Storming Parliament

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To join Youth CND (under Send £1 to above address. Or join your local CND gro NONPLUSSED! That was the reaction of MPs and House of Commons officials when women from Greenham Common made their extra-Parliamentary protest an intra-Parliamentary one last Monday, January 17.

Hundreds of women had arrived at the House of Commons for a mass lobby of MPs. After a long wait, they were allowed in in small groups.

In the central lobby about 40 women who had been talking to MPs formed a circle and sang. And some 70 women who had been sitting in the public gallery started heckling and chanting slogans.

Immediately; door-keepers descended and dragged the women out of the "I shall suspend the sitting if we cannot be allowed to proceed" , squeaked the outraged Speaker, George Thomas. 'We cannot allow anyone to try to stop Parliament. It would be the end of democracy " Jenny Fisher reports on the invasion of Westminster by the women from Greenham Common The women in the lobby were also dragged away -into Westminster Hall. At first, the police were very rough, but after complaints from some Labour MPs they stopped using heavy arm locks and bumping the women down the steps, which could easily have caused injury, and asked the women to walk down the steps instead.

Once they had all the women safely in Westminster Hall, the police herded them into a corner, surrounded them with metal gates and stood round on guard, while the women sang.

Several Labour MPs supported the women's action in the House. Frank Allaun (Salford East) commended their "brave action"; Jo Richardson spoke of them as "determined and very courageous" , and went ot talk to them in Westminster Hall.

Others protested at the way the women were being kept "prisoner" by the police, with only MP's and not the press being allowed to speak to them, including Kevin McNamara (Hull Central) and Reg Race (Wood Green). Indeed, the women were eventually allowed to leave, even though people who interrupt Parliament are usually detained until the session ends.

Meanwhile, the Speaker was unimpressed and summed up the proceedings by saying that interrupting Parliament was "a very serious offence. If we give encouragement to that sort of thing our future would he bleak indeed."

But how "bleak indeed" will all our futures be if Thatcher is allowed to continue bringing more and more nuclear weapons into Britain? So why did Labour MPs just carry on sitting in Parliament (debating whether to guillotine the Transport Bill)? Why didn't they all leave the Chamber, join the women and talk about how the Conference policy of unilateral nuclear disarmament can be implemented?

Cruise missiles are due to arrive this year! How do Labour MPs intend to stop them? By sitting in a minority in the House of Commons? Or waiting for governmental "power" SO they can send them back?

'Parliament is no longer reflecting the fact that over 50% of the population don't want Cruise missiles," says Deborah Law from Greenham.

Perhaps Labour MPs will be lucky enough to get a second chance. Simone Wilkinson from Greenham says there will probably be another demonstration next month. reaction to homosexuality. and 'coming out' is a huge problem or • most gay people. And you can't escape from doubting yourself when society tells you that you're immoral/sick/ disgusting, etc., and it's hard to overcome the guit and shame.

Gay men and lesbians obviously have many points of contact when organising against oppres sion, but unless more gay men realise: that their experiences and CODcerns are for a fair part not those of lesbians, and recognise that, as men. they still remain in a dominant position Over women, gay liberation will remain a movement aimed primarily at liberating gay men.

Whenever there is a gar caucus or meeting, lesbians must be able to organise autonomously. Within groups such as Women s Fightback, movement women's ir general, lesbian struggles must become more and more central. And socialiste must be careful to listen to what lesbians have to say before thinking that you understand gay oppression