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Ain't I A Woman? newspapers, June 1970-July 1971

1970-08-21 "Ain't I a Woman?" Page 3

[hand drawn images] children's liberation KID POWER; SERVE THE PEOPLE; free 24 hour client-controlled DAY CARE

DAY CARE: THE FIRST DEMAND
   Our first demand in the Women's Liberation Front is for free, 24-hour, community controlled day care. In Iowa City at the time this demand was formulated, there were no centers for free day care and no facilities except private babysitters for children under age three. The need was obvious. The university, the city, the government, also obviously, were not moving to fill this need. If anything, bit business is moving to make money off of those who can afford it anyway. Tactically, we had two choices: our handful of people could take the demand straight to where the money is (university, business, government) with no probability of success; or, we could begin day care with our own limited resources and later, with more people and more definite demands (such as where, how much salaries will be, etc.) make our attack. We chose the second course.
   Day care centers not only serve the needs of the community, especially women with children, but are an organizing tool to demonstrate that by coming together we can make changes for our needs and that we must work together to get anywhere near where the money and the power really is.

CHILD CARE IN IOWA CITY NOW
   We have two free centers for child care in Iowa City. The New University Conference is beginning to work to get a center donated by the university in Hawkeye Court (married student housing). We are working on our third center (more on it later).
   It is hard to talk factually about our day care projects, because we like them so much. A sense of community and commitment is beginning to develop, although a lot remains to be smoothed out.
   The centers function from about 7:30 am to 5:30 pm Monday through Friday. A joint effort of parents from both centers keeps one open for evening care every night. Parents, WL volunteers, and volunteers from the community staff the centers without pay. Men are encouraged to put in time, but the staffing is still predominantly female. Both centers are housed in church basement-rec room space with kitchen facilities provided. Neither center has much outdoor space to speak of, so workers drive the children to public parks.
   In June our first facility stood up well under an inspection from the welfare agency--they promised to come back in July (they haven't yet) and talk about certification (which we want because then we can apply for free food).
   The actual running of affairs takes place at weekly meetings (child care provided for these meetings, of course) where parents, day care collective women and volunteers discuss what is going on and what needs to be done. Our discussions have ranged from child care theories to scheduling problems to trying to find out where we can get money.
   We are just beginning to deal with the financial problem. Both centers were set up originally on donations: donated space, cribs, toys, even clothing. We still needed some items of equipment, though; panels to divide off the sleeping area from the playing area, more cribs, a rug, and both centers anticipate getting the government food and having hot lunches at least by fall. We took two approaches to getting equipment. Other churches were called and local businesses were solicited. Both unexpectedly panned out.
   Volunteers working from the community, some of them high school and college students, have been with us faithfully through heat and humidity. At a planning meeting the group resolved to hold a benefit rock concert during registration at the university with the understanding that one of the priorities for where the proceeds will go will be to the volunteers.

ADVENTURES IN SUBURBIA
   A number of the day care collective people went looking for a volunteer agency and ended up (by mistake) in a church in the suburbs. No one was home so we took a look around. It blew our minds! This place had a dozen cribs, toys, a beautiful new kitchen, and space for 40 or 50 children. It was like a day care dream, just waiting for the children. We returned later in the day and spoke to the minister, who was receptive to our ideas and had the conscience to be embarrased [sic] that the place was only used on Sundays. How many suburban churches are in the same position?

SELF-CRITICISM
   The relationship of the Day Care Collective to the Women's Liberation Front in Iowa City and to the parents and community volunteers at the centers is as yet undefined. The DCC women seldom meet as a Women's Liberation group, but they meet twice a week with parents and volunteers. We have been comfortable so far in a very informal relationship with parents and volunteers, and they have supported our efforts to expand. We can see problems in continuing this easy-going approach, however: if we do not make sufficiently clear from the start who we are and what we are about (WL organizing to make demands on the power centers of the community) we may find ourselves without backing at some point.
   One of the centers is located in a church basement which also serves as the distribution center for the supplementary food program for welfare clients. We got some feedback that some people were angry that WL was running a free day care center and had not made a campaign to involve welfare clients. Obviously they need free day care. We did, however, have a purpose in starting with friends and friends of friends for our first try: that every time some good program is conceived, it just seems "natural" to make a test run on welfare clients, whether it is a success or a failure. We wanted to be sure that in case we didn't have what it takes, the burden of the failure would not rest with the people who need child care the most. We still stand by that course, but we now know that there is no reason not to go ahead and try to make Iowa City free child care a reality for everyone who needs it. We plan to make a recruitment among low-income families, single parents, welfare clients, and others who most urgently need child care for center #3.

LONG RANGE PLANS: REFORM OR REVOLUTION?
   We had originally planned to set up center #3 and then move to the university community in September with plans for demanding university facilities for day care without having them get their whole psychology department through the door experimenting on the children all day. The university does have a preschool of this sort, but it is definitely not client-controlled. When the New University Conference, however, told us it had plans to work for day care in the university, we decided to let them handle that aspect of the community, that we could support them as they needed us, and that we could concentrate our efforts on the non-student community. We expect NUC support on our behalf.
   Any demand can become reformist if you settle for a little or if you compromise your principles. We are going to face a crisis with volunteers unless we get money. We aren't going to get money unless we fight for it. We aren't going to fight for it until we agree that we want the best for our children and until we trust each other enough to work together. We need things, and that leads us to the alternatives. We can give up. We can start charging for day care. Or we can get ourselves together and take action. And the last alternative is what we are organizing for.

[hand drawn image of girl]
HELP! I'm being held prisoner in A dotted blue Swiss!

A WOMAN?     AUGUST 21, 1970     3

Saving...

[hand drawn images] children's liberation KID POWER; SERVE THE PEOPLE; free 24 hour client-controlled DAY CARE DAY CARE: THE FIRST DEMAND Our first demand in the Women's Liberation Front is for free, 24-hour, community controlled day care. In Iowa City at the time this demand was formulated, there were no centers for free day care and no facilities except private babysitters for children under age three. The need was obvious. The university, the city, the government, also obviously, were not moving to fill this need. If anything, bit business is moving to make money off of those who can afford it anyway. Tactically, we had two choices: our handful of people could take the demand straight to where the money is (university, business, government) with no probability of success; or, we could begin day care with our own limited resources and later, with more people and more definite demands (such as where, how much salaries will be, etc.) make our attack. We chose the second course. Day care centers not only serve the needs of the community, especially women with children, but are an organizing tool to demonstrate that by coming together we can make changes for our needs and that we must work together to get anywhere near where the money and the power really is. CHILD CARE IN IOWA CITY NOW We have two free centers for child care in Iowa City. The New University Conference is beginning to work to get a center donated by the university in Hawkeye Court (married student housing). We are working on our third center (more on it later). It is hard to talk factually about our day care projects, because we like them so much. A sense of community and commitment is beginning to develop, although a lot remains to be smoothed out. The centers function from about 7:30 am to 5:30 pm Monday through Friday. A joint effort of parents from both centers keeps one open for evening care every night. Parents, WL volunteers, and volunteers from the community staff the centers without pay. Men are encouraged to put in time, but the staffing is still predominantly female. Both centers are housed in church basement-rec room space with kitchen facilities provided. Neither center has much outdoor space to speak of, so workers drive the children to public parks. In June our first facility stood up well under an inspection from the welfare agency--they promised to come back in July (they haven't yet) and talk about certification (which we want because then we can apply for free food). The actual running of affairs takes place at weekly meetings (child care provided for these meetings, of course) where parents, day care collective women and volunteers discuss what is going on and what needs to be done. Our discussions have ranged from child care theories to scheduling problems to trying to find out where we can get money. We are just beginning to deal with the financial problem. Both centers were set up originally on donations: donated space, cribs, toys, even clothing. We still needed some items of equipment, though; panels to divide off the sleeping area from the playing area, more cribs, a rug, and both centers anticipate getting the government food and having hot lunches at least by fall. We took two approaches to getting equipment. Other churches were called and local businesses were solicited. Both unexpectedly panned out. Volunteers working from the community, some of them high school and college students, have been with us faithfully through heat and humidity. At a planning meeting the group resolved to hold a benefit rock concert during registration at the university with the understanding that one of the priorities for where the proceeds will go will be to the volunteers. ADVENTURES IN SUBURBIA A number of the day care collective people went looking for a volunteer agency and ended up (by mistake) in a church in the suburbs. No one was home so we took a look around. It blew our minds! This place had a dozen cribs, toys, a beautiful new kitchen, and space for 40 or 50 children. It was like a day care dream, just waiting for the children. We returned later in the day and spoke to the minister, who was receptive to our ideas and had the conscience to be embarrased [sic] that the place was only used on Sundays. How many suburban churches are in the same position? SELF-CRITICISM The relationship of the Day Care Collective to the Women's Liberation Front in Iowa City and to the parents and community volunteers at the centers is as yet undefined. The DCC women seldom meet as a Women's Liberation group, but they meet twice a week with parents and volunteers. We have been comfortable so far in a very informal relationship with parents and volunteers, and they have supported our efforts to expand. We can see problems in continuing this easy-going approach, however: if we do not make sufficiently clear from the start who we are and what we are about (WL organizing to make demands on the power centers of the community) we may find ourselves without backing at some point. One of the centers is located in a church basement which also serves as the distribution center for the supplementary food program for welfare clients. We got some feedback that some people were angry that WL was running a free day care center and had not made a campaign to involve welfare clients. Obviously they need free day care. We did, however, have a purpose in starting with friends and friends of friends for our first try: that every time some good program is conceived, it just seems "natural" to make a test run on welfare clients, whether it is a success or a failure. We wanted to be sure that in case we didn't have what it takes, the burden of the failure would not rest with the people who need child care the most. We still stand by that course, but we now know that there is no reason not to go ahead and try to make Iowa City free child care a reality for everyone who needs it. We plan to make a recruitment among low-income families, single parents, welfare clients, and others who most urgently need child care for center #3. LONG RANGE PLANS: REFORM OR REVOLUTION? We had originally planned to set up center #3 and then move to the university community in September with plans for demanding university facilities for day care without having them get their whole psychology department through the door experimenting on the children all day. The university does have a preschool of this sort, but it is definitely not client-controlled. When the New University Conference, however, told us it had plans to work for day care in the university, we decided to let them handle that aspect of the community, that we could support them as they needed us, and that we could concentrate our efforts on the non-student community. We expect NUC support on our behalf. Any demand can become reformist if you settle for a little or if you compromise your principles. We are going to face a crisis with volunteers unless we get money. We aren't going to get money unless we fight for it. We aren't going to fight for it until we agree that we want the best for our children and until we trust each other enough to work together. We need things, and that leads us to the alternatives. We can give up. We can start charging for day care. Or we can get ourselves together and take action. And the last alternative is what we are organizing for. [hand drawn image of girl] HELP! I'm being held prisoner in A dotted blue Swiss! A WOMAN? AUGUST 21, 1970 3