fives in 1930 to 10 per cent in 1965. The education White Paper in 1972 reported that only 5 per cent of 3-year-olds had any state education, with provision for child: Abortion Tribunal judgement on the evidence presented. In that way all of the participants in this event will decide, on the basis of the evidence collected, the next steps in taking forward the campaign for a woman's right to chose and for free NHS abortion on demand.* Charges the day of the Tribunal will be done in two ways. First the Tribunal Mobilising Committee will serve notice on various institutions and on particularly notorious anti-abortionists. These notices will include charges against the Church, the Labour Government, the medical profession and the Leo Abses of this world All will be invited to attend and to derend emseives ul tey can Secondly, campaigning groups will present the evidence they have collected on such themes as abortion and the liberation of women, abortion facilities, and abortion and the media. These groups will explain how they have collected their evidence, all of which will be made public. Local Tribunal Mobilising Committees will be asked to release their evidence in their own areas and To use mmt evcece to ascuss ule wat the Tribunal will hear messages of support from prominent members of the labour movement: and there will be stalls and displays organised by trade unions, women's groups and such organisations as the Pregnancy Advice Service.
as much information as possible, and already local groups are deciding the type of evidence they are best able to collect. Where the 1967 Act has hardly been implemented, campaigns will be on childminders The presentation of the evidence on As well as the evidence and "trials", The urgent need now is to assemble Dodie Weppler This pitiful provision of pre-school facilities occurs at a time when 18 per cent of women with children under five are working. It also occurs at a time when research is mounting to shów that all children, whatever their social background, need the stimulation of nursery education and play outside the home. Instead thousands of women have to rely - many of whom are not even registered because they do not meet government standards.
But the Labour Government is consciously wielding the axe against any such facilities. The February White Paper on public expenditure annonced that there would be no increased provision for under-fives. The 1975-76 building programme of £32m would be slashed to £8.5 m in 1976-7 and Lóm in 1979-80.
The current issue of the educational magazine Where reports that 42 launched to trace the source of the sabotage. In South London there Is the possibility of investigating the recent death from backstreet abortion.
With such initiatives in mind, all the speakers at the NAC Planning Meeting stressed the need to extend the forces involved and to use the opportunity the Tribunal offers of developing campaigning groups inside the unions, the Labour Party, and the community as a whole. As one speaker said: 'It is no good reling on afew NAC activists. The Tribunal will be a success if it involves such people as nearu workers. who are in the best position to know anou aborion resT cions: ownen who have been refused an abortion and forced into the private sector.
But underlying all the planning was the realisation that the funds of the NAC are nearly depleted; and in stressing the importance of the Tribunal, Red Weekly has no hesitation in urging its readers to réspond to the plea for cash which NAC has made. With the coming publication of the Select Committee keport, nance to counter we anti-abortionists is more urgent than ever. Please sena all contributions to NAC, 30 Camden Road, London N.I. improvement in nursery school provision, they nevertheless argued: We do not believe that full time nursery places should be provided ....... we consider nat mouners wae cannot satisfy the authorities that they have exceptionally good reasons for working should have low priority for full time nurseries.
The women's movement has always rejected the idea that children should be imprisoned in the family until the age of five, and that the mother should take sole responsibility for their care. A book published this week adds fuel to this opposition by destroying the pillars of Bowlby's arguments on his own group of psychological research.
The contributors to the book Early Experience: Myth and Evidence, show that there is no evidence to support the notion that children only form a close relation ship with one person, let alone the mother. They show that it is not continuity of relationship that counts, but the quality of care the child receives at all ages. They dismiss as harmful the idea that children should be denied the stimulation of nursery education, or that *a bad home is better than a good institution' - an idea which exposes children to violence in the home This book adds further weight to mne ngnt back agamst nurscry cutbacks. These are all too often justified and accepted by the Government and the workers movement on the basis that home is the rightful place for under-fives and their mothers. Without this fight back. women's rights to independence and equality will be relegated to conference speeches and the Lab our Government's cutbacks will ride through on the back of the belief that under-five provision out side the home is an ill-advised luxury.
weekly we July