Birmingham
Every week, I see posts in an online group of women, who are being let go from their job after falling pregnant, given reduced hours without consultation, or forced to work full-time while being the main carer of a young child. The trade unions must fight on these issues.
I attended from Northampton, with a friend who is a single parent of a daughter under two. She told me she would love to return to work, but childcare costs are too much. She plans to wait for her daughter to turn three, when she can benefit from 15 hours free childcare.
For me to do the same, I would have to reapply for my job. There is no guarantee it would still be available, or that my hours could be flexible around childcare needs.
The March of the Mummies demanded investment in childcare, but the parents on the demonstration were making the case that childcare should be free, and that these services need to be taken back in house.
Katie Simpson
Many of the protesters had not been to a protest before, but their accumulated anger about the cost of living and more, has forced them onto the streets.
Labour MP Steve McCabe addressed the crowd. But has criticised the Birmingham homecare workers when they were on strike to defend their jobs and pay in 2019.
Sombrely, he said that a Labour government would inherit the Tories’ mess and have to be ‘practical’. This is same line pushed by Keir Starmer, that under a Labour government renationalisation of industries is ‘not ‘realistic’, and austerity will be used to bill the working class for Covid and the economic downturn.
There are 250 billionaires in the UK. We need a new mass workers’ party and coordinated strike action to fight for the redistribution of this wealth, so it can be invested back into society, creating free, quality childcare, where staff are paid at least £15 an hour.
Corinthia Ward
London
Thousands of parents descended on Westminster on 29 October. They filled Parliament Square for a protest demanding childcare rights, organised by the Pregnant Then Screwed campaign. Many came decked out in rags and fake blood – a ‘March of the Mummies’ against the Tory horror show.
The cost of childcare is unaffordable to working-class parents, and many middle-class parents too. But if you take time out from work to care for your children instead, your income at the time and long-term career prospects suffer hugely.
There were trade unionists and international campaigners among the crowd. Many others were from walks of life traditionally less affected by these attacks, but now feeling the pinch. The Socialist Party’s calls for free childcare now got a good response all round.
Platform speakers rightly criticised the Tory government for slashing funding to the public sector. They pointed out that affordable, public childcare facilities had suffered the worst cuts in deprived areas.
Those areas are managed not by the Tories, but by Labour. It is Labour councils who are mostly responsible for accepting Tory austerity and punishing parents and kids – rather than trying to mobilise a fight for the resources we all need.
Some were hoping against hope that a Keir Starmer government would solve these problems. But Starmer has promised to continue austerity if – as seems almost inevitable – his New Labour wins the next election. That’s why we call for the unions to take steps towards a new, mass party of the working class.
James Ivens
