Scottish Socialist Voice
Issue 298
2nd March 2007
—front page—
My daughter goes to nursery, but she can’t go to the dancing classes or the choir, because it costs £2.50 for half an hour and I just don’t have that. She’s learnt not to ask.
She’s only four, but she already knows that if someone’s got worn-down shoes on their feet, that means their mammy and daddy don’t have any money.
- Anne-Marie Smith, one of 910,000 Scots living in poverty, on how the government is failing our children.
See page 2
—page two—
Poverty
scandal of modern
A new report, spanning five
years and involving agencies from the Open University
to the Child Poverty Action Group, paints a bleak
picture of modern
Children are growing up in cold, damp houses,
without enough to eat, without adequate clothing
to see them through the winter, without shoes
that properly fit their growing feet, and already
keenly aware that they have no place in the shiny
mainstream of Scottish society.
Anne-Marie Smith, quoted on our front page, is
a single mother in Pollok, Glasgow. She fell through
the cracks when she found herself pregnant just
as she was embarking on a degree course. Had she
lived in
The poverty report finds one fifth of Scots -
910,000 people - living in poverty, including
240,000 children, roughly one in four.
Back in 1979, the year Margaret Thatcher came
to power, that figure was one in eight.
Anne-Marie receives £119.28 a week, comprising
£57.45 for her and £61.83 for her daughter Aislin.
But because she receives Child Benefit, £17.55
is deducted from the total, plus £2.90 for Council
Tax, plus £11.93 repayment for a loan she took
out for a fridge-freezer.
Leaving her £89.90 to pay her gas, electricity,
TV licence, phone and travel card. Leaving her
£25 a week to buy food, clothes and other essential
items.
Anything extra is out, be it a dancing class for
Aislin, or even a bag of oranges if four packets
of biscuits work out the same and are more likely
to get them through the week.
Acknowledging that pensioners living in poverty
have a hard time, Anne-Marie says that children
perhaps have it even worse.
“They’re still growing, they need decent food,
warm homes, shoes that fit them. It’s impossible
to stick to the five-a-day when you’ve got £25
a week to buy food and clothes.”
Even if she left education now to find work, Anne-Marie
would struggle to escape the ‘benefits trap’.
“If I worked part-time, I’d still have to ask
for state handouts. That kills me. I don’t want
to be a charity case.”
One of the great scandals of this report is the
finding that, of those children living in poverty,
one quarter live in households where an adult
is working full-time.
John Dickie, head of the Child Poverty Action
Group, comments:
“There is no question that people aren’t trying
to get out of poverty. The problem is that the
way out of poverty is very difficult.”
One of the obstacles is low wages. Hardly surprising
in a country whose government set the minimum
wage so low that many private employers actually
lowered their wages to meet it.
Anne-Marie pinpoints another obstacle - the cost
of childcare, which is escalating in
“Free childcare would change society. Kids would
be cared for while their parents get educated.
With families in poverty sometimes the lifestyle
is handed down from the parents to the children,
and the kids will end up uneducated and poor as
well.
“Some children know nothing but poverty. It’s
become a way of life for them.”
She feels that the government’s disregard for
those raising families in such straitened circumstances
will lead to the creation of a “super-underclass”
of children, later to become adults, who have
such lowered expectations, and such scanty education,
they will end up marshalled into a slave-wage
workforce to be hired and fired at will.
The report’s contributors include the Poverty
Alliance, the Scottish Poverty Information Unit,
Caledonian and
Union demand public enquiry after crash
Last Friday’s Virgin Express
derailment in the
The report found that one of three stretcher bars
- that keep moving rails a set distance apart
- was missing and the other two were fractured,
and that bolts were missing.
This meant that the Pendolino tilting train could
not follow the tracks properly, and thus came
off the line, crashing down an embankment at Grayrigg,
north of Kendal.
The new design train, with its inbuilt defences
against accidents, was the only reason there was
not a much higher death toll.
The accident is almost a carbon copy of the Potters
Bar disaster five years ago, when seven died,
and which was also attributed to faulty points.
Bosses at Network Rail, the quango that took over
when Railtrack went into administration in 2002,
could now face manslaughter charges and unlimited
fines but campaigners for a corporate killing
bill warn that, under present legislation, it
is almost impossible to make these charges stick.
Privatisation
The privatisation of the railway system
in the
Rather chillingly, since taking over, Network
Rail has slashed the annual operating and maintenance
bill by £1.5billion.
Profit now comes before any other consideration
and the Labour government has repeatedly refused
to take the one obvious measure to improve the
situation: remove the profit motive and bring
the railways back into public ownership.
The rail trade unions are now demanding a public
inquiry.
Bob Crow, general secretary of transport union
the RMT, said:
“There are frightening similarities between Grayrigg
and the Potters Bar crash in 2002. The government
has shamefully resisted calls for a public inquiry
into Potters Bar. Nothing less than a full public
inquiry will do.”
The SSP has been at the forefront of the call
for the re-nationalisation of the railways.
In an SSP pamphlet produced two years ago, Policy
Co-ordinator Alan McCombes wrote: “Rail unions
warned that putting profiteers in charge of railways
was like handing over control of the Blood Transfusion
Service to Count Dracula.
“On rail ownership, there is a gaping gulf between
the politicians and the public.
“In 2001, a Scotland-wide System 3 poll published
in The Herald newspaper found that 64 per cent
of people wanted re-nationalisation of the rail
network.
“Three years later, an identical poll was conducted
by System 3.
“This time, the figure had risen to 67 per cent.
“Even more strikingly, the proportion of people
in favour of privatisation had plummeted from
20 per cent to just 13 per cent.”
False maintenance claims
The railworkers union RMT hit
out at a Network Rail chief’s false claim that
all Network Rail’s track maintenance and inspection
work is carried out in-house.
Chief executive John Armitt claimed on Channel4
that private contractors are not used in engineering
maintenance work:
“All the maintenance work which is carried out
on the railway is carried out by Network Rail
and the inspection of the works is carried out
by Network Rail. We only employ private contractors
for renewal work now and renewal work has not
been carried out in that area [Grayrigg] recently.”
But, say the RMT, this is patently untrue, with
contractors such as Amey, Balfour Beatty and Carillion
described in Network Rail’s own press releases
as “an important part of the maintenance regime.”
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: “It is astonishing
that John Armitt doesn’t appear to know exactly
who maintains the very rail network for which
he is responsible. Network Rail’s own press releases
flatly contradict his claim.
“In fact, Network Rail is intentionally failing
to fill, and freezing, vacancies in a bid to cut
costs, preferring to farm the work out to contractors.
“As many as 60,000 non-Network Rail workers, from
a myriad of private firms, have access to the
trackside as part of their job.
“In many cases Network Rail has no idea who these
workers are - an astonishing fact given the nature
of the Grayrigg tragedy.”
—page three—
Iraqi oil sale - going cheap
Tony Blair’s government
just loves democracy. So much so, that it is pressurising
the Iraqi government to open up its untapped oil
assets to foreign pirates - or multinational oil
companies, as they’re also known.
Iraqi trade unionists, on the other hand, have a
rather clearer understanding of what the word democracy
actually means, and are demanding that their country’s
oil wealth remains in the hands of the public.
The
They want to see
To ensure that this is exactly what the oil companies
want, the
Foreign Office minister Kim Howells admitted,
“These exchanges have included discussion of
By ‘valuable’, he means of course to the companies
themselves, as most of the profits generated by
Iraqi oil will be shipped out the country if multinationals
are running the show. As our experience here in
Scotland did badly out of this stitch-up but Iraq’s
problems are infinitely worse, with much of the
population dying through want of food, clean water
and medical attention, a situation created by war
and the funnelling of money out of the country by
the US and its appointed agents.
What makes this bid to impose legislation - and
it is an imposition, the Iraqi government being
weak and dependent upon foreign goodwill - even
more deplorable, is that
Oil production in
This is not even mentioned as a possibility by the
rogue governments that seek to tell
Hasan Jum’ah Awwad, leader of the Federation of
Iraqi oil unions, speaking at a meeting in
Being in a stronger position than
He went on to say that Iraqis are perfectly capable
of running their own oil industry.
“They have the experience in the field and the technical
training, have overcome hardships and proven to
the world that they can provide the best service
to Iraqis in the oil industry.”
An example being that, following the 2003 invasion
and the destruction of much of the oil industry
infrastructure, “(Iraqi) engineers, technical staff
and workers were able to raise production from zero
to 2,100,000 barrels per day without any foreign
expertise or foreign capital.”
These Iraqis, he says, are the real experts, not
the foreign governments and companies that seek
only to loot
Outrage at SSP councillor’s suspension
Following the six-month
suspension handed down to Scottish Socialist Party
councillor Jim Bollan by West Dunbartonshire Council,
local newspaper the Dumbarton & Vale of Leven
Reporter has found a sense of outrage in Renton,
the village Jim represents, at the decision.
“He is a fabulous councillor and I’ve never heard
anyone around here say anything against him,” local
pensioner Minnie McDonald told the reporter.
The ban followed a confrontation between Jim and
a care manager, who’d attempted to get Jim’s constituent
Annie Cardiff, for whom he also acts as an advocate,
to sign documents affecting her care while he wasn’t
present.
The manager accused him of ‘intimidation’ - Jim
denies that and says it was 86-year-old Annie who
was bullied and intimidated.
He told the Voice that the case was a direct result
of his involvement in the victorious battle to save
Leven Cottage, Annie’s care home, from closure.
Community activist Archie Thomson agrees: “I was
not surprised by the ban or the term. You don’t
get fair trials in these situations. Jim was forced
into action he shouldn’t be involved in by bureaucrats
who wanted to sell people’s home from under them.
He was standing up for his constituents when the
council was trying to rob them.”
Jim is taking heart from the support he’s receiving
from the community, expressed by Rosemary Brennan,
who said:
“I would stand by Jim to the end. Most people would.”
n See Jim’s blog at http://www.jimbollan.blogspot.com
Teen exposes Jack’s hypocrisy over anti-war school strikes
by Simon Whittle
Last week, a teenager
publicly accused First Minister Jack McConnell of
“cynical electioneering” at an event for young people
in
Michael Chessum, 17, a student at James Gillespie’s
High School in
“When we came out on demos and direct action, we
were told in no uncertain terms to sit down and
shut up.
“We were patronised by the First Minister and we
told we were being manipulated and to go back to
school.”
The manipulation Chessum spoke of was explicitly
directed at the Scottish Socialist Party at the
time. Jack McConnell, 20 March 2003: “I do not believe
it is right for elected politicians to encourage
young people to leave school.
“I would strongly discourage any member of this
parliament from encouraging any form of truancy.”
But McConnell told Chessum last week:
“If you were involved in demonstrations against
the
However, at the time of the protests, McConnell
sang a very different tune. Jack’s “admiration”
for the anti-war school strikers sounded like this
on 20 March 2003: “I hope that those who are demonstrating
remember that in
The exchange between Chessum and McConnell took
place at an “Ask Jack” event at an
“The first minister’s appearance has nothing to
do with youth empowerment,” Chessum added.
“This is cynical electioneering that’s nothing more
than electoral baby-kissing - and is he surprised
that one baby is biting?”
“These events do not just take place before elections,”
added the First Minister at the event, which took
place just before elections.
—page four—
Postcards from the edge
by Roz Paterson
Phnom Bakheng, at Angkor Wat, in
But now, this astounding hilltop temple, one of the greatest relics
of the ancient Khmer civilisation, faces its most deadly foe yet -
tourism - and its final demise could be in sight.
Around 900,000 foreign visitors pour into this sacred site every year,
with 3million a year predicted by 2010.
While Sokimex, the oil company bizarrely granted the entrance fee
concession by the government, makes a killing, Phnom Bakheng is slowly
dying, its stone steps crumbling beneath the feet of its 3000 daily
visitors.
Another temple in the
Tourists may come here in search of Eastern serenity but what they
get is Western-style commercialisation. Make that Las Vegas-style,
from Nick Faldo-designed golf courses to vast shopping malls springing
up in the nearby town of
Such is the scale of the alarm, that Unesco, who granted the place
World Heritage Site status is 1993, is warning that all could be
lost, and soon.
Teruo Jinnai, a Unesco official based at
For some locals, for sure, this is boom time.
But for most, it’s a tragedy unfolding, as their precious place, and
the environment surrounding it, is trashed for tourist dollars.
Sadly, it’s a tale repeated across the world.
In
In 1988, a 550lb chunk of limestone fell from the Sphinx, the magnificent
half-lion/half-man monolith at
While that was a shocker, in fact erosion of the structures that,
prior to the 20th century withstood 4000 years of wind and sand, has
been ongoing and rapid.
Before there were tourists, these structures were protected by the
drifts of sand that kept them almost permanently covered, and protected.
Continual exposure, in the interests of tourism, has taken its toll.
Encrustations of salt are now eating away at the walls, both within
and without.
Within?
These encrustations are partly caused by the humidity resulting
from having thousands of living, exhaling people trailing through
the burial chambers every single day.
In the Valley of the
The presence of the Aswan Dam has further raised the humidity levels.
Couple this with
A further factor is that of vibrations from buses and taxis to bring
tourists right up to the Pyramids. Cracks have already appeared.
These monuments have, warn conservationists, less than two centuries
left.
When they are gone, they will take all the tourist revenue with them,
leaving everyone here high and dry.
Cancun, in
Thus it was welded to the mainland with road and bridges, electricity
and water treatment services were pumped in and 120 hotels were built
in 20 years.
For the local environment, it’s been a disaster, as 60,000 hectares
of rainforest were hacked back to clear ground for development, parts
of the lagoon were destroyed to make way for roads and protective
sand dunes were literally shovelled away to be used in construction.
As a result, all kinds of animal and fish species have become extinct,
and breeding grounds for turtles badly damaged.
And because so many plants were destroyed through deforestation, hoteliers
began to import exotic plants, which then began to breed into and
conflict with the existent ecosystem.
In 1994, such was the crisis, that Mexican government gave into pressure
from conservation pressure groups and established zones in which development
is severely limited or prohibited altogether.
They had no choice; if they allowed
These are not isolated examples, by any means.
Take any poor but beautiful country with a desperate need for hard
currency and you will find havoc caused by tourism, from Myanmar/Burma,
where tourism is helping to prop up the bloodiest military dictatorship
in the world, to Kenya, where sea‘n’surf holidays are killing off
coastal ecosystems by the ten dozen, as mangrove swamps are drained
to make way for marinas, and siltation from construction, and sewage
from hotels and boats, are suffocating coral reefs and driving away
sealife.
In post-tsunami Thailand, India and Sri Lanka, the establishment of
‘conservation buffer zones’ have seen fisherman driven back from the
coast, and from their livelihoods.
Yet coastal resorts, somehow, are permitted to set up shop - a very
brutal example of how tourism does little to raise the living standards
of locals while doing much to degrade their environment and indigenous
industries.
One of the great justifications for tourism is that it enables us
to witness and understand other cultures.
But do we need to travel to do this?
Surely we can access some understanding of the wider world through
books, the internet, talking to people?
Through our shared humanity and imagination?
All without guzzling the trillions of airmiles that tourism clocks
up every year, crushing ancient stones beneath our feet and battering
the local economies of people who can barely afford to eat one tenth
of what we do.
A further way to broaden our minds is to open our borders, and welcome
those who come here seeking sanctuary, or simply a better life.
They will enrich our culture, and ourselves, much more than three
weeks in
—page five—
letters
Toll opposition
is ‘populism’
I am more than happy to be criticised in
the Voice where criticism is due - however David
Stevenson’s attack on the Scottish Greens (VoiceMail,
issue 296) for supporting bridge tolls is a little
bizarre.
Shock horror - Greens vote for the environment.
For the record, we
didn’t support the SNP or the Executive, but our
own principled position. We want to see ‘smart charges’
for the bridge, so we end the crazy situation where
buses are charged more than most HGVs to cross the
We want to see revenue from these charges supporting
better public transport across the bridge - benefiting
those who can’t afford a car.
Smart charging is supported by Friends of the Earth,
Transform Scotland and the rest of the environment
movement.
So the real question is why did the Scottish Socialist
Party cave in and support the cynical populism of
the Tories and SNP, instead of supporting the environment?
Mark Ballard MSP,
Scottish Green Party,
via email
Face up to
difficult questions
Having read the response to Morag Balfour’s
‘Carers or slaves’ column (issue 296) in last week’s
Voice (‘Hold the condemnation’, VoiceMail, issue
297), I thought it important to say that I believe
Morag raised some salient points in her original
piece.
I saw the Channel 4 programme she referred to, Aged
12 and Looking After the Family, and found it utterly
exploitative television.
The family featured clearly needed help, and in
a situation such as this I think there should be
a point where documentary makers put down the cameras
and call on social work to intervene.
The question of whether people are able look after
their children is an emotive one, but is one which
has to be asked at times. It’s a question that social
workers address daily
And it is a question which has to be asked, whether
parents are disabled or not.
Pam Currie,
Glasgow
Blair’s art of evasion
by Jon Pullman
On Thursday 22 February,
and for the second time in as many months, John
Humphries secured an audience with Tony Blair on
BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, and if anything,
hit even harder with his cross-examination over
Yet again, the Prime Minister remained unbowed in
his conviction about the original invasion, unrepentant
of its visceral impact on the Iraqi people, and
defiant in the face of all criticism concerning
the consequences for
All his barrister’s skills were employed as he twisted
and turned through the arguments, and exploited
every semantic device to keep above the breaking
wave of Humphreys' verbal barrage.
The most memorable of these evasive manoeuvres occurred
when he was confronted with the fact of
While Blair utterly refuted that our recent foreign
policy decisions are the cause of subsequent bombings
and extremist foment in
Quite how you maintain a distinction between some
objective justification for doing something and
the perceived justification by those doing it, when
discussing a cause-effect relationship, is presumably
one of the darker arts of his trade in the legal
profession.
Darker still was Blair’s reiteration of his post
9/11 world view, one in which the rules have changed,
where the bad deeds and activities taking place
in one place are no longer confined, and where military
intervention anywhere anytime has now become legitimate,
even necessary, if self-interest is deemed to be
at stake.
This sentiment has a sinister resonance with the
neo-conservative phalanx in
The worrying thing about such a vision is its absolutism.
It presupposes that his way is the good one and
that the vast complexity of human history, culture
and experience can be reduced to a formula of modern
Western ideology and values.
It seems the height of arrogance to speak, as he
does, on behalf of the Iraqi people, in asserting
that all of the pain and suffering and devastation
wrought in that country is worth it for some future
prospect of a functioning democracy, as if this
end result were some political embodiment of godliness
and truth.
Democracy covers a multitude of sins as well as
a few blessings, and even now, those same politicians,
who would grasp the collective lives of a generation
of peoples in a foreign land and dash them onto
stone for the great ideal of joining the global
club of free enterprise as a junior member, would
happily engineer the overthrow of other elected
governments, whose attitudes don’t happen to fit
the club profile, whilst also being prepared to
indulge some of the world’s nastier regimes because
their leaders are co-operative and their countries
economically useful.
Tony Blair interviews rarely these days, but, when
cornered, and questioned thoughtfully and robustly,
he displays the characteristics of a man increasingly
removed from reality, whose desperate need to distance
himself from the grave consequences of his own religiously-driven
judgements has led him into a twilit world of denial
and fantasy, and it is compelling to witness.
Peace hero died on peace train
by Farooq Tariq,
general secretary,
Labour Party
Aisha Amin (73) a
Labour Party Pakistan activist from Shahdra,
The Shamjoota is known as the ‘peace train’ between
Aisha Amin was elected as councillor for Shahdra
during 2001-2005 in an open contest. She got a record
1272 votes to top the list of women councillors,
and joined Labour Party Pakistan later on in 2001.
She participated in many demos and played an important
role in expanding the LPP network. She was a close
friend of Nazli Javed, of the LPP National Committee,
and helped Nazli to win her council seat as well.
Aisha Amin then went on to build Women Workers Help
Line. She also helped the Labour Education Foundation
to open an adult literacy centre at her home. She
was one of the pupils at the literacy centre although
she was over 70. She said, “there is no age limit
to learn”.
Aisha Amin did not contest the local election in
2005. She was very critical of the local government
system where women councillors were not given any
power to help local people. She said to me several
times “what is the use of being elected councillor
when we can not help the people and there are no
funds available?”
She always participated in protests. Towards the
end of December, she participated in an LPP organised
anti-imperialist demo in
By profession she was a Daiya (midwife) in her local
area.
Her brother died recently in
The family waited three days after she went missing
during the train fire. Two of her relatives went
to
She is one of the victims of those who want to kill
anyone to make a point. It seems the attack was
carried out by a religious fundamentalist group
who want no peace between
Aisha Amin is a peace hero who died on a peace train.
—centre pages—
Making a difference: the SSP in Holyrood
by Felicity Garvie
With the election in 2003 of six MSPs
and two councillors across five regions of
We had gone from being a new party with one parliamentary figurehead,
to becoming a serious political force with a team of eight public
representatives.
We now had the opportunity to prove ourselves a real ‘party of the
people’ in action.
Everyone remembers the buzz of excitement when Rosie Kane held up
her palm crossed with the words ‘My oath is to the people’ upon her
induction into parliament. And Colin Fox’s Grand National-style performance
as he leapt over the barriers in Meadowbank Stadium on hearing that
he had won the Lothians seat.
These were the first outward indications that this party would be
different. And appearances did not prove to be deceptive.
Our MSPs have been the conscience of the parliament, speaking out
against war, the G8 stitch-up of
And they, supported by the SSP’s grassroots work on the streets, where
the real change happens, have helped turn ideas into action.
It was the SSP who turned the spotlight on the unjust Council Tax,
which hammers low-income households yet barely tickles the rich.
It was the SSP which forced politicians to start to address the junk
food culture in our schools by forcibly campaigning for nutritious
free school meals.
It was the SSP which, by pushing for free prescription charges, forced
the government to extend free medicine to tens of thousands of chronically
ill patients.
Asylum
The SSP has gone where other parties
fear to tread.
Before 2003, the treatment of asylum seekers was a no-go area for
the career politicians of other parties.
Through hands-on involvement in
While other politicians, including in Glasgow where most asylum seekers
are concentrated, wash their hands of the problem by hiding behind
Westminster legislation that denies MSPs power over ‘reserved matters’,
the SSP has successfully used the machinery of government at local
and national level to challenge dawn raids, the incarceration of children
in Dungavel and the way people think about asylum seekers.
Privatisation
As New Labour in the Scottish Executive
and local councils have pushed a privatisation agenda in education
and health, SSP MSPs and councillors have aligned themselves unequivocally
with workers in struggle and communities faced with cuts in social
budgets.
All of them have been involved in local campaigns to stop school and
hospital closures.
And some of them have, against all odds, won through. At
Carolyn Leckie, a former health professional, has been at the forefront
of the Lanarkshire Health United campaign to save A&E departments
in three hospitals in
She has consistently fought the creeping privatisation of the NHS,
whether in campaigning against a PFI contract for the new Larbert
hospital or opposing Lanarkshire NHS Board’s attempt to install the
first private GP surgery in Harthill.
She has highlighted the scandalous treatment of our elderly people
in private care homes that are more interested in profit than people.
Frances Curran and Councillor Jim Bollan occupied Leven Cottage, the
only council-run care home in
By mobilising mass support in the community, the campaign was successful
and the elderly residents were able to remain in what had become their
home.
The two also helped, along with the local community and SSP members,
to ward off attempts to close the Vale of Leven Hospital in a campaign
which has been ongoing for six years.
Workers’ rights
Wherever workers have been forced to
strike or demonstrate in defence of their jobs and conditions, the
SSP’s public representatives have been with them on the picket lines
and in the streets.
They have always considered it more important to spend their time
with workers in struggle, listening to them and encouraging them to
hold out for victory, than sitting on the cosy parliamentary benches
sheltered from the harsh realities of working class life.
The SSP was the only party to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the
firefighters in their struggle for decent wages and against privatisation
in 2003. Our MSPs were the only ones to visit the picket lines of
the nursery nurses in 2004 as they struck against the erosion of their
status as trained professionals, and deteriorating wages.
Likewise, we have been consistent, and vocal, in our support for civil
servants, facing the axe courtesy of Gordon Brown’s witless ambition
to shed 104,000 jobs from the nation’s infrastructure.
We have also stood by council workers, feeling the squeeze thanks
to Labour and SNP-led councils’ refusal to demand extra funding from
the Scottish Executive to honour the single-status agreement that
was intended to compensate women workers for decades of under-payment,
yet is being used to hammer down everyone’s wages.
They have used the parliament to highlight the justified grievances
of working people - even bringing nursery nurses, public sector and
council workers right into the heart of the parliament, allowing their
voices to be heard in the corridors of power.
Scrap Prescription Charges
Over the last four years, SSP MSPs
have presented three bills to the Scottish Parliament, each of which
was aimed in its own specific way at redistributing wealth from the
rich to the rest.
The Abolition of Prescription Charges Bill would have scrapped the
£6.35 tax on ill health.
That prescription charges are a woeful tax on the sick is highlighted
by the fact that, since their introduction in 1952 at one shilling,
they have risen 126 times. The average wage would have had to increase
to £49,500 just to keep pace.
All of which leaves vulnerable people, such as cancer out-patients
and people with mental illnesses - that is, those requiring multiple
prescriptions - having to weigh up which of their medicines they can
afford, when in truth they cannot afford to be without any of them.
Despite winning the backing of the powerful Health Committee, the
bill fell at the first vote.
However, on the very day of the vote, the Scottish Executive published
a review of prescription charges which promised to update and extend
the range of exempted illnesses.
Without the SSP, there would be no change in sight for the tens of
thousands who pay exorbitant prescription charges for vital medicines.
Scrap the Council Tax
The Abolition of Council Tax and Introduction
of a Service Tax Bill was also defeated on the parliamentary vote
with all main parties, including the SNP and Liberal Democrats who
claim to be in favour of scrapping the Council Tax, ganging up to
prevent a very popular bill becoming law.
This bill would have scrapped the Council Tax entirely for all those
on an annual income of less than £10,000 and levied a progressive
charge on people’s personal income to fund local government jobs and
services.
It would have immediately benefited most pensioners and low-income
families, improving their disposable income by hundreds of pounds
annually.
At the other end of the scale, the rich would have had to pay progressively
more which they can easily afford.
While the parliament attempted to suffocate this bill, popular anger
against the Council Tax mounted. In
That this movement was stifled by Holyrood almost beggars belief,
and highlights the deeply sectarian attitude of mainstream parties
towards a radical opposition.
But the fight goes on, and the wretched son of the Poll Tax will in
time be defeated.
Free school meals for all
The SSP’s second Free School Meals
Bill won the backing of a truly impressive range of organisations
and individuals from across civic society, including trade unions,
teaching and health professionals, anti-poverty networks, children’s
charities and single parent groups. A national consultation received
one of the highest response rates of any bill with over 500 responses,
97 per cent of which were in favour of giving all Scotland’s primary
school children a free and healthy school dinner.
Disgracefully, the bill was blocked by a parliamentary committee before
the full parliament had an opportunity to vote on, or even discuss,
the bill.
It has now been put on ice until after the election when the SSP will
bring the fight for free school meals back into Holyrood.
Nevertheless, the SSP’s five-year campaign to get free school meals
in
Concretely, it has pushed the Executive into providing free fruit
and milk for all P1 and P2 schoolchildren and, in addition, influenced
many local councils to introduce free breakfast clubs.
Weapons of mass disruption
SSP MSPs have consistently used parliament
to voice their opposition to the wars in
All of our public representatives and hundreds of grassroots party
members have regularly joined the CND and Trident Ploughshares protests
at Faslane nuclear base.
Many have been arrested and imprisoned for their actions, as part
of a wider campaign of direct action against
Rosie Kane even spent seven days in Cornton Vale women’s prison for
her involvement in protests against the weapons of death and destruction
that have been imposed on
And last week, Rosie and Frances joined Greenpeace activists aboard
Arctic Sunrise on a cruise bound for Faslane, where the deadly submarines
are moored, and Coulport, where the warheads, each with a capability
eight times that of the bomb that vapourised Hiroshima in 1945, are
loaded.
What struck Rosie about the Greenpeace ship was that it was once a
seal-hunter whose decks were literally streaming with blood and now
it is a vessel devoted to peace. This transformation of a killing
machine into something celebratory and useful is, she says, what we
seek at Faslane - beauty snatched from the jaws of death.
The People’s Party
With the support of the SSP’s caseworkers,
regional organisers, research and administrative staff, and the party
membership, the SSP’s public representatives have reached out to thousands
of ordinary people across Scotland struggling with everyday problems,
including workers facing redundancy and wage cuts, from Ayrshire to
Aberdeen, the Farepak customers who faced a desolate Xmas courtesy
of HBoS in 2006, people confronted with discrimination based on disability,
racial origin, gender or age, and communities fighting to save green
spaces and resisting phone masts, waste dumps, private housing estates
and motorways.
On a one-to-one level, our team help those struggling to pay their
bills, avoid eviction, access healthcare, keep their jobs or claim
benefits, in short to survive in the increasingly difficult circumstances
brought about by a ruling coalition wedded to the ideas of the free
market and divorced from the principles of equality and compassion.
The Scottish Socialist Party, with its direct campaigning approach,
has succeeded over the past four years in making a real difference
to people’s lives in big and small ways.
Our MSPs and councillors have not just talked the talk: they have
walked the walk. They deserve to be re-elected, along with a new batch
of Scottish Socialist MSPs and councillors.
—page eight—
Time to get popular
by Joe Pearce
One of the most important
jobs the SSP has to do as an organisation is equip its members
with the ideas and knowledge they need to be effective socialists.
We need to provide socialist education to SSP members, but
the way we go about it can often be alienating for people
who don’t have decades of experience of traditional meetings.
At the last SSP conference the party started a drive for
more popular and participatory education techniques to be
introduced. The hope is that the party can reduce barriers
to people joining the party, and more importantly learning
from the party.
Paulo Freire is someone you may have heard of recently in
relation to the way the SSP runs its meetings. He was a
highly influential Brazilian educational thinker and socialist,
and is somewhat the Godfather of Popular Education. His
techniques have been widely developed in many fields, including
community work, youth work, voluntary organisations, management,
and hundreds of other social movements.
The SSP however could have a lot more scope to implement
new participatory education techniques as they were intended.
We’re a radical organisation that doesn’t have to mind our
Ps and Qs around funding bodies. Furthermore the SSP is
full of critically conscious people who would make great
educators to spread socialist ideas.
A recent study within Scottish Socialist Youth saw us carrying
out a series of ‘meetings about meetings’ were we analysed
the way we organised ourselves. They highlighted a long
list of issues on how we run our meetings, and the people
we isolated by the methods we use. However there are a whole
host of solutions and resources which we can use to make
our meetings and our work practice as party more popular,
participatory, and inclusive.
The Radical Education Network will be a step towards finding,
learning, developing and implementing these new education
and meetings methods of the party. Those wishing to join
the network will be required to commit to meetings and training
run by the network, and should be up for implementing and
experimenting with these new methods. The hope is that the
party can ‘grow our own’ educators and dramatically improve
our practice in regards to participation.
I am currently on a placement with the party as part of
my training in community education. The placement aims to
radically improve the way the party conducts meetings and
education, and try and bring some of the huge experience
of different methods of education from other organisations
into the SSP. This may be something that every branch may
wish to send a member to join.
It’s vital that this gets taken seriously by all sections
of the party, because we lose people through not engaging
with them, and people who remain members are deprived of
the opportunity to educate themselves about what we’re fighting
for. An aim of the network is to see radical educational
methods being implemented across the board, and members
taking on responsibility to develop and spread radical education
through the whole SSP.
n Anyone interested in joining the network or coming along to the first training session on 17 March, email joepearce@yahoo.com or call 07798694648.
MSP to hold Polish surgery
by Steven Nimmo
Scottish Socialist Party
national convenor and Lothians MSP, Colin Fox, has produced
a leaflet in Polish inviting members of the Polish community
to come along to a surgery aimed specifically at them.
Colin said: “I’ve met a few Polish workers over the past
weeks and months, including bus drivers and factory workers
and they’ve told me about the specific issues affecting
them here in the Lothians.
“It is because of these representations from various members
of this community that I have set up this surgery.
“There are around 7,000 Polish workers here in the Lothians
and I am concerned that they are the latest guests in our
country to be exploited.
“I’m sure that some rogue employers are exploiting the lack
of knowledge of the minimum wage and workers’ rights to
short change Polish people they employ.
“Meanwhile one bus driver I spoke to told me of five of
his friends having to share a tiny flat in Bathgate.
“At our surgery we will provide advice on all issues for
the Polish community, but having already spoken to some
people it is clear that there are particular problems around
housing, Council Tax and pay and conditions in the workplace.”
The surgery will take place in the former CWU Club (now
Lindsay’s) 15 Brunswick Street,
Local SSP member Grzegorz Rybak will be on hand to provide
a translation service and has also produced the first SSP
leaflet entirely in Polish to advertise the surgery.
n Visit Colin’s blog at http://colinfoxmsp.blogspot.com
Getting radical
in
Indana Simoude joined the
SSP earlier this month. He moved to
Why did you join the SSP?
“Whilst at University I read up on socialism, Marx, Lenin,
the Russian revolution etc.
“At first it is quite difficult to get your head round some
of the ideas but once I understood the principles I realised
that this was something worthwhile. I then decided that
instead of just reading about it I had to get involved in
some way.
“I saw the news reports about what was happening with the
SSP and thought that perhaps I could help the SSP. I see
the SSP as being a radical party and that is kind of cool.
What do you do in terms of work?
“I work at Scottish Widows where I’m learning about ISAs
and so on, I suppose you could say I’m working in the belly
of the beast. I hope to return to
How do you see the future of the SSP?
“I think we have to have an understanding of where the country
is at just now and to keep fighting on issues such as asylum
rights and Trident.
“We have to continue dealing with class issues and the redistribution
of resources. Whilst dealing with local issues our fight
also has to be international. The interests of
“For me politics is about ideals. The Labour Party has changed
its ideals and that is why the SSP is so important.
“The SSP MSPs are prepared to go to jail for what they believe
in; this shows a commitment to the policies we are fighting
for not seen in any other party.
“I believe that healthcare and education are important priorities
and
“I’d also like to see the SSP forge links with the Zambian
community.”
—page nine—
cultural resistance
Writings on the road
Is
by Jo Harvie
In the frame of the imminent Scottish election,
already dubbed the ‘independence election’ by many commentators, Gregor
Gall’s collection of essays on socialism and Scottish independence is
nothing if not timely.
In the run up to, and wake of, 3 May we will see the tangible possibility
of Scottish independence tested like never before. And with three parties
standing full square for independence facing up to the three pro-union
monoliths of the
In Is
Some contributors deviate from the set questions more than others - Peter
McColl of the Scottish Green Party for example, writes on the question
of a green route to socialism, but, in the context of this election, it
provides an interesting insight to the contradictions faced by the left
in the Scottish Green Party.
For by far the most part, writers concentrate on how the demand for independence
for
Repeated passionate arguments for independence with an internationalist
view leave the contributions which counterpose the two seeming more than
a little tired.
The question of independence versus a federal
Two Scottish Socialist Party members write chapters - former Labour MP
John McAllion and SSP national secretary Pam Currie - and the complimentary
nature of their contributions suggest a party more at peace with itself
on independence than ever before.
McAllion’s experience adds bitter depth to his argument that
Meanwhile, Neil Davidson of Solidarity, the split-off from the SSP, puts
his well-rehearsed case that Scottish independence is at best irrelevant
to the struggle for socialism, and, at worst, “counter revolutionary”
- spotlighting the internal warfare that persists within that organisation
on the national question.
On Gall’s final question for the authors - what role might Scottish developments
play in the wider world? - Davidson argues that “the peoples of the developing
world are not, I suspect, particularly interested in constitutional changes
to
Best not to bother, then?
In contrast, Pam Currie concludes:
“
CLASS FREEDOM?
Freedom Writers (cert 12A) directed by Richard LaGravenese. In cinemas from 2 March
by Lisa Young
Freedom Writers is based on the book The
Freedom Writers Diary, where a teacher, Erin Gruwell (Hilary Swank) goes
to work at
Or so they think.
Erin encourages her students to keep a daily journal about their thoughts
and daily lives.
Through sharing their diaries, the students realise that they have more
in common than just hatred.
Each student faces turmoil in their lives through domestic and gang violence,
drugs, poverty and a system that just doesn’t care.
They eventually start to look outside their own lives to the world around
them, inviting various speakers to their school, including the woman who
helped hide the Frank family during WWII.
Most of the students went on to further education after finishing high
school - something that most would never have considered possible, as
most didn’t even expect to finish high school alive.
One of the things I liked about this film is that it wasn’t just another
movie about a white, middle class person going into the ‘hood’ to save
the day!
Swank pulled off an incredible acting job to ensure that Freedom Writers
definitely didn’t come off that way.
I know books are generally much better than the adapted movie - I haven’t
read the actual Freedom Writers Diary book, yet.
But even if you have, I don’t think you will be disappointed with this
film.
I saw it at the beginning of the year and will be going to see it again
when it opens in
There’s lots more I could say about Freedom Writers, but I think you should
just go and see it!
Tuned in
Keef Tomkinson
Square-eyed socialist Keef recommends next week’s TV
Saturday 3 March
Bremner, Bird and Fortune, C4 8pm
It’s back. It’s not as funny as it used to be, but considering the media’s
reluctance to challenge
Arena:
Yeah, Arena!! It’s back. Was it gone? That floating credit sequence and
music always promise top banana cultural exploration. The
Monday 5 March
Dispatches: Greenwash, C4 9pm
I know I slag Dispatches but I also know commies love it and tonight’s
is no different. George Monbiot may be a little posh but he has some big
ideas and bigger questions on the government’s Greenwashing of stats to
mislead us on the effectiveness of their green measures.
Once Upon a Time in
Nice of the BBC to put programmes about NY on just before I head there
on a fact-finding and trainer hunting mission. Looking at new wave punk,
disco and Hip Hop, this doc spotlights NY’s musical gifts to the world,
be it rich scum’s orgy soundtracks or ghetto beats for forgotten youth.
Soul Survivor: The James Brown Story, More4 10.30pm
“Everybody over there! Get On Up! Everybody Right There! Get Into It!
Everybody Over Here! Get Involved!” As so James began one of his infinite
classics. A well deserved doc looking not only at huge impact on soul,
funk and Hip Hop but his influence within the civil rights and black power
movements. “Get up offa that thing and try to release the pressure!!!”
Thursday 8 March
Storyville: Al Franken - God Spoke, BBC4
10.30pm
With Arena back on the streets, the Vito Corleone of societal comment
hits back with this belter. Al Franken is rare, an anti-Republican author
and satirist who has popular appeal. This follows his feud with Fox TV’s
fascist commentator Bill O’Reilly, as well his emergence on the campaign
trail.
Friday 9 March
In the Heat of the Night, ITV3 10.05pm
Forget the classy and dignified Sidney Poitier taking on Rod Steiger’s
odious racist
Culture in briefs
For International Women’s Day, Scottish
PEN Members will read from their translations of women writers from
n See word-power.co.uk
Second Life Left Unity (SLLU), a socialist grouping in cyber world Second Life, has begun publishing SLLU Voice. Issue 1 has reports on Second Life and real life protests against the Iraq War, SLLU aims and principles document, and anti-FN (National Front, France) demos. Issue 2 is also online.
n Read SLLU Voice at: http://slleftunity.blogspot.com/2007/02/sllu-voice.html
—page ten—
international news
Serious
questions for Rifondazione as
A vote on Italy’s continued
military involvement in Afghanistan, which threatened to
rip apart the country’s strained centre-left coalition government,
looks set to be resolved for now as coalition leaders sign
up to a 12-point programme, put forward by Prime Minister
Romano Prodi.
That the signatories included Franco Giordano, the leader
of the party of the radical left, Rifondazione Comunista,
who has pledged his party’s support for the 12 measures
- which include the expansion of an American military base
in Vicenza, raising the retirement age, and support for
a high speed rail link which has seen massive environmentalist
protests - leaves huge question marks over Rifondazione’s
role in the coalition.
On Wednesday last week, Rifondazione Senator Franco Turigliatto
joined with Fernando Rossi of the Italian Communist-Green
Party and a number of ‘senators-for-life’ in abstaining
in a vote on the foreign policy of Prodi’s coalition.
The motion they refused to back called for support for the
deployment of more Italian troops to Afghanistan and the
expansion of the US base - issues which had seen 100,000
people marching in opposition just four days before, including
representatives of Rifondazione.
The abstentions were enough to leave the motion defeated
in
Prodi’s resignation is being described by some on the Italian
left as a threat aimed particularly at bringing Rifondazione
into line - the idea being that they would be blamed for
bringing the neo-conservative nightmare Berlusconi back
into power if they were seen to split up the centre-left
coalition.
Right across the board, the Italian left had fought tooth
and nail to throw out Berlusconi after five wholly corrupt,
rabidly right wing years in power, and his defeat last year
was marked by celebrations that lasted through the night.
However, it now needs to be asked, if this agreement between
the nine-party coalition to unconditionally
support Prodi’s 12 demands is to keep out Berlusconi - with
how many of the 12 points would Berlusconi disagree?
Rifondazione’s leadership are towing the coalition line,
and rebel Senator Franco Turigliatto has been threatened
with expulsion. He had immediately resigned his party mandate
in the senate after his abstention in the vote.
As Romano Prodi attempts to shore up the coalition’s thin
majority, he has recruited the vote of Marco Follini, a
right wing former Christian Democrat,
and some commentators argue there will be more attempts
to win over increasingly right wing representatives to keep
the government’s grip on power, inevitably leading to further
right wing shifts in policy.
Rifondazione’s decision to enter government followed a period
in which they moved from being very supportive of extra-parliamentary
struggles, such as the peace and anti-capitalist movements,
to a more parliamentary approach. Critics in the party are
now calling for a re-assessment of this strategy.
Turigliatto is not isolated, and represents a socialist
left current within Rifondazione.
So it remains to be seen, even if this coalition holds together, will Rifondazione?
—page eleven—
international news
Zionists lobby US over
The Pentagon is considering whether to
grant permission to allow Israeli warplanes to fly over
Israel, which has its own nuclear capability, insists that Iran may
have developed its own nuclear bomb by 2009, and thus poses a threat
to the “Middle East’s only democracy” - quite a laughable claim for
Israel to make for itself, given that it is founded on the not very
democratic principle of racial origin, rendering Arab Israelis very
much second-class, both culturally and politically.
If you’re not alarmed, you should be.
And make no mistake, AIPAC know how to do this stuff, being one of the
most powerful lobby groups in the country, more so even than the odious
National Rifle Association, with ‘friends’ including Paul Wolfowitz,
President of the World Bank.
AIPAC were very enthusiastic about the last war, as was
Luckily, AIPAC now has friends on both sides of the floor, including
Democrat Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the house, thanks to an astute policy
of lobbying every careerist politician who gets anywhere near government.
The plan now is to further entrench themselves with the Democrats, tipped
for an election win in 2009 and popularly regarded, by people who don’t
really study politics too closely, as anti-war.
The logic being, if they come out for a war on
“We need to do this in order to turn the
He adds, arrogantly and dangerously, that the
But Democrats and journalists are mugs if they think the Zionist lobby,
of which AIPAC is the biggest and best organised constituent, represents
the majority of American Jewry.
A survey from 2004 - that is, before the horror of
For these Jews, there may be a catastrophe within a catastrophe in this
latest Israeli aggression.
Writing in Counterpunch, American academic Gary Leupp, Professor of
History at
“‘The Jews made us do it’...That’s what the red-necks, including a whole
lot of today’s brain-dead Christian Zionist fundamentalists will say
as soon as everything goes wrong in the Middle East, Jesus doesn’t come
back, and the three US troops killed per day become six or ten for no
good goddamned reason.”
It’s a reflection of the crude nature of mainstream American political
discourse, as embodied by the likes of Fox News, that little distinction
is made between Hamas and
AIPAC, which really is trying to make them do it, will furnish the anti-semites
with the ammunition, and the people whom they purport to represent will
have their windows smashed.
Ironic, given that AIPAC, whose members tend to be very rich, very powerful
people, is using the most cranked-up language it can muster, equating
Mugabe parties as Zimbabweans protest
While Robert Mugabe partied last Wednesday,
at vast expense, in a stadium in Gwenu, central
The population is crippled by hyper-inflation, caused by a rapidly declining
economy, and the brutal suppression of all forms of political opposition.
Mugabe’s party marked his 83rd birthday and he used it as an opportunity
to further stamp his authority and to deny all rumours that he is considering
stepping down.
Thus, on the same day, a three-month ban on political rallies and protests
was declared, following the violent disruption by police of an opposition
rally in
Peaceful opposition supporters were met with riot squads, water cannon
and tear gas.
A crackdown is also expected on the nation’s students, whose union -
the Zimbabwe National Students’ Union (Zinasu) - has announced a class
boycott, beginning Monday 5 March, in response to escalating fees, now
so high they threaten people’s right to education, deteriorating standards
of education and inadequate accommodation facilities.
The International Bar Association’s (IBA) Human Rights Institute has
condemned the three month ban, saying it “undermine(s) the guarantees
of human rights and the rule of law by preventing the citizens of
Meanwhile human rights groups in
The executive director of the National Society for Human Rights, P.
ya Nangoloh, urges Pohamba “to impress upon Mr Mugabe that the situation
in Zimbabwe is totally unacceptable and embarrassing and, as such, should
be brought soonest to normalcy”.
“On our part, together with other civil society colleagues, we will
be holding next Wednesday a peaceful demonstration in front of the Zimbabwean
embassy in
This report was drawn together from reports found at the website of
the UK-based Association of Zimbabwean Journalists, comprising exiled
Zimbabwean journalists working to “expand the shrinking democratic space
in our country through expanding a vibrant, non-governmental mass media.”
Media outlets that criticise Mugabe’s government have systematically
been closed down, including, most famously, the mainstream Daily News
in 2003.
n See the Association of Zimbabwean Journalists’ website: www.zimbabwejournalists.com
UN clears
Angry protestors gathered in The Hague
on Tuesday, as the International Court of Justice found Serbia not guilty
of state-sponsored genocide, 15 years after it was accused of war crimes
by the Bosnian government in 1993. In the landmark case, the panel of
United Nations judges ruled 13-to-two that the Serbian government was
not complicit in genocide and “ethnic cleansing” during the 1992-1995
Bosnian War.
The court ruled that, while acts of genocide were committed by the Bosnian
Serb Army, they were not under the direct orders of the
The unexpected verdict will surprise many in the troubled region as
Bosnians, Serbs and Croats grapple to come to terms with their past.
In summing up, the judges criticised
—page twelve—
Greenpeace get nicked!
by Rosie Kane
When I wrote in the Voice last week about
Frances Curran and myself sailing to Faslane on the Greenpeace boat, Arctic
Sunrise, I had no idea that I was writing the first instalment of what was
about to be a major protest involving high jinks on the high sea by the
end of the week.
I remember worrying as I wandered the decks surrounded by police and Ministry
of Defence (MoD) boats that Greenpeace had gone soft.
They should have been tormenting the life out of our guards,
they should be storming the base.
Instead, here we all were sailing with permission and under control towards
However, any notion that I might have had that Greenpeace had turned yellow
was erased when I turned on my TV on Friday morning to hear that the mighty
Arctic Sunrise and her crew were indeed blocking an entrance to the base.
Some of the crew had climbed the barriers where the subs are housed,
The MoD and police boats were chasing Greenpeace at full speed, trying to
knock them off kilter and into the sea.
But the skilled crew managed to speed up to the barriers at the subs and
raise an anti-Trident banner.
With every bulletin, there were more arrests.
When the toll reached 15, I called the satellite phone on board the ship.
I had a brief conversation, but the line went dead within minutes. I then
called the mobile number of one of the crew, and finally got through as
they were being arrested.
They were shouting, “the ship has been stormed,
the ship has been stormed”.
Now that has to be the first time I have ever had something like that relayed
to me over the phone.
Sure enough, the activists had locked themselves in various positions within
the ship and were standing their ground, vowing not to leave.
Some were in rooms sending out videos and photos and press releases, others
were holed up in the mess, and a few were on the bridge and engine room.
Doors were bust open one after the other by MoD police (aka MoD plod) and
the entire crew of 29 were grabbed and taken into custody at the naval base.
The ship herself was seized by the MoD.
The brave Greenpeace activists were taken into police vans after hours of
hanging about and were driven to police stations throughout
In total there were 45 arrests.
The earlier arrestees were released on Friday night but the 29 arrested
onboard were held over the weekend.
I had no idea as I waved the crew goodbye from the quay at
They were held till Monday on the pretext that they would be appearing in
court, but that never happened.
This has been a pattern that has emerged since Faslane 365 kicked off back
in October.
Folk who are arrested have been held overnight or over weekends yet, as
far as I know, until now, only one has gone to court.
It’s clear that to take us all to court would clog up the system - this
is a measure of the success of Faslane 365.
One by one, the 29 weekenders emerged from the various stations still wearing
their waterproofs.
They looked exhausted and pale and most of them could not believe how awful
the imprisonment had been.
Some had been treated better than others but, all in all, it had been a
bad experience.
Sadly some of the guys held at Dumbarton were in a cell next to a man who
died in custody and had heard everything - they were very alarmed by this,
and it added to their distress.
As they recovered, they told their stories about the day they attacked the
base and when Frances and myself told them they had been all over the news
and that they had been the talk of the Bin The Bomb demo, they were well
chuffed.
The ship’s skipper may have to take the burden of blame - one lawyer said
they are charging him with everything in the books that has the word ‘ship’
in it.
But to tell you the truth, I reckon the fiscal’s office will be only too
glad to see the back of the Arctic Sunrise and her international crew as
soon as possible.
Because it’s amazing what you can do with a ship and a good attitude.
n Go to greenpeace.org.uk for video footage of the Arctic Sunrise blockade
Scotland 2000, Trident nil
ON Saturday, the biggest demonstration
In
A host of speakers, from the churches, trade unions, political parties and
the peace movement, pledged their commitment to opposing a new generation
of nuclear weapons.
The Scottish Socialist Party’s Rosie Kane was amongst the speakers, and
she appealed to the assembled crowd to keep up the action to scrap nuclear
weapons, saying:
“It’s not those sitting on their backsides in
Speaking at an SSP meeting after the rally, Scottish CND chairperson
Alan Mackinnon said the debate Blair had promised on the replacement of
Trident was ‘phoney’.
But, he said, making Trident a crucial issue in this year’s Scottish Parliament
elections, and gaining a majority of MSPs opposed to Trident’s replacement,
would strike “a powerful blow for the peace movement”.
Scottish Socialist Youth member James Nesbitt urged the audience to get
active in the peace movement:
“We’re at the precipice of a disaster. If we don’t take radical action and
build a movement that’s going to disarm our governments and change the system
that we live under, then the nuclear winter of movies and TV becomes a reality.”
As the marches assembled, it emerged in the press that the British government
is offering the country up as a site for more American missiles, bidding
to allow the
The effect, much like renewing the Trident nuclear missiles which Britain
rents from the US, would be to further bind the UK to America’s foreign
policy, turning Britain into America’s first line of defence.