Issue151

Andrew Gilligan, currently being fine-tooth combed by Lord Hutton, may have slipped up on the odd word or two. But he didn't lie through his teeth and lead his country into a violent and unjustifiable conflict with Iraq.
Not that Tony Blair was alone in this endeavour.
Manhattanites were still running for their lives when Donald Rumsfeld, at 2.40pm on September 11 2001, said he wanted to "hit" Iraq. "Go massive," he told his aides, "Sweep it all up. Things related to and not."
And boy, did they go for it.
We know there were no Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq - Colin Powell and Condaleeza Rice told us so. "We are able to keep (Saddam's) arms from him," said Rice. The lies came later, following what she called the "enormous opportunity" provided by 9/11 for US expansion in the Gulf.
Last week, Senator Edward Kennedy described the case for war as a fraud "made up in Texas" to give the Republicans a boost.
Dubya's multinational friends wanted a boost too, and they got it. Halliburton has the $7 billion dollar contract to run Iraq's oil industry, Bechtel got the $680 million reconstruction contract, Research Triangle Institute got between $7.9 and $167 million to "provide local governance support", ABT Associates got $10 million to restore health services, AirServ got $2.1 million... the list, like that of the casualties, is endless.
Not only are these corporations closely linked with the US government, some of them got their deals before the fighting even started.
Meanwhile 50,000 dead and counting.
The war made fortunes, and a laughing stock of British and American democracy. A journalist couldn't even make it up.

news

Pensioners' council tax fury

by Roisin Pearce

Pensioners across Scotland are demanding reform of the Council Tax, which is set to increase by double digit percentages in 2004.
Although England has seen the most significant Council Tax rises recently (13 per cent on average), that's only because, according to Help the Aged (Scotland)'s Lindsay Scott: "they're catching up with us. We started off at a higher rate."
A group of 300 pensioners in Devon and Cornwall have instigated a non-payment campaign and the government has even started talking about local referendums for local authorities seeking to raise Council Tax levels by twice the rate of inflation.
Pensioners are particularly hard hit by Council Tax for three reasons. One, because Council Tax differentials vary little, it represents a much higher percentage of a low income than of a high income.
Two, Council Tax is rising at a far faster rate than inflation, to which pensions are linked. Tax on a Band D property in Scotland, for instance, has risen from £560 to £1010 in ten years, a rise of 80 per cent. In the same period, inflation has risen by around 30 per cent.
And three, over a third of pensioners who are entitled to it fail to collect Council Tax benefit, despite being on incomes of £150 per week or less.
Many older people equate means-tested benefits with charity and state-handouts.
"There's a stigma, and that's why we campaign for a decent, living pension, rather than lots of little benefits.
"If Denmark can provide a state pension of £200 a week, why are Scots struggling on £77?" says Scott.
A recent conference in Aberdeen, at which 96 pensioner forums were represented, identified the falling pension and the rising Council Tax as the two greatest concerns amongst the elderly.
The restoration of the link between earnings and pensions, for which the SSP campaigns, would also restore pensioners' dignity, while a Scottish Service Tax would exempt everyone on an income of £10,000 or less from local taxation.
Unfortunately, the SSP's bill to introduce this redistributive tax suffered a setback when the Green Party parliamentary group refused to lend it their support.
Without this, it cannot even be debated in parliament.

Nursery nurses' day of action

by Roz Paterson

nursery NURSES stepped up their campaign this week with a two-day strike, culminating in a national day of action on Wednesday. Thousands converged on the streets of Edinburgh, bringing the capital to a virtual standstill, to reiterate their demand for recognition of their status as trained professionals, with a pay-scale to match.
The SSP's Colin Fox, a regular visitor to the picket lines and the only MSP to attend the demo, says:
"Why is it that the jobs we rate so highly - the nurses, teachers and nursery nurses - are so badly paid, and yet the ones we rate so poorly - the politicians and the lawyers - are so well paid? I think we've got our priorities wrong somewhere."
So far, Cosla, representing nursery nurse employers, have managed only a miserable pay offer - consigning the majority of nursery nurses to a sub-£15,000 salary - and inadequate recognition of their two years' training.
This despite strong evidence of the crucial role played by nursery nurses in children's education. One US study, in which welfare mothers were guaranteed five years of free, 9-5 childcare by trained professionals, found that the children benefited educationally and socially, and thus were much better placed when they began primary education, gaining consistently higher grades than was normal for their socio-economic group.
Further, the mothers, because childcare was no longer a problem, were able to pursue education and training and, within the time-frame of the study, even pulled themselves out of the "poverty trap" by landing better paid and more skilled jobs.
These amazing results, proving that nursery education is not a bolt-on luxury but an important strut in building the future, can only be achieved by retaining qualified staff, and that means offering them a living wage and decent career prospects.
Treating them like baby-sitters will only drive them away in the long term.
Colin concludes:
"The nursery nurses' pay claim is modest, and their re-grading demands are modest.
"They deserve a professional reward for a professional job and I personally will give them all the support I can."

Infected patients demand justice

by Kath Kyle

Last Thursday haemophiliacs, infected with Hepatitis and HIV from blood products, had a demo outside the Scottish Parliament as part of their ongoing campaign for justice and recognition.
In the 1970s and '80s they were given infected blood products from America and the UK and now have life-threatening illnesses including a range of hepatitis infections and HIV.
Pharmaceutical companies in the US got blood from a variety of high risk groups including from jails, homeless people, drug users and alcoholics.
This was all mixed up together and the clotting factors essential to haemophiliacs was distilled from this.
So every dose given to haemophiliacs may contain exposure to 10,000 or 20,000 donations.
Andy Gunn spoke to the Voice and firstly he welcomed the £20,000 financial assistance paid to haemophiliacs infected by Hepatitis C in Britain:
"They call it financial assistance because no one wants to take responsibility for the 5000 people who are going to die due to negligence.
"This is much bigger than anyone is letting on. Pharmaceutical companies, top doctors, health officials, government ministers, all of them are implicated in this.
"All of them could face criminal investigation if the truth came out.
"As early as 1972, the Health Authorities in Britain knew the link between Hepatitis C and blood products.
"They knew that they should be heat-treating blood products from the US and the UK but they didn't. As a result 5000 people will die."
Andy believes there has been a cover-up and that since the 1970s the haemophiliacs' doctors have known which of their patients had been infected: "They knew which batches were infected so they knew who had been exposed to what.
"We were tested in the 1980s, without our permission, for HIV. Then in the 1990s when we got some recognition for HIV exposure we were made to sign a waiver relinquishing all our rights to take action for further blood borne infection.
"At this time they knew exactly who had Hepatitis C."
Andy and other haemophiliacs have recently tried to access their medical records and have been obstructed. "We wanted to show what we had been exposed to as part of litigation in the US but it has been a wrangle. They keep finding excuses not to provide our records."
Infected blood products from the US were sold all over the world but in other countries haemophiliacs have seen some justice done.
In France the former Health Minister and former Prime Minister were put on trial for manslaughter.
Similarly in Ireland, Italy, Japan and Canada action has been taken against pharmaceutical companies and government ministers for this atrocity.
Andy said that all haemophiliacs in Britain wanted was a public inquiry to bring out the truth and uncover all the evidence:
"We have been refused legal aid and so cannot take a case to court. We know there are documents which prove a scandalous disregard for human life but we cannot access them.
"A public inquiry would be able to bring it all out into the open.
"Countries who had similar and, in many cases, better safety records than us, have seen proper compensation, public inquiries and criminal prosecution, but here we are still haggling over £20,000 in 'financial assistance'."

Posties ballot result setback

by Richie Venton,
SSP workplace organiser

The outcome of the postal workers ballot on pay is a setback for those fighting on pay and job losses.
By a margin of less than one per cent, the CWU members voted not to strike.
Royal Mail bosses are now salivating at the prospects of putting the boot into the union and conducting a jobs massacre.
But they could still end up with the smile on the other side of their faces.
Battles at local level could now erupt as they try to implement their package of 30,000 job losses, abolition of second delivery and other attacks.
The 70 per cent majority for strike action in the London region, for better London Weighting Allowance, will lead to a London strike.
Postal workers in Scotland and elsewhere could then have to decide whether to refuse to handle scab mail.
The task of CWU activists is to prepare members for this type of solidarity showdown.
Derek Durkin, secretary of CWU Scotland no2 branch said:
"This was the most vicious anti-union campaign by management I can remember. They ripped down union notices and blocked union meetings on site.
"Allan Leighton issued at least half a dozen letters trying to threaten the postal workers.
"There is no doubt our branch delivered an overwhelming Yes vote but that didn't happen everywhere.
"I think in some places the local union leadership is weaker."
Two Glasgow posties agreed:
"Despite repeated requests our branch leadership failed to call a mass meeting. So all the rumours were allowed to spread unanswered."
The national CWU leadership has also failed to turn words into deeds. They threaten hellfire and damnation against job losses and creeping privatisation but then ignore ballots for strike action.
"There was doubt about the union leadership after years of disappointment." said an Airdrie postie.
"Although the election of left candidate Dave Ward as deputy general secretary definitely helped with the campaign for a Yes vote.
"I think particularly part-timers voted No, falsely imagining 30,000 full-time job losses would create full-time jobs for them."
A Denny postie thought his part-timers voted overwhelmingly for the strike - probably due to the positive role of his branch leadership.

RMT union agrees SSP funding at workers' conference

by Roz Paterson

"If Scottish people want to be independent, then it's up to them. If I was Scottish, I'd be voting for independence."
These are the words of Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT, addressing the SSP's trade unionist conference on Saturday.
He said that Scotland, like Wales and Ireland, has never benefited from the union, and went on to quote Karl Marx, saying:
"You'll never be free so long as one country enslaves another."
By building a real socialist alternative in Scotland, we "provide an incentive for England. Our class is totally unrepresented in England but working-class representation is provided here by the SSP."
Bob, who was made an associate member of the SSP at the conference, spoke of the RMT's decision to donate £5000 to help fund the SSP bill calling for the renationalisation of the railways.
"Some people asked, 'why didn't we give the money to the Labour Party?'
"I said 'you don't pay someone to mug you, do you?'
"Whether it's Tony Blair or Gordon Brown at the head of New Labour, we're still going to get foundation hospitals and privatised railways.
"We support the SSP because they campaign for issues we stand for. And that's why I'll be speaking at union meetings next week in Scotland, campaigning for the SSP."

Privatisation

Other speakers at the lively and well-attended conference included Tommy Sheridan, Derek Durkin of the CWU, striking nursery nurse Caroline Pacitti and SSP industrial organiser Richie Venton.
Janice Godrich, president of the PCS, described the "disasters" that followed privatisation, including the Working Tax Credit fiasco following the privatisation of IT services at the Inland Revenue, and argued that, if reclaiming the Labour party was feasible, surely it would have been achieved by now?
Issues raised included the importance of pointing out that the SSP is the viable Left alternative, of recruiting young people - particularly the 16-22 age group - into trade unions, the urgent need to raise the minimum wage and the inarguable case for making the break with the Labour party and democratising political funds.

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news

obituary
Dennis Doig

by Jock Penman

Dennis Doig, secretary and organiser of the Kirkcaldy Branch, lost his titanic battle with cancer on Sunday September 21.
Dennis had been diagnosed with this disease a few months ago and despite going through intense chemotherapy sessions, he maintained a positive attitude and retained his sense of humour.
He only expressed two regrets, that he had only had eight years marriage with his wife Evelyn, and that he could no longer carry out his duties in building the Kirkcaldy branch. He was one of the pioneers of the SSP in Fife, and made a tremendous contribution.
He was an avid reader and combined with the experience of being a miner during the strike in '84, had a deep political understanding which first attracted him to the Scottish Socialist Party.
SSP members in Mid-Scotland and Fife will greatly miss his experience, political analysis and common-sense approach to politics, but more than that, his warmth and humour.

Is there a spin doctor in the house?

Could someone please explain to me what "democratic" means in New Labour's Newspeak Dictionary? Apparently their latest wheeze is to make the House of Lords "more democratic" by chucking out the last of the hereditary Peers, and handing over the recruitment policy to an Appointments Committee. This we are told by Lord Falconer, a man whose only claim to membership of the Lords is that he's an old pal of B.Liar. So what difference is there between Falconer and, say, the umpteenth Lord Salisbury, who's only there because his ancestor was an old pal of Queen Elizabeth I, or the Duke of Buckingham, who's only there because his ancestor slept with James I & VI?
And don't we already enjoy the benefits of an Appointments Committee (Number Ten) which chucked coronets at the likes of Derry Irvine (pal of B.Liar), John Birt (pal of B.Liar) and Gus McDonald (er, pal of B.Liar)? And what happens to the likes of government minister, but unelected hereditary peer, Lord Sainsbury? Does he get his jotters on hereditary grounds, only to be reinstated by New Labour all over again?
If it is unthinkable to let the people elect the members of the Upper House, why not let us elect the members of the Appointment Committee? Or is that simply too na•ve for words?
Don't bother to answer.

The roots of David BlunKKKett

I think I've discovered where the unspeakable David Blunkett draws his political inspiration. Not, as some have suggested, from Michael Howard and Norman Tebbitt, or even Julius Streicher, but from a much older source. A Party which flourished more than 140 years ago.
Their platform centred on "checking the stride of the foreigner and the alien, of thwarting the machinations and subverting the deadly plans" of certain immigrant groups, and ensuring that "native-born citizens should be selected for all offices of government employment, in preference to all others".
Fortunately for America, the voters refused to stomach the "Know-Nothing Party", and thus went on letting in "Jesuits and Papists" - and indeed, paupers.

Israel to join Dubya's axis?

Just how do you define a Rogue State? Is it one which aggressively maintains its right to build and stockpile Weapons of Mass Destruction, which seizes other people's territory by armed might, deploys violent collective punishment on any community alleged to harbour resistance fighters, ignores United Nations resolutions, and boasts, at government level, of its willingness to assassinate the democratically elected leaders of its neighbours ?
No, can't be. Otherwise George W Bush and his glove puppet would have bombed Jerusalem by now.

Cashing in on disability problems

Local authorities, quite properly, are both empowered and obliged to spend money making the homes of the disabled manageable.
Ramps for wheelchairs, strengthened bannisters for stairs, all necessary helpful ironmongery for lavatories, showers and baths, even specially levelled garden paths, are available to those suffering from restricted mobility.
Of course, some of them may be so restricted they must spend much time in bed, and can obviously encounter difficulties getting in and out of it - or even be fearful of falling out.
Can the social services fix it for a special bed to be installed? Don't be silly. Those you can buy. Or not, perhaps.

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Conventional politics

by Jo Harvie

The Liberal Democrat victory in the Brent East by-election last week had the weekend's UK press and television declaring that a new opposition party is due to take up residence at Westminster.
But the words "Liberal Democrat" tend to induce as many blank looks in Scotland as their mighty 15 votes at the recent Drumchapel by-election suggest.
The huge shifts in Scotland's political geography have already been made startlingly clear, almost five months ago at the Scottish Parliament elections.
The SNP remained Scotland's official opposition party. But they suffered heavy losses, especially in west central Scotland, and returned to Holyrood nine MSPs down.
Those losses weren't inflicted by a pro-union party like the Lib Dems - they were hurt by other pro-independence forces; the Greens, independents like Margo McDonald and John Swinburn, and particularly the Scottish Socialist Party.
We now have increased support for independence in the Scottish Parliament, and recent polls show support for pro-independence parties and individuals in the second ballot touching 50 per cent.
What looks like developing is, at the very least, the strong possibility that pro-independence forces could command an outright majority in the next Scottish Parliament.
That's undoubtedly one of the major reasons why the Labour and Liberal Democrat Executive is toying with the idea of changing the rules for elections to the Parliament.
The system we have just now was specifically designed to stop the SNP winning an outright majority in Holyrood, and that's exactly why Labour, with all their history of opposition to proportional representation, chose it.
But in their grand design to keep the SNP in check, Labour never took seriously the possibility of the multi-party system that has now developed in Scotland, personified by the success of the SSP and the Greens. That'll teach them.
However frantic their machinations, it's unlikely they'll be able to rewrite the election rulebook before the next Holyrood ballot in 2007.
All well and good, except that the SNP, too, have failed to face up to Scotland's new political terrain.
In the past, they could project themselves as the pro-independence party - if you want independence then vote SNP, simple as that.
But now things are more complicated. The SSP and the Greens represent alternatives for people who want to vote for independence, but a vote for either of these does not necessarily represent a vote for independence.
Likewise, people who do support the idea of independence still vote for Labour, the Lib Dems, or even the Tories.
That's why the SSP is backing proposals for an Independence Convention - a forum where the forces that campaign for independence, political parties and individuals, can come together to broaden and deepen support.
The first point to make clear is that this is not about the SSP abandoning socialism and class politics to submerge ourselves in one big pro-independence political pool.
The SSP stands firmly for a socialist independent Scotland, where wealth and resources are redistributed, which would become an international beacon of social justice and economic equality.
Neither does the SSP have the attitude that we have to wait for our independent socialist Scotland to change people's lives. We fight injustice wherever and whenever we find it.
But for socialists, questions of democracy are of as much importance as the bread and butter issues.
An independent Scotland is about the struggle for basic democratic rights - about Scottish people's right to control our economy, to scrap nuclear weapons, to dismantle the cruel and racist asylum and immigration laws.
Through building a block of support for independence in the form of a convention, we can maximise the impact of all those forces campaigning to break up the United Kingdom.
Already it seems the proposal has had an impact, at least on the SNP leadership. Faced with pressure to come into a convention, John Swinney has tabled an independence referendum bill, which he will ask the SSP and the Greens to support.
But this tactic is not only diversionary, it's contradictory.
Current SNP strategy says that if the SNP became the biggest party in Holyrood, they would seek to establish a coalition with the Lib Dems, govern Scotland 'responsibly' (ie cuddle up to big business and the Daily Record), and after at least three years, call a referendum.
That is provided the Lib Dems agree to the referendum, and Westminster hasn't spent those three years destroying the SNP coalition by undermining them at every possible opportunity.
But Swinney, in his bill, is calling for the Labour/Liberal coalition to call a referendum now, one year into this government. Where's the sense in asking them to carry out something that the SNP leadership refuses to do?
The SSP is happy to discuss the content and timing of an independence referendum, but the formation of an Independence Convention would take us so much further.
It would unite people behind the idea of independence, and it could build a credible constitutional plan - how power would be transferred, how the independent Parliament would be elected.
It's a far more reliable route to independence than the foggy, rocky road that the SNP leadership want to take us down, in a car driven by Jim Wallace with petrol supplied by the good grace of New Labour in Westminster.
n After May 1st: Which way forward towards independence and socialism, written by Alan McCombes and agreed by the SSP national council, available by emailing scottishsocialistparty@btconnect.com

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Last week in the Scottish Parliament there was a debate on health.
There was no motion and I was not called in to speak so the stark realities of health standards and health provision in Scotland were not dealt with.
Scotland is ninth in the European league table for infant mortality, with five babies in every 1000 dying - compared to only 2.9 deaths in Sweden.
It varies considerably across Scotland. There are less than two deaths per 1000 births in Shetland, but more than nine deaths per thousand births in South Ayrshire.
Scotland also has the highest death rate from cancer in the European Union - a massive 50 per cent higher than the death rate in France or Sweden, rising to 65 per cent higher in Glasgow.
Of course, poverty is at the very root of these health statistics. Poverty is recognised as the single biggest cause of ill health in any country in the world.
The Scottish Executive have wholeheartedly embraced the notion that allowing the private sector to rake in profits from health provision is the best way to deal with health inequality.
The Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, right on their doorstep, is living proof of the financial and health disaster that the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) will bring.
Professor Allyson Pollock from University College London has shown that bed numbers at the new Edinburgh Royal Infirmary have been dropped by 24 per cent, but the projected increases in day care admissions, which were meant to offset this reduction, have not been achieved.
The hospital has been plagued with problems since it opened. The design, planning, implementation of the project has brought misery to staff and patients alike.
The investors in all PFI or PPP projects are on to a good thing however.
Major Contractors Group (MCG) represents building firms engaged in public sector contracts and expects its members to make up to ten times more from PPP/PFI contracts than they do from traditional building contracts.
Of course, it is the National Health Service which pays for those profits. Every pound being diverted into the pockets of the private construction companies via the PFI is a loss of service to ordinary citizens.
In other words, ordinary people in Edinburgh have lost their hospital services in order to pay for the private Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.
The Lothian Health Board is currently running a £95 million deficit largely as a result of the Private Finance Initiative.
Socialism is not just about ideology and theory, it is about delivering a better life physically, materially and culturally for every man, woman and child on our planet.
Obviously that journey begins here in Scotland and the biggest improvement in health provision and health care in Scotland will be delivered on the back of reductions in poverty and a fundamental redistribution of our massive wealth.

I represent the Scottish Socialist Party on the Justice 2 Committee.
This Committee will scrutinise legislation and recommend changes in the justice system in Scotland over the next four years.
It is presently taking evidence from various bodies on the Executive's Vulnerable Witnesses Scotland Bill.
This issue came to the fore when, in July 2001, a child abuse trial collapsed at Edinburgh High Court.
There was public outcry, providing much of the impetus for change in the way that children are treated by the criminal justice system.
The case involved an 11 year old girl and her eight year old brother who alleged that they had been abused by a six man paedophile ring in south-west Scotland.
The children alleged that their abuse had begun when they were as young as three years old.
The girl gave evidence for ten days and was aggressively cross-examined by barristers for all six accused.
When her younger brother began his evidence to make similar allegations, he broke down when questioned by lawyers.
The trial was abandoned on the advice of a child psychologist who claimed the child would suffer permanent mental scars should he continue.
Despite the prosecution having other witnesses and a wealth of medical evidence, the judge ruled that there was no alternative to cross-examination as a means of testing the evidence of children.
The Crown Office abandoned the case and the six men went free.
The Vulnerable Witnesses Bill evolved from Vital Voices: Helping Vulnerable Witnesses Give Evidence, a consultation paper circulated in May 2002.
It looked at existing measures to help vulnerable witnesses and proposed ways of improving these measures to ensure that witnesses give the best evidence possible.
Given the adversarial character of current court procedure, it is obviously crucial that any changes do not compromise the defence and, in line with Human Rights Act Article 6, continue to uphold the right to a full and fair trial for defendants.
There is already criticism that proposals do not go far enough to protect children, in the main due to wide discretionary powers given to judges and sheriffs by vague wording.
For example the Bill says, in cases of a sexual or violent nature, children under 12 will "not normally" have to go to court to give evidence, instead of giving a guaranteed exemption from court appearances.
The range of proposals also fails to introduce specialist training for judges, sheriffs and all others dealing with cases involving children.
These measures are crucial to children who are already traumatised and go on to face the further trauma and abuse through aggressive cross-examination when cases come to court.
Children going through this ordeal are also unable to access any counselling or therapeutic help before cases come to trial.
They may wait for over a year without receiving any such support for fear of 'contaminating' their evidence.
These proposals also impact on people with learning difficulties. The charity Enable has stressed the need for funding to be available to support vulnerable witnesses throughout both the court process and the aftermath.
Half measures in such circumstance are actually more damaging than doing nothing at all.
In the end, to truly protect vulnerable witnesses and have the rights of children upheld would take a profound change in the entire manner in which justice is delivered.
We could move away from the current combative system that seeks to discredit and break vulnerable witnesses, including women alleging rape and sexual assault.
We'd be moving on from a system that has singularly failed to either achieve justice for women and children, or protect them from violent and sexual crime.

Students are the only group in society for which there is no minimum level of income. If you are a pensioner, you have a pension, if you are unemployed, you have jobseekers' allowance, if you are unfit to work, you have sick pay. If you are a student you have no right to any income support or housing benefit.
Grants are no more than a distant memory, and tuition fees have been renamed the Graduate Endowment Tax, lurking in the shadows until students finish their degrees.
So as the new term begins at universities across Scotland, Roz Paterson and SSP student organiser Donnie Nicolson look at the huge burden of debt hanging round the necks of those who should be concentrating on essays and exams.

Earlier this year, British citizens were astounded to hear that a 21 year old student at St Andrew's University had, during his first year, considered dropping out.
But what distinguishes William Windsor from the thousands of other students who consider quitting higher education is that he wasn't driven to the brink by the need to take on extra shifts at his local Pizza Hut whilst cramming for exams and trying to put off the evil moment when he must apply for his third overdraft in two years.
In short, it wasn't money worries. Did I say worries? I meant nightmares.
Recent research, conducted by Professor Andy Furlong of Glasgow University, finds not unsurprisingly that the main reason students from low income households are more likely to drop out of university than their better off counterparts, is that being a student has become financially impossible for them.
They are often cash-strapped to the point where valuable study time is swallowed up working in menial jobs, and dark clouds of debt - in the form of postponed tuition fees (we call it Graduate Endowment Tax now) and student loans (to be paid back, with interest, as soon as your income tops an almighty £10,000 per annum) - hang over their eventual future.
A vast number of students completing four year university courses today are entering upon their working lives with debts of around £16,000+, a horrendous burden for young people hoping to buy a home, start a family, perhaps even choose a career for reasons other than how well it pays.
Within the last decade, higher education, far from being a universal human right, has become a privilege for the wealthy few.
The government may be pushing for 50 per cent of all 18-34 year olds in higher education by 2010, but increasingly that generation is discovering just how crippling it is financially.
So why, you ask, don't they boycott college altogether and get a real job? Because the market, thanks to the expansion in higher education, is now loaded against them.
Where once school-leavers with a bit of summer job experience, half-decent exam passes and a good character reference could enter careers in areas such as catering or retail on a low rung of the ladder and be trained, as they worked, to ascend it, nowadays employers expect them to be trained already.
In other words, employers have been able to offload the costs of training onto the individual.
Those who bypass higher education may avoid the debts but are increasingly likely to be trapped in the minimum wage, short-term contract, non-unionised sector.
Education, in the brave new Blairite world, has become a commodity like any other - an insurance policy against getting a really shit job.
If you can't afford it, tough: it's no longer your right.
Though it used to be. Tony Blair, who went to Oxford University in 1972, didn't pay tuition fees, not even deferred ones, and if he amassed any debts, it was probably from purchasing guitars for his preposterous pop band.
To defend the cranking up of student debt, it is often argued that a university education guarantees a whopping great income to dwarf the £2000 (plus student loans, bank loans and what you borrowed from your parents) you'll have to pay back.
Which is not only a lie - brilliant careers for all graduates date from a time when fewer than ten per cent of the population went to university - it pisses on the idea of education for its own sake.
Studying should be more than a costly prerequisite in the scrabble for jobs.
Those who have the desire and the dedication to make it to college and university should be nurtured, not penalised financially. And encouraged to expand their understanding and knowledge, wherever it may take them, rather than rote-learn to pass exams.
It all favours the New Consensus, of course. If Scotland's upcoming generation is saddled with financial problems, they'll have all the less time and energy for well-informed protest.
Don't let them away with it.

Student statistics
* Scottish students who take out a full student loan for four years will graduate with a student debt of £15,260.
* But even a full loan leaves students with just £3.88 a day to live on after paying rent.
* The Scottish Parliament introduced a student bursary of £2000 a year, but only for students whose parents' combined income is less than £10,000. So even students whose parents earn the minimum wage will not qualify for the bursary.
* Mature students and students who are independent from their parents do not qualify for the bursary.
* One in six students lives in vermin-infested accommodation.
* Three quarters of students have at least one part time job.
* One fifth of students work more than 50 hours a week.
* Three quarters of working class young people who decide not to pursue higher education cite lack of money and fear of debt as the main reasons. (figures from NUS Scotland)

Eamonn Coyle, 19, is going into his second year at Glasgow University. As well as studying English and Philosophy, he works weekends and Monday evenings as a clerical worker in Direct Line Insurance.
Working Saturdays is a pain but I have to do it to get by. I miss out on lots of social events and going out with friends.
Full time university study is hard enough but with work on top I can get really tired out. I still live with my parents in the south side, so I don't have to worry about paying rent, but it must be a lot of pressure for those who do.
The people I work with at Direct Line are dead friendly, but the work itself is monotonous and not challenging at all - I'm just doing donkey work like so many other students.
Some people might think that £5.12 per hour is not bad money, but that just shows how people's expectations have been lowered.
There are people I know who are my age and they're working for the minimum wage, and for us that's 60p an hour less than for people over 21.
Most young people just think you have to slave away to get by - the concept of a living wage, student grants and free education is so alien you get laughed at for mentioning it.
Low paid work is a fact of life for so many students now -
it's another example of the exploitation of young people.

Davie Landells, from Greenock, was a mature student who recently graduated from the Open University.
I served my time as an engineer, so when I decided to go to college I was starting from scratch.
I did a one year Scotvec module at James Watt college in Paisley, and then I did a year of Highers. So that was two years of being skint before I even got started at uni.
I started a full time degree course at Paisley Uni. My partner Sandra was working part time. After two years we were so skint, I gave it up and got a job.
I gave the Open University a go and finally graduated after another four years. Throughout that I was working part time - well, supposedly part time but I was doing so many extra hours that quite often it was really a full time job. And I was looking after the weans while Sandra was at work.
It is hard to cope with when you're trying to study. I ended up with a 2:1, so it didn't so much affect the grade that I got, just the amount of time I took to do it.
With proper funding I could have stayed at Paisley Uni, got my degree and got into a full time job within four years, instead of the six years of financial struggle that it took.
And I've still got £1,700 student debt to pay back from my two years at Paisley.

Jack Ferguson is going into third year studying Social Anthropology at St Andrew's University. Last year Jack worked in a supermarket to fund his way through his course. Although he only takes out the bare minimum student loan, he still will leave University thousands of pounds in debt.
Most people have to juggle their work and their studies. I often sit behind the till and read my course books; it's far from ideal but it has to be done.
Debt is still a constant worry, even with me on the lowest rate of loan. It's a real weight on my shoulders knowing that I'm getting this deep into debt, with the loans plus my student fees, but it's necessary to keep going at university.
The government says it wants to increase access to higher education, but it's impossible to study these days without creating a huge mountain of debt. Education is an exercise in debt creation.
The long hours I work in my job added to the coursework I have really tires me out. Sometimes it's an intense mental effort to do both.
It's really been a balance between having enough money to get by, and doing my study properly.
So far I have managed to do alright, but I'm going into honours now, where the workload will increase a lot, and I'll still have to do my job as well, so things will get harder for me.

Fiona MacFarlane is a mature student at Glasgow University. She is going into her senior honours year in biochemistry.
As a mature student I haven't had a grant or bursary from the government. I had to pay my tuition fees up front for my first two years' studying. My student loan debt will be at least £16,000 by the time I've finished and it's accumulating interest all the time.
I didn't want to work during term time because I couldn't cope with it and all the studying and research I have to do. I've done temping work during the holidays, but this summer I haven't been able to earn enough and I am going to have to take part time work this year.
I've been scrimping for four years. I buy the cheapest own brand food - you can buy a week's worth of frozen veg at ASDA for 98p.
I get a bursary from a charitable foundation of £80 a month, which helps a bit. But I wouldn't have found out about that if I hadn't burst into tears one day in my advisor's office because of my mounting debts.
The level of debt I'll end up in means I'll feel forced to take any job that comes along, whether I'm using my qualification or not.
It's not a happy situation to be in when you're trying to restart your working life.

The Scottish Socialist Party believes in a free education for all, at primary, secondary and tertiary levels. We believe education is a fundamental human right, which is being infringed by New Labour's obsession with profit and the "free market".
Is it not just a wee bit ironic that the ones who are slashing our right to go to university are the same ones who benefited from a free education?
Way back in the mists of time when Tony Blair and Jack McConnell were at university, there were no graduate taxes, no top up fees and no student loans. There was, however, a full grant that students could reasonably live on.
As well as having their fees paid by the government, Jack and Tony (and everyone else who was a student then) were entitled to full unemployment benefit and housing benefit outwith term time.
Good enough for them, it seems, but not for the likes of us.
Scottish Socialist Students' Societies, in universities and colleges across Scotland, are fighting for the same funding that Jack and Tony were entitled to for students today.

to find out more about the Scottish Socialist Student Society at your university or college, phone:
Aberdeen Heather Mackie 07919 966 378
Robert Gordon Brett Harper 07743 449 463
Stirling Tommy Kane 07947 826 808
St Andrews Jack Ferguson 01337 840 668
Glasgow Nick Tarlton 07931 666 605
Glasgow Caledonian Paul Stewart 07970 039 922
Strathclyde Olivia Drennan 0141 567 5049
Paisley Jan Markwick 07734 200 419
Edinburgh Tam Ryan 0131 661 2582
Heriot Watt Stevie Nimmo 0131 557 0426
Napier Stevie Nimmo 0131 557 0426
Dundee Duncan Rowan 07719 128 823
Abertay Duncan Rowan 07719 128 823

Last Monday, a new organisation called the Scottish Higher Education Alliance was launched, with SSP members in the forefront.
The Alliance will draw together people from many different organisations, including political parties, trade unions, student councils and other campaigning bodies.
One of the most vital tasks the alliance faces is putting free education back on the political agenda. Every discussion or debate these days in politics and the media about education discusses the pros and cons of top-up fees versus graduate tax versus student loans, but the idea that education ought to be free is very rarely given any credibility.

your voice

Prescriptive view of history takes the myth
Adrian Cannon's letter in Voice issue 149 is indeed full of British nationalist myth-making and, in the best possible traditions of this particular school of historical falsifiers, includes so many misrepresentations that it would indeed take many pages of the Voice to answer them.
The problem is that in reading Scottish history straight from the textbooks lovingly provided by the British state Adrian repeats the myths and propaganda spread by the ruling class of this island in order to justify their annexation of Scotland and to eradicate the history of opposition to the union.
It remains a repeated mistake of many on the left to try to impose an English model and English conditions onto Scottish history, which leads to the taking of history out of context.
However the case is that for centuries prior to Union and for at least a century and a half afterwards the working people of both countries had entirely separate histories of struggle.
Prior to Union the Scottish capitalist class embarked on an ill-fated imperialist adventure to Central America. Its failure near bankrupted the Scottish economy.
So when the Westminster treasury offered the princely sum of £398,085.10s to the unrepresentative Scottish parliament, the nobility and capitalist classes gladly accepted.
Of course, if they didn't, an English navy fleet and English troops were stationed close by to 'aid' negotiations.
The Scots ruling class may have been 'voluntary partners' but the Union was not accepted by the 'common people' of Scotland, who rioted through the streets of the major towns of Scotland and signed protest petitions from all corners of the country.
In fact the Union Treaty was signed under armed protection from the Edinburgh 'mob'.
In 1712 Scottish MPs voted unanimously to repeal the Union but this was easily defeated by English MPs and the speaker of the House of Commons commented that the English "had catcht Scotland and would keep her fast".
Where Adrian describes 'equal partners', I see a constitutional settlement imposed through bribery and corruption against the wishes of the vast majority of the Scottish people.
By the end of the 18th century, the sense of national injustice that had existed since the Union met with the emerging demands for political freedom exemplified by the French Revolution.
After the suppression of the Friends of the People, the middle-classes abandoned the reform movement. The emerging working class in Scotland, committed to repealing the Union and establishing a democratic Scottish Republic, took up the mantle.
And organisations of the working class in Scotland have continued to act as standard bearers for Scottish self-determination right up until the failure of the first Labour Government to deliver on its promises.
It seems strange that Adrian makes the point that "Queen Anne was a Stuart (the Scots royal family)". What exactly is this supposed to represent?
The Stuarts were among the first of the Anglo-Norman baron thieves who expropriated the land of lowland Scotland from the communistic clan system.
As a republican I have no time for royalty of any sort but to suggest that Scotland was an equal partner because some ancestors of the monarch at the time of Union had spent time stealing land in Scotland is disingenuous to say the least.
And as for Scottish troops serving in the Empire, the Empire would never have expanded if it relied on English troops to keep order.
Soldiers from all corners of the globe fought in the British army, and indeed many still do.
James Connolly served in the British army - was he representative of Scotland's imperial interests, or an economic conscript, signed up to avoid a life of poverty?
Black South Africans served in the Apartheid army. Does this mean that Blacks were responsible for the oppression of Blacks?
It is time the Voice took steps to introduce a regular radical history column in order to recover the suppressed history of the working class in Scotland, and please save us from the ill-informed arguments of the remnants of the British nationalist left.
Donnie Fraser,
Portmahomack, Ross-shire

Left needs to look at whole story
I feel that I must reply to Adrian Cannon's ignorant letter (Voice issue 149) though not on a point for point basis.
What saddens me, genuinely saddens me, is the stick used by certain sections of the left in Scotland to hit any notion of a distinct Scottish radicalism. Any belief in that radical tradition is equated with nationalism.
Adrian does not see the popular struggle of Wallace, the struggles of those rank and file Jacobites (clans and lowlanders) as well as radical Covenanters against the Union, those republicans who supported the French Revolution and a Scottish Republic, the uprising in 1820 along similar lines, radical Chartists right through to MacLean, the women and men of Red Clydeside, the anti-nuclear protestors.
Instead Adrian sees kings and queens, army generals, bankers and the Kirk.
The existence of a class on the make in Scotland does not deny one central fact - Scotland has been denied national, democratic rights.
The Act of Union, passed by bribery and coercion as noted in the Voice's Britishness test, has never been ratified. The 1997 referendum did not include independence as an option. That is national oppression.
General elections under unionist auspices don't matter a fig!
Scottish socialists should see both camps - the two Scotlands. Scotland has been held back, workers all over the planet exploited, by the class Adrian thinks are representative of Scotland. That class have been aided and abetted by the British State.
I ally with the forces (the working class, crofters, youth) who have challenged unionism and capitalism in Scotland.
Adrian's letter is an example of unreconstructed British socialism. A centralist left that is dying and being replaced by a left realignment that should take up the cudgels of rediscovering the radical history of all the peoples on these islands - to the benefit of those struggling across these islands for peace, justice and socialism.
Gerry Cairns,
Glasgow

Brazil petition
It was good to see the Voice covering the crisis in Brazil in issue 149 (Nick McKerrell, "Time for Lula to choose his side"). As you say, the Brazilian Workers Party (PT) under Lula has alienated many of its supporters by its plans for pension reforms in the public sector, and the PT leadership wants to expel leftist MPs who have opposed this - namely senator Heloisa Helena and deputies Luciana Genro and Joao Baba.
However, you could have mentioned the existence of an international petition, initiated by Socialist Resistance, against the expulsion threats, which has attracted the support of figures such as Noam Chomsky, Ken Loach, Rosie Kane and Tommy Sheridan and has been covered in the Brazilian press.
The meeting to consider the expulsions has been postponed until October 25/26, so there is still time for readers of the Voice to add their names to the petition.
Simply email me at akennedy60@aol.com or contact@socialistresistance.net with details of your capacity/position, or go to www.socialistresistance.net and click on the link to the petition site.
Andrew Kennedy,
Socialist Resistance

Citizenship quiz was spaced out
I usually feel I have better things to do than to criticise a newspaper, but I must protest against the embarrassing waste of space represented by the spoof 'citizenship test' in Voice issue 149. It was frivolous in the worst sense - and no-one has ever accused me of humourlessness - and an example of schoolchild humour which should never have been allowed in a 'serious' paper. It was not even clever, inventive or amusing.
We are quite frequently told that there is not enough space in the Voice for all the items that are submitted. If that is the case, may I suggest shrinking the headlines and the photographs, reconsidering some of the regular columnists, and not including the sort of sub-Daily Mail rubbish that would make me embarrassed to allow my friends to read the paper, let alone try to sell it to them?
Max Marnau,
Edinburgh

Ask and ye shall receive
On Saturday September 6, I was selling the Voice when someone pointed to Tommy's picture and said, 'That's your leader isn't it'. I quickly pointed out that there are five other MSPs representing the SSP in parliament and wished strongly that their mugshots were profiled on a rotational basis.
Lo and behold the very next issue of the Voice features Frances Curran on the front page. It was great to see and I'm looking forward to seeing the other four MSPs in the future, particularly Rosemary Byrne as she hasn't had much profile in the mainstream press.
Natasha Izatt,
Forres

n Rosemary got the front page treatment last issue

back to index

—page nine—

cultural resistance

Return of the People's Party

The People's Party is to be held in Glasgow on Oct 31, Nov 1, Nov 2 and Nov 3.
The second People's Party kicks off on Friday October 31 with a tribute to black working class music.
As a contribution to Black Cultural Awareness month, we are putting on a Soul Night, with DJs Mairtin Gardner, Wullie McGartland and John Jamieson.
This will cover music from downtown Kingston, Jamaica, to Detroit, USA, featuring rare Trojan and Tamla Motown recordings.
Catch this night at The Ups and Downs (Claddagh Club), Westmorland Street near the corner of Dixon Street, Govanhill.
In the afternoon of Saturday November 1, at Laurie's Bar in King Street, there will be discussions on Radical Painters from 1-6pm. Mike Gonzalez will be discussing Pablo Picasso, Fatima Hulett will focus on the art of Frida Kahlo and Kenny McEwan will be outlining the life and works of the great Gustave Courbet.
The programme for Saturday night is still under construction but there will be dance, poetry and drama, plus Ricky Trainer - aka the 'famous fire-eater'.
On Sunday afternoon, again at Laurie's Bar, King Street, the Radical Poets are up for discussion from 1-6pm. Colin Fox MSP gets to finish his Burns, providing Lord Steel doesn't turn up to interrupt him, and Catriona Grant will be reciting and discussing Maya Anglelou. Someone as yet unnamed will also be going into the works of Shelley.
Something special for Sunday night - a Bhangra Ceilidh.
This will be a fusion of live Scottish and Asian music, featuring some of the best musicians from both traditions.
The line up is: Tiger Style, Alistair Hulett, Jett Punjabi Banghra Dancers and The Govan Spoonful. This will also take place at the Ups and Downs. Monday November 3 is almost finalised. There will be a film and discussion at the Glasgow Film Theatre (GFT) in Glasgow.
Ken Loach's Bread and Roses will probably be the film shown and the guest speakers are still to be confirmed. Prices are also to be confirmed, although usual GFT prices apply for the film screening. Discussions are free.

Rebel
ink
Kevin Williamson

Westminster is taking the piss

What does it take to provoke a normally passive population into anger and revolt? This was a question that may have been on the minds of the NATO generals and their political masters last weekend when they sent troops, ships, submarines and helicopters, all armed with hi-tech weaponry, into Scotland to take part in Operation Northern Light.
The military exercise was to test the ability of NATO's Rapid Response Force to deal with "a simulated violent uprising in an allied country." Our Westminster overlords must have been having a right old laugh when they gave the go ahead to these military manoeuvres.
A none-too-subtle message was being sent to the uppity Jocks. To be fair to the NATO commanders it made perfect sense to flex their muscles up here. But after the events of the last week even they must be wondering what it will take for self-respecting Scots to wake up and smell the coffee.
First, there was the furious opposition that has erupted in Scotland against Dungavel Detention Centre. It goes against every humanitarian instinct to lock up mothers and children in a prison. A huge majority of Scots want Dungavel closed. It is not only a barbaric way to treat human beings but it is an affront to our world-renowned Scottish hospitality.
But the Westminster government gives a tug on a piece of string and up to his feet jumps First Minister, Jack McConnell, to defend the indefensible, and to tell us that we can't be trusted to deal (barbarically) with asylum seekers. No doubt humming the tune of Rule Britannia, he tells us: "The Scottish Parliament has no say on this issue. It is a deferred matter. Like it or lump it."
If that gets your blood boiling - and it should - then be careful about calming down with a harmless puff of cannabis. After consulting with the Home Office, the Association of Chief Police Officers in England and Wales issued a statement saying that cannabis users on the other side of the border would no longer be arrested for personal use. About time too. The criminalisation of cannabis users - who still account for around 60 per cent of all drug-related arrests - has been a long litany of failure, hypocrisy and deceit.
When questioned by Colin Fox in the Scottish Parliament if such sensible measures were going to be introduced up here Jack McConnell felt another pull on that Westminster string and up he jumped like a good little doggy to tell us that there would be no change north of the border regarding cannabis policy. In other words, just like with Dungavel, decent people in Scotland will continue to be treated like criminals. Could we change the cannabis law ourselves then, here in Scotland? "Eh, no. The cannabis laws are a deferred matter. Subject closed."
David Blunkett meanwhile was making a nuisance of himself yet again with his morally corrupt plans to introduce ID cards. And no surprises here: ID cards are a deferred matter. The Scottish Parliament has no powers to veto them - regardless of what the Scottish people think.
The Brits were cock-a-hoop. They were rubbing our faces in it. When a report surfaced stating that the number of impoverished people in Scotland who had their gas or electricity supply disconnected had risen dramatically there was outrage that some of the most vulnerable people in our society were being left without heat and light. But again we were told: "Sorry. Nothing Scotland can do about it. Electricity and gas disconnections are a deferred matter."
Union Jack McConnell's clarion call to lying prostrate on our bellies while Westminster walks all over us is becoming like a stuck record.
How much longer will the Scottish people put up with such stinging insults, such affronts to our self-respect, and such attacks on our democratic right to run our own country? There's no getting away from it: Westminster is taking the piss while the people of Scotland are being treated as second class citizens.

Tales for our time

Canterbury Tales, BBC1, Thursdays at 9pm

by Honor McCurley

For most of us, Chaucer conjures up images of shining white knights, dragons and other courtly clichŽs. This couldn't be further from reality. Chaucer's tales are some of the most earthy works in English literature, which comment astutely on the human condition.
Most of us have never read the Canterbury Tales and this newly modernised version promises the viewer a far more accessible vehicle for understanding something which may at first glance appear impenetrable. The adaptation of the Millers Tale saw James Nesbitt play Nick - a seedy, shag-happy conman who attempts to persuade a young singer (Billie Piper) to leave her grotty middle aged husband (an ageing, ginger Dennis Waterman) for the sake of her career. There was a cracking cast including Jonny Lee Miller, Julie Walters and Dennis Waterman. Producer Kate Bartlet reflects that the "timeless themes of love, lust, power, greed and bigotry are addressed". Sounds like an average day in Westminster.
I was rather irritated by a review the right wing press produced last weekend. It pompously stated "the guts had been ripped from the original, but Chaucer wouldn't mind."
There's nothing wrong in deviating from the original if it is done well. Chaucer himself reworked old stories from Greek myth.
As a nurse who works a 48-hour week, the TV may be my only chance to experience things like this. When us "plebs" gain access to literature, we appreciate and understand it a whole lot more than pompous prats who spew large chunks of the original text at random. How the hell does anyone know what Chaucer thought anyway?

Johnny Cash 1932 - 2003

by Malcolm McDonald

I'd challenge anyone to watch the video for Hurt from Johnnny Cash's last album without being moved in some way.
In Cash's hands, Trent Reznor's drug hymn becomes something else - a seething tour de force of regret, anger, sorrow and longing.
The video shows Cash, bent and broken, raging against the dying of the light, his past evoked by intercut shots of a younger, taller, straighter man.
And this is how he'll be remembered.
Johnny Cash came from a poor sharecropper family, and after Air Force duty, got his big break in 1955 via the Sun Records label.
His career thereafter didn't follow the standard country music star route.
While others wore rhinestones, he chose simple black, symbolic of his empathy with the working man.
When many of his contemporaries touted an ultra-redneck worldview, he championed the rights of Native Americans, and opposed the Vietnam war.
While others played Vegas, Cash recorded classic live albums in San Quentin and Folsom prisons.

Cracked baritone

His contribution to American music was massive, from his first hit I Walk The Line, through to his renaissance, at the hands of Rick Rubin with American Recordings in 1994.
In recent years he covered songs by the likes of Beck, Nick Cave, Will Oldham, and Depeche Mode.
Every song gave us that voice - a tremulous, cracked baritone, dignified and true - and the sense of a man who tried to live his life right.
Johnny Cash died in Nashville, Tennessee, on September 12, 2003.
He was 71.

back to index

—page eleven—

international news

Two jailed in Dublin bin campaign

by Colm Breathnach, Dublin

In an attempt to crush the campaign against the unfair bin tax two leading members of the Socialist Party in Ireland have been jailed for a month by the High Court.
Joe Higgins, a member of the Irish Parliament and Clare Daly, a local councillor, were jailed when they refused to promise not to blockade bin lorries with other campaigners.
The bin tax, introduced three years ago, is not only an unjust double tax on ordinary people but also grossly unequal.
Although there is a waiver scheme for pensioners and the unemployed, all others pay the same rate, so that a low paid worker is liable for the same bin tax as a millionaire.
At the same time big business and large farmers, which cause most pollution, are not being charged according to the waste they produce.
The anti-bin tax campaign has taken off and non-payment is common especially in the working class communities. Now the councils, armed with new powers are refusing to collect the bins of non-payers.
In response residents in many Dublin estates have prevented any collection and in some cases have 'captured' and held bin lorries.
The campaign is strongest in Fingal County in the north of Dublin, but has spread rapidly to the rest of the city.
The Irish Labour Party claims to oppose the bin tax but refuses to get involved in the campaign as have trade union leaders. The bin workers would be willing to defy management and collect all the bins - if they had the backing of the leaders.
The jailing of Joe and Clare has strengthened the campaign.
The council has taken legal measures to enable the police to arrest anyone who blockades a bin truck which has infuriated locals even further.
The campaign is so strong that Joe and Clare might be joined by a few more activists yet.

Show your support
Come to the protest, Friday Sept 26 at the Irish Consulate, Randolph St, Edinburgh
Send solidarity messages for Clare and Joe to: Middle Abbey Publications Ltd, 141 Thomas St, Dublin 8, Ireland, email dublinsp@clubi.ie
Letters of protest to: Mr. William Soffe, County Manager, Fingal County Council, County Hall,
Main Street, Swords, Co. Dublin
Tel: +1 890 5000, Fax: +1 890 5809, e mail: manager@fingalcoco.ie

Road map runs out

by Nick McKerrell

The quagmire of Iraqi occupation is deepening for American Imperialism. People will demonstrate across the globe on September 27 to show their opposition to this permanent invasion by American troops.
But in no other area are the bloody consequences of this war and the duplicitous nature of the Bush administration clearer than the continued Palestinian conflict.
The constant killing has been thrown into the spotlight again during September.
The US backed Palestinian Prime Minister Abu Mazen - seen as a counter-weight to Arafat - resigned on Saturday September 6.
This followed the collapse of the precarious ceasefire which had been in place for most of the summer.
The Israeli state maintained its continual harassment and killing of Palestinians. Right wing leader Sharon is undertaking to try and build a euphemistically named security fence that will seek to cage in the Palestinians in the occupied territories.

Fear

As a result suicide bombings have resumed within Israel. Fear and mistrust has grown on both sides of the conflict.
In the aftermath of the 'victory' in Iraq in May 2003, George W Bush proudly flaunted his 'road map' to peace in the Middle East. America was trying to play the peace maker, desperate for credibility amongst the Arab population after its blatant land grab in Iraq.
Part of the deal was to create an alternative leadership to Arafat, who the Israeli state saw as a leader of terror.
Thus support was given for Abu Mazen - a fellow leader of Fatah, Arafat's faction within the PLO - as Prime Minister of the weak Palestinian Authority.
Abu Mazen compromised almost completely with American imperialism and the Israeli state, who contemptuously refused to discuss the release of Palestinian political prisoners with him. This allowed Arafat - wary of any threat to his power base - to successfully portray him as an American puppet.
The collapse of Abu Mazen prompted Bush to state, last Thursday, what must have been blindingly obvious even to him - that the "road map had stalled".
The right wing Israeli state has not relented in stepping up its repression. It announced its wish to expel Arafat, who has been imprisoned in his compound in Ramallah for 18 months.
True to form the US state vetoed a UN resolution condemning this action, although 133 countries on the General Assembly wanted action taken.

Compromised

In truth Arafat is also a compromised figure in the eyes of many ordinary Palestinians. However he has a populist skill which other leaders lack.
In response to Israeli threats he told a large gathering that "the Palestinian flag will fly over the mosques and churches of Jerusalem" despite the fact his policies have lead the Palestinian people no closer to freedom.
And as the politicians' bickering goes on, the death and anguish continues for ordinary people.
The Palestine International Solidarity Movement still have foreign activists in Palestine despite threats and harassment from the Israeli state.
Reporting from a Palestinian village near Jenin, they tell of homes being demolished last week by Israeli bulldozers for being "too near" to an Israeli settlement.
Farmer and father Hassan Kalif says, "they tell us we cannot farm on our land... Then they killed three of our daughters. Then they take our houses. What else is there? Our homes, our children, and our land... what else is there to take?"
n see www.palsolidarity.org

Armed guards close down Zimbabwe's indy press

by Roz Paterson

Last Friday, Zimbabwe's only remaining independent newspaper, Daily News, was forcibly shut down by armed agents, acting on behalf of Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF government.
It is an action that the Zimbabwean High Court has since ruled unlawful.
Daily News, alongside its sister paper Daily News on Sunday, is Zimbabwe's most widely read newspaper and was established in 1999 to challenge the government's continual abuse of human rights, its wilful attempts to subvert the press and judiciary, and its almost institutionalised corruption.
As such, the paper and its courageous editor Geoffrey Nyarota became the scourge of an increasingly unpopular government.

Bombed

Staff members were arrested and jailed on several occasions and the offices were bombed twice, one attack two years ago succeeding in destroying the paper's printing press.
In January, Nyaroto was sacked by the Daily News board of directors, who claimed it was a managerial decision. Observers believe they had simply bowed to government pressure.
In March, in a further attempt to hobble free speech, the government introduced the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, compelling publications to register with the Media and Information Commission.
This latter seriously compromises press freedoms and was strongly resisted by Daily News, who hadn't registered prior to Friday's closure.
They have since complied and, in the light of the High Court's ruling, Daily News may resume publishing imminently.

Resistance

Zanu-PF, which came to power in 1980, has a wretched legacy of repression and abuse and is meeting with increasing resistance amongst Zimbabweans. Its response has been violent.
Demonstrations in June, organised by the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), were brutally clamped down on but the tide of dissent keeps rising.
Inflation has recently risen by 400 per cent, fuel prices have tripled, and more and more people are starving.
Recent council elections proved a dismal affair for the government, despite alleged attempts at vote-rigging and intimidation.
The MDC, campaigning against "23 years of violent misrule", are making gains in the teeth of dictatorship.
The Daily News closure is the first such since the 1960s, when the white minority government of Rhodesia closed down a pro-democracy paper, also called the Daily News.

back to index

—page twelve—

SNP marches right and loses to the left

by Andrew Rossetter

The 2003 Scottish parliamentary elections not only represented an historic breakthrough for the SSP, Greens and others but also handed the SNP one of their worst election nights in decades - a loss of nine seats and 125,000 voters.
If it wasn't for the equally poor showing of the Labour Party since then, John Swinney would surely be out on his ear by now.
The results of the Westminster elections two years ago were equally grim for the SNP, with both seats and votes vanishing in large numbers. Meantime, the SSP has grown in terms of membership and activists and made significant progress at council, Holyrood and Westminster elections.
These factors have generated a crisis of such proportions within the SNP that an almost unknown Glasgow activist, Dr Bill Wilson, is expected to take 30 per cent of the vote in the leadership contest at the SNP's annual conference this week.
There is no doubt in my mind that the rightward drift of the SNP has contributed much to its downfall.
Though the SNP has never been a socialist party, it once offered a real alternative to the Labour Party in Scotland. But those days are long gone.
The policies now espoused by the SNP are little different from the watered-down Thatcherism on offer from New Labour.
In the past, the main fault-lines within the SNP were between those who argued for an emphasis on Scottish independence in and of itself, and against the party getting bogged down in arguments over day-to-day politics versus those who wanted to position the SNP firmly on the left of Scottish politics, and who believed that, in order to persuade a majority of the Scottish electorate to support and vote for independence, the party had to demonstrate that, economically and politically, ordinary working people's lives would be improved by it.
Over time it was these latter who came to prominence.
Although the SNP's greatest electoral success came in 1974, when they returned 11 MP's to Westminster, the party's biggest surge in popular support came in the period spanning the late 80s and early 90s, beginning with Jim Sillars' triumph in the Govan by-election (until the events of last week in Brent East, Labour's last by-election defeat) in 1988 and culminating in the 1992 General Election.
Despite winning fewer seats, the party increased its share of the vote by 50 per cent and membership soared. This proved to be a highpoint, and membership has declined since.
Although the emergence of the SSP has contributed much to the SNP's recent troubles, its new political direction has had an equally detrimental impact.
Previously, the SNP advocated repealing Thatcher's anti-trade union laws, abolishing student loans and restoring full maintenance grants.
Such policies gave the party a clear left-wing focus and were decided and voted upon at national conferences and national councils.
Since the late 90s however, the party has started to ditch many of its commitments in favour of a more business-friendly approach.
There has been a clear New Labourisation process in terms of adopted policies and in the way the party operates, both at campaigning level and in the way it conducts internal business.
The expulsion of Dorothy Grace-Elder and Margo MacDonald, the increasing reliance on focus groups to decide policy, and on media rather than street-level campaigning (thus cutting down need for activists), plus attempts to woo Scotland's business community whilst more or less ignoring trade unionists and to centralise control over membership more than suggests a Blairite drift.
It should also be noted that the party has a call centre in Edinburgh to do all its phone canvassing.
Is it any wonder that the SNP is in serious financial difficulty, that it is struggling to hold on to its activists, and that it is haemorrhaging support in election after election?
Many left-leaning activists have taken the view that rather than splitting the independence vote by campaigning for the SSP, everybody should unite first to win Scottish independence then campaign for socialism.
However it is my belief that the SNP will never be in a position to win independence while it continues on its present trajectory (and it shows no signs of changing, regardless who replaces the hapless Swinney) and that only through articulating a clear, unambiguous, and unapologetic radical socialist vision of what an independent Scotland will look like, will Sovereignty be returned to the people of Scotland.
I take no delight in the decline of the SNP - my great grandmother was involved in the SNP at its birth - but, having looked at the way the SNP conducts its internal business, the way it campaigns, and its manifesto compared to that of the Scottish Socalist Party, there is only one political party that I am at home in, and that party is the SSP.

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