out in Parliament last week. Will Labour now introduce its own Bill!
property, even on a mortgage, is not a common practice amongst blue collar It is obvious, in fact, that the SDA does far more for middle class women than it does for working class women. And now we're starting to solve the puzzle of the Labour Government's behavJOUr.
The strength of the women's movement over me last lew years nas made concessions on women's rights absolutely unavoidable. nat was ruDDed In DV the massive mobilisations against James and White's anti-abortion Bill. But the other ting side of the coin is that the economic ments. crisis has made it impossible for anyone cedures seriously interested in propping up capactly italism to make any major concessions. er again- For instance, a Government that accepts (seems almost devoted to) the need ent that for health cuts is going to have to put des with restrictions on the right to abortion - by sion. the back door if need be. e is strip- it will be looking for support actually ineful as- side the women's movement. And the most encouraging response will of course 15 OH difficult come from middle class professional ladLies - the Marjorie Proopses of this world. en our Never mind that she is at best a hangerdoing on of the women's movement - she writ er to es for a national daily and besides, any port in a storm. healthy Il seems BREAK UP lal woworkers, of these To go a little deeper - during a capitalist crisis the family does not stay imwer grade mune. Like every ting around ily little starts to break up under the strain. The EOYISIUSID rising divorce rate, violence in the home LeT- and even homelessness itself are evidence lip of of this. In the working class the material props for family life are kicked away. It is a lot harder to play happy families when your income has been cut off.
Of course this does not inevitably lead to the death of the family. That will only happen if the burdens of domestic work and child care are taken off women's shoulders. ed attempt by the working class to achieve precisely that - and it unquestionaDiy cannot be cone with e ranc work of capitalism -struggle to reimpose the family on the working class. For Wilson and Castle the SDA and EPA are necessary concessions, but they will not accept any real change in the situation of women - hence the restricuions on aborion, me cus l wor men's health facilities, the cuts in nursery provision.
STOP GAP At the same time Quite probably yuson and Castle are simply trying to plug the capitalist dam. But just by doing that, they are unable to do anything of significant use for the majority of working class woHECH To bring change would mean granting free abortion on demand. would mear establishing free contraception, would ел adc nurser provision, woule mean decent health and education servic es rather than cuts, would mean making equal pay a reality, would mean enforcing freedom from discrimination. not do all that and keep the CBI happy. The present Labour leadership has chosen to out me mterests or camimism mEsE The interests of the working class go in exactly the opposite direction. JANICE MILLS on women limit.
Short of a concertwhat emerges is a been higher.
Photo. JOHN STURROCK (Report)
You canThis article is reprinted from the February issue of Health Services, the journal of the Confederation of Health Service Employees When politicians and the media talk about unemployment they talk about statistics. Not about the fundamental effects of life on the dole for the family. As a health visitor, I am supposed to pick up the pieces.
Every other week I visit homes where the husband has just been made redundant, with many small factories closing in my area, and this puts tremendous stresses and strains on the family - paruculany Dole generally means a big drop in income, and therefore a lower standard of living. It's the woman as housewife who takes the brunt of this - and of the reduction in living standards caused by the f6 wage On all sides, the pressures on families struggling to cope in the crisis are mounting. The results are very predictable, as find in home after home. Depression, especially among women, could well be Britain's fastest-growing product.
Most women, of course, have their own jobs outside the home, and with having to make ends meet on a shrinking budget, and attempting to hold the family together, the stresses and strains can be seen in the huge number of tranquilisers that are being prescribed (the drugs companies are doing very well), and the increased call on the services of psychiatrists Many of the women that I see find they can't cope with kids any more. Baby battering by both parents is only too common, as well as battery of the wife by the husband. Marriages often break-down; divorce rates have never In these circumstances, the job of a health visitor is quite simply impossible. Our tasks, as defined by the Council for the Education and Training of Health Visitors, involve: the prevention of mental, physical, and emotional ill-health and its consequences; and the provision of care, including support during periods of stress, and advice and guidance in cases of illness, as well as in the care and management of children.
Our team is responsible for visiting all families with children under five in Harrow and Brent AHAs, together with older people and those with handicaps or psychiatric problems Scapegoats How can you be expected to promote a healthy society with all the underlying problems of poverty and unemployment, quite apart from all the problems of bad housing and so on, imposed on so many families?
Meanwhile we are facing cuts in our own staff and sharp increases in our workload. Fewer students are being taken for training as health visitors. The closure of local child health, family planning, and cytology clinics all mean a lowering of health care and standards in the community -and an impossible job for us.
With a young child, I work a twenty-eight-hour, part-time week. My present case load is 200 families and single people, in addition to clinic work and health education teaching in schools. Other health visitors in our department have a case load of 400 and there are already signs that this will be sharply increased with the non-replacement of staff.
On top of this we are now being told that we must pay for part of the expenses for refresher courses ourselves! Yet the management in one area is quite happy to more or less force one health visitor to resign over a case of baby battering.
So we are now being made scapegoats for all the damage that is being inflicted on working people by the deepening crisis.
I believe that all health workers should be actively supporting campaigns against the cuts in health and social services, as a number of COHSE branches are already doing. Many of the cuts that health visitors encounter can only mean an increased demand on the resources of the NHS.
Cuts in home help services mean that the elderly face hospitalisation. And any further withdrawal of meals on-wheels can only lead to malnutrition and anaemia among the elderly, so that they end up in a hospital bed We are all confronting an increasingly vicious circle, because although there is certain to be a bigger and bigger demand on the NHS, the NHS itself is being cut back Cuts impinge directly on the family The role of the health visitor, as well as that of the social worker, is basically to uphold and strengthen the family unit. And we are aware that increasing efforts are being made on women in the family to look after the sick and the elderly, so as to reduce the costs on the NS and All the present cuts - in housing education, nurseries, social services, and the NHS itself - impinge directh on the family One family with three children that I deal with are living in a single room in a household of thirteen. One unsupported mother I visit has insufficient money to pay her bills; her heating is utterly inadeqate and she can't clothe her child properly. Is it surprising that the woman can't cope? She is on tranquilisers. The child desperately needs a nursery place. No chance.
And then there are the anti-abortionists, both inside and outside the Health Service, who are sc splendidly generous in their attitude to sustaining life.
Perhaps they would care to explain their callous views to the mother of three who has already had five miscarriages, where the family is already in big financial difficulties. And the poor woman was told that there are no grounds for an abortion.
No doubt that the cut backs in the NHS will shortly mean that there aren't facilities for abortions anyway.
8 WRP/WSL Red Weekly 19 February 1976 hers press In contrast to their failures to fight on the issues of overwhelming importance to the working clas movement, they flung enormous resources into den unciations or otner revolutionary groups. their