The comrades at Lesbian History Group have uploaded the annual reports of Dalston Children’s Centre from 1982 and 1983 as PDFs.
The text below sums up its radical ethos:
The Centre was based firstly at 80 Sandringham Road and then latterly 112 Greenwood Road (near Dalston Lane). They also used a number of other venues for activities including St Marks church hall.
The reports are an interesting combination of the expected problems with funding (and the usual tussles about compromising the radical aims of the group to meet funders’ objectives) as well as accounts of the activities of the group, letters from Centre users etc.
The 1983 report includes an appendix of Centre policies, including anti-racism, anti-sexism, anti-heterosexism and anti-authoritarianism – and how these might be applied to education, training and food.
Direct links to the PDFs are here:
https://lesbianhistorygroup.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/dalston-cc-1982.pdf
https://lesbianhistorygroup.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/dalston-cc-1983.pdf
Also of interest might be this report of a recent meeting of the Radical History Network on radical childcare struggles in North London.
