Reagan's Cuts Fail to Stem Crisis

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No shortages for Reagan and his rich man's cabinet: the burdens fall on to the poorest American. Socialist Organiser student LEIGH: Every other Sunday caucus: Saturday February 7.30 at the White Lion 13 in Nottingham. Phone (opposite the market). 01-609 3071 for details. Feb.7: Women's liberation Accommodation available Fen.21: Afghanistan and the on Friday and Saturday. •Soviet invasion. EVEN A LEADING member of the Heinz family says that tomato ketchup is not a vegetable. And yet this question was debated by the US administration and Congress just recently, seriously and at great length.

The interest was not academic. One of Reagan's agencies wanted to re-define the official status of ketchup as part of a programme of lowering the nutritional standards of publicly providea school lunches - in order, of course, to reduce their cost to the Federal government.

It is an illustration of how the Reagan administration is leaving no stone unturned in its efforts to trim every possible penny from the budget for social and welfare services, while pushing up spending on weapons by trillions of dollars.

New proposals for cuts -both more and less ridiculus than the ketchup question - emerge every day from some section or other of the government. But the most important cutbacks so far put into operation were embodied in the reduced Federal budget for 1981-2 which Congress passed earlier in the summer of '81 and which came into operation on October 1.

Eligibility Overall this budget was six per cent down on the original Carter budget estimates for this year. Every programme, except the military and Federal police and surveillance forces, was cut. But the largest and most painful slice of flesh was carved off programmes of Health, Education and Welfare, which were reduced by nearly eight billion dollars - and Reagan is still trying to reduce that some more.

Most of the cuts were achieved by reducing eligibility for various kinds of Fed7 14 21 28 23.

• 9 26 events and many campaigns are carried free. Paid ads:

5p per word, £4 per column inch. Send to: Socialist Organiser (What's On), 28 Middle Lane, London N8. eral benefits. The programme of Aid to Families with Dependent Children was cut back sharply so that from October 1 about 400,000 families (out of the 4 million who benefit from this programme) had all their aid cut off and another, 280,000 got reduced amounts.

Most of the people who lose these welfare benefits will also have their rights to Federal assistance in medical expenses (Medicaid) terminated or reduced. The Federal Food Stamp programme which started at the beginning of the 1970s and now helps 22 million poor Americans buy food at an annual cost of the budget of well over S10 billion a year, was sharply slashed. One million people have lost their right to Food Stamps altogether, and millions of others have reduced allocations.

The programme of MediMEETINGS FORUMS LONDON: 'Stop the Tories in their tracks'. Speakers -Steve Good (Asst.Sec. Kings X ASLEF, in persona capacity), Martin Thomas (Socialist Organiser). Friday January 29, 7.30 at the General Picton, Wharfdale Rd, London N1.

STOCKPORT. 'The way forward for the Labour Left' '. Thursday February 7.30 at the Manchester Arms, Wellington Rd.

LAMBETH: Sundays 7pm. For venue phone 3071.

Jan.31: Stalinism.

Feb.28: The origins care for the elderly has been cut back by requiring patients to put up more of the money themselves; and it will become more difficult to get disability insurance benefits.

In many states the duration of unemployment benefits will be reduced from 39 weeks to 26 weeks and a number of Federally aided jobs under a very limited public works programme will end.

Rents in subsidised housing have been increased: it will be more difficult for college students to get loans to finance their studies.

Millions of working class and middle class Americans will be hit in one way or another by these measures. But their impact is very concentrated on the very poor and those just above the official poverty line, in particular those in low-paid jobs. Surveys of the impact of the wel ISLINGTON: Every other Thursday, 7.30 at the Florence, Florence St. Feb.4: What is Trotskyism?

Socialist Organiser Delegate Meeting: Saturday Jan.30, 11am to 5pm in Birmingham. For details phone 021-471 1964.

MARXISM London Workers' Socialist League classes on basic Marxism: alternate Fridays, next class February 5 on 'Sectarian socialism and Working Class Socialism' -For details of registration and venue, write to PO Box 135, London N1 ODD.

IRELAND Labour Committee on Ireland: AGM, Saturday February 6, from 10am at Digbeth Civic Hall, Birmingham. Voting restricted to LCI members paid up for 1981 by January 6, 1982: conference fee £1.50. fare cutbacks have reached the not very surprising conclusion that they disproportionately hit blacks and other minorities in the large cities - those, in other words, who are often least in a position to defend themselves.

The consequences of this first major dose of Reaganomics, as of Thatcherism, is that those in society who were disadvantaged to begin with are relatively the worst hit.

The National Advisory Council on Economic Opportunity, which is one of the Federal agencies which Reagan has completely abolished, was able to issue a statement just before its closure in which it warned with a dying breath, that the consequences of Reagan's cutbacks would be 'social chaos' Usually it is not the Federal government itself Labour Movement conference on Ireland: Saturday February 27, from 11am at The Theatre, 309 Regent St, London W1: Sponsored by LCI and Committee for Withdrawal from Ireland. Credentials £2 from 1 North End Road, London W14. TRADE UNIONS Media Freedom and the Right of Reply: conference organised by the Campaign for Press Freedom, 10 to 5, Saturday March 6, at Queen Mary College, Mile End Road, London E1. London Region CND Trade Union Committee conterence: February 6, at Collegiate Theatre, Gordon St, WC1. Trade union bodies in Greater London are invited to send up to three delegates: fee £2 per delegate to 11 Goodwin St, London N4 WOMEN Action Committee for a Woman's Right to Work organising conference: Feb.20, University of which directly administers the programmes which it is etting but the States and local authorities. And part of the Reagan programme has been to reduce the grants to the local authorities designed to cover welfare and other programmes, while at the same time allowing the states more freedom as to how exactly they spend the money.

In principle the states can supplement federal programmes or make up the cuts by programmes of their own -as long as they raise the taxes locally. But this means that many of the direct political problems arising from the cutbacks will fall at the feet not of Reagan in the White House but of State Governors and City Mayors: one of the reasons why they Republicans and Democrats alike - have been almost unanimous and fairly vocal in condemning the cutbacks.

But they are nonetheless going ahead with the implementation of the Reagan cuts, though in some cases with a delay as State legislatures have to pass new laws reducing entitlements to welfare benefits.

The fiscal crisis of the States and city authorities is also getting worse, and in many places they are therefore implementing extra cutbacks of their own.

Worst hit are fire protection, education public transport.

Rescinded

So despite the sharpening contradictions of Reaganomics and the abandonment of just about all of its original stated objectives, the Reagan administration has not been paralysed. As well as cuts, it has pushed through another item on which all the elements of the Reaganomics coalition are in agreement: that is, dismantling as many London Union, Malet St, London WC1. Registration £3 (or £1.50 unwaged) from WRTW, 181 Richmond Rd, London E8.

Sexual Politics conference: Feb.6-7, at Edinburgh University. Sponsored by NUS Scotland. Open to all interested. Starts 10.30am Saturday. More details from Glasgow School of Art SRC, 041 332 0691.

Oxford Women's Fightback meetings. RAPE: Wednesday January 27, 8pm Cowley Community Centre. A WOMAN'S RIGHT TO A JOB: Monday February 8, 8pm, East Oxford Community Centre, room 2. PORNOGRAPHY: Monday February 22, 8pm, same venue.

STUDENTS

National Union of Students national day of action: Figh1 •acism in the NHS, defend overseas students. 1pm: picket of DHSS office at Elephant and Castle, called ation. January 29. as possible of the numerous Federal government regulations on the private sector of the economy - what is known in Reaganese as deregulation' One advantage of deregulation, from Reagan's point of view, is that much of it can be done without Congressional approval, simply by executive action.

Reagan has, for example, rescinded a whole number of measures which enforce product quality and safety standards. To the pleasure of motor industry, for example, he has relieved them of the requirement to install air crash bags and safety belts in cars; he has abolished federal standards on fuel economy; he has ended controls on minimum visibility.

Of course consumers might choose not to buy these expensive death traps, but the Reagan administration has an answer to that as well. It is in the process of dismantling regulations. on content in advertising.

It will come as a surprise to the cynical that Federal regulations at the moment dictate that American manufacturers may not make intrue statements in their advertising; but, for all the difference it will make, that stipulation is about to end.

Much more serious is Reagan's attempt to dismantle health and safety regulation. Reagan rescinded the requirement (due to have come into effect last May) of guaranteed full pay workers engaged in helping an inspector from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). He also ended a regulation due to take effect soon which would have enforced the labelling of all containers of dangerous substances with their full generic names.

This is replaced with a colour code which means Support Solidarnosc: of Polish Embassy, 47 Portland Place, London W1, called by London Student Organisation. 3.30pm, Wednesday February 3.

SALVADOR

El Salvador solidarity meet ing and film show: 50th anniversary of 1932 massacre. Speakers include Salvador Moncada and Jon Snow. Friday February 5, 7pm at the Old Theatre. London School of Economics, Houghton St, WC2.

DEMONSTRATION: US Hands off Central America!

Called by Oxford Latin America Committee.

Assemble 3pm Lamb and Flag, St Giles; Rally 4.30pm, Coop Hall Cowley Rd; Benefit Disco 8pm, West Oxford Community Centre. BOB SUTC tinues his articles on IFFE COi iries of Reag in's that workers have no way of checking the company's decisions whether to classify a substance as toxic or not.

Reagan has placed unde review measure which permitted workers access to all I written records stances. And there are a host of other considered which if they were molementer would in the words of an AFL-CIO spokesperson, "disembowel OSHA.

The administration is also quietly ripping the insides OVE or anoler agency Federal Environmental Pro. tection Agency, which investigates violations of environment protection laws and • reports confirmed cases the Justice Department for action.

But a polluted land is, at least in the short term, more profitable one, and that is what dominates the thinking of the Reagan administration.

Despite the obsession and energy which is going into cutbacks and deregulations, there remains a Grand Canyon in Reagan's Ameri ca between effort and results.

In this respect the results of Reaganomics sO far confirm one of the experiences of the Thatcher disaster in Britain: that no matter how hard governments of modern advanced capitalist economies try to cut government spending, it is very hard to achieve.

State spending, which has now in all such countries reached a very proportion of national incomes, is like -in addictive drug. Attempts to reduce it only seem to mike economies crave for more.

What are the contrarictions that lead to this situation? One of them is tha: the reduction of progranimes and employment on the one side leads to necessary increases in spending unemployment and related benefits on the other.

Second, the cuts in government programmes mean cuts in the power and jobs of government bureaucrats, who therefore have a tendency to sabotage them. It is said, for example, that all proposals to cut back spend. ng on the US Federal Government Geological Survey sudden rise in predictions of are closely followed by earthquakes!

It is what is known as the Washington Monument Syndrome: when the Federal Parks Administration is asked to make cutbacks, it always starts. • proposing the nation's most hallowed shrine.

The third problem is that, in the absence of the promised economic renaissance, in the US as in Britain, the attempt to implement programmes from which masses of people materially suffer naturally becomes unpopular. That is why Reagan's political coalition of Republicans and right wing Democrats which has SO far passed his demands for spending cuts through the Congress is beginning to disappear.

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Socialist Organiser no. 7O January 28, 1983 Page ancy' woman in reality the right The Act itself makes no to • choose' which many such stipulation: it allows believed was won in 1967. THERE HAS been no sudden increase in rape. There has been a sudden increase in media interest. The so-called. 'copycat' rapes do not reflect more rapes, but more reporting.

Judge Richards' remarks about 'contributory negligence' are however nothing new. On the contrary, his attitude, that women can bring rape on themselves, is the same attitude that the papers bring to reporting rape cases.

Rape stories are supposed to sell newspapers. So, in the interests of good journalism, the Fleet Street bloodhounds rush off in search of as much gory details as they can get their paws on. The 'interesting' stories are when the women is young, newly-married or about to be married, and hitch-hiking or ..walking alone at night.

They are written from a male point of view, almost always by men. (Women writers get a look in on the women's page if they're lucky, like Margery Proops in the Mirror).

The reality is more sordid and grubby than the newspaper stories. Age has very little to do with it. Women can be raped at any age.

Rape in marriage is not regarded as a crime. It doesn't occur to most men that husbands can rape their wives. The good newspaper rape is generally committed by a stranger, but in reality most rapes are committed by a man whom the woman knows -quite often her husband.

Violence in the family is common, though. barely recognised, as the police rarely intervene in domestic violence cases.

So Judge Richards' comments are not out of the ordinary. The picture presented by the TV documentary on Reading police was not out of the ordinary, either.

Women's Fightback Meeting WOMEN AGAINST THE BOMB Speakers from Greenham Common Peace Camp and JOAN RUDDOCK, Chairperson of CND.

Tues. Feb. 2nd, 7.30, at Conway Red Lion Square, London WC1.

Any Rape Crisis Centre can produce mounds of cases of women scared of going to the police because they know what kind of brutal, insensitive treatment they'll get there.

The police justify it by saying that if the woman can't put up • with that treatment in the police station, then she will not make it through the courts.

Vicious treatment of raped women in court at the hands of defence lawyers is notorious. On the grounds of the likely treatment of the victim of a particularly foul rape in Glasgow, the prosecution was called off by the Crown, since (they said they were afraid for her mental stability.

If any of the male journalists so dedicated to truthseeking bothered to think about it, their attitude is a major part of the reason why woren who have been attacked and raped do not, for the most part, report it or go through with it to a court case.

The press, the TV and the courts have no explanation for rapes other than that these are crimes same as any other - crimes committed by bad people.

Reasonable

Thanks to the women's movement and the discussions raised and provoked by it, the question of rape is now taken more seriously than in the past. It is less easy to deny that rape is a crime, or imply that it is a wicked but pardonable excess which women really like.

Whitelaw is proposing that all rapists be sent to jail as a matter of course. Public opinion, according to a survey done by the Sunday Times, is for harsher punishment for rapists.

But what does that solve? It is reasonable that women want the men who rape off THE NEW Tory offensive against abortion rights must be met by an immeaiate campaign in the labour movement.

While the Director of Public Prosecutions calls the streets, but putting them in prison for longer terms won't stop them raping again. In fact they're likely to be brutalised, bitter, and even more violent when they come out. There is no evidence to show that a harsher and more brutal penal system creates a less brutal society.

Rehabilitation centres (deseribed by Charlie Sarell in a letter to last week's SN) micht he more useful Compulsory jail sentences are also likely to mean that forsar ronicto ara ran. kal lewel lapists dit cullvicted: juries are reluctant to find someone guilty if they know there is an automatic jail sentence.

Castration is often cited as a fitting penalty, but surely socialists would not favour that any more than we would condone Islamic fundamentalist type punishments like cutting off the hands of a thief or the ears of a spy.

When Women Against Violence Against Women demonstrated against the Richards judgment on Monday 18th, a spokesperson told the press, 'We are not mainly concerned with long prison sentences for convicted rapists prison is no solution' But she opposed unequal sentences for rapists compared to other violent criminals: 'We want to see the courts mark the gravity of the offence' • A £2000 fine hardly marks a grave crime.

Feminists and socialists explain rape as a product not of a few èvil individuals but of the overall oppression of women under capitalism. So we would argue that to stop rape, the society that treats women as inferior and second-rate to men has to be overthrown.

The idea that women are passive beings just waiting to be swept up and conquered by men leads ultimately to rape, with men for police investigations into two gynaecologists, health service and other trade unionists should be preparing for firm action to defend the doctors against legal action. asserting themselves as active domineering beings.

Some sections of the women's movement would reply: 'Does that mean nothing can be done about rape until after the revolution?' And it's true there are left groups who have that type of attitude to rape, notably the Militant tendency.

But there is a lot that can be done now..

Court procedures could he chanded to mako wamen feel that they are not on trial and considered guilty of thr amnint ul pruvoking ne rapist until proven otherwise.

Demands for more female judges and court officials are not likely to make a great deal of difference, but the involvement of other women in a rape trial does make it easier for the raped woman.

Changes in the law have been made before: since 1976 the press can no longer name the woman.

Changes could also be made in reporting of rape cases: the journalists' union could enforce a code of practice which would make sure that rape reports are not trivialised and sensationalised.

The Reading police documentary cannot be dismissed as an isolated incident. So measures could be taken to make sure that policemen like that are kept well away from women who have been raped.

In New York there was a special unit set up to deal with sexual assant UNDAW cases, with the police men and women trained to deal sensitively with women who had been assaulted and raped. And the woman can ask to be seen only by other women.

Rape crisis centres have been set up in all major cities in Britain now, but get minimal amounts of money for running costs. We should demand that The gynaecologists have been refusing to comply with a revised form which the DHSS issued last March for completion by the doctors who perform abortions.

By Jo Thwaites local councils find premises and set aside money: for these centres.

Greater recognition of rape crisis centres by the police, the courts and the law could help raped women to avoid the worst excesses of policemen and lawyers. The centre could take the statements from the woman and act as her representative wherever possible.

And a legally established right tor rape crisis centre women to monitor and oversee how police deal with rape cases would force them to show more respect to victims.

Councils should be forced to make sure that there is adequate street lighting, so that women can walk about at night. The prevailing attitude that women who walk around at night alone deserve everything they get must be stamped out.

The more bus services are cut, the less money women have, the more need there will be to walk home at night or hitch.

Free self-defence classes could be set up as a normal part of a local authority's recreation department, run by and for women. And schools could make self-defence for girls a compulsory part of the curriculum.

While all these things seem puny against the enormity of the physical and mental assault of rape, the way to fight it must be to assert women's strength, and not to cower behind closea doors under the pro- -1. - -71- J-.. 11 tection of our men, or call for greater punishments for rapists.

Every measure for women's equality, asserting a woman's right to be free to lead her life as she wants, is a blow against the system that produces such an appalling manifestation of the way men relate to women.

This leaves no room for the granting of an abortion on social grounds, insisting that a 'medical condition' be specified.

Rebelling against this demand - which is a backdoor attempt to eliminate important provisions of the 1967 Abortion Act - doctors have been putting 'none' , or even 'pregnancy', ', in the space allocated for 'medical condition' The new forms were issued by top DHSS bureaucrats through a Statutory Instrument, which requires no new legislation. It did however go before a special committee of MPs - nine out of 17 of whom are anti-abortionists!

Health minister Gerard Vaughan was himself supporter of John Corrie's unsuccessful Bill drastically to restrict abortion rights, which fell in 1980.

Since then he, together with an I increasingly influential anti-abortion grouping within the DHSS, have sought ways to curtail rights provided under the 1967 Act.

Foreseeable The Act itself states clearly that abortion is legal if two doctors certify that the continuation of the pregnancy would involve either risk to the life or risk of injury to 'the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman' A special note emphasises that this 'does not require a substantial risk' And the Act also specifies that 'In determining whether the continuance of a pregnancy would involve such risk of injury to health... account may be taken of the pregnant woman's actual or reasonably foreseeable environment' A further note on this makes clear that, 'It would seem that 'may' must here be construed as 'shall'?

This provision - the so-called 'social' clause — has been the one accounting for up. to 85% of legal abortions in recent years.

Stipulation Yet last July a DHSS official by the name of Sir Henry Yellowlees decided to announce a unilateral change in the law. He sent a letter to doctors which proclaimed:

'Lest there be any misunderstanding, I should point out that non-medical factors alone do not provide legal justification for termination on the grounds you have entered on the form...

'There has to be a current medical condition which puts at risk the life, or physical or mental health of the patient, or the doctor must believe such a condition is a foreseeable consequence of the pregnNHS EVERY RIGHT • NO the doctor to decide whether the "environment' of the woman would cause a 'risk' to her mental health under conditions of an unwanted pregnancy.

Unanswered

As one doctor told the National Abortion Campaign:

In my opinion the risk t woman's health from a unwanted pregnancy is immense.. She does not have to be depressed, mad. suicidal or any other such at the time of seeking an abortion for there to be a risk to her future health and well-being' But many doctors have adopted an approach which is nowhere near so enlightened. Many have refused abortions or vigorously insisted upon fulfilling the same interpretation of the Act as the one now offered up by the DHSS - and women going to them have found it much harder to obtain an abortion.

It is of course an outrage that abortion is treated differently from other forms of medical treatment, and women find themselves left totally dependent upon the goodwill of the reactionary, male-dominated medical hierat hin this instance Vaughan's moves appear to be running into opposition not only from the women's movement but also from top men in the profession.

Sir Anthony Alment, president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, has made it plain that he disagrees with Vaughan's reading of the law - and it seems likely that the BMA too could be forced to speak out against prosecutions.

But women should not sit back and wait for such conservative bodies to rally to their defence.

The demand must be raised now in every union branch and Labour Party for resolutions of protest.

Socialists should • Letters to the DHSS and to Vaughan opposing the Statutory Instrument and demanding the withdrawal of the new form.

• Letters to their oWn union Executives, to Trades Councils, to the TUC and to the Labour Party NEC, demanding united labour movement opposition to the prosecutions.

• A pledge from leaders of the health unions -MPU, COHSE, NUPE and others - to fight for strike action in defence of the victimised doctors if the prosecutions go ahead.

• Affiliate to the National Abortion Campaign and fight to take forward the demand for an end to all restrictive legislation on abortion. to give everv WOMANS RESTRICTIVE LAWS

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