Opinion | Lorenzo D’Ettore
The title of this article, “Every working class conquest must be defended, otherwise it will be reversed,” echoes a profound truth articulated by the Editorial Board of The Worker. This statement underscores the relentless struggle faced by the working class in defending their hard-won rights against the persistent efforts of the bourgeoisie to undermine them. As the recent U.S. electoral farce concludes, marked by the election of the ultra-reactionary Donald Trump, the working class finds itself in a dual-aspect grappling with both minor victories and significant challenges.
Among the concessionary gains in several states are increases in the minimum wage and the right to access abortion. While the rights of workers in the conduct of their work remained largely off the ballot, there were other gains such as legislative rights to paid (or in some cases unpaid) sick leave accrual, as seen in Missouri. It must be emphasized that these gains are concessionary because the bourgeois class, which owns the means of production, acts to divide the working class and maintain pressure on workers while offering slight measures of change to stifle their struggles.
One of the most discussed topics in the bourgeois media circus was the passing or not-passing of constitutional abortion access. While the right to an abortion is an essential component of women’s bodily autonomy, the country’s birth rate is steeply declining. The bourgeoisie is aware of this decline, which is why the attack on working women will continue regardless of the constitutional provisions. Reactionary judicial precedents significantly threaten access to the already meager legal and safe healthcare for working women, resulting in bodily injury and death for working women across the United States.
The contradiction between the bourgeoisie and the working class, exacerbated by the declining birth rate, means that the owners of the means of production will take measures to overturn and chip away at the fundamental rights that working women have. The Democrats’ rhetoric about protecting abortion rights and women’s rights was insufficient to persuade the voting populace to choose them, especially in light of their failure to prevent the overturn of Roe v. Wade and guarantee the right to an abortion, the declining standard of living weighing upon working women and men, and the ongoing genocide in Palestine. In short, working women, and workers in general must continue and intensify the fight. Legislation results in slight changes, and even then are victories of the mass movement rather than of electoral cretinism. But more fundamentally, as history shows, the effort to undo and undermine these changes will persist until the bourgeoisie is violently overthrown and the workers seize power.
The historical and ongoing injustices faced by working women in the realm of reproductive rights are starkly illustrated by several specific attacks, such as forced sterilization, forced abortions, and eugenics. One notorious example is the forced sterilization of Native American women by the Indian Health Service in the 1960s and 1970s, where an estimated 25% to 50% of Native American women were violently sterilized. Similarly, the “Mississippi appendectomy” refers to the practice in the mid-20th century where Black women in the South were sterilized without their knowledge during routine medical procedures, often justified under the guise of programmatic eugenics. These violent atrocities contribute to a growing blood debt which cannot be ignored.
In the contemporary era, access to abortion, even in legal states, remains problematic. Working women are dying in areas where the nearest obstetrician or gynecologist is hours away, and the window to get seen is months or a year away. For instance, in Mississippi, the closure of the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the state’s last abortion clinic, has left women with no in-state options for abortion services, forcing them to travel long distances and navigate numerous legal and logistical barriers to obtain care. This situation is exacerbated in U.S. territories like Puerto Rico and Guam, where healthcare infrastructure is often inadequate, and legal restrictions further limit access to necessary reproductive services. On Native American reservations, the Hyde Amendment restricts the use of federal funds for abortion, severely limiting access for women who rely on the Indian Health Service. These examples underscore the systemic inequities that persist in reproductive healthcare, highlighting the urgent need for revolutionary change to address these conditions.
The recent developments in Missouri, where Attorney General Andrew Bailey seeks to enforce abortion restrictions despite a constitutional amendment protecting abortion rights, exemplify the ongoing struggle against the rollback of even constitutional rights. Bailey’s stance, which includes enforcing parental consent and other restrictions, highlights the persistent efforts to undermine the will of the masses as expressed through Amendment 3. This situation underscores the broader theme of how both major political parties, through legislative and judicial maneuvers, work to erode fundamental rights.
The Trump administration’s potential enforcement of the Comstock Act represents a significant threat to abortion rights across the United States. Originally enacted in 1873, the Comstock Act prohibits the mailing of “obscene” materials, which has been interpreted to include abortion pills. This federal law, if enforced, could override state-level constitutional amendments that protect abortion rights, effectively nullifying the concessions won in states that have kept these rights. The Comstock Act’s revival under Trump’s leadership demonstrates the administration’s commitment to rolling back reproductive freedoms, leveraging federal power to impose restrictions even in states that have chosen to protect abortion access.
In Arizona, the struggle for abortion rights exemplifies the broader national conflict between state-level protections and entrenched legal challenges. Despite voters approving a measure to expand abortion access, the implementation of this constitutional amendment faces significant obstacles. Existing restrictive laws remain in place, creating a legal quagmire that complicates the realization of newly enshrined rights. Anticipated legal challenges further threaten to undermine the amendment, reflecting a persistent effort by anti-abortion forces to circumvent the will of the people. Arizona’s situation highlights the precarious nature of constitutional rights in the face of legislative and judicial resistance, illustrating the ongoing battle to secure and maintain reproductive freedoms in the US.
Despite their rhetoric of championing women’s rights, Democrats have fallen short in translating election promises into concrete action, preferring to use it as a cheap method to win votes. Their electoral approach has left many states vulnerable, as seen in the aftermath of the Dobbs decision, where Democrats failed to preemptively secure federal protections for abortion access. Moreover, their incremental and often reactive measures have not matched the scale of the threat posed by anti-abortion forces, leaving reproductive rights precariously dependent on the shifting sands of bourgeois political power. This insufficiency and unwillingness to secure the rights of women is combined with their role in disarming the mass movement by redirecting it into the electoral circus, where it is drowned in the false promises of change regurgitated every few years. Despite the Democrats painting themselves as the only possibility for making progress around reproductive rights, the reality is that Roe v. Wade was decided by a majority-Republican appointed Supreme Court under a Republican president, and was repealed 50 years later under a Democrat president with a Democrat-controlled House and Senate, showing that winning rights does not depend on which imperialist party is in office.
The struggle for daily demands must be intrinsically linked with the broader struggle for power. The Democrats and Republicans, despite their apparent differences, work in tandem to roll back the rights of the people to the extent that they can with each administration. This bipartisan effort underscores the necessity for the working class to develop the class struggle, building fighting organizations, and combine it with the overall struggle for power. Only through revolutionary leadership can the masses conquer and defend their demands, ensuring that basic rights are not constantly under threat but are guaranteed.
As highlighted in the opinion piece “Campaign Over for the Vice President of Genocide,” the Democrats’ defeat in the popular vote is a reflection of their inept performance in pretending to champion the interests of the masses. Their poor attempts to emulate Republican policies only resulted in their rejection by the electorate. Similarly, “Trump’s election – A Nova Democracia Editorial” emphasizes that the election of figures like Trump is symptomatic of the decomposition of imperialist democracy. The only path forward is for the masses to deepen their struggle for rights, moving beyond the false promises of reformism and towards the strategic conquest of power.
Photo: Working women protest against New York State’s abortion laws in Manhattan, New York City, on March 28, 1970. One sign in Spanish says “luchemos por legalizar el aborto” (Let’s fight to legalize abortion), and others in English read “Legal abortion si yes” and “Free legal abortion”.
