Issue76

The trial into the murder of Kurdish asylum seeker Firsat Yildiz Dag ended last month with the sentencing of Scott Burrell to 14 years in prison.
While anti-racists have welcomed the sentence as recognition of the severity of the crime, the ruling that the motive was not racial must be questioned.
Too often in British courts judges rush to rule out racism as a motive.
The judge in the trial of the Leeds United footballers accused of involvement in the vicious attack on Asian student Sarfraz Najeib made a similar ruling, declaring that there was "absolutely no significance" in the fact that Sarfraz is black and his attackers are white.
Yet the last words Sarfraz heard before he was set upon were, "Do you want some, Paki?"
No one knows for sure what went through Burrell's mind before he stabbed Firsat,. But the murder must be seen in the wider context of the attacks upon asylum seekers which had been carried out in Glasgow by a racist minority.
It should also be remembered that Burrell was convicted of a knife attack on a German tourist on the same night in which he killed Firsat.
The ruling that the murder was not racist was cynically seized upon by the Daily Record. The tabloid is still smarting from the anger it provoked by attempting to denigrate Firsat as a "con man" just days after his death.

As we go to press, Scottish Justice Minister Iain Gray and Glasgow City Council leader Charlie Gordon have agreed on a timetable for the proposed transfer of Glasgow's 82,000 council homes to the non-elected Glasgow Housing Association.
The ballot of the city's council tenants will start on March 4 and the result will be announced three weeks later on March 25. Despite the financial uncertainty surrounding the Glasgow Housing Association, its incomplete business plan will be considered at a council meeting on January 31.
Although there is opposition, it will be passed and the council will then seek First Minister Jack McConnell's approval to go to the second stage of the process - the tenants' ballot.
The ballot has already been postponed three times and the Scottish Executive had wanted to run it in February.
Now they are determined it will take place in March because they are scared that further delay could put the whole project in doubt.
The Glasgow Stock Transfer proposal is the biggest single public sector housing sell off in Europe.
It comes at a time when New Labour's privatisation programme stands discredited.
Next week the Voice will carry a substantial article explaining why all council tenants should vote no in the ballot.

Free Church of Scotland professor John McLeod, who is the father of the ultra conservative Herald columnist John McLeod, has expressed sympathy with the campaign to open Amsterdam-style coffee shops in Edinburgh.
He reckons that Edinburgh's image as a Calvanist city is misplaced.
"Historically it has always been progressive. It prides itself on being culturally and intellectually avant-garde," he says.
"There is also a practical argument. There is only so much the police can do. Some crimes cannot be eradicated."
Scottish Socialist Party drug spokesperson Kevin Williamson told the Voice:
"There is growing public opinion that cannabis should be taken out of the hands of criminal dealers and made available in licensed premises."

The collapse of the US based energy multinational, Enron, is the biggest bankruptcy scandal of all time.
Its spectacular downfall means President George Dubya's business links are coming back to haunt him big time.
But Enron wooed politicians here in Britain as well as in the USA and the company bought favours from New Labour.
Enron ran three gas fired power stations on Teeside and accounted for 15 per cent of all energy trading in Britain. It gave thousands to sponsor the Labour Party in the 1997 election and paid nearly £30,000 to Labour in 1997 and 1998.
The company spent £15,000 to fund drinks at the annual party conference dinner in 1998 and paid over £7,000 for a table at the Labour party gala dinner a year earlier.
One pay-off for the company involved the prince of darkness himself, Peter Mandelson.
The company's bid for Wessex Water was cleared by the then Secretary of State for Industry without reference to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission.
Mandelson claimed his decision was in line with advice from the Water Regulator - a Labour government appointee.
This episode was cited in a dossier prepared by Liz Davies, then a left wing member of Labour's National Executive. In 1999 she warned against allowing commercial links which could be construed as a conflict of interest.
Liz subsequently left the Labour party and stood as a candidate for the Socialist Alliance.

Royal Bank royal profit
Profits of the top 500 Scottish Companies have rocketed to an unbelievable £12.3 billion.
Top of the overblown profits league is the Royal Bank of Scotland which rakes in £160 surplus every second.
However the money isn't used to beef up the meagre workers' pay packets but goes straight to lining the pockets of the managing directors and shareholders.

Postman Pat stays home
After 30,000 redundancies days before Christmas Consignia (previously the Post Office) have axed over 2,000 Scottish homes from their usual delivery schedule. The rural addresses will now get fewer deliveries despite posties on the ground maintaining daily deliveries in the harshest conditions.
Cosignia's primary aim is obviously now to make profit not deliver letters.

The poacher turned
Some environmental activists are saying that the Eton-educated peer who was head of Greenpeace has sold the jerseys.
Lord Melchett now works for a PR firm who represent some of the biggest environmental robbers on the planet.
Burson-Marstellar have advised Babcock and Wilcox after their nuclear reactor on Three Mile Island failed. They also represent Union Carbide, whose factory leaked toxic gas which killed 2,00 people in India, and arch polluters Exxon Corporation.

Sherriff backs blockade
Residents of an Inverness street took direct action to stop the demolition of two Victorian cottages - and found they had the weight of the law on their side! The cottages were scheduled for demolition as part of a redevelopment of the area, but contractors had not got planning permission.
Local sheriff Alasdair MacFadyen backed the protests with an interim indictment preventing the demolition.

The latest System Three poll for the Herald confirms that Scotland now has a six-party political system.
"Minority Parties Pull Ahead of the Tories" proclaimed the Herald headline, with a subheading stating: "Scottish Socialists and Greens have now secured a clear foothold in country's new political landscape."
In the crucial list vote for Holyrood, the SSP is on 6 per cent.
"This is no aberration," reports the Herald's political correspondent, Robbie Dinwoodie, who points out that this figure has been consistently sustained over the past twelve months.
These figures mean that the SSP has tripled its support since 1999 when the party won 2 per cent of the vote. Support for the Greens has also grown, from 3 per cent to 5 per cent.
These figures are bad news for the Tory Party which is now down to 10 per cent on the first ballot and and 11 per cent on the second.
The poll is also bad news for Labour and the SNP.
At the Herald points out, "the SSP and the Greens are now mopping up dissident votes which in the past have gone to the SNP". Labour too must be seriously worried that Scotland's three pro-independence parties now have 40 per cent of the vote with the election still more than a year away.
Disgracefully, support for the SSP and the Greens is not remotely reflected in the balance of political coverage in Scotland's media.
Even though combined support for the SSP and the Greens outstrips support for the Tories, a rough analysis of the Scottish press over the past six months reveals that the Scottish Tories receive approximately ten times more coverage than the SSP and Greens put together.

Hairmyres hospital, Scotland's first privately funded and run hospital, in East Kilbride is at the centre of a row over cardiac care. The new building for Hairmyres was opened last year at the cost of £67.5 million.
Over 300 people are waiting for treatment with the hospital's new equipment. This is Scotland's longest waiting list for heart operations, in a region with one of the worst health rates.
The new building and modern interior do little for those waiting for often life saving treatment.
David McAnsh, branch secretary of UNISON, sees little hope for improvement because staffing levels are so low. He told the Voice:
"At present people waiting for operations are unlikely to see an improvement in the time they have to wait.
"Despite the best efforts of staff, it is hard to see how a serious reduction in the waiting lists or times can be acheived. The level of investment in recruitment and training needed to do this is not coming from government.
"It is of no comfort to know that private companies are taking profits for running hospital services in Lanarkshire through PFI while frontline patient services are suffering from a lack of public money."

The New Year has opened with more bad news for workers in Scotland's battered electronics industry.
Last week Motorola confirmed it will close its chip manufacturing plant at South Queensferry and transfer all 450 jobs to East Kilbride.
Major manufacturers such as Motorola, NEC and Compaq have responded to the world recession by cutting back on their Scottish operations.
Last year Motorola devastated West Lothian when it closed its mobile phone factory at Bathgate with the loss of over 3,000 jobs. Then NEC Semiconductors dealt another massive blow to the area when it announced the closure of its Livingston plant and the sacking of all 1300 workers.
Last week brought more job threats. IBM has announced it will outsource its entire PC manufacturing operation to a California based company.
This decision raises doubts over the future of Fullarton's Gourock factory, which employs 500 workers assembling PC's for IBM Greenock.
MacFarlane, the packaging firm, is to cut a third of its workforce at Govan and Braehead. These redundancies reflect plummeting demand from the group's key customers in the struggling electronics sector, which accounts for around 15 per cent of MacFarlane's sales work.

Kevin McMahon, brother of Labour MSP Michael McMahon, has spoken out about his disgust at a proposed £17,000 a year pay increase for MSPs.
Kevin, a nurse, said after spending a day at the Scottish Parliament with his brother:
"If you're asking if anything I've seen has convinced me that MSPs merit a pay rise that's so much bigger, I'd say 'I doubt it'. "When I heard about the proposed salary increase for MSPs, I felt I'd been kicked in the teeth.
"Because of Michael's work, I often find myself putting his point of view to other people.
"On more than one occasion I've defended MSPs and the Scottish Parliament to my colleagues at the hospital.
"But I couldn't defend this."
Kevin added that the most important part of his job is talking to patients:
"I'd like more MSPs to come into the hospitals and try and deal with the things we do - caring for patients who are seriously ill or dying."

Paisley students' cash crisis
Paisley students owe a total of £67.5 million, according to a survey published last week. The average undergraduate debt at the uni is £7500, contributing to one of the highest drop out rates in the country.
Hundreds of students protested last week, adding bricks to a 'wall of debt' at the university library.
Student president Murray Lowe said: "Students from the poorest backgrounds come to the University of Paisley to get a good education and a good job. We want the government to review funding and give everyone the chance to study at university without worrying about debt."

Domestic abuse rising
Police and social services reported a rise in domestic violence in Central Scotland during the festive season. Attacks were particularly high on Christmas Day, Hogmanay and New Year's Day.
Stirling Women's Aid described the figures as the 'tip of the iceberg'. Women's Aid worker Katie Duncan explained:
"Christmas and New Year can be a very difficult time for anyone for whom life is not working out perfectly.
"You get bombarded with positive images yet many women are living in fear.
"Stories in soaps and TV ad campaigns do help women to see they are not the only person experiencing domestic abuse."

Kids suffer in rural poverty
The problem of rural poverty has been identified in a new funding scheme in Dumfries and Galloway.
Students' entitlement to free school meals and clothing grants have been used to calculate a 'deprivation' factor for each of the region's primary and secondary schools. Cash for homework clubs and extra-curricular activities will then be targeted at the areas of most need.
The council's figures revealed over half of pupils at Lochside primary, Dumfries were affected, along with 45 per cent at Kelloholm primary in Sanquhar.

Dougie Kinnear is a railway worker in Fife.
He is Vice President of the RMT union's Scottish Regional Council.
Here he talks to the Voice's Mick Parkin

What's your job on the railways?
I inspect the track, which involves travelling along in a special vehicle with a couple of other guys.
When I started back in 1990 I was a just a labourer - still am really - but now I get to sit in a nice warm cab, that's all.
I'm employed directly by one of Railtrack's contractors but more and more they're using agency staff.
I mainly meet them when they're working as PICOPS - that's Person in Charge of Possession, the guy who formally takes possession of the line and ensures the trains don't use the bit we're working on.

So it's an important job?
Yeah, but unfortunately most of them haven't got a clue because they're all temporary workers and don't get much training.
The other day we had a guy from Glasgow and he didn't know whether Ladybank was north or south from Kirkcaldy.
We had to tell him where to go so what chance has he got if anything goes wrong and he has to try and explain what's going on to the signalbox?
Another thing - they're meant to put detonators on the line so that if a train does come through, the detonators explode when the train goes over them.

What, then you shoot up the train and rob the bullion?
No, it's just a wee bit of gunpowder to make a noise that let's the driver know he's got to slam the brakes on.
It never happens but it could and the thing is these agency guys have been known to put their detonators on the wrong line.

It doesn't exactly inspire confidence, then?
It does not. You see them wandering around in trainers because the agency doesn't always supply them with the right gear - not even a pair of boots.
You see them talking to the signalbox on their own mobile phones as well. It's a joke.

Is there anything you can do to get the agency workers into the union?
Well it's almost impossible because they're all in short term contracts and if they showed any signs of getting bolshy they'd just stop getting the phone calls.
There is a natural limit to how many unskilled workers they can use just because the work does require a certain amount of skill. Some contractors have lost a lot of money from using too many subbies and then having to pay penalties when the job doesn't get done on time.
Having said that the contractor I work for is already way over the natural limit - there's one subbie to every four core workers now.

So, this must mean there's plenty of scope there for more core workers now?
Certainly. It's just a question of getting people to fight for that.
It was great to see Ken Loach's film, Navigators, on Channel Four in December. That said it all about privatisation on the railways.
Rob Dawber, who used to be in the RMT, wrote it, and we'll be showing it at union meetings.
Even my dad, who used to work for the council, said it was exactly the same when their jobs were put out to competitive tender. They started out with a squad of guys and by the end all but one had taken redundancy.
But they all came back as agency workers with no holiday pay, no pension and no right to join a union.
That's one of our big campaigns at the moment - Reclaim our Rights - which is about reversing all the anti-union legislation that Thatcher brought in. The worst thing for us is their law against solidarity strikes - because some work for Scotrail, some for Virgin, some for GNER and any kind of solidarity action between them is illegal.

Before Christmas 1,500 ScottishPower workers in Central Scotland, North West England and North Wales held a series of two day strikes to prevent their bosses hiving off a key section of the workforce to a new joint venture with McAlpine construction. The joint venture move is a prelude to job cuts and attacks on conditions.
ScottishPower wants its workforce to pay the price of management incompetence and failed speculation in the US power industry.
Further strikes were planned this month but the right-wing leadership of the AEEU has pulled the plug on them.
At General Secretary Ken Jackson's insistence, AEEU officials sprung an unannounced ballot on a joint union committee meeting on January 1.
Although there was an overall majority for continuing the action, the AEEU officials threatened to do a deal with ScottishPower. So, after a very close vote, the leadership ditched the strikes and tried for an improved offer through the ACAS conciliation service.
But ScottishPower refuse to budge now that the strike threat has been lifted
On January 1 members of the AEEU and MSF unions became members of the new AMICUS union. Its joint general secretaries, Ken Jackson and Roger Lyons, want a right-wing bloc that backs New Labour's project in the trade unions.
AMICUS derives from the Latin for 'friend' or 'partner'. But ScottishPower workers know that Jackson is no friend of trade unionists. His real partners are the bosses.

Members of the PCS civil servants union who work in job centres and benefits offices across Britain are set to strike for two days at the end of the month.
They will join 600 union members at 12 Pathfinder offices who have been on all out strike since August last year as part of the union's fight over safety.
Last month 40,000 union members took part in a successful two day strike over the issue.
The long running dispute began when management decided to remove safety screens and transfer work from screened to unscreened offices.
This move is a key part of the government's plan to reduce benefits. New Labour ministers have given management the green light to raise the stakes and smash union organisation.
Robert Muir, Secretary of PCS Glasgow South Branch, told the Voice:
"If the Government wins this strike we'll see more attacks on pay and conditions, and they'll push through their privatisation plans for the civil service. So it's vital we win."
Although the union is organising a ballot for an overtime ban that will hit the benefit offices, many workers are angry that the leadership has refused to escalate the action and has delayed calling the next strike until January 28.
Nevertheless, activists need to win support for the two day strike and overtime ban in every workplace.
But victory depends on escalating the action and widening the dispute into a defence of trade union organisation.

Royal Bank of Scotland
Thousands of workers at Scottish branches of the Royal Bank of Scotland struck for the day on January 2 because Scotland's biggest bank refused to pay staff extra money for working on a traditional Scottish holiday. Andy Colognori of Unifi - the finance and banking union - said:
"The Royal Bank of Scotland refuses to recognise a traditional Scottish holiday. But it owns banks in Ireland and has no problem recognising Irish holidays." The Royal Bank of Scotland made £4.4 billion profit last year.
Other banks with Scottish branches were either shut on January 2 or agreed to pay staff premium rates.
The union intends to keep up its campaign to force the bank to recognise the holiday.

Calmac Ferries
The strike by pier hands and crews on the Caledonian MacBrayne Clyde ferries was finally resolved on Christmas Eve.
The strikers stood firm in the face of a hostile media barrage and the employers were forced to make concessions.
The deal gave the RMT union most of its demands - including an important step towards pay and working hours parity between the seagoing staff on the Clyde routes and those on Western Isles routes.

Post Office
Post Office workers, already under threat of privatisation and massive job losses, could soon be balloted for national strike action over wages.
Post Office management have offered a paltry two per cent wage increase as their final offer on this year's claim. The union's claim is for a five per cent increase.
Union leaders have rejected the offer and have threatened to ballot all 150,000 CWU members for action.

Read Tommy Sheridan's column in the
Scottish Socialist Voice
available in the shops now

Out with the old and in with the new. If you live in Afghanistan, it's not just out with the old year - it's been out with the old government and in with a new one, courtesy of the West.
And for many Afghans it's been out of the old abode and into the new one - a tent at the Pakistan border in freezing conditions. And still the bombing goes on. And it's not just Afghanistan either. In nearby Iraq, the dreadful sanctions on innocent people mean no medicine, no pain relief, no hospital bedding.
Even pencils and bicycles are banned on the grounds that they could be used by the military. It would be funny if it wasn't so bloody cruel.
If only that same effort were made every time a world class bully caused the death of an unsuspecting innocent.
If true justice were to be doled out then the allied forces would be bombing BP, Esso, Shell, Monsanto and even each other.
As we wave goodbye to 2001 we also wave goodbye to at least 25,000 people killed by environmental catastrophes of one sort or another - a figure which has doubled in the previous year.
Extreme weather conditions brought about by environmental destruction have taken a terrible toll on the lives of millions.
January 2001 saw the massacre of 14,000 when an earthquake hit Northwestern Gujarat in India. Many others were wiped out by typhoons, mud slides, drought, floods and avalanches
It's also worth noting that 2001 was the warmest year since the beginning of systematic temperature recording 160 years ago, according to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).
Year on year, millions of lives are lost as a direct result of environmental destruction. Yet there is not one flicker of allied response or round-table discussions.
The lack of credible response to environmental catastrophe simply underlines what most of us already know: it's not the suffering of the poor and hungry that matters, nor the numbers of lives lost.
Bush, Blair and chums care not a jot about cruel regimes and their treatment of those who fall under them.
The force used is the force of capitalism, ensuring that the greed mongers can entrench themselves deeper into our world.
The helicopter gunships don't free the people, they free the way for big business to get a foothold. The bombs dropped simply prop another comfy cushion under the fat backsides of the weapons industry whilst destroying the lives of innocent people.
One day this planet will have more environmental refugees than it can cope with unless we demand better for ourselves.
As we begin the new year we should double our efforts to fight for the planet. All is not lost by a long chalk - and to tell you the truth we don't have a choice.

Last year, Owen Lilley died of an asbestos related disease contracted while working at an asbestos factory in Clydebank.
Owen is one of many thousands of working class men and women who were exposed to the killer dust at work.
Some estimates suggest that, by 2010, there will be an estimated 10,000 asbestos-related deaths a year in the UK. This is twice the number killed on the roads.
But now - as result of legal loopholes - thousands of victims and relatives who have successfully sued their former employers are being denied compensation.
Those being cheated out of compensation include Owen Lilly's widow, Margaret, who herself suffers from an asbestos-related condition caused through asbestos dust brought home on his work clothes.
The legal rulings stand to save big industrial corporations tens of millions of pounds at the expense of dying men and widows.
This latest asbestos scandal can be traced back to early 2001, when Chester Street Insurance Holdings claimed that they could not meet the rising number of asbestos claims.
The parent company, Federal Mogul, sold their profitable asset, Iron Trades Insurance, to an Australian company, QBE.
This ensured they had no profits to pay out to successful asbestos claimants.
Even Tory MP, Nicholas Winterton, denounced the manoeuvre as "fraudulent, dishonest and disgraceful".
It was only after a vigorous campaign organised by trade unionists and asbestos support groups that a scheme was set up to pay out at least 90 per cent of compensation amounts due.
This high-profile campaign was supported by the TUC and STUC and included a protest march of 1,000 people in Clydebank. Simultaneously, thousands of Australian building workers and others downed tools and marched on the Melbourne offices of QBE to demand they settle their UK claims.
But in a further twist, in October 2001 Federal Mogul - which along with its subsidiaries faces 365,000 asbestos claims - obtained a court administration order under the 1986 Insolvency Act absolving them from payment.
Disgustingly, while the company obtained this order, it was simultaneously boasting that it had been awarded four new annual contracts worth more than $20 million (£13.9 million) to supply powertrain and brake components.
Asbestos sufferers are confused as to how a company generating super profits can sidestep their responsibilities with the approval of the High Court.
Another ruling by the Court of Appeal will make it virtually impossible for workers to claim compensation.
Deciding on the case of Mr Arthur Fairchild, the court stated that, as one asbestos fibre can cause the deadly cancer Mesothelioma, and as Mr Fairchild had worked for more than one employer who exposed him to asbestos, the company who caused his death could not be identified.
Applying this warped logic, on December 11 Lord Justice Brooke, Lord Justice Latham and Lord Justice Kay dismissed his widow's appeal.
The result of this decision, if unchallenged, is that there will be no compensation for asbestos cancer victims, if, the victim was exposed to asbestos fibres by more than one employer - which is the norm for construction and shipyard workers.
This ruling means that employers can openly admit they have exposed workers to painful and early deaths and avoid paying one penny piece of compensation with the approval of the Court of Appeal.
Justice for asbestos sufferers and in particular the 'Fairchild' decision should be raised in every trade union branch and at every conference in order to build support and apply fraternal pressure to those politicians who are still listening.

n An asbestos seminar is being organised in Clydebank Town Hall on Friday 18 January 2002 from 10am -12noon with a view to discussing the issues contained in this article. Speakers include Bill Speirs, STUC, Frank Maguire, Solicitor Advocate, occupational health expert Professor Andrew Watterson and a panel of MSPs. All trade unionists, asbestos campaigners and families affected are encouraged to attend.

"Who could have imagined ten weeks ago that most of the objectives in Afghanistan would have been so easily achieved?"
These words, by Sunday Herald journalist, Aaron Hicklin, sum up the drunken triumphalism that has gripped the massed regiments of Western journalists and politicians since the fall of the Taliban.
So what objectives exactly have been achieved?
Certainly the Taliban has been removed - but plenty of people "imagined" that this would be the outcome.
Anti-war MP George Galloway, for example, likened the conflict to a boxing match between Mike Tyson and a ten year old child.
Presumably he would not have expected the ten year old child to last more than one round.
The Voice, at the start of the war, made the following observation: "The US has the firepower to to flatten every remaining structure in Afghanistan.
"They may well succeed in overthrowing the Taliban and installing some form of puppet government.
"Eventually they might even succeed in their mission to take out Osama bin Laden."
The Taliban has disappeared, but so too has Osama bin Laden, despite the assurances from US vice president Dick Cheney that: "We will bring back Bin Laden's head in a platter."
So what else has been achieved? For a start, revenge. More Afghan civilians have now been slaughtered by US bombs than perished in the World Trade Centre on September 11.
Then there's the Middle East peace process that now lies in tatters. The precedent set by the United States in Afghanistan has been seized upon by the bloodthirsty Prime Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon, to escalate his pitiless war against the Palestinian people.
And on top of that, the Indian sub-continent stands perilously close to the brink of a nuclear conflagration as a direct by product of the war in Afghanistan.
The timing of the bombing of the Indian parliament on December 13 was no accident.
No sooner had the Taliban fallen in Afghanistan than pro-Taliban paramilitaries in Kashmir launched an attack designed to wipe out the Indian government and provoke all-out war.
This in turn would weaken and probably destroy the regime of General Musharaf, Pakistan's pro-American dictator and usher in a mighty upsurge in support for the Islamic fundamentalist parties in Pakistan and across the Muslim world.
On the other side, India's extreme right wing government believes - like the Israeli government - that a new precedent has been set in Afghanistan.
In the eyes of the Indian state, the Kashmir mujahideen are the equivalent of Al Qaida and Pakistan's government is the equivalent of the Taliban.
As we go to press, there is a stand-off between the two nuclear powers. But a single incident now could be enough to prove an all out war between these two bitter enemies.
Whatever happens in India-Kashmir-Pakistan over the coming days and weeks one thing is clear: the 'War against Terror' has turned the world into a much more dangerous, much more unstable, much more violent place than ever before.

The train drivers' overtime ban at ScotRail and the rail unions' strikes on South West Trains have rocked the fat cats and thrown New Labour into turmoil.
Here Dave Sherry reports on the battle for the future of public transport and train drivers speak out about their dispute and the crisis on ScotRail.

Limited industrial action by some railway workers has created a massive political crisis for the Blair government.
Resistance has spread to five different rail companies. Suddenly the whole establishment is terrified by something they said could never return: "1970s-style" trade unionism.
Those same bosses who stuffed their pockets during rail and bus privatisation, now try to pin the blame for the transport chaos on the unions.
Yet, as respected Herald columnist Alf Young points out:
"The rash of pay disputes among train operating companies is a direct consequence of privatisation.
"If rival employers choose to pay different rates to attract scarce skills, this kind of reaction is scarcely surprising."
Railway workers remain organised despite privatisation and the anti-union laws.
They read about the obscene fortunes made from privatisation.
They know that Scotrail is owned by National Express - the biggest operator in Britain with nine separate rail franchises.
Profits on its train division rose by 45 per cent in the first six months of last year.
Yet for years it has operated with a chronic shortage of drivers - and pays them between £5000 and £7000 a year less than GNER and Virgin drivers operating out of the same Scottish stations.
There is also unrest at South West Trains in England where many low paid workers earn little more than £5 an hour.
RMT members there have been on strike against rotten wages and against management attempts to victimise a number of elected union activists.
South West Trains is another highly profitable company that could afford to pay its workers a decent wage.
It makes over £1 million a week. It is a subsidiary of Perth-based Stagecoach, owned by the notorious religious fundamentalist Brian Soutar - who became a multi-millionaire out of rail and bus privatisation.
Its pay offer to RMT members amounts to an extra £1 a day.
Union members were right to reject this insult.
On the busiest commuter route in Britain, their four days of strike action led to the cancellation of 90 per cent of services and cost Soutar's empire £1.5 million a day.
The RMT has called further action on South West Trains and is also calling a wages strike on routes operated by Arriva in the North of England.
Forty-eight hour strikes are planned on both South West Trains and Arriva on January 24 and 25 with a further forty-eight hour strike on Arriva on February 5 and 6.
The RMT also announced that it will call strike action on the important Connex South Eastern network, following union members' overwhelming rejection of a lousy pay offer.
London underground drivers are also to be balloted for strike action as a result of their bosses reneging on a previous deal.
The railway workers can inflict an important defeat on the private railway companies - and on a government that has suddenly been made to look vulnerable.
The workers are standing up for themselves and the travelling public.
We urge all Voice readers to back their action and campaign for the renationalisation of the entire public transport network.
That's the only way to get proper public investment and provide a comfortable, safe and affordable system for all of us.

Suddenly public ownership is back and a consensus is rapidly emerging that the only way to get rail back on track is for the state itself to manage the fragmented chaos of the privatised system.
Ian mcwhirter, Sunday herald, January 13, 2002

There is a strong case for the renationalisation of the railways. It is the only option which addresses all the fundamental problems. Even a year ago, a full return to public ownership was emphatically in the unthinkable category. Now it is entering the realm of the thinkable and credible.
Independent on Sunday, January 13, 2002

Peter Murray, the Scottish Socialist Party's transport spokesperson issued the following statement to the press:

The New Year has brought new misery for Scotland's rail passengers.
First they were hit by a raft of fare increases. Now services have been slashed during the current "dispute" between rail staff and Scotrail.
I put the word dispute in quotation marks because train drivers have simply refused to work overtime and on rest days.
It should stagger any reasonable person that drivers might normally work on rest days when their jobs are already so tiring and demanding.
Rail passengers should make sure the blame is apportioned to the greedy privatised managements and the government.
Train drivers carry the responsibility for hundreds of lives each time they set out to work - and in some cases have paid the price of poor safety with their own lives. Recent recruitment drives to recruit more drivers have emphasised the potential dangers of the job.
Potential recruits are asked questions such as: "Can you cope with seeing dead bodies on the line?"
Railworkers are clearly entitled to well paid and safe working conditions.
Passengers are entitled to a first class rail system.
They will not get this under a privately owned rail system. We should all step up the fight for an integrated, publicly owned and democratically run rail network.

All that privatisation did was suck even more resources out of the system - turning a small army of buy-out British Rail managers, some of indifferent talent, into overnight multi-millionaires; lining the pockets of further armies of lawyers, financiers and other advisers - and create a system of such byzantine, fragmented complexity that it was almost bound to fail from the start.
alf young, the herald, January 11, 2002

From the start of the year, all 750 ScotRail drivers have been refusing to work on their rest days as part of a campaign to bring their pay up to that of drivers with other privatised train companies. Their unofficial overtime ban saw ScotRail management overreact and cut services by 25 percent. At first ScotRail insisted they could only afford a three per cent increase, then at last weeks talks they improved this offer.
Both ASLEF and RMT drivers rejected it because it comes nowhere near their claim - which is for parity with other drivers doing the same job.
The Voice spoke to two ScotRail drivers who can't be named because of the very real threat of victimisation.

All the drivers are severely pissed off working long shifts, knowing that some people have made fortunes out of rail privatisation. Without us the railways couldn't run at all.
Drivers with other train companies who do exactly the same as us will still be getting between £2000 and £5000 a year more than we do - even if we win our claim.
In Edinburgh there's a chronic shortage of drivers because ScotRail made loads of drivers redundant and never replaced them. They don't train enough people.
Those of us left have had to work longer and harder.
It's more stressful and less safe. Drivers have been leaving every month for better pay.
I know of three guys here that are leaving to go to another company in February for more money.

National Express - who own ScotRail - are prepared to scoop up the profits, but won't pay the going rate for the skills they need. The Scottish media and ScotRail management think it's okay for an industry that's safety critical to be run on the basis of excessive overtime. Scotland's train drivers, having received a crap pay offer, have simply decided to stop giving up their spare time cheaply to cover for managerial incompetence and lack of planning.
How can a public service be so vulnerable to employees simply doing their job as they were meant to?
The emergency timetable they've introduced has resulted in train crews being left idle.
Services have been cut more severely than necessary to engineer maximum public inconvenience. We are fighting for a fully staffed, publicly owned service and we are asking for support from other trade unionists and the public.

The Assistant General Secretary of the RMT union has been savagely beaten up by thugs wielding iron bars.
Bob Crow is a candidate for the post of General Secretary of the union.
He was left severely injured and was found unconscious, lying in a pool of blood.
In a sinister development, which has implications for the whole Labour movement, a Scotland Yard spokesman alleged that the attack was premeditated.
Mr Crow feels that the attack may be the work of rail employers who want to frustrate his bid to become the union's General Secretary, and put a stop to industrial action.
Bob Crow is a member of the Socialist Labour Party and is committed to fighting for a fair deal for rail workers and for campaigns to restore public ownership of the railways.
In another shameful development, the TUC is trying to brief against Bob Crow in support of a right wing candidate who has the blessing of Downing Street.
If this brutal attack does prove to have been connected to rail employers it will be another powerful argument for smashing their power forever through public ownership.
The Scottish Socialist Party calls on RMT members to cast their vote for Bob Crow and to strike a blow against right wing gangsters.

Mon 28 Jan, 7.30pm Glasgow City Halls
"Privatisation chaos - Save Our Public Services"
Speakers from Rail, NHS, Schools, Housing, Post Office and the SSP

Every family gathering has its tensions, and with a wedding it's usually an even money bet on a fight breaking out.
And as the Verma family gather together in Mira Nair's award-winning Monsoon Wedding, it becomes painfully obvious that the event is not going to go smoothly.
The story begins four days before the marriage, with a frantic father of the bride, Lalit Verma, still trying to finalise arrangements as the guests arrive in Delhi from all over the world.
He is stressed, and money is increasingly becoming a problem, but above all he is delighted that his family is together again. However terrible secrets bubble under the surface of this middle class idyll, straining to be unleashed.
The bride, Aditi, is desperate to 'settle down' into her arranged marriage. But at the same time she is struggling to get over a passionate, heart-breaking affair with a married man.
Her older, more pragmatic cousin Ria is horrified by the arrival of an uncle from America, as she struggles to keep a hold on a secret she has suppressed for years.
But Lalit is relying on the rich uncle to help finance both the wedding and Ria's education.
And while the relationships and loyalties of the Verma family are tested, the yuppie wedding arranger tries clumsily to express his love for the family's young, quiet maid, Alice.
As the various sub-plots eventually reach a resolution, the monsoon rains come tumbling down.
Sexuality, gender, class and the family in dot.com era India are the main themes subtly explored in Monsoon Wedding.
Like Mike Leigh's Secrets and Lies, Mira Nair gently involves us in a family on the verge of falling apart without losing a sense of the strength of each of the characters and an optimism that each can overcome the challenges they face.
But the banality of Leigh's suburban England is swapped for the glorious colours and sounds of a Punjabi wedding.
The language slips between English and Hindi, sometimes mid sentence, but the dialogue is still easy enough to follow.
Well acted and beautifully filmed, Monsoon Wedding is, despite the Varma family's sometimes tragic problems, ultimately a feel good movie which had me grinning at strangers when I left the cinema.
And if the soundtrack, which mixes traditional Indian wedding music with modern bhangra, doesn't make you want to join the wedding guests' dancing, then I'm not certain you have a heart.

Peter Jackson's Fellowship of the Ring, first release of a three-part cinematic adaptation of JRR Tolkien's doorstopping Lord of the Rings is a must see film experience for anyone with an imagination to be stirred and a heart to be moved.
Fantasy films are usually gash, or at best competent entertainment for kids. But Tolkien's book was never simply 'fantasy'.
It's a detailed and complex mythic 'pre-history' that operates on many levels - thrilling fairy story, bloody action adventure, sweeping epic and doom-laden tragedy.
And it deals with many universal themes - friendship, loyalty, sacrifice, courage and the ultimately complex nature of good and evil. Jackson's triumph is that he succeeds in bringing these qualities to the screen. Readers of the book will not be disappointed, and those coming to Tolkien's story for the first time should leave the cinema with a sense of the depths of Middle-Earth.
The landscapes and environments of the film, from the homely shire to the dark depths of Moria, are all superbly realised.
Ian McKellen is an Oscar winning Gandalf and Elijah Wood is compelling as unlikely hobbit-hero Frodo Baggins. Scotland's Billy Boyd also does an excellent job as Frodo's hobbit friend Pippin, whose character provides welcome comic relief in a story that would otherwise be too dark and involved for younger children.
All in all the casting and acting of all the principal characters is first rate.
There are strong green and anti-militarist threads that run through both film and book. One of the most affecting and spectacular images in the movie is the transformation of leafy, tree-lined Isengard to a circle of pits and factory trenches full of mindless worker/warrior Orcs, foundry flame smelting and hammering out helmets and armour and swords and all the ugly panoply of war. But though ideological interpretations can be applied, they are inevitably too narrow.
Lord of the Rings is primarily a philosophical rather than an ideological text.
That is why 'left' critiques of Lord of the Rings as being racist, or promoting a cosy view of feudal class society are wide of the mark, as they are rooted in a shallow interpretation of the original text.
Go and see this movie if you see no other this decade, unless you're one of those socialists who considers it a sworn duty to despise all bourgeois culture and can only enjoy a movie that is about the struggle of Bolivian shoe factory workers.
And feel safe to take the kids, provided they're not too young. They'll love the swordfights, jokes, scares and monsters and worry about what it all means in a decade or two.

4 Music: Pioneers Ch4 1.20am
The last in the series of films looking at musical innovators is dedicated to the original UK club phenomenon, Wigan Casino.

The Third Man Ch4 1.25pm
Classic film noir, directed by Carol Reed, starring Orson Welles and set in post-war Vienna. An American writer investigates the ruined reputation and death of his friend, and as usual for the genre, discovers that everything is not as it first seems.

The Trust: Intensive Care Ch4 9.00pm
This new documentary series goes behind the scenes of the modern NHS in one of the biggest hospital trusts in the UK - Queens in Nottingham. It's an in depth study that was three years in the making, although as it has the consent of the trust management it may not reveal everything you want to know. The opening programme looks at the inner workings of the intensive care unit.

Chewin' the Fat BBC1 10.35pm
The return of the big mad mental sketch show featuring Ford Kiernan, Greg Hemphill and Karen Dunbar. The usual characters will be joined by some new faces for a bit of Glesgae banter and an individual fruit trifle.

Masterworks: La Mer BBC2 6.55pm
The first of four programmes looking into the stories behind the creation of some of the landmark pieces of classical music from the 20th century. In this edition, Claude Debussy's beautiful evocation of the sea, La Mer, is explored and performed by the BBC Philharmonic.

The Great Hospital Food Makeover Ch4 7pm
This programme exposes the spin behind the government's massively publicised 'Better Hospital Food Initiative' which was fronted Lloyd Grossman, asking if there has been any effective improvement.

Stig of the Dump BBC1 6.00pm
If you missed the first episode last week of this dramatisation of one of the finest children's books ever written, then start watching now! It tells the story of a young boy who discovers a caveman living in a local quarry.

Correspondent: The Dispossessed BBC2 7.25pm
A shocking report filmed in a refugee camp in the Nimruz Province, a former Taliban stronghold, during the West's carpet bombing of Afghanistan. The film focuses on a group of forgotten refugees gathered near the border with Iran.

Bloody Sunday STV 10.00pm
Feature-length drama depicting the events of 30 January 1972, when British soldiers shot dead 13 unarmed civilians taking part in a civil rights march in Derry. The film follows the soldiers, police, and civilians from both sides of the sectarian divide, focusing on the experiences of four different men.
See our review on page 11.

Designer Vaginas Ch4 10.00pm
A one off documentary examining a new trend in extreme plastic surgery now available in the US - cosmetic vaginal surgery. The report meets the women who have had the surgery to ask why, and follows one British woman on her way to the US to go under the knife.

page 11

cultural resistance

Sunday, Bloody Sunday

The 30th anniversary this month of the Bloody Sunday massacre is marked by the showing of two new TV dramas. Journalist Eamonn McCann, one of the organisers of the Derry civil rights march where 13 demonstrators were slaughtered by British soldiers, and still an active campaigner for justice, gives the Voice his view on the programmes.

Bloody Sunday, ITV, Sunday January 20, 10pm Sunday, Ch4, Monday January 28, time t.b.c.

BOTH NEW Bloody Sunday TV dramas have been denounced by a variety of politicians and commentators, some of whom haven't felt it necessary to see the films before delivering their judgment.
Rather in the way they initially approached Bloody Sunday itself.
The films have been attacked as one-sided, depicting the Paras as murderers and the dead and wounded as innocent victims.
It's also said there's an imbalance between the continuing concentration on Bloody Sunday and a relative lack of interest in other Northern atrocities, in some of which just as many died.
But what drew the writers of the films - Jimmy McGovern's Channel 4 production Sunday and Paul Greengrass's Bloody Sunday for ITV - were precisely the things which made Bloody Sunday different, and which gave the day a pivotal significance in the politics of Britain and Ireland.
When the Paras killed 13 people in the Bogside because they'd stood up and demanded equality, many people, particularly young people in Catholic working class communities across the North, saw themselves facing a choice. Either give up the fight for equal rights - or get armed and fight back.
Both films accurately depict the mushroom growth of the IRA which began before the stench of cordite had cleared from Rossville Street.
The killings hadn't come about by accident or misunderstanding or because psyched-up soldiers ran amok.
The British Commander of Land Forces, Robert Ford, had laid out his intentions in a memo dictated three weeks earlier.
"I am coming to the conclusion... that we must shoot selected ringleaders of the Bogside young hooligans."
Ford's preferred action, and his role on the ground - urging the Paras to "Go on... go and get them" - is, again, portrayed accurately in both films.
Far from pre-judging the truth, these sequences are meticulously built around established fact.
All the deaths in each film have been reconstructed from published evidence.
Bloody Sunday didn't happen on a lonely road or in the dead of night, but in bright winter sunshine in a built-up area.
Hostility to the films doesn't arise from concern for the truth but from an unreadiness to acknowledge the truth.
Both films depict the killings face-on and at close range.
Nobody dies prettily.
Each has a Para who watches the slaughter with dismay and is assailed by guilt afterwards.
This is Soldier 027. The depiction is taken from his witness statement to the Saville Inquiry, which also provides the basis of scenes showing other Paras filled with savage exultation.
The films look at the facts from different angles.
Greengrass tells the story mainly through the eyes of SDLP MP Ivan Cooper (James Nesbitt).
One problem with this device is that it requires Cooper to be shown at the heart of the action and involved in every key decision on the civil rights side.
He is depicted making his way to the march through reverential crowds.
These scenes, while they do not impact on the account of the killings, portray Bogside people inaccurately. They are far too full of deference.
Bernadette Devlin, the most popular and influential person in the Bogside on the day, is played as a shrill fool.
Greengrass also includes a scene in which a priest delivers a patronising lecture to Gerry Donaghy, which a docile Donaghy submissively accepts.
As a depiction of the relationship between priests and Bogside teenagers in 1972, this is laughable.
Greengrass accepts the cock-up theory of Bloody Sunday. The massacre didn't flow from deliberate strategy, but from a combination of belligerent stupidity by officers and confused aggression from soldiers.
His account - framed within the 24 hours of Bloody Sunday - includes a detailed reconstruction of communications between the Army's command headquarters and officers on the ground.
The question whether the order for the Paras to go in was properly given is important.
But to make it a major focus is to miss the more important point of why the Paras were brought from Belfast on Bloody Sunday morning - and what intention this points towards.
This is the issue McGovern homes in on. He depicts the alarm of the Derry garrison commander on discovering the Paras are to be deployed, and includes a scene of the Paras as they embark for Derry echoing the attitude of Ford's January 7 memo. McGovern puts Tory Prime Minister Edward Heath on screen, steering Lord Widgery towards the conclusion he wants drawn from the Inquiry set up two days after the event:
"Remember... we are fighting in Northern Ireland not just a military war but a propaganda war."
McGovern shows the source of the evil which burst on the Bogside located in the conscious intentions of the political, military and legal elite.
In contrast, Greengrass suggests a general moral deficiency in the political and security apparatus.
Greengrass implicitly concludes that what the Bogside needed was trust in the leadership of decent men like Ivan Cooper. McGovern suggests that the answer lies somewhere in the sense of working-class oneness and sheer indomitability of the people themselves.
Greengrass's depiction is undeniably powerful. More documentary than drama in style, it is simply structured, taking the events of the day in sequential order.
It builds tension through intercuts between jaunty banter on the march and the grim business of the Paras making ready.
The violence is caught in jerky, hand-held sequences seemingly snatched on the run.
The scenes of a distraught Cooper at Altnagelvin Hospital among the dead, will remain vivid in the memory long after the detail of dissection of the film has faded.
Cooper is seen, beseiged by pain all around him of families discovering that their son or father or brother is among the victims. McGovern's film is more deliberately structured.
It has a prelude sketching events as they build towards the Bogside march. Afterwards it shows the Widgery Tribunal and the repercussions both at political level and in the shattered lives of families left behind.
Throughout the film, McGovern looks at the unfolding horror through the families' eyes.
The portraits are subtly coloured and precisely delineated.
You get to know the Youngs the way you know people you call in on without knocking the door.
Brid Brennan, as John Young's mother, gives a ferociously understated, shattering performance. She forgives the soldier who has killed her son, "not for his sake, but for the sake of the sons I have left".
Discussion of the differences between the films shouldn't obscure what's entirely positive and brilliantly realised about both.
They present Bloody Sunday as a pitiless murder spree carried out on behalf of a ruthless government by a kill-crazy regiment - then covered up by a class-conscious liar, the Lord Chief Justice of England.

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page 12

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page 13

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

Deregulation not promotion
I was impressed by the arguments made by the SSP spokesperson on Leslie Riddoch's radio program last month and in the case generally expressed against the prosecution of drug-users.
A newspaper dedicated to building an independent socialist Scotland, however, is surely not the place for a punt in favour of dope-smoking such as the piece by Kevin Williamson (Voice issue 74).
Our culture is already very committed to promoting the 'get aff yer heid' style of relaxation. I am the last person who would have the right, or the will, to preach abstinence. But the determination of many Scots to chemically switch-off their thinking mechanism is not only a source of amazement to many other nations, it is an indication of a general lack of self-confidence which has helped to prevent us from seizing control of our own destiny.
Dope-smoking may be no worse than the bevy, but it certainly will make absolutely no contribution to the struggle for a political party capable of leading the Scottish people in the building of a socialist society.
By all means, campaign against prohibition. But leave the drug promotion to the millionaire-owned media.
They are more than willing and able to sell the idea that working-class people should do nothing about changing the world and that we should, instead, just get our heads 'sorted'.
David Mcilwaine,
Stirlingshire

Swinney loses student support
The SNP Student Society of Glasgow University invited all the students to attend a meeting with the SNP leader John Swinney as their guest speaker. Out of interest I went along to the meeting. It provided a substantial contrast to the recent Scottish Socialist Party youth meeting at the university where the students invited Tommy Sheridan to speak. Over seventy young people turned out to hear Tommy. Extra chairs had to be brought into the hall and still the walls were lined with students.
Tommy delivered a wholehearted and hard-hitting speech, which resulted in a lively question and answer session afterwards. However at the SNP meeting I counted an audience of around twenty, of which about half, I suspect, were members of the local branch.
Not exactly a charismatic figure, Swinney rambled on monotonously about how the SNP would solve all Scotland's problems if they were elected into power. Few questions were asked afterwards. I came away from the meeting feeling it had not been a worthwhile use of my time. It reinforced the SNP's lack of credibility and irrelevance in the eyes of young people today.
Marion McCready
Dunoon

Russia kens John Maclean
On November 30 I gave a talk to a group of Russian parliamentarians who were on a fact-finding tour of Scotland.
As it was St Andrew's day the delegation informed me that St Andrew is also the patron saint of the Russian Navy.
I mentioned that November 30 was also the date that the great Scottish socialist John Maclean died.
Before the translator had time to translate, all of the group nodded enthusiastically and around the room went the name "John Maclean".
The sad thing is, when I ask fellow Scots the same question they say "John who?"
Why should this be? No doubt all socialists will know the answer. For a long time after his death most historians ignored Maclean's contribution and his legacy was distorted by those who came to power.
The recent workshops at Socialism 2001 were inspiring - especially those on Maclean, who died 75 years ago at the age of 44, giving all he had to give for the cause he believed in.
John Maclean will always have a place in the hearts of socialists everywhere.
James Connolly,
Fife

Council tenants scupper sell-off
I write to congratulate the tenants of both Dudley and the Aylesbury estate in Southwark in winning their respective ballots by 56 per cent and 73 per cent against the privatisation of Council Housing.
It shows that even when a proposed privatisation is heavily resourced we tenants have the power to reject it. The Labour government says it will pay off Glasgow's housing debt but only if tenants vote yes in the coming ballot.
Every tenant should vote no to the privatisation of council housing and not give in to blackmail from the Scottish Executive and Westminster. Westminster should pay off the debt and give Glasgow Council a fresh start.
Unlike the Glasgow Housing Association the council could avoid building up a new debt. If the council got the same money as the GHA it would deliver better value for money.
Instead of servicing a new debt, GHA's finance charges and fatcat consultancy fees, more money could be invested in our homes.
Gary Kelly,
Campaign for a NO vote

Support Turkish resistance
With reference to an item in Voice issue 73 about Turkish police brutality towards supporters of political prisoners in Istanbul, readers might be interested to know of the War Resisters Association of Izmir (ISKD).
The Turkish State suppresses every form of opposition. Peace activists have been imprisoned and their press conferences forbidden. The Peace Platform in Istanbul has been dissolved because the authorities claim it was illegal for them to meet.
ISKD published the following statement: "We will keep following our way in maybe small steps but with determination and commitment. To continue our work in Turkey we need not only your moral, but also your financial support."
Donations can be sent to ISKD at: War Resisters International, 5 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DX. Tel: 0207 278 4040. Jean Baugh,
Stromness, Orkney

Power workers salute the Voice
The trades union members on strike at ScottishPower have asked me to thank you on their behalf, for all the coverage by your newspaper and for all the support we have received from your readers during this dispute.
As you will understand, being involved in an industrial dispute is a difficult experience at any time, let alone over what should be a very happy and festive time of year.
ScottishPower moved the date our wages should have been paid back by a week, ensuring we were not paid until after Christmas. This was obviously meant to cause maximum inconvenience to our families.
Knowing that there are people out there who sympathise with us in our dispute will help us to continue to remain positive.
I would also like to take the opportunity through your newspaper, to thank all of those people who made contributions to our strike fund at a rally held in Dow's Bar, Glasgow on December l3. Their generosity is most sincerely appreciated. Once again I thank you on behalf of all union members taking part in the Industrial action against ScottishPower.
Rab Ferguson,
Strike Committee Treasurer

Principled stand?
As a socialist and member of the SSP I have to say that, although I am grateful that the likes of Tony Benn, George Galloway and John McAllion openly oppose the war, I have no real respect for them. Despite their party ordering thousands of innocent civilians to their deaths in Afghanistan, they still stick by their beloved Labour government.
Tony Benn and John McAllion claim to be socialists but what type of socialist can align themselves with war criminals like Labour or watch while their party sentences thousands of Scottish people to poverty? If I was one of those mentioned above I know what I'd tell Tony Blair - then I'd join the SSP!
Brett Harper,
Aberdeen

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page 15

international news

When Argentinians said that enough was enough

by Virginia Marconi, editor of Herriamienta magazine

How would you feel if one day your government said that your salary and your parents' pensions would be reduced 13 per cent and that the budgets for health and education for your children would be slashed to pay off foreign debt?
And on top of that, after the fat cats had already pulled their money out of the country, the government prevented all bank withdrawals because that would cause banks to go bankrupt?
And if to add insult to injury, this government, which had been crushingly defeated in the elections two months before, said that they would resort to violence to prevent any demonstrations against their policy?
Argentineans responded by taking to the streets and shouting their anger and frustration.
The result was an insurrection, the likes of which has never been seen in the history of the country.
From December 19 until January 1, five presidents have succeeded each other without being able to close the crisis.
During its history, Argentina has been shaken by popular rebellions that overthrew military dictatorships.
This is the first time that a rebellion overthrows an elected government and that it takes place in the capital of the country.
The rebellion started with the poor and the unemployed looting the supermarkets, driven by hunger and despair.
On the evening of December 19, President de la Rua made a speech in which he declared the state of siege to prevent looting. The reaction was spontaneous. People were so sick of the whole thing that as soon as the speech had ended, at 11pm, they took their children by the hand and marched towards Plaza de Mayo.
On the way, they met their neighbours, their friends, their workmates who joined in the spontaneous march.
The government were desperate and called the military. They refused to step in.
The police, however, obeyed their orders and attacked the demonstrators.
The role of the youth and the left wing organisations was crucial in defending the families who had gathered in Plaza de Mayo.
A special mention has to be made of the "motoqueros" -young people on their motorbikes who form part of a private city mail. They lunged on their motorbikes against the police when they attacked the demonstrators and prevented them from reorganising their ranks.
They also were some of those who fell under the bullets of the police.
The following day, December 20, people gathered again in front of the House of Government to demand an explanation for the shootings.
Once again, the police attacked them. The president was forced to resign and was succeeded by the president of the Senate. A judge who ruled that the protest was legal is now suing President De la Rua and his ministers for murder, since they gave the police the order to shoot.
According to the law, the president elected by the Chambers of Deputies and Senators was to last for three months, until March 2002, when elections would be called.
The new president, Mr Rodriguez Saa, made wonderful promises, but about what really worried people: their confiscated savings and salaries. He said the Supreme Court would decide.
On December 29, the Supreme Court, which for the last ten years has been suspected of corruption, ruled that the government had the right to prevent people from withdrawing their salary and savings from the banks.
When this was made public, the people started the second wave of more violent demonstrations.
The demonstrators tried to attack the House of Government and, not being able to do so, marched on the Congress, took it over and destroyed whatever they could lay their hands on.
This time, they demanded the resignation of the Supreme Court, the ministers of the government and the president himself. Rodriguez Saa, the third president, resigned and was again succeeded by the president of the Senate.
Congress had now the choice of either call to immediate elections or elect a president behind the backs of the masses of the people. They chose the second.
On January 1, the Assembly of the Deputies and Senators elected Eduardo Duhalde president, to complete de la Rua's mandate: two years.
What will happen now? The crisis has not been closed. Duhalde has frozen salaries but not prices and has devalued the peso by almost 40 per cent.
This means that although salaries have been nominally slashed by the same amount, as prices start to mount, the loss in purchasing power is going to be even higher.
Will Argentineans accept this? Already people in Mendoza, a province to the west of the country, have taken to the streets to reject these measures and demand that their salaries be paid.
If people refuse to accept this salary reduction and continue to demand access to their bank deposits, the days of this government may be counted.
The question is who will replace it and with what plan?
At the moment, all the bourgeois parties have joined to form a 'government of national coalition', but this is their last chance to control the situation.
If they fail nobody knows what may happen. Luckily, the military are ruled out. But an option that would defend the interest of the workers and the people in general is still far away.
This great rebellion has shown Argentineans what they can achieve if they get together and fight.
The next lesson they will have to learn is how to give permanence to their struggle through organising themselves and developing a programme to replace that of the present government. Until that happens, there is no solution to the crisis.

Brussels bites back

by Alister Black and Dave Sherry

Just before Christmas, as European Union leaders met in Brussels to plan more privatisation and market reforms, the anti-capitalist movement returned with a vengeance.
Two giant demonstrations against globalisation were held in the city on consecutive days.
On Thursday December 14, 140,000 trade unionists marched against the bosses 'neo-liberal' Europe, demanding in its place a 'social' Europe with public services and workers rights.
The following day 30,000 mainly young people took to the streets demanding 'global peace and justice', in a demo organised by an umbrella collective of protest groups.
Although the war in Afghanistan was not the main focus, anti-war slogans were taken up by large sections of the demonstration. Friday's march was joined by considerable numbers of trade union delegations, including one from the Glasgow Medical Secretaries.

Co-operation
In the same week, socialist parties from all over Europe met in Brussels.
The meeting of the European anti-capitalist left was sponsored by four parties; the Scottish Socialist Party, the LCR (Revolutionary Communist League) of France, the Red-Green Alliance of Denmark and the Left Bloc of Portugal. These four parties had already participated in two previous joint meetings.
Others in attendance included the Party of Communist Refoundation (PRC) of Italy, the Socialist Alliance, SWP and Socialist Party from England and Wales, and groups from Spain and Turkey.
This meeting was part of an ongoing process of co-operation between these parties. The meeting agreed a statement on a common approach to questions of war, racism, the EU, civil liberties and globalisation. The full statement is available on the SSP website (scottishsocialistparty.org).
With 300 million EU citizens now part of the 'euro-zone' with a unified currency, we need to work more closely with our brothers and sisters throughout Europe. This conference was a welcome step forward and continues our progress towards greater socialist unity in the continent.

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page 16

Separated by a mile ... and a million quid

by Dave Ewing

Never mind credit unions and budgeting schemes. The easiest way to save money is to become a millionaire.
Just a two-minute drive from the south Glasgow housing scheme of Castlemilk lies Thorntonhall, the village that is home to the largest proportion of millionaires in Scotland.
At the last census just 568 people lived in the G74 5 postcode area that covers much of this leafy village. This select group have probably got more disposable cash between them than all the 11,533 people living in the G45 9 postcode at the centre of Castlemilk.
There's not a lot in Thorntonhall. Apparently there's a tennis club that is the centre of village life, but the place doesn't even have a post office.
For people in Castlemilk, where the percentage of individuals without a car runs at around 89 per cent, that would be a nightmare.
But less than two per cent of Thorntonhallians - probably the toddlers - are without a car. Nipping to Clarkston or East Kilbride in the 4x4 for stamps is not a problem.
Four-bedroom houses in Thorntonhall go for around £300,000 to £500,000. That places them firmly in the top council tax band.
If the Thorntonhallians lived in Glasgow they would therefore pay £2240 a year. But because they live just a few hundred yards beyond the city boundary, they pay South Lanarkshire Council £1848 instead. Becoming a millionaire actually saves you money.
Down the road in Castlemilk, people who live in houses at the bottom of the council tax scale will pay £747 year. That's about a third of the nearby millionaires.
Of course under the SSP's proposed Scottish service tax, Thorntonhallians would be forced to pay based on their income and the poorest people in Castlemilk would be exempt from paying anything.
Redistribution of wealth is the only way to tackle problems of poverty. Let's start by shifting some cash along the Carmunock by-pass.

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