Ruth Coppinger speaks at Savita protest

At a ROSA meeting in October, Igor Iasine as guest speaker spoke about his first hand experience of LGBT repression in Russia, and the CWI’s campaign against this. Igor is active in Moscow, both in the LGBT movement, and in the Socialist Party’s sister organisation, the Russian section of the CWI. In this year, he has been physically attacked twice because of his activities.

The Bill that Socialist Party TD Clare Daly and Deputies Joan Collins and Mick Wallace have written and brought forward to the Dáil coincides with the 20th anniversary of the X Case, when a 14 year-old girl who became pregnant after being raped by a neighbour was prevented by the High Court from travelling to England for an abortion. Two weeks later, after massive public pressure and protests, the Supreme Court upheld her right to an abortion in England on the basis that her life was threatened because of the risk of suicide.

International Women's Day Protest - 6pm at the Spire, Friday 8 March

• Stand up for women's right to choose
• Stop violence against women
• Rage against rape
• Oppose austerity & the assault on the public sector

Christine Thomas, author of the new book 'It doesn’t have to be like this - Women and the Struggle for Socialism' spoke to Sarah Wrack about why such a book was necessary.