The two Peoples' Assemblies in T 2003, organised by stop the War,
the Respect founding conference and now the Stop the War AGM have all been organised without regard for the needs of parents. Anyone with childcare responsibilities wishing to attend any of these events will have been presented with difficulties and often excluded, most often the woman, for there were no crèches.
This is not a question of lack of demand -the Trade Union Convention in early February had a very busy crèche. Excuses about lack of money cannot be accepted either, for childcare facilities have to be budgeted for from the very beginning. How has this happened?
A long and largely successful campaign was fought in the 1970s, under pressure from the Women's Liberation Movement (WLM), for childcare to be taken seriously. Not just the state, but also the left and the Labour Movement were all targets of the campaign.
Women argued that without nurseries and crèches they could not play a role in public life, including going to work, attending trade union and political meetings or going to the cinema. In fact twenty-four hour childcare was one of the four initial demands of the WLM.
Not that women wanted their children
page 17 of the scan
International Women's Day oclaust resistance March 2004 17