Nurseries-the bad news

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-and the good The fight to save Accrington's Manchester Road. Day Nursery is on again-for the second time in a year.

A year ago the Hyndburn Nursery Action Group won its campaign to keep the nursery open-but last week Lancashire's Social Service Committee singled it out for closure yet again, as the Tory County Council carry out more of the Thatcher government's attacks on the working class.

The campaign by the Leicester Nursery Campaign to defend the Fosse Road Day Nursery has ended in an important victory.

At its meeting on January 21 the Leicestershire County Council decided to drop any plans to close the nursery and instead-in view of the opening of a new Family Centre in the area-to extend the catchment area to allow children from the City's Braunstone Estate to use the nursery.

The news came in a letter to Nursery Campaign Secretary Dear Comrades, It must be disturbing for many other parents as well as myself to see Socialist Press campaigning • in tavour of paedophiles (SP 233).

You describe the view of paedophiles as child molesters to be a prejudice and imply that there is something wrong with such a prejudice. In fact many parents are prejudiced against child molesters and will do all we can to defend young people from sexual exploitation by adults and from economic exploitation by the bosses.

Your clap-trap about "democratic rights for paedophiles" and "opposing the oppressive laws related to the age of consent" are a slap in the face for working class parents who do not have child care facilities but have to worry about the safety of their children.

Some of us have had our own childhood experiences of the oppressive sexual drives of adults. Paedophilia is exploitation and I would no more think of defending paedophiles against The Day Nursery fulfills a great need in Accrington for one-parent families and for parents with temporary social problems.

Vulnerable

The attacks are indicative of the way the Tory-controlled Council and Tory government focus their attacks on the more vulnerable sections of the working class.

Following last year's successes in defending two nurJane Atkins from the new Director of Social Services.

The letter asked that the information be conveyed to the next Nursery Campaign meeting which was-not exactly coincidentally one would supposescheduled for the following night.

This successtul campaign, which involved mass pickets of the nursery, lobbies of the council and a local petition, should be a major boost to other anti-cuts campaigns in the area and to nursery campaigns nationally. conspiracy charges than I would think of defending fascists.

Let young people develop their sexuality with their own age groups and let Socialist Press get back to attacking the exploitation of the working class rather than supporting exploitation.

Yours fraternally Manchester P.S. The enclosed £5 is a donation to the Fund.

WE REPLY:

As we made clear in SP 234, neither Socialist Press nor the WSL has a position for or against paedophilia.

But we do have a position of opposing the persecution of paedophiles by the state - and in particular we oppose the "conspiracy' trials as an attempt to convict people for "offences" which in themselves are not against the law. series, the Hyndburn Nursery Action Group rested on its victories somewhat and failed to hold the group together.

Although the nucleus of the campaign is still 'there, it inevitably starts from a weaker position than last year, when the group was exhilarated by a victory against the Lancashire Education Committee over the Mount Pleasant School Nursery in Hyndburn.

The campaign is faced with further difficulties as Lancashire County Council attempt to buy off parents and staff by a) offering alternative employment to staff-on lower grades of course, b). phasing the closure over two years, and c) offering parents a scheme of "alternative care"-'specially' trained childminders.

Nevertheless, many anxious parents have expressed their determination to save the nursery.