Scottish Socialist Voice
Issue 292
18 th Jan 2007
—front page—
LAST DAYS OF EMPIRE
After 300 bloodstained years,
The Voice went to press this week on the 300th anniversary of the Scottish
Parliamentary vote to back the Treaty of Union with
It was, said author and English spy Daniel Defoe, deeply unpopular here.
“For every Scot in favour, there is 99 against.”
But the vote was won through epic bribery, military threat and the pursuit
of venal self-interest.
The Earl of Glasgow was supplied with the relatively colossal sum of £20,000
sterling with which to buy votes, influence, and spies.
And while the Scots ruling elite seamlessly transformed themselves in
to the North British ruling elite, ordinary people across
Pro-unionist history then suggests that, a few teething probs notwithstanding,
the churlish Jocks soon settled down to enjoy the glory days of the British
Empire.
Yes, while
The 1916 Easter Rising was the beginning of the end as first the Irish,
and then a host of colonies kicked out the Brits and hauled down the Union
flag.
Nearly a century on, and the only people still waving the Butcher’s Apron
are the Tories and the post-socialist Labour Party, complete with Scottish
PM-in-waiting Gordon Brown, the cheerleader of all that is British, if
only he could articulate what that means.
We could help him out there.
Being British means being a mercenary for President Bush, dispatching
our youth to colonial frontlines in Afghanistan and Iraq and rendering
ourselves the most dangerous and aggressive state in Europe today.
If there was only one argument for independence, surely it is this: we
must disengage ourselves from the UK/US war machine, through breaking
up the British state.
In so doing, we can make of ourselves a new nation, an independent, democratic
Scottish republic that fights, not in the fields of the
Political independence won’t result in a socialist republic of itself,
but will deliver greater democracy and could pave the way for a people-led
transformation of our society.
The 1707
Three centuries is long enough.
—page two—
650 jobs to go as NCR looks East
On 11 January, the Ohio-based company National
Cash Register (NCR) announced that 650 jobs were to go at its
This comes just a year after NCR set up a plant in
Workers learnt of their imminent unemployment via videolink
from the
For them, the future is bleak.
Subsidies
NCR is just one of many multinational firms that swallow
up government subsidies - it has received over £4million from
the Scottish Executive since 1993 as well as the Scottish Enterprise
money - then ups sticks to slave-wage economies in
Speaking on behalf of the SSP, Colin Fox MSP called the announcement
“sickening” and that his thoughts were with NCR workers and
their families at this terrible time.
He continued: “Once again, Scots workers are being dumped and
their jobs exported to low wage economies abroad for the benefit
of the bosses.
“Virtually no private sector job in
“I note that already all the bosses’ parties - Labour, Tories,
Lib Dems and the SNP - can only wring their hands and blame
market forces.
“The brutal truth is that we need to get tough with companies
who treat workers in this shabby way.
“Scots workers have some of the weakest job protection laws
in
“I have today been in touch with Amicus shop stewards and offered
them my full support.
“Like them, the SSP believes we should not just roll over and
accept this decision.
“I will meet union officials on Wednesday in
PCS Get set to strike
by Richie Venton
SSP national workplace organiser
Over 30,000 Scottish members of the civil
servants’ union PCS are balloting for strike action on 31 January,
as part of a united action by 280,000 workers across the
They are striking back against the worst assault on jobs, pay
and public services in living memory.
Already 36,000 jobs have been wiped out, as part of Labour’s
plan to axe 104,000 civil servants, as announced by Gordon Brown
in July 2004.
Previous strike action halted a slew of compulsory redundancies,
but now they are beginning to leak through again, in the DTI
and DEFRA, with MoD and Dept of Skills and Learning workers
bracing themselves for the worst.
Without strike action, as part of an escalating, united campaign
to save jobs and the vital public services they deliver, compulsory
redundancies may be inevitable in bigger departments like HMRC
and the DWP, given the scale of the government’s jobs target.
John Davidson, PCS activist in East Kilbride HMRC, told me,
“No job is safe in HMRC. Early retirement and ‘natural’ wastage
may account for the first 12,500 job losses, but the further
12,500 announced recently is bound to involve compulsory redundancies.
“That’s why the employers refused to extend our agreement on
no compulsory redundancies beyond September 2007.”
Madcap centralisation is the watchword of the government, as
250 HMRC offices face closure - including many in
John added: “How can the same department announce 25,000 job
losses and the loss of £2billion through VAT carousel fraud
at the same time?”
Office closures, job losses, mounting stress and sickness at
work, plus draconian absence management policies are hitting
workers hard in every department, including the DWP, where
20 million calls went unanswered. Yet Brown aims to cut jobs
by 10 per cent a year and reduce the DWP’s budget by 25 per
cent until 2011.
This is reason enough for a united, militant strike on 31 January.
But there are plenty more reasons to vote YES, YES in the ballot,
which ends on 23 January.
One in four PCS members earns below £15,340, yet the government
is demanding a 2 per cent ceiling for the next five years -
whereas inflation is currently running at 3.9 per cent. You
do the maths!
Privatisation is running rampant, the MoD being a case in point,
where staff at Faslane and Coulport face being shifted to Babcock
Naval services - which means that up to 80 per cent of workers
in the nuclear weapons industry would be working for a company
driven by profit. Hardly a recipe for security and peace of
mind.
PCS are leading the fight back against privatisation and the
wider trade union movement, including the STUC, should not just
build this event, but organise delegations on the strike rally
from their own workplaces.
The Scottish Socialist Party’s People not Profit campaign has
consistently exposed the crimes of profiteering at the expense
of jobs, services and workers’ pay. Unity in action to defend
public services and the jobs, pay and conditions of those who
provide them needs to be built, using the run-up to the May
elections as a golden opportunity to put the Labour privateers
on the run.
Family face forced
return to
by Wullie McGartland
Protestors gathered outside the Home Office
Immigration Centre in
Zahra was attending to sign at the Home Office’s
They were then sent on to Yarl’s Wood Detention Centre in the
south of
Zahra escaped
She became active in UNITY, the union set up for asylum seekers
and refugees in
This is not the first time she and her family have been detained
and threatened with deportation.
Last March they were threatened with deportation to
Now they have again been threatened with deportation to
She wrote of
“Rape, for young women, is inevitable. Children over the age
of three are taken from their mother and put in an orphanage.
“Detention can last weeks, or months; a number of people have
‘disappeared’ from custody.”
Fearing the fate that could face Zahra, Faisal and Rahim if
returned to
As the Voice went to press there was still no word on what would
happen to Zahra and the children.
We send our wishes and thoughts to the family and hope that
they will be back amongst their family and friends very soon.
n For news of Zahra see: www.unitycentreglasgow.org
—page three—
Save the Vale
Over 200 people, including members
of a whole range of local community groups, attended
a meeting called by campaigners to save the Vale of
Leven hospital. The SSP’s Carolyn Leckie spoke alongside
Labour’s Jackie Baillie and the SNP’s Shona Robison.
Not that the two latter made much headway with an audience
which has seen its A&E department axed alongside
other essential services, while the mainstream parties,
including the ‘opposition’ SNP, vote through further
privatisation measures at Holyrood.
The SSP is the only party that has consistently stood
up against centralisation and privatisation, and Carolyn’s
responses were very much in tune with the public’s.
“The axe has been hanging over the Vale for a long time
now, and people want a proper examination of this growing
community’s medical needs, and provision made accordingly,”
said Carolyn.
“They’re tired of having to fight to save one service
after another, as they disappear piecemeal. They need
their hospital.”
Third battle for Holyrood begins
Scottish Socialists gear up for May 2007 poll
Against a backcloth of rising discontent
with the 300 year-old British Union, the Scottish Socialist
Party has kicked off its 2007 election campaign in style.
From the far-flung Northern and Western Isles to the
urban heartlands of the Central Belt and down into Galloway
and the Borders, a phalanx of Scottish Socialists are
now taking to the streets, distributing hundreds of
thousands of copies of a special full-colour newspaper
- in five regional editions - setting out the case for
a nuclear-free, independent socialist republic.
The party is determined to at least hold onto its base
in the Scottish Parliament, and at the same time to
storm
Key promises
In the battle for Holyrood, the SSP campaign
will focus on six key promises.
n First, we promise to help build
a nationwide resistance against war and nuclear weapons.
Scottish troops are in the frontline of two wars whose
only purpose is to save the face of a failed President
and a fading Prime Minister. And now
n Second, we promise to fight for
an independence referendum by the end of 2007. The SSP
was the first political party to sign-up to the cross-party
Independence Convention, which now also involves
Fare-free transport
n Third, we promise to fight for a
national free public transport system to turn
n Fourth, we promise to fight for 100,000 new homes for rent - bringing house-building in the social rented sector into line with the private sector. Sky-high property prices mean misery, overcrowding and even homelessness for hundreds of thousands of young people and low paid workers. We want to build flats for young people and houses with gardens for young families. To fund that ambitious programme, we will campaign for the cancellation of all local authority housing debt, and for councils to be allowed to levy a ‘millionaire’s tax’ on all land and property worth over a million pounds. A vote for the SSP is a vote to build high-quality housing for low-cost rent.
n Fifth, we promise to continue the fight to replace the blatantly unfair Council Tax, with a new Scottish Service Tax based on income. Under our proposal, the rich will pay more, all earnings under £10,000 will be exempt, and 80 per cent of Scottish households will bed better off. A vote for the SSP is a vote for serious redistribution of wealth and income from the rich to the rest, starting with local taxation.
n Sixth, we promise to bring back
our free school meals bill, which has been delayed by
Holyrood until after the 2007 election, has the support
of scores of children’s charities, trade unions and
health professionals. It seems that everyone in
Most reliable, Scottish-based opinion
polls show a pattern which places the SSP on around
4 per cent. Background data reveals significantly higher
support for the SSP among the 18-35 age group, and also
among council tenants, where we are running at 8 per
cent.
The same polls suggest that the governing Labour-LibDem
unionist coalition may be ousted by a new alliance led
by the SNP. But with three pro-independence parties
and three pro-unionist parties in the frame, this is
more than just a power struggle between the Union Jack
and the Saltire. The choice is not just
The SNP favours a big-business-friendly
The truth is, big business is already siphoning rivers
of cash out of
Over the past 15 years, the combined profits of the
biggest ten businesses operating in
Instead of pampering big business, the SSP believes
in taxing big business and the rich - and using Scotland’s
wealth and natural resources, including North Sea oil,
for the benefit of the whole Scottish population.
The SSP also differs with the SNP over military spending.
The SNP wants
To this day, British military spending is grotesquely
out of proportion. In 2007,
By cutting defence spending to the level of the
Vision
The SSP’s manifesto - People Not Profit - will
offer a vision of a different
Bulletins are available from both our Glasgow and Edinburgh
offices.
Many thanks to everyone who donated
to the Voice’s tenth anniversary appeal, for which we’ll
print the total next week.
This week, and until the election, we’re asking Voice
readers to once again dig deep, this time for the Scottish
Socialist Party’s election fund.
Party treasurer Allison Kane explains:
“There are now 100 days to the Scottish elections and
we are proud to be standing on every regional list -
no matter where you live in
“We need to raise at least £50,000 to cover deposits
and campaign materials.
“We rely on ordinary people to fund the battle for a
socialist
Make cheques payable to SSP Election Fund, and send
with a note of your name and a contact number, email
or address, to Allison Kane,
—page four—
Flight path to climate chaos
by Roz Paterson
Sending a clear signal that 2007 is
not the year he intends to save the planet, Tony Blair declared last
week that he had no intention of giving up his long-haul holiday flights
in order to reduce his carbon footprint.
In saying this, he was playing shamelessly to the gallery. Curbing
holiday flights is, he knows, politically unpopular and it’s not something
he’s going to risk in a year when Scottish Labour face meltdown in
the Scottish parliamentary election.
The point he misses is that many of us would curb our air usage if
there was a viable alternative, like cheap, safe rail travel. But
thanks to privatisation, it now costs considerably more to travel
to
While air travel may be cheap in monetary terms, it isn’t in environmental
ones. Flying from
But it’s not just the carbon that causes the problems. Aircraft at
high altitude emits water vapour which forms water crystals in the
upper troposphere, creating vapour trails and cirrus clouds. These
trap the earth’s heat, which magnifies the global warming impact of
air travel to the factor of 2.5-2.7.
This is catastrophic.
It means that, even if we all stopped driving cars and switched off
all the lights, we’d still exceed the government’s conservative target
of a 60 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2050 by a 134 per
cent, according to the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.
In the dark
The reason we’re all a bit in the dark about this is that
aviation emissions are not included in the government’s tally of total
They wriggle out of it by claiming that, as some flights go outwith
the
Mr Blair clearly isn’t that bothered anyway.
Science, he says, will come to our rescue.
“(W)hat we need to do is... develop the new fuels that allow us to
burn less energy and emit less. How, for example, in the new frames
for aircraft, they are far more energy efficient.”
So, boffins of the world, get to it!
Trouble is, they’ve been at it for years, with no success in sight.
Concepts such as blended wing bodies have been suggested, but it’s
an untried format and no-one’s going to sink millions into trying
it. Especially given how long it takes for air fleets to be replaced.
Put it this way - the Boeing 747s were put into commission 37 years
ago, and they’re still flying.
The giant Airbus 380 might reach the skies by 2070 and are nominally
more efficient in that they carry more passengers, though this will
be cancelled out if the extra room is used, as has been touted, to
accommodate casinos and swimming pools.
As for those ‘new fuels’, perhaps the prime minister’s been drinking
them, because they certainly won’t be flying any planes.
Hydrogen, for instance, a cumbersome fuel technology still very much
in its infancy, will emit vastly greater amounts of water vapour,
thus making it a worse option than conventional kerosene.
Bio-fuels are not the solution either, as it would take more land
than the earth has to grow the fuel crops needed to keep our planes
in the sky. And we kinda need that land for food crops.
“(It’s) like holding out for cigarettes that don’t cause cancer,”
said a Greenpeace spokesperson of Blair’s science plan. “Hoping for
the best isn’t a policy, it’s a delusion.”
Following the howls of outrage that Blair’s comments provoked,
Mr Blair, we were assured, would offset his carbon usage. By doing
what? Paying someone to plant a tree?
Carbon off-setting is a trendy business just now, a way of salving
jet-setter consciences by enabling them to buy energy efficient light
bulbs for poor people in Africa, or have a couple of trees planted
somewhere.
The Association of British Travel Agents is mad keen on carbon off-setting.
Oh, and airport expansion. Which maybe gives you an inkling of just
what a gloss the whole scheme is.
After all, if you emit 200 kgs of carbon in a single day, a tree absorbing
the same over a period of 30 years does not cancel it out.
Anyway, how do you know that tree wasn’t planted instead of something
else? Or is going to be incinerated in a forest fire in two years’
time, thereby setting your carbon off-setting plan back to square
one?
On top of which, we should be buying energy efficient light bulbs
and planting trees anyway.
So how to stop our escalating flight path?
Some environmentalists favour the idea of a tax on aviation fuel.
This, says ABTA predictably, would signal a “return to the 1950s,
when only the well-off could fly.”
But actually, this is the case now
Budget flights may seem like a boon to the low-paid, but it doesn’t
work out that way. Social classes D and E account for only 6 per cent
of all flights.
Second homes
In practice, budget flights enable wealthy people to fly
to and from the second homes in France that have now become feasible
for them, and for business passengers to make flights so short they
hardly have time to drink that double vodka and tonic before landing,
to attend half-hour meetings on the other side of the country.
All of which is by the by, because a fuel on aviation tax is impossible
to impose, thanks to the 1944 Chicago Convention, which prohibits
a tax on aviation fuel and is strapped down by no less than 4000 bilateral
treaties.
But it clearly suits the aviation industry and its biggest fan, the
Instead, we should perhaps be thinking in terms of a campaign to cancel
airport expansion, such as the proposed new runway for
In tandem with this, we could call for a reduction in rail fares,
making alternatives possible.
The SSP’s free public transport policy includes the call for the railways
to be renationalised when the Scotrail franchise is up for renewal
in 2010. Combined with free bus and ferry travel, a free rail service
could make a serious impact on our aviation habit.
Why should we go first when everyone else in the world is jetting
like there’s no tomorrow? Well, of course, they aren’t. Very few people
in
And Blair may claim that the
Keep going on like this and we won’t have anywhere left to fly to.
—page five—
letters page
New idea: free school
meals
Apparently, MSPs on Holyrood’s Communities Committee
say there is a ‘pressing need’ to tackle the health crisis
amongst our youngsters, through improving the horrendous,
nutrition-free slop we serve them up as school lunches.
Schoolchildren, they say, should be given healthy food at
lunchtime!
Because, you see, having a healthy, tasty diet at a young
age can instil the health-enhancing habits of a lifetime!
And just to make sure everyone benefits and take-up is high,
they are even flirting with the idea of making these healthy
repasts free!
Good grief! Where are they getting these crazy, socialist
ideas?
Oh, hang on, is this by any chance the same Communities Committee
that read through the mountain of evidence supporting our
Free School Meals bill?
The same Communities Committee that hummed and hawed and then
decided there was not enough parliamentary time to have this
bill debated?
The level of cynicism and underhandedness at work here is
breathtaking.
And it’s not just the Labour hacks who’re at it.
Green MSP Patrick Harvie, the self-styled southside ‘radical’
(who thought direct action to stop the M74 would bring the
anti-motorway campaign into disrepute) (oh yeah, and voted
like a sheep to impose a month’s suspension and £30,000 fine
on four SSP MSPs for their peaceful anti-G8 demonstration
at Holyrood), was amongst those who thought it ‘might be an
idea’ to run a pilot project into free school dinners. It’s
clear that they’re out to get us, and steal or discredit our
ideas.
But we should be flattered, not angered, because studies show
that when other parties start nicking your ideas, it means
(a) you’re onto something here and (b) the public give you
credit for it.
People aren’t as stupid as the Jack McConnells of this world
would like them to be.
However, it’s not the SSP that is being seriously short-changed
here.
It’s
Our kids could be eating fresh veg and fish and chicken and
wholegrains at lunchtime, drinking water and milk, and munching
on fruit for afters.
Instead, they’re eating junk food from vans because it’s better
than the stuff they get in the canteen, and feeling knackered
and horrible because of it.
How bad is that?
Nancy Ritchie,
Glasgow
End to trafficking
in sight?
News that the Home Office is likely to at last sign
up to the European convention on human trafficking should
be welcomed by those who have long since called for this measure,
including the SSP.
But this can only be counted as a step forward as the
The convention requires countries to provide victims of trafficking
with medical help, housing and access to legal help - and
a 30-day breathing space before deportation to their country
of origin.
The
And that can mean sending them straight back into the hands
of the gangsters who kidnapped or duped them into this modern
slavery in the first place allowing it to happen all over
again.
With incredible callousness, British politicians have failed
to sign up to the convention claiming it may attract more
illegal immigrants to
But continuing to ignore the brutality experienced by the
thousands of women estimated to be trafficked into prostitution
in
Allison Reid,
Glasgow
Council’s recycling
disgrace
Fife Council bosses should be named and shamed for
the disheartening decision to send 30 skip loads of paper,
cardboard and food containers, carefully separated by householders
for recycling, to be dumped as landfill.
It would seem that no-one within management could foresee
the need to make special provision for the obvious extra requirement
needed in the holiday season.
The problem came about after
It has been claimed that 30 skips full of materials that could
have been re-used, but instead had to be sent to landfill
as a result of residents depositing more waste than the centre
could process.
The bosses claim this situation arose due to the recycling
centre becoming “a victim of its own success.”
A bit of forward planning could have accommodated this situation.
I feel that the people of Fife have been let down by their
Council bosses and the management of
I’m sure this may indeed put many residents of
What is needed is more information to householders on how
to recycle waste and for guarantees from management/bosses
that this will not happen again, also further training for
management on planning ahead.
Colette Mengiles, Edinburgh
New Ideas
Voices form the SSY
James McKee
It’s not all about passing exams...
First Minister Jack McConnell
recently unveiled his plans to raise the school leaving age
to 18 within the next few years.
It’s part of the Executive’s new plan to dramatically cut
the number of ‘NEETs’ (people Not in Education, Employment
or Training, for those of us that don’t speak New Labour)
in
While this is obviously done with the best of intentions,
the Executive seems to be missing the fact that the majority
of youngsters today are becoming more and more disillusioned
with education.
Couple that with the inevitably massive debts facing students
after leaving university, and it’s no wonder that school leavers
are sitting around waiting to claim benefits as soon as they
walk out the door at 16.
So why is it that, in this gloriously enlightened new millennium,
our schools are still turning out these ‘NEETs’ in their droves?
Well, maybe it’s because of the lack of alternative educational
methods within schools. Right now, pupils are having facts
forced upon them by something called the ‘Banking Method’:
someone stands up in front of you, tells you what to know,
and expects you to learn it. Clearly, looking at the numbers
of pupils passing highers in
Want more people to move on to university? Well, why don’t
we ponder over the novel idea of getting rid of student loans
- ie, the inevitable overbearing debt hanging over the heads
of our future doctors, lawyers and other essential professionals,
in favour of the fairer system of grants from the days gone
by?
Remove the threat (or is that a promise) of crushing debt
for poorer students and maybe, just maybe, a lot more people
from working class backgrounds will apply for universities.
And how about getting people into work? How about more state-sponsored
trade apprenticeships?
What’s better than training people to do a job while they’re
actually out doing that job?
Forcing people to stay in school any longer than they already
do won’t cut the number of young people sitting around and
claiming benefits.
It will simply make them wait two extra years. In the meantime,
they’ll either truant (a fancy word for ‘doggin’’ school),
or cause major disruption in classes, destroying the chances
for people who actually want to be there and to do well.
And if you’re going to force them to stay, why not make it
interesting, by using alternative methods, or at least not
constantly relying on the banking method?
As a sixth year pupil, I find that constant assessment is,
in the most part, hugely counter-productive, as pupils are
simply taught what they need to know to pass an exam, and
none of the real world significance of anything.
Why can’t we scrap this, in favour of a system of practical
and theoretical modules, preparing these young minds for work
rather than simply filling their minds with the bare minimum
they’ll need to pass exams?
I mean, isn’t school supposed to be about learning, not repeating
meaningless facts?
—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—
Protest and survive
Three Scottish Socialist Party MSPs Frances
Curran, Rosie Kane and Carolyn Leckie, were among the protesters
arrested during a peaceful anti-nuclear protest Faslane
Naval base on 8 January.
Plaid Cymru Welsh Assembly member Leanne Wood, Green MEP
Caroline Lucas and Dutch socialists MP Krista Van Velzen
were also removed by police.
The protest was part of the Faslane 365 campaign to bring
an end to the British weapons of mass destruction stored
on the River Clyde.
They were arrested when protesters chained themselves together
at the main gate of the base and others sat on the road
to block traffic to the base.
All three SSP MSPs have been arrested before for protesting
against Blair’s weapons of mass murder, with Rosie and Carolyn
having served sentences for previous anti-nuclear protests.
The protests have come under attack from New Labour claiming
that the protestors had taken away resources from Strathclyde
Police whose officers were sent to guard the base.
Labour’s rabid Holyrood attack dog Duncan McNeil, MSP for
This demand was backed by the pro-government Daily Record
who called for an apology from SSP MSPs to anybody in
First minister Jack McConnell joined the condemnation of
protestors claiming they were “wasting police time” during
First Minister’s Questions.
Frances Curran, SSP MSP for the West of Scotland, replied
to McConnell saying:
“Far from protesters apologising, he should say sorry to
pensioners, low-paid workers and those facing cuts in health
services for taking their money and squandering £76billion
on useless weapons of mass destruction.
“With his New Labour colleagues he hasn’t the guts to tell
Blair to scrap missiles and spend the cash on schools, hospitals
and desperately needed houses.”
We don’t hear any complaints from the Labour benches when
the taxpayer has to lay out millions on security for Queen
Lizzie and her weans every time they fancy a wee weekend
at Balmoral. Not to mention the billions they are ready
to lay out on some new murderous warheads for Faslane.
A move that was condemned by Frances Curran, who said:
“Renewing Trident would an appalling piece of hypocrisy.
While the government lectures other countries on why they
can’t have Weapons of Mass Destruction they want to use
£25billion of our money to update our WMDs.”
Imagine what could be done with that £25billion to help
the people of
If McConnell, McNeil and their lapdogs at the Daily Record
want to see something done to tackle crime they should be
demanding that the billions being wasted on WMDs, instead
be put into our communities, providing facilities for young
people, the elderly and community based policing initiatives
that would make a real impact to the lives of the people.
Fighting to save our schools
by Marion Hersh
In its infinite wisdom Glasgow City Council
(GCC) has decided to close 28 primary schools and a number
of nurseries across
Their excuse is falling school rolls. The real motivation
seems to be cost cutting and the short-term profit to be
made from selling the land to developers for flats.
However, their estimates of future school rolls appear to
assume that the people in all these flats will be childless.
GCC is also ignoring the importance of a local school for
the community. GCC could look at ways of developing local
communities by making school buildings available for community
activities out of school hours.
Instead, school closures may lead to people moving and the
communities dying out. Of course local parents are up in
arms.
There are a number of local Save our School (SOS) groups,
as well as a city-wide SOS to co-ordinate activities. I’ve
been involved in the west-end group so this article will
focus on the activities and issues there.
There is a legal responsibility to consult. Therefore GCC
carried out a consultation exercise and paid minimal attention
to the responses.
For instance, in the west end about 800 respondents rejected
proposals to close four primary schools (Dowanhill, Hillhead,
Kelvinhaugh and Willowbank) and two nursery schools and
set up a supersize school for 700 or so primary and nursery
children on an unsuitable gap site.
The weans would feel totally overwhelmed in a building that
size! Just over 20 people were in favour.
However, GCC still intends to go ahead.
They seem to have very little interest in the fact that
all the evidence shows that children do best in smaller
classes and medium sized schools.
While good practice would aim for class sizes of less than
20, GCC seems to be happy with the legal maximum in
The proposed site for the superschool suffers from subsidence.
It is very small, so it would have to be a multi-storey
building. It’s not clear where the playground would go -
possibly in the basement?
Valued
As it is, the site will take out part of
Most of the weans would have much longer journeys to school
involving busy roads.
So car use would increase, adding to the early morning traffic
chaos and the growing problem of overweight children through
lack of exercise.
GCC has also played divide and rule between ‘denominational’
and ‘non-denominational’ parents - don’t you love euphemisms!
There have been separate consultations and the almost promise
of the Dowanhill site for the ‘denominational’ parents if
their ‘non-denominational’ proposals went through.
This is hardly the way to educate young people against sectarianism
and in mutual respect and understanding.
Save our Schools has been busy with a range of events and
out in all weathers - leafleting, lobbying, sleep-ins, stunts!
We were out recently with our slightly soggy banners and
very soggy leaflets to protest at a so-called consultation
meeting.
What’s the point of consulting parents and teachers about
the details if GCC takes no notice of them on the important
issues?
Particular campaigning highlights have included lobbies
of GCC, going to the Parliament and speaking to the Petitions
Committee and a very child friendly march from the gap site.
The first SOS sleep-in was held by a groups of mums at Carnwadric
Primary and followed by sleep-ins at Dowanhill and other
schools.
The most recent success is getting Dowanhill School listed,
which would mean the GCC cannot pull it down to rebuild
on the site.
We’ve not given up, we’ve not gone away and we will keep
on protesting.
But the solution may be to kick out the current council
at the next election and to elect people who take education
seriously and who listen to their constituents.
—page nine—
A stooshie on the road to Perdition
by
Twenty years after its first production
was scrapped in a blaze of controversy, renowned playwright
Jim Allen’s Perdition is to be staged in aid of the Scottish
Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC), and to mark Holocaust
Memorial Week.
In January 1987, Perdition was due to be directed by Ken
Loach at the
“Under huge pressure from the Zionist lobbies, and after
a big debate, particularly in the letters page of The Guardian,
the plug was pulled,” actor Tam Dean Burn, who is taking
part in the readings of the play in
Why the outcry? With this courtroom drama, left wing writer
and former miner Jim Allen jabbed at raw nerves which surround
allegations of complicity between Zionism - the political
ideology which supports the separate Jewish state of
Perdition is set a few years after the Second World War,
based on a real life libel trial which took place in Israel,
and deals with contentious claims that pro-Zionist Jewish
leaders in Hungary collaborated with the Nazis in sending
the majority the Jewish community to concentration camps,
in exchange for a privileged few, mostly their own family
and friends, being allowed to escape to Switzerland, and
eventually Israel.
Although the SPSC has drawn criticism for putting the play
on at this time, Burn argues that Holocaust Memorial Week
is “precisely the right time” to be looking again at Perdition,
“really looking at the Holocaust, and what lessons can be
learned.”
The play is well sourced historically, he says, adding that
Jim Allen, were he still alive, could sue over claims made
that he’s been careless with the truth, many going so far
as to label the play anti-Semitic.
“Perdition is only controversial because Zionists don’t
like any criticism of their role,” Burn argues. “They’ll
issue statements condemning Perdition but they will not
debate what the play says.”
The readings of the play will be accompanied by round table
discussions involving representatives of the Jewish community,
and other communities who suffered genocide at the hands
of the Nazis, and a speaking tour by Lenni Brenner, the
American academic whose book, Zionism in the Age of the
Dictators, informed Allen’s writing of Perdition.
n Rehearsed readings from Perdition: Glasgow
- Wednesday 24 January, 7pm, Hillhead Library,
Lenni Benner:
n www.scottishpsc.org.uk
n For full list of Holocaust Memorial
Week events in
http://www.hmd.org.uk/events/region/1/
Terrifyingly real portrayal of dictator
The Last King of Scotland (cert 15) directed by Kevin Macdonald. In cinemas now
by Pam Currie
I have to admit to being a little hazy
on my knowledge of Idi Admin’s brutal dictatorship before
I saw this film, and perhaps without the hype of potential
Oscar nominations - and Scottish talent in the shape of
director Kevin Macdonald and up-and-coming actor James McAvoy
- I might have missed this altogether.
While the film focuses on Amin’s relationship with the man
he refers to as his “closest political advisor”, the naïve
young doctor played by McAvoy, you do get at least a glimpse
of the brutality Amin inflicted on his own people.
For young Dr Garrigan, this glimpse comes rather late -
his naïve idealism sees him initially welcome Amin’s anti-imperialist
message, realising too late that Amin is responsible for
the murders not only of his political opponents but of many
thousands of Ugandans, with many more - among them some
45,000 Asians - forced into exile.
This isn’t a documentary, though, and the film’s main attraction
is Forest Whitaker’s superb acting, who plays a terrifyingly-real
Amin, charming journalists and tormenting the British Ambassador
with anti-imperialist witticisms before switching seamlessly
to paranoid rages and brutal murder.
It may leave you with more questions than answers about
George Monbiot’s burning issue
Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning
by George Monbiot, published by
by Roz Paterson
The long, hot summer of 2006 followed
by the violent storms of winter have left few of us in doubt
that climate change is happening and that its implications
could be catastrophic.
So what to do?
George Monbiot, author and environmental campaigner, has
attempted to supply the answer in his latest book, Heat:
How to Stop the Planet from Burning.
As you would expect from a writer who strives to be meticulous
in his sources and comprehensive in his approach, Heat is
a thorough and thoroughly researched document.
His starting point is that we, the generation accustomed
to hot showers, cars, strawberries in December, may be the
only generation that ever lives this way. The future may
be significantly more austere, either through having to
spend trillions adapting to climate change (assuming that
it’s possible), or having to radically reduce our energy
needs to stem those changes.
He believes that we must cut carbon emissions by 90 per
cent by 2030, or risk the planet heating up 2° Celsius above
pre-industrialisation levels, generally held as the tipping
point of climate change, after which it accelerates irreversibly.
Unlike Gordon Brown declaring that 104,000 civil servants
must go, Monbiot didn’t pluck these figures out of thin
air; his sources are near impeccable and his conclusions
scary.
But don’t be downhearted. The task he sets himself is to
draw up a blueprint of how we can effect these changes without
having to curb our lives too much.
His suggestions, which draw on research and practice from
around the world, include carbon rationing - which would
work much like war-time food rationing, allowing each person
a set carbon quota for energy and petrol, which they can
either use or sell. Industry would have to purchase rations
from the government, but there would be only so much to
go round, which would in turn force industry to adopt cleaner,
greener practices.
By the way, Monbiot, like many, rules out nuclear energy
as a fallback on account of its vast expense and inability
to plug the energy gap if we cut down on fossil fuels.
Unfortunately, it seems that renewable energy won’t plug
that gap either, which means we need to find ways of simply
using less.
This entails making homes more energy efficient; something
that clever government spending, via 100 per cent grants
for instance, could facilitate, if the political will was
there. He also looks at food miles - and gets a good dig
in at Nigella Lawson, whose Marie Antoinette attitude to
global produce is gob-smacking - and supermarkets, air travel
and high-speed trains.
It’s a fast read, packed with information and thought-provoking
ideas, and, unusually for a book on climate change, inspiring
rather than paralysing.
The choices we face are hard ones, but this book suggests
we can halt climate change, that we can turn the corner
in time.
So if you think we’ve left it too late, read this book.
And if you want to start being part of the solution, read
this book.
By the way, given that it costs £17.99, borrow it from your
library if you can.
There was only one copy in the whole of
Tuned in
Keef Tomkinson
Saturday 20 January
Once Upon A Time In
Robert De Niro and James Woods play two hoodlums who rise
from
Sunday 21 January
Consent, Channel4, 10pm
To its constant shame our judicial system continues to let
down women who experience rape. Beginning at an office party
this docu-drama follows the subject a rape from the act,
accusation and through the legal process using real solicitors,
judges and jurors.
Monday 22 January
Dispatches: Labour’s Gambling Addiction,
Channel4, 10pm
Observer journalist Antony Barnett examines the murky and
corrupt relationship between the gambling industry and the
government.
Wednesday 24 January
An Anarchist’s Story, BBC2 9pm
This documentary looks back at the involvement of Scottish
anarchist Ethel MacDonald in the Spanish Revolution of 1936.
Her articles on the worker’s revolution and its resistance
against fascist reaction allowed workers at home to follow
the struggle.
True Stories: Favela Rising, More4, 9pm
Set in inner city
Diameter of the Bomb: Storyville, BBC4 10.30pm
29 people affected by a 2002 suicide bomb in
Friday 26 January
The Godfather, Part II, FilmFour 11.10pm
From the Corleones’ roots in an immigrant slum to its continued
expansion in the 1950s, the film takes in a mafia scarred
—page ten—
international news
More troops, less commitment as US citizens stand up to Bush’s war drive
December was the
And last week, Bush announced his ‘new strategy’ -
more roadside bomb fodder in the shape of 21,500 more
US troops to be deployed. This week, the American
commander in
In the midst of all this, the
They claimed it was an effort to kill - kill, that
is, not capture and, perhaps, put on trial - three
alleged al Qaeda members. They missed them, if they
were ever there in the first place, but, say witnesses,
killed at least 30 other people.
Oxfam’s regional director, Paul Smith-Lomas, told
press: “The
“It is just helping the Islamists gain popular support
which they don’t really deserve.”
That’s American foreign policy all over, and no doubt
there’s more to come.
But Bush’s announcement of more troops for
A number of prominent activists, academics and writers
have put their name to a statement calling for the
immediate withdrawal of all
The signatories, including Cindy Sheehan, Noam Chomsky,
Eve Ensler, and Arundhati Roy, say:
“The Bush administration has insisted again and again
that stability, democracy, and prosperity are around
the next bend in the road. But with each day that
the
“The
“With former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger insisting
that a military victory in Iraq is no longer possible
and (Ret.) Lt. Gen. William Odom calling for ‘complete
withdrawal’ of all US troops, the anti-war movement
should demand no less than the immediate withdrawal
of the US military - as well as reparations to the
Iraqi people, so they can rebuild their own society
and genuinely determine their own future.
“We call on the
—page eleven—
international news
by Stephen Kaczynski
A delegation of lawyers from
On 1 December, the delegation gave a press conference, saying
they hoped to raise awareness internationally of the plight
of
I also spoke, saying that the protest by Behic, by a woman
prisoner named Sevgi Saymaz, and by a mother of two children
named Gulcan Goruroglu, was part of an ongoing protest since
December 2000 in which 122 people have lost their lives.
Solitary confinement in Turkey’s prisons is not as well known
as Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, but in these places there is
not the tradition of resistance that there is among Turkey’s
political prisoners.
The lawyers returned to
I stayed at the Association for Basic Rights and Freedoms
in Sisli,
On the morning of 7 December, I went to visit a left-wing
lawyers’ office and while I was there, the phone kept ringing
insistently.
It transpired that the place I had left, and about a dozen
others, had been raided by the police more or less simultaneously.
TV reports that evening said that in several areas where the
police raided, riots had broken out and youths had pelted
police with stones and Molotov cocktails.
On 11 December, I spent all day with others waiting outside
Besiktas court, where those 30 or so arrested four days before
were brought before a judge.
Some 12 hours later, half were released but half were imprisoned
after being formally charged with membership of a banned organisation
- a common political charge in
They will not go to trial for several months, and perhaps
not for a year or two.
How the workers sacked the bosses
People power in
by Patrick O’Hare, in
On November 14 last year businessman
Alvaro Pocaterra closed his Venezuelan bathroom ceramics factory,
throwing 800 workers onto the streets. But the sacked workers
fought back, taking control of the Sanitarios Maracay factory
themselves.
Since its closure, they have occupied the factory, overthrowing
the old corrupt factory management, democratically electing
an occupation committee from amongst their own ranks to run
the factory, and demanding nationalisation and workers’ management.
In the absence of wages, the workers have continued limited
production using left-over raw materials, offering the products
to the community at solidarity prices and distributing the
proceeds amongst the workforce in the form of weekly food
bags.
We arrived in
Unfortunately this breakaway union had secured the support
of Marcela Maspero, a parliamentary deputy and member of the
executive of the UNT, the biggest pro-Chavez union which by
and large had supported the Sanitarios workers.
Concerns
Despite these pressing concerns, Humberto Lopez,
general secretary of the factory union and member of the factory
occupation committee, kindly spent the day with us, describing
the events which had led to the decision to establish worker
control in the factory and the demands of the Sanatarios workers.
His union, he explained, was forged in the heat of class struggle
when, in 2002, the owner decided to close the factory as part
of the bosses’ lock-out which aimed to bring down President
Hugo Chavez’s left-wing government.
Seeing that the old trade union, dominated by the management
and tied to owner Pocaterra, was co-operating with the lock-out
against the wishes of the workers, Lopez and other workers
decided to form a new trade union which could truly represent
the workforce.
“We told Pocaterra that the workers did not support the factory
closure, that this was a bosses’ strike and that we wouldn’t
stand by and let it happen,” explained Lopez.
Since then the factory has been repeatedly closed then re-opened
and some machinery has slowly been pilfered or left in a state
of disrepair by Pocaterra and his cronies.
Their experience has left the Sanitarios workers in no doubt
about demanding nationalisation. But the model they seek is
quite different from others which have been adapted in different
factories in
In these factories, ownership is split with 51 per cent belonging
to the state and 49 per cent belonging to the workers.
“There are no workers in these factories any more, only shareholders,”
noted Lopez, adding that such models help to strengthen the
capitalist mentality.
Instead, Sanatarios workers are demanding complete nationalisation
but under workers’ control, where the state would guarantee
existing contracts and the workers would maintain their trade
union structure and collective bargaining rights.
Workers would be able to check the books and have a say in
the production side of things, avoiding the risk of corruption
or bureaucratisation which had brought the company to its
knees under private ownership.
Humberto and Joni Lopez, another shopfloor worker, took us
on a tour of the factory, explaining in painstaking detail
the processes of factory production, which took us from the
raw materials storeroom, through the moulding room, the machine
shop, the plaster cast room, the plaster mixers, the chemical
testing, the design room, areas for processing raw materials,
and the giant kiln.
The pride the workers took in their job and their detailed
knowledge of all stages of production was clear. Joni explained
that while he was currently assigned to one post in the assembly
line, he was trained to perform many other positions if required.
All this reinforced in this particular witness the clear ability
that these workers possess to run the factory without the
help of a profiteering boss.
After the tour we shared a hearty lunch with Humberto in the
cafeteria. The solidarity and generosity of these workers,
who together with their families were surviving on weekly
rations, was truly humbling and inspiring.
Following lunch we witnessed workplace democracy in action
- the weekly assembly of the occupation committee and the
rest of the workers.
The meeting started with an impassioned call to arms from
committee leader Jose Vilegas. He rallied the workers to stand
firm against attacks from the newly formed yellow union and
their attempts, alongside Pocaterra, to undermine the solidarity
of the workers.
Dismissing cynical appeals that the workers should “think
of their families”, he underlined that it was in their name
too that the Sanitarios struggle was being waged, that he
too was suffering hardship, but that only unity and perseverance
would lead to victory in their struggle.
He argued that the workers had done their duty in re-electing
President Chavez and now the government had to put their money
where their mouth is, by nationalising the factory and investing
in the raw materials needed for production.
Strategy
There was huge applause from the shopfloor. Then
the meeting opened up into a general discussion involving
all aspects of the occupation - production, strategy, solidarity
campaigns from other workers and eventually the distribution
of the weekly food bags.
As a parting gift, again despite noted shortages of equipment,
I was given a pair of workboots and told that on my return
to
The factory visit rewarded me with another important gift
- the confirmation that the revolution in
The demand of the most advanced workers, such as those at
Sanitarios Maracay, is even clearer - they want nationalisation
and worker control and they want socialism.
On December 14, the workers
of Sanitarios Maracay, together with their families, supporters
from the occupied factories movement, the UNT, the CMR and
Hands Off Venezuela, marched on the presidential palace in
The march numbered nearly 1000, missing only a core of workers
who had to stay behind to defend the factory against saboteurs.
The demonstrators were dressed in fiery red, their slogan
ringing out: “No to capitalism”, “Down with bureaucracy” and
“Nationalisation now”.
The march was met with an enthusiastic response from the streets
of
Unfortunately the positive reaction from passers-by was not
matched by security staff from the national assembly and Miraflores
palace, who refused to let the procession meet with government
officials to explain their case.
Eventually a delegation comprised of factory and UNT officials
was allowed to enter Miraflores palace to hand in a petition
calling for nationalisation under workers’ control, and a
meeting was arranged with the Ministry of Light Industry who
will visit the factory in January.
While that meant the Sanatarios workers still faced a Christmas
of financial hardship and uncertainty, their morale is high,
their will is strong and they have confidence in themselves
and in President Chavez.
But the Sanitarios workers can’t battle it out alone. Whilst
they enjoy support from the UNT, from workers in other occupied
factories and within the private sector, they need solidarity,
not only from
Socialism can’t be achieved overnight, in
n Send short messages of support via the Voice
—page twelve—
Civil war:
by Isam Rasheed,
Voice correspondent in
On 30 December 2006, the Iraqi government
executed Saddam Hussein.
Many NGOs and countries asked them not to on this
particular day because it is a holy day for Muslims,
a day of forgiveness.
Further, it is a holiday in
Because it was so early in the morning, few people
knew what had happened until it was over. The following
day, 31 December, there was a whole series of demonstrations
in
Many Iraqis, in different areas of the country, held
commemorations for their former ruler, suggesting
some people liked Saddam and did not want to see him
executed.
Mr Jamal Naser, a 40 year old police officer, told
me:
“I didn’t like Saddam but I feel very bad because
he was executed on the first day of our Eid, and this
is not good because on this day we release people
(from jail) and forgive people, not execute them.
“I think our sectarian government wants to create
the conditions for civil war through this, by widening
the gulf between Sunnis and Shias. Our government
seeks to divide people and that is why Iraqis are
very suspicious with regards to their decisions.”
Another man said:
“I am sure the Iraqi government knew what they were
doing here. They are working on behalf of
He agrees that civil war is the aim, and continued:
“I think Saddam behaved with great honour during his
trial and was very brave during his execution, when
he refused to hide his face and close his eyes.”
Future
Personally speaking, I think it is time for
I am sorry, not for Saddam, but for the fact that
he was executed under occupation, which means that
everything was controlled behind closed doors, rather
than by us.
Meanwhile, on the streets, the militias retain the
upper hand. Iraqis are trying desperately to find
some kind of normality, to live in peace, but the
militias and their supporters continue to hijack life
in
In late November 2006, a large militia force arrived
in central
They ‘arrested’ some 180 people, including teachers,
students and department officials, taking them to
an unknown destination.
Three days later, their bodies turned up at the central
How did the militia obtain the police cars and guns?
And why did neither the
This was not an isolated incident. On 10 December,
the same or similar militia raided
Then on 17 December, a militia descended on the Red
Crescent headquarters, where they seized 27 men, whose
whereabouts remain unknown.
Fear
People live in fear, never knowing when these
militias may strike next.
A local man told me:
“I think they (the militia) came from
I spoke to a Mr Abdul Jabbar, formerly of the Iraqi
army, regarding an incident on 20 December, when a
militia kidnapped three girls from Al Mustansiriya
university, who were then raped and killed.
“The militias began by stopping the young men from
attending university. Now they stop the young women.
They want to stop everything.”
Events at Al Hurriya, in
Ten months ago, the Al Mahdi militia opened offices
here, and began forcing Sunnis out of the area to
make it Shia only. The Al Madhi army is Shia.
By December, the only remaining Sunnis were to be
found in a tiny area called Jed Hurriya.
On 10 December, this area was surrounded by militia
who then raided the houses, killing many Sunnis and
raping three women.
Every remaining Sunni was forced from the area.
Mr Salah Al mashdani, one of the expelled Sunnis,
ran to ask soldiers of the Iraqi army, stationed nearby,
to help him protect his home, “but they didn’t care.
“They said they were not responsible (for our safety)
and that I would have to protect my house myself.”
Nearby, militia men dragged one of the guards at the
al Muhaimin mosque, a Sunni mosque, for more than
500 metres.
His name was Khalid and he was already dead.
“They massacred a further five men, and their heads
were discovered the next day in a neighbouring area.”
Occupation
From the very early days of the occupation,
the militias have been ignored by the government and
this has allowed them to grow and grow in strength.
There is no-one within the current government who
really wants to see them destroyed, because the Al
Mahdi army means Al-Sadr and the Badr militia means
Al-Hakim.
No-one stops them as they seek to destroy
No shelter from the storm
On Thursday 14 December 2006, a
car bomb, targeting the Iraqi National Guard, killed
two children being cared for by the Baghdad Shelter,
the orphanage established by Ahmad Rustam, an Iraqi
exile living in Glasgow and an occasional contributor
to the Voice, in what was his former family home in
Mustafa and his sister Shahed, pictured here last
July, lost their lives after finally finding a refuge.
In their place, the Shelter is soon to welcome Yousif,
and his sister Ramia, both three-years-old. Ahmad
says the building is very damaged by the blast, and
in urgent need of repair: “We need your help more
than ever.”
For more info contact baghdadshelter@homecall.co.uk
and donations can be sent direct through Royal Bank
of Scotland, s/code 83-21-05, account no: 00 17 88
43.
Close down
On 11 January “peace Mum” Cindy
Sheehan, former British Guantanamo detainee Asif Iqbal,
and the brother and mother of detainee Omar Deghayes
reached the gates of
Since January 2002, 775 prisoners have been transferred
to this prison like no other, where torture is routine,
and inmates are neither charged, nor given access
to legal advice or the outside world.
Seventeen of the original 775 prisoners were under
18 at the time of their arrest, and 430 people remain
there, unable to contact anyone. Many are suicidal,
and last year, three took their own lives.
Elsewhere, 300 people in orange suits gathered at
the US Embassy in