Scottish Socialist Voice
Issue 288
24th November 2006
—front page—
FREE SCHOOL MEALS FOR ALL
SSP bill is still on the table!
People across
But if they thought we would go quietly, they thought wrong.
SSP MSP Frances Curran, sponsor of the Bill, is calling on everyone who
believes in the anti-poverty, pro-health intervention, which would provide
a free, nutritious school meal to every state school child in
“This is the first time people will have been able to do this, and we will
display every message on a neon board in the lobby of the Parliament,” says
“The voice of the people will penetrate right to the heart of Holyrood.
MSPs can, and do, duck in the back door to avoid the public lobbying them,
but they won’t be able to avoid this.
“We’re hoping for 1000 texts in the first week, so please ensure you get
your message in.”
The Bill - which would have a massive impact on the health and well-being
of children across
The careerists at Holyrood thought their undemocratic measures would put
an end to the free school meals campaign, which is too popular for their
tastes by half. But they are in for a shock.
Not only will we bring the public outcry into parliament, we will continue
taking the campaign out onto the streets - the SSP is not just for election
time, we fight all year round, year in, year out - and back to the parliamentary
authorities.
“I’ve asked them to think again about shelving this Bill, and they are still
considering,” says
—page two—
Mckinnon Mills Workers Still Out
by Kevin McVey
Workers at the Mackinnon Mills factory in
Despite facing the intransigence of management and the worst of
the November weather, the workforce, members of the Community union,
remain as determined as ever to win their 2.5 per cent pay claim.
The strikers are being sustained by the overwhelming public support
they are winning, reflected by the constant (and often deafening!)
toots of support from passing cars and lorries at the picket line,
or in the customers turning away from the shop at the factory once
they realise what the Scrooge-like management are up to.
SSP MSP Carolyn Leckie is continuing to press the case of the strikers
and has written to management demanding that they meet union representatives,
and local SSP members continue to regularly visit the picket line
to show support.
The strikers are planning to escalate the dispute from two days
of strike action a week to three, and Mackinnon Mills management
had better realise that these strikers are not going to go away
until they secure the rise they deserve.
Civil Service Ballots for Action Against Jobs Cuts
by Richie Venton
SSP national workplace organiser
The national executive committee of the 300,000-strong
Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) meets this week to ratify
plans for a ballot of members across the entire civil service.
They plan to call for a one-day strike of all civil servants and
other PCS members in public sector agencies on 31 January.
This huge step follows the sustained, systematic campaign of assaults
by the Labour government on civil service workers’ pay, jobs, working
conditions - indeed, the very existence of the public sector, as
Labour privatises the parts the Tories never reached.
In the past week alone, in Revenue and Customs (HMRC), they have
just announced over 200 office closures. In the past three years,
7500 jobs have been shed, with a further 5000 to go by 2008 - and
an additional 12,500 by 2012.
The closure programme means devastation for the east coast of
In the west of
As John Davidson of
John Miller, from Cumbernauld Revenue & Customs, told me, “Forced
relocation of staff, the vicious job losses, the failed concept
of LEAN which has led to over a million items of uncleared post
- the list of attacks on us is endless.
“More and more pressure is placed on us daily as the quality of
our jobs and service are undermined. How many taxpayers are now
suffering the same fate as benefit claimants, left hanging on a
phone, unable to speak to someone?
“We now have the chance to stand together in action as the first
compulsory redundancies are issued in DEFRA and the DTI. The industrial
action ballot, for a strike across the whole civil service on 31
January, is long overdue.”
Gerry McMahon, a Glasgow DWP worker added, “Cuts are pushing members
to breaking point, and then many of them face disciplinary action
and even the sack under the draconian Attendance Management Policies.”
Pay is another prime grievance. It’s a lottery, depending not on
the skills, experience and tasks you face, but often which department
you work in.
There are over 200 different bargaining units on pay, and pay inequalities
of £3,500 are common for doing the same type of job in different
areas of the civil service. That’s why the fight for fair, national
pay structures is also at the heart of this strike ballot.
SSP members in the PCS have been instrumental in advocating civil
service-wide, united strike action.
And already, as Willie Telfer, PCS Group Assistant Secretary in
the Department of Transport, told me, “Members’ meetings across
the country are making it clear that management can’t rely on our
good will any longer.
“We are no longer prepared to come in early and work late to provide
the public counter access currently provided by staff.
“In the DVLA local office network alone, we have lost 507 jobs out
of an original workforce of 2100. We have secured a ‘no compulsory
redundancy’ pledge, but that undoubtedly will come under pressure.
“We have been cut to the bone, the marrow comes next.”
Violence a Poor Bet for Workers
by Voice Reporter
Betting shop union Community is backing a Scottish
Executive campaign to encourage workers to report all incidents
of abuse.
Heather Meldrum, Community organiser for
“We’re launching this campaign to raise awareness of the issue of
violence against betting shop workers and encourage them to report
it, however small and insignificant they think it is, because only
then can we get a picture of the scale of the abuse.
“A lot of workers face daily abuse, including verbal abuse, spitting,
and physical violence.”
However, many never report it, assuming it to be part and parcel
of the job.
“But no-one should have to put up with it,” she continues.
“Once we get an idea of the scale and type of abuse that occurs,
we can tackle it more effectively.”
In a bid to improve reporting, the union is operating an online
and telephone incident reporting system.
Community is also campaigning on other issues important to betting
shop staff, including working hours, unpaid overtime, shop security,
safety, single staffing, pay, and proper consultation over industry
changes.
The Scottish Executive’s ‘Bang Out of Order’ campaign against workplace
violence includes an online reporting form.
Council Cuts are the Deepest
by Richie Venton
As we go to press, the result of the ballot for
strike action by 13,000
These workers face imposition of a Labour council Pay and Benefits
review which will force about 5000 of the 31,000 staff to accept
cliff-edge pay drops in two years’ time.
Some workers gain in the package - and rightly so, after decades
of pay discrimination against women workers, and poverty pay levels
for women and men. But this so-called equal pay package is being
paid from out of the pockets of other low-paid workers - including
many women!
Human tragedies are not uncommon, as people wrestle with remortgaging
their homes, or cut back on provision for their children going to
university.
Meanwhile Labour council leader Steven Purcell peddles the lie that
“nobody will lose a penny in pay”.
Many of those allegedly ‘gaining’ stand to lose through cuts to
overtime rates, other bonuses and enhancements - low-paid cleaners
losing £400 a year being just one, cruel example of this deception.
If a YES vote is secured, it will be despite the cynical attempts
to bribe, bully and befuddle workers - with the council promising
a hefty lump sum in December to those who ‘gain’ and sign up for
the new contract.
If members vote YES, a three-day strike in early December is looming.
And if not, there will still be a battle to secure equal pay without
detriment to fellow-workers.
Glasgow is not alone. Only a couple of the 32 councils in
North Lanarkshire Labour council are imposing new pay and grading
structure contracts on their staff, whose 7000-strong UNISON branch
is lodging legal action to secure current terms and conditions and
prevent wage losses.
This same council is enraging staff further by announcing severance
packages of £800,000 for four heads of department as they centralise
operations.
And Falkirk SNP council - yes, SNP - plan to impose mass dismissal
notices on their workforce the week before Christmas!
SSP members in UNISON are arguing for an early national demo as
part of mounting pressure on councillors and the Scottish Executive,
to demand the required funding from the Executive and to fight off
the growing queue of councils seeking to impose mass sackings and
re-engagement under new contracts.
Ofcom Chokes on Junk Food Advertising Ban
Campaigners against junk food TV ads aimed at
vulnerable young viewers have finally forced Ofcom - the media regulator
- to act.
But the ban on junk food advertising, due to start phasing in from
January 2007, will do little to combat the toxic diet modern children
now swallow.
Campaigners, from Which? magazine to the Women’s Institute, called
for a blanket ban on all advertising of high fat, salt and sugar
(HFSS) ads and got...a partial ban, more riddled with holes than
a Swiss cheese.
Ads for McDonalds’ Happy Meals and Fanta are now banned from designated
children’s programming, and during programmes screened later whose
audience is disproportionately comprised of under-16s, such as Hollyoaks.
But this will only reduce children’s exposure to this kind of advertising
by about 40 per cent, which is something short of a bodyblow to
the obesity timebomb.
The National Consumer Council warns that 70 per cent of children’s
viewing time occurs outside children’s designated airtime, rising
to 80 per cent for 10-15 year olds.
For example, four times as many children watch
Furthermore, McDonalds and Coca-Cola et all can continue to sponsor
children’s programming anyway, so long as they do it generically
- that is, using the brand, rather than a specific product.
And while celebrities and licensed characters are now banned from
endorsing HFSS products, characters created by the company, such
as Tony the Tiger, can carry on regardless.
Ofcom say their concern is not health, but quality programming;
without advertising revenue, this latter cannot happen. Unless,
say, we had a public service broadcaster, funded by license-payers...oh,
quite right, crazy idea.
If they had implemented the full ban, £250 million in advertising
revenue would have been lost, apparently.
Never mind that advertising is a form of aural and visual pollution
that, if we were in our right minds, we wouldn’t let anywhere near
us, never mind our kids.
As it is, the food and drink industry, as these purveyors of cooked-up
chemicals laughably like to call themselves, is up in arms. It is
“shocked” at this “over the top” measure.
Campaigners are pretty angry too. The Children’s Food Campaign calls
the Ofcom announcement a “very cleverly spun cave-in to the food
and drink industry”.
Which? is calling for the government to intervene and impose the
pre-9pm ban.
“We are in the midst of an obesity epidemic and must use all the
weapons in our armoury to prevent the next generation of British
children being the most obese and unhealthy in history,” says Vivienne
Nathanson, head of science and ethics at the BMA.
Scottish children are twice as overweight or obese as the
One third of twelve year olds are overweight, 19.4 per cent are
obese, and 11.2 per cent severely obese.
Keep this up, and we’ll be burying our own children as they die
like flies from heart disease, cancer and respiratory illnesses.
We could do something about it of course, but that would impinge
on big business, which Ofcom just won’t swallow.
—page three—
The12,000 Mile Seafood Pay Cut
by Brian Lewis
The madness that is globalisation reached
new heights when Young’s, a Scottish seafood firm, announced
plans to send langoustines caught in Scottish waters on a 12,000
mile round trip to
The low-paid Scottish workforce is far too expensive it seems,
so the seafood must be hand-peeled by even lower-paid workers,
providing a nice little boost to Young’s balance sheet.
From February of next year, langoustines will be graded and
frozen at the company plant in Annan before embarking on the
21 day journey to the
On their return, they will be turned into breaded scampi.
This move will lead to 120 job losses out of a total workforce
of 250.
It’s a severe blow to this small community of 8000 people, where
jobs are already scarce.
Serious concerns have also been raised as regards the environmental
impact of Young’s actions.
Friends of the Earth (FoE)
Calls have been made for the resignation of Mike Parker, deputy
chief executive of Young’s, from the Marine Stewardship Council
(MSC) over a conflict of interest.
The MSC was set up in 1997 by the international environmental
organisation WWF and the major food company Unilever.
It certifies fisheries as sustainable and has awarded its own
blue eco label to over 400 seafood products in 25 countries.
FoE
The bottom line is that Young’s puts profit before the environment
and the workers it exploits both at home and overseas.
Peerages Scandal Dogs Blair
by Ken Ferguson
The Cash for Peerages scandal just keeps on
going.
While Labour minister and ex-ministers, not to mention ex-Tory
leader Michael Howard, ‘help the police with their enquiries’,
and allegations surface regarding two sets of Labour Party accounts,
it now appears that the Electoral Commission, which has considerable
power to penalise and even close down political parties which
break its rules, is getting involved.
Commission officials are now thought to be pressing for action
against the governing party, even if it is only 50 per cent
likely to get a result.
This is a story that begins over a decade ago.
Blair and his anti-working class allies seized power in the
Labour Party in the mid-1990s, after the death of John Smith.
Smith was a traditional right-wing Labour operator but Blair
and co had different ideas, involving moving Labour further
to the right, decisively breaking with even moderate socialist
politics.
Junk
Central to this was his successful drive to junk Labour’s
historic commitment to common ownership, expressed in Clause
4 of its constitution.
New Labour was presented to the voters as a shiny new vehicle
for progress and change, with old ‘dinosaurs’, such as trade
unions, left behind.
After the 1997 triumph, cool Britannia and New Labour Number
10 was the happening place and the rich and famous flocked to
endorse it.
Class
The fact that New Labour was quite openly in favour
of the wealthy seemed to open up the prospect of a political
force independent of unpleasant class politics and the poor.
The downside was plummeting membership and a growing reliance
on donations from rich men and firms to avoid taking union cash,
which might mean listening to them.
Last week, the monetarist guru Milton Friedman died. The phrase,
‘there is no such thing as a free lunch’, is attributed to him.
As far as New Labour goes, he got that one right.
Voters now regard the Blair team as more sleazy than Major’s
Tories, largely due to its series of financial scandals and
shady relationships with the wealthy.
All of this has an uncanny similarity to the early 20th century
scandals which engulfed Liberal leader Lloyd George, leading
to the original laws to prevent politicians selling honours.
Indeed, in LG’s time, there was even a price list openly available,
informing the rich social climber of the going rate for peerages.
That long forgotten law, banning such sales, is now being dusted
down in pursuit of Blair and his supposed bribery of the rich.
A question mark now hangs over both him, and the political party
he defaced in his own image.
Pipeline Protest
Irish campaigners from Rossport Solidarity
Group travelled to
In Rossport,
The same issues now affect
Around 14 protesters deliberately lodged themselves in the gas
pipe at Trebanos, near Swansea, for over a week and are determined
to stay put for as long as necessary.
Jim Dunckley, from the Safe Haven Network, said the protesters
want to highlight the damage that the National Grid was doing
to the environment.
Adam Price, Plaid MP, commented: “It’s
The National Grid has forcibly bought land throughout
Legal action by the Safe Haven Network, in order to try to stop
the pipeline, has so far proved unsuccessful.
—page four—
One the Inside Looking Out
by Roz Paterson
When SSP MSP Rosie Kane was jailed recently
for refusing to pay a fine relating to an anti-Trident protest, she
was struck by how isolated prisoners are, how severed from any kind
of normal life. And how this renders it such an uphill struggle for
them, upon release, to fashion a new, non-criminal existence.
Can we on the outside help? And in so doing, not only lend an individual
a helping hand, but assist in making our society that bit more functional
and safe?
Sure we can, through the simple means of letter-writing. But corresponding
with a prison inmate requires patience, training, understanding and,
most of all, commitment.
“We ask that volunteers stick with a prisoner to the end of his or her
sentence, which in some cases, can mean ten to 15 years,” says Chris
Thomas, of New Bridge Foundation, a charitable organisation dedicated
to the befriending of prisoners.
These are people who have maybe never had any kind of stable relationship,
nor a window on the normal world of jobs and families. If you can show
trust in them, maybe they will learn to give trust in return, and thereby
lay the foundations for a better life.
New Bridge Foundation was established in 1956 - this year celebrating
its half-century - by Lord Longford, the tireless campaigner for penal
reform, and friends.
“They knew people who had been imprisoned, and so discovered that they
had no contact with the outside world. Initially,
Befriending may sound very Victorian, something a 19th century philanthropist
might do in between screwing down the wages of his infant mill-workers,
but it is a practical and effective means of helping prisoners rehabilitate
themselves.
Chris notes that the Home Office has found that having someone on the
outside who cares about you can be the defining factor in whether or
not you make a successful fresh start.
“Skills and training are important, but if no-one cares about what you
do and how you are, you’re more likely to go back to your old ways.”
But caring is quite a demanding task, and New Bridge is there to screen
out those who are interested for the wrong reasons - because they think
they may forge a romantic link with an inmate, or are fascinated by
criminality - and to recruit, train and support those who are interested
for the right ones - that is, genuinely want to help someone, even someone
whose views and attitudes may be very at odds with their own.
“You have to remember that prisoners live very institutionalised lives,
and often don’t have normal relationships at all, having lost contact
with their families and friends through being inside and, because of
overcrowding, being moved, often hundreds of miles away from home.
“They can sometimes be demanding and manipulative, so we help volunteers
deal with this, and go through the content of letters with them to make
sure there is no manipulation involved, and that the relationship is
appropriate.
“All correspondence goes through us, no-one gives out their address
or phone numbers, and they may even use a pseudonym. The prisoners understand
this.”
It may sound a little hands-off, but volunteers do make a difference
to people’s lives.
“Having someone write to you, over a period of time, makes you feel
that you are worth something, makes you feel wanted.”
For some, especially young offenders who may have just come through
the care system, or whose families have thrown them out, this could
be the first time they experience this.
“There’s one guy, now in
“Being in touch with one of our volunteers changed that. Now he thinks
about the future, even though his release is still some time away.”
Because what he has now is a sense of hope, borne of having a functional
relationship with another human being.
This particular individual has mental health problems and, if paroled
next year, is more likely to wind up in sheltered accommodation than
the wide world, but if he can maintain his new, positive slant on life,
his future could be so much better than it might have been. Befriending
can also involve meeting face-to-face.
If your inmate is moved,
Last year,
“The prisoner may put you down for a visit, if you both agree, and you
turn up, just like any other friend or family member. Just as your letter
arrives just like any letter, from a mate or whatever. There is no stigma
attached to it.”
Quite the opposite in fact, as receiving letters and being visited is
high status “as so many don’t get either.”
It is estimated that four out of five prisoners lose all contact with
family and friends, through the aforementioned overcrowding problem,
amongst other factors, which can strain to breaking point already fragile
relationships, particularly with children.
“We run a course called Family Matters, dealing with the issues of being
a parent in prison, the idea being to prevent loss of contact in the
first place.”
Prisoners hopefully learn to be positive about family relationships,
but also realistic that, upon release, there is ground to be made up.
“It’s not going to be rosy. Things have changed.”
Prisoners generally hear about
“And you write and introduce yourself and sometimes a friendship takes
off, and sometimes it doesn’t. It’s all down to chemistry in the end.
“One (male) prisoner requested that a woman, aged between 25 and 35,
write to him.
“Instead, he got a woman who was nearly 80. She said, ‘I’m nearly three
times the age you requested, but will I do?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, fine’
and now they get on like a house on fire.”
Some friendships continue after release, but nine times out of ten,
they don’t.
“Because you are part of their prison experience, and they are now out,
and want to put it behind them.”
Volunteers have to be prepared for that.
“That’s the difference between being a friend and being a befriender.
It’s not forever. You’re there to help them get from A to B.”
But it’s worth the work.
“It’s a practical way to make your community safer, you can do it in
your own time, whenever you have an hour spare to write a letter, and
it offers a fascinating insight into the closed world of prison.”
n If you would like to know more about
New Bridge Foundation, 27A
—page five—
letters page
Blair Unwelcome In
On 18 November, Labour Party Pakistan (LPP) activists staged a demonstration
outside the Lahore Press Club, in protest at Tony Blair’s visit.
Despite a heavy police presence, they brandished banners and placards,
emblazoned with such sentiments as: ‘Killer Tony Blair, you are
not welcome in
The demonstration attracted a positive response from passers-by,
who made victory signs on seeing the protest.
The LPP issued a press release stating that the British prime minister
is a liar who invaded
He is now a threat to world peace, the press release continued,
and the people of
The LPP vows to do our best to oppose imperialists and the religious
fundamentalists in
The 18 November demonstration was the only one in
Religious fundamentalists have maintained a criminal silence. They
have not even issued a statement condemning his visit.
The demonstration generated a lot of press attention within
Farooq Tariq,
Lahore,
Don’t Shop Til Workers Drop
A Bill to ban large department stores from opening on Christmas
Day and New Year’s Day has caused quite a stir at Holyrood.
The measure was introduced by a Labour MSP and is supported by the
shop workers’ union USDAW.
The Bill was examined in detail by the Justice 2 Committee at Holyrood,
who took evidence from a wide range of interested parties.
While they were there, I asked the Edinburgh Woollen Mill, who are
keen to open on New Year’s Day because they see huge potential for
tourist sales, what view they felt overseas visitors would take
of a company that paid its workers - at MacKinnon Mills in Coatbridge,
on strike now for ten weeks - just £3.29 per hour and refused to
negotiate with them on a 12p pay claim.
From the evidence it became clear that shop workers are being coerced
into working on these days by management keen to maximise profits.
And indeed there are signs that if the big High Street chains open
then car park attendants, traffic wardens, bus drivers, local government
workers and others may also find they are called in to work.
The Justice 2 Committee decided to recommend the Bill to Parliament
on the casting vote of the SSP. The Liberals, Tories and also, surprisingly,
the SNP opposed it.
Labour is in a quandary over the Bill. Minister Hugh Henry refused
to say whether the Scottish Executive will support the Bill. Will
Labour’s links with big businesses, keen to maximise profits over
all other considerations, swing their decision?
USDAW members are waiting to see whether it is only the SSP they
can rely on in this Parliament.
Colin Fox, Edinburgh
Labour Leadership Challenge
Around 200 people attended meetings in Glasgow and Edinburgh
at which John McDonnell spoke about his bid for the Labour Party
leadership.
McDonnell emphasised that his leadership challenge was not just
a matter of the policies on which he was standing, such as restoration
of trade union rights, an end to privatisation, direct investment
in council housing, and withdrawal from
His bid for Labour Party leadership was also a question of democracy
- restoring the Labour Party’s mechanisms of democracy and accountability
dismantled under Blair, and giving Labour Party members and affiliates
a chance to vote on the future political direction of the Labour
Party.
The unions affiliated to the Labour Party have a third of the votes
in Labour’s electoral college, and will have to ballot their members
in the event of a leadership contest.
While union leaders are already lining up behind Gordon Brown, the
Left in the unions is backing McDonnell.
McDonnell has already won the support of the TGWU Broad Left, the
Amicus Unity Gazette, and the CWU Broad Left. The RMT is also likely
to back McDonnell. (The RMT is not affiliated to the Labour Party,
but it does have a Parliamentary group.)
At this stage of McDonnell’s campaign, the crucial thing is ensuring
that at least 44 Labour MPs agree to nominate him for Party leader.
That represents just a handful of the Labour MPs who receive trade
union support.
Last week’s meetings in Glasgow and Edinburgh agreed to set up a
Scottish ‘John4Leader’ campaign. To contact the campaign, visit
the national campaign’s website: john4leader.org.uk
Stan Crooke, Glasgow
Gie’s Peace
By Morag Balfour
100% International
I saw a great documentary last week
called 100% English. It was an easy watch but raised some very interesting
issues about identity.
I presume that those who volunteered did so because they believed
themselves to be truly English, even down to their DNA.
My favourite participant was a pensioner called Carol. She wore
a headscarf, Queen style, at all times. She lived in an ancient
house she and her husband had been in the process of restoring for
37 years. She and her house, she proclaimed, were museum pieces.
She couldn’t cope with any form of change.
It turns out she is not that English. She probably descends from
the line of Genghis Khan. She was rather pleased by this news as
she felt herself to be similar in temperament to the great GK.
Garry Bushell, the tabloid pretender to journalism, found out that,
five generations back, there is a sub-Saharan African in his ancestry.
Next a fairly sleazy and generally distasteful man, claiming to
be a stand-up comic, stated that people couldn’t be English unless
they are white. Ian Wright can’t call himself English because the
English aren’t black. A person must be able to trace ‘pure’ English
parentage back at least 12 generations before being definitively
English. He didn’t express it as well as this though.
In the end he had the widest global spread of DNA of anyone featured
in the programme, and the least Northern European blood! He now
believes than Ian Wright can be English too.
One really touching part of the documentary concerned a patriotic,
soon-to-be soldier who wanted to restore
A smile crept onto his face and he held the ‘world’, actually hugging
it. The
One woman was filmed at the ‘Ground Zero’ of the battle of
She was let down somewhat by her mischievous DNA, when it came to
light that rather than being English she was actually more closely
related to the Romany Gypsy community. Her face betrayed her horror
at this result.
Four days after discovering her ‘people’, she threatened the programme-makers
with legal action claiming that the DNA results, and subsequent
interpretation, were inaccurate.
DNA only gets you so far. We are more likely to be shaped by the
experiences we have and the folk we come into contact with. If we
are able to put down roots in a particular context we are quite
likely to pick up and adopt some of the prevailing culture and beliefs.
For instance, when hurricane Katrina hit
I felt connected in kinship to those who got left behind. For me,
the anger was personal. The rest of the planet got a wee window
then on how
On a more frivolous note, another permanent consequence of my time
spent in the
Genetic roots are important but our relationships with each other
have a much deeper impact on who we become.
—centre pages—
BLACK AND WHITE AND RED ALL OVER
Celebrating ten years of the Scottish Socialist Voice
When newspapers’ first editions
are launched onto the stands, their chances of survival
are on a par with those of newly hatched baby turtles.
Billion pound corporations swoop to swallow up smaller
rivals, or set insurmountable obstacles in their path,
so that they hardly ever get off and swimming.
In the cutthroat media world, publications are big,
big business.
That the Scottish Socialist Voice has reached its
tenth birthday this week is a remarkable achievement.
This is the only weekly socialist newspaper printed
and published in
It’s taken gutsy determination and a whole load of
hard work from everyone involved - the paper’s few
staff, the many voluntary contributors who clatter
on computer keyboards, donate
photographs and cartoons, the team who help with distribution,
and the small, dedicated army of sellers who punt
the Voice on the streets in rain, snow and sunshine.
The Voice was first published by Scottish Militant
Labour in November 1996. Those were the dark days
of Tory rule, and this new beacon for socialism predicted
a change of government in the next year.
“But we have no confidence in Tony Blair’s New Labour,”
wrote then editor Alan McCombes. “Whatever the result
of the coming general election, the battle for genuine
socialism must be stepped up.”
Right enough, the government changed, in name at least,
and we’re now living under Labour’s iron fist of bloody
war and crushed civil rights.
Meanwhile, we hope we’ve stayed true to the Voice’s
radical manifesto. In the first issue, we promised
to cover the real issues of concern to real people,
to report struggles for better conditions in workplaces
and communities, to campaign against poverty, to expose
corruption and denounce inequality, and to fight tirelessly
for genuine democracy.
A vital component of democracy is a free media. And
as the ownership of media in 21st century
Even in cyberspace, where communication was supposed
to run wild and free, ownership by huge corporations
has allowed censorship to encroach as they protect
their profits.
The Voice is published by the Scottish Socialist Party,
and we wear our bias on our sleeve. Because we are
not run for profit, because we don’t have to doff
our caps to corporate advertisers, we are free to
stand squarely on the side of the people.
From
We’re hammering out a bright red space in the bland
media world. We give room to ideas when all around
us, dumbing down is the order of the day.
Issue by issue, campaign by campaign, we raise the
ideas of equality, peace and justice, of another,
better way of organising our world which would see
poverty, war and oppression wiped out.
You’re holding 12 wee pages of dynamite in your hands
- put it to use and get involved.
n see page 4 to subscribe, or phone us with stories/campaign news on 0141 429 8200, email voice.reports@btconnect.com
To bring out a paper weekly, over ten years, on a shoestring budget speaks volumes for the commitment and talent of the journalists and team behind it. Many deadlines, much sweat. Glad it’s not me. Good luck for the next ten. Sorely needed.
Paul Laverty, screenwriter whose credits include My Name is Joe and The Wind that Shakes the Barley
One of the many reasons that Scottish
Socialist Voice is such a success is that it speaks
with a rich variety of tones.
Its combination of vivid reporting of grassroots struggles,
spirited political debate and refreshing cultural
comment is exemplary. Looking forward to close co-operation
in the difficult but also hopeful times ahead!
Hilary Wainwright, Co-editor, Red
Pepper
www.redpepper.org.uk
The Voice stands unequivocally on
the side of trade unionists and has always reported
supportively on the struggles we have faced. I know
if PCS members are in dispute the Voice can be relied
upon to tell the truth.
Outside of my own union I can also rely on it for
accurate reports of struggles in the trade union movement.
The Voice is an outstanding newspaper. I am sure it
will go from strength to strength, and become our
main weapon as we build the SSP into a mass socialist
party which will transform the lives of working people
in the years ahead.
trade unionist Gerry McMahon
Your Voice on the Streets
While we have hundreds of subscribers
to the Voice, who by paying in advance for the paper
to be posted out, provide the rock of funding which
keeps the paper going every week, most Voice readers
get hold of their copy from an SSP stall.
You’ll see the bands of weather-beaten SSP members,
with papers, leaflets and petitions, on town centre
streets, at community post offices, and outside shopping
centres - outside because privately owned shopping
centres tend not to let our intrepid campaigners darken
the doorsteps of their temples to consumerism.
Campaigning on free school meals, handing out free
fruit at the
“Although we stand in elections, it is the people
who stand out in all weathers, week in week out, and
engage with the public who bring the problems of real
people to our branch and help us to formulate policy.
“We are not like other parties. We don’t just turn
out at election time and expect people to support
us because we wear the right label, and we don’t hide
in between elections.
“We’re in the High Street every week thanks to Dougie
and Geoff, who organise our stall.
“Free school meals is only
one of the issues which we know has massive support
because of the feedback we get from our street activists.”
Ten Years of Cutting Edge Reporting
The Voice is a hard-working, campaigning
newspaper, and is no slouch when it comes to breaking
stories and scooping major interviews.
Back in 2001, when most journalists were abandoning
the
More recently, we have been privileged to receive
reports from inside Iraq, via our Baghdad correspondent
Isam Rashid, whose dispatches have included an interview
with Haji Ali, the former Abu Ghraib inmate, famously
photographed draped in a long hood, apparently wired
up for torture, whose image became a symbol of the
abuses at the heart of the American occupation.
Isam has also spoken to families blighted by Depleted
Uranium poisoning and to workers and families trying
to stay alive in the most dangerous nation on earth.
On the home front, we have supported workers in strife,
from the firefighters fighting for 30k in 2003, to
the nursery nurses struggling for regrading and a
decent pay deal in 2004, to the Body Shop’s Soapworkers
in Easterhouse to the Mackinnon Mills workers in
We have been on the picket-line and at the meetings,
standing shoulder-to-shoulder with workers everywhere.
We have secured interviews with such thorns in the
establishment’s side as Tony Benn, David Shayler,
Craig Murray and Greg Palast, with writers Paul Laverty,
Iain Banks and Edwin Morgan, actor Dougray Scott,
comedian and campaigner Mark Thomas, and lesser-known
but inspirational figures including two Iraqi women
- fearless aid worker, Rana, and film-maker, Eman
Khamas.
We have also given voice to those who usually don’t
make the papers, people trying to get by on benefit,
asylum-seekers persecuted here and abroad, social
workers and the people whose lives were pulled together
by their services, call centre workers, single parents,
pensioners and young people.
Our centre pages have been a forum for fierce debate,
on prostitution and the legalisation of drugs, and
discussion, from the need to reclaim our connection
with the land to the commodification of education.
And our front pages have served as a call to campaigners
and a means of reaching out beyond the SSP, to those
who condemn the war, who demand free school meals,
the scrapping of prescription charges, public ownership
of utilities and the privateers kicked out our hospitals
and schools, a decent minimum wage, open borders and
an end to detention and dawn raids, and a society
built on hope and comradeship, not hostility and cynicism.
We give voice and people hear us.
Best wishes from LCR (France) to
Scottish Socialist Voice.
For ten years now, we have watched with huge interest
your efforts to unify the Scottish Left and build
a socialist party able to give a political translation
to the various movements of resistance against neo-liberalism.
LCR support your fight for an independent socialist
We hope that the Voice will gain more audience during
the next months and that the SSP will have good results
for Holyrood elections. Anti-capitalist and internationalist
greetings
François Duval (LCR National Leadership)
—page eight—
Sheridan and Byrne abandon workers
by Davy Landels
SSP Parliamentary NUJ rep
Members of the National Union of Journalists,
employed through the Scottish Parliament as caseworkers, researchers
and personal assistants for the SSP group are now involved
in an industrial dispute with Tommy Sheridan MSP and Rosemary
Byrne MSP. The dispute has been caused because the two MSPs
have ripped up a collective agreement with the workers, unilaterally
breaking a contract agreed to in 2005.
This weekend the National Executive Council of the
In 2005 the SSP Group and SSP Parliamentary Workers signed
a collective agreement where individual workers would no longer
be employed by individual MSPs. Money was taken from each
of the MSP’s Allowances and deposited in a collective pool
to pay workers’ wages. From that date, workers were employed
under a joint contract of employment with all the MSPs.
Three months ago Tommy Sheridan MSP and Rosemary Byrne MSP
resigned from the Scottish Socialist Party and the Parliamentary
Group. They then withdrew £24,000, previously deposited into
the pooled resources of the Group. This was done with the
connivance of the Scottish Parliament Corporate Body (SPCB)
who had originally advised all parties in how to set up the
contract in the first place.
By withdrawing this money from the pool Tommy Sheridan and
Rosemary Byrne have breached their contract of employment
with the workers. The shortfall means that there will not
be enough funds to pay workers their wages for March and April
2007. Effectively Sheridan and Byrne are forcing workers
into redundancy. They have rejected offers to solve this dispute
and come to an agreement that would mean the continued employment
of all the workers involved. They have refused to replace
the money from their allowances to pay workers they previously
employed.
To comply with employment legislation, the SSP Group will
be forced to issue redundancy notices within the next month.
This will make eleven workers unemployed in February 2007.
Two months before their contract would normally finish.
The contract was agreed after taking advice and direction
from the SPCB.
Therefore the Chapel recognise the main dispute is with Sheridan
and Byrne who have broken their contract of employment with
the workers. The Chapel also believe that the Scottish Parliament
must recognise and take responsibility for their role in the
process which has led to the current situation.
Although the remaining SSP MSPs who make up the group may
be put in the intolerable situation of issuing redundancy
notices, the NUJ members are in no doubt who has caused the
situation. They are in no doubt who their dispute is with.
They are in no doubt who can resolve the situation.
Rosemary Byrne and Tommy Sheridan must put aside petty political
squabbles and honour their agreed contract with the workers.
Workers are suffering as a consequence of their intransigence.
It is ironic that the two MSPs boast about their support for
trade unions and workers in struggle when they are riding
roughshod over the pay and conditions of trade union members.
The NUJ Chapel in the Parliament would like to make it clear
that this is not about the political differences the two MSPs
have with the SSP. This is purely a trade dispute. It is about
guaranteeing the pay and conditions of workers. It’s about
ensuring collective agreements are honoured.This dispute needs
the support of the wider movement. The NUJ Chapel have appealed
to trade unionists and supporters to send messages of support.
Send them to:
n nujspchapel@hotmail.co.uk
Davy Landels,
n Messages of protest should be sent to:
Tommy Sheridan MSP, Scottish Parliament,
tommy.sheridan.msp@scottish.parliament.uk
Rosemary Byrne MSP, Scottish Parliament,
rosemary.byrne.mspf@scottish.parliament.uk
George Reid MSP (Presiding Officer of the
Scottish Parliament) Scottish Parliament,
Bank Faces Protest for Farepak Compensation
by Colin Fox
Campaigners fighting for compensation for
customers and agents swindled out of their savings by the
Farepak collapse have organised a protest outside the headquarters
of the Bank of Scotland on 11 December.
The collapse of the Christmas hamper and voucher trading company
has meant 150,000 working families across
It has emerged that the company was cashing cheques sent to
it 15 minutes before it went bust.
And it has also emerged that the big financial investors were
warned off the doomed business up to a month before its collapse.
I have contacted Farepak campaigner Suzy Hall at www.unfairpak.co.uk
to condemn the swindlers and offer her the support of the
SSP.
I have also asked the Scottish Executive to press the Dept
of Trade and Industry to consider introducing a bond scheme
similar to the ABTA one which protects holidaymakers.
Campaigners have demanded that the Halifax/Bank of
Liquidators are said to be predicting a payout of just 4p
in the £1.
The 11 December protest at the HBOS headquarters in
All those affected by the Farepak collapse are encouraged
to attend the protest. I will certainly be there.
Free School Meals Fight Goes On
by Colin Fox
Despite attempts to kill off our Bill to
introduce free school meals for all pupils, the campaigning
goes on.
Last week the Edinburgh South branch of the SSP held a public
meeting on the issue in one of the biggest schemes in their
constituency, ironically called the Inch.
Over the past three weeks SSP members in the area have been
out in all weathers, leafleting, visiting community groups
and speaking to parents at both the local primary schools.
They even managed to get important media coverage in the Edinburgh
Evening News, The List and on Talk107fm.
It was heartening to hear reports of comments people have
made to us, like: “Oh I got one of your excellent leaflets
through my door. I totally agree with you.” Or “I saw your
article about free school meals in the Evening News, quite
right, it’s high time we were spending money on the things
we need rather than the wars we don’t need.”
As a consequence of all the activity the branch has recruited
five new members. We sold more than 60 papers in two weeks
with our stall outside the local Morrisons supermarket. But
more important than all that is the clear evidence that the
SSP has re-established a great deal of our credibility and
respect in this part of
Three more public meetings are planned in and around
—page nine—
Cardiac Arrest down
by Andy McPake
As far as jobs go, being a Premier League
football player can hardly be the worst. You have fame and a
fortune - especially if you play for the Old Firm - and you
have respect that it not given to many professionals such as
nurses or teachers. And it’s not like you ever have to deal
with the same level of stress, after all you get paid for doing
your hobby.
But try telling that to Steven Pressley and his embattled colleagues
at Heart of Midlothian. In the space of a month they have seen
their manager leave due to stress and now the shop steward himself
- Pressley - has come under fire.
The latest controversy of Vladimir Romanov’s tenure at the club
first came to the public eye on the 26 October when Pressley,
alongside fellow
Despite the mild wording of Pressely’s statement it caused a
great deal of controversy within the club.
What followed was a crackdown on all those who dare question
the rule of club Tsar Vladimir Romanov. Pressley was dropped
for the club’s trip to
I am sure that many reading this paper will feel an empathy
with the Hearts players and staff that have been forced from
work due to stress caused by the actions of an egotistical and
manipulative individual.
The harassment of Pressley, who is not only the club captain
but also the players’ Union shop steward, should concern all
socialists, even smug Hibs fans like myself.
Voice readers will all feel that we have a right to speak up
when things at our work are going wrong. Even
if you are a Jambo.
Romanov is almost a caricature of a bad boss, hiring
and firing whenever and whomever he likes, whilst having utter
contempt for the people who buy his product.
Hearts fans must surely now turn on Mr Romanov. The clubs’ fans
were instrumental in bringing down previous Chairman Chris ‘pie
man’ Robinson and it beggars belief they can stomach a tyrant
like Romanov.
The sooner they make it clear that his behaviour is not acceptable
the better.
Nazis and National Borders
Standing on the Shoulders of Fascism: From
Immigration Control to the
by John Nicholson
“As soon as it became obvious that he (Jean
Charles de Menezes) was himself not involved in terrorism, the
Home Office suggested he had overstayed his leave in the
In this collection of essays, new and old, Steve Cohen demonstrates
that immigration controls are not so much standing on the shoulders
as seeped in every fibre of their being with fascist overtones.
And that they have always been so. Fascist upsurges have prefaced
all legislative and practical controls of movement of people.
Just as “...the Nazi extermination programme was preceded in
time by the forced, brutal, mass deportation of Jews”.
Three questions emerge. Can anti-fascist and anti-immigration
control movements ever join together? Is it possible to argue
for ‘fair’ or even ‘benign’ controls? And, can the success of
individual anti-deportation campaigns translate into opposition
to all immigration controls? In reverse order, the author first
suggests that it is only through self-organisation of the ‘undocumented’,
in militant campaigns, that victory can be achieved.
This requires solidarity, not pity. Cohen states:
“The struggle against controls is only politically effective
when it is threatening, when it involves masses of people in
struggle, when it refuses to make any concessions to the ideology
of immigration control, when it represents a danger to the state”.
Second, the notion of ‘just’ or ‘humane’ controls is a contradiction
in terms, and in the view of the author, a system of law built
historically on fascist activity could never be humane. Reminiscent
of Thatcher’s election-winning slogan, ‘Labour Isn’t Working’,
Home Secretary Charles Clarke was removed recently because his
system of deportation of non-British prisoners ‘wasn’t working’.
But no one subject to immigration controls wants them to ‘work
better’, when what this means is yet more, firmer, faster, and
furious, unchallengeable removals. Including those ‘criminals’
who have been re-detained for crimes of fabricating documents
simply because they wanted to work -aiming for legitimate work,
paying taxes and national insurance, contributing to society
- and the economy.
Indeed, the Immigration and Nationality Department employs 17,392
people - whose job in 2004 was to remove 56,920 other human
beings. Not to mention the private contractors who manage removal
centres and immigration ‘escort’ services.
The latest Home Secretary assured Parliament that he had over
400 full-time staff now coping with the ‘problem’ of 1000 ‘foreign’
people who had served their time but were going to be rounded
up, detained again, and then deported.
This new triple punishment exceeds the objections of the Manifesto
of the Campaign Against Double Punishment,
of the early 1990s, usefully appended by the author.
Third, there is no choice.
There is no third way. Collusion with the machinery of immigration
control stands shoulder-to-shoulder with collusion with the
fascists.
Local authorities, voluntary services, even lawyers, all have
to take sides. But the question of how - how
anti-fascist and anti-immigration control movements can make
effective common cause - is another story.
Still waiting, still needing to unfold - and be told.
Tuned In
with Keef Tomkinson
Saturday 25 November
Two-Lane Blacktop, Film4 12:55am
Musicians Dennis Wilson and James Taylor star as two drifters
who challenge Warren Oates to a cross-country race in a film
that could only have been made in the 1970s. Thoughtful and
tender, it’s everything a road movie should be.
Sunday 26 November
Planet Earth: The Future, BBC4 10pm
A common theme of David Attenborough’s sensational Plant Earth
series on BBC1 has been the impact that climate change is having
on the animal life we take for granted. This spin-off series
looks at how earth’s species will respond to their changing
environment.
Hookers, Hustlers, Pimps and Their Johns, ITV4 11:05pm
Beeban Kidron’s documentary looks at the hidden and not so hidden
sex industry of
Monday 27 November
Monkeys, Rats and Me: Animal Testing, BBC2
9pm
No debate is more polarising than animal testing, and
The Parallax View, BBC1 11:50pm
As
Tuesday 28 November
638 Ways to Kill Castro, Channel4 10pm
Revolution is a lot like football and if Che Guevara was the
dazzling playmaker of his generation then Fidel Castro has been
a supreme anchorman, doggedly defending his revolution. This
doc talks to those hired by the CIA to murder him. They all
failed.
Wednesday 29 November
Evicted, BBC1 10.40pm
You have to hope this has some effect. A film looking at the traumatic impact of eviction on three young
girls and their families. A home should be a right but
for many it’s a distant dream.
—page ten—
international news
Flower Jobs Freshly Cut
by Malcolm McDonald
Last month Miami-based Dole Fresh Flowers
announced the reduction of 900 jobs in
Of the two, the harder hit is undoubtedly
“This is the alarm bell,” said Ignacio Pérez, the head
of Expoflores, a flower growers’ association with 180
members. “We were like Little Red Riding Hood, you know:
The wolf is coming, the wolf is coming. Well, the wolf
is here.”
Reaction was swift. Outside Dole’s
Dole handed stunned employees a letter from the Miami
HQ citing the reasons for the lay-offs as increased competition
from
The nexus of the story, however, lies way north of
People at the White House have an abiding economic interest
in the Andean nations, as
All four countries have enjoyed the benefits of trade
preferences with the
To maintain a similar competitive playing field, each
of the countries has been trying to negotiate free-trade
agreements with the
There’s a strong will in
That’s a reference to Bolivian president Evo Morales who,
although no sworn enemy to free trade, has used harsh
words against the
So the Republicans are very keen to push for an extension
to trade preferences for all four Andean nations by passing
a bill through Congress during the “lame duck” session
- the period between the midterm Democrat success (November)
and January, when the new Congress takes the pledge. During
this period, the Republicans hold sway, and intend to
shove the extension through under some arcane and obscure
law which no-one knew existed.
There’s a problem for
In May,
Grant of an extension to
In the red corner, anti-free trade candidate Rafael Correa,
a US-trained economist and friend to Hugo Chavez.
It’s clear which candidate sits at the top of the White
House wish list, but the Ecuadorean public don’t see it
as such a one-horse race. In the latest poll, Correa is
virtually neck-and-neck with Noboa.
Should Correa defy
One - How long will it take the
Two - How long will he live?
Torture Charge for Rumsfeld
Now that he has resigned, Donald Rumsfeld
may finally face prosecution for war crimes, specifically
those of authorising interrogation techniques that amounted
to torture in
The case against Rumsfeld, and a slew of other high-ranking
US officials and legal advisers, is being brought by a
number of agencies, including the New York-based Centre
for Constitutional Rights, the International Federation
of Human Rights and the Republican Attorneys Association,
on behalf of 12 victims of torture, 11 from Abu Ghraib
and one from Guantanamo Bay.
They have requested that the German Federal Prosecutor
now open an investigation, leading to a criminal prosecution,
into the responsibility of senior US officials, from the
Defense Secretary down, for authorising such atrocities
against human beings as 50 days of sleep deprivation,
20 hour interrogations, food and water deprivation, being
stripped naked and threatened with dogs, and sexual and
religious humiliation, in the context of the widely discredited
War on Terror.
These interrogation ‘techniques’, as they are so clinically
called, are in direct contravention of the 1949 Geneva
Conventions, the 1984 Convention Against Torture and the
1977 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
to all three of which the US is a party.
The lawyers who provided the legal advice which facilitated
these acts of torture and further, sought to immunise
those responsible for it from prosecution, are also in
the frame, including former Chief White House Counsel
and now US Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez.
There is no way they could not have known that their ‘advice’
would result in torture being actioned. Thus they are
equally as culpable as those who physically carried out
these horrendous, dehumanising acts, if not actually more
so, given that they were in a much more powerful position
to say no.
Under international humanitarian and customary law, and
as re-stated in German law, these acts constitute war
crimes and can be prosecuted as such.
The case is being brought under the Code of Crimes Against
International Law, which
It had to be done this way as the
The
A previous war crimes case was dismissed in 2005. This
one is different because Rumsfeld has now resigned, which
means he can no longer claim sovereign immunity from prosecution.
Furthermore, the Military Commissions Act 2006 reveals
Plus, there is much more evidence this time, new testimonies
and documents, including the shocking August 2002 ‘Torture
Memo’ in which Rumsfeld authorises interrogators to strip
prisoners naked and threaten them with dogs.
On top of which, US Brigadier General Janis Kaplinski,
a defendant previously, is now a witness for the prosecution.
Another ground for optimism is that, in 2005, a
—page eleven—
international news
by Ken Ferguson
In the wake of midterm elections, powerful American
media institutions are feverishly spinning against a pullout of
US troops.
Under the headline “Get Out of
The article reported that - while some congressional Democrats
are saying withdrawal of US troops “should begin within four to
six months” - “this argument is being challenged by a number of
military officers, experts and former generals, including some
who have been among the most vehement critics of the Bush administration’s
A few hours earlier Gordon appeared on a CNN show as a pundit
and declared that withdrawal is “simply not realistic”.
Sounding much like a Pentagon spokesman, Gordon went on to state
in no uncertain terms that he opposes a pullout.
Normally if a New York Times military-affairs reporter went on
television to advocate for withdrawal of US troops as unequivocally
as Gordon advocated against any such withdrawal on CNN, they would
quickly be reprimanded - and probably would be taken off the story.
But the paper is cheerleader for the views of the country’s national
security state.
Current media coverage of
Routine deference to conventional wisdom has turned many prominent
journalists into co-producers of a Groundhog Day sequel that insists
the
Whether in 1968 or 2006, most of the
Contrary to myths about media coverage of the Vietnam War, the
American press lagged way behind grassroots anti-war sentiment
in seriously supporting a
This lag time amounted to several years - and its bloody consequences
meant the additional deaths of tens of thousands of Americans
and perhaps 1million more Vietnamese people.
A survey carried out by the Boston Globe, in February 1968, found
that out of 39 major daily newspapers in the
Today - despite the anti-war tilt of national opinion polls and
the recent election - advocacy of a
Careful statements about benchmarks and getting tough with the
In
The Democrats are likely to wilt before this media offensive and
shelve any ideas of an early pullout.
Can the Germans come together?
by Felicity Garvie
I’ve just come back from my second visit to
Privatisation
For the biggest left regroupment in German post war history,
it’s going to be a rough ride! With a grand coalition of SPD (Social
Democrats) and CDU (Conservatives) in power under Premier Angela
Merkel for the past year, the privatisation bandwagon is rolling
big time across
Against this background the disparate sections of the left in
East and West are trying to reach agreement on policy and constitutional
matters in time for the merger. There are no less than six groupings
within the “new left”, ranging from the so-called Reformist Left
which includes the PDS, the successor of the pre-1989 state party
in East Germany; through the Anti-capitalist Left (main supporter:
Attac), the Left Opposition network (CWI and 4th International)
to the Socialist Left, supported by the SWP. Added to this there
is the East-West dimension which means the two big organisations,
PDS and WASG don’t trust each other for historical reasons. Both
are dominated by an entrenched hierarchy, the former of career
politicians and the latter of - the same, e.g. Oskar Lafontaine,
who used to be a minister in a previous SPD government, along
with some former trade unionists who have rejected the SPD in
the West. Together, they won 54 MPs at the general election last
year which was an amazing feat for the new left.
There is little doubt, however, that the merger will go ahead,
but the question is at what price? The WASG, which was a social
and trade union-dominated movement that erupted out of disillusionment
with the SPD’s neo-liberal policies, is losing its youth and rank
and file activists who are disappointed at the bureaucratic direction
in which it’s going. In the former East, radicalised youth and
workers are not likely to join PDS - PDS actually lost half their
vote in the
G8
The new Left Party is therefore likely to be top-heavy
with little input from ordinary members and bogged down in policy
discussions from the start. WASG started out as a fresh, campaigning
force but there may not be much appetite left for this. However,
with a large mobilisation for the G8 summit next year and big
industrial battles looming on the horizon due to the speeded-up
neoliberal agenda nationally, it is to be hoped that new forces
will refresh it once more and transform it into a broad, fighting,
class-based party.
—page twelve—
RESISTING THE RACISTS
by Catriona Grant
Sunday 19 November was a bitterly cold
day, but not bitterly cold enough to deter 300 Sikhs from
the local temple down by the Shore and from far away places
like Glasgow and Leeds, as well as a sizeable contingent
of non-Sikhs, to converge on Pilrig Park, Leith, to protest
against the recent racist assault on a 15 year old Sikh
male, whose hair was cut off by his attackers.
Uncut hair is a mark of Sikh identity - Sri Guru Gobind
Sigh Ji instructed all Sikhs to come before him with uncut
hair.
Thus, Sikhs believe that uncut hair unites them with God
and gives them a spiritual energy.
Identity
Cutting this young man’s hair was not just an attack
on him as a person but also on his Sikh identity and religion.
The attackers have not been caught.
Despite the freezing conditions, the event was very colourful.
A vivid and noisy demonstration of mostly Sikh men, but
including young Sikh women, entered the park chanting “Our
Wond’rous Lord is Great” and waving
Saltires with slogans emblazed on them, such as “Proud to
be a Scottish Sikh” and “Sikhs serving Scottish communities”.
Tartan turbans were sported by a few of the men too.
The rally, though borne of a serious issue, was an uplifting
affair.
The children of the
Protection
There was a prayer for protection read from the
scriptures, and speeches from the Sikh community, the inter-faith
groups of
Local MP and MSP respectively, Mark Lazarowitz and Malcolm
Chisholm, also addressed the crowd.
One British Sikh leader blamed the racist and religious
assault on the “attack on multi-culturalism which is leading
to hate of distinct communities”.
The Sikh leader from
The Sikh community is a distinct religious community but
very much part of
Scottish
They identify themselves as Scottish Sikhs and
were upset and horrified that such a horrible attack should
happen to one of their young men.
In
Leaflets explaining why Sikhs believe cutting the hair is
a horrific attack on the person, and an attack on their
God and their religion, were given out to the non-Sikhs
in attendance.
As the night drew in, a cold wind sent the flames of the
candles guttering, and it became clear it was time for us
all to go home.
This attack will be remembered by Scottish Sikhs for a long
time to come, and will not be tolerated in the community
in which they have lived for decades.
Sikhs are very much part of the fabric of Leith,
A nation built on immigration
The right-wing press is in a frenzy over the 45,000 Bulgarians and Romanians who, once
they become members of the EU, intend to ‘flood’ into the