Issue146

Come to Bonny Scotland! Land of breathtaking scenery... and breathtakingly low wages.
Sure, there's an unprecedented housing boom in pockets of central Edinburgh and Glasgow, and certain upmarket towns in the Borders are said to offer the highest quality of life in Britain.
But for the vast majority, life in Scotland means dependence upon an increasingly crumbling public service infrastructure and some of the lowest wages in Europe.
A report published this week by the Scottish Low Pay Unit found that one in three full-time workers are paid less than the UK national low wage threshold of £280 a week.
It also revealed that the average Scottish weekly wage of £427 - around £22,204 per annum - falls substantially below the UK average of £464.70.
Even more damning, the latest Scottish Household Survey found that 52 per cent of all households in Scotland have an income of less than £15,000, with nearly 70 per cent coming in under £20,000.
The pro-big business agenda of our four main political parties is clearly failing Scotland miserably.
Despite being home to some of the most successful companies in the world - the Royal Bank of Scotland, Stagecoach and HBOS - the famous "trickle-down effect" is yet to make itself felt.
New Labour hard-liners, backed up by an SNP chorus, urge us to have faith and hold on.
'If we just slash a bit more off corporation tax, offer just a few more incentives to wealthy foreign investors, we'll all benefit.'
But we won't. Business and people don't mix: one thrives at the other's expense.
And we know which one.
While the bosses and the entrepreneurs are feted with pay awards and tax breaks, the people at the other end of the scale are subject to increasing casualisation, the so-called McDonaldisation of work.
That's low security, low wage, varying shifts, high turnover. We're talking call centres, 24-hour supermarkets, temp agencies; the very industries created to service our economy.
The Scottish Socialist Party believes we could do a bit better.
A minimum wage of £7.32 for all public sector workers would be a major step in the right direction.
The Scottish Parliament only has jurisdiction over public sector pay but, were wages there to rise, wages in the private sector would have to follow suit in order to attract staff.
And a Scottish Service Tax, to replace the Council Tax, would instantly take the pressure off our poorest households and force those who're having such a great life at Scotland's expense to finally start paying some of it back.

news

Board cuts compensation for Firsat Dag's parents

by Roz Paterson

As if losing their son in the most brutal of circumstances wasn't enough, the parents of a murdered asylum seeker were last week told that their compensation payment from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) was to be halved because of his "unlawful conduct".
Firsat Dag, a Turkish Kurd living in Sighthill in Glasgow, was stabbed to death in August 2001, whilst making his way home after a night out.
The unprovoked attack led to killer Scott Burrell being jailed for life yet now, it seems, it is his victim's credibility that is being called into question.
In the letter, the CICA told Rabia and Cemil, Mr Dag's parents, that they had reached their decision based on evidence that their son had applied for asylum under a false name.
In fact, he merely dropped the Dag part of his name, applying as Firsat Yildiz, to prevent him being identified, and his family subsequently persecuted, by the Turkish authorities.
Instead of the maximum £11,000, Firsat's parents are to receive only £5,500 - a move which prompted one of Firsat's friends to bitterly comment, "It seems a person's life is cheap in Britain."
Harry Dematagoda, of the West of Scotland Racial Equality Council, who submitted the compensation application on behalf of Mr Dag's parents, believes that the asylum application details are not relevant anyway.
"Perhaps if Firsat had fought back and also caused injuries, it could be relevant, but he didn't. His murder and his asylum application are separate issues."

You can do it if you B&Q it, Pete

We at the Voice don't like to gloat over other people's misfortunes but, in the case of Peter "Gizzajob" Cox, former editor of the Daily Record, we're prepared to make an exception.
Since being unceremoniously fired from his job at Scotland's biggest red-top tabloid, Peter "Go on, I can do that" Cox has been doing a spot of job-seeking.
Alas, it doesn't seem to be going too well.
As there seems to be nothing doing for him north of the border, he sent a letter to Rebekah Wade, editor of his old rag, The Sun, requesting he be considered as a future employee. He would, he said, even edit the letters page if needs be.
Ms Wade, curiously unmoved by his pitiful plight, passed the letter onto a member of staff, someone who knew Mr Cox as of old.
This old colleague of his responded that "unfortunately" his "age profile does not match the necessary criteria". In other words, Peter "Yosser" Cox is too old for the supersoaraway Sun of today.
"May we suggest B&Q," the Sun writer added helpfully, "(They) have recently adopted a back-to-work scheme for the elderly."
Sheer cruelty, of course. But Peter "Firsat Dag conned his way into this country" Cox knows all about that.

Let them drink tea

by Simon Whittle

The Home Office are proposing that Glasgow becomes a pilot city for their citizenship exams.
In a city where probably half of those already resident would refuse, they are suggesting that immigrants be forced to swear:
"I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, her heirs and successors according to law."
I'd predict Rosie Kane style objections, in a variety of languages, becoming very popular.
The ceremony would be followed by a polite round of applause and a rousing rendition of the national anthem.
Under the new scheme 100,000 people a year may have to pass a test in English and prove that they have sufficient knowledge of life in the UK, .
What a bunch of pomp. If it were a condition of becoming an MP or MSP that you had to prove "sufficient knowledge of life in the UK" - not to mention take an English test - Westminster and Holyrood would be all but empty.
Making people sit an exam to 'earn' their 'democratic rights' is simply and plainly undemocratic.
Currently, immigrants can apply for citizenship after five years residency in this country, or three if they are married to a British citizen.
They must fill in a form, get the details verified by a solicitor or a doctor and apply by post.
Adding on conditions which would cause ructions amongst the population born here is discriminatory and targets the most vulnerable people.
Older people and those who cannot work are least likely to be able to pass the tests.
n Responses to the consultation document are to be sent in by October 17. See ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/default.asp?pageid=4050

Power to the people?

by Roisin Pearce

Iraqis have endured darkness for months on end, but when a 12 hour blackout hits Manhattan, we have a world-scale crisis on our hands apparently.
It's been, says George W Bush, "a wake-up call. The grid needs to be modernised." Like, duh.
But modernising isn't such an easy proposition when your power supply is run by a bunch of cowboys who regard supplying electricity to people as an annoying obligation they must fulfil in the course of maximising profits.
Yet this upgrade cannot wait. Back in 2001, they were getting the jitters and a $350 million program, funded by federal loans, was agreed; only to be voted down by the fledgling Team Bush.
Two years on, the sector is reaching crisis point.
So who's gonna pay this time, given that public money is a dirty word in Republican America? Well, if they follow the advice of former UK energy minister Brian Wilson, the ordinary citizens of America are, via vastly inflated electricity bills.
The UK grid, like the American one, is also in need of an urgent upgrade.
Professor Ian Fells, professor of Energy Conservation at Newcastle University, warns that January and February will see us particularly vulnerable to blackouts, and the National Grid has admitted it got a bit close to the wire last winter.
"Last December we were within three minutes of power cuts," says Fells, blaming it on a reluctance by companies to "have as much spare capacity as they used to".
Pre-privatisation, we ran on a spare capacity margin of 25 per cent. That proved bad for business post-privatisation, as it amounted to an over-supply, which brought prices down.
To ensure prices went up again, the new utility owners cut production to the bone and closed a few power stations, leaving the country with a very tight margin of error.
Which is fine just now, given that few of us have power-guzzling air conditioning to fuel, but won't be come winter, when we all want to put the heating on.
If we want to avoid a reign of darkness, not to mention cold, the only solution - according to Brian Wilson - is for us to pay higher electricity prices.
Which seems a little unfair given that profits in the electricity sector are up. Way up.
Scottish and Southern Electricity (SSE), which has a near monopoly in the North of Scotland and central South England, announced pre-tax profits of £597.1 million in May this year, and Scottish Power has seen its profits soar to £836 million.
There has been, to quote some cityspeak for a minute, a "strong recovery". But not, it seems, for the likes of us.

Save Queen's Park campaign wins reprieve for bandstand

by Roz Paterson

Glasgow's Labour-led council shot itself in the foot last week whilst trying to push through plans for an unpopular private development in and around the bandstand area of Queen's Park.
Councillor Aileen Colleran announced that, following consultation with the local community council and Friends of Queen's Park, tenders were to be sought to develop a two-storey venue, complete with carpark and access road, in what is currently a swingpark and informal football pitch, much used by local kids.
But the local community council that was supposedly consulted hasn't existed for two years.
And Friends of Queen's Park, despite appearing to harbour a pro-privatisation caucus - its refusal to handle a 500-strong petition opposing the development made many members suspicious - had no choice but to throw up its hands and admit that, yes, it too was never consulted.
The plans are now "on hold" and Colleran has apologised, bravely claiming that she was badly briefed.
However, the Save Queen's Park campaign, launched by the Scottish Socialist Party and increasingly attracting local, cross-party and community group support, continues.
Tony Benn, who famously addressed Mayday crowds from the Queen's Park bandstand, was outraged to hear what the council had in mind for this socially historical location, and has added his voice to the protest.
Our objectives are to raise local awareness, so that these plans cannot be rushed through sometime in the future when the heat's died down, and also to suggest possible alternative proposals.
These proposals would concentrate on the immediate bandstand area and therefore not involve tearing up huge swatches of the park, and be publicly or grant-funded.
Finally, we'd like to seek conservation status for the park, ensuring that it stays in the hands of the people it was designed for, not ripped off by greedy developers with luxury flats on the brain.

Residents stop nursery building site with flash lie-down protest

by Kath Kyle

Pikeman Road is a narrow, quiet crescent in Glasgow. Most of the houses overlook a small established green space with shady mature trees surrounding Pikeman Nursery School.
Although close to Great Western Road, the residents are used to a fairly peaceful street with most of the noise coming from local children playing on the grass.
In February they got notification that the council were planning to extend Pikeman Nursery.
Residents Joe and Jacqueline McFadyen went to question the planning department, and left believing everything was straightforward enough - until work began on Friday August 8.
One of their neighbours, a builder, realised that there was more than just a nursery extension being built. Joe told the Voice:
"A bulldozer was trashing the grass and guys were cutting the trees to make way for a road. There was nothing in the plans we had been given about that."
The new road would mean heavy machinery and lorries trundling up Pikeman Road throughout the five or six months it would take to finish the nursery.
"There's hardly space for two cars to pass on the road," said Jacqueline. The residents immediately took action.
"Our councillor and the planning department all blanked us and we had no choice but to stand in front of the bulldozers to stop it.
"When the street confronted Councillor Charlie Gordon at his surgery he was quite arrogant but then told us the head teacher of the nursery had asked for the access road to be built there just two weeks ago. We haven't been consulted on it at all."
This isn't just another NIMBY protest. There are serious health and safety issues. The street is too narrow for such traffic and the building site itself is turning out to be a hazard.
"There are no fences round the construction site so after work finishes the kids are in there BMXing up and down the piles of stones and climbing all over the machinery," said Joe.
"They were cutting trees with no harnesses on or barriers round them and branches were falling onto the pavement.
"On top of that the parents at the nursery know nothing about the works.
"They don't know that their kids will be going to nursery in a building site."
A complaint has been submitted to the council's ombudsman and all the residents have received a letter stating that work is suspended while the situation is reviewed.
If another access road is found then the residents have been promised they will be consulted.
Jacqueline added: "It is a ridiculous plan. The 70 children should be decanted for the duration of the building project and the heavy plant should be using the existing road, off the main road, for access."

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A bicycle on the boy's birthday...

by Jo Harvie

Glasgow's Refugee Aid Project is a tiny wee shop providing a hugely important service for the whole city.
Here, refugees and asylum seekers can stop by and pick up desperately needed household goods, clothes and toys for the kids.
When I dropped in on a Friday afternoon, the kettle was on, the washing machine and tumble dryer were going like the clappers and a steady stream of women were popping in and out.
Volunteers and support workers work hard to make the shop look as much like any other shop as possible, so that nobody feels patronised.
The place is sparklingly clean, like it's just been used in a Mr Muscle advert, and outfits are put together and hung up on hangers on the walls.
Irina, from Azerbaijan, volunteers in the shop a couple of days a week. She says that there is a big demand for the services that the project provides:
"It's good for asylum seekers and other people, who get here without many clothes or much money. When they come in our shop they can just take what they need and I think they feel it's a big help for them."
Nshimiye Rechael arrived in Glasgow just over a month ago. She's originally from Rwanda and is seven and a half months pregnant.
She was told about the project by the Glasgow Refugee Council, and they're helping her get organised for her baby's imminent arrival:
"It's very helpful. I wouldn't have had anything for my baby otherwise, but I can come here and get clothes for my baby and for me as well.
"And the people are lovely, they're always pleased to see me and they help me pick things out for the baby."
The project has recently expanded its opening hours and there's been a substantial leap in the number of people visiting. The problem is keeping up with the increased demand for goods.
David Reilly, who co-ordinates the project, says there is nothing worse than people coming in and the project isn't able to help them because they don't have the stock.
The things they find most difficult to meet the need for are prams, especially, and kitchenware - anything that people are more likely to keep in their families than donate:
"We're also looking for sheets, duvets, curtains, and there's always a constant need for toys and clothing.
"Things we can't take are electrical goods, for health and safety reasons, and big items of furniture basically because we don't have the space.
"We really do need bigger premises, but we're struggling to fund this place. We get it at a nominal rent from the council but we're running at a deficit of about £10,000 a year which is paid for out of Positive Action in Housing's reserves.
"It is wrong that a place like this has to exist, but it has to because asylum seekers are forced to live on 30 per cent less than income support.
"That's terrible by any standards but even under things like the Children's Act, because we're forcing children to live like this. Our government sets targets for getting children out of poverty, unless they're black or foreign.
"If an asylum seeker is pregnant, she gets a grant of £300. That's nowhere near enough - prams cost about £150, never mind getting the baby's clothes and all the other things she's going to need.
"That's why organisations like Glasgow Women's Aid have got involved with us - because women who are asylum seekers are forced to live in poverty with their children."
If you have anything you can donate to the Refugee Action Project, drop it into the shop at 5 Old Dumbarton Road, Yorkhill, Monday to Saturday, between 10am and 4pm.
With difficulty they can arrange to collect donations, so if there's no way you can make it to the shop, or if you want to make a financial donation, phone the project on 0141 353 2220

Glasgow housing transfer leaves refugees homeless

Glasgow's housing stock transfer, from council control to the Glasgow Housing Association quango, has had a devastating effect on the city's refugee population.
Previously, asylum seekers who gained refugee status would be given the option by the city council to stay in the flat that they've lived in as an asylum seeker.
Now their notification that they've qualified as a refugee is accompanied by a five day notice to quit their flat from the Glasgow Housing Association.
David Reilly from the Refugee Aid Project told the Voice:
"Usually they just panic. Very often, they're not aware of any of their rights, or where to go or who to speak to.
"They have to declare themselves homeless at the Hamish Allen centre and then get rehoused."

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The 2001/02 Scottish Household annual survey was published last week.
The headlines in the mainstream press were all about how young people and the elderly are worried about being assaulted on the street.
This is distressing enough but there was hardly a word about the shocking statistics revealing the shameful poverty in Scotland.
A scandalous 31 per cent of Scottish households survive on an income of less than £10,000 a year - that's households, not individuals.
Almost one in three Scottish households is trying to make ends meet on an annual income completely insufficient to live on.
Where's the media outrage? Why no banner headlines calling overpaid ministers to account for their acute failure to tackle poverty?
A closer look at the statistics points to an even bleaker picture of life in Scotland for millions of men, women and children.
A disgraceful 52 per cent of households have an annual income of less than £15,000 per year, while the average pay of chief executives has risen to over £500,000 a year.
It puts into perspective the £49,000 personal salary for backbench MSPs, the £56,000 for Missing Persons (MPs) and the £70,000 for Scottish Ministers.
That SSP MSPs live on the average wage of skilled workers in Scotland is absolutely critical. It marks us out as different to the career politicians and keeps us closer to the lifestyles of the people we represent.
The SSP stands for a completely new Scotland - an independent socialist Scotland where the massive wealth and natural resources are owned and controlled by the people.
Our goal is a society based on human solidarity and cooperation, not wasteful conflict, competition and the creed of greed. In the immediate period, however, our politics challenge poverty and inequality.
That's why the Scottish Service Tax proposal is so important. Those individuals and households struggling to survive on less than £15,000 or £10,000 a year will predominantly be low paid or pensioner households.
They are currently hammered by the unfair Council Tax.
Our new Scottish Service Tax, based on personal income, will improve the disposable income of 77 per cent of Scots.
These pensioner and low paid households will at least have more of their limited income to spend on other goods and services. Of course the wealthy will pay more.
The politicians in Scotland will collectively pay £1 million a year more towards local government jobs and services.
But they can afford it.
The latest Scottish household survey contains the type of statistics that should convince us even more to campaign for socialism.
Not just here in Scotland but throughout our world. There's an abundance of wealth and resources but they are wastefully controlled and owned by a tiny minority, for their own profit.
That situation must be reversed - and reversed soon.

It was the late great Jimi Hendrix who once said: "The only thing that bugs me is critics. It's like shooting at a flying saucer as it tries to land, without giving the occupants a chance to identify themselves."
The organisers of the Edinburgh People's Festival will understand what Hendrix was on about.
Although the People's Festival is still in its infancy, and is still finding its feet and exploring future directions, this hasn't stopped establishment critics from taking a few pops, especially those who have tried, wrongly, to paint it as the pouted lip of the Edinburgh Festival.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
From the enthusiastic reports by participants and audiences the second Edinburgh People's Festival has been a real breath of fresh air, with high quality shows, AND has the potential to be a real cultural force in the city in the future.
Over the last couple of weeks I've been fortunate enough to see performances, shows and talks by the likes of Phil Kay, Irvine Welsh, Janet Street-Porter, Howard Marks, as well as the magnificent Cullberg Ballet and the UK Premiere of the brilliant Scottish art-house movie, Young Adam.
But the highlight of all the Festivals was definitely the "Whose Culture Is It Anyway" debate in Wester Hailes.
This debate may well be looked back on as a seminal cultural event, on a par with the Writers Convention of 1962 that saw Alexander Trocchi's famous clash with Hugh McDairmid on the future direction of Scottish literature.
The repercussions of this debate could also reverberate for years to come.
From the initial remit of taking the Festival out of Edinburgh's city centre and into the outlying areas - 'refreshing the parts that others festivals don't reach' - the debate around the People's Festival has thrown up more questions than answers.
Such as: How to build on the initial successes? How to involve even more communities? What is culture? And what kind of cultural events is it we're trying to encourage?
If we're trying to encourage participation in the cultural life of the city, or any city, we have to stop and ask ourselves, Why? Is it just about providing entertainment? Any old entertainment?
If, for instance, the performers in any of the other Festivals were to take their shows out to places like Craigmillar, Muirhouse or Musselburgh, would that be enough? If the ticket prices were reduced to make them accessible to all, would that be enough?
The purpose of cultural creativity is a question that has occupied many artists, cultural pioneers and thinkers over the years.
Orson Welles rejected the idea that art should merely reflect a consensus when he said: "I passionately hate the idea of being with it. I think an artist has always to be out of step with his time."
Pablo Picasso on the other hand loved the playfulness of creativity and observed that: "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up."
The painter Paul Gaugin had a much bolder interpretation of the purpose of art when he stridently asserted that: "Art is either plagiarism or revolution."
The Edinburgh People's Festival could do a lot worse than consider these three declarations of intent as it plots its future course.
Passive entertainment, putting bums on seats, fame academies, financial motivation, and, in particular, non participation, are the hallmarks of everything that the Edinburgh People's Festival should be against.
This is culture with a purpose. Many purposes. Cultural and creative involvement within local communities can help build a sense of solidarity and self-confidence among participants.
Which is why Colin Fox and the organisers of the Edinburgh People's Festival should be congratulated for kick-starting something substantial and important.
It's an exciting project and one that hopefully could inspire similar projects throughout Scotland.

As the crisis in the SNP mounts, a number of left wing nationalists have raised the idea of working with the SSP, the Greens and other non-aligned supporters of Scottish independence as a means of breaking the deadlock.
Here, SSP national policy co-ordinator, Alan McCombes, explains why the party backs independence.

Another world is possible. Since the start of the new millennium, these four words have reverberated across the planet, inspiring mass demonstrations and rallies from Seattle to Soweto, from Bombay to Barcelona.
The Scottish Socialist Party is part of this new movement for global socialism. In the five years since the party was founded, we have forged a multitude of connections with socialists, trade unionists, environmentalists, anti-poverty campaigners and freedom fighters in every continent.
We have backed solidarity campaigns in support of those resisting oppression and injustice in Palestine, Colombia, Afghanistan and Kurdistan.
We are also at the heart of building a new, continental-wide anti-capitalist political movement that aims to unite the forces of socialism across Europe.
In action and in words the SSP is an uncompromisingly internationalist party. Our long-term vision is of a socialist world: a world without hunger and without war, a world in which the wealth of our planet is shared by the people of our planet.
Why then, should socialists favour an independent Scotland? Shouldn't socialists favour bigger and broader states as a step towards breaking down the barriers that divide people?
And in any case, don't working class people in Glasgow and Dundee have less in common with Highland lairds or Edinburgh bankers than with working class people in Liverpool or Newcastle?
Of course, that's true. But it's equally true that a low paid worker in Glasgow or Liverpool has less in common with a London stockbroker than with a low paid worker in Chicago or New York.
In fact, they often work for the same bosses: there are now more Scottish workers employed by American companies than by English-based companies.
Yet if Tony Blair tried to sign Britain up to become the 52nd state of the USA, what would be the response of socialists and trade unionists in the UK?
"As internationalists, we're duty-bound to unite with our working class brothers and sisters across the Atlantic.
"All this talk of self determination is just parochial nationalism.
"Sure, signing up for the dollar might slow down the struggle for socialism. But in this globalised economy, we're too small to stand on our own two feet anyway."
Highly unlikely.
And to take a real rather than an imaginary example, shouldn't left wing trade unionists and socialists be campaigning in favour of the euro rather than trying to resist it?
Shouldn't they be saying: "We know it's going to destroy jobs, undermine public services and accelerate privatisation.
"And we know that unelected quangos linked to big business will be taking all the key decisions.
"But as internationalists we have to support any move towards bigger and broader super-states because it will bring people together."
Socialist internationalism cannot be reduced to simplistic certainties. In the early part of the 20th century, the Edinburgh-born socialist James Connolly fought to free Ireland from British rule.
Later, the Glasgow-born socialist, John McLean, campaigned to "tear Scotland out of John Bull's blood soaked empire".
Yet both men were internationalists to the marrow of their bones. They stood out courageously against the savagery of the 'Great War' at a time when most of the European left had capitulated to nationalist jingoism.
Few people today would dispute the fact that Scotland is a stateless nation. Yet some on the left in Britain dismiss the national question in Scotland on the grounds that Scotland is not an oppressed nation. But that is to miss the point.
Clearly, Scotland was never colonised by force like India, Ireland or Africa. And it's true that after the Act of Union in 1707, sections of Scottish society were absorbed into the ruling circles of the British Empire.
But this tartan strand of imperialism - the Clydeside industrialists, the Edinburgh financiers, the military officer caste, the top civil servants - were always fanatically pro-union.
In contrast, those challenging the union tended to represent progressive, working class and anti-empire currents in society.
It is a peculiar and illogical argument to suggest that, because a privileged layer of Scottish society benefited from the British Empire, those fighting to tear Scotland out of the union were misguided.
In any case, although it would be inaccurate to define Scotland as an oppressed colony, it would also be inaccurate to portray the United Kingdom as an equal, balanced partnership.
If the UK was based on national equality, and there was no sense of grievance or resentment, it is likely that pro-independence forces would have been gradually driven out to the political fringes.
But the experience has been exactly the opposite. Between 1998 and 2001, ICM conducted 16 polls asking people whether they agreed with the statement "Should Scotland become an independent state?"
On average, 46 per cent said Yes, with pro-independence sympathy disproportionately concentrated among the working class and young people under 30.
Why does there remain such widespread sympathy for independence in Scotland? Why in Scotland - and in Wales - has a nationalist, pro-independence party emerged as the main opposition force?
And why has there never been any corresponding movement for national independence in England?
The disparity between the strength of national feeling in Scotland as compared to England itself reflects a disparity in the balance of power between the nations within the UK state.
The truth is that, since the Act of Union, Scotland has suffered at least elements of political, economic and cultural oppression.
Examples include in the past the banning of Gaelic, the outlawing of tartan, the Highland Clearances and the suppression of movements for political reform and national independence such as the 1820 rising.
More recent examples include the stitch-up of North Sea oil wealth by Westminster on behalf of multinational corporations, of North Sea oil profits by multinational corporations, the stationing of nuclear weapons on the Clyde and the use of Scotland as nuclear dumping ground.
Three hundred years after the Act of Union, there remains a sense of inequality and injustice, a sense that Scotland is a subordinate nation.
From the day it was founded, the Scottish Socialist Party has made clear its aim of building an independent socialist Scotland.
Political attitudes in Scotland are not necessarily any more left wing than in some regions of England with huge working class concentrations, such as Tyneside, Merseyside or South Yorkshire.
But neither is there any doubt that there is an entirely different political balance of forces in Scotland as compared to England or the UK as a whole.
This gulf first began to open up in the 1960s. Later, during the Thatcher years it widened into a gaping chasm. By the mid 1980s, the Tories were ruling Scotland with just 25 per cent support north of the border.
Today, although New Labour is in power in both Holyrood and Westminster, there are two key differences north and south of the border.
First, despite the drift to the right of the SNP, opposition to New Labour in Scotland generally comes from the left rather than the right.
And secondly, the emergence of the SSP, assisted by the PR system for Holyrood, makes the prospect of a socialist Scotland appear far less dim and distant than the idea of a socialist Britain.
The success of the SSP refutes the argument of some on the left of the SNP that socialists should concentrate on first winning independence, in the meantime putting socialist and class politics on the back burner.
By building a left wing pro-independence party rooted in the working class, the SSP has both strengthened the influence of socialism and, at the same time, broadened support for independence.
For many nationalists, independence is an end in itself. Their ambition is to replace the Union Jack flying over Edinburgh Castle with the Saltire and to adopt Flower of Scotland as the new national anthem.
In contrast, for socialists independence is a means to an end. Our goal is to break the power of big business and to begin to transform Scotland in a socialist direction.
Nor would we stop there. A Scottish socialist republic would not be an isolationist state. It would work with anti-capitalists in Wales, Ireland, England, Europe and worldwide to help change society internationally.
In the meantime, we should support any advance towards Scottish independence, even on a non-socialist basis.
The break-up of the United Kingdom would be a devastating blow for capitalism and imperialism on a world scale.
Although the sun set long ago on the British empire, Britain today plays a central role on the world stage as the staunchest ally of the US in its drive to conquer the resources of the planet for multinational capitalism.
The departure of Scotland from the United Kingdom would mean more than just the loss of a big chunk of territory. Scotland is a hugely important player in the UK.
It is a vital cog in the western military machine, with a disproportionate share of British Army regiments and vital nuclear submarine and air bases.
Edinburgh is the fourth biggest financial centre in Europe. Eighty per cent of all European Union oil reserves lie in Scottish waters.
Politically, militarily and economically, the breakaway of Scotland would represent a traumatic setback for the British ruling classes and a body blow for US imperialism.
But for the people of Scotland, independence would be a colossal democratic advance. Before the Scottish Parliament was established, all the key decisions on health, education, transport, the environment, local government and other public services were taken behind closed doors by a single individual appointed by and accountable to the Prime Minister in London.
The creation of a parliament elected by PR has at least opened up part of the government machinery in Scotland to scrutiny, debate and electoral accountability.
Independence would mean extending that transparency and accountability to all areas of political life.
For the first time ever, the people of Scotland would have the right to decide whether or not they wanted to be part of the UK war machine.
An elected Scottish government would have the right to scrap the vindictive asylum laws forced on our empty, ageing, depopulated country by Westminster.
It would have the right to decide whether multinationals should continue to plunder the wealth of the North Sea.
It would have the right to decide whether Scotland's super-rich should continue to pay some of the lowest taxes in Europe.
It would have the right to decide whether our pensioners should continue to be paid a pittance after a lifetime of hard work.
It would have the right to decide whether the minimum wage should remain at a pitifully low level.
In other words, it would bring a little bit of power back into the hands of the people of Scotland.
But most importantly of all, an independent Scotland would clear the way for politics to be fought out on the basis of ideology and class rather than on the basis of nation.
The SNP, for example, would almost certainly divide along class and political lines. Thousands of SNP members and hundreds of thousands of SNP voters are ideologically closer to the SSP than to their own party leadership - who in turn could easily be absorbed into New Labour or the Lib Dems in a future independent Scotland.
Other nationalists may well find a comfortable home in a reconstituted Scottish Tory Party.
Even if a rump SNP were to carry on post-independence, the old political battle lines would be redrawn.
Instead of Scotland versus England, or Holyrood versus Westminster, or devolution versus independence politics would be about left versus right and socialism versus capitalism.
Without ever diluting or obscuring our socialist and internationalist principles, we have nothing to lose and everything to gain by fighting alongside others for an independent Scotland.

When Blair and Campbell started the row with the BBC, they clearly hoped it would detract attention from the missing weapons of mass destruction.
After the death of David Kelly, the Hutton Inquiry was set up with the same idea in mind.
The tribunal would investigate Andrew Gilligan's BBC reports and the famous '45 minute' question and with luck, people would forget about the war and the occupation of Iraq.
The trick clearly hasn't worked.
As the Inquiry moves into a second week, more and more masks are falling.
We were told that Kelly was a man of no importance who knew very little - a self-deluding 'Walter Mitty'.
The inquiry revealed he was the government's senior adviser on Iraq with the very highest level of security clearance.
Close colleagues have testified to Hutton that there were very few people who knew more than he did about Iraq and its weapons.
Why did he speak to Andrew Gilligan? Hutton has shown beyond doubt that a number of people in the upper reaches of government were very concerned about Blair's drive to war.
Two senior civil servants told Gilligan that they agreed with Kelly's view.
Because Kelly knew better than anyone in Britain that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction. When Blair stood up in parliament and presented the government's report, he had one purpose in mind.
He and George Bush had already agreed that they would launch a war against Saddam.
Now he needed a parliamentary vote to back him.
Outside, in the streets of Britain, a growing movement was expressing its opposition to the coming war.
We knew that the only victims would be ordinary Iraqis and that the real forces behind war were Bush's corporate cronies whose eyes were fixed on Iraqi oil.
That is why Blair highlighted the claim that Iraq could launch its (non-existent) weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes.
It was the scare story that would justify war.
And perhaps he and Campbell imagined that after the war, with a cheering Iraqi population welcoming in British and American troops, his comment would be forgotten.
As the weeks wore on, though, and no weapons of mass destruction appeared, Blair and Campbell began to worry.
When Gilligan's first report was broadcast in late May, the government said nothing.
A week later, at their regular dinner with top BBC management, neither Blair nor Campbell mentioned Gilligan.
Then suddenly, Campbell launched his attack on the BBC and Geoff Hoon sent Kelly to be the fall guy at the parliamentary committee.
Hoon's top civil servant asked him to protect Kelly, but Hoon refused.
Presumably he thought it was a small sacrifice to save his own, and Blair's, bacon.
Kelly's death blew a hole in Campbell's strategy.
The Hutton Inquiry is not allowed to ask why Iraq was ripped apart on the basis of false claims. But as the evidence accumulates, it is harder and harder for Blair to hide.
The 45-minute claim, we now know, was added to the report at the last minute.
The weapons of mass destruction, despite hundreds of inspectors crawling all over Iraq, have not appeared. 'Liberated' Iraq is a catastrophe for its people.
The Hutton Inquiry is a river that has burst its banks. The tight little groups that make the decisions that affect all our lives are coming apart at the seams.
Now everyone is following in detail how governments lie, deceive and mislead the public for their own purposes.
Blair must have prepared his Churchillian 'this was our finest hour' speech for delivery round about now.
Instead, he has to face a country that has seen him exposed and unmasked.
On September 27, the movement he thought had melted away will gather again to point the finger and say again that neither the war nor the occupation was done in our name.

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Animal magic
Why, oh why has Animal Planet been scrapped? The antics of our four-legged friends was a source of amusement to many socialists the length and breadth of the country. Is the witty Jeff Fallow on a break? Will his creative animations be back in the pages of the Voice soon?
I do hope so, otherwise I fear he may be left with too much spare time on his hands to come up with more zany suggestions for party logos.
Speaking of the party logo: why on earth did the SSP bother voting on a party logo at conference, when after overwhelmingly voting for the status quo, during the election and since the party has proceeded to use a new and different logo for just about every piece of material produced.
More respect for the sovereignty of conference please, and bring back JF's AP.
Luke Ivory,
Inverness

Positive scapegoating
Last week the Tories took another leaf out of New Labour's book by again attacking asylum seekers, saying they are to blame for the rise in infections in this country.
Tony Blair's Tory Party announced a few months ago that they were holding an inquiry into asylum seekers with HIV, testing on arrival and detaining them if they were HIV positive.
Last month, after a joint inquiry, an all party committee on HIV/AIDS and asylum seekers released a report.
It was done partly because the government's inquiry would be closed and would only take evidence from themselves - no one would give evidence from either the voluntary sector or organisations representing asylum seekers.
The committee report states that:
"The government should reaffirm its commitment to the UNAIDS guidelines against mandatory testing upon entry for HIV.
"It would be in breach of international obligations and human rights to give mandatory HIV test to asylum seekers upon entry and in addition there is no evidence to support that such a policy would be effective at protecting public health...
"Instead the government should encourage policies of inclusion with testing based on informed consent with the aim of reaching individuals in need so that they can receive timely access to care and treatment."
Gary Kelly,
Glasgow

off the air
Colin Bell

Don't bank on technology

My, isn't new technology a boon and a blessing! I can't wait for it to arrive. Our only bank for ten miles in either direction is now only open a couple of days a week, and then of course not before or after work, so I would like to salute HBOS for failing to repair its broken down cash machine for seven straight days, which has certainly helped my economy drive.
And that jaundiced observation comes to you courtesy of typescript and fax, since I haven't dared log on to the email all week for fear of the latest computer virus, which may have been aimed at the ghastly Gates and Microsoft, but does of course pose a much more potent threat to those of us who don't have the resources to replace our computers every time some nerd brings them crashing down.
Just as when well-meaning folk boycott or trash any individual McDonalds, they don't worry the Krocs too much, but they certainly threaten the jobs of local staff - unthinking adventurism isn't a sensible tactic.
But congratulations, too, to the smaller business sector - should you feel thirsty during the Edinburgh heatwave, you might like to know that at least two Edinburgh pubs (the Ensign Ewart and the Canny Man) now refuse to serve tap water, which means they can charge you for the bottled sort, at only a few coppers more per litre than petrol.

Allowances for Labour jobseekers

Still, let's look on the bright side. Nice new jobs have been found for two of New Labour's failures, Iain Gray and Brian Wilson (and I thought he wanted to spend more time with his family, not with the Iraqi oil industry), and Lenny Bruce's forecast, about half a century ago, that drugs policy would soon improve, because all law students he knew then were smoking pot, has finally been vindicated by the new job for Tony's crony Ken McDonald QC, who'll be the first Director of Public Prosecutions to boast a criminal record for possession and supply of cannabis.

Meat is madness

Then again, successive governments may not have covered themselves with glory over BSE, new variant CJD, foot and mouth, or the MMR jags, but we can't now claim we haven't been warned about the high-protein (and therefore high-price) Atkins diet.
And while the NHS may not have enough money to let all MS victims have interferon treatments, they are leaning over backwards to find more cash for IVF for couples who postponed child-bearing whilst preoccupied with making the price of executive homes, four-wheel drive people carriers, and glitzy holidays.

Money goes to Monet

To them that hath, shall be given. Rumour has it that that jolly concept originates in one or other of the systems of organised superstition, but it certainly applies to capitalism. You're rotten at your job - you get fired. The boss is rotten at his - he gets a golden goodbye and an augmented pension.
Or, supposing you're a client of Edinburgh's Adams Bank (a kind of Caledonian Coutts, and a discreet colony of the RBS), then, I'm told, you've got at least £500,000 you can afford to leave on deposit. How nice, then, not to have to pay £8.50 to rub shoulders with the common herd while gauping at the Monet exhibition, but to be asked instead to the private viewing hosted by Adams - and to be served unlimited champagne while doing so.
Come to think of it, if the cash machine doesn't get mended for another 86 years, my pension will have mounted up to the point where I could transfer to Adams myself. And think of all the weight I'll have lost, without risking the Atkins diet at all.

youth
column

Curran's Bill is really anti-social behaviour

by Donnie Nicolson, SSP Youth Co-ordinator

Despite Scotland already having one of the harshest criminal justice regimes, the lowest age of criminal responsibility, and the third highest prison population in Europe, the Scottish Executive is planning to further criminalise young people via the Anti-Social Behaviour Bill.
The Bill - proposed by Communities Minister Margaret Curran - is a calculated attempt to create a right-wing backlash in our communities against young people, shifting the blame for poverty and the breakdown of communities away from those responsible (ie New Labour) and onto the shoulders of our youth.
It will specifically attack young people in the poorest urban areas.
It is these young people who are the most vulnerable, most often the victims of crime, and most often in need of support, not victimisation.
Under the Bill, young people will face increased harassment by the authorities; freedom of assembly will be severely restricted, and electronic tagging (to be supplied by a private company) will be imposed on those as young as 12.
Young people will be huckled away from their own streets without even committing a crime.
These are unacceptable measures which will aggravate divisions in communities, further isolate young people and worsen the problems we should be trying to solve.
The Bill points to increased incidences of young people 'loitering on street corners' and 'behaving in an anti-social way'.
Is it any wonder that more of our youth hang about when there is an atrocious lack of facilities and services, grim employment aspirations, no minimum wage for under 18s and the worst poverty in Europe?
What does Margaret expect young people to do? Go to the ballet?
And how bad is the problem anyway? Youth crime rates have not risen in over ten years, while rape and violent crimes have increased dramatically.
Even more dramatic is the increase in juvenile suicide, which now claims more young lives than traffic accidents.
If the Executive really wanted to tackle social problems and improve life for people, surely they could find a more pressing issue?
But the executive wants to find a scapegoat for these problems; and disenfranchised, disillusioned young people are the perfect fit.
Margaret Curran should instead consider tackling the poverty that scars Scotland, by investing in jobs and public services.
By investing in recreational facilities for young people, instead of closing them down.
It should be providing opportunities for citizenship and participation.
Giving the vote to 16 and 17 year olds might just be a step in the right direction.
But then, if we let the neds vote, we'll have to find a new scapegoat, won't we?

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page nine

cultural resistance

at the festival
Angus Calder

Best of the fest

Sometimes, cruising round the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, a hunch pays off... I was intrigued by a flyer for The Buddy Bolden Experience and went for it.
A great delight. Cyclops Events, from Manchester, in the Pod, set up half a dozen multi-talented performers to play, sing, dance and act the life and times of the legendary founder of New Orleans Jazz, of whom not a note survives on record.
Their script was highly intelligent, moving but unsensational, and the audience clapped along with glee.
Shrewd calculation took me to Confessions of a Justified Sinner at the Netherbow, where Rowan Tree company, from the Borders, stages John Carnegie's brilliant condensation of Hogg's grimly seminal study of the split Scottish personality.
It was even better than I had expected. Matthew Burgess, a product of Borders Youth Theatre, was completely the haunted sinner, and Alan Steele, mainly Gil Martin (the Devil) runs through a wonderful repertoire of accents for all the characters.
Carnegie's programme note tries to relate the Sinner's Calvinist fanaticism to Al Qaeda and all that.
I wish it didn't.
Scotland's abiding relationship with the Deil is geographically and even psychologically miles different.
There's other theatre on the Fringe which sets out explicitly to comment on September 11 and the Iraq War. I wish it well, but topical reaction, however acute, is normally a better basis for debate than for theatre.
However, the triumph of this year's festival drama, adored by all who have seen it, is Henry Adam's very topical The People Next Door at the Traverse.
Caithness should be proud of Adam, born in Wick, who performs the incredible feat of turning post September 11 panic about terrorism, and associated police brutality, into extremely funny comedy.
Nigel, a half-Pakistani social security scrounger is singled out for attention by a cocaine-snorting copper because a half brother he barely knows is an Al Qaeda suspect.
Eventually, with help from Mrs Mac, a near-doitered veteran of the Clydeside Blitz who lives upstairs and Marco, fifteen year old Afro-Caribbean son of a sex-worker, Nigel, now converted to Islam, triumphs, forming a new surrogate family (or 'building block of society') with his two unlikely pals.
Adam brilliantly brings extremely serious and trenchant points about racism (and The Family) into the sphere of soap opera (Mrs Mac, of course, is a High Road addict) and sitcom - at the end, most appropriately, our three multicultural chums are settling down contentedly to watch Only Fools and Horses on the box. The wonderful cast of four pull off what is needed for great comedy - you feel you know people exactly like them. Adam now joins the big guns of Scottish theatre, several of whom bark in this year's Festival.
I was not really disappointed with Liz Lochhead's Thebans (Assembly Rooms), work bridging Sophocles' Oedipus and Antigone with material centred on Jocasta drawn from Euripides.
There are good writing and fine acting - notably from John Kazek as Creon, the nice-guy who turns tyrant and Vari Sylvester as Tiresias, the ancient blind male prophet with women's breasts.
But this play doesn't have the exceptional power of Lochhead's recent reworking of Euripides' Medea, also for Theatre Babel.
The Greeks found out a lot about constructing drama, and I think Oedipus and Antigone are best left to stand on their own. They are diminished by digestion into a kind of 'family saga'.
The Seagull was more hyped in advance than any International Festival play I can remember. This was not because Peter Stein is a truly wonderful director, who pushes strong conceptions of plays through with such tremendous force that they seem simple, but due to the casting of Fiona Shaw, ace classical actress of her generation, as Arkadina, actress mother of a sad, neglected son.
It is a problematic, flawed play, largely about the potentially damaging relationships between the Art - of actor and writer - and the Life which they draw upon.
Thanks to Stein's vision, sets and lighting are majestically effective, and the sound-world of a country estate by a lake is brilliantly suggested.
The cast are generally splendid - I will single out, just because he is a Scot, Ian Glen's thoughtful projection of the famous but lightweight novelist Trigorin who knows that he is not as good as Turgenev. The trouble here is Fiona Shaw. I discovered I was not the only person who was reminded irresistibly of Jennifer Saunders in Absolutely Fabulous - same sawing movements of the forearm, and more.
It is excellent that Stein should remind us that comedy and even farce are part of Chekhov's special world of yearning and pathos, but unfortunate that he and Shaw have come up with an OTT Arkadina who cannot be believed as sister of her brother, mother of her son or lover of her lover.

Boldly going places

Edinburgh People's Festival Opening Night. Jack Kane Centre, Craigmillar, Edinburgh, Sunday August 10

by Ally Black

The Jack Kane Centre was packed for a highly successful opening night of the Edinburgh People's Festival (EPF) 2003.
Dozens of local residents joined musicians, activists and local MSPs Colin Fox and Susan Deacon to enjoy the night's entertainment.
There were messages of support from Irvine Welsh, Paul Laverty and Hamish Henderson's widow.
Tony Benn expressed his support for the event and kindly signed an EPF poster which was raffled.
We were also delighted that the family of the late Jack Kane, Labour councillor and founder of the original festival, were able to come along.
As the audience arrived there was a reception with free Indian food, two amazing exhibitions from photographer Jackie Morton and acclaimed artist Mark I'anson with classical string quartet Capriccio providing the music.
Tom Freeman was in full star fleet regalia as he introduced the stars of the night.
The brilliant Craigmillar Youth Theatre were first up with songs from Grease Ya Radge.
Yes, it was Grease Niddrie-style, bursting with enthusiasm and with some really fine voices.
Don't miss their show, which is on during the Fringe.
Local singer Carla Bernardi brought the audience to their feet with her superb vocals. The wealth of talent in the working class communities of Edinburgh was evident and these performances alone justified the work of the EPF.
There were laughs from comedians Benny Moohan and John Scott. John faced the particular challenge of delivering an "all ages" set - with no sweary words - and he nearly succeeded!
Voces del Sur, a group of Scottish and Latin American performers gave us songs from Chile and Cuba... the Buena Vista Social Club came to the Jack Kane!
US artist Lynne Samsill's 'bar band with vision' gave us bluesy sounds with some tremendous jazz drumming.
From Scotland we had Dave Anderson of Wildcat Theatre making a return to the Jack Kane after a few years' absence.
Clova gave us protest songs for the 21st century.
Tony Mitchell and Allan Johnstone showed us their superb guitar skills and Fozzie took us back to the original festival with songs from Ewan Macoll.
John Grieg delivered a stunning short set of roots music, which was my personal favourite act of the night.
There was no shortage of cutting edge material either. John Johnstone's gritty song Scotland Boo Hoo was a stand out. Duncan Sloan's physical dance theatre was an exhilarating rush and there was challenging performance poetry from Nicky Melville.
The night ended with Gilly Hewitt leading the crowd in rousing versions of Burns' A Man's a Man and Hamish Henderson's Freedom Come All Ye.

Something for everyone.

n edinburghpeoplesfestival.org.uk

SSP football tournament
Sat 13 Sept, 2pm-6pm at Goals on Queens Park.
Teams of 5 and £5 per head.
Contact Allison to register on 0141 221 7714

back to index

page ten

back to index

page eleven

international news

Bloody truth behind Africa's 'peacekeepers'

by Mike Gonzalez

Idi Amin, ex-dictator of Uganda, died in Saudi Arabia this week.
He had been in exile for 20 years, living comfortably under the protection of the West and their Saudi friends on the millions he stole from his country.
In the same week, Charles Taylor, ex-president of Liberia, moved to Nigeria, where he will live in luxury on the tens of millions he has made from corrupt deals with the West.
The country he has left behind is so poor it doesn't even appear on the UN index.
Monrovia, the capital, has a million or so inhabitants. Most of them are living in terror, with little or no food or water and threatened by the waves of armed militia that hack their way back and forth through the shanty towns.

Carnage
Africa today is a scene of terrible carnage. Sierra Leone, Rwanda, the Congo - to name only three - have witnessed bloodshed and massacre in recent times.
The figures and statistics are almost impossible to imagine - the million dead in Rwanda, the 200,000 and more murdered in the Congo.
And when it is reported, it is explained as tribal warfare between desperately poor people and their warlords.
The truth, of course, is much less simple.
The majority of people in Africa are desperately poor. But the continent is rich - in oil, in gold, in diamonds, in minerals.
You might imagine that the West's only involvement is when it sends in "peacekeeping forces" to keep the sides apart.

Armed
In fact, the warring cliques are often factions set up, financed and armed by Western agencies, using them to defend their interests at the expense of the majority of the people.
That is what is happening in Liberia. First established by ex-slaves in the 1820s, its capital Monrovia was named after US President Monroe.
Ironically, the new immigrants set up a society based on their experience of the American South - only now they were the ruling class, and the African 'natives' worked the land.
Liberia became a reliable ally for the US and its corporations, and by 1926 the Firestone Tyre Company had its biggest rubber plantation there.
In 1980, an illiterate army sergeant called Samuel Doe murdered the President and seized power.
He was a cruel and violent man who ruled by terror; but that didn't prevent President Ronald Reagan from providing him with millions of dollars in aid.
Why? Because Washington needed an ally in Africa, a safe haven for its spies and commercial interests, and from there they could undermine Gaddafy's Libya.
In 1990, Doe fell to a coup led by Charles Taylor. The years that followed turned Liberia into a bloody battlefield.

Diamonds
Neighbouring Sierra Leone, too, was descending into chaos. And Taylor was hand in glove with the main armed group there.
Their common aim was to control the diamond trade across the border; and it was diamonds that paid for the arms and men that kept both rebellions going.
At the same time, Taylor was financing wars in Guinea and Ivory Coast where diamonds were plentiful too.
After six years as president, in a country torn to shreds by war, Charles Taylor has agreed to leave the country.
The man he has left behind, Moses Blah, trained with him in Libya and represents exactly the same interests as the departing multi-millionaire.

Starving
The so-called deal, brokered by Nigeria, will leave Taylor untouched; the rebel groups, backed by different neighbouring regimes, may be forced into some kind of agreement.
But the starving majority of Liberia's 3 million inhabitants will have to watch and wait as the US, Britain, France and Nigeria work out a solution that will guarantee them a Liberia that will be an ally of the West in unstable times.
Beware the coming announcements of aid - they will usually mean arms and wealth for a new band of pro-Western puppets.
For most Liberians, there will be little to look forward to in a country that has become a battlefield for other, much more powerful interests.

California scheming

by Nick McKerrell

The summer blockbuster season has largely been dominated by the big budget sequel: Terminator 3. The hero is an indestructible android who utters one-liners with a wooden delivery.
With Arnold Schwarzenegger announcing on August 6 that he is to stand for Californian Governor, this Hollywood fantasy has started to become a reality for the Californian people.
In the American state the current governor, Gray Davis, has been subjected to a recall ballot that will be held in October.
This essentially means that people will be asked if they want Davis to remain as Governor - if not, they will be asked who they want to take the position.
Schwarzenegger is only one of 157 candidates running for this position. They also include the pornographer Larry Flynt and former 80s child star Gary Coleman.

Contradictions
This vote was caused by a petition - under the Californian constitution, if 900,000 voters request a recall election, it will be granted.
This essentially democratic process exposes the contradictions within the American political system.
The petition was initiated by a right wing group within the Republican Party. Millions of dollars were spent and people collecting names were paid £1 a signature.
Thus exploiting the recall process, this group also persuaded Schwarzenegger to stand - with his fame they calculated he could dominate the election.
However the amount of signatures gathered do show the extent of dissatisfaction with Davis, who was re-elected last year on a tiny turnout. It's a level of dissatisfaction that runs throughout America.
Although a Democrat, Davis has protected the rich and powerful and attacked the public sector whilst presiding over a nearly bankrupt economy. The public schools network is one of the worst funded in the country.
However the trade union organisation AFL/CIO have endorsed him.

Greens
The Green Party - who backed Ralph Nader in the 2000 election - have endorsed Peter Camejo as a candidate, with a programme of Latino labour rights, universal health care and a living wage.
Nader did very well in California and it is likely the Greens could get a strong vote.
Although gaining blanket media coverage, it is not assured that Schwarzenegger will win. He is leading amongst all the candidates but is still polling only around 25 per cent.
His public statements have been very limited and he has not revealed any policies.
His main advisors are linked to ex-Republican Governor Pete Wilson, who moved the racist proposition 187 which slashed state aid to immigrants. With a large Latino population in California this is still a major issue.
He is apparently a liberal, in Republican terms, on issues like abortion and gun control - to such an extent that two conservative candidates are challenging him.
But he also launched his latest film at a showing to American troops in Iraq stating, "You guys are the real Terminators!"
This election shows the big business nature of American politics with ordinary people completely excluded. This in part explains the number of 'joke' candidates who are building on people's disillusionment with the whole process.
Whoever wins the election in October the exclusion of the poor and working class will continue.

US fines anti-war activists

American citizens who went to Iraq to act as 'human shields' have been told they face fines of up to $1 million or 12 year jail sentences.
More than 150 American anti-war activists, including the actor Sean Penn, travelled to Iraq in the run up to the war, with a handful staying to act as human shields.
But in travelling there, they broke US laws surrounding the sanctions against Iraq.
Faith Fippinger, a 62 year old retired teacher, was among the activists who received a letter from the US treasury warning of charges.
She said that she'd been told by a treasury official that, if she agreed to pay, the fine would be reduced to $10,000 and, if she didn't pay, her pension could be seized or her house sold.
The peace campaigners, Voices in the Wilderness, have also received a summons for fines relating to delegations they sent to Iraq in the 90s.
Activists have announced their determination not to pay the fines.

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page twelve

voice at work

Mail fatcats lap up cream

Royal Mail, running at a loss of £750,000 a day, has seen fit to give all its managers a £2000 bonus.
On top of this, Deputy Chief Executive Elmar Toime and Chief Executive Adam Crozier got bungs to the tune of £40,000 and £57,000 respectively.
At the time, Toime had worked at the organisation for just one month and Crozier was a veteran at two months service.
They receive a salary of £500,000 a year or £9582 per week.
A postie or sorting office worker with years of experience, a commitment to providing a decent public service and working a gruelling 24-hour shift pattern will be taking home less than £200 a week basic wage.
Royal Mail Chairman Allan Leighton, who personally made millions when he sold Asda to the anti-union Walmart, works one day a week for a basic of £20,000.
His bonuses add up to £165,000, yet he insists that a below-inflation wage rise for postal workers is a fair offer.
Derek Durkin, secretary of Scotland No2 branch, is angered by this hypocrisy: "Allan Leighton is using a phrase here at Royal Mail that he used at Asda.
"He says that he wants to make Royal Mail 'a great place to work'. Well, on his wage or the wages of Elmar Toime or Adam Crozier then it is a great place to work, a real cushy number.
"But for ordinary postal workers, rank and file members of the CWU, it is a shambles and getting worse.
"Leighton also wants a jobs slaughter in Royal Mail of 30,000.
"This can only add to the misery of low pay, understaffing and over work."
The CWU is balloting its members for strike action over the pay offer and jobs threat.
Ballot forms will go out to CWU members this week and the result will be announced next month.

CalMac reneged on 'agreed' deal

In a dizzying turn of events, Caledonian MacBrayne (CalMac) management have reneged on a pay deal agreed with Rail Maritime and Transport Workers' union (RMT) last week.
After agreeing a new pay deal, RMT representatives were shocked to hear CalMac deny that the agreement stood and that an earlier, inferior pay offer remained in place.
RMT negotiator Alan Heath told the assembled press at Monday's talks:
"It is clear to everyone involved that a new deal had been struck.
"I am shocked by the actions of the company in denying any such agreement was made."
Strike action had been suspended after the talks last week and members were to be balloted on the offer.
But the RMT members will now be balloted on strike action instead, and a result is expected by September 8. RMT general secretary Bob Crow came down hard on CalMac, stating:
"It is clear we are dealing with dishonourable people who don't know the truth from a lie".
The controversial deal included an immediate 3 per cent increase, backdated to April, a 1.5 per cent bonus, and a yearly increase tied to inflation.

Nursery nurses end first phase of strike action

The nursery nurses' dispute reached the final phase of its six-week campaign with three days of strikes in East and West Dunbartonshire last week. The nursery nurses are campaigning for greater recognition of their two-year training and improved pay and conditions. Jim Burnett, UNISON branch secretary for East Dunbartonshire, said: "The next part of the action will be vital. So far we've had tremendous support from the parents and have organised various rallies and marches." Burnett is sure the summer campaign has made it clear to CoSLA, the employers' negotiator, that UNISON members are not prepared to back down. CoSLA has so far failed to formulate a response to the action.