Scottish Socialist Voice
Issue 291
15th Dec 2006
—front page—
Marching on to a new
At the end of 2006,
Yet more than one in five Scots live below the poverty line.
Halifax Bank of
Every day the rich get richer, but the poor get poorer. But it doesn’t
have to be like this.
The Scottish Socialist Party stands for a different
As we bid farewell to 2006, we look to 2007 with renewed hope and resolution
to continue the fight against poverty and inequality, war and corporate
greed, ill health and environmental degradation.
The Holyrood election, on the 300th anniversary of the Act of Union, looms
large. The Scottish Socialist Party’s campaigning will be conducted at
a grassroots level and will be focused around five central, radical demands:
n Free public transport on bus, rail, ferries and underground
n Free school meals for every state school child in
n A progressive Scottish Service Tax based on ability to pay, to replace the iniquitous Council Tax
n 100,000 new council houses
n An independent, nuclear-free, multi-cultural Scottish socialist republic
—page two—
PCS striking back
Fight back against New Labour attacks
by Richie Venton
Civil service workers are set to ballot for
strike action in January. The Labour government has produced
a whole battery of reasons why a huge vote for civil service-wide
strike action on 31 January, followed by overtime bans and other
forms of resistance are critical to the future of jobs, public
services and pay.
The main demands of the union (PCS) are for no compulsory redundancies,
no compulsory relocations, an end to outsourcing, decent pensions
for new entrants to the job, fair national pay with above-inflation
increases, and funding to help provide decent working conditions
and services.
Successive job losses have made the stress of work unbearable.
One in four members earn below £15,340 - with pay inequalities
of up to £5000 between different departments for dong the same
jobs. And 36,000 jobs have been slashed already - with compulsory
redundancies, stress, overwork, collapsing services the consequences.
Terms and conditions of work have been assaulted - with unrealistic
targets and workers treated as robots under the discredited
LEAN system and its many equivalents.
Wholesale centralisation of offices has disrupted working life,
increased travel costs for many, and clobbered the service to
the public.
£2.5billion has been wasted on private consultants - some of
them on £2,600 a day.
As PCS members vote in the ballot from 2 January onwards, a
few of them give their reasons to strike back in defence of
jobs, pay and conditions.
“The last six months has seen the rundown of the DWP’s local
office network. The processing of new claims no longer takes
place in local offices in the heart of communities, but instead
in big processing factories like Northgate in
“This means an inferior service to the public.
“My wife now has to leave the house 45 minutes earlier and leave
work 45 minutes earlier to cope with childcare. This has cut
her hours and reduced her pay by over £100 a month. The DWP
was previously a fairly family-friendly employer, but now large
numbers of members, predominantly women, are suffering pay cuts.
And huge numbers more face the same because the centralisation
of offices is only half completed. This applies across the whole
country, not just
“Even those who don’t face pay cuts face an extension of the
working day, because city centre traffic is clogged up, poor
and expensive.
“When Gordon Brown and the Labour government claim to favour
green transport initiatives, closure of local offices totally
contradicts that. Large city centre locations not only incur
extra expense, but are hardly green. The service is becoming
more remote from users and staff, it’s insane, moving in the
opposite direction to what we need in environmental terms.
“In JobCentre Plus in
“The jobs cull is the reality we face through government-dictated
cuts.
“If the millions squandered on private consultants had been
deployed to the service, none of these cuts would be necessary.
“Pay is another critical issue. People can face up to £5,000
less in their wages for doing the same job in a different department.
On top of that, many will never get near the maximum pay scale
the way that progression works. When I joined the civil service
in 1980 there were 7 points in the scale, so after 7 years you
reached the top of the scale. Then they brought in performance-related
pay, with 25 different points, and your pay depending on your
box marking. Over a period they have lengthened these points
in the pay ladder. Hardly anyone knows when they will reach
the maximum and management never explain it. With Treasury underfunding,
it is almost impossible to reach. So as well as striking for
a proper national pay system across the departments and agencies,
the union needs to fight for a dramatic improvement in pay progression,
which is a scandal that must end.
“Do we want £75billion spent on a new generation of Trident,
or on accessible local public services and jobs with dignity
for civil servants? Faced with these choices, there’s only one
way PCS members will go.”
Gerry McMahon, Glasgow DWP and PCS Scottish
Committee
“I’ve been looking for a different job, but been told this is
not a good time to look for promotion or progression. No matter
how talented you are, you’re stuck.
“Training is very poor, with a short period of training and
consolidation, then going to do the work, with hellish strain
because you are still expected to meet their targets.
“If we do not return a YES vote, they will run right over the
top of us, we won’t have decent conditions and can forget pensions.
“Management are driven by government budget cuts, instead of
focussing on the work that needs doing to provide a service.
In pensions they are moving people round all over the place.
Now they have had to take on temporary staff because after job
cuts, there are not enough people to do the work.”
Gordon Thomson,
“In Registers of Scotland, the introduction of new IT systems
will result in cuts of over 400 staff in 4 years in an Agency
of 1,500. It is in our Branch’s interest to get a national agreement
on no compulsory redundancies as a starting point for bargaining
on our members‚ behalf.”
John Jamieson, PCS Branch Secretary, Registers
of
“The DVLA local office network has recently lost another 104
jobs, making a total of 507 out of an original workforce of
2,100. PCS has secured a no compulsory redundancy pledge, but
that will come under pressure.
“Members feel that management cannot rely on our goodwill any
more - of coming in early and leaving late to provide public
access. There is widespread support for the 31 January strike
as cuts will lead to a poorer service and higher stress levels.
We’ve already been cut to the bone; the marrow comes next.”
Willie Telfer, Dept of Transport PCS Group
Assistant Secretary
“The office closure announcements in HMRC means devastation
for the east coast. They want to centralise everything. Offices
in
“In the west, they want to lump together
John Davison, East Kilbride HMRC
“The announcement of over 200 HMRC office closures; the loss
of 12,500 jobs by 2008 and a further 12,500 by 2012; forced
relocation of staff; the failed LEAN concept which means a million
items of uncleared post; the new HR processes, grading reviews,
whiteboards and individual monitoring - the list of attacks
is endless.
“More and more pressure is placed on us daily as the quality
of our jobs are undermined. How many taxpayers are now suffering
the same fate as benefit claimants, finding themselves hanging
on the phone, unable to speak to someone?
“We now have the chance to stand together as the first compulsory
redundancies are issued in DEFRA and the DTI.
“Our demands are simple: no redundancies, no job losses, for
a permanent and secure workforce, a service to be proud of and
a valued workforce, treated as equals and not as clones expected
to repeat the same management drivel just to get a wage rise
or keep our jobs.
“Vote YES in the forthcoming ballot.”
John Miller, PCS, Cumbernauld Revenue & Customs
Council workers march
on
SSP MSP Carolyn Leckie has condemned Falkirk
Council’s attempt to impose new terms and conditions on its
workforce, in a bid to solve the equal pay ‘crisis’ by pushing
everyone’s wages down to the level endured by women workers
for years.
“I am calling on the Executive to make funding available and
will back the Council workforce in any way I can in their campaign
for fair play from the council,” says Carolyn, who hopes to
attend the protest organised by council workers at next Wednesday’s
council meeting.
Local SSP member Stuart McArthur added, “We fully support
Before then, you can join the UNISON demo on Falkirk this Saturday
(16 December), beginning at 11am at
The bank that stole Xmas
On Monday 11 December, a sizeable crowd descended
on HBOS headquarters on The Mound, in
Another crowd descended on HBOS headquarters to protest the
bank’s appalling disregard for the 150,000 savers who have been
swindled out of £45million by the collapse of Xmas hamper company
Farepak, whose bankers, HBOS, then swallowed the assets.
Amongst those hit hard were a
“In fact, she made a mistake and paid £500 too much. But she’s
got none of it back,” says Suzy Hall, also a Farepak agent and
now the national coordinator of Unfairpak, the campaign fighting
to get people’s money back.
Suzy lost “only” £1000 - but it wasn’t money she could afford
to lose. Around 90 per cent of Farepak’s victims are low-paid
women workers, who put aside all they could throughout the year,
only to see it drained into the vaults of one of the biggest
financial institutions in
“HBOS has a moral role in this fiasco,” Suzy told protestors,
and that is to hand back the millions they took from cash-strapped
people.
It’s been established that Farepak kept taking money even when
they knew the game was up. Question is, did HBOS do it too?
A DTI investigation is underway but, as Suzy told the Voice,
“the result can’t be made public, it’s against the law, so we’ll
hear no more about it.”
However in January, “because we’re creditors, we’ll get to see
the administrators’ report. They’ve already told us that the
most we can expect back is 4 pence in the pound. That’s what
we’re getting - can you believe that?”
The people who turned out on Monday can’t, or won’t, and nor
will the 100+ who sent letters of support from around the
SSP MSP Colin Fox spoke at the demo and later told us: “The
symbolism of the champagne-swigging guests of HBOS on the inside
and the swindled savers on the outside couldn’t be clearer.
“It’s time to take sides and the SSP is very clear about where
we stand. HBOS could make good the losses using two days’ profits.
What’s stopping them?”
—page three—
How society failed murdered women
As the Voice went to press, horrific
tragedy was being uncovered, body by body, in the woodland
around
Yet the police still had to plead with women not to go
out to work on the streets.
“Murders and serious assaults are all too common on women
working in prostitution, but many have no other options,”
SSP national executive member Mhairi McAlpine told the
Voice.
“Although they are aware of the risks and the danger,
the poverty and addictions that have driven them to prostitution
in the first place have not changed; the risks have simply
increased.
“To speak of prostitution ..
as a ‘lifestyle choice’ is laughable,
there is no choice here.
“Men using women working in prostitution must be aware
that they are party to a system which means that vulnerable
women are accustomed to putting themselves into situations
of danger.”
The murders have seen questions raised over prostitution
policy in the
The SSP calls for heroin on prescription for all registered
addicts, which would have an enormous impact on the circumstances
that force women into prostitution, coupled with targeted
benefits for those wishing to leave prostitution.
The party also demands, adds Mhairi, “a mass education
programme aimed at men who use prostitutes and legal sanctions
brought to bear on those who continue to sexually exploit
them,” rather than the prosecution of the women involved.
“We need to work towards the eradication of prostitution,”
said SSP MSP Carolyn Leckie, “but in the short term, increase
the protection afforded to desperately vulnerable women,
many of whom are addicted to drugs.
“I’m also concerned about some media statements which
have placed the onus on women to avoid being murdered...
“Violence against women is endemic in this society, and
manifested most brutally in these murders...Women must
have the right to go about their lives free from fear.”
Scroog’d by the Scottish Executive
The Scottish Executive’s decision to
block the Free School Meals bill is to be marked by a
seasonal play based on the appropriate themes of meanness
and a lack of societal connection -
in short, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
Veteran actor and musician Dave Anderson will play Scrooge
McConnell with a supporting cast including Juliet Cadzow,
of Balamory fame.
They will be ably assisted by One Plus’s campaigning choir,
the Lone Rangers, with a little street theatre to follow.
The event takes place in
So if you’re still angry about no getting a free dinner,
if you care about children’s health, and/or you just want
to do something other than queue in Clinton Cards for
six and a half hours, come along and join in the festive
- with more than a little bit of politics - fun.
SSP parliament staff face jobs fear over Christmas
The dispute between NUJ members and
former SSP MSPs Tommy Sheridan and Rosemary Byrne continues,
and was made vocal last week when staff and supporters
staged a lively demonstration on the steps of the Scottish
Parliament.
The dispute arose when the two MSPs ripped up a collective
agreement with the workers, thereby unilaterally breaking
a contract agreed to in 2005.
The National Executive Council of the union gave full
backing to the workers, who are now asking for support
from the wider labour and trade union movement.
This dispute needs to be settled quickly before the eleven
workers are issued with redundancy notices.
In 2005, the SSP Group and SSP parliamentary workers signed
a collective agreement whereby workers would be employed
collectively, MSP’s allowances being deposited in a collective
pool to pay wages.
Three months ago, Sheridan and Byrne withdrew £24,000
from that pool. This was done with the connivance of the
Scottish Parliament Corporate Body, who had previously
advised all parties on how to set up the contract in the
first place.
The chapel thus believes that the Scottish Parliament
must recognise and take responsibility for their role
in this debacle.
The shortfall means that there will not be enough funds
to pay workers wages for March and April 2007.
Effectively, Sheridan and Byrne are forcing workers into
redundancy, having rejected offers to solve this dispute
and refused to replace the money.
To comply with employment legislation, the SSP Group will
have to issue redundancy notices within the next month.
It is ironic that two MSPs who boast about their support
for trade unionists in struggle are riding roughshod over
the pay and conditions of trade unionists.
This is not about political differences. This is purely
a trade dispute. The chapel needs the support of the wider
movement.
Please send your messages of support
to: nujspchapel@hotmail.co.uk or Davy Landels,
Messages of protest should be sent to tommy.sheridan.msp@scottish.parliament.uk rosemary.byrne.msp@scottish.parliament.uk
And also to: George Reid MSP (Presiding
Officer of the Scottish Parliament) Scottish Parliament,
—page four—
The streets of
Hasselt, in Limburg, Belgium, took
a new approach to transport that could make even the most hardened
petrolhead change their mind - they massively upgraded the public
transport system and made it free, and now congestion is a thing of
the past and the city is alive again.
In the city of
The pavements aren’t hemmed in by the roads; quite the opposite is
true. People gather in the squares, children play safely, buses run
on time and every 15 minutes. If a city is only alive when its streets
are full of people, then
This wasn’t always the case.
Reel back ten years and you have a declining city, deeply in debt,
its population stagnating, its arterial roads choked with cars. And
it was this latter that was causing all the
problems.
Hasselt, more than most Western cities, had a serious car habit.
Car ownership in this town the size of Aberdeen, with a population
of 69,000 (roughly equivalent to Paisley), rose from 25,264 in 1987
to 31,672 in 1999 - a rise of 25.4 per cent. In the same time, the
population rose by just 3.3 per cent.
In fact,
This was partly due to its rural nature, but mostly to do with its
public transport system which was, not to put too fine a point on
it, shit.
Some areas had no bus service at all.
Even in the city centre, there were only one or two services running
in the afternoon.
They rarely interconnected with other public transport systems. And
anyway, they could hardly move for all the private traffic on the
roads.
The problem began in the 1960s, when car ownership began to seriously
take off. The ancient city ring-road, a cobbled terrain fringed by
beautiful chestnut trees, was concreted over to make way for two two-lane
traffic thoroughfares.
In no time, these were congested, and an outer city ring-road was
built, ostensibly to take the heat off the inner one. It didn’t; it
just filled up too. As any traffic planner will tell you, the more
roads you build, the more cars you attract.
Hasselt, like
Then in the mid-90s came a radical re-think, which became the city’s
now legendary Mobility Plan, a sustainable policy to guarantee mobility
for everyone, regardless of income, age, disability, that would meet
current needs without compromising the needs of future generations.
Congestion
Hasselt wanted fewer accidents, less congestion, more public
transport users and fewer car drivers.
They set out to reduce the space dedicated to cars and increase that
dedicated to people.
The massively ambitious policy included extending
cycle lanes - proper, European cycle lanes as opposed to the painted
bits of road that vans park on that we have here - and providing such
innovations as free bike shelters, free-to-hire white bikes, and free
encoding to speed up detection if your bike is stolen.
Note that word ‘free’ - we’ll be coming to it again.
They urged drivers coming into the city not to do so. Or
rather, to park their cars in park-and-ride car parks and take the
bus in. To encourage them, big car parks were banished to the
edge of town, and parking priority within town was given over to residents
and the elderly. To encourage them further, the maximum speed in town
was reduced to 30 - kilometres, that is - and you could park for a
max of one hour.
They re-thought this ring road business and instead of building a
third, in fact turned one of the originals, the inner one, into the
During the reconstruction of this area, squares emerged, each with
a unique character that adds to the richness of the city’s culture.
Kolonel Dusartplein, for instance, is the sight of the market, which
has returned to the city centre after a long, long absence. Hendrik
Van Veldekeplein, named for the first Dutch writer-poet, has been
built in an auditorium style, making it an ideal venue for street
performances.
All of which sounds fantastic, but what underpinned these ideas was
something more fantastic still.
Working on the assumption that you won’t get people out of their cars
without providing a comprehensive public transport system,
And here comes the exciting bit - to ensure that take-up was as large
as possible, they made the services free.
Well, the papers went mad. The world called them crazy. And the people
went on the bus.
On day one - 1 July 1997 - passenger numbers rose from the usual 1000
to 7832. And numbers didn’t slump once the novelty wore off, they
just kept increasing.
These days, the increase in bus passengers is touching on 1000 per
cent.
Dismal
Compare this to the Scottish Executive’s dismal target to
increase bus passenger numbers by one per cent.
By making public transport free, the council could also guarantee
every single person’s right to mobility. That meant not only the schoolchildren
and the workers, but also the old people, the people visiting relatives
in hospital, the unemployed.
Another social spin-off has been that people now talk to each other
more, fostering a stronger sense of community within
Needless to say, traffic is way down, and congestion almost non-existent.
The cost is always something people ask. In fact, the council was
in deep debt in the mid-90s and the radical re-think was partly prompted
by the fact that they just couldn’t afford a new ring-road.
Improving the bus service and making it free was cheaper.
In 1998, it worked out as costing (euro)22.63 per household.
Since then, it has more than paid for itself by attracting so much
new commerce to the city that the council’s debt has gone and taxes
are down.
Funnily enough, it still has a high level of car ownership,
it’s just that people drive them much more rarely these days.
—page five—
letters page
Why We Need Free School
Meals
It would be great to have free school meals because
some people have very unhealthy lunch boxes like lots of sweets
and crisps and chocolate spread sandwiches.
If we had free school meals their mum or dad would let them
go to cash and they would have a much healthier lunch (but if
we had free school meals it wouldn’t be called cash!).
Some people have to go school meals every day because their
mum and dad have to go work very early so they don’t have time
to make packed lunches and have to give their wee girl or boy
money every day.
So if you add that up, they are paying about £30 every four
weeks, which is a lot of money.
In my school I would have to put up my hand to have free school
meals and I wouldn’t really like to have my hand up because
people might make fun of me just because I have free school
meals (So I pay for my lunch even though my mum is a skint student).
I would also like it because all my friends would probably have
school dinner and I would be able to sit next to all of them.
School dinners and packed lunches sometimes go separately.
Free healthy school meals would be good for everyone.
Amy McEntee, age 8
Milton of Campsie
Che bashing - Bah humbug
I see that a lighthearted addition of a festive hat
to a famous photo of Che Guevara has caused Disgusted of Castle
Douglas to emit a humourless stream of vitriol against both
Guevara himself and the Cuban Revolution.
I think Guevara’s life and death speaks for itself and does
not need me to defend it against an assault I had hoped would
vanish from SSP publications with the departure of the SWP.
As to the “Stalinist” nature and crimes of the Cuban revolution
- which it follows is not to be regarded as a “workers’ revolution”
- a little more should be said.
It is perfectly reasonable to disagree with a variety of features
of
It is also unreasonable to avoid any mention of the fact that
this same regime has been sustained by the majority of a populace
which, though living in a poor country, enjoys higher rates
of literacy, a longer expectation of life and lower rates of
infant mortality than in the US, successive administrations
of which have sought to overthrow it.
It would also be reasonable to note that since 1991, the Cuban
revolution has not only survived - warts and all - acute economic
crises with its own population in basic good health but currently
provides massive assistance in medical and educational provision
and disaster relief to the underprivileged of other nations.
Oh - and as to its not being a “workers’ revolution”: it is
true that Batista’s dictatorship was overthrown by a relatively
small guerrilla force and not by the organised working class.
But greater familiarity with the process by which that revolution
implemented its most radical redistributive programmes - notably
the agrarian reforms and nationalisations of 1959-61 - would
enable the revolutionary inhabitant of the armchair in Castle
Douglas to understand the crucial role played by Cuba’s organised
workers in both town and countryside in accelerating those programmes
by their exertion of a formidable “pressure from below”.
I know this doesn’t fit the schema of the ultra-left critics
of the Cuban revolution but then real history often doesn’t.
Finally, in response to the editorial query as to whether the
festive hat should remain on Guevara’s head: Che was a hard,
austere man but he had a dry sense of humour and, since the
hat is not placed there for the purposes of making commercial
profit, I reckon he’d let it be.
Brian Pollitt
Glasgow
Independent thinking
The Voice missed a trick last week with the article
‘No independent thinking from new labour hacks’. John Reid,
the Home Secretary, argued
Gregor Gall
Edinburgh
Appeal to the South
At the National Council on Sunday comrades from all
over
They have been so busy campaigning on all sorts of issues including
the free school meals campaign, and more recently the UnFarepak
campaign.
I learned that in the heart of
The South region was hit hard by the exit of one of the sitting
SSP MSP’s however our recovery is underway. Street stalls in
Ayr and
At the NC I appealed for other regions to help us in the South
and I am glad to say that offers of support have been forthcoming.
Ayrshire would like to thank all those comrades who have already
displayed their solidarity as well as to the comrades we will
be working with in 2007.
I hope that in reading this letter other comrades and supporters
in the South will get in touch through the
Denise Morton
Irvine
GIE’S PEACE
Morag Balfour
Morag is a long term activist in the peace movement and is the SSP’s peace and disarmament spokesperson
KC and the Suntan Man
I went back to Oban last week.
I’d been asked to take some sessions with 6th year pupils. I
travelled through the day before. I had a glance through the
Oban Times and found to my horror that Tommy Sheridan had visited
the school the week before.
His former teacher works in
Getting towards the end of one of the sessions I was taking,
one pupil asked me what Tommy was really like. He hadn’t bought
the ‘clean living martyr’ image being propagated so enthusiastically.
Needless to say I spoke truthfully, giving only the detail that
I felt necessary. It’s a sad day for Tommy Sheridan when even
the young question his integrity.
We’ve been asked to have a kind of “hopes for 2007” theme this
week so I want to tell you a wee story. I set off home on Saturday
in my Fiat Punto - she is 8 years old and called KC, as her
number-plate alludes to.
Me and KC got as far as the outskirts of
Mobile at the ready, I called Green Flag and they sent a nice
man called
This is the time of year that Christians reflect on Advent.
It’s got relevance for those of no particular faith as well
though. It’s one of the times, historically, that folks cried
out for justice and fought to maintain the hope that things
could change for the better.
I think we still need to struggle for both justice, and the
hope of it. If we don’t believe that at some level change will
come then we are at serious risk of disempowerment and fatalism.
It would be daft to wander around believing that peace and socialism
will be achieved next week but we ought to at least attempt
to speak it into being. People are suffering and they need justice,
and they need it sooner rather than later. We have enough missiles
to destroy most of the human community and a government set
on prolonging this abominable threat. Peace needs to be waged
now more than ever. Righteous indignation must be channelled
carefully though, lest we compromise the very peace we are working
towards.
I hope that next year brings us closer to the reality we are
hoping for, that economic systems are more just and that little
pockets of peace spread like wildfire throughout the globe.
I’d like to see greater accountability in politics and if I
could, I’d banish manipulative practices for good. I’d like
to see our party characterised as one where people do what is
right and not what is easy - Potter fans will hear an echo of
Albus Dumbledore in this, but this fictional bloke is a wise
one.
Signing off for this year, I wish you a restful holiday period
but most of all though, I wish you hope.
—centre pages—
Out with
the old...
the story of 2006
If ever there was a year that
SSP members and supporters will be glad to see
the back of, 2006 must surely be it. But we’re
now facing 2007 with renewed hope, a buoyant membership,
and excitement - heading into elections that promise
to turn Scottish politics upside down.
While the SSP has not had its troubles to seek,
the Voice has never stopped looking to the struggles
of people, from Barrhead to
World in a whirlwind
January saw a massive victory
for Hamas’ in the Palestinian elections and the
west was not slow to punish them for voting the
‘wrong’ way. Immediate threats to suspend aid
were carried out, leaving
By summer, the Middle East was in meltdown as
No matter that
So followed the usual bombardment of the Palestinians,
and bombs raining down on
Their alleged targets, Hezbollah, remained utterly
defiant, and around 150 Israelis, mostly soldiers,
were killed.
In
In April, Italians celebrated as they finally
booted out millionaire con-man President Berlusconi,
soon followed by withdrawal from
Young people were on the streets of
We end the year with the new Russian ‘democracy’
of free trade exposed in all its brutality and
corruption. While poverty levels for ordinary
Russians crash to new, terrible lows, Putin runs
the country as a dictator, on behalf of multi-billionaire
oligarchs.
The government has awarded itself a licence to
kill; a by-product is the gunning down of anti-corruption
journalist Anna Politkovskaya.
Meanwhile in Africa, millions of refugees are
starving in
The world does next to nothing as the situation
descends inexorably into genocide. It remains
the world’s most under-reported disaster.
In
Their government is now back in place, and Maoist
guerrillas have agreed a peace deal which sees
this country moving in a very interesting direction,
with potentially profound repercussions across
In
Throughout the year, indigenous people’s movements,
land campaigners, community activists and trade
unionists have joined together and flexed their
muscle.
We’ve seen left-talking presidents elected across
the region - in
In
People want change - so beware those who talk
radical but do little. In
This month, also the 50th anniversary of the start
of the Cuban revolution, saw the daddy of the
new radicals, Hugo Chavez, resoundingly returned
as President.
The mood of revolt has also had an effect on the
upstairs neighbour. Massive protests by immigrants
brought the
Anger at the Bush regime, particularly over corruption
and the war on
Did that really just happen? A year with the Scottish Socialist Party
The Scottish Socialist Party’s
year began in
With two SSP bills due to be voted on in the Scottish
Parliament, January was an intense period of campaigning
across the country.
First up was Colin Fox’s bill to scrap prescription
charges. The bill was defeated, but the SSP’s
efforts forced the Scottish Executive to announce
plans to extend the number of people entitled
to free prescriptions, with even the SSP-hating
Daily Record admitting that the system is such
a muddle, “we could find that the SSP’s plan to
scrap the charges was actually preferable.”
A week later, the SSP’s long fought-for campaign
to scrap the Council Tax went before MSPs. The
SSP bill was voted down by an unholy alliance
of Labour, the Tories, and, with outstanding hypocrisy,
the LibDems and SNP. Both parties claim to oppose
the Council Tax, and were featuring the issue
prominently in
In March, the SSP conference launched the ‘People
not Profit’ campaign, based around a ten point
programme including opposition to war, privatisation
and low pay, and fighting for wealth redistribution,
radical action on the environment, and an independent,
socialist Scotland.
SSP members were campaigning hard, but in the
spring, the party’s internal problems began rumbling.
Tommy Sheridan had resigned as convenor more than
a year earlier, after his insistence that he would
take the News of the World to court over a story
claiming he attended a sex club in
As the court date for his libel action drew nearer,
it became clear he would not be persuaded to drop
the case, and SSP members moved mountains to try
and keep the party we had slaved to build from
being destroyed by his reckless, ridiculous, utterly
pompous “battle” with the News of the World.
We refused to hand our internal documents over
when the court demanded, party member Alan McCombes
being jailed in the process, as we tried to keep
the SSP out of this mess.
June, July and August were a living nightmare.
A number of SSP members were cited as witnesses
- Tommy demanded they “support” him in his libel
action. The majority said they would not reinvent
the SSP’s history for the sake of a seedy cover-up,
believing that the party’s integrity could not
be sold for a cheap victory over a sleazy newspaper.
The court case itself was relayed in gruesome
detail in every Scottish newspaper, and if you
want to read more about it you can check the SSP’s
website.
Suffice to say that Tommy departed the party in
the wake of his court victory, screeching ‘scab’
at those who’d refused to lie for him.
The SSP was written off in the immediate aftermath,
but through the integrity and dedication of our
membership, we have survived and are rebuilding
daily. And the autumn has seen a resurgence that
few could have predicted.
Poll after poll now puts the SSP in a solid electoral
position, the latest in the Sunday Herald putting
us on four per cent in both the first and second
votes.
It leaves us ground to make up, but considering
the Greens are sitting at 5 per cent on the second
vote, and just 3 per cent on the first, after
screeds of uncritical coverage in the media and
a somewhat less disastrous year, we’re doing no
bad.
The SSP is back to doing what it does best - campaigning.
Our Free School Meals Bill has been blocked by
the parliament, but there’s such a groundswell
of support for this issue there’s no way we’ll
let it go.
Our Glasgow MSP Rosie Kane spent a week in jail
for protesting against Trident nuclear weapons.
Since her time, she’s been vocal on the conditions
women face in Cornton Vale.
We’ve marched with Independence First, and in
2007, a crunch year for Scottish independence
- with elections which could see majority support
for taking
We’ve given unqualified, practical support to
Farepak campaigners in their fight for justice
and compensation.
And as the holidays arrive, when others are slowing
down, we’re taking our new demand for free public
transport out onto the streets - and the buses,
and the trains, and the ferries.
Last month we celebrated the tenth anniversary
of the Voice,
With hindsight, we should have known 2006 was
going to be tough given it began with George Galloway
on telly pretending, inexplicably, to be a cat.
How could it get more excruciating than that?
Yet it did.
But not only has the SSP survived, we’ve done
it with our principles intact, our support resilient
and our determination stronger.
A guid New Year, indeed.
Against racism
This year in
Labour politicians outdid each other in efforts
to muster fear and blame - Gordon Brown demanded
we all get down with the Union Jack, John Reid
told Muslims to watch their kids in case they
grew up to be terrorists, and Jack Straw decided
it was OK for him to tell women what to wear.
Aside from the propaganda, Muslims have been directly
targeted by the security services, culminating
in the shooting of two men in their
Despite political scaremongering, amplified by
media, we’ve seen immense dignity, unity and respect
on our streets. In
And in Leith, a horrible, racist attack on a young
Sikh boy saw locals join Sikhs from across Scotland
to protest under fluttering Saltires declaring
‘Proud to be a Scottish Sikh’.
Meanwhile Scottish politicians failed to protect
asylum seekers from dawn raids, and again we saw
families torn apart, people who had lived through
torture traumatised all over again.
But refugees have organised their own union, Unity,
and with other organisations and their friends
and neighbours, they are stopping the dawn raids
themselves.
Candle-lit vigils have chased off jack-booted,
body-armoured immigration snatch squads from Glasgow
flats as communities say, very firmly, ‘we want
our friends to stay’.
Friends like Sakchai Makao, a young man originally
from Thailand but a Shetland resident for 13 years,
who was caught up as the Home Office, under the
new John Reid regime, decided to get tough on
‘foreign criminals’. He was detained and deportation
loomed, to a country he had left as a small child.
But 9,000 people in Shetland weren’t having it,
and demanded he come home. He won his appeal in
July.
Fighting for rights at work
March saw the biggest day of
strike action in decades when 250,000 public sector
workers demanded protection of their pension rights.
Negotiations continue between Cosla and the unions
in
DWP workers struck for a day in February against
the mass cuts planned for their department. They
won some concessions, and will join workers across
the civil service in a strike ballot this January.
Lecturers took strike action in March at the erosion
of their pay, which escalated into a boycott of
assessments as lecturers refused to mark exams.
Lothians Inland Revenue staff took a day’s strike
action in April against a slavish new management
practice, and were joined in July, for another
strike day, by workers in other offices.
In June, MoD staff struck against civilian job
losses and privatisation.
PCS members in passport offices were out for a
day in October, for a decent pay rise. Their negotiations
continue.
Autumn has seen council workers in action across
Glasgow Council workers won big concessions on
the eve of a two day strike, although a fight
is still on the cards to stop privatisation of
Culture and Leisure Services.
Workplace victories outside of the public sector
include deep sea divers in the RMT union, who
won a massive victory in a strike over pay, and
workers at the Mackinnon Mills factory in
Rage against war
The war in
On the day of writing, at least 57 people were
obliterated in a bomb blast in
Unemployment is now endemic in this disaster-torn
country, the infrastructure and economy utterly
wiped out in this so-called ‘liberation’.
Civil war is seizing
British involvement in
British involvement is only provoking further
violence, pouring more oil onto a raging inferno
of violence.
The only option we have is to pull troops out
of
And learn forever that you can’t deliver peace
through the barrel of a gun.
Grassroots campaigns
Government schemes to hive council
housing off to private housing associations has
met with fierce resistance.
The anti-stock transfer victory in
Health too was a battleground as communities fought
to keep their services, especially in Lanarkshire,
where the health board decreed one A&E must
close. Campaigners defied the assumption that
they would close ranks around their own local
unit and formed Lanarkshire Health United, to
defend all of the services, holding demonstrations
across the region.
The health board’s axe fell on Monklands hospital,
but while its A&E remains open, the fight
to save it goes on.
Thousands marched in Ayr, too, to save
In Renton, West Dunbartonshire, a six month occupation
to save the last remaining local authority care
home for the elderly ended in a smashing victory
for the residents, Robert and Annie, local SSP
councillor Jim Bollan, who’d moved in with them
for the duration of the struggle, and all their
friends and supporters.
The environment has been a headline issue this
year.
The government, including Labour in the Scottish
Parliament, has tried to promote nuclear energy
as a carbon-free energy source. Campaigners, including
the SSP, say that’s the last thing we need.
Then Labour proposed a national debate on replacing
Trident nuclear missiles. Then, to no-one’s surprise,
announced last week that they’d made their minds
up anyway.
They face fierce resistance. The ‘Long walk for
peace’ marched across
Faslane 365 got underway in October - a year of
protest at the nuclear submarine base.
—page eight—
Victory to the ‘Polmadie 103’!
The Glasgow Glaciers’ strike remembered, ten years on
by Richie Venton SSP national workplace organiser
On Hogmanay 1996, the Glasgow Glacier
Metal engineering workers were ringing the bells in elation
at their victory, whilst Glacier bosses were wringing their
hands in despair.
The ‘Polmadie 103’ had scored a landmark victory for class
struggle trade unionism, defeating the factory’s multinational
owners, Turner & Newall, after a seven week factory
sit-in.
It was the first workplace occupation in ten years, and
was provoked by dictatorial bosses trying to impose a 15-point
change of contract, which aimed to double company profits,
cut wages by £123 a week and slash sick pay, the canteen
subsidy and other benefits won over 25 years by these members
of the AEEU, now part of AMICUS.
The boss’s method of imposing this was designed to undermine
the union.
He picked on the youngest tradesman in the workforce, and
ordered him to risk health and safety by doing two jobs
at once.
The lad went to his union stewards, who had prepared for
this confrontation and, advising the entire workforce to
‘down tools’, went upstairs to negotiate. As they waited
outside the his office, the manager sneaked down to the
factory floor to declare: “Gentlemen, you are all sacked!”
Four of those sacked were on holiday, while another was
convalescing after operations for brain tumours!
Critically, instead of walking out the door on strike, which
years before had landed them in a prolonged lockout, the
workers stayed in the factory, declaring themselves available
for work.
This totally wrong-footed management, and gave the highly-skilled
workers several strategic advantages.
They seized control of a factory with £1million worth of
undelivered precision engineering products, paralysing £200,000-a-day
production and thereby putting pressure on the owners from
customer companies, including a nuclear power station.
They psychologically brought the battle into the bosses’
domain, preventing them bussing in scabs past legally-hamstrung
pickets with police assistance, as Timex had done in
And above all, they were fighting for their jobs, justice
and full trade union rights inside a well-heated factory,
with snow-storms outside, making it one huge campaigning
nerve centre.
If the factory occupation had remained a ‘folded arms’ affair,
waiting for concessions from the employers, it would have
collapsed, or at best allowed some dirty deal to be hatched
above their heads between the management and top AEEU officials,
who had secret contact with the company as early as five
days into the occupation.
But this inspiring workers’ struggle was a model of strategy
and tactics.
Firm discipline was established by the union stewards and
Occupation Committee, with a booze ban and daily mass meetings.
Meals were cooked and the factory kept clean.
Some of us who later founded the SSP played a major role
in this historic event.
I first called to offer practical solidarity the morning
after they started the occupation. We had been in the thick
of building support for the 500 locked out Liverpool dockers
for the previous 15 months, and used our vast array of workplace
contacts to arrange solidarity visits with Glacier workers
all over Scotland - and parts of the UK, particularly those
with big engineering industries.
This served several purposes, including financial survival
for the workers’ families and a breach in the media vow
of silence.
On the issue of whether management could evict them, we
explained the law, with the help of a couple of friendly
lawyers, but emphasised that the ultimate means of defence
of the sit-in from potential moves, involving police or
cowboy security firms, was to build mass support in the
workplaces and surrounding community, creating a potential
army of defence.
The employers hoped to isolate the sit-in with the help
of media silence, aiming to starve the workers’ families
into submission as Christmas loomed large. Workplace solidarity
tours helped scupper that.
It also countered the danger of boredom and demoralisation
setting in amongst a workforce not previously known for
involvement in the wider movement.
When management told the arbitration service ACAS that they
had no workforce, we smelt a rat, suspecting imminent eviction,
and in discussions with the Occupation Committee suggested
an early morning solidarity mass picket, built through a
leaflet around workplaces and the Clydeside Dockers Support
Group mailing.
That vastly boosted morale, became a weekly feature, and
peaked at a turnout of 400.
We then suggested a pre-Xmas demo, which attracted well
over 1,000 on Sunday 15 December. One report claimed 3,000.
The build-up was as important as this stirring event itself.
The Occupation Committee put me in charge of a small Demo
Committee. We involved the absolute majority of the men,
and a few of their partners, in street meetings, issuing
hard-hitting leaflets that won support, by-passed the media
blackout, and swamped workplaces and shopping centres across
the west of Scotland.
An ACAS boss complained after a leaflet was left unwittingly
on his windscreen, because it described Turner & Newall
as ‘notorious merchants of death’, citing their appalling
record on asbestosis.
AEEU officials went ape-shit down the phone to the union
convener, who firmly rejected their instructions and printed
29,000 of the ‘offending’ leaflets. This propaganda offensive
helped bring T&N bosses to heel, as they already faced
dire problems with billions of outstanding asbestosis claims
and feared their notoriety being broadcast.
The workers were literally dancing with elation after the
success of the demo. They then turned their attention to
daily street collections in the run up to Xmas - for financial
survival, but also to keep the campaign alive and in people’s
minds.
The first big collection, on 18 December, raised £488 ...
for the
On Xmas Eve, a team hit
Negotiations began that day, involving both full-time union
officials and the factory union convener and deputy convener.
T&N’s head of Employee Relations grizzled that as they
negotiated, Glacier workers were on the streets with megaphones
and leaflets attacking T&N.
That was part of the point - to pile pressure on the company
and remind right-wing AEEU officials what was at stake.
An Xmas day breakfast was laid on in the occupied factory
for families and supporters - another ingenious act of defiance
and comradeship by people whose talents erupted in the heat
of battle.
By Hogmanay, the 103 workers were celebrating a landmark
victory. All were reinstated, with full union recognition,
and very little conceded to the bosses on their conditions
of work.
In a final fling at undermining union rights, the company
tried to get a staggered return to work - which the AEEU
full-time officials agreed to.
The workers’ direct union representatives went ballistic,
refused, said it was a ploy to potentially victimise leaders
of the occupation, and won a proud, united return to work.
A multinational giant was brought to its knees by the tactics,
skills, and impact on production by this factory occupation.
Socialists played an important, constructive part, applying
collective experience to living struggles, laying foundations
for a united, working class socialist party.
n A fuller narrative of events and tactics is available
on request (with £1 for printing!) from Richie, at ssp.glasgow@btconnect.com
or 0141 429 8200
—page nine—
What ya reading for in 2006
by Roz Paterson
Amidst all the gzillions of autobiographies
of teenage ‘celebrities’ and guides to hoovering your own
carpet and wearing tidy clothing are a handful of books actually
worth reading.
These include Heat by George Monbiot, in which the author,
an environmental journalist and campaigner, outlines what
we need to do - now! - to ‘stop the planet from burning’.
To achieve the necessary 90 per cent cut in emissions by 2030,
he offers up a series of radical but workable and affordable
proposals, from immediate and rigorously enforced emissions
targets to cancelling Trident to pay for alternative, sustainable
energy technologies to replace those based on fossil fuels.
He also outs the climate change denial industry, which has
set back efforts to tackle climate change by nearly a decade.
Another good, if sobering, read is food campaigner Joanna
Blythman’s Bad Food Britain, a brutal look at us, the nation
that eats more crisps than the rest of Europe put together
and that feeds our schoolkids a more impoverished diet than
they’d receive were they brought up in South African townships.
It combines social history (what happened to our food traditions?)
with corporate politics (are ready-meals really the ultimate
liberators of women?) with our plummeting health (why, when
our top ten bestseller list is groaning with diet books are
we so overweight?).
A more harrowing, but unforgettable book is Israeli historian
Ilan Pappe’s Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. This is a unique
record of 1948, not just because it recounts the brutality
behind the forced exile of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians
from their homeland, but because it exposes the military plan
that underpinned it. A Final Solution by Jews for Palestinians,
only four years after the Nazis drew one up for Jews in
Other highlights include Greg Palast’s superb Armed Madhouse,
an excoriating but also hilarious look at oil, Venezuela,
terrorism, stolen elections and the madness of King George
II, and Murder in Samarkand, by Craig Murray, former UK ambassador
to Uzbekistan, which describes life under the murderous tyranny
of torturer-in-chief and US/UK ally in the War on Terror,
President Islam Karimov.
And finally, Who Owns the Land: the Hidden Facts behind Land
Ownership by Kevin Cahill, one of the original researchers
on the Sunday Times Rich List.
This is the first ever compilation of land owners and land
ownership structures in every nation on earth and reveals,
amongst other things, that 60 per cent of Europe is owned
by the old artistocracy, who are therefore in receipt of most
EU agricultural subsidies, that the four biggest religious
groupings - Christian, Muslim, Hindu and Bhuddist - own vast
landholdings, and that 85 per cent of the world’s population
is reduced to serfdom as a result of land ownership policy.
Help needed to rebuild The Coup
by Wullie McGartland
At first glance Hiphop appears to be nothing
more than guns, bling, pimps and a whole load of crotch grabbing.
These are the images spewed out by multinational record companies
and the corporate media. Their aim to get every white middle-class
youngster into baggy clothes and caps, and worshipping at
the feet of gun-toting gangsta caricatures like Fiddy Cent.
In amongst the tirade of shit that proclaims itself as Hiphop
you will find the odd shining gem - and I’m not talking about
some diamond hanging round P Diddy’s (or whatever he’s called
this week) neck. One of these gems is The Coup
The Coup are Boots Riley and Pam the Funkstress and have been
going for 14 years - with a small gap in the middle while
Boots took some time out to be a full time organiser of an
Oakland socialist group, the Young Comrades, whose activities
included storming the City Council HQ a few times.
Their lyrics reflect their politics, with songs like Not Yet
Free,
In 2001 the band made headlines across the world due to the
design of their Party Music album cover. The original album
cover art depicted Pam the Funkstress and Riley standing in
front of the twin towers of the
Despite the artwork being produced three months before 9/11
they were condemned by the right wing Us media with one commentator
saying the album was a “stomach-turning example of anti-Americanism
disguised as highbrow intellectual expression”.
The album cover was changed by the record company as even
Dick Cheney started attacking The Coup in the press. As Boots
himself says of the time: “As far as the record industry was
concerned, it was the end of my career”.
The band refused to lie down and set up their own independent
label - producing artists ignored by the corporate labels
and producing their own latest offering earlier this year
Pick A Bigger Weapon. Boots is also putting words to the music
of Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello on a new joint venture.
All seemed to be going well for the group up until last month;
the album was out and they had just started a promotional
tour with fellow Bay Area rappers Mr Lif.
They had just finished a gig in
The passengers of the bus managed to get themselves out by
crawling through one of the windows.
Boots described the scene on the band’s website saying:
“I saw that the front of the bus was on fire. I yelled to
everyone, saying to get off the bus immediately because the
bus was on fire and it could blow up. We all did. No one was
killed. The bus was totally engulfed in flames. “
For a while no one stopped to help, supposedly because the
thought we were ‘illegal aliens’ crossing the border. Eventually
some great folks stopped and helped.”
There was no fatalities but there was injuries amongst those
on the bus including broken ribs, a punctured lung, a shattered
knee, various lacerations and messed up backs.
The bands website also explains that they suffered more than
physical injuries explaining:
“We lost everything in that crash and fire. We were packed
to live and do shows on that bus for a month. Most of us had
every stitch of clothing we owned on there. We lost clothes,
computers, recording equipment, cameras, IDs, phones, keys
to cars and homes. We lost cash. We lost all our damn instruments
and equipment to perform with. We were and are happy to walk
away with our lives. But now we’re home. Most of the band
touring with The Coup has kids, rent that won’t quit, bills,
and holiday expenses coming. It may take a year for us to
see any money from the insurance company.”
The band are asking fans to help out via their website, as
they have no large corporation backing them and had put on
the tour themselves.
n thecoupmusic.net
Tuned in
Keef Tomkinson
Square-eyed socialist Keef recommends next
week’s TV
Apology: As Festivus is upon us all TV is becoming sweeter,
kinder and duller.
Sunday 17 December
The China Syndrome, More4 12.40pm
In this 70s paranoid thriller a handsome Jack Lemmon, sexy
Jane Fonda and always ugly Michael Douglas, attempt to expose
a near disastrous meltdown at a nuclear power plant. Seriously,
this superb film reminds us of the potential cost of Blair’s
nuclear fantasies.
The Real Hustle: The Twelve Scams of Christmas,
BBC3 9pm
BBC3 is shit but this show is always worth watching and now
it’s got a Xmas special. Be they intelligent, moronic or American,
citizens are stripped of their cash by three grifters, one
fat, one tall, one blonde in a variety of disturbingly easy
scams.
Shadow Of The Vampire, BBC2 10.40pm
Ho, ho, ho. Where’s your Santa now? Basing itself on the making
of Nosferatu, the classic 1920s adaptation of Dracula, this
film is a ‘what if’ story. John Malkovich plays a manic German
director who uses a real vampire as his star. Slowly cast
and crew start going missing but the show must go on.
Monday 18 December
The Trouble with Atheism, C4 8pm
This show bases itself on the idea that us atheists think
we have all the answers and that our beliefs are as flawed
and contradictory as the dogmas we reject. Excuse me!! On
TV and radio you can’t escape from God, his brat Jesus or
Bible sucking hypocrites. More atheism, MORE!!
When the Levees Broke, BBC4 9pm
If there’s an angrier black man in the world than Spike Lee
then I ain’t met him. In this two-part documentary Lee looks
at the
Wednesday 20 December
The Lost Gospels, BBC4 9pm
Told you nothing was on. MORE GOD! In this 60 minutes of praise
be unto him we see the director’s cut of the bible. All the
bits that didn’t make us feel guilty enough. A tale of Jesus
returning to the Bush Of Shepherds to live and work with dad
as heavenly rag and bone men was cut but resurfaced years
later.
And that’s it. As with each year 99 per cent of Festivus TV
is candy for the brain. Just remember one thing. Before you
go charging into shops on Boxing Day or try and rent a DVD
on New Year’s Day note that the shop assistant hates you and
your anti-social laziness. Get friends, get drunk and get
away from that shop window. Festivus is ours not yours.
—page ten—
international news
Evolution of a revolution
by Patrick O’Hare, in
When the thousands of Chavez supporters
surrounded the presidential palace on election night,
soaked from a night of heavy rain yet ecstatic in
victory, and greeted their president with calls of
‘Chavez, friend, the people are with you’, they were
expressing the deep, fraternal bond which links the
mass of Venezuelan poor with their Commandante.
They feel they have a president who truly represents
them. And they turned out in their millions to endorse
his presidency.
Yet, as Chavez himself noted, “Those who voted for
me, didn’t vote for me, they voted for a socialist
project to construct a profoundly different
Given the past attempts by the Venezuelan upper class,
backed by
Right-wing Colombian paramilitaries had been detected
operating around the capital, leading members of the
opposition, including of the church, had called for
protests to overthrow the government after the elections,
and the private media, notorious for its role in the
2002 coup, had published false polls showing the opposition
candidate - Manuel Rosales - as leading.
This was clearly geared towards discrediting the electoral
process and paving the way for opposition protests
of ‘fraud’ following a Chavez victory.
The failure of such protests to materialise reflects
the contradictions within the opposition movement
itself: Rosales, representing the moderate wing, has
been severely criticised by more extreme right-wing
factions for having accepted defeat and respecting
the results.
This same same group also repeatedly advocated pulling
out of the elections, even up until the last week.
Impatience
However, the general mood amongst ordinary
Venezuelans post-election is a combination of enthusiasm
for the government’s plans to deepen the revolution
and tackle corruption and bureaucracy, and impatience
that these plans have been so slow to materialise.
This can partly be explained by the type of state
inherited by Chavez when he was first elected in 1998;
a state permeated with clientelism and corruption.
This culture was instilled in the minds of almost
all the civil servants who staffed the ministries
and municipal councils and proved an enormous obstacle
to social reforms and structural changes to the state.
“He (Chavez) will have to do something soon, otherwise
people might start to turn against him”, explained
Maria, a leader of the communal council in Barrio
23 de Enero, a huge Pro-Chavez barrio with a proud
history of socialist and armed struggle.
When asked which other government ministers she trusted,
she could name only one out of a cabinet of ten. Distrust
of various Chavista ministers is fairly widespread
and not unreasonable.
The nature of the pro-Chavez coalition, which contains
17 different political parties and many different
strands within those parties, was conceived of back
in 1998 and there is a right wing within the Chavez
movement, right up to ministerial level, who want
Chavez but without socialism.
This has led Chavez to call for a new united revolutionary
party, and its structure will be crucial in determining
the political direction of Venezuela.
An amalgamation of existing political pro-Chavez parties,
each with its individual leadership and top-down structure,
could act as a block to further reforms and create
disillusionment amongst the rank and file of the pro-Chavez
movement.
However a true mass party, based around the themes
of unity, solidarity and socialism and involving direct
participation and democracy at a grassroots level,
could further this exciting process known as ‘Bolivarian
Socialism’.
Regarding the deepening of the revolution, this can
be roughly divided into three fronts: economic, reforming
of state structures and international policy.
Economy
Concerning the socialisation of the economy,
plans are confused and unclear.
There are plans and enthusiasm amongst workers to
expand the state-controlled, co-cooperative and worker-managed
sectors of the economy and expropriation of abandoned
private companies will continue, though sporadically
and with the absence of a national plan.
There is some resistance within the Chavez government
and some sectors of the unions to these expropriations
and worker-management.
Thus how, and at what pace, the socialisation of the
economy proceeds will depend on the government formulating
a clear programme of expropriation.
Chavez has just set up a presidential commission which
will consider changes to the constitution; a hugely
progressive piece of legislation which also contains
many contradictory elements, such as the protection
of private property and the independence of the central
bank, which mirror the balance of political forces
at the time of its inception in 2001.
Changes to the constitution have to be passed by two
thirds of the national assembly and then approved
by popular referendum.
Communal councils
A recent and exciting development has been
the formation of Consejos Communales, elected councils
for between 200-300 families, who meet to discuss
problems in their local area and appeal directly to
the government for funding for projects.
They were conceived of as a way of bypassing municipal
councils, which are riddled with corruption, represent
huge, unmanageable constituencies.
Proposals to extend the power and influence of the
communal councils - a living, breathing example of
participatory democracy - as well as an overhaul of
personnel within the civil service, up to ministerial
level, are expected to be instigated by Chavez and
help tackle bureaucracy and corruption.
Internationally, Chavez should continue to work towards
his twin projects of building and strengthening an
anti-imperialist block and furthering, through organisations
such as MercoSur and ALBA, Simon Bolivar’s dream of
a united South America.
—page eleven—
international news
Pinochet: The unforgiven
Even in death, the former Chilean dictator cheats justice
by Dick Barbor-Might
Soon after I heard that Pinochet
had died in a Santiago hospital I phoned my Anglo-Chilean
friend Francisca Beausire in Buenos Aires, a short plane flight
away on the other side of the Andes.
What did she think about the man who had just died?
She said, very quietly, some part of the truth will go with
him to the grave.
That truth, about her brother Bill and about the other desaparecidos
(the ones who disappeared) lies in the recollections of the
perpetrators of the atrocities carried out under Pinochet’s
rule.
The bodies of the desaparecidos sometimes lie buried in remote
deserts or on the ocean floor, in whatever might survive of
their human remains.
Pinochet himself would have known some at least of the detail
of what happened to these victims - the hunt for targeted
individuals, the capture, the torture, the information extracted,
the killing, the disposal of bodies.
This information would have provided material for the daily
breakfast conversations that Pinochet used to have with his
chief of the DINA secret police, General Manuel Contreras.
Power
The two men gloried in their power and in their all-embracing
knowledge.
As Pinochet once observed,
“not a leaf falls in Chile but I know about it”.
Contreras found that disappearances was an effective method,
not the least of its advantages being that Pinochet’s officials
could