[But the authors make the mistake of arguing…]
Woman Worker1980 1980-06-01Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 3 →
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But the authors make the mistake of arguing that nursery education is seen as a low priority because political power is predominantly held by men.
This, under conditions where Margaret Thatcher is spearheading the demolition of nursery provision, can be seen as a quite laughable argument.
It is not men, but the capitalist class that. require the destruction of nursery care.
The authors go on to look at campaigns that have been set up - like the London Nursery Campaign - to struggle for the expansion of nursery facilities. They refer fleetingly to the growing interest in the needs of working mothers and the Under 5s within the trade union movement and the TUC.But this interest is important; it offers a tangible way in which the problems of working class women in the home can find exp ression in the struggles of the organised labour movement, which alone has the power to confront the employers and the Tory government.
Indeed, while providing useful information for campaigners, this book offers no practical road forward in the fight for nursery facilities.
Nobody should follow the fond illusions of one reviewer who imagined that anyone with axe poised over nursery provision might be jolted Mck Dei shed Ann McKinley reviews Nurseries Now: A Ann revie Nur Fair Deal for Pai en and Children, published by Pelican, £1.95. publ by ican, 95.
Ealing under-5s campaign into a more sensible attitude simply by reading the book!
What is needed is rather a book entitled Save our Nurseries Now' , in which basic material arguing the case for nurseries is brought together with the lessons, and experiences of struggles so far, and with tactics for future struggles.
Petitions and letters of protest, lobbies and general propaganda can play a limited role in fighting closures. But direct action - as seen two years ago in the South Oxford nursery occupation and the recent Wandsworth nursery occupation - offers the only real resistance to closures.
BACKING
But experience has shown that even this in isolation is not enough: the council is left free to use the courts unless there is the fir m backing of the local labour movement in suppor rting strike action to defend the occupation agains st eviction.
Women are increasingly taking to the streets to protest at the cuts in provision for the Under