17.08.1995

Are profits really more important than people?

Childcare is now a burden on society according to the scapegoating bigots. So what kind of society is this?

IT IS not unusual for single mothers to become the target of Labour and Tory bigots alike. They are being turned into the bearer of all evil in this society. They bring up delinquent youths. They extort money out of the state. They are lazy and, most importantly, they are expensive.

The latest attack on single mothers does not come by accident. As unemployment is again on the rise it is part of Peter Lilley’s drive to cut social security spending. But it was John Redwood’s sickening attack which outdid everyone else.

It demonstrated the out and out cynicism which characterises all those who put the bosses’ profits way in front of people in the list of priorities.

Redwood complains that £10 billion is apparently spent on single parents, mothers in particular. He recommends that this ‘burden’ is shifted from the state to the family. If this is not possible then mothers should give their children away or be forced into a workhouse equivalent which Redwood calls ‘hostels’. Above all they should not be housed by the council.

There is nothing particularly new in this attack. The bosses have always tried to push the ‘burden’ of child rearing onto the nuclear family. That way women work for them for free. Their labour force is reared, fed and educated largely for free. State provision has been won through struggle and the bosses' need, in times of boom, to eliminate the worst excesses of poverty.

Preferably they want to keep their labour force as low paid as is possible. At the moment they are succeeding particularly well. The gap between the rich and poor is ever widening. A recent Labour Party report showed that pay increases for the lowest paid averaged 2.77%. With inflation this is in reality a pay cut. The average rise for top utility bosses was, on the other hand, eight percent. Some are much more than this, as we know. The director of Northwest Water received a modest 32.5% increase. So there is money out there - it’s just not for us.

Single parents bear the brunt of this. Trapped in low paid part-time work and with poverty benefits their income is amongst the lowest.

John Redwood is not alone, of course. His view, to one extent or another, is the generally accepted one. Tory and Labour both want to cut normal human provisions like money for food and housing for single mothers. If you have been unfortunate enough to hear any of the radio and TV chat shows on the subject you may have been shocked to discover that many people actually think that low paid workers and young people should not have children. It is a bad thing, to be rooted out and campaigned against.

Children are not the problem, it is society. It is quite something when even basic human functions are condemned for being too expensive. It is a sad fact that childrearing is often more of a burden than a joy today. This is particularly so for single parents - isolated in the home with no help and no time, money or freedom to take part in society as a whole.

Low pay, with those at the top creaming off all the wealth in society, are the problem. The advances in technology should advance the way we live. Surely then it is not a utopia to fight for a society where mothers and fathers can lead a full life as well as bringing up children, where childrearing is considered a natural part of society, not a drain on it.