IN WHOSE INTEREST?

By Flow Carlson

Like many other parents, Kamalla Miller lost custody of the child she later "kidnapped" not because she was an unfit mother, but because another family-in this case Kamalla's parents, Kenneth and Juanita Moore-could provide more material wealth. Kamalla's political activism in union organizing, in farmworkers' struggles and in the antinuke movement also counted against her in the custody case fought in Orange County, California. In 1974, in Champagne, Illinois, Kamalla's son

ג! ני

Jason became ill. Kamalla and her husband Arthur, more and more worried because they had just moved and were out of money, called Kamalla's parents in California asking that they send their marriage certificate so that they could obtain medical assistance. Her parents said that the only help they would offer was to take the children, Jason and Ishka, for a while. Reluctantly, they sent the children to the Moores.

After realizing that jobs were scarce in Champagne, Kamalla and Arthur moved to San Diego, where Arthur quickly found a job as a pipefitter. But when the Millers tried to get their children back, they discovered that the Moores had filed for custody.

The court awarded custody to the Moores. There was nothing on which to base the case against the Millers both parents were competent, they worked hard, and no one was even suggesting child abuse. The only "negative" information about the Millers was that Kamalla had been ill many times with epilepsy. Arthur was described as "physically, mentally and economically impoverished” (even though he had a steady job), and as a “fanatical IWW communist".

In making his decision, the judge said that he did not have to decide that the Millers were unfit parents; he needed only to decide which home was better-and since the Moores made more money, they would obviously provide the best home. He added that John D. Rockefeller would make the best parent in the world!

Kamalla and Arthur were stunned. They tried to find ways to appeal, but couldn't afford legal assistance. The class bias of the courts appalled them.

Unfortunately, this case is not uncommon. Class, political and racial biases are separating many children from their families today. Divorced women are losing their children to husbands who make more money. Native Americans are having their children “adopted” right out of their homes and sent to "better" white homes.

The decision against the Millers came in December

of 1975. In October of 1977, Jason died, suffocating in a plastic bag while in his grandparents' custody (his death was ruled accidental). In 1978, feeling that she could no longer stand for Ishka's being subjected to what Kamalla had faced growing up her father's alcoholism, his joy in playing Russian roulette with a loaded gun (he once pointed the gun at Ishka and pulled the trigger), the craziness that had made her parents confine her and her sister to their house for not years, even letting them for out school-Kamalla arrived in California, took Ishka out of her parents' house, and hitchhiked to safety. She and Ishika were discovered in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, where Kamalla was charged with kidnap-

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France:

| Demanding Free Abortion

By Rosette Coryell

Paris (LNS)-Chanting "Abortion is our right" and "Our bodies belong to us," more than 50,000 women marched through the streets of Paris on October 6 asserting their right to decide whether and when they want children.

The focus of their demonstration was the French law legalizing abortion, adopted by the Parlement in 1974 for a five-year trial period, which ends in November. The law is now up for review. Parlement will have to decide whether to keep it in force unchanged, which is what the government advocates; modify and improve it, as women's groups and the left-wing opposition urge; or repeal it, as some noisy right-wing "backlash" forces have demanded.

At the time it was adopted, women considered passage of the law a significant victory, won in large part by their constant agitation. Under the previous "1920 law," both abortion and contraception had been totally illegal. But women activists never

Wil

Rosette Coryell/LNS

stopped criticizing what they viewed as major shortcomings in the new law; abortions could only be performed in the first 10 weeks, a tight limit made even more restrictive by bureaucratic obstacles and lack of

ping and held under $100,000 bail. On September 24, 1979, a hearing took place to decide whether Kamalla should be extradited to California for trial. If she is not extradited, all charges will be dropped, and the custody issue looks hopeful. California Public Social Services have done a study of the Moores and decided they should not retain custody, and Arkansas Family Services have recommended that Kamalla get custody. The Arkansas court has not yet decided on whether or not she will be extradited.

A Committee to Support Kamalla Miller has been · formed in Minneapolis, supported by Women Against Violence Against Women. Money is needed to pay Kamalla's legal fees and provide other kinds of support. Money and requests for more information can be sent to: Committee to Support Kamalla Miller, 3304 Clinton Avenue, S, Minneapolis, MN 55408.

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adequate hospital facilities; abortions were no covered by the French equivalent of medicaid, meaning that low income women cannot afford them; and parental consent was required for minors, often spelling tragedy. As for contraception, though it was legalized a few years before abortion, all propaganda in its favor remains forbidden to this day, which makes it very difficult for the women who most need it to get information on the subject.

The massive turnout for the October 6 demonstration, largest ever for an abortion rights march in France, was cited by organizers as an indication that women are determined not to stop agitating until abortion and contraception are completely free,

"Lysistrata": 1979

(Her Say)-Women in the West German region of Lower Saxony are staging a "birth strike" to protest nuclear armament and nuclear power plants. The women have taken a written pledge not to bear children "as long as the ruling powers are not ready to give up nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants."

The pledge was launched in Lower Saxony last Mother's Day. It already has 1,000 signatures. Ilona Wagner, a spokesperson for the group, says the women will now launch a nationwide campaign for the birth strike. "We are doing this," Wagner says, "because we are for children.''

The pledge reads in part, "No future without children, no children without a future,” and calls for an end to "the [nuclear] insanity."

Wagner says women from Lower Saxony and the children they already have will march next Easter to Gorleben, the site of a proposed nuclear waste disposal area. There they intend to plant Easter lily bulbs, so they can come back next year and enjoy the flowers. That march, Wagner says, will be "entirely in women's hands."

Spain: Demanding the Right to Abortion

(Her Say)-More than 1,000 women released a statement in Spain last month calling for a reform of Spain's stringent abortion laws and admitting that they themselves had had abortions. The statement was drawn up to protest the trial which began October 26 of eleven Spanish women charged with participating in illegal abortions. The main defendant in the case is a 42-year-old woman who is charged with performing abortions on the other ten women. The unidentified woman, if convicted, could receive a sentence of 60 years' imprisonment for performing the abortions.

The prosecution is also reportedly demanding that

all eleven women be suspended from practicing civil liberties the right to vote and to hold public of fice for an eleven-year period.

The statement signed by 1,357 women criticized Spanish justice for "condemning women for the mere fact that they do not have the 40,000 pesetas-or $600-required to abort in Great Britain." Protests by women's groups in Spain, meanwhile, have been met with violent opposition by riot police.

Spain's abortion law has remained unchanged since the Franco regime which reflected a staunchly Roman Catholic attitude.

November, 1979/What She Wants/Page 5