School meals- a fightback?

Scan page 6

Conference Phone.. to: in the London area pledged to fight any moves to break the existing national agreement which gives the women a retainer fee during school holidays.

The fight on this issue is uneven — with the ILEA apparently unlikely to break the agreement, while some outer London boroughs see the school meals women as an easy target for further cuts in spending.

Local meetings are being held in many towns to discuss the issue - but no national strategy for supporting action has been put forward by the unions involved.

If you hear of a meeting on the issue in your area, please contact Socialist Organiser [telephone: 01-354 1050]. SCHOOL meals* have MATHAY probably been the butt of schoolboy jokes since their introduction in 1906. Nevertheless we have to recognise the part played by the meals service along with the provision of free milk in reversing the horrors of rickets and other vitamin deficiency diseases amongst the working class.

The value uf the school meals service to us all is ably outlined by the Lancashire School Meals Campaign (LSMC) pamphlet, "Now you see them, now you don't". . The pamphlet provides us with a precise history of the meals service combined with _ Sharp political insights-into why the service is now being run down.

Analogies are drawn with the need to force women back to the home, and the desire of the food processing and vaking giants to increase crofits through provision.

According to the LSMC, structural changes in our diet are not brought about by evolutionary development or indeed changing tastes, but rather the market demands of Unilever, Birds Eye, Rank "Hovis McDougall et al.

"Don't tell me you thought it was pure coincidence that all those lunch boxes, little flasks, booklets on sandwich making, etc., came on the market at the same time as school meals were being cut."

Also outlined is the failure of the major political parties both locally, and nationally to recognise the value or fund properly the meals service. Labour's price rises opening the door to the Tories later massive price rises accompanied by minimum provision or complete dismantling of the service.

1 am picased to say the pamphlet does tackle headi pool those schoolboy jokes * Thanks to the Lancashire School Meals Campaign's excellent booklet 'Now You See Them, Now You Don't' - available, with furtber information on the LSMC, for £l from Margaret Jones, 17 Marlowe Ave., Baxenden, Accrington, Lancashire.

and complaints about waste, admitting that the meals and service could be improved, but pointing out that the staff can only work with the equipment and provisions they are given.

LSMC admits waste does exist, but more so in the new fast food processed cafeteria lunches, where by-products in manufacturing and packaging are more wasteful then any dustbin full of cabbage.

This is a pamphlet that all activists should read, and Labour Groups . should ensure that each of their Councillors is armed with the facts provided here. Sad In acy, unless we get moving we inay lind ourselves having to remi "Now you see them now you don't" pamphlets on housing, transport, health and most other services.

J.S. McALLISTER Hampshire County Councillor (ducation Committee) Name Address Organisation 2nd far Kingsway Princetnn at Inn Road, London WC2 - Please fill in:

Send, with £2.50 Registration tee (£1.50 unwaged) and s.a.e. 01-607-5268 41 Ellington St., London N7

Scan page 7

te need we s It would appear from the statements of the Solidarnosc leadership in calling the Wiktor and that the government reasonable in what it trying to put forward. :or.