Scottish Socialist Voice
Issue 284
26 th October 2006
—front page—
There’s no place like home
n over 200,000 homeless or on waiting lists
n 300,000 live in damp homes
Home sweet home? Not so much for the hundreds of thousands of Scots mired in this country’s
epic housing crisis. More than 150,000 single people and families
are jammed on waiting lists for suitable accommodation.
Another 54,000 are without a home at all - many of them are young
families forced to live in temporary bed and breakfast accommodation.
Across
And while our crisis turns into catastrophe, since Labour came to
power in 1997, £1billion, which should have been spent on council
housing in
Since Thatcher introduced the right-to-buy, over half a million council
homes have been bought up yet never replaced.
And spiralling house prices have dispelled any notion that the right-to-buy
would get everyone onto the property ladder.
Last week, the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, which measures
poverty levels, found
Yet in the surrounding area, just like the rest of
It leaves people on an average wage, or less, as likely to start climbing
Jack’s beanstock as the property ladder.
Labour has taken Thatcher’s housing privatisation even further, trying
to force councils to transfer their entire housing stock out of public
control, into private housing associations.
But after the disaster of
Renfrewshire and Stirling have followed
It looks like the housing privatisation project is now dead in the
water, thanks to dedicated campaigners who’ve battled to save council
housing.
But the money which would have been invested in the private housing
associations has to be spent on fixing up
The Scottish Socialist Party is campaigning for 80,000 new public
sector homes for rent over the next five years, and for every home
in Scotland to be brought up to a tolerable living standard in the
same period.
We need a freeze on public sector rents, and greater tenant control
over housing investment and management.
Westminster, the Scottish Parliament and our local town halls have
thrown mountains of good money after bad, trying to privatise our
homes. Let’s put an immediate stop to that waste, and just spend the
money on building decent homes.
That doesn’t sound so difficult, does it?
—page two—
Support for independence grows despite Labour’s unionist pleas
by Ken Ferguson
Scottish Labour’s front man Jack McConnell has
launched a desperate drive to derail any moves towards independence
in a bid to keep his hands on power at Holyrood.
The latest panic follows a series of top-level New Labour strategy
huddles, both in the
What is increasingly clear is that the idea of independence is
finding favour with the Scottish public, with the latest polls
showing the issue winning more support than the SNP as a party
and putting 2007 firmly in the frame as the independence election.
The fact that more voters now support independence than vote SNP
more than implies that the drive to win it will be a multi-party
affair, with the SSP in position to potentially play a key role
in the run-up to May and after.
The polling arithmetic is complex but pundits are now heavily
trailing the idea of an SNP-led executive in league with the ultra-flexible
Lib Dems and possibly the passive support of the Greens.
Polls
Yet the opinion polls tell a different story (see Poll
Shocker, below), with the Scottish Socialists outpolling the Greens
who, despite being adopted as the house rebels by a swathe of
supposed expert columnists, show little sign of any major lift
in popular support.
What will be key in the 2007 election is whether anyone can bring
a vision of an inspiring, alternative
Ironically, it is precisely at this point that other parties are
joining the gathering stampede to grey, managerial ‘market knows
best’ policies.
So we get, from our party of liberation the SNP, brave talk of
‘
The aim of this market-friendly musak is the SNP’s signal that
they want their turn on the Executive benches, and that the call
for independence will be safely stifled in their hands.
New Labour face the elections with a zoo full of monkeys on their
backs and their support in freefall.
It looks increasingly likely that Blair will still be in power
next May and that a bitter civil war will be in full flow between
Adam Smith fan Brown and Bulldog lookalike John Reid.
North British
The feud will undoubtedly poison New Labour’s North British
branch and has the potential to make the Massacre of Glencoe look
like a love-in.
Despite all this entertaining drama, it is apparent that voters
are rejecting the pro-war, pro-market politics which have been
the hallmark of the rapidly disintegrating New Labour project
and that they are set to spell this out in next May’s polls.
Yet they will find no way out with the LibDems or SNP, who sound
more like a New Labour tribute band than an opposition.
It goes without saying that any such result will suit the Tories,
but the Greens urgently need to make up their minds on how they
will relate to an alternative government which still pursues airport
expansion, road-building and other planet-trashing policies.
It is clear that the SSP, with its People not Profit politics,
demands for free school meals, opposition to war and new nuclear
power, alongside a Scottish Republic is the only party capable
of presenting an achievable alternative vision of a democratic,
socially just Scotland which protects both people and the environment.
Poll shocker: SSP riding high
Rumours of the SSP’s post Tommy Sheridan demise
have been greatly exaggerated.
In fact, the most recent poll, by the Sunday Mail, suggests we
are very much alive and kicking.
The survey of 350 people put the SSP on four per cent for the
first vote, and five per cent for the second vote.
That is within a hair’s breadth of how the polls stood six months
before the May 2003 elections, at which we returned six MSPs.
Polling experts say that voters make their minds up on how they
will vote six months before an election, which is very encouraging
for us, and proves that our policies have not been eclipsed by
personalities.
The Greens trail us, which is perhaps surprising given the easy
ride, and regular soft publicity they get from the Scottish media.
Perhaps that’s because the general public are not as gullible
as political editors like to think.
People are crying out for change, for more equality, investment
in public services, an end to Labour’s privatisation and PPP joyride,
and an end to the bloody, expensive and deeply divisive war in
Only the SSP offers a route out of here and into a better society,
and more and more people are taking heed.
Not matter what the papers say.
Pole shocker: Tesco sell dance kit
by Roz Paterson
Kids can now enjoy raunch culture too thanks
to Tesco, the supermarket behemoth intent on cornering the market
in absolutely everything, including infant sexuality.
Yes, your pre-pubescent child can now get into pole dancing, once
the reserve of sexually abused
At ‘only’ £49.97, the kit comes complete with extendable chrome
pole, a ‘sexy’ dance garter, ‘Peekaboo’ dance dollars and a DVD
demonstrating how to move like an exploited sex worker bored out
of her mind in a tatty, seedy lap dancing club. Hoorah!
Tesco, concerned that too much of an outcry by frumpy mums with
no sense of humour might dent their gzillion pound profit margin,
laughably insist that the kit is not sexually oriented.
Which renders it quite a mystery as to why the product description
invites users to “unleash the sex kitten inside”.
Tesco huff further, saying the kit is clearly marked for “adult
use”.
Which renders it quite a mystery as to why it’s in the Toys and
Games section.
The sexualisation of young children is big business. Never mind
that it can cause emotional distress, body image disorders and
premature, unwanted sexual experience; it’s profitable!
Next have been at it too, with their ‘So many boys, so little
time’ T-shirts...for six year olds.
As have Asda, pushing padded bras at...nine year olds.
It doesn’t get any better for adults.
Now you can book an office Xmas party at a Pole Dancing Club.
For a hefty £25, you get two hours ‘expert’ pole dancing tuition,
one drink, and the chance to perform for a prize.
In other words, sexually humiliated in front of all your work
colleagues in some dangerous shit-hole full of leering men.
Though, admittedly, at half the price of violating the psyche
of your young child.
by Iain Campbell
The Stirling University Students Association
(SUSA) senate have voted overwhelmingly to boycott Israeli goods,
in protest at that country’s on-going occupation of
As a result of the decision - reached by a 35-1 majority, with
only one abstention - a referendum of students is to be held
in November, asking if they wish to support a motion to ‘ Oppose
Anti-Semitism and Oppose the Occupation’.
This follows last year’s successful campaign in which
SUSA runs the
The boycott, disinvestment and sanctions policy is supported by
most of the
The policy is increasingly being recognised as the most effective
and peaceful way of making the Israel government realise that
their actions, including ignoring UN resolutions on borders, the
construction of the internationally condemned apartheid wall,
and the blatant disregard for Palestinians’ human rights, are
not acceptable.
The proposer of the motion, Gordon Clubb, called for people around
“Stirling Palestine Solidarity Campaign calls for all student
unions in the country to take inspiration from our students’ courageous
decision and propose similar motions.
“If we can win these, then we can win a similar vote at national
level through the NUS.
“It’s not won yet at our university all the same; we still have
the referendum, but we are encouraged by the massive support shown
so far.
“If we are successful, then people fighting for equality, justice
and peace in Israel/Palestine can now count the students’ movement
as the latest addition to the international campaign to boycott
Israeli apartheid.”
The Scottish Socialist Party agreed at its conference to reconfirm
its support for the boycott of
Back in Stirling, the referendum announcement comes on the eve
of the launch of Stirling Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s winter
campaign Oppose the Occupation, Oppose anti-Semitism, at a public
meeting on Tuesday 7 November, 7.15pm, in the Albion Bar’s political
meeting room, Salsa Alba.
—page three—
James Watt staff to march
on
EIS-FELA members at
The campaign dates back to March, when management notified college
staff of their intention to make over 100 academic staff redundant.
They also threatened to sack all the remaining members of staff -
some 700 individuals - unless they accepted vastly inferior terms
and conditions, which in themselves would have resulted in one in
eight lecturers being axed.
This hatchet job was necessary, apparently, in order to create a £2million
surplus.
However, it is now a matter of public record that the college in fact
finds itself in serious financial deficit.
The EIS-FELA is in little doubt that this disaster was borne of the
“mismanagement and poor governance of the college by the current principal,
his executive management and the board of management.”
Says Alan Ferguson, EIS branch secretary:
“This throws into sharp relief the whole issue of governance and accountability
in Further Education in
A staff spokesperson commented: “In just four years, the college has
gone from being profitable and operationally secure, to massively
in debt and bereft of managerial direction or leadership.”
Figures show that in 2002, the college operated on a surplus of £308,000.
This has since turned into a £2.75million deficit.
“We need to know how this happened. We all deserve to know the truth.”
College support staff are to ballot for strike action next week, following
a “derisory” pay offer, while lecturing staff are to seek a ballot
if a pay offer is not forthcoming by the end of the month.
Saturday’s march will depart from the college’s
Children’s services face shortfall of £161million
by Wullie McGartland
A report by the Association of Directors of Social
Work (ADSW) has warned that children’s services in
The shortfall has been calculated by public finance expert Professor
Arthur Midwinter of
The report shows that the gap has been growing since 2001, because
the Scottish Executive funding for Social Work has failed to match
rising numbers of children undergoing some form of care.
There is now a 60 per cent gap between what councils spend on social
work and the amount given by the Scottish Executive.
The ADSW also said there were currently 1,500 children in residential
care, 3,600 in foster care, and 7,000 receiving support either at
home or in the community.
The number of social workers needed to cope with these numbers and
the extra workload must be increased by a quarter to 4,700.
UNISON, the trade union that represents social workers, has already
made representations to the Executive warning of the crisis that could
unfold in social work.
The Executive has told councils to meet any social work cost shortfalls
via the Council Tax.
However, Unison has said that councils can only meet the gap in children’s
services by redirecting money from other vulnerable groups.
Stephen Smellie, Chair of UNISON
“They say we can spend more on children’s services, but only if the
money is taken from other vulnerable groups, like the elderly.
“Money would also have to be taken from other services for young people
and families, leading to the possible closure of facilities geared
towards helping children and their families and stop children ending
up in the care system.
“We need more finance and resources for social work to deal with the
ever increasing demands placed on the system.
“We don’t need different council departments in competition with each
other for an ever dwindling purse.”
A number of protestors gathered in
“Their comments are leading to more Islamophobia on the ground, leaving
Muslims not just figuratively, but literally bruised and battered,”
said the Scottish spokesperson for Muslim Association of Britain,
Osama Saeed.
—page four—
Protecting our coastline
by Roz Paterson
If you live in the inner city, with billboards
for scenery and traffic fumes for fresh air, the call for a Marine Bill
for
Not surprisingly, it’s a mess.
As things stand, 16 out of 21 Scottish fish stocks, including cod and Atlantic
salmon, may already be beyond sustainable limits; important maritime species
and habitats, including common skate and seagrass beds, are in dangerous
decline; seabird colonies are failing due to lack of food - hundreds of
guillemots are reported to have starved to death in Scotland, especially
on the West coast, with birds even sighted as far upstream as Glasgow; more
than 1.7million farmed salmon have escaped into the wild from Scottish salmon
farms since 1998.
Such an impasse has been reached through fragmented management, where there
is no lead body and no-one driving an overall plan. Thus marine development
and activities have been based on exploitation rather than sustainability.
This is bad enough, but global warming is piling on the pressure. Marine
species must adapt, and our approach to marine management must adapt with
them, and quickly.
Not least because there’s a scramble
going on.
Wildlife tourism is expanding, and new industries,
from windfarms to fishfarms, are elbowing in beside more traditional fishing
industries, plus oil and gas exploration and shipping. The sea does not
have planning legislation in the way that dry land does, and this results
in marine planning applications often running into lengthy, costly disputes,
with outcomes not necessarily geared to environmental sustainability.
Such matters are approached sector by sector, which means that the energy
sector makes decisions about offshore windfarms, while the fisheries department
calls the shots on fishing quotas, and so on. The environment doesn’t get
a look-in, quite frankly. Nor do people. There are local, voluntary management
systems in place, but they have little money or influence. Which
means, in the end up, that local communities have little say about what
happens on their doorstep.
Take the case of ship-to-ship oil transfers in the Firth of Forth,
as proposed by Melbourne Marine Shipping. I mean, who in their right mind
wants dirty great oil transfers, which carry a horrendous risk of horrendous
oil spillages, in the Firth of Forth? Indeed, anywhere?
Yet, despite vehement opposition to the proposal from all the affected local
councils -
How come?
Because, and this is a whistle-stop summary: the issue is covered by no
less than eight pieces of legislation, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency
is so limited in its remit it can only consult on oil spill contingency
plans, the Scottish Executive can do nothing as oil transfer is a reserved
matter, the consultation process with the public was so limited that hardly
anyone had the opportunity to object anyway, Forth Ports are a commercial
body so their driver is profit and finally, no-one can really say whether
the ultimate authority on this is Westminster, Holyrood or the harbour authorities.
Welcome to the mixed-up world of marine management.
A Marine Bill could help here, by establishing
a Marine Spatial Plan that would identify more suitable places for ship-to-ship
transfers, somewhere at least where precious wildlife habitats or other
users’ needs were not put at risk. Through a Marine Spatial Plan,
Such a scheme would give fragile communities a measure of security; if they
weren’t on the plan, they’d at least be safe from the Caledonian equivalent
of the Exxon Valdez.
A Marine Bill would also give wildlife some security. At present, there
are no nationally important marine protected areas in
A Marine Bill for the
OK, so a Marine Bill for
To be effective, it would have to include the establishing of a Marine Management
Organisation, a national decision-making body pulling together all the strands
of legislation relating to marine activities and planning, and overseeing
devolved matters while coordinating with a similar
It would have to implement a Marine Spatial Plan, a masterplan for sustainability
and best public interest.
It would have to adopt Scottish Marine Ecosystem Objectives, whereby the
health of our seas were monitored regularly and
the masterplan adjusted over time accordingly.
Finally, it would have to establish Nationally Important Marine Sites, to
protect precious habitats and the life they sustain.
It’s the bare minimum, folks. If we do nothing, billboards may be the only
scenery we have left.
n This article is adapted from a briefing by Scottish Environment Link. For further info, see www.scotlink.org
—page five—
letters page
—centre pages—
Extraordinary rendition: the vanishings
Since 11 September 2001, the
A century ago, the American programme for dragging fugitives
back to justice in the
Since 11 September 2001, rendition has become extraordinary,
being used to drag people away from justice, and into an altogether
darker, more deadly world of torture rooms, rabbit hutch-sized
prison cells and disappearances.
British journalist Stephen Grey was instrumental in lifting
the lid on this abhorrent practice, which he details in his
new book, Ghost Plane: The True Story of the CIA Torture Program.
When
“(This is) what the they want you to see. But you should know
there’s a much wider system of detention, of camps around the
world where people are being taken.”
A year later, Maher Arar, one of the first victims of extraordinary
rendition to emerge, was released.
“He described so compellingly what happened to him and how he
was taken in this Gulfstream jet, this executive jet, which
seemed bizarre, flown across the Atlantic from America to Syria,
and described the terrible torture that he faced.”
Grey wanted to know what happened to everyone else.
He was able, in time, to pinpoint the plane on which Arar was
dispatched to
“I was able to find that actually the movements of these private
jets, probably through some errors by the agency and others
involved, were quite easy to track around the world.
“So I found out not only his plane, but a total of about 20
different planes used by the CIA and allied agencies to move
people around the world.
“I got thousands of flight plans of these planes.
“You had people like Maher Arar coming out and making these
statements of rendition: ‘I was sent to
“And you wondered, should you believe these people? They’re
accused of being terrorists.
“You wanted...some way of verifying their statement.
“(T)he importance of these planes was, they allowed us to confirm...that
exactly what they said... was true.”
Arar was flown from Teterboro, a local airport in
Then onto
“He was beaten in
“When he got there, he wasn’t the only person that had been
sent there by the
“Up to seven other prisoners were sitting in these same cells
about the size of graves, three-foot wide, six-foot wide.
“And up to seven other prisoners there at the time had all been
sent there by the
And some are still there.
“The whole story of this rendition program is that there are
only a few people who have emerged to tell their stories, and
so many others have disappeared completely.
“There was one man connected with the
“He’s quite a big man. He couldn’t even fit in the cell.
“And he’s been held there for over a year in this tiny solitary
cell, beaten and beaten constantly and never brought to trial.
“So, although people say that he’s a man who’s been involved
in the 9/11 attacks, he was deliberately sent to a place where
he couldn’t be brought to trial, where we couldn’t hear the
evidence against him.
“So we don’t know the truth about these allegations.”
Extraordinary rendition is used to “take people...to countries
where they had no connection at all.
“Maher Arar...was a Canadian citizen...sent to
“We’ve got an Egyptian citizen sent to
Take the case of Muhammad Haydar Zammar.
“He was one of the key suspects from 9/11.
“In fact, when he was captured, he was captured in
“He was one of the first people in
“And you would have thought...that he would have been held by
the
“But, in fact, he was sent to
“I got hold of a German intelligence report, which specifically
states how the
For instance, “they asked the...European Union not to criticise
“So you see that behind this network of transfers and cooperation,
there are trade-offs...with...some of the people that we would
otherwise criticise over human rights.”
Bush recently called
And yet his administration is cooperating with
“I think the contradictions here have been so apparent that
the relationship probably has deteriorated recently.
“But even going back to this period - busy period after 9/11,
2001, 2002 - at that point, the State Department was saying
very clearly that people would be tortured in
“The Syrian regime was put on the candidate list, if you like,
of the Axis of Evil.
“It was stated very clearly, this is a country condemned by
George Bush for its legacy of torture and oppression.
“And at the same time, they were sending people to
“And the key thing was, this was a covert operation. It was
embarrassing, and it’s still the most embarrassing country for
the administration, because they’ve talked about their agenda
of spreading freedom and democracy in the Middle East, and yet
the same people who are preventing that democracy from happening,
the secret police of these countries, are on the other hand
referred to as liaison partners in the War on Terror.”
Last December, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, “The
United States has not transported anyone and will not transport
anyone to a country, when we believe he will be tortured.”
This, says Grey, is a “legal fiction”.
“One of the
“They knew perfectly well these people would be tortured.”
Currently, investigations are underway regarding people snatched
off the streets, for instance in
Abu Omar...was under investigation for involvement in terrorism,
and the Italian prosecutor involved wanted to bring him to court.
“In fact, if he was still in
“Instead, in February of 2003, he was snatched off the streets
and taken in a series of executive jets via
“He was released briefly, and he made a phone call back home
to his family in
“And because Italian police were listening to that phone call,
the story was revealed.
“He was quickly re-arrested after making that call. Presumably
the Egyptians were listening, too.
“But that unlocked that whole scandal in
“There are arrest warrants for them. None of them are being
caught.
“Perhaps they never will be, but there will be an open trial,
perhaps held in their absence, that’s going to take place in
There is an investigation underway in
“Khaled El-Masri, who was on holiday in Macedonia in Eastern
Europe...was picked up and flown to a CIA prison in Afghanistan,
held for five months without any charges, without any accusations
made against him, finally released without any compensation,
without any apology, without any confirmation by the CIA that
they carried out this act.
“He has returned to
“And what’s interesting is the German government are treating
that as a criminal offence, as a suspected kidnapping.
“And now they’re looking to find those responsible. And it looks
like, in the coming weeks, they’re going to issue an arrest
warrant for some of the people they believe carried out that
transfer from
Meanwhile, “There are hundreds of people that were captured
in
“When they say the jails are empty, it’s quite frightening,
because you think, well, where have they put all these people?”
n To read full interview transcript, see: www.democracynow.org
The day the
Last week, George W Bush signed off on the
Military Commissions Act 200.
Doesn’t sound too controversial perhaps, but this new law includes
the abolition of habeas corpus - that is, the right to a fair
trial - for certain classes of suspect: enemy combatants.
It also allows the CIA to continue using interrogation techniques
as long as they don’t cause “serious physical or mental pain”
- which is widely being interpreted as the greenlight to continue
the extraordinary rendition programme.
By the way, it’s up to the President to determine who is, and
who isn’t, an enemy combatant.
Jonathan Turley, George Washington University Constitutional
Law professor, comments:
“It’s a huge sea-change for our democracy. The framers (of the
constitution) created a system where we did not have to rely
on the good graces of the President.
In fact, Madison said that he’d created a system essentially
to be run by devils, where they could not do harm, because we
didn’t rely on their good motivations.
“Now we must. And people don’t realise how significant this
is.”
In fact, he noted with alarm the national “yawn” that greeted
this new threat to freedom; only a handful of protestors stood
outside Capitol Hill, and were swiftly dispersed.
The implications of the Military Commissions Act, he warns,
are endless.
“I think people are fooling themselves if they believe that
the courts will once again stop this president from taking over˜taking
almost absolute power.
“(W)e may have, in this country, some type of uber-president,
some absolute ruler, and it’ll be up to him who gets put away
as an enemy combatant, held without trial.
“It’s something that no one thought - certainly I didn‚t think
- was possible in the
“And I am not too sure how we got to this point.”
Labour MPs intend to keep on dawn raiding
The controversial and hugely unpopular method
of processing asylum claims may soon be decentralised, following
a high powered meeting of Scottish MPs at
The proposal follows a recent growth in anger at dawn raids
carried out on families in
Earlier this year, under considerable pressure from campaigners,
First Minister Jack McConnell intervened, announcing an agreement
with the Home Office that dawn raids would be kept to a minimum,
and that a much greater duty of care would be imposed.
However, even this limited progress was thrown aside last month,
during a ‘get tough’ initiative called by Home Secretary John
Reid, using draconian methods that echoed the darkest periods
of 20th century Europe and sent a wave of terror through the
asylum seeker community in
Campaigners hoping for an end to dawn raids will be disappointed
by the results of MPs talks. Ian Davidson MP said that while
the Scottish group were in ‘listening mode’, current practise
would continue, and that dawn raids were ‘undesirable but necessary’.
It’s good to know that Davidson and his New Labour cronies think
that dawn raids are necessary.
That it’s necessary for children to be dragged away from their
parents by goons in body armour in the early hours of the morning.
That it’s necessary for family, friends, neighbours and classmates
to be snatched from their communities.
That it’s necessary for the same children to witness their parents
being handcuffed by immigration officers, bundled into vans
in only their nightclothes and then separated from their own
sons and daughters.
That it’s necessary for new mothers to be denied being able
to breast-feed their hungry babies.
That it’s necessary, as happened in Ian Davidson’s own constituency
recently, for a father to threaten suicide by jumping from the
top of a
That it’s necessary to bring this reign of terror on fellow
human beings, whose only guilt is fleeing persecution, torture,
rape, murder and countless other attacks on their human rights.
Davidson and the rest of his useless colleagues in
n Volunteers packing the Scottish Socialist
Voice subscriptions this week will not be joined by one of our
regular helpers, Lev Galitsky from Knightswood, Glasgow. Lev,
who came to
—page eight—
Renfrewshire votes no to housing stock transfer
Campaigners have hailed the second public vote against
housing stock transfer in the space of a week as a terrific victory
against privatisation.
Following the rejection of the scheme in
The secretary of the campaign for a ‘no’ vote in Renfrewshire, Gerry
McCartney, told the Voice:
“This is a fantastic result. The Labour and Lib Dem government has spent
millions of pounds promoting privatisation of council housing, but they
have been defeated in a David versus Goliath struggle.
“Tenants have shown the good sense to reject this ridiculous policy,
and have instead insisted that their homes should remain in public ownership
and democratically accountable to local councillors.
“The government must now hand over the money earmarked for Renfrewshire’s
housing so that it can be invested. We are calling on tenants to join
our campaign to force the government to release these funds.
“There are now 125 local councils which have voted against stock transfer
with an all-tenant ballot in the
“This means that the pressure is on for the money to be invested directly.
This is a battle we can win.”
Renfrewshire SSP pick candidate to stand in Elderslie by-election
The Renfrewshire Scottish Socialist Party branch have nominated Gerry McCartney to represent them at
the Elderslie by-election on 7 December.
Gerry is 28 years old, lives in Elderslie, and is secretary of the victorious
campaign against housing stock transfer in Renfrewshire. He is a public
health doctor for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, until recently working
locally as a GP in
“I am delighted to have been nominated to stand in Elderslie,” he said.
“The people in this area have been let down by politicians who have
privatised their schools and leisure centres, cut back spending on libraries
and community halls, and who have now attempted to privatise council
housing.
“If elected I will bring a new vision for the area. The other candidates
seem to be fighting a battle over how many potholes they could get filled.
I think whoever is elected can get these filled, but only the Scottish
Socialist Party will put People before Profit.
“I will be accountable to local people, hold regular surgeries in the
village, and argue against further cuts and privatisations in services.”
The battle for free school meals is in your hands
by Johanna Dind
The SSP’s Free School Meals Bill has entered an important
and decisive stage at the Scottish Parliament. For the next two or three
months it will be debated in some detail at the Parliament’s highly
influential Communities Committee.
According to the government’s own figures, one in three children lives
in poverty and yet less than half of them are entitled to free school
meals. All the research commissioned agrees that poor nutrition affects
school attainment and concentration. Don’t all kids deserve the same
right to succeed at school?
Poor nutrition is not only the matter of the poor. Currently, Scottish
schools are allowed to sell junk food and are even encouraged to enter
into ‘partnership schemes’ to promote poor diets!
The Labour Executive argues that introducing free school meals for all
would only mean ‘feeding rich kids’. The Tories and Lib Dems for their
part claim that introducing free school meals for all is unaffordable.
Implementing this bill will cost £74million. Some £235million was left
unspent last year in the Scottish Executive’s budget.
What about the health costs related to obesity and other health problems
associated with poor nutrition? It is estimated that to treat obesity
alone, if it continues to increase at the same speed, would cost £171million
a year to the NHS with a total economic cost of £2billion!
The last time this bill went through scrutiny at the Parliament, 37
MSPs from six different parties and political groups gave it their support,
but more needs to be done. SSP members and all convinced activists have
to put pressure on the other 90 MSPs and mobilise the public.
What can you do?
n Get your local SSP branch to organise a public meeting or event on the issue and encourage people to bring ideas with them.
n Write articles or readers’ responses to your local newspaper.
n Speak with your colleagues, neighbours and friends.
n Participate in actions organised to fight for this basic children’s right.
n Give leaflets out at local stalls, community meetings and other events.
There is a task for everyone, don’t be shy! The kids
need you.
Johanna is the free school meals coordinator for the Lothians. You can
contact her by email: johannadind@hotmail.com
—page nine—
The brutality of British imperialism
by Charlie McGuire
The period 1952-60 in
The roots of the conflict went back to the British colonisation of
Of all the local tribes, it was the Kikuyu who were most affected by the
march of British imperialism in
The British response to this movement was brutal in the extreme. Viewing
the Kikuyu in violently racist, sub-human terms, they soon embarked upon
a series of barbaric measures designed to shore up their rule in the colony.
First, was the establishment of the so-called pipeline system.
This was a network of detention camps, into which thousands of Kikuyu
men were herded. There, they were placed into one of three categories,
‘White’, ‘Grey’, and ‘Black’, with the last of these categories containing
those the British regarded as the most hardline Kikuyu. The aim of the
pipeline system was to isolate and break these so-called hardliners, leading
eventually to their re-classification as ‘Greys’, then ‘Whites’, before
eventual release back into new, British-controlled reservations. Measures
to achieve this included mass interrogation, forced labour, torture, including
castration, and routine murder.
Failure to break the insurgency led to an intensification of the measures.
‘Black’ prisoners were now to be permanently detained, with no hope of
freedom. Larger swathes of the Kikuyu male population were also rounded
up, forced into slave labour and tortured. So too were the wives of suspected
Mau Mau sympathisers. These women also suffered the most appalling tortures,
including systematic rape, and murder.
In time-honoured fashion, the British also used divide-and-rule tactics
to defeat the resistance. Those Kikuyu willing to collaborate with the
regime were rewarded with privileges and the land stolen from their kinfolk.
Known and reviled as Loyalists, these elements were given a free hand
by the British to commit the most dreadful atrocities against prisoners
and their families. In this fashion, new and permanent socio-economic
and political divisions were created by the British ruling class among
the Kikuyu population.
The inability of the British to break the liberation struggle led to a
final move: Forced detainment of the entire Kikuyu population and individualised
torture of all of the estimated thirty-thousand so-called irreconcilable
Kikuyu who remained in the worst of the prisons. The application of this
policy saw one and a half million Kikuyu people being shoehorned into
brutally-run concentration camps and villages, whilst in the prisons, inmates were subjected to torture methods that included
whippings, burnings, starvation, and daily beatings. Some were even shackled
close to mosquito swamps and eaten alive. By 1960, it was all over. The
struggle had finally been defeated.
However, although successful in its efforts to destroy the liberation
movement, the exceptional brutality that the British state meted out in
the process undermined fatally its rule in
Elkins book exposes the true violent nature of British colonialism. It
gives the lie to the propaganda peddled by reactionary historians such
as Niall Ferguson, who argue that the
Images of survival
An exhibition of Robin Taudevin’s photography,
entitled Glasgow and Timor Photographs: Fighting for Refuge, is currently
on show in
It features pictures he took of asylum-seekers in
It was in
Robin’s work sets out to document the lives and struggles of refugees
and to give others a glimpse of their day-to-day lives in a strange land.
He said of his work:
“Most people in
The exhibition is taking place at Mono,
n For more information: www.robintaudevin.com
Tuned in
Keef Tomkinson
Saturday 28 October
Gentleman’s Agreement, Film4, 3.00pm
Years before enthusiastically naming names‚ Elia Kazan directs Gregory
Peck in this expose on polite American society. Peck plays a journalist
passing himself as Jewish to reveal anti-semitism in the people around
him.
Sunday 29 October
Johnny Guitar, Film4, 3.00pm
When most westerns were backing up the American Dream, this subverted
these ideas and attacked
The South Bank Show, STV, 10.45pm
Boring cultural show has interesting subject: author of the Adrian Mole
books, Sue Townsend. This self confessed socialist,
republican and atheist talks about her career and how her failing health
has influenced her writing.
Monday 30 October
Storyville: Street Fight, BBC4, 10.30pm
This Oscar-nominated documentary follows the dirty tricks and electoral
battle for the Mayorship of Newark, NJ. There are two candidates, both
black and both democrats.
Thursday 2 November
Eorpa, BBC2, 7.30pm
Eorpa continues to be BBC Scotland’s most genuinely interesting current
affairs programme. This week it looks at trafficking of women in
Friday 3 November
The
Either by coincidence or celebration this is the masterpiece of recently
deceased director, Gillo Pontecorvo. A documentary style dramatisation
of the Algerian liberation struggle between 1954 and 1962, it’s breathtaking.
—page ten—
international news
Election tied between
reformer and the richest man in
by Jack Ferguson
In
Noboa led Correa by around 27 per cent to 22 per cent in the first
round, meaning Ecuadorians will have to go back to the polls on
25 November.
Alvaro Noboa gives the term ‘banana republic’ a new meaning, with
his control of the huge Noboa Group of industries that he battled
his siblings for control of after the death of his father.
Noboa has opposed campaigns for workers’ rights within his own
companies, and Noboa Group workers have been illegally dismissed
for joining trade unions.
In one 2002 incident striking workers at a Noboa subsidiary were
attacked and shot by company thugs. Noboa Group was also criticised
in a Human Rights Watch investigation into child labour practises
in the banana industry.
Rafael Correa on the other hand was the Economics Minister in
the previous government, but was forced to resign by the President
after selling Ecuadorian debt to
Although he has said that he does not consider himself part of
President Chavez’ Bolivarian movement, he considers Chavez “a
personal friend.”
A professional economist, he describes his five “axes of reform”
as constitutional revolution, ethical revolution, economic and
productivity revolution, education and health revolution, and
dignity, sovereignty and Latin American integration revolution.
Also he promises to deal with foreign companies over exploiting
“Many of the oil contracts are a true entrapment for the country.
Of every five barrels of oil that the multinationals produce,
they leave only one for the state and take four... That is absolutely
unacceptable. We’re going to revise and renegotiate the contracts.”
Financial reform
He also advocates reform of the financial sector, including
limiting offshore deposits by local banks to no more than 10 per
cent of their holdings, and enforcing a compulsory restructuring
of
In one promise guaranteed to draw
One advantage he has over other candidates is that he speaks the
indigenous language of Kichwa, and is able to communicate with
indigenous Ecuadorian highlanders in their own language.
However, Correa has already been making allegations of fraud against
his billionaire opponent. Although his promises still intend to
compromise with market forces, even his reformist stances may
yet prove too much for the rich and their imperialist allies to
stomach.
Appeal grants right to asylum from female genital mutilation
A
In applying for asylum on the basis that she feared being forced
to undergo what is almost invariably a dangerous operation with
horrendous medical and psychological complications, Zainab Fornah,
18, has, according to the Sierra Leone government’s information
minister Septimus Kaikai, denigrated her country.
Women, he insists, can choose not to have the operation in Sierra
Leone, where around 90 per cent of women are circumcised, a procedure
that involves the removal of part or all of the clitoris, resulting
in reduced or no sexual feeling and which can threaten the life
of the patient, through contracting deadly infections, for instance,
and leave them facing a lifetime of constant pain.
The practice, which has deep cultural roots and is based on the
idea that only by partially removing a woman’s sexual organs can
her ‘honour’ be protected, also has serious implications for childbirth.
Some 31 per cent of circumcised women are more likely to need
a caesarean section, 55 per cent are more likely to have a baby
that dies shortly before or after birth, and 66 per cent are more
likely to have babies requiring resuscitation following birth.
A WHO report published this year (see Voice 268) established FGM
as a form of mutilation.
Yet Zainab’s initial application was denied, on the grounds that
the Refugee Convention of 1951 states that asylum-seekers must
come from a social group fearing persecution in order to be granted
asylum and that Zainab was not a member of such a group.
This despite the fact that FGM is often carried out on girls as
young as seven.
The Law Lords saw the matter rather differently, Baroness Hale
of
The UN Refugee Agency welcomes the verdict, its
“Significantly, all the parties involved in this case accepted
the fact that FGM constitutes a particularly horrendous form of
treatment and a violation of human rights that amounts to persecution.”
FGM is still practised in 28 countries, with around 6000 procedures
carried out every single day.
Activists in these regions admit that it is difficult to speak
out, yet people are, increasingly. In
—page eleven—
international news
Ten die after waste
dumped on
by Roz Paterson
On 19 August, after failing to find anyone
in Amsterdam and then Nigeria willing to dispose of its chemical
slops, a Panama-registered, Greek-owned oil tanker operated
by Dutch firm Trafigura, instead dumped them in 11 sites near
Abidjan, in Cote D’Ivoire, at the dead of night.
A stinking cloud of fumes spread across the city in the ensuing
days and, within a fortnight, ten people were dead and thousands
had been treated in hospital for nausea, respiratory problems
and nosebleeds.
The toxic waste was the dregs from oil tanks that had recently
been cleaned, and contained mercaptan,
a poisonous residue of decaying crude oil.
It should always be incinerated but in this case was simply
dumped, allegedly by a local firm, paid by the Dutch firm in
good faith.
Angry protests
The angry
street protests that followed culminated in the government’s
Transport Minister being pulled from his car and beaten.
On 6 September, almost the entire cabinet resigned
and the call went out for the oil tanker, the Probo Koala, to
be found and impounded as part of a criminal investigation into
Trafigura’s activities.
Now a Dutch lawyer, acting on behalf of more than 1000 of the
toxic dump victims, is suing Trafigura, demanding $12.5million
from them within two weeks as a preliminary settlement, though
the full claim is likely to be much higher.
Trafigura, which was previously fined £9.4million for its role
in the UN oil-for-food scandal, insists it acted properly and
that a local company, called Tommy, is the true villain.
But Bob van der Goen is having none of it.
“(Trafigura) should have known that
Ten people, including two Trafigura executives, have so far
been charged in connection with the dumping.
Space is final frontier for Cowboy George W
by Ken Ferguson
Almost half a century ago, when space was
largely confined to the pages of illustrated comics, the
In the decades that followed, we saw moon shots, space stations
and shuttles.
But in the new world of one aggressive superpower, space stories
have been replaced by Star Wars as part of the
This has as its central aim the ability by the
Under pressure President George W Bush has now set out his stall
to ensure that the
Bush sees space as ‘the final frontier’ for the Yankee militarists,
every bit as important to their plans as control of the oceans,
continents and skies.
Destruction
The aims are set out in a White House policy document
reflecting Bush’s folksy Texan determination to ensure that
he is the Sheriff of the Stratosphere and clearly warning that
anybody thinking otherwise faces destruction by US forces.
The document pulls no punches, saying:
“The United States will preserve its rights, capabilities, and
freedom of action in space; dissuade or deter others from either
impeding those rights or developing capabilities intended to
do so; take actions necessary to protect its space capabilities;
respond to interference; and deny, if necessary, adversaries
the use of space capabilities hostile to US national interests.”
This latest Bush diktat comes just two years after the publication
of the
It goes on to boldly claim that space activities have improved
life for both ordinary Americans and people around the world
by enhancing security and economic growth and “revolutionising
the way people view their world and the cosmos”.
Mars
Bush has sought to revive the national interest in
space by calling for Americans to return to the moon in 15 years,
and even use bases there to serve as a launch pad for Mars.
While there is bread and circuses element to this, it also flags
up the fact that there are no areas off limits for the
The order also underlines Bush’s opposition to the establishment
of arms control treaties that would restrict US access to space,
or set limits on its use of space.
It backs the development of ‘space capabilities’ weapons - to
support US intelligence and defence initiatives.
Answering concerns that the policy will accelerate weapons in
space Bush’s spokesman Tony Snow claimed there was no change,
telling a sceptical media that the exploitation of space for
defensive purposes did not mean that America was seeking to
develop space weapons.
Spokesman for the top war body, the National Security Council,
Fredrick Jones flatly claimed, “Protection of space assets does
not imply some sort of forceful action.”
Instead, he insisted, “Technology advances have increased the
importance of and use of space... Now, we depend on space capabilities
for things like ATMs, personal navigation, package tracking,
radio services, and cell phone use.”
So, if we believe the peaceniks in
—page twelve—
Death of a health service
Millions of Iraqis die as services collapse and
doctors flee
“Our experience has taught us that poor emergency medical services
are more disastrous than the disaster itself.”
So says Dr Bussim Al Sheibani, and his two colleagues, writing this
week in the British Medical Journal,
Hospitals function with few or no trained staff, floors are a litter
of blood and other spills, left because there is no antiseptic cleaner
to remove it, beds are made up with dirty bedsheets, flies buzz everywhere.
“Many emergency rooms are no more than halls with beds, fluid suckers
and oxygen bottles.”
Some don’t even have these; they are simply rooms waiting to become
morgues.
Says Dr Qasim al-Nuwesri,
of
Kala Azar, caused by the sandfly parasite, attacks the internal organs.
It’s a disgusting, deadly condition but easily treated with Pentostam
- problem is, there is no Pentostam, so these children just die.
As they do of dehydration, bleeding, diarrhoea, respiratory ailments
- and all for lack of such basics as small bore syringes and oxygen
masks, hydration kits and Vitamin K injections.
About 250,000 children have been born in
The Iraqi health service was once the envy of the
The rot set in during the 1980s, when oil funds were diverted away
from infrastructure and into the military. It got dramatically worse
during the 1991 Gulf War and subsequent sanctions which both starved
the health service and impoverished and sickened the population.
Since 2003, it has nose-dived.
Nowadays, even the dying dare not venture into these hospitals, targets
not just of sectarian militia, but also US attack.
In Fallujah, in 2004, the
Last year in
Prior to the 2003 invasion, there were 34,000 doctors practising in
Those still practising do so in clinics tucked discreetly away in
residential districts, or in the middle of medical compounds. It’s
still not safe and the exodus continues. Anyone with the means is
now getting out.
This brain drain is cataclysmic.
Amer Hassan Fayed, Assistant Dean of Political Science at
Under Articles 55 and 56 of the Geneva Convention, occupying forces
must provide food and health service to the population. The US and
Reconstruction monies have been misappropriated. Under Paul Bremer’s
watch, for instance, $8.8billion went missing and remains missing.
“Of the 180 health clinics the US hoped to build by the end of 2005,
only four have been completed and none opened,” according to medical
charity Medact.
Extreme poverty is aggravating
Eight million Iraqis live on less than $1 a day, 96 per cent depend
on government food rations of cooking oil, flour and rice, subject
to availability, and over 68 per cent of people have no access to
clean water.
Yet, say Iraqi medics, the international community is ignoring their
plight. They are pleading for help, for equipment, drugs, personnel...and
no-one hears them.
Echoes of ‘
by Ken Ferguson
President Bush’s comparison of the current situation
in
It is also mistaken. The
For several months in early 1968, the National Liberation Front -
popularly known as the Viet Cong - and elements of the regular army
of
Although in terms of territory held or recaptured, and enemy forces
destroyed, the
Three incidents in particular illustrate this.
Journalists present at the scene were summoned, by the
They could, as one reporter put it, “hardly believe their ears as
(he) stood among the ruins telling us all was well.”
Probably the most significant event in the media war was to provide
one of the most iconic images of the entire brutal war.
Nguyen Van Lam, a captain in the Viet Cong, was captured by South
Vietnamese forces in Saigon and, after some brief questioning, was
shot in the head by the chief of
Unfortunately for the
It was also filmed by an NBC crew and American viewers saw the entire
sequence on early evening bulletins.
Then there was the battle for the city of
Reading the returns of those killed, Westmoreland smelled victory
and requested 200,000 extra soldiers to finish the war.
But when his request was leaked in the New York Times,
Westmoreland was promoted and moved a few weeks later.
His political boss, President Lyndon Baines Johnson, fared little
better, almost losing the
He pulled out of the Presidential race a few weeks later.
The situation in
The plan then was to make the Vietnamese take the hits and it was
called ‘Vietnamisation’.
On Monday’s Channel 4 News, a
If I was the