Issue104

As the Scottish Socialist Party unveiled its scheme to combat inequality, the squeals of outrage could be heard all the way from Bearsden to Morningside.
A parade of Tory and New Labour politicians queued up to condemn the evil plan to redistribute wealth by replacing the Council Tax with a new Scottish Service Tax linked to income.
They were joined by professors and newspaper editors who denounced the proposal as "illegal" and "punitive".
"Whenever anyone suggests extra taxation on the rich, there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth," said Tommy Sheridan.
"If we want to talk about punitive taxes, lets start with the Council Tax which punishes low paid workers and their families."
Under the Scottish Socialist Party proposal, the burden of local taxation will fall on high income households. Everyone under £10,000 a year will be automatically exempt while low to middle income families will pay less.
The Scottish Socialist Party is also turning the heat on the Scottish Parliament to stump up an immediate £6 an hour minimum wage for all NHS workers.
"Hundreds of thousands of ancillary workers, clerical and admin staff and even nursing auxiliaries are on £5 an hour or less," said UNISON branch secretary Carolyn Leckie.
Carolyn, an SSP member, recently led a successful battle of Glasgow Royal Infirmary ancillary workers against the French multinational, Sodexho.
She said: "There is boiling anger across the NHS against poverty pay. Nursing auxiliaries start as low as £4.90 an hour, yet because of the nursing shortage perform vital clinical tasks."
Tommy Sheridan said: "MSPs take home more than double the pay of hundreds of thousands of NHS workers who perform life and death jobs day in and day out.
"Holyrood has the power to bring in a minimum wage and it has billions to spend on the NHS.
"I intend to push for some of that cash to be used to bring in a safety net of £6 an hour in the NHS as a step towards the European Decency Threshold of a £7 an hour for all workers."

news

Public pressure keeps Peterhead Prison open

by Duncan Rowan

Lib-Dem Justice Minister Jim Wallace has finally bowed to pressure to keep the internationally renowned Peterhead Prison open.
After a two and a half year campaign, lead by the partners of the Prison Officers and the local community, it is understood that Wallace has now presented a paper to Jack McConnell outlining the reasons why the country's sex offenders should continue to be sent to Peterhead.
Christine Wood, one of the leaders of the "STOP the Closure" campaign said:
"It has been a long hard campaign, but we were fighting for our livelihood and it has all been worth it.
"Now we need to know that we are to get the investment for our prison we sorely need."
Campaigners are also delighted that Peterhead's highly trained staff were to be allowed to continue their work in rehabilitating prisoners jailed for sexual offences.
The STOP programme of treatment, pioneered at Peterhead, could have been set back years if the prison had closed and experienced staff lost.
The loss of 500 jobs would have been a serious blow to a local economy, already damaged by a decline in fishing.
Questions still remain, however, about how vital refurbishment at the Prison will be undertaken.
It is likely that Jim Wallace will attempt to fund the work via a Public Private Partnership, again raising the spectre of increasing the number of privately owned prisons in Scotland.
Whilst the immediate fight to keep Peterhead open seems to have been won, the longer struggle to retain public ownership over the prison system - which will be crucial to reform - remains.

Blair's green record called into question

by Simon Whittle

New Labour has come under fire from within its own ranks.
The government's sustainable development chief adviser, Jonathon Porritt, blasted Tony Blair's environmental record and the "na•ve adulation of New Labour for big business".
Writing in this week's Observer, Mr Porritt attacked the entire cabinet for not making sustainable development "a central concern for government".
"At best, it's a very now and then kind of thing, to be run occasionally and ostentatiously up the flagpole to show willing.
"At worst, it's an interesting pressure point that cuts across more mainstream agendas.
"It's demeaning and dead bad for democracy to see any government so uncritically endorsing corporate perspectives on the global economy, or on the best way of alleviating poverty.
"There are really serious areas where the government's performance has been deplorable.
"On transport and waste management they have made no progress at all in the five years since Labour was in power.
"There just hasn't been the level of quality leadership needed on these two difficult areas."
The criticisms came on the eve of the earth summit in Johannesburg.
Prime Minister Tony Blair will jet in to the summit later this week, where he will devote a full ten minutes addressing the conference on the importance of sustainable development - which Mr Blair once called the greatest challenge of the 21st century.
New Labour's nuzzling up to free market chaos can only lend a helping hand to future environmental crises and the perpetuation of the poverty trap.
You have to be red to be green.

Luv'n'hugs from Uncle Ian

by Bernard Thompson

It's the birthday everyone longs for. You can drink in pubs, vote for the Scottish Socialist Party and run up student debts that you'll still be paying off when you're 40.
But now, life has just got even letter for the nation's 18 year-olds. Each and every one of them is to receive a birthday card from their Uncle Ian Duncan Smith.
But what will the greeting say - "Many happy returns of the death penalty"?

Public Private pandemonium

by Eddie Cornock

Several hundred West Lothian school students enjoyed an unexpected extension to their holidays, last week, thanks to a Public Private Partnership fiasco.
The schools were due to open on August 20 but the doors were closed at Linlithgow Primary, Bathgate Academy, Broxburn Academy, Whitburn Academy and Burnhouse School in Whitburn, which are being refurbished as part of a controversial £27 million PPP.
One of the delays had been due to a fatal accident involving a construction worker.
Attempts to minimise disruption failed as a communications breakdown saw students arriving on the "opening day" at the schools, forcing concerned staff to make hasty arrangements for their safe return home.
Undeterred by the embarrassing delays, Council Leader Graham Morrice and his entourage of local worthies were in attendance at the launch of the flagship Linlithgow Bridge Primary.
Putting on his bravest face, Morrice claimed:
"I don't think issues at other schools have put a dampener on the opening. This school stands as a shining example of what can be done by an authority working in partnership."
In contrast, David McGrouther, Children's Services Convenor, at least apologised for the delays insisting, "We were erring on the side of caution."
Such commitment to caution is welcome. By pressing ahead with the PPP, Councillor McGrouther and his Labour colleagues merely erred.

Who says power corrupts?

Always fond of making a list, like teenage boys planning the best football team in the world ever, the Sunday Herald last weekend published Power 150 - Scotland's most influential people and why they matter.
At numbers one and two are Chancellor Gordon Brown and First Minister Jack McConnell respectively.
More interestingly, at number three is Sir Angus Grossart. Who? You may well ask, and that's the point.
Grossart owns 80 per cent of Noble Grossart, a small merchant bank, through which he advises huge companies like the Miller Group and Stagecoach.
He's also vice-chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland, and was involved in the takeover of NatWest that resulted in the axing of 18,000 jobs.
He's on the board of directors of Scottish and Newcastle brewers, Trinity Mirror - which owns the Record and Sunday Mail - and Rangers boss David Murray's Murray International, among others.
Grossart has a personal fortune of £82 million and a finger in almost every business pie in Scotland.
You or I would happily walk past him in the street and never recognise him, but he plays a role in a whole host of decisions that affect our lives.
The rest of the list is made up with millionaire business leaders, faceless civil servants who hold vital government positions without ever being elected, corporate lawyers, careerist politicians... with at least one notable exception.
Tommy Sheridan MSP, Scottish Socialist Party convener, makes it on to the list at a nice, round 100.
That's 36 places ahead of grumpy Mike Russell, the SNP MSP who turned his nose up at Tommy's Free School Meals Bill, calling it poorly written, and a product of inexperience.
Bizarrely, it also puts Tommy ahead of Lord George Robertson, secretary general of NATO, the man with his finger on the biggest nuclear red button in the world.
Rather than a reference to the amount of electricity he soaks up on the sun beds, we hope Tommy's 'power' is a reflection of the growing support for socialist ideas in Scotland, based on the exemplary performance of a party with principles.
And hopefully it means we're closer to the day when we take power from the hands of the bosses and bureaucrats and declare, "All power to the people!"

news

Urgent action needed to combat autism epidemic

by Bernard Thompson

Urgent action is now required to address a national emergency affecting 20,000 British children with autism.
That is the message from Action Against Autism founder, Bill Welsh, after the latest scientific tests revealed measles virus in the blood of some autistic children.
Innovative DNA tests, carried out in Dublin, known as TaqMan PCR, indicate that the measles virus gene is present in some autistic children who have had no other exposure to the measles.
That has prompted researchers and campaigners to call for further testing to establish a possible link with the controversial MMR vaccine.
Speaking to the Voice on Monday, Mr Welsh insisted:
"It is absolutely vital that the government takes immediate action to blood test every child diagnosed as autistic since MMR."
"That is the only way to establish whether measles virus is implicated in the epidemic of autism. This is a national emergency."
The findings could prove to be of profound significance in the treatment of autism and in the campaign to have single vaccines for children made available across the board.
Bill is adamant that an alternative to MMR must be offered immediately:
"It is my understanding that up to 500 children with autism will be tested for persistent chronic measles virus in their bloodstreams, gut and lymph nodes as part of a legal action currently taking place in London.
"It is vital that single vaccines are offered as a choice while tests are carried out."
Bill has been inundated with calls from parents, desperate to have their autistic children checked for traces of measles virus.
If the measles virus can be proven to be a factor in children developing autism, it would contradict conventional medical opinion in this country that has, as Bill explains, adhered to the traditional model of the disease, focusing on genetic and psychological factors.
Mr Welsh is clear in his opinion of the British medical response to autism. He said:
"The hierarchy of the medical profession has been incompetent in dealing with this human tragedy."
But Bill, whose seven year-old grandson, Luke, was diagnosed with autism at three years old, sees the latest findings as offering a glimmer of hope that progress can be made.
He is determined to see positive action taken in response to the prevalence of autism in the UK:
"This offers the potential for at least one avenue of treatment of the disease.
"Autism is being treated elsewhere and these treatments must be brought here.
"It is vital that we stand up and be counted."

Aberdeen Councillor resigns in sleaze row

A New Labour councillor has resigned after a secret tape recording allegedly caught him trying to pressurise colleagues.
David Maitland has been a leading supporter of controversial plans to build a new stadium for Aberdeen Football Club at Kingswells, on the outskirts of the city.
The resignation follows a telephone conversation with Lib-Dem councillor, Matthew Duncan.
It is alleged that Maitland admitted to threatening to oppose plans for a leisure centre in the ward of another Lib-Dem Aberdeen councillor, Scott Cassie, if he did not support the planning application for the new stadium.
Maitland, the councillor for Kingswells, has been at the forefront of attempts to push through the new stadium bid against massive local opposition.
He was also behind controversial changes in Aberdeen's planning strategy last year.
These are the changes which saw areas for future housing development moved from predominantly Labour wards to Lib-Dem areas.
Maitland has been the subject of mounting speculation in recent weeks.
He recently denied writing an entry to the Friends Reunited website in which he is described as having once run off to join a circus before working as a cruise-ship crooner, competing in macho game-show, Gladiators, and impersonating Demis Roussos on Stars In Their Eyes.
The Scottish Socialist Party's candidate for Aberdeen Central, Shona Foreman, said:
"This is only the latest in a serious of planning scandals which have rocked Aberdeen City Council.
"It's time this arrogant, sleazy council was kicked out and replaced with elected officials who will represent the people of Aberdeen."
Grampian Police are conducting inquiries before deciding on any possible criminal proceedings.

Glasgow council go half way to free school meals

by Kath Kyle

Earlier this year the New Labour dominated Scottish Executive threw out the Free School Meals Bill.
Now Labour controlled Glasgow City Council have conceded that free, nutritional school meals are actually necessary.
In 20 schools across the city the council have introduced universal breakfast facilities.
The nutritional and educational benefits of a decent, free meal every day have been proven by the research for the Free School Meals Bill. Not only does it increase children's ability to concentrate in class but also benefits their health well into adulthood.
Danny Phillips, manager of the Child Poverty Action Group, supports the Free School Meals Bill:
"Glasgow council's decision shows that there is a need for this provision. It also shows the strength of universal provision without means testing.
"Through out Scotland we need to fight to improve one of the worst health records in Europe.
"While the Bill was going through Parliament Labour MSPs suggested that breakfast provision was better than lunch. But even their own food tsar, Gillian Kynoch had to concede that lunch was more nutritionally important."
Dr Wendy Wrieden from Dundee gave evidence in favour of the Free School Meals Bill. She stressed that even if you are really wealthy you cannot make up for a lack of nutrition during the day. She added that breakfast just wasn't enough and a nutritionally balanced lunch was important.

women's
voice

No return to the backstreets

by Ann Lynch

The issue of abortion can often provoke an emotional response and a knee-jerk reaction, even amongst socialists.
Every woman who is faced with the decision to have an abortion has to weigh up the emotional, moral and practical issues involved.
Some women with certain religious views may feel that abortion is not an option open to them.
However, for women who do choose abortion, it should be carried out safely, professionally and without prejudice.
Socialists view a just, humane society as a one of equal rights and quality of life.
It can appear to be a contradiction, and somewhat confusing, for socialists to agree with the right to abortion.
But it is not about emotion, nor indeed morals. It is about a woman's right to decide what happens to her own body.
The 1967 Abortion Act enshrines in law the right for women to have safe, legal abortions. Prior to this, thousands of women died as a result of brutal backstreet abortions.

Confidence
Following on from the Abortion Act, women were gaining confidence by going to work and achieved progressive legislation in the form of the equal pay and the Sex Discrimination Act.
But we have to go back on the offensive, now that women's rights are being attacked again.
The ultra right wing of the anti-abortion lobby, Precious Life, and UK Life League are back campaigning in Glasgow.
They call themselves pro-lifers, although they want to turn the clock back to the days when women died in the backstreets.
And quality of life isn't something that worries them.
Regardless of personal or moral views on abortion, a woman's right to choose must be upheld, and vigorously defended.
The SSP Women's Network will be protesting outside Glasgow Royal Infirmary each Wednesday from 12 noon. Additional support is appreciated.

environment news

one
world
Rosie Kane

Give me hope Johannesburg

World leaders unite this week in Johannesburg to take part in the Earth Summit, a lavish pow wow where the future of the planet will be extensively discussed.
It is extremely difficult to be positive or to hold out any hope for what will come from the various platforms, given the guest list and their collective and individual history.
The first Earth Summit took place in Rio in 1992. Again the guest list was dubious but hopes were high.
It was acknowledged that ancient rainforests throughout the world should be protected. Commitments to tackle this have since failed.
Currently a catastrophic 15 million hectares of ancient rainforest are lost every year, an area around half the size of Germany.
Those 15 million hectares hold some of the most valuable treasures of nature and I don't mean gold and diamonds. I'm talking about medicines, fruits, foods - the real things of life.
The rainforests are the world's lungs - they filter and clean our air and are fundamental to survival regardless of where you live.
There are indigenous peoples who live there, but they too are pushed aside along with the flora and fauna.
The issue of the world's water will be discussed as it was at Rio and probably ignored as it was with Rio.
Rich countries throughout the world still build dams which literally re-divert water from the poor to the wealthy.
In the ten years since Rio things have got worse. The interests of big business have taken precedence over decency.
We can all look around us and point to at least one example of environmental degradation whether it be traffic pollution, landfill, incinerators or litter.
But can you imagine living by a river that is about to engulf the mud hut that is your home, or living at the foot of the volcano which may erupt at any given moment?
In Mozambique there are people who wonder if they can get up a tree fast enough the next time the waters come. There are folk in Honduras who lay flowers every day at the graves of their loved ones.
The traffic, the landfill, the incinerator and so on are at the root of all of this but the Johannesburg Earth Summit dare not breathe a word of this - to do so might upset some of the delegates.
The facts are that the planet will be discussed by many who are intent on ravishing it and stealing it's treasures for re-sale.
It's a lot like asking Del Boy to vote to close down the market.
Over 100 presidents and prime ministers will attend. Fifty chief executives representing major global corporations will also be there.
I suspect that those who really care about the planet will be corralled outside waving banners in an effort to be heard.
It's a funny old world - the people who represent us are being protected by a record amount of security, including police, military and special forces.
They are armed to the teeth and ready to take on any objectors.
If the only same sort of vigilance and care were given to the planet's security - we could all breathe a little easier.

green
news in brief

Cartoon bomb shows up poor security at nuclear military port
Last week Greenpeace attached a large cartoon-style bomb the size of a double-decker bus to the harbour wall outside a military port in Barrow-in-Furness and later inflated the remote-controlled device.
It demonstrated how easy it would be for terrorists to attack two ships transporting dangerous rejected plutonium MOX from Japan when they arrive at the port next month.
If terrorists detonated a real bomb in the harbour when the ships arrive, a large part of North West England could be left uninhabitable for hundreds of years.
Greenpeace Executive Director Stephen Tindale said:
"These ships are carrying enough plutonium to make fifty nuclear bombs and could do immeasurable damage."

Dubya dubbed 'Toxic Texan'
George W Bush has been dubbed the 'Toxic Texan' by conservationists who fear that his Administration is more concerned with profits than planet preservation.
Bush's decision to shun the Earth Summit was seen as another sign that he has declared war on the environment.
Now he's declared war on trees. Unamerican trees that is.
The Toxic Texan has taken the example of first US President, tree-chopping champ George Washington, and gone one 'better'.
Gutting national forests, destroying protected trees and capitulating to timber industry interests is what he calls the "common sense" approach to tackling forest fires.
"We need to thin, to make them healthy by using common sense...it makes sense to clear brush," he said.
The plan would make it easier for timber companies to get approval to cut down trees.

Soya formula fears
An Edinburgh University study has raised questions on the safety of feeding soya formula milk (SFM) to babies.
SFM is used primarily by parents who have chosen a vegan diet or believe their child to be lactose intolerant.
It's used on about one in 50 babies in Britain. The number is rising because of a growing perception of lactose intolerance, although only one in 200 babies is thought to be genuinely allegic to cow's milk.
Tests on baby male marmosets found that high levels of phytoestrogens in SFM affect the surge of testosterone common to all male primates, including humans, shortly after birth. The implications of this in later life are as yet uncertain.
The study on the marmosets will continue to see if the lower levels of testosterone produced will have any affect on their adolescence.
The last major study on SFM, which confirmed the product's safety, has been criticised for being funded partly by the International Formula Council.

back to index

Another week, another picket line. While poverty pay and bloodsucking private contractors continue to pollute our National Health Service, low paid workers will be forced to strike.
Encouraged by the tremendous victory of the Glasgow Royal Infirmary workers, who were forced to strike for higher pay and improved employment conditions, the cleaners, porters and other ancilliary staff at the Royal Alexandria Hospital in Paisley and the Inverclyde Hospital in Greenock have walked out.
They've done this in protest at pathetic wage rates as low as £4.18 per hour and the lack of proper employment conditions in relation to holiday and sick pay.
I was invited to the RAH picket line on Thursday morning and it was both a pleasure and a disgrace.
A pleasure to show physical solidarity with essential health workers who are completely undervalued and underpaid for the jobs they do.
And a disgrace that they are forced to take strike action to improve their wages and conditions.
Their action is unofficial but solid. The drawback is that the Thatcher anti-trade union laws, that Blair has refused to repeal, make it a criminal offence for UNISON to officially support the action.
These union laws must be repealed and these workers must be supported.
Instead of individual and isolated battles against the private contractors who super-exploit health workers across Scotland, a united and concerted campaign to evict them from every hospital is needed.
The cleaners, porters, cooks and other ancillary workers work in our hospitals.
The hospitals are part of the National Health Service. The workers should be employed by the NHS with proper wages and employment conditions.
The Executive should sweep the private contractors out.
But if they don't, the unions must take up the broom on behalf of their members and for the sake of an improved health service fit for the 21st century.

After the RAH picket line I travelled to Ullapool to visit the GM protestors and speak at an SSP public meeting.
The sunshine split the skies and Ullapool was glorious.
The mobile GM Protest tent received 50 new petition signatures every day, Monday to Sunday. Opposition is huge. Environment Minister Ross Finnie is out of touch with Scotland on the whole GM trial issue.
Over 60 people attended the meeting and many signed up to establish a new Ullapool SSP branch. Our support continues to grow in every corner of Scotland.
I also visited Dingwall Court to show solidarity with some of those arrested for direct action against the GM food trial sites.
These citizens have stood up for all of us in Scotland opposed to the promotion and introduction of Frankenstein food. They deserve our fullest support.

It's been almost ten years since Mark Renton famously filled an old Head sports bag with the proceeds of a dodgy drug deal, ripping off his mates in the process, before making his escape to Amsterdam.
Now, ten years after Renton, Begbie, Sick Boy, and Spud first shagged, swedged, puked, danced, jagged up and scammed their way from the pages of Trainspotting into the consciousness of a nation, they're back. Porno, Irvine Welsh's seventh book in just nine years, takes up the story of the Trainspotting crew at the beginning on the new millennium:
Simon 'Sick Boy' Williamson, the selfish manipulator with an eye on the main chance, is a bar manager in London, living in a run-down Hackney flat, still hoping for the big scam that will promote him to the premier league of exploiters.
'Spud' Murphy, the likeable waster, stays in his native Leith, only now with partner and child, and is attending drug counselling as his chaotic life continues to fall apart at the seams.
The psychotic Francis 'Franco' Begbie, who is more paranoid, dangerous and deranged than ever, has been banged up for ten years in Saughton Prison on a manslaughter conviction. His release date is imminent.
And Mark Renton is enjoying the good life in Amsterdam, has kicked heroin completely, runs a night club, and keeps himself fit with martial arts.
Inevitably, the narrative of Porno has the four main protagonists gravitating back to Leith, with the settling of old scores high on the agenda.
The main thread of the many-layered plot, and hence the title, has Sick Boy teaming up with Juice Terry (from Glue) to form the 'manto dream team' necessary to create Leith's finest ever porn movie. The showdown between Begbie and Renton is as inevitable its outcome is unpredictable.
The novel has all the enjoyable hallmarks of a typical Irvine Welsh novel, with cover-to-cover black comedy, sharp observations, and an assortment of mental characters.
There's plenty of the required Weedgee-baiting but, peculiarly, no dog torture scenes this time round.
The surprising thing here is that none of the four main characters have really moved on from Trainspotting. It's like they've all become stuck in their own personal time warps.
This time, instead of heroin it is now cocaine that is everywhere.
As Sick Boy observes drolly near the beginning of Porno, "the more things change, the more they stay the same".
What has changed though are the places the characters grew up in. And in this sense the main character in the book could just as easily be the changing face of Leith.
People with money, power and political influence are trying to turn the historic old port of Leith into a yuppies' corporate playground, where chrome replaces oak, wine bars edging out traditional boozers, and luxury apartments sprout everywhere like fungus.
There is a desperate sense of Old Leith's last stand about Porno. Near the end of the novel Renton reels off a list of the names of all the pubs in Leith Walk.
It's as if the author is giving us a roll call of the places under threat if new money moves in on the anarchic old street. These are all solid working class watering holes.
Begbie rues that one of the most famous old establishments has gone the way of progress: "What gits me is what they done tae the Walk Inn. Cannae believe that, ah hud some great nights in thair."
Edinburgh, like Leith, is currently having the life squeezed out of it by corporate interests.
The authorities spend their resources, not on creating communities for people of all financial backgrounds to live in, but in turning the city centre into a cultural theme park for tourists, politicians, bankers, stag parties and the likes. Porno reflects this, and then some.
It's good to see that Welsh has lost his neither story-telling abilities nor his sense of injustice and anger.

Iraq under threat
Rebel MP George Galloway speaks out against the bombing of Iraq

As Bush and Blair make preparations for a new war on Iraq, dissident MP George Galloway is one of the few voices in opposition. He spoke to Mike Gonzalez for the Scottish Socialist Voice and explained why he has consistently stood against war in the Middle East.
George Galloway, MP for Glasgow Kelvin, is no stranger to the defence of difficult causes.
As Dundee council leader, he twinned the city with the Palestinian town of Nablus to a chorus of disapproval.
In 1991, he was one of the very few Labour members of parliament who stood out consistently and publicly against the Gulf War.
Today, as Bush and Blair prepare for a new war against Iraq, under the umbrella of the 'war against terror', Galloway is once again a clear voice of opposition inside and outside parliament.
He is also one of the chief sponsors of the London demonstration on September 28 against the war in Iraq and in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance to the continuing Israeli assaults.
Early in the 20th century, the big European powers understood the importance of the Middle East, where two two-thirds of the world's oil resources were to be found.
"For almost a hundred years, it has been imperialism's project to keep the Arab world divided and weak," Galloway explains.
"First the European powers, and later the Americans, recognised the importance of the region, and set out to control its wealth.
"Their strategy was to balkanize the region, to divide it up into mini-states ruled by corrupt kings and puppet presidents.
"And overseeing the whole region was Israel, imperialism's gendarme that was always there as its last resort."
Iraq controls around 12 per cent of the oil reserves of the Middle East - so it was always an important player.
By 1988, when the Iran-Iraq war ended, Saddam Hussein's Iraq had a battle-hardened army of a million men armed and supplied by the West.
In the 1980s, Iran was the heartland of terrorism and imperialism's main enemy. Saddam was a much lesser evil then. In George Galloway's view, Iraq had reached a crossroads.
"The Ba'athist regime in Baghdad, an authoritarian, Arab nationalist regime, had emerged victorious with a battle-hardened army.
"It had become a potentially powerful and independent Arab state, and therefore a threat to Israel and to imperialist domination of the Gulf.
"That's why the decision was taken to cut Iraq down to size - even before the foolish enterprise in Kuwait that sparked the Gulf War".
As war preparations continue, and the propaganda escalates with rumours and allegations, I ask George Galloway what lies behind Bush's obsession with Iraq and the 'axis of evil'.
"There's something almost Shakespearean about the tangled motives behind it," he says.
"We should remember that this President got the job after his brother Jeb - whos's still the governor - fixed the vote in Florida.
"The Supreme Court that then confirmed him in his office - by four votes to three - had a majority of judges picked by Bush Senior.
"Who knows what part is played by his father and his unfinished business with Iraq."
There may be also be more immediate reasons to try and keep the American public's eyes fixed on the outside world.
"The US economy is in trouble and we now know how the US boom has been able to last so long - they just made it up!".
In Galloway's view, there are several issues that have a bearing.
"The accounting scandals, the sleaze and government corruption, the gigantic indebtedness, the monumental multi-trillion dollar defence budget and Bush's sheer implausibility as a leader are all factors.
"But the core reasons are less personal and more permanent".
Did the Gulf War ever end?
Officially, the Gulf War ended in 1991. The reality is that it continued by other means.
British and US planes have continued operations in Iraq ever since; while economic sanctions were, quite simply, another kind of warfare.
George Galloway has witnessed the effects of sanctions more closely, perhaps, than most.
"Iraq has been under siege and bombardment by the imperialist countries, principally Britain and America, ever since 1991.
"According to the United Nations, more than a million Iraqis, most of them children, have perished as a result of sanctions.
"An Iraqi child dies every six minutes of every day and night, largely because the water and sanitation systems have been virtually destroyed.
"The result is the spread of water-borne diseases as well malnutrition. Add to that the lack of medicines and medical equipment which are specifically forbidden by the sanctions regime.
"Hundreds have been killed by Anglo-American bombing - homes have been destroyed on a mass scale and shepherds and their flocks massacred.
"The lives of those who survived have been blighted by poverty, isolation and the absence of any kind of technological progress.
"The average wage in Iraq today is the dollar equivalent of ten dollars a month - a surgeon earns 30 dollars a month".
Much has been made of the 'oil-for-food' programme by government spin doctors. I wondered what real benefit it brought to the Iraqi people.
"The much-vaunted oil-for-food program has paid out more in 'compensation' to Kuwait and others, including the United Nations, than it has to the entire 23 million people of Iraq. For them, the payments amount to 30 cents a day.
"No newspapers, magazines, periodicals - even professional journals - may be sent to Iraq.
"Nor may text books or even photocopied material. That leaves a whole generation of Iraqi students, academics and professionals in the pre-mobile phone, fax machine and internet age.
"There is one academic, a world authority on the works of James Joyce, who works for the BBC in Baghdad - I have a copy of letter from a shame-faced clerk in the British Library explaining that he can't send him a photocopied chapter from Ulysses because of restrictions imposed under the sanctions.
Finally, I asked George what kind of impact he felt the September 28 demonstration could have.
"As anti-war sentiment has mounted at home and abroad, the British government has been all but silent," he notes.
"There are a number of reasons. First, the UK Foreign Office has a more sophisticated view of Arab affairs than the Texas rednecks.
"They are more certainly more sensitive to the fears of other Arabian kings and Presidents that regime change might happen in other capitals as well as Baghdad.
"Secondly, maybe the British government don't fancy slogging through hell to get to Baghdad and then having to stay there for years to come to keep another puppet regime in power."
Not that New Labour is reluctant to get involved in military adventures: as Galloway points out "they've fired more shots in anger than any British government since the Second World War ".
But perhaps most importantly of all, the anti-war movement cannot be ignored any longer.
"We in the Stop The War coalition have become for the first time a domestic political factor which has to be taken into account.
"Three times since September 11, mammoth demonstrations have taken place in London and hundreds of local and regional meetings and events have drawn larger and larger crowds.
"This great movement has made the ground hot underneath Members of the Westminster Parliament.
"So far, 161 of them have signed Alice Mahon's anti-war motion in Parliament, with at least another 40 expressing similar sentiments elsewhere.
"As Parliament has moved, so opposition in the cabinet and lower down in the government has begun to crystallise.
"In GMTV's telephone poll of Britain this week, of some 7,000 callers - nearly 80 per cent - opposed the war.
"Public opinion has made it extremely difficult for Mr Blair to join the war.
"But not yet impossible. And that is why the demonstration of September 28 in London must be made into one of the biggest Britain has ever seen.
"Coming on the eve of the Labour Party conference it must shake any remaining illusions within cabinet that such an invasion can be carried out in our name."

By now, it is a matter of record that the international football career of Neil Lennon is over - ended by a threat to kill him.
His football playing, it seems, is of profound symbolic significance to the politics of Northern Ireland.
He is not the first person to rise to prominence through relatively innocuous actions.
In 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks became famous for declaring her right to sit on the bus seat of her choice.
Years later, James Meredith enrolled in the University of Mississippi.
And before them, of course, Jackie Robinson had dared to play major league baseball.
But for most of us, these were remote events, recalled only in grainy black and white images and stirring spiritual songs.
Lennon, of course is somewhat different. Unlike Parks, Meredith or Robinson, he chose the less celebrated route of exercising his right to fear, declining to martyr himself or his family, physically or emotionally.
Whether the telephoned threat was a hoax or a declaration of intent is a matter of controversy.
Indisputably real is the fact that the issue in Lennon's case is all around us, pictured in vivid and often blood-red colour, vocalised in anthems of disdain and the screams of victims of violence and murder.
Primarily, Lennon's crime was to join a Scottish institution that, we are told, makes our country special - the Old Firm.
But while "right-minded people" express incredulity at the activities of Northern Ireland paramilitaries, they often decline to ask their friends and relatives what prompts so many of them to hostile expression when faced with people of differing religions and cultural heritage.
The descendants of Irish Catholic immigrants recount historical injustices, sleights on their parents and an undercurrent of intolerance.
Their counterparts refer to separate education, their hard-won break from Rome and a perceived support for violent republicanism.
But pointing to the historical failings of "the other side" has rarely, if ever, made a positive contribution to achieving harmony in any society.
Attempting to coerce people of different persuasions, or moralising with them, is almost always certain to increase antagonisms.
The only hope for the mending of Scottish society is for people in all communities, both individually and collectively, to examine their own attitudes and behaviours in the hope and confidence of a reciprocal response.
It is perfectly reasonable for football supporters to celebrate the cultural identities of their clubs.
The mere presence of people of differing national heritage or religious practice should cause no-one anxiety.
But, equally, those who insist on creating notional links between their clubs, their religious doctrines and political violence do a disservice to their fellow supporters, those in the community with which they claim to identify and, specifically, to players like Neil Lennon.
Regardless of historic injustices and suspicions, it is in the best interests of all the people of Scotland that a society be created without fractures.
In effect, there is a choice: do we emulate Northern Ireland or provide a model to aspire to?
My guess is that most of the unmoveable bigots on both sides have been comfortably distant from the events of which they sing in celebration.
Growing up in Northern Ireland, Neil Lennon was denied that privilege.
Regardless of the comments of Lennon's critics, he was right to withdraw.
I once met Marty O'Hagan, who did defy the death threats of Northern Ireland terrorists.
Twelve months later, I watched his shattered widow collect a posthumous NUJ award, marking the first journalist to be murdered in Northern Ireland's troubles. She had been at his side when he was shot.
In Marty's case, he had made dangerous enemies by exposing the racketeering exploits of terrorists.
What a pity it is that Northern Ireland's troubles visited Neil Lennon because of his move to Scotland.
n Do you agree with Bernard? Send your opinion to Your Voice, see the details on page 8.

Give us your opinion
YOUR VOICE is your chance to give us your opinions on any issues we’ve covered. Letters should be kept to around 200 words. We can accommodate longer articles but, due to space, these should be discussed with the editorial staff first. You can contact us by fax, phone, letter or email. Tel: 0141 221 7714 Fax: 0141 221 7715 Email: ssv@ndirect.co.uk Address: SSV, 73 Robertson Street, Glasgow, G2 8QD Letters, columns and signed articles which appear in the Voice do not necessarily represent the editorial view of the Scottish Socialist Voice or the Scottish Socialist Party

Trial by tabloid?
The murder of Holly and Jessica in Soham was truly a tragedy and my heart goes out to the families of the two little girls. I can't imagine the devastation they must be feeling.
But the media frenzy that has fed off their grief has been stomach churning.
From the Daily Express' sick £1 million bounty for finding the girls (dead or alive) to the Daily Record's screeching headline "You evil bitch!" as Maxine Carr was taken to court, the tabloids have wrung out the families' pain for every paper sale they can get.
While the Record never went as far as the Daily Mail, and call for the death penalty for Ian Huntley, it actively celebrated the actions of the baying mob as they hurled stones and abuse at a woman who hasn't been found guilty of anything.
What is so cruelly ironic is that because of the way the tabloids have bled this tragedy dry, if Huntly is ever brought to trial it is unlikely that it could be fair.
The revenge that they have clamoured for, they claim in the name of the families, could mean that the parents never actually see justice for their murdered children.
The law on how the media is allowed to act in such cases has to be looked at before trial by tabloid becomes the accepted norm.
Geraldine McCafferty,
Montrose

Where have the bins gone?
Recently a friend and I took a trip to Clydebank for the day.
Eating our lunch on the way to the train station, we noticed a peculiar fact. From McDonald's on one side of the town centre, through a large open square and a long street full of shops, to the train station on the other side, we realised that there was not one bin to put our rubbish in.
We finally found one on the platform, yet were disgusted that we had to look for five minutes without success.
Back in Helensburgh, we were shocked to discover a similar scenario. Having taken an inquisitive stroll around the town centre, we found a single bin outside the Co-operative, but none in the main square.
At this point, we remembered the slogan 'Keep Scotland tidy' and the advert that stated however many millions of pounds were spent a year to keep Britain clean.
It's all very well paying countless road sweepers to tidy up after us, but unless they provide us with bins, we have no alternative than to use the street.
In our view, less money would be needed to spend on the cure (advertising, sweepers, etc), if more money was spent on prevention (bins).
Sam Wright,
Helensburgh

Government's 'Inaction for Employment'
In the 1930s, the government sent the unemployed to labour camps for "hardening", as it was put. In the 21st century, the equivalent is so-called 'Intensive Activity Programmes'.
Anyone unemployed for over 18 months and on the New Deal programme is forced to go on a mandatory course. This covers writing CVs, application forms, speculative letters and interview techniques.
It doesn't matter how often you've done it all before. Anyone that leaves the course or takes too many days off has their benefits stopped.
I was on a 13-week course with a place called Action for Employment in Edinburgh. Most of the time you sat and did nothing, for 30 hours a week.
Anyone that did not participate in the repetitive "sessions" was thrown off the course, as well as anyone that complained too much. People who were unhappy were invited to leave, knowing that their benefits would be stopped. Everyone on the course knew that it was rubbish.
But of course, for 13 weeks you were off the government figures, and the company running the course got government money for every so-called trainee that attended.
It doesn't occur to the government to create decent jobs like building houses for people to live in or creating an integrated public transport system instead.
Keith Mackie,
Edinburgh

off the air
Colin Bell

Playing at soldiers?

Journalists who cover defence affairs never tire of telling us that the British Army is the most professional in the world.
Oddly enough, in a world in which armies are unfortunately a necessary precaution, I'd like to believe it, but the facts do seem at odds with the claim.
More than ten per cent of the troops are, it seems, unfit for active service.
Their boots let in water in the mud, and split open in the heat.
Their tanks grind to a halt in sandy terrain, their artillery wilts in tropical climates, and their standard issue rifle seizes on any and every pretext to jam, failing which, its magazine simply falls out.
Can it possibly be that whatever the Army's quality, the Ministry of Defence is the most amateur in the world?

Plain mince

Sainsbury's mince (a staple of life round here) bears a thrilling new inscription on the label: "Suitable for Recipes".
Er, what else might it have been used for, without that helpful hint?
But then, all kinds of less nourishing products bear the equally pointless tag "Regulated by the Financial Services Authority", whereas it's plain they really ought to say "Financial Services Can Seriously Damage Health".

The art of back-scratching

Such a ridiculous fuss, just because Lord "Mike" Watson admits he can't, as Minister for the Arts, name a single living Scottish architect and was away on holiday for the opening days of the world's biggest Arts Festival (which happens to take place in Edinburgh, very same place as poor old Mike's office).
Before we know where we are, people will start to carp about the Daily Ranger not having a philosophy correspondent, or Radio Scotland ignoring everything at that same Festival except stand-up comics.
Some people just don't appreciate the real priorities for Scotland's Establishment - football, soap operas, and mutual back-scratching.

And the bestest newspaper is...

I'm starting to worry that the only reason I think The Herald is any good at all is because The Scotsman so very plainly isn't.
Throughout the silly season, The Herald has been padding out its pages with any fatuous "list" it can lay its hands on.
The sort of thing which proclaims John Lennon as the most important artist in history, Star Wars the best movie of all time, and the death of Princess Di as the biggest event of the 20th century.
All of which it presents with complete solemnity, even if the source turns out to be a wholly unscientific poll of persistent truants from primary schools.
Quite a price to have to pay in order to keep reading Murray Ritchie.

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page nine

cultural resistance

Whose culture is it anyway?

by Donald Anderson

As the debate rages again in the local media about Scottish culture, surely we, as socialists, have a contribution to make.
We have a wealth of literature and music, swamped by the mass media of a different culture and a thousand year old struggle.
One person in the folk scene recently commented, to a "Hootsmon NorthBritishperson" journalist, the usual cliche concerning "Jacobite" folk music.
The Jacobite movement was about more than a struggle for two Princes on a British throne.
Ex-CPGBer Dick Gaughan has a wide 'Jacobite' as well as Republican repertoire, as do many in the folk movement, including Hugh MacDiarmid who was flung oot the SPGB for being a Scottish Nationalist and flung oot the SNP for being a Communist, or so the story goes.
Countless folk artistes tell you they are socialist when they are sober and Jacobites when they are drunk.
They certainly are Hanoverians, the antitheses of Scottish culture.
Like HM Labour Party and their endless London support groups, from big business to "revolutionary"-this and "workers"-that groupies. The Jacobite movement was also a fight for the Gaeltacht and the whole of Scottish culture, which was brutally suppressed by the victors.
The Jacobite song Loch Lomond is generally perceived to be a music hall song. The Celts believed when a man dies in a foreign country his soul returns home through the low road.
The song refers to his brother taking the high road, while he stayed for a hanging in Carlisle Castle. Others are about rebellion and the struggle against the encroaching British State.
In those days you were either a Jacobite or a Hanoverian. It was not till another generation that many of the Jacobites were able to become Jacobins carrying on the rebellious tradition.
This tradition carried on from the United Scotsmen's Republican Rebellion of 1797, to the Republican Rising of 1820, the mass Scottish Republican Chartist Movement of the 1840s, the Highland Land League and the Scottish Home Rule Movement of the 1880s which formed the original Scottish Labour Party, supporting home-rule all round.
Many of the original Republican Socialists left the (by then British) Labour Party to found the National Party of Scotland in 1928, which became the SNP in 1934.
John MacLean was best known for frightening the establishment with his "All hail the Scottish Workers Republic" declaration.
Although suppressed by unionist historians, their songs live on in the Rebel Ceilidh song books.
Maybe it is time we reopened some Rebel Ceilidh clubs again.

MacBeth goes berserk

by Angus Calder

In the production of Macbeth by Ro Theatre, Rotterdam, on the bare stage (two tables, half a dozen chairs are the entire set) are just one strange-looking woman and a girl-child, both dressed in green.
When Lady Macbeth appears she will be dressed in green.
This is just one example of how Alize Zandwijk's production helps one rethink what the great play is about.
During every long silence on stage, a pin could have been heard dropping.
Steven Van Watermeulen, sometimes charming, sometimes berserk, was simply the best Macbeth I've ever seen.
The fringe Othello, given us by Love and Madness, was almost conventional in comparison, though it was costumed so that the Moor became a black commander in the British Falklands task force.
The value of this was that Lago, superbly played by Neil Sheppeck, became even more disturbing than usual - an ingratiating modern NCO.
You've met him in the pub, his basic racism seemed hideously up to date, and Patrick Regis's charismatic Othello suggested a great present-day black sportsman undermined by innuendo.
You can't beat Shakespeare for up-to date relevance. But Scottish dramatists have to keep trying to compete.
An impressive wave of newish, youngish writers is upon us.
Douglas Maxwell, fringe hero of past years, was given his chance to use a big stage in the International Festival, where Grid Iron Theatre put on Variety.
He got some pretty bad reviews, but my guess is that this play could shake down into something really excellent.
It's 1929. A music hall is about to be converted into a cinema.
We follow the resident troupe through its last days - the repressed-gay singer, the embittered comic, his alcoholic wife and stooge, the mysterious mute Indian sorceress and the indescribable Dr Walford Chipo.
Led by John Kazek and Anne Marie Timoney, the cast are fine and their routines have authentic zing. But the play veers between highlights and no-nos, brilliant staging and cliched sentimentality.
Finally, Rona Munro's Iron (Traverse) is a beautifully written play, which should work well even without Sandy McDade's unforgettable performance as Fay, fifteen years into a life sentence for stabbing her husband.
Fay's daughter Josie, who comes to see her in jail for the first time in search of a lost childhood and a father she cannot remember, is seen at the end adjusted to life, transcending damage.
But I reckon that Iron dives deep enough into pain before it surfaces.
Its admission that violence boils over in women as well as in men is important, and its reminder that prison officers, too, are human, takes us a lot further than Porridge.

The green party comes to town

Gig on the Green. Glasgow Green, August 24/25

by Simon Whittle

"Did yous get in for nothin'?" asked some guy in a press wristband. "Ah jist telt 'em ah wis fae the Daily Record," said a rough, skinny forty-something.
"Ah jist sez ah wuz Billy Sloan, and they gave us a pass."
There must have been some Spartacus-like scene at the box office: "No! I'm Billy Sloan."
And so to rock. Saturday was metal day. The Gallery of Modern Art must have been deserted as every goth and nu-metaller in Scotland (whose parents had 60-odd quid to spare) made their way to Glasgow Green.
With Amen, Slipknot and the Offspring dominating the main stage in the evening, I slipped off to the 'Stage 2' tent to check out Cornershop and The Streets.
Cornershop rocked. The new, heavier sound of their latest album, Handcream for a Generation, added depth and width to the obvious crowd-pleaser, Brimful of Asha.
But it was the new stuff that did it for me. Staging the Plaguing of the Raised Platform and Lessons Learned from Rocky I to Rocky III were superb. Tjinder Singh looked relaxed. The crowd lapped it up.
The Streets (aka Mike Skinner) knocked my socks off. Ska, dub, house, drum and bass, hip hop and UK garage got mixed up and spewed out by Skinner and his live band.
His vocal style is something else. Desperate, loose, almost bored but not quite.
It's like slam poetry gone right, rapping about being young in Britain in the 21st century.
During Let's Push Things Forward, they jam The Specials' Ghost Town - a veiled reference to the fact that the festival wasn't that heaving?
Was Gig on the Green a flop? Why didn't many more thousands flock to this young event? High ticket prices, high food and drink prices, need I go on?
The Prodigy headlined the main stage on Saturday night.
Surprise of the night was their rework/remix of Madness classic Night Boat to Cairo. Throughout the set, people screamed for Firestarter so they could go home.
Sunday was another story. The crowd swelled overnight.
The White Stripes brought them in close like a red and white magnet. Blues never sounded as frantic as this, but it works.
And Pulp. You know the score. Jarvis writhes about, tells little stories, improvises (someone threw a cup of beer at his feet - "no thanks, I had one earlier" kind of banter), climbs the scaffolding and steps barefoot in mud (or "dirt").
Oh and they played Pulp songs in between. Groovy!
Sunday headliners The Strokes stormed the stage, their injured singer Julian Casablancas threw his crutches off the stage and the five New Yorkers ploughed through their set.
No post 9-11 self-censorship this time as they rocketed through the damning New York City Cops.
The atmosphere was mental throughout the set (which consisted of the whole Is This It album, their only B-side When it Started, an untitled number, and other newies Meet Me in the Bathroom and You Talk Way Too Much).
And then it was all over.

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page ten

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page eleven

international news

Deadly double standard of Nigerian Sharia law

An Islamic court in the north of Nigeria last week threw out Amina Lawal's appeal against the death sentence she was given for committing 'adultery'.
Amina was sentenced in March after giving birth to her baby daughter, Wasila, more than nine months after divorcing her husband. She faces being stoned to death in January 2004, when Wasila should no longer need to be breast fed.
Charges against the man alleged to be Wasila's father have been dropped after he denied having sex with Amina.
Amina has one final recourse and can take her case to the regional appeals court.
Yunusa Rafin Chiyawa, a farmer from Bauchi State, was sentenced to stoning to death for adultery.
The woman, also accused with him, was freed as she swore before the Sharia Court that the convict had put a spell on her.
These cases highlight the contradictions of the justice system in Nigeria, where a social and political struggle is taking place between the mainly Muslim northern states and the predominantly Christian south.
Twelve states in the north have implemented Islamic Sharia law since January 2000, and protests and violence between people of different religions have followed.
Sharia is seen as an entire moral code - much more than just a legal system. But it also sets out certain penalties for certain crimes.
These include stoning, beheading and amputation of limbs, although not all countries that use Sharia adopt all these penalties.
Corruption has been rife in Nigeria, and multinationals like Shell have been able to run riot after buying off local officials.
The introduction of Sharia was portrayed as something that would put an end to the corruption and social unrest in Nigeria.
But it has also helped the Muslim leaders of the north to face up to the secular Nigerian government, based in the more affluent and powerful south.
With the sickest of ironies, Nigeria is due to host the Miss World contest this November. The pageant organiser says this will show Nigeria in a positive light in the world's eyes, "as a place where you have many beautiful women".
Exploitation of women in Nigeria has reached horrifying extremes, where you can be celebrated for wearing a swimming costume but murdered for having sex outside of marriage.
Tragically, Amina Lawal and Yunusa Rafin Chiyawa are trapped between these contradictions and the struggle for power in Nigeria.
n Sign the open letter in opposition to Amina's sentence at:
http://www.mertonai.org/amina/OpenLetter.htm

Unrest on Basque streets after separatist party ban

by Nick McKerrell

Thousands of people protested through the streets of Bilbao on Friday August 23 in defiance of the Spanish government's plans to ban the Basque party Batasuna for its alleged links to the paramilitary group ETA.
The right wing Popular Party led by Aznar passed a law two months ago to take action against any political party linked to terrorism - using rhetoric similar to that of George W Bush.
PSOE, Spain's Blairite Socialist Party, also backed the moves.
The legal system has now intervened with judge Baltasar Garzon expected to announce a shut-down of Batasuna for five years. Garzon came to prominence as the man who issued the indictments against Pinochet causing him to be detained in London.
Under Spanish Law judges can also act as investigators over certain issues.
Ironically Garzon also was involved in the prosecution of the illegal death squads which operated in the Basque country in the early 80s against Basque separatists.
He also was briefly a minister in a PSOE led government in the early 90s.
Under the ban, Batasuna will not be allowed to hold rallies or carry out any political activity and all its offices will be closed down.
Its parliamentary representatives in the Basque Parliament - Batasuna do not take its two seats in the Madrid Parliament - and its councillors will still be allowed to carry out their duties.
Batasuna gained 10 per cent of the vote in the recent elections in the Basque country. This represents around 250,000 people.
The Spanish Government's dossier on the links with ETA includes Batasuna's failure to condemn bombings and the fact that at one of their rallies some ETA slogans were shouted down by the crowd.
The Government have also used revulsion at ETA's recent arbitrary bombing campaign of holiday resorts - in Santa Pola on August 4 a bomb killed a 6 year old girl - to bolster their campaign.
However the move to ban a Basque party with substantial popular support has echoes of the Franco regime.
Franco centralised all power in Madrid and banned the speaking of Euskera, the Basque language in public. The Basque Country was a major base of opposition to fascism during the Spanish Civil War. Batasuna have called the move fascist.
Moderate Basque nationalists who rule the devolved area have opposed the ban.
The attack on Batasuna is likely to cause more violence and frustration. It will also bolster the demands for full independence for the Basque country.

Farm workers march in USA

California has witnessed large scale demonstrations organised by Farm Workers' Unions in support of trade union rights.
Tens of thousands marched on Sacramento, the state capital, on Sunday August 25 in support of a bill that would impose compulsory arbitration on contracts for farm workers. There are 600,000 farm workers in California, 75 per cent earn less than $10,000 per year.
In the 1970s the Farm Workers' unions were formed by direct action protestor Cesar Chavez but half the farm owners in California have not signed contracts with their workers.
Such a situation revisits the 1930s in the States where farm workers were treated like dirt as outlined in the brilliant novel The Grapes of Wrath.
The arbitration would force them to enter into contracts for their workforce.
The Californian Governor, a Democrat, rallied farm workers during his election but unsurprisingly now is dragging his heels on signing the law. Hollywood actors including Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson and Sean Penn also paid for a large advert in support of the law.

Demo against Israel match

A campaign to stop the under-21 Scotland vs Israel football match in September is underway.
The SFA have been inundated with complaints about their co-operation in staging this game.
Pro-Palestine organisations and the Muslim Association of Britain are asking everyone who can make it to come to the protests.
On the evening of the match itself, September 4, there will be a picket outside the ground (Ballast Stadium, Hamilton) at 6.45pm - the kick-off is at 7.45pm.
If you have access to the internet there is an online petition to stop the game at: http://www.petitiononline.com/mabsfa/

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page twelve

voice at work

Inverclyde NHS staff reject slave labour pay

by Jo Harvie

An unofficial walk out by 600 porters, domestics, drivers and some catering staff has brought work to a halt at two hospitals run by Argyll and Clyde Acute Hospitals Trust.
Staff at Inverclyde Royal Hospital in Greenock are in-house - NHS employees. They're paid between £4.47 and £4.69 an hour.
Domestics and catering staff at Royal Alexandria Hospital in Paisley are employed by private contractors, Initial Services, and are paid as little as £4.18 and hour.
Unrest over low pay has been gathering strength after a pay rise of 47p was promised to Inverclyde Hospital staff 17 months ago, but failed to materialise.
Together, the two hospital's ancillary staff are now demanding a minimum wage of £5.18 in parity with other Health Service workers.
The Voice talked to some of the strikers on Friday, as they waited on the picket line to speak to Health Minister Malcolm Chisolm, who was paying a flying visit to Inverclyde Hospital.
"Domestics, porters, drivers and catering staff - we're all fighting for the same thing," one of the domestics told us.
"Some kitchen staff here were awarded £5.18, the ancillary staff at the Royal in Glasgow have just won £5 an hour - we should get the same.
"The workers at the Royal are with a private contractor and we're employed by the NHS.
"You'd think in-house staff would get paid more."
Another added:
"This is a clean hospital. It's got the lowest rate of MRSA in Scotland. So if the staff in other hospitals get £5 an hour then why don't we?"
One of the catering assistants told us:
"We're striking for a £5.18 minimum wage. We're on £4.69 just now - it's not a living wage.
"It doesn't matter what money you're on - your bills still cost the same. We can't afford to buy our kids the gear that they want. They have to go without."
The strike has strong support from doctors, nurses and patients. Rubbish has been building up as hospital staff refuse to do the jobs of the strikers.
Worryingly, some of the striking drivers told us they'd seen managers driving trucks that should just be used for dirty linen stacked full with food, with obvious health risks.
Bags of clinical waste have been left lying around the loading area when they should be kept inside.
One angry domestic told us:
"The Trust says they haven't got enough money to pay us decent wages - they should sack the lot of them and give us our pay rise."
Support from local people for the strikers is inspiring.
A collection in Greenock town centre raised £250, and as this is unofficial action, it's money desperately needed.
Marion Brown, a catering assistant at Inverclyde Hospital, explained:
"We've been out on strike all week without pay. We'll really feel it when our wages are due.
"I'd appeal to others to send donations if they can. A lot of us are single parents, and a lot of the men have families to support.
"One of the catering assistants is here with her two daughters, all three out on strike, and they're a single parent family.
"But we don't have an option. There are girls coming in to work who can't afford their dinner. I see some walking home because they don't have the bus fare.
"There's 600 of us out on strike now - we're not going to put up with low pay any more."
Malcolm Chisolm was apparently too busy to even acknowledge them, as he was sped in and out of Inverclyde Hospital without a second glance.
Despite New Labour's rhetoric about investment in the NHS, he couldn't spare the time to talk to staff who form the backbone of our health service, but are insulted with poverty pay.
These undervalued workers are staying strong, and with the tremendous victory by ancillary staff at the Royal Infirmary in Glasgow, they know this is a battle they can win.

Firefighters forced into strike ballot

More than 3,000 firefighters from all over Britain and Northern Ireland marched through Belfast on Saturday as part of their campaign for a pay increase.
Firefighters and emergency control staff are publicising their claim for a wage of £30,000 a year. They say the current wage of £21,531 for firefighters, and 92 per cent of that for control room staff, doesn't reflect the complexity and danger of their jobs.
The current wages are based on a formula introduced in 1977 after the last national firefighters' strike.
According to the Tayside Fire Brigade Union secretary, Norman Howard:
"The workload of firefighters and control room staff is way above what it was in 1977.
"The knowledge and training required is more in-depth and there is more of a variety of incidents, everything from plane crashes and people in lochs to chemical spills and radiation incidents, as well as fires and traffic accidents."

Danger

Firefighters are also facing more danger on the streets, with three well-publicised attacks taking place on Strathclyde firefighters over the past week.
The employers have so far given no response to the pay claim, and the FBU has issued an ultimatum - if the demands are not addressed by September 2 then FBU conference will be recalled and a national ballot for strike action will begin.
The union's assistant general secretary, Mike Fordham, addressing the Belfast rally, said:
"Firefighters and emergency fire control staff are no longer prepared to continue risking their lives, working 42 hours a week protecting the public while having to claim Working Families Tax Credit to make ends meet.
"Our members have made it overwhelmingly clear they are prepared to take national strike action in support of this pay claim if they have to."

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