Unity

From Unity, 3 November 2007

Taking the bull, and the cow, by the horns

by Lynda Walker

Following from last week’s article and the attacks on women’s rights activists and communists, we note the failure of the Unionist Party to address problems. Child care was another area of concern. While we in the Northern Ireland Women’s Rights Movement campaigned for affordable day care, the unionists just ignored the issue, or, worse still, they said that the women of Ulster did not want creches and nursery schools.
     I remember in the 1980s being on a television news programme discussing this issue when they beamed James Molyneux MP in from London, who said that Irish women did not want to leave their children in nursery schools. I think I nearly fell off my chair because he used the term “Irish women.”
     The fight for decent creches and child care has been a constant battle. In the 1950s and 60s Lilly Anderson led the way; in the 70s the NIWRM and people like Liz McShane led the way; it is still an issue that needs to be addressed. After years of campaigning for a city creche in Belfast Tech we got one. It was always difficult to get a child placement, and costs were high; but now we hear that it will close this year. Will Mr McCausland take up the fight to keep it open?
     When Nelson McCausland attacks people he does not give the full picture. It is not up to me to defend the women, as they are perfectly capable of defending themselves; but it is useful for people to know some background. For example, Annie Campbell has a history of women’s rights activism. She also has a record of working for women who are victims of domestic violence. She was a worker in Downtown Women’s Centre, a centre that was first set up by the NIWRM in 1980, a centre that pioneered the way for other centres, especially in Belfast. A city centre venue was chosen, so that Protestant and Catholic women could use it. We now have the Shankill Women’s Centre, Footprints Centre at Poleglass, and Windsor in the Village, Falls Women’s Centre, Ardoyne Women’s Centre, and Greenways Women’s Centre, Creaghie. They have one thing in common: they provide facilities and vital support for women in the community.
     Margaret Ward, who is a political activist and historian, has helped to rescue the history of women. Ann Hope, civil rights activist and trade union worker, was also tarred by the red brush. Though Anne was a friend of the communist Madge Davison, she was never a member of the CPI, but, as they say, death by association. Interestingly enough, all were members of the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition, an organisation that played a very positive role in the peace process—unlike the DUP.
     Women’s training and European funding was another magnificent oversight of the Unionists. Even though Northern Ireland was a number 1 priority region in the European Union, in the 1980s the British government failed to provide women’s training initiatives, and I don’t recollect unionists asking questions about this in Parliament. Colleges and projects the length and breath of Ireland and Britain were able to apply directly to Europe to set up special projects that had creche facilities and so on, but not so in “Ulster.” Not until the “New Opportunities for Women” in the 1990s did we begin to see a semblance of movement on this issue. The Training for Women Network (NI), which Lynda Walker (communist) helped to set up, was to promote special training projects for women.
     Finally, take a look at history and the withdrawal of milk from schoolchildren in 1971 by Margaret Thatcher. A campaign of opposition was supported by many people when women (and Frank McGlade) marched to the Stormont government. I was the one who phoned the Farmers’ Union to ask for the loan of a cow. The farmer walked with us to the City Hall in protest. Of course the farmers were being hit by this penny-pinching act of “Margaret Thatcher, milk snatcher.”
     This was one of the few times that the City Council voted unanimously when it condemned the removal of milk, but it did not go that one step further and rescind the decision. The local council in Merthyr Tydfil did; they provided the milk out of their education budget. We did not represent republican children or unionist children: we just championed all children.
     These actions by communists and other working-class people would not have been necessary if the Unionists, who largely reflect their wealthy background, had provided for working-class needs—not Protestant/unionist, not Catholic/nationalist, but just ordinary working-class people.
     As for McCausland's attack on communists and women’s rights activists, we may rename him “McCarthy.”

In Germany, they came first for the communists,
And I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a communist;
And then they came for the trade unionists,
And I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a trade unionist;
And then they came for the Jews,
And I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Jew;
And then . . . they came for me . . .
And by that time there was no-one left to speak up.
(Martin Niemöller)

Home page > Publications > Unity > Taking the bull, and the cow, by the horns

Baile > Foilseacháin > Unity > Taking the bull, and the cow, by the horns