Issue170

A socialist for Europe

by Roz Paterson

Last week, Felicity Garvie was elected top of the Scottish Socialist Party list for the European elections in June.
Though she has worked in the Scottish Parliament since Tommy Sheridan's election in 1999, Felicity is very much a grassroots campaigner and was instrumental in establishing the SSP's presence in Fife.
During the 2003 election, when she stood as SSP candidate for Ochil, she secured a brief escape from "the stuffy atmosphere of the parliament.
"I really enjoyed talking to people in what is a predominantly rural community, affected by all kinds of issues of poverty and social exclusion.
"I'm looking forward to getting out there again, this time talking to people all across Scotland and putting the socialist case to them."
Felicity is "passionate" about the Free School Meals campaign, with which she has been involved since its kick-off three years ago.
"I just think it's a fantastic anti-poverty measure."
She is also committed to nuclear disarmament, inspired by the dedication of Morag Balfour, the SSP's Peace and Disarmament spokesperson.
"When I went to Faslane for the first time, I was struck by this blot on the landscape, this horrific threat to humanity."
Though the European Parliament often seems little more than a talking shop, bound up in yards of red tape, Felicity believes the SSP can achieve a great deal in Europe.
The SSP has already forged important links with like-minded organisations via the European Social Forum and was a founding member of the European Anti-Capitalist Left.
"An SSP MEP can help us make links with pensioners, students and public sector workers, campaigning against war, the persecution of asylum seekers and attacks on workers' terms and conditions.
"The environment is also important and we can help ensure that local communities have a say in conservation matters, rather than having directives imposed on them from above."
"These are problems that exist across borders and we can be instrumental in building a linked campaign from below."
Farming and fisheries issues are particularly crucial for Scotland.
"I'm anti the Common Fisheries Policy but don't want to work on a Scottish versus Basque versus French level.
"The sea belongs to everyone and those who work on it should be talking to each other and taking control, not being dictated to by distant politicians making deals behind closed doors.
"These are complex issues and it's the people in the industry who can lead us to solutions."
Likewise, farmers are facing meltdown in Scotland.
"Many are struggling. They need to have an input into agricultural policy."
In solidarity with the people she seeks to represent, Felicity will live on the average Scottish workers' wage, donating the rest to the party.
"Europe is perceived as a gravy train, so a stand like that will have a huge impact. I'm not in it for the fancy restaurants!"

She hopes that a whole score of left candidates will make it to Europe in June.
"Together we can tackle the new EU constitution which, quite frankly, flies in the face of democracy, making it difficult for small states, like Catalonia and Scotland, to increase the powers devolved to them.
"It calls for a much more centralised system, making it harder for asylum-seekers to enter member states. We want an open arms policy; we need these people and their talents and skills.
"We also need to address why they are forced to come here: wars, famine, free market policies that ruin economies and drive down wages.
"These are European problems and we need to tackle them at source, in the heart of Europe."

North Lanarkshire leisure card hike of 300% leaves pensioners high and dry

North Lanarkshire Council has scrapped its swim-only cards, available to pensioners at £14.50 for three months, in favour of an Access NL card, which affords access to more leisure goodies than you can shake a stick at, and all for the knock-down rate of £15.
Er, per month; a hike of around 300 per cent.
For many elderly people, particularly those with heart problems or who have recently undergone heart surgery, swimming is often the only suitable exercise so inducements like a free induction at the gym are just pointless.
According to the wilfully impenetrable statement from the council, who've had a number of inquiries already about this "improved" service provision, it's all to do with rationalisation and suchlike bollocks.
What it means really is that, when you're trying to turn a profit from leisure services, you can't afford to be all soft on old folk who just want to take care of their health after a lifetime of hard graft.
The best advice on offer is to pay as you go, at £1 a time, which works out as four and three quarter swims a month if you're to keep within the old budget of £14.50.
That'll keep youse fit.
Not.

Democracy denied in Dundee

by Alan Hinnrichs

Dundee City Council has made it impossible for Dundee to have a realistic May Day march and rally.
The proposal, put forward jointly by the SSP in Dundee, the Socialist Students of Abertay and Dundee Universities and the local TUC, was to gather at 11am on Saturday May 1, then march to a rally in the City Square.
This is the usual route for protests and rallies in the city but the council have called a halt.
They did offer a start time of 8am, yet no other May Day demo in Scotland has to start this early.
They say the police are unable to patrol the march and a football match in the afternoon.
In reality, the council is afraid of allowing the striking nursery nurses a voice. They are even willing to clamp down on freedom of speech, and halt the international celebration, to prevent it.

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Just a fax to say 'you're sacked'

Workers at Ayrshire Metals, in Irvine, received a fax at their union office last week. Telling them they had lost their jobs.
The 43-strong workforce went out on strike a fortnight ago, in protest at a pitiful pay offer and a series of alarmingly poor severance packages, some of them dished out to workers who'd put in years of service to the company.
Dennis Abercrombie, convenor of shop stewards, told the Voice:
"The plant is shut but we still don't know where we stand.
"The union is hoping to get negotiations going with the solicitor's firm that sent the fax.
"Management is refusing to engage with us directly.
"That shows you the kind of management we have."
Workers feared that Ayrshire Metals was being run into the ground, with a view to selling the land to property developers.
In the last week, lorries have entered the plant, leaving later loaded with jigs and fixtures, presumably bound for the parent company's headquarters in Daventry, in the Midlands.
A sawmill which sits adjacent to the plant recently closed.
The land it stood on, Dennis has discovered, is now earmarked for 100 luxury flats.
"You can take everything from there, can't you?"
Despite being told there was to be 30 days' consultation, beginning April 1st, it now appears that the majority of the workforce will be out by the end of the month.
"They're inviting certain personnel to stay on and help dismantle the plant, so that's two or three weeks' work for one or two people. That's all."

Locals out to beach supermarket plans

The Portobello Campaign Against The Superstore (CATS) held a demonstration and balloon-decked motorcade along Portobello High Street last Saturday.
Property developers Duddingston House Properties have applied to the council to build an enormous superstore right in the centre of Portobello.
Local residents are up in arms; there is already a huge superstore in town and another seven within reach.
The demo had all ages represented, including Skateboarders Against the Superstore - a group of young people who would love a skateboard park instead of a superstore.
Locals who oppose the development would like to see recreational space as well as affordable housing.
They are worried about the effect on local independent retailers and the disturbance of the inevitably increased traffic.
Dickie Alexander, the Chair of CATS said:
"We were suspicious of the developers' traffic level figures and commissioned our own study.
"This showed that access roads to the site cannot cope with current traffic levels, never mind levels in 2006 when they would plan to open the store."
Local people were joined at the demo against the store by the MP for the area, Gavin Strang, and local councillor, Lawrence Marshall.
The three MSPs also in attendance were Susan Deacon (Labour), Colin Fox (SSP) and Mark Ballard (Green Party).

news

Standard cruelty by greedy bosses

Standard Life has seen its market value more than halve, from £16 billion to £4.5 billion.
But the bosses who steered the company towards this disaster are not going to be penalised. Good gracious no.
Chief executive Iain Lumsden (who was so good, they got rid of him) and his replacement, Sandy Crombie, got astronomical bonus packages for losing the company £12 billion between them.
The same courtesy was not extended to the 880 Scottish workers they say they have to sack to cover their gargantuan losses.
Standard Life employees have no union to fight their corner and, on top of the job losses, are facing the closure of their final salary pension scheme to new members, leaving many with nothing in place for their retirement.
Lumsden, by contrast, managed to secure £338,995 annual pension provision before he got shown the door while Crombie, on £743,000 per annum, probably isn't too worried about feeding the gas meter during his twilight years.
Workers are said to be shattered at the news, with many seriously panicking about their future.
Standard Life's plans to demutualise and become a private company, to be floated on the stock exchange, can only compound this feeling.
Mutual companies are owned by policyholders but private companies can be bought over by anyone.
Asset-stripping predators could spell the end of thousands more jobs at Standard Life.

New marriage law is welcome, but won't reach far enough

by Pam Currie, SSP LGBT spokesperson

The new Civil Partnerships Bill, currently going through the Westminster Parliament, has been widely welcomed by the gay community.
Same sex couples will gain long overdue social and legal recognition of their relationships, with marriage-style ceremonies taking place in local registration offices.
Gays and lesbians will have the right to visit a partner in hospital, succeed a tenancy and share a partner's pension - all rights which have been denied us up until now.
The Bill follows the EU Sexual Orientation Regulations, which came into effect in December 2003 and outlaw discrimination and harassment against gays, lesbians and bisexuals, or those 'perceived' to be a particular sexual orientation.
But does the Bill go far enough to tackle the widespread discrimination, abuse and harassment faced by LGBT people on a daily basis?
This legislation is welcome, but it doesn't give the LGBT community complete legal equality.
Nor does it protect those who often experience the worst homophobic abuse and attacks - young people in schools, and low-paid, non-unionised jobs - who will still be the most vulnerable and the least able to use the law in their defence.

Council refuses to debate stop on asylum evictions

by Roz Paterson

Last Thursday, SSP councillor Keith Baldassara tabled a motion at the Glasgow City Council calling for a moratorium on evictions of asylum-seekers whose claims have failed.
As things stand, if an asylum-seeker's application fails and they aren't deported instantly - because their "home" country is deemed too dangerous for them to return to - they are evicted and all state support is withdrawn.
This was the spur for the recent hunger strike action by three Kurdish asylum-seekers living in Glasgow's southside.
They were served their eviction notices last October but weren't actually thrown onto the streets because their action made the issue politically sensitive.
The city fathers don't want to be seen acting like callous thugs when there could be a news reporter around, now do they?
Keith had previously called for outright defiance of the Immigration Act, which requires these evictions, but "received no support at all" from other councillors, who feared breaking the law.
So Keith called instead for a moratorium.
"The motion called for evictions to be suspended and for a form of hardship support to be established, possibly via the Scottish Executive."
However, the council's chief solicitor ruled the motion "incompetent", which meant that, although it made it onto the agenda at the full council meeting, it was never debated and the Lord Provost denied a vote.
"I found that incredible and I urge people to contact their councillor and demand to know why that was allowed to happen," says Keith.
"We're talking about people fleeing repression, fleeing for their lives, yet if their claim fails and they lose their state support, they're cast to the four winds."
Find your councillor at: www.glasgowcitycouncil.gov.uk

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Rebel ink
Kevin Williamson

The visionaries V the Big Four

The SSP's National Conference in Edinburgh recently was quite a landmark event, what with trade union delegates present for the first time, and six MSPs in attendance.
The mood among party members was upbeat and confident.
But it's hardly surprising when you think of how far the party has come in the last 12 months.
When you compare the optimism of SSP members with the mood among the membership of the four biggest political parties then you get a sense of the times we're living through.
You could understand if one or two of the Big Four were in trouble.
Such are the swings and roundabout of politics. But for all four mainstream parties to be in decline? With dwindling membership? And with disillusionment among the active ranks? This is a genuinely interesting phenomenon.
New Labour, who still have an electoral grip on Scottish politics, are losing activists like they're some sort of political Bermuda Triangle.
In his recent book, as well as modestly claiming that he "was one of the most talented footballers of his generation" (he certainly knew how to play keepy-uppy with his finances), Henry McLeish claimed that Scottish New Labour has shrunk to around 2,000 active members; of which 500 are sitting councillors.
The LibDems conference in Inverness gave the impression that the Highland Clearances had hit them hard.
It was so small it could have been held in the back room of a pub (which would have suited their leader).
On things like GM crops, war, student fees, etc, this is a party that can look Janus-like in two directions at once.
You would think that having twice the number of policies as the other parties would enable them to recruit double the number of members. Not so.
The SNP are losing activists hand over fist too. Many to the SSP.
Mind you, the SNP have got a tough job on their hands since finding people who support both Scottish independence and a big business-led agenda is getting harder than finding a happy face at Ibrox.
The Conservative rank-and-file I don't understand. I suspect the Tory Party acts for them like an exclusive dating agency, specially designed to keep a tight lid on their genetic pool.
Their conferences should come with an X-certificate as the attendees could scare wee children.
You never meet these people in real life. They must just come out from their crypts at conference time.
If members are becoming disillusioned to the point of chucking in the towel in ALL FOUR of the 'main' political parties then what does that say? Surely, much more than any vote at any election, this reflects a growing disillusionment with mainstream politics.
Yet this glaringly obvious conclusion is absent from almost all media commentators, who continue to hang on to every last word of the mainstream politicians, acting as their house propagandists, like they're trying to breathe fresh life into a dying man.
If a swelling mass of people - maybe even the majority now, who knows - have become disillusioned with mainstream politics, only voting for the four big parties out of tradition and civic duty, rather than any enthusiasm for their policies, then you have to wonder how far this will go before a populist or even a socialist bandwagon will begin to gather real momentum.
I'm reminded of the night last year before the vote on student top-up fees took place in Westminster.
It looked a close call. The BBC's Political Editor stated categorically that Tony Blair could not afford to lose this vote because it was his second term's 'Flagship Bill'. That was the lever the Labour whips used to twist arms.
Think about it: Making students pay more for their education was the most visionary policy the current Westminster government could come up with for their second term in office?!?
This is staggering in its banality. It's no wonder that those of us in the SSP feel so optimistic about the prospects for a truly radical vision to win hearts and minds.

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behind the lines
In Holyrood

Plot on the landscape

Before the summer recess, two harmless-seeming bills - the Strategic Environmental Assessment Bill (SEA Bill) and Third Party Right of Appeal Bill (TPRA Bill) - are likely to be laid before parliament.
But watch out - they could be watered down to the point of meaninglessness. Or even worse: work against the very people they should be protecting.
The SEA Bill stems from an EU directive requiring the environmental impact of any development to be checked out before it's issued - or refused - the go-ahead.
But rumour has it that the Bill, once the Scottish Executive have had their way with it, will only apply to publicly-built developments.

Public money
Which means that a project like the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary would be exempt because, although it's a public building, it was built using private money through the Private Finance Initiative.
The same applies for the M74 extension, which will be mostly funded with public money but has, however, a sneaky wee percentage of PFI involvement. "If this is the case, the message is clear," says Rosie Kane.
"If you want to build a road, build it using private money."
Private money built Paterson's Landfill in Glasgow, which takes in waste as toxic as asbestos, cyanide and arsenic in the middle of a densely populated area, yet was never subject to a binding environmental assessment prior to its being granted planning permission.
Another snag is that the Bill is unlikely to be retrospective, which means no-one can take action against the as-yet-unbuilt M74, because it's already got its planning permission in the bag.
As for the TPRA Bill, it's come about after years of pushing by the environmental movement.
The planning system in Scotland is inadequate, confusing and not predicated on the needs of people.
Whether a development goes ahead is between the developer and the Scottish Executive - the ordinary person has no automatic right of appeal.
Even if someone proposes building a nuclear reactor outside your front door, your only recourse is to hire a lawyer to take up a civil action on your behalf.
This bill is very important, but the devil's in the detail.
For small groups and individuals taking on corporate giants like Monsanto, the important issues are: How much will it cost? And how drawn out will the process be?
Too lengthy or expensive and it will discourage people just as much as the present system.

Consultation
"We also need to find out who is being consulted on these bills," says Rosie.
"Community and environmental groups? Or right-wing pro-development organisations like Scottish Enterprise?
"Every single community group in Scotland should respond to this consultation.
"The Scottish Executive claim to be the listening government, so let's give them plenty to listen to!"
Consultation documents will be lodged in all libraries as soon as the Bill is tabled.
"The minute it appears, we'll alert you via the Voice and help you and/or your community organisation formulate a response."

n For more info, contact: Mary.Spowart2@scottish.parliament.uk

Holyrood's got it taped

by Carolyn Leckie

The Fraser Inquiry has done a fantastic job... of clogging up our news bulletins and newspapers with endless speculation about a building site in Edinburgh while ignoring much greater scandals, like last year's £25 billion defence budget. I mentioned this during the Tories' debate on the BBC Holyrood tapes, and got a right ticking off for it.
Putting things into political context just isn't how you do things in the Scottish Parliament, apparently!
Don't get me wrong.
The rising cost of the Holyrood building is an outrage, especially since the High School on Calton Hill has been fitted out to accommodate a Scottish Parliament since 1979.

Gerrymandering
The Holyrood project was clearly a piece of gerrymandering by the Labour Party, designed to undermine the whole idea of self-determination by making it look like one big waste of money from the very start.
The Scottish Parliament is hardly self-determination but it is an expression of the people's aspiration for it.
Another problem with the Holyrood building is that it was built with a four party system in mind. As it turns out, the Scottish Parliament is made up of seven, not counting individuals and single-issue candidates, which caused an unholy scramble for the biggest and bestest offices by the main party leaders.
Dignified it was not. But on the bright side, I like the new building and the accommodation is far superior to that meted out to most office workers in Scotland, so you won't hear any complaints from me.
On the subject of the BBC tapes, not only is it highly unlikely they'll reveal anything useful to the Fraser Inquiry, politicians have no right to demand their hand-over.

Principle
A hugely important principle is at stake and that is the right of journalists to protect their sources.
It sounds like hot air but if journalists can't keep their promises to the people who speak to them, whistleblowers will be too afraid to come forward and spill the beans on corrupt corporations and governmental malpractice.
Without whistleblowers, we'd never have known that Nixon bugged the White House or Blair bugged the United Nations.
Instead of leaning on the BBC, maybe the inquiry should be turning its sights on Jack McConnell.
As a former finance minister, surely it's a bigger issue that he's not giving evidence?
Holyrood is a smokescreen, designed to throw us off track. Sure, be angry about the unjustifiable expense.
But there are bigger things to be angry about.

Hughes sorry now?

Beverley Hughes, one of Tony Blair's most politically repulsive Babes, has resigned.
Not because she suddenly realised that authorising a dawn raid on a Midlands Mosque, in order to arrest a terrified Afghan family and deport them to a fearful, uncertain fate, was a morally repugnant act.
Or that blaming the Ay parents for the family's misfortune was vile and callous.
Nope, she left because she was caught "misleading" parliament on the sticky issue of dodgy visas issued to "business" people using forged documents.
However, we shouldn't be too hard on her.
Her going gave David Blunkett the "worst personal day" of his political life, which is surely something to be applauded.
And, in a personally signed letter to Tommy Sheridan regarding the Glasgow Kurdish hunger strikers, she expressed thanks that the men had called off their protest, adding that "it must be clear that we will now bow to this sort of pressure."
Was it a change of heart?
Or a typo?
We think we should be told.

By any means necessary

From mass non-payment of the Poll Tax to living in a tree house on a proposed motorway site, thousands of Scots have taken part in direct action protests. It may take many forms, but at the heart of direct action is the agreement that sometimes you have to break an unjust law to change it.
So 90 years after women ended their direct action campaign for the right to vote, the Voice takes a look at protests that fought the law, from the Suffragettes to hunt saboteurs.

by Kath Kyle

This year marks the 90th anniversary of the end of the militant campaign to gain votes for women when, at the outbreak of the First World War, the jailed suffragettes were freed.
Dr Norman Watson has attempted to initiate a process in the Scottish Parliament which could lead to an unconditional pardon for the suffrage supporters who went to prison in Scotland between 1909 and 1914.
The suffragettes were a courageous and militant group of women who railed against social and political rules to demand the right to vote.
The late 19th century saw society throughout Britain change as the effects of the industrial revolution kicked in.
Working class men, women and children worked in the new heavy industries like mines, factories and mills. Domestic and farm labour was still common but all were low paid, unskilled jobs.
Conditions for the middle classes were better. Business was a man's world but women had fought for and gained greater access to education in colleges and universities.
Middle class women were able support themselves as governesses, nurses or teachers.
By the end of the 19th century, with a growing economy and new inventions like the typewriter, it became socially more acceptable for women to work in offices and commerce.
Along with better wages the demand for the right to vote in local and general elections began to gain popularity, especially amongst more educated middle class women.
The men and women who supported these changes, and wanted them brought about by democratic and lawful means, were known as suffragists.
Suffragists carried forward their campaign with leaflets, posters, petitions and other peaceful tactics. But by 1903, some women were fed up with just asking politely for the vote.
Since the first bill for women's suffrage was put to the parliament in 1867, it was obvious the tactics were not working.
It was then the famous Pankhursts launched the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in Manchester - the Glasgow branch of the WSPU opened in 1908.
These women were committed to a much more radical and direct action method of fighting for their demands.
The Scottish suffragettes played their part. They targeted the establishment and attacked the property which represented the ruling elite, smashing windows, cutting telegraph wires and bombing letter boxes and public buildings.
It wasn't just the demand for the vote which was a threat to the power of the ruling class - the very fact these women would employ such audacious tactics sent a shiver through the controlling echelons of society.
And they clamped down on the women ferociously. They were followed, spied on and secretly photographed.
But the suffragettes continued to openly campaign and use direct action to force the issue of universal suffrage to be taken seriously.
The scale of the attacks on property escalated, with racecourse stands, cricket pavilions, Farington Hall in Dundee, various mansions, and Leuchars railway station burnt down.
Many public buildings - including Holyrood Palace - were closed for the fear of attack, and security was tightened around others.
Despite a backlash amongst some people their demands began to get backing in many parts of society.
Their bravery was admired by other women and more joined the WSPU and became involved in the campaign.
They were sent to jail and went on hunger strike to protest about the barbaric conditions they were held in - a political tactic which has been used many times to great effect through the 20th century.
In response the authorities sanctioned force feeding.
This is a brutal and dangerous torture which the authorities claimed was for their own good. But it was used to humiliate, undermine and break the spirit of the women.
It had the opposite effect on the public and many more people rallied to their cause when it was revealed.
Four of the five Scottish women who were force fed were held in Perth Prison and here a doctor at the time gives a description that is not for the squeamish:
"...The ladies would have to be restrained, their hands and legs would be tied or held and the nose and mouth clamped, the tube forced down and then left until they felt that they had to attempt to swallow this tube...
"To make sure the ladies didn't vomit it up or regurgitate it they tried to pinch their nose and they also put a gag on. This risks getting fluid into the lungs giving pneumonia.
"One of the suffragettes, Mrs Moorhead, did in fact suffer from this very serious, life threatening complication. It seems clear that in Mrs Moorhead's case they very closely avoided a major national scandal."
On August 4, 1914, war was declared against Germany and the WSPU announced a truce on militancy.
Although Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst threw themselves into the war effort as fervently as they had thrown themselves into the suffrage struggle, not all women followed them.
Many got involved in peace organisations and women's organisations and continued to fight for universal suffrage.

n There is a video available called Ethel Moorhead from the Glasgow Women's Library.

Global protests for local people

by Roz Paterson

The government may have given it a cautious welcome, doubtless induced by relentless pressure from the US government and its arsenal of biotech buddies, but the British public remains hugely resistant to GM food.
And this resistance owes much to the sustained, high-profile direct actions against GM field crop trials across the country.
For three years, people camped at the edge of Roskill Farm, on the Black Isle, to protest the planting of GM oilseed rape. They were concerned that an untested technology, deemed as potentially dangerous as war or a nuclear accident by insurers in 2002, could wreak havoc on the area's ecosystem.
The Munlochy Vigil inspired anti-GM campaigners all over the world, including Devinder Sharma, a journalist, writer and filmmaker, who now plans to make a film about human cloning as a means of highlighting the dangers of GM in his native India.
When the crops at Roskill began to flower, releasing contaminating spores into the atmosphere, over 100 people turned up to lay waste to the crop, using sickles and scythes.
The same thing occurred at Newport on Tay, where figures in white emerged from the morning mists to reap what the biotech companies had sowed.
In Essex, they took a natural(ist) approach; 30 naked protesters spelling out "NO GM" in a meadow in Forest Row.
Though the government remains curiously enthused about a technology that nobody wants, farmers are a little cooler. Not only do GM crops provide quite poor yields in many cases, and pose all kinds of environmental hazards, they are unsellable.
The public, alerted by the campaigns, ain't buying it - which just goes to show that, when you combine direct action with mass participation at a lower level, you really can make a difference.
By contrast perhaps, the anti-M77 campaign didn't achieve its ends. In 1992, local man Colin McLeod spent ten days up a tree blocking the proposed route, armed only with some Robert Burns poetry.
Within weeks, the Pollok Free State, a 100-strong community of individual protestors living in hand-made huts, had established itself. The protest drew enormous support from the nearby housing schemes that, years on, are being hit hard by the pollution from the unwanted motorway.
While the campaign didn't stop the M77, it was the making of a whole bunch of political activists - including Rosie Kane - and set an important precedent for motorway protests to come.

A peaceful weapon in the fight against nukes

This Easter weekend, a long tradition of direct action against nuclear weapons continues with a 'peace walk' and demonstration at Faslane nuclear base.
In 1960, after a debate about whether it could be legitimate to break the law, CND officially adopted the policy of 'non-violent direct action'.
In February 1961 4,000 protesters sat down outside the Ministry of Defence in Whitehall. In September, 1,300 were arrested in Trafalgar Square and 350 at Holy Loch in Scotland where the US Poseidon nuclear missile submarines were based.
Since then, direct action tactics have been inseparable from the peace movement. The peace camp set up at Greenham Common in 1981 in protest at the arrival of American Cruise missiles was probably the most high profile example, particularly because it was women-only.
One of the Greenham women, Ann Pettitt, describes the imagination involved in actions as bizarre, yet effective, as blockading the route for new sewage pipes out of the base:
"There were so many different ways, I suppose, that you could sort of outwit and startle the authorities, rather than this kind of brutish, unintelligent head on clash between completely unequal forces, in which you would inevitably be the loser... I mean non-violent protest, as a form of protest, is much more intelligent isn't it?"
Recent years have seen a resurgence in activity around Faslane nuclear submarine base, near Helensburgh, where all of the UK's nuclear weapons are held.
A peace camp has been set up there since 1982; originally intended as just a two week protest, the camp has been the base for thousands of direct action protests in the last 22 years.
Faslane protests have not only tested the government's commitment to nuclear weapons, but also challenged the way the law is used against peaceful protest.
Hundreds of people at a time have been arrested at mass blockades of the base, casting doubt on the legitimacy of Scotland's 'breach of the peace' law.
Three women jailed in 2000 for disarming a nuclear laboratory on Loch Goil were acquitted later that year by a Greenock sheriff. She found Trident nuclear weapons to be illegal under international law, justifying the women's actions in breaking the law as for the greater good.
Sadly, a 2001 ruling overturned that decision and campaigners continue to be fined and jailed for anti-nuclear actions.

n Easter march and rally

Easter Monday April 12, assemble 1pm opposite Faslane Peace Camp to march around the base to rally outside the main gates. Buses will leave Glasgow from George Square and Byres Road at 11am. Tickets cost £4 or £6 - book a seat by phoning 0141 423 1222.

n Easter Peace Walk to Faslane

On Good Friday April 9, people will be setting off from George Square at 1pm to walk to Faslane for the march & rally - join the Peace Walk through the city centre.
Find out more on the Scottish CND website at www.banthebomb.org/events/faslane.shtml

We're no payin!

Simon Whittle interviewed Alan McCombes about direct action and the Poll Tax
I was heavily involved in a mass campaign of direct action and civil disobedience against the Poll Tax in the late 80s and early 90s.
Along with a few others, I served 180 hours of community service for leading a mass occupation of a Sheriff's Office in Glasgow.
Across Scotland at the end of the 80s, one million people refused to pay the Poll Tax. This resulted in people being subjected to fines and the humiliation of poindings and warrant sales.
Our campaign was galvanised by direct action after mass non-payment had taken root in communities over the length and breadth of Scotland.
This mass defiance provoked the authorities, who carried out the work of the government, to declare war on the communities that refused to pay.
The Sheriff Officers who carried out this dirty work, who we dubbed 'rottweilers in suits', employed methods from subterfuge to naked intimidation, bullying and public humiliation to break the resistance the non-payers.
From 1989 onwards, when the first poindings arrived unannounced, the Anti-Poll Tax Federation (APTF) launched a counter offensive.
For non-payers, we offered advice, material and leaflets - educational propaganda - saying what we should be doing to defeat the Poll Tax.
We mounted a campaign of direct action across Scotland - we organised flying pickets who would blockade households threatened by the Sheriffs.
There would be skirmishes, but nobody got hurt as a result of our protests.
The Sheriffs soon turned their attention to softer targets - like single mothers and pensioners.
This enraged communities and as the word spread and people joined us and became organised, whole chunks of Scotland became no-go-areas for Sheriff Officers.
By 1990, the APTF went on the offensive. We took the battle to the doorsteps of the Sheriffs' offices - a guerrilla war had begun.
I got community service for my part in the occupation of the offices of debt collectors Stirling Park, who were conducting a reign of terror, intimidating vulnerable pensioners by invading homes across Lanarkshire, taking away TVs and radios.
The APTF mobilised squads of people to chase Sheriffs away. Their nice cars stood out in the impoverished communities they were harassing.
Inevitably their cars, which were seen as legitimate targets, ended up getting damaged as a way of driving the Sheriffs out of the schemes.
We followed them out. Eighty people stormed their Bath Street premises, took over the building and evacuated staff.
We barricaded ourselves in, deleted files, demanded guarantees like cancelling pensioners' poindings - we took whatever action was needed basically.
Two days later, 200 police stormed the building after dismantling the doors. There were mass arrests. Most people got one night in the cells.
But myself, Tommy Sheridan, Keith Baldassara and George McNeilage were treated as the ringleaders of the occupation and we all got community service.
What's important is that we accepted we were in defiance of the law. At times, laws have to be broken in order to change things for the better.
The law was unjustified. Our targets were legitimate.
The Proclaimers had this song, What Do You Do When Democracy Fails You?
We had the situation where there wasn't a single Tory MP in Scotland and Thatcher was using us as guinea pigs for the Poll Tax. It was an attack on the Scottish poor.
Direct action, outright defiance of the law, forced the state to back off.
The defeat of Thatcher and the Poll Tax changed peoples' attitudes towards authority.
It made people realise that they could challenge the law, that the law isn't sacrosanct, that people have the power to bring change.

Out-foxing the hunts

Although the Scottish Parliament have threatened to ban fox hunting, it still goes on 'under license'. And as long as the fox slaughtering continues, so do the hunt saboteurs.
One hunt sab talked to the Voice:
You may start out a mild-mannered kitten hugger, but a couple of days with the hunt sabs and you become a direct action class warrior with anarchist tendencies. You just can't help it.
For a start, it knocks that woolly, liberal "can't we all just talk about this nicely?" kinda crap out your system once and for all.
Attempt to engage with upper-class thugs sitting astride monster horses in a reasonable manner and they'll threaten to give you a good whipping.
There's therefore nothing for it but to tear round the countryside hollering and blowing horns (to distract the hounds) and spraying citronella and anti-mate (to throw them off the fox's scent).
In between bouts of physical exertion, you get to talk to like-minded individuals, not just about how much you'd like to shoot Princess Anne, but about motorways driven through working-class communities, corporate greed and rich bastard landlords.
Hunt sabbing is an immediate and highly effective form of direct action and, for many, proves a valuable introduction to wider political activism.
And you sometimes see a fox! And they've got such lovely, furry faces!!

Basque reality
I think Lloyd Quinan was right to say that the defeat of former fascist youth leader Anzar and his Popular Party opens up opportunities for peace and political progress in the Basque country ('Could the prize be peace for Spain's new Prime Minister?' Voice 168).
The Spanish people saw through the state's attempt to use the Madrid slaughter for short term electoral benefits. However, I disagree with Lloyd's analysis of what Spain must do next.
He calls on the newly elected Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) to restore political rights, resist neo-Francoists, engage in dialogue with Basque nationalists, release political prisoners and offer a referendum.
All those are vital steps towards a lasting solution in the Basque country. However, looking for the PSOE to take those steps is akin to asking David Blunkett to combat attacks on asylum seekers by mounting a campaign against the right wing propaganda of The Sun and Daily Record.
The reality is that Blunkett is part of the problem not the solution. The PSOE will side with the establishment just as they will side with employers over the working class.
Lisa Johnstone,
Aberdeen

Free the Miami five
Presently in US jails are the 'Miami Five' Cubans, previously convicted of espionage in Miami, 90 miles from the Cuban coastline. In fact they were infiltrating the right-wing anti-Cuban groups known as the 'Miami mafia', to try and prevent state sponsored terrorism from the US against socialist Cuba.
Indeed, along with this US terrorism, Florida Governor and brother of George W, Jed Bush, also provides support to the Bacardi-CIA-CANF network which attempts to use the Cuban exiles to destabilise Cuba.
And President George W Bush has his economic Blockade against Cuba which leads to shortages of medicines and equipment in Cuban hospitals.
For these reasons, all socialists should campaign for the US authorities to release the Miami Five as a gesture of goodwill and let them return to their families in Cuba.
After being sentenced to many years in jail, on March 10 they presented their appeal to a Miami court and await the ruling.
Fernando Gonz‡lez - sentenced to 19 years - has written to me to express gratitude and appreciation for the contribution of Scottish friends to a fund to pay for their ad in the New York Times, which, together with the oral arguments submitted at their appeal, made the case for a victory of reason over US attempts at justice.
Finally, Fernando wishes to convey his appreciation to all members of the Scottish Socialist Party.
Lawrence Morton,
Dundee

n Letters of support to: Fernando Gonz‡lez Llort Ruben Campa #58733-004 Federal Correctional Institution Oxford, PO Box 1000, Oxford WI 53952-0505, USA

Using the right words in separate schools debate
I welcome the fact that our party is going to instigate a debate on religion in education, but I hope that when we do, we start from a more informed position than that of the conference report in last week's Voice (issue 169).
Differentiating between schools as "both Catholic and state sector schools" repeats the misguided view that Catholic schools are outwith the state sector and that non-denominational schools are somehow generic non-religious schools.
I am a former pupil of four different Catholic schools and my 15 year old son currently attends a Catholic Secondary school. I am not a Catholic or indeed a Christian but my partner is.
Both of us would welcome the choice of secular schools and I am sure that many parents who currently send their kids to Catholic schools would be happy for their kids to attend secular schools who respected rights of religious observance.
What we will find when we speak to parents about this matter over the coming months is that choice in most of Scotland is between Catholic School or State Christian School - or, to give it its more informal and more widely used name, Protestant school.
The language we use when conducting such a wide ranging debate is important and we will find ourselves bogged down if we are not clear about the actual real situation in Scotland regarding religion in schools.
Words like 'segregation', which the Voice did not use but is in our manifesto, also give the wrong impression. Parents and pupils of all religions can choose which school they attend - it is not forced upon them. Many non-Catholics attend Catholic schools and many Catholics attend non-denominational schools.
Segregated schools are what we witnessed in some American states where black children were forced to attend separate schools and black parents did not have the choice of deciding to send their kids to a white school.
By using language like this we do an injustice to the current situation in Scotland as well as understating the true nature of real segregation in schools.
I feel that we made a huge mistake at conference by failing to back the motion from Dumfries branch on secular education. I believe that this motion on its own said what was needed to be said and was so well constructed it would serve as an ideal template for the future.
Let's hope we can have a serious debate on this subject and that the process ends with a clear policy that does not open us up to accusations from all sides.
Jim Monaghan,
Cumnock

off the air
Colin Bell

From Liddell acorns, big jokes grow

Well, it does look as if this tiny offshoot of Nostradamus Industries got it right again - the Australians are about to have Helen Liddell dropped on them from the biggest broomstick Geoff Hoon can hire. Seems such a pity nobody thought to ship her ancestors out there while Botany Bay was still in business, and saved Scotland a lot of subsequent hassle, but there you are.
However, if they're sending her in a diplomatic role, I just hope we've started placing orders for roo-proof jeeps, and protective armour against boomerangs.
On the other hand, the prospect of Peter Mandelson going to Brussels should cause no worries at all. A man with his integrity should flourish there, and I'm sure Berlusconi will lend him the price of a palazzo or two, no questions asked.
Of course, nobody will actually have elected him (or any of the other Commissioners), and that's the point europhobes seem to miss. Democrats should not just carp about the gravy-train for clapped-out politicians, but actively campaign to redress the glaring democratic deficit (no, I don't mean David Martin's eccies) at the heart of the EU. Why doesn't the only bit of the Community which does reflect the voters' wishes carry more clout?
More powers to the European Parliament, fewer jobs for the Kinnocks, isn't a bad slogan as we go into the Euro-elections.

Standard strife

Remind me, wasn't it Standard Life's Scott Bell who kept taking time off from the onerous task of bringing Europe's biggest mutual insurer to its knees in order to lecture his fellow-Scots about the folly of thinking they could run their own whelk-stall?

So Sewel me...

Which, of course, we still don't do. Remember at all times that the grisly saga of Follyrood is one foisted on us by Mother Donalda and Westminster, before our own Parliament had even been elected, and that there has never yet been a judicial inquiry into the fatuous Dome, which cost more and only lasted a single poorly-attended year.
And if the current Executive carries on as it has, you might readily assume we still haven't got a Parliament of any sort - Jack and Jim's Flowerpot Persons who dodge all serious issues and rely on the London rubber-stamp of Sewel motions.
Odd, really, since the Labour Party itself went to great lengths to make sure that poor John Sewel didn't get into Holyrood in person.

—page nine—

cultural resistance

Looting and burning

by Matt Preston

Five years ago, music piracy was dodgy CDs from the Barras or making a tape for a friend.
The music industry claimed we were killing music, but nobody swallowed it.
Today however, anyone with a decent internet connection can download almost any tune they want in minutes.
And they are. Twenty million people download every day in the US, racking up 2.6 billion illegal music files a month.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) claim this has caused a 12 per cent fall in album sales over the last two years, and that, yes, we are killing music.
Artists from Brian Wilson to Missy Elliot are lining up to wag their fingers.
Not that the industry is taking it lying down. The RIAA are tracing downloaders over the net and taking them to court.
In Europe, new copyright laws are being introduced to allow the same action.
You may think this is a fair cop. You play with fire - eventually you'll get a wee bit more than a burned CD.
But some are taking a more militant attitude.
The website Downhill Battle makes the point that, yes, filesharing is damaging the industry; an exploitative, corrupt, manipulative industry. And we should keep sticking in the knife.
"Instead of asking 'what's good for major label CEOs and profit forecasts?'" they say, "we want to ask 'what's good for music, musicians, and fans?'"
They describe an industry dominated by five major labels (EMI, Sony, BMG, Warner and Universal) controlling 85 per cent of world music sales.
The majors maintain this monopoly by bribing radio stations to ignore independent labels and illegally inflating the prices of CDs. The argument that filesharing harms musicians fails when you learn that most are likely to see nothing from the £15 you spend on a CD, and at best they'll get 5 to 10 per cent.
Downloading music becomes "a widespread act of civil disobedience... that could completely transform the music industry".
This is no idealistic excuse for free tunes.
They promote a conscious piracy, targeting the majors but maintaining support for independent labels and artists; kind of like Fair Trade with teeth.
Downhill Battle is an accessible site with a vast amount of information.
Documentation of the majors' crimes, discussions of alternative ways to fund artists, up-to-date news and a good set of links all make sure you stay well read.
Interviews with artists and independent labels expose the sell-out stooges defending corporate profits.
Downloadable leaflets and stickers allow you to take the fight to your high street.
And with the built-in player you can listen to unsigned acts while you browse. Check it out and take a peek at the future of music: controlled by musicians and fans, not by the fatcats.
n www.downhillbattle.org also see www.RIAAradar.com

women's voice

Lani Russell

The lights go out on sex...

The idea that single women can be happy, good, sexy, and not be in any rush to find a man is pretty radical.
This is why I loved Sex and the City, which recently ran its final episode after nearly a decade.
Researchers say that on average, single women live longer than married women and married men live longer than single.
So if relationships are a health hazard for women, why are so many of us in them or intent on finding one? One answer is that we simply can't afford not to be.
What with the cost of rent and toothpaste, singledom could be viewed as a luxury.
Another is that a relationship can offer two things we need in one go: companionship and sex.

Negative
But there's another answer too, which is that society has been very negative about women who try to make it without men.
Single women (and lesbians) have been portrayed as sad (nuns), bad (witches), ugly or desperate.
Yes, this was a show about disgustingly rich women.
Lead character Carrie is a walking clothes horse (and about as fleshy).
But that doesn't mean the show didn't speak to ordinary women. It portrayed us placing a high value on the company of other women.
It defied censorship, and showed sex from a woman's point of view.
The characters take their sexual pleasure seriously, and they enjoy talking about it.
Get these four in a coffee shop and they dissect their sexual experiences with the intensity of wine tasters (or is that civil engineers?).
With their tongues firmly in their cheeks, the writers defied all kinds of taboos: masturbation, anal sex, threesomes, fetishes, 'tantric celibacy'.
The result was some hilarious storylines - and footage, thanks especially to Samantha, whose exuberant bedtime gymnastics made for great TV.
The show celebrated women's sexuality, but it also had some pretty subtle and confronting things to say about the ways that women relate to men.
Charlotte is a hopeless romantic who can't accept men as they really are.
For Samantha, sex is like a sumptuous meal, spoiled only by the slightest whiff of intimacy.
For Miranda, relationships are over-rated but she's actually very lonely.
What jarred Sex and the City for me wasn't the opulence, it was the ending. So they all find partners and live happily ever, what's wrong with that?

Turning 40
They are rich, after all, and if anybody as a chance of happy relationships it should be the rich - the greatest enemies of love and sex are poverty and stress.
Problem is, there was a clear message by the end that it's all very well for women to play around into their 30s but as the big 4-0 (and the horror of infertility) approaches, it's time to get those wedding rings on those fingers (and stop having so much fun!).
Since when was turning 40 the end of everything?
But hey, I'm 38 and childless so I would say that!

back to index

—page eleven—

international news

Rwandan blood still stains ten years on

"We heard a child cry out in the brush. We were furious because we thought it would bring the death squads. I thought to myself: 'Shut up child. Shut up or die.'
A policeman found him covered in blood but not wounded. Later, I looked at the boy. I hadn't been able to see him before because it was dark. It was my son."

A survivor of the Rwandan genocide

by Emma Miller

April 7 has been designated by the UN as an international day of reflection on the genocide in Rwanda ten years ago, involving nearly a million deaths.
The failure of the international community to intervene in this mass slaughter still represents a monumental failure of the 'civilised world'.
Further, the Western media's stereotyped and simplistic reporting of Rwanda had a critical impact on decisions made at the time.
On April 6, 1994, triggered by the shooting down of Rwandan President Habyarimana's plane, a planned campaign of slaughter was unleashed by extremist Hutus, against members of the Tutsi ethnic group and moderate Hutus.

Pressure
Meanwhile, instead of acting to save lives, the UN Security Council drastically reduced the presence of UN troops.
After the killing started, the UN did propose to dispatch 5,500 troops to help stop the massacres.
Pressure from the US and Britain meant that the deployment was delayed. They also argued - in the midst of genocide - that there had to be a ceasefire before troops could be deployed.
Britain also sought to block the use of the word 'genocide' because under the 1948 UN Convention, this would have obliged states to 'prevent and punish' those responsible.
Within Rwanda, there were those who refused to take part in the orchestrated slaughter.
Many Hutus who resisted, or intervened to save Tutsi lives, were butchered. While the Christian churches in Rwanda were all complicit to varying extents, Islam was the one exception.
The imams called on Muslims to oppose the killing.
The international media played a contributory role. Critical political and economic factors, such as the interests of the West, were obscured in media coverage by a tendency to concentrate on ethnic identity as a cause of war.
The conflict could then be presented as ignited by primitive causes beyond the influence or understanding of the West, fitting a Hearts of Darkness portrayal of Africa.
Afterwards, a multinational evaluation of the genocide charged that since the Western media failed to report adequately, this "possibly contributed to international indifference and inaction, and hence the crime itself".
Failure to report the complicity of prominent members of the international community (notably France, Egypt and South Africa) in arming and assisting the Habyarimana regime, contributed to an inappropriate international response that exacerbated the crisis.
There are positive signs of recovery in Rwanda, attributable to the country's people. The solidarity of Rwandan widows is impressive, as is their campaign for anti-retroviral drugs for women infected with HIV by rapes committed during the genocide.
There is the work of the local (Gacaca) courts system and the commitment of many Rwandans to reconciliation. For the first time since Rwanda was colonised, there is a government that does not promote concepts of ethnic superiority.
As with most conflict in Africa, these events cannot be fully understood without reference to international capi tal.
Canadian Professor John McMurty explains that IMF policies had a critical role in destabilising Rwanda's economy before the genocide.
From 1990, IMF interventions resulted in the collapse of earnings, triggering steep price increases in food and fuel and rapid increases of malaria and malnutrition.
In 1992 IMF policies resulted in utility privatisations, and reduced public investment.
The money disbursed to the Habyarimana government from new loans was used to purchase weaponry from France and massively increase the army.
The massacre began shortly afterwards.
"All was reported in the corporate media with no connection back to the IMF prescriptions which had step by step engendered the social pathology," notes McMurty.
Rwanda demonstrates the need to challenge the Western media's mechanistic interpretations of conflict in Africa. The role of international finance is critical, yet ignored.
The IMF continues with its failed impoverishing policies in Rwanda, recently imposing water privatisation. Rwanda further highlights the limitations to our democratic system, in the manipulation of the UN by the powerful.
Although Britain is culpable in preventing an international response to the genocide, those responsible have never been held to account.
If the international day of reflection on Rwanda is to have any meaning, these democratic deficits have to be addressed.

Blair's visit rebrands Libya

by Nick McKerrell

Tony Blair's visit began Libya's rehabilitation in the eyes of the West.
The world's media watched as Blair shook hands with Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
Once denounced as a supporter of terrorism and bombed by the US in 1986 - killing his adopted daughter - he is now being feted.
The spur for this meeting was Gaddafi's announcement in December last year that he would renounce a programme of building weapons of mass destruction.
At a similar time Libya formally claimed responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing in 1988.
This is despite the legal case against Abdul Basset al-Megrahi, convicted for the bombing by a Scottish court, being paper thin with a major appeal in the pipeline.
But the changing relationship, culminating with Blair's visit, have a clear purpose for both sides.
Gaddafi wants the US to lift sanctions in place since 1986, United Nations sanctions were removed last year.
This would allow American investment in the oil industry which Gaddafi and his Prime Minister Shukri Ghanem see as essential for developing the economy.
Gaddafi has always been a maverick leader, at one time promoting his own unique vision of socialism.
He labelled Libya a "jamahariyya" - a state of the masses in 1977. Now he and his leading ministers seem eager to embrace international capitalism and its companies.
For the US and Britain the incorporation of Libya provides another stable source of oil to add to the occupied state of Iraq.
Three per cent of the world's oil reserves are in Libya, as is vast amounts of natural gas. This provides potential for energy companies to expand - Libya is offering eight years of tax breaks to investors.
European companies want to beat the rush, specifically US companies, and are moving fast to get their noses in the trough.
On the very same day as Blair met Gaddafi Shell signed a deal with the Libyan national oil company.
Blair who has spent the last two years denouncing 'terrorist' leaders and promoting 'democracy' can now declare Gaddafi to be a 'brave' man.
It really is all about the oil.

back to index

—page twelve—

voice at work

BACK THE STRIKERS

Support a national deal for nursery nurses
"The suffragettes would not be silenced and neither will we."
So said Barbara Foubister, UNISON Edinburgh chairperson and a nursery nurse herself.
Six weeks into an all-out national strike and the nursery nurses' demand for a day of action is gaining ground.
Trade unionists across Scotland are demanding that their branches back the claim for a regrading and national settlement.
At the moment, a nursery nurse - qualified and experienced with a host of on-the-job training under her belt - can rise to a measly £13,000 a year.
PCS member Gerry McMahon told the Voice:
"Glasgow North branch executive has unanimously agreed to a workplace collection in all sites and we will do all we can to give ongoing support for national settlement.

Low pay
"The Department of Work and Pensions staff are out on strike on April 13 and 14. I've no doubt that nursery nurses will be standing with us then.
"Low pay is a common issue here and it is all too common across the public sector.
"Also, both unions are predominantly women, 70 per cent of the civil service is women, and there are common problems in terms of pay increases.
"The nursery nurses haven't had a pay review in 16 years.
"They implement a national pre-school curriculum and deserve a national, professional wage."
Last week, the nursery nurses dressed as suffragettes and took their message to Charlotte Square in Edinburgh - Jack McConnell's official residence.
They reacted angrily to the Scottish Executive's accusations that the dispute is led by a "small number of guys".
Barbara Foubister told us:
"We do wonder, if the nursery nurse profession had been predominantly staffed by 'guys' - would they have had to put up with such low pay for so long?

Empty words
"Instead of all the empty words from 'guys' in the Scottish Executive and CoSLA, we want some action, some real talks and a real attempt to resolve this national dispute."
Six weeks without a wage, especially such a low wage, is a strain for anyone.
A nursery nurse from North Lanarkshire told the Voice:
"It is a real tight squeeze, especially for those who are the only wage earner in the house. But we are not going to be beaten here.
"This is about the future of our profession. It is about the quality standard of childcare that we are willing to accept in Scotland.
"Most parents know this, they know we are not just being greedy.
"They want professional caring staff to look after their kids and they understand the job we do is more than worth a living wage."
SSP councillor Keith Baldassara put a resolution to Glasgow City Council calling on them to back the regrading claim and a national deal.
Every single Labour and LibDem councillor voted against it. Keith told the Voice:
"Glasgow City Council, as the largest local authority in Scotland, should be taking the lead in backing the nursery nurses.
"Every Scottish local authority has to recognise the professionalism that exists within pre-five nursery care provision."
The nurses are determined to fight for a national settlement for a national job.
They have organised local pickets and demos all over the country and at the picket of Glasgow City Council, when Keith put his resolution, Caroline McGrory, said:
"We're very much still up for this fight.
"We're staying solid - it's definitely a case of 'united we stand'. We've come this far and there's no way we're going back now. And I think support form the public is getting stronger - we're starting to get through to them.
"We've had a bit more publicity in the papers and it's been more positive. I think maybe that's to do with the politicians taking more of a stand. The Scottish Socialist Party and the SNP have been saying good stuff in the Parliament - more MSPs taking our case up can't do any harm!
"The more people willing to talk about our dispute the better."

From pickets to picnics...

n The nursery nurses are calling a demo by the seaside. They will be heading for Ayr on Tuesday April 13. Buses will be leaving from around the country. Contact UNISON in your area for details.

n They also have their ongoing series of local demos and pickets. Go along to your local nursery to offer support. Early in the morning is best.

Send messages of support and, most importantly, donations to: The Nursery Nurses Campaign Fund, c/o UNISON, 14 West Campbell Street, Glasgow, G2 6RX

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