Joe Higgins TD speaking at pro-choice Rally at Dail

In July, French president Nicolas Sarkozy began a blatantly racist policy of systematic deportation of Roma people residing in France. So far over 1,200 have been deported. A leaked memo from the French interior ministry confirms the racist nature of this policy, telling police chiefs to “begin a systematic dismantling of the illegal camps, particularly those of the Roma”.

In April of this year, the government parties, including the Labour Party that claims to have a pro-choice position, shamefully rejected a bill to legislate for the X Case, introduced by Socialist Party TD, Clare Daly. The persistent conservatism of the political establishment was exposed and women in Ireland (like the estimated 150,000 women who have travelled abroad to access a termination since 1980 before them), continue to suffer the consequences.

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

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.