Showdown in Houston

Dust kicked up by the four-day showdown that ended Monday in Houston is surely still swirling. It probably will take until the dust settles to accurately analyze the impact of the National Women's Conference on the women's movement.

Yet some clear assessments can be made now. Feminists demonstrated their essential solidarity as one after another of the proposals in the National Plan of Action to be presented to the President and Congress were adopted. As anyone who followed the conference activities knows, that demanded tireless devotion.

Special interest groups ranging from rural interests to an Alaskan lobby, from extreme left to ultraconservative, from welfare and handicapped concerns to the problems plaguing Asia-Pacific and minority women and most everything in-between threatened to bog down the proceedings as each sought to further its cause or block others.

But obstinance soon faded as the delegates realized that compromise is an invaluable political tool, and that the future of all their causes depended on their performance in Texas.

Exercising their understanding of political give-and-take, the delegates then provided smooth passage 'for approval of two of the most important issues, the Equal Rights Amendment and abortion rights.

Had the delegates not passed those resolutions at their own conference small bets would have been too much to wager on their future outside its compatible confines. This essential solidarity meant the necessary inclusion of the controversial lesbian rights issue, with its obvious built-in risk to the rest of the package.

But the risk had to be taken in spite of the dangers. The plan is to overcome the hazard by strong. lobbying back home. By establishing their political clout, inclusion of controversial issues will not necessarily undermine the women's hardfought efforts on other crucial proposals.

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The tenuous convention harmony

ended when the 26th and last proposal, to establish a cabinet-level women's department, failed. Again, a compromise was reached as the delegates opted for a committee to oversee the future of their resolutions.

So much was at stake in Houston that the conference had the aura of a constitutional convention for women. Its importance was further underscored by the visceral attacks it spurred from the so-called profamily sympathizers, who must have exhausted their arsenal, even using as ammunition the $5 million appropriated by Congress to sponsor the conference.

What they failed to clarify was that the money was provided for a federal commission, the National Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year, to plan a women's convention in the democratic process.

Despite the turmoil, great strides were made in the right direction. Women will now use their clout even more effectively and forcefully to further the equal rights of all women in this country. While they can count on President Carter for aid in most of their aims with abortion being the most obvious exception-finding sufficient friends in Congress will require every ounce of their strength.