Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube

Urgent Call to Action: Our Unions Must Defend the Right to Abortion

The Rank-and-File Caucus of the Temple Association of University Professionals issued a statement against the Supreme Court’s attack on abortion and for the need for unions to mobilize to protect the right to an abortion in the streets and in our workplaces.

RAFT Temple

June 30, 2022
Facebook Twitter Share

Below is a statement released today from rank-and-file caucus, RAFT (Rank-and-File Temple). RAFT is part of Temple Association of University Professionals (TAUP), a local of AFT that represents about 2,000 teachers, librarians, and other academic workers at Temple University. 

The right to an abortion is under a frontal assault from the ruling class’s functionaries — an attack on one of the most important democratic rights we have: the right to bodily autonomy. 

Winning the right to an abortion was a key victory for working class and oppressed people. That’s because the ruling rich will always be able to get an abortion. But it’s workers and the oppressed who are under attack when abortion is banned. 

Statements are important; still, they’re only a step. From here it’s crucial for all unions to build the power to refuse work for abortion rights — to give teeth to the call: “If we don’t get it, shut it down!” 

***

Last week the unelected, anti-democratic Supreme Court took away a basic human right — a right that feminists have fought for for decades, and won: the right to an abortion. This decision clearly contradicts public opinion.  

The right to abortion, and more broadly the right to bodily autonomy, is above all a key right for workers and the oppressed. The ruling rich will always be able to get an abortion. The Supreme Court ruling attacks poor and working people, BIPOC, and the unemployed who will be unable to travel or pay for access to basic reproductive health care or will be disproportionately targeted by law enforcement.

RAFT denounces the Court’s horrific, reactionary decision in no uncertain terms. Abortion is necessary healthcare; it is a key human right, and above all, a right essential to workers and the oppressed. Working class and oppressed people must be able to make decisions about their bodies and their lives. Bodily autonomy is at the heart of labor rights!

We know the Court won’t stop there. Justice Thomas made it clear the Court should reconsider the rights to gay marriage and contraception. 

Now is the time to fight. But we already know the battle can’t be won by voting. Democrats had fifty years to enshrine Roe v. Wade into federal law. They refused. Waiting to vote is accepting defeat. The Supreme Court made this clear by gutting the Voting Rights Act before moving down this path. 

No one is coming to save us. Only a major show of power from the bottom up — disruption in the streets and in our workplaces — can hope to turn the tide. We need to protect the right to an abortion. The antidemocratic Supreme Court has declared a war on anyone who can bear children.

RAFT demands that our union, TAUP (AFT 4531), AFT, and the AFL-CIO mobilize all of our union siblings to the streets and to struggle in our workplaces. No one ever won a right by playing by the rules. Now is the time for our national union and federation to demand: “Safe, free, universal access to abortions!” And now is the time to win that demand by disruptive action, in the streets and in the workplace!

Facebook Twitter Share

Labor Movement

A UAW sign is held next to a "Free Palestine" sign

The UAW Has Called for a Ceasefire. It’s Time for All of Labor to Stand Up.

The UAW International union has joined calls for a ceasefire and is exploring how to divest from Israel. This is a step which should inspire union activists to take up the fight to bring their union into the fight against Israel's attack on Gaza and the struggle against imperialism.

Rose Lemlich

December 2, 2023
Protesters in NYC for Palestinian liberation.

Uniting Workers for Palestine Is a Fight for the Future of Labor

The struggle for Palestine shows the potential for the rank and file to push unions to break with imperialism and to build a new, combative, and internationalist unionism.

Tatiana Cozzarelli

November 27, 2023
A rally with people holding signs and a banner reading "Full funding"

Student Workers Stand Up for CUNY and Palestine

Attacks on CUNY and CUNY activists are an attack on all working people and students. Workers and students united can fight back.  

Olivia Wood

November 25, 2023

The Labor Movement Is Key for Palestinian Liberation

As part of the global movement in solidarity with Palestine and against the genocidal policies of the Israeli government, labor unions are taking action and demanding a ceasefire. This is not only a welcomed addition to the movement, but a necessary one that concretely shows the power of the working class.

Tristan Taylor

November 18, 2023

MOST RECENT

Robert Habeck Wrote a Play Praising a Right-Wing Mass Murderer

Germany's Green vice chancellor strikes many as an idealist who has been struggling with the tough realities of government. Yet before he was a national politician, he wrote a play that opens a window into a dark soul.

Nathaniel Flakin

December 1, 2023

The World Kissinger Built Must Die Too

Henry Kissinger died at 100 years old. But his legacy remains in the brutal world system he built and the future generations of imperialist ghouls he inspired. They all must go.

Samuel Karlin

November 30, 2023

Fact Check: Did German Leftists Try to Bomb West Berlin’s Jewish Community Center in 1969?

Answer: No. The bombing was undertaken by West Germany’s domestic secret service, originally founded by Nazis.

Nathaniel Flakin

November 29, 2023
Haverford College student Kinnan Abdalhamid and Brown University students Tahseen Ahmed and Hisham Awartani, Palestinian college students who were shot in Burlington, Vermont.

Haverford Faculty for Justice in Palestine Releases Statement Supporting Pro-Palestinian Students

Haverford College Faculty for Justice in Palestine have published a statement following the shooting of three Palestinian students in Burlington, Vermont.