NATIONAL NEWS

Labor Joins Gay Offensive Against Briggs

San Francisco (LNS)--Californians will go to the polls on November 7 to vote on State Senator John Briggs' Proposition 6, a legislative initiative which, if passed, would require school boards to fire any gay schoolworker not willing to hide and any non-gay schoolworker who openly supports gay rights.

The militancy of the gay community under attack is summed up in the slogan, "Come out fighting!" And in this struggle, the gay movement has the support of many labor and leftist groups. Amber Hollibaugh, lesbian activist and organizer of the historic Statewide Workers Conference Against the Briggs Initiative/Proposition 6, told LNS: "An incredible network is being built right now of progressive forces, much bigger than the left has had in a long time. Enormous links are being made between groups.`

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The Statewide Workers Confefence Against Briggs/Prop 6, held September 9 and 10 in San Francisco, is an example of the developments catalysed by the present attack the gay community. Over 500 gay activists and labor representatives converged for a weekend of work. shops designed to improve anti-Briggs tactics in the coming months. The conference was a militant assertion of the gay worker's place in the labor movement and of gays as a vital part of the left resistance to Briggs and those right wing forces he represents.

Participants in the speakers' workshops at the conference brainstormed on how to improve Labor Outreach. So far speakers from conference organizers, such as the Progressive Caucus, Radical Women, and Gay Teachers and Schoolworkers, have

been addressing labor union meetings that never had a gay speaker before.

A workshop participant explained to LNS: "Even with unions that are traditionally older, male and white, when the Briggs initiative is clearly explained to them, they've been really blown away. It really is

"AN ATTACK ON ONE WILL BE ANSWERED BY ALL"

WORKERS CONFERENCE

AGAINST BRIGGS/PROPOSITION 6

a dangerous initiative in terms of organized labor. Since it is so loosely defined, it could easily be used against any dissident workers."

An ever-increasing number of California trade unions are realizing that the initiative would

over-ride the contracts of the teachers' unions. The California Federation of Teachers, the San Francisco Labor Council, the California Federation of Labor (AFL-CIO) have all taken stands against Briggs. The Labor Committee of the Bay Area Committee Against the Briggs Initiative (BACABI) has page-long list of labor union endorsements. Gay caucuses are forming within union locals.

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There is a strategic division of labor among the myriad groups in the anti-Briggs campaign. For instance, the Concerned Voters of California are raising a million dollars for a media blitz before the election, while other groups do electoral work, labor outreach, and Third World outreach. Fund-raising events are daily occurrences in San Francisco.

Despite the recent setbacks in Dade County, St. Paul, Wichita and Eugene, California activists remain confident. Robert Lewis, a BACABI spokesperson who was run out of Wichita after fighting on the losing side, points out that the initiative comes on a general election ballot. heavy turnout is expected; this is believed to be a boon for gays.

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Although optimistic, gay activists plan to fight long past November if necessary. Legal cadres are already preparing challenges to the initiative's constitutionality. The teachers' unions are ready to strike. As Hollibaugh concludes, "If it passes in November, we'll have this incredible network of supporters and my God, the first time they try to use it in any way. . . . They may have been worried about one homosexual in their school; they're going to be real tense when there's 4,000 of us outside the schoolhouse door."'

Anti-Abortion Legislation Introduced in N.J.

(LNS) Following the example of Akron's antiabortion legislation, the New Jersey State Senate is authoring a bill presently under consideration in the New Jersey Senate's Health and Welfare Committee. The bill defines conception as the beginning of life, requires parental notification 48 hours prior to

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the abortion for women under 18, prohibits saline  ́abortions, severely restricts abortions in the second  ́trimester, and requires that expensive, highly sophisticated medical equipment be present during

second trimester abortions.

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Several well-known, highly funded conservative organizations were flown in from Chicago specifically to testify in favor of the N.J. bill. Americans United for Life Legal Defense Fund, the National Association of OB-GYN, and the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists received much publicity for their testimony in the New Brunswick County Court House. Meanwhile, the New York based Committee of Doctors and Nurses Against Abortion heightened the existing anti-abortion hysteria by exhibiting illustrations of the fetus in the early stages of pregnancy. "The New Jersey Right-to-Lifers received the most media coverage, "Marilyn Narinsky of the New Jersey Committee For Abortions Rights and Against Sterilization Abuse told LNS. The commercial media paid little attention when, she said, "A large number of students at Rutgers University in New Brunswick

have been vocal in protesting this bill." But when "five or six Right-to-Lifers picket in front of the courthouse, Channel 7 and 9 and the Home News (a local paper serving the New Brunswick area) jump to give them "fair coverage."

New Jersey Right-to-Life has been organizing vigorously around the bill. One of its recent strategies included an attempt to cut funding for the Rutgers University Rape Crisis Center. Luckily, they were unsuccessful. Undaunted, their next tactic was to stuff post office boxes with fetal pictures bearing the message that abortion is murder.

By now, repressive legislation should be second nature to Senator Maressa, sponsor of the bill: he is also in the forefront of a movement to recriminalize homosexuality in New Jersey.

NARAL Questions House Ethics

(Her Say)--The National Abortion Rights Action League has accused the U.S. House of Representatives of advocating censorship by prohibiting the Civil Rights Commission from studying or collecting any information on abortion.

The House voted 234 to 131 in September to prohibit the Commission from studying or collecting any information about "laws and policies of the Federal Government or any other governmental authority in the United States with respect to

abortion."

NARAL charges that Congress has mandated the Commission on Civil Rights to evaluate the laws and policies of the government as they relate to the

denial of equal protection under the law based on sex, race or national origin.

Karen Mulhauser, Executive Director of NARAL, charged that the House was "setting a dangerous precedent by interfering with the Commission's duty to investigate the impact of federal laws and policies as they relate to the denial of equal protection."

In the Commission's 21 years, Mulhauser says. only one of the 250 published reports involved abortion.

In a letter to President Carter, Mulhauser asked the President to veto a bill extending the life of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, if the bil! contained an anti-abortion amendment.