Cameron turns back clock on women's rights

Written by Sarah Wrack, Socialist Party England & Wales Monday, 26 April 2010 14:28

David Cameron's comments on abortion last week underlined the danger of increased attacks on women's rights if the Tories win the general election.

The Tory leader told The Catholic Herald: "The way medical science and technology have developed in the past few decades does mean that an upper limit [on abortion] of 20 or 22 weeks would be sensible". The current law allows for an abortion up to 24 weeks of pregnancy.

Apparently, Cameron thinks he knows better than the medical and scientific experts who investigated the issue as recently as 2007 and concluded that there is no evidence that foetal viability has improved since the last time the upper limit was changed.

Lady Gaga & Female Liberation?

Written by Conor Payne Monday, 12 April 2010 11:24

Pop sensation of the moment, Lady Gaga, has recently topped one billion views of her videos on Youtube. Her new 10-minute music video Telephone is creating quite a stir. The video has been praised as exemplifying “liberated” female sexuality and Lady Gaga herself has been held up in the media, including by feminists, as a “feminist icon and a gender revolutionary” and “a strong symbolic figure… for the openly and secretly flamboyant of all genders and sexualities.”

100th International Women’s Day

Written by Diane Williams Monday, 08 March 2010 11:46

Fighting capitalism to win equality

In 1910 at the second International Conference of Working Women, Clara Zetkin, a German revolutionary socialist, proposed that every year in every country there should be a celebration on the same day - a Women's Day - to press for their demands.

China - Women's struggle then and now

Written by Elin Gauffin, CWI Sweden Wednesday, 03 March 2010 17:19

There are important lessons from women’s struggle in Chinese history that should be studied again

International Women’s Day was celebrated for the first time in China in 1924. By then, growing workers’ and women’s movements were already developing. The Hunan Women’s League was formed in 1921. By the end of that year they had pushed through provisions on women’s suffrage and personal freedom in Hunan’s constitution. The Association for Women’s Rights in Zhejiang province issued an appeal for women to join the revolution to overthrow the warlords and introduce democracy. In Shanghai, 20,000 workers in the silk spinning industry went on strike in 1923 demanding a 10-hour day and wage increases. Chen Pi-lan, who became a Trotskyist, was one of the leaders of the Communist Party Women’s League in Shanghai.