Fighting Sexual

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Were we stand labour movement. Organise full support for black * The capitalist police are an enemy for the working class. Support all demands to weaken them as a bosses' striking. force: dissolution of special squads (SPG, Special Branch, *Free abortion on demand. Women's equal right to work and full equality for women. Defend and extend free state * Against attacks on gays by the state: abolish all laws which discriminate against lesbians and gay men; for the right of the gay community to organise and affirm their stand publicly. * The Irish people - as a whole - should have the right to determine their own future. Get the British troops out now! Repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act. Political status for Irish Republican prisoners as a matter of urgency. * The black working people of South Africa should get full support from the British labour movement for their strikes, struggles and armed combat against the white supremacist regime. South African goods and services should be blacked. * It is essential to achieve the fullest democracy in the labour movement. Automatic reselection of MPs during each parliament and the election by annual conference of party leaders. Annual election of all trade union officials, who should be * The chaos, waste, human suffering and misery of capitalism now - in Britain and throughout and throughout the world - show the urgent need to establish rational, democratic, human control over the economy, to make the decisive sectors of industry social property, under workers' control. The strength of the labour movement lies in the rank and file. Our perspective: must be working class action to raze the capitalist system down to its foundations, and to put a working class socialist alternative in its place - rather than having our representalives run the system and waiting for crumbs from the tables TWO RECENT decisions have brought the question of sexual rights into the news, and give hope that the issues may finally be being taken seriously.

*The European Court has just ruled that Britain is violating the rights of homosexual men in the North of Ireland. All male homosexwal acts are illegal there.

When Britain imposed direct rule over the province, legislation was drafted to bring Northern Ireland into line with British laws on homosexuality. But the law was not introduced because of pressure from the Unionists, led by lan Paisley and his campaign to "Save Ulster from Sodomy"

It was the Labour government which drew up the legislation and then dropped it in an attempt to get a pact with the Unionists.

Of the four out of 19 judges in the European court who voted against the decision, one was the judge from the Irish Republic where homosexuality is also illegal.

It certainly seems like a text-book illustration of James Connolly's prophesy that the partition of Ireland would lead to a "carnival of reaction" both sides of the border.

*An industrial tribunal ruled last week that Julie Bigot Paisley tion. strange men. Hyatt, who gave up her job because of her boss's persistent sexual advances, was entitled to compensation for unfair dismissal.

This is the first decision which recognises that victims of sexual harassment at work are entitled to legal protec*According to a report by the British Association for the Study and Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect at least four children are sexually abused every 24 hours. Their figures explode the popular myths about the subject: "Lolita s" and Three quarters of all abuse is committed by relatives and close family friends. 40% of the . child victims are under 11 and 13% are under the age of 6. - Worryingly, the Report points to the reluctance of social workers to intervene or even acknowledge the situation. Their reluctance is probably understandable, though not defensible, in the context of glorification of the family and the overriding need to "keep the family together" which clearly conflicts with the rights of children to be protected from assaults by their fathers, uncles, etc.

The report also finds that adults who had been sexually abused as children found it particularly difficult to form relationships which combined attachment with sexuality.

This seems to confirm a claim made by author Andrea Dworkin that there is a direct correlation between incest and child abuse on the one hand and women going into prostitution. She claims 75% of prostitutes surveyed were incest victims. Even if the figures are open to dispute, the concluSIon of the reality behind the "happy families" myth is pretty devastating.

*What civilised folk they have at the Beeb! Dr Robert Burchfield has been investigating BBC English and advising on correct pronunciation. The acting programme organiser of Radio Carlisle objectea to some of his verdicts: "ff we pronounced everything the way suggested here, our Northern listeners would feel we're a bunch of poofters" . Never mind the accents, feel the bigotry!