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Link to this page: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/965/26228
From The Socialist newspaper, 4 October 2017
Leeds Socialist Students marks 'International Safe Abortion Day'
Campaigning for abortion rights by Rosa in Ireland (Click to enlarge)
Leeds Socialist Students and affiliated groups came together to mark International Safe Abortion Day on 28 September.
As Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have not yet afforded the right to legal abortion, Leeds Socialist Students placed this particular group of women at the forefront of the protest.
Speakers included Amy Cousens of the Women's Lives Matter movement in Doncaster, and Tanis Belsham-Wray, member of the Socialist Party and former women's officer at Leeds Trinity University.
Amy spoke of the need for a more progressive approach by the Labour council in Doncaster towards other relevant issues, such as domestic violence.
Both Tanis and Amy spoke of the struggles undertaken by Irish women in their search for a legal right to abortion.
It is possible to travel to Britain to receive treatment. However, the NHS only covers the cost of abortion for Northern Irish women, and not for women travelling from the Republic of Ireland. Thousands of women have to pay out of their own pockets to receive treatment.
This right is fundamental. Leeds Socialist Students extends its solidarity not just to the women suffering across the water, but to women all over the world who have not yet been afforded this right.
Eleanor Noyce, Leeds University Socialist Students
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The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
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In The Socialist 4 October 2017:
Catalonia
Solidarity with Catalonia - the people have the right to decide
Exemplary resistance by the people of Catalonia
Eyewitness: Irish socialist MP participates in events
What we think
Socialist Party workplace news
Royal Mail workers set for national strike action
Unison attacks Barts deal after failing to ballot their members for strike action
RMT strikes against removal of train guards spreads
University of Leeds workers walk out
ThyssenKrupp - Tata steel merger
Che Guevara
Revolutionary socialist Che Guevara 50 years on
Labour Party conference
Labour Party conference: Action against establishment sabotage still needed
Socialist Party news and analysis
Monarch abdicates responsibility to workers
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
£11,000 raised in three weeks for fighting fund
Why I joined: I wanted to change things
Chatsworth ward campaign replies to Tory MP's intervention
Surveying Labour councillors - will they fight cuts?
Leeds Socialist Students marks 'International Safe Abortion Day'
Protest outside Ukip conference against German far-right speaker
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