up in the back street hurt and all the rest of it you know if you've got money you can get an abortion whatever whatever the law that was why we won it as a class issue that's why we won it in the Trade union we have six million trade unionists in this country I think we have to look to mobilizing those people in defense of abortion and to push it forward and also we need to get their money that our trade unions have to bankrupt abortion rights runs on a flipping what's it Sho string they have no money right this is the organization that is leading the fight we need to get them the money if you are in a Union affiliate get your union it won't be difficult to get the money if you're in this room and you are not affiliated to abortion rights go home go on the website and affiliate it you see because revolutionary women in this country we have always been a part of the fight for a women's right to choose in this country and I think now we're in a really good position to carry that forward we are with it we are in abortion rights we can shape it but that means we have to show we're serious and that means we show we know how to build we get the unions on board and actually we win the right not for two doctors to tell me whether I can have an abortion but I should have an abortion cuz I say I want [Applause] one I think for me like watching over here it's incredible to see the campaign and I was constantly keeping an eye on it just to see what was happening and like people were unsure about the percentage but it was absolutely amazing to see the result come out on that night but one thing that I remember like when you talk about the slogan about the woman's right to choose I remember a picture on Instagram with a woman wearing a head scarf and he said a woman's right to choose if she has an abortion a woman's right to choose if you ra the head Scar and I think that was incredible like to make that link between both campaign was something necessary and like when you see in this government the islamophobia that the Tor shoes and the sexism a while ago a Tory MP tried to say Muslim women or Asian women shouldn't have the right to have an abortion cuz they were selective if it was a girl or a boy that's that's a way they going to go down and these are the people who are in our government and in our power and you see people like Jacob re Moore who had six kids who's never chased a nappy and then said like a woman should have the right to abortion but yet also profits from abortion pills at the same time this is our government that we have and I think it's important that we constantly fight back and and working working women are on the street against it cuz when it's like it's the people coming together and fighting back like the whole notion of a woman in power is going to be the one that changes things Theresa May is in power Theresa May starts women of having abortion in the sense that if you have abortion you need a day of work like if you work if you work on a zero hour contract you need that dat you can't take a six pain cuz you might even get a six pain you can't take time of work oh oh sorry um yeah sure I think it's important that we have to mobilize for woman's right to choose in any sense what she wears what she does with her body her right to work or not to work or her right to have a lure time and also what to be on the streets fighting for people to have a better equality at work and better chances and better pay to actually make to you know when we say person's right to choose we have to be providing people the opportunity to choose and given them a range of choices to have instead of just saying you have the right to choose but there's nothing really to choose from because you're life stuck in this box so we have to be also mobilizing for that as well thank you just going to bring uh the speakers back in to Su up just AEF okay um I think the um the the probably the thing about the the referendum in Ireland that most striking is that it was won by popular suffrage it wasn't dictated to from above and handed down by lawyers or a court or even a parliament it was actually a popular vote it was a bit like an election so I think that's quite unique in fact I think it is unique uh in the world to vote in abortion on that bases um but I I don't think that it can be just exclusive to Ireland because a struggle isn't about ending up with the the product being EV olded it's about end up with the product being the choice that you wish to make now um um and and like I said I just want to say that's not inevitable and it does require the intervention of of socialists of revolutionaries of people who fundamentally understand how Society changes that it is not about great lawyers and judges and Men on Journeys that it is about the change coming uh from below and if you understand that then what you don't do is get all upset and etchy and touy with horrible people from the labor party or traitor from F Gale who you have to work alongside there's two of them but there's another hundred young people that you're working with so you have to remember it's the young people I'm speaking to it's the young people I'm walking with so if somebody comes along and says to you as the together yes campaign did uh certain language resonates with the middle ground and some of it does not um see a list of words and phrases that are useful and some that are not avoid Choice On Demand with without restriction free right to choose un request bodily autonomy do not use these words right now or you could have some fart from the labor party telling me that my argument about Choice was reductionist uh and you could lose the head with them at meetings and you know blow everything out of the water and leave the together for yes campaign it can have it just share of them but the one thing we understood was that the together for the yes campaign was made up of ordinary decent people men and women particularly women who didn't have this baggage and didn't believe this nonsense and so when that was trotted out by those of our those of us who are who who'd like to see us dead basically who hate the hate the uh revolutionary left uh we smiled yes yeah you're right right of course but we stuck the the knife in their back by working with the young people and saying you talk about choice and bodly autonomy that's your right you talk about your experience and that's what won the day and that's what uh was carried it really it really did uh carry the C the campaign um um Jud that made reference to this appointment that um Trump is about to make and interestingly on the way over today I was reading a a column in the Irish Times by a woman an absolutely horrible woman called Maria Steen who was one of the best Advocates of the anti Choice side in in this campaign she has four children that she home schools she's a multi-millionaire and I believe she attends Mass every morning and with gar one the subbs a duin with a black mantilla over her face and her four kids gone along like this she's an absolutely horrible cow and she was vicious towards us what was her article about this morning she was singing the Praises of this potential uh appointee from Trump absolutely wonderful woman this very Catholic woman you know and she's she doesn't compromise her Catholicism for nonsense she's a brilliant woman and R can't wait she's weing herself to see this appointing of this Justice in uh of Donald Trump's so the importance of it being a global attack on us and a global fight for us to push back against them I I think you really get it from Judith's book it's a brilliant book and I'm just going to plug it if you haven't read it do so we're going to plug our things as well not our shoes and our badges if you want to have a look at our stall at the end but I do think the global picture is extraordinarily important because this you know I just I just said uh there what's the name of the Margaret Atwood who wrote The handmaid's Tale it's a difficult thing to watch and I find it's difficult to watch because it's fcking true it's close to the truth and uh but knowing that it's close to the truth means that we have to organize very very well and know how to work with those who are not fully one to our politics but who are one to fighting and who want to see the change that's required and to want to see the right kick back we have to and it's taken us years to learn but we have to learn how to work with people who are to the right of us but they're not a till of the H if you know what I mean and pull them to them to the left um and we can see huge victories look I've enjoyed the meeting hugely and I think that uh I I'm really proud to know that we've had the impact I didn't realize that people were so well aware of what what it meant to us in Ireland to have such a victory um and I do believe that uh this is a small enough Planet although it's born to bits we uh we do have we do have a world to win and we can win it together and thank you very much for all your support [Applause] m j um thank you that was terrific meeting I'm sure we could have gone on for a lot longer because really this is an issue that affects everybody you know actually the the whole thing of humans trying to separate procreation from sex goes back the whole of human history because actually unlike some other people in the an other parts of the animal kingdom we we don't have sex for fun not just to appropriate I mean shock it like be to some church leaders but that's that's actually the case and so therefore this is not something new this is not something that's always been Associated women women's oppression this goes right back and again you know look back and about the history of how people have tried to separate their fertility but I think when we look at it today that in Britain it's deeply entrenched the idea that we have access to and Sac abortion with all the problems that it's not real Choice it's deeply entrenched and it became so very quickly after the 67 act I mean the first big demonstration I marched on um uh defending the 67 Act was in 1979 me and a bunch of students who still got the photographs of us all wearing ridiculous 1970s clothes on this and it was 880,000 people it was the biggest uh defense of abortion rights ever seen in this country since or before and it was organized by the TU you know and I've been on candit vigils that were with women only and all the rest it around that time qu quacked it it was the TU it was the trade unions it was a collective organization of women and men some of the unions didn't even have any women members they marched that day and that is the force that we have to call on and I tell you what you know the tactics the anti-abortionist use in Britain are different you know they don't just I mean re M doors but you know most of them don't just say I'm all right against all abortions they say I want to protect disabled people and so if you're saying that there's fatal fetal abnormalities that's being disabled you don't see them fighting against you know the cuts to Independent Living alliances or anything like that but actually they say this so there's a bill even go through the Lords at the moment it won't get anywhere but actually it's a b trying to drag it back and then when Ney referred to the sex election bill I tell you what that threw people it threw the feminists even in the pro-choice movement because it said um in here the far right in America use it and they planned it they said we'll get those feminists we'll say it's about girl babies being aborted and surely you can't be for that you know and actually some people said oh dear but this is about women being oppressed and second class citizens and socialist on the ex and within the movement had to fight hard and say no this not only has a racist agenda because it's about certain parts of the population um and actually by the way there was no evidence that this was happening anywhere in the population the numbers did you know the times had the Lost Girls and everything else it was rubbish but that was use but also it's that sense of actually we have to start with the individ with the woman herself and say it's her body she's not a walking incubator and she's not for you to impose her they everybody will have their own reasons and actually some some doctors at various conferences here have talked about how they've been told they maybe shouldn't if a Muslim woman comes in and wants to have a scan that maybe they shouldn't tell her the sex of the the fetus in case she wants to have an abortion on the base of sex even though there's no evidence and even though the law was smashed in the end because we won an argument amongst the pro-choice MPS and the pro-choice movement that this was both sexist and there's nothing liberating about about being told to have your but so therefore we got to be aware of the tactics you know that they use different ones where it's harder and when it comes to what we're doing now I've only got a minute I think that sense of actually the dup scuffed the last chance for legal abortion in Northern IR when they did when labor did a deal with them remember because they wanted to extend you know to 40 days how long they could you know hold on to so-called Terror suspects and so the dup are now standing in the way of it today and just for the record let's note two women leaders Arling Foster and Theresa May you know so they're not our sisters you know this is about class this is about something else and this is why we have to to look to our own side and I think that when we talk about you know how do we fight what we're going to do I think it is a bit of a call to arms because when I said this is an opportunity that the ripples from repeal the ripples from the anger against Trump and let's hope this a magnificent march here in London on Friday whoever he appoints on Monday let's March and tell him he F off from here because we don't want him but that sense of actually saying this is an opportunity for us all those people are jumping on the bandwagon like they did in Ireland to say to be on the right side of History well we can be a bit pissed off the fact they haven't noticed till now but we should use the chance and say yes come on then let's do it it is time and it's also time to get rid of the criminal law and I just think this is something that we can be a part of in a big way and actually see it as absolutely part of this really burgeoning mood that there is that women have had enough of being treated the S citizens in every area of life and this is a fundamental part of it it's not some difficult subject out there that's all about morals and in individual conscience it's not it's a class issue it's an issue about our bodies and if we don't fight for control of that then nothing else is possible and we want you know social Society isn't just going to be a place where we've got a right to control our bodies it's about how we control all our lives as women and men and that's what we in the swp are fighting for I hope you'll join us I hope you'll come and look at this campaign and be inspired by the struggle change can happen but it takes people to make history it doesn't just happen on its own and that's what happened in IR that's what we want to see elsewhere w