Scottish Socialist Voice
Issue 303
13 th April 2007
—front page—
FREE PUBLIC TRANSPORT
Combat climate change and poverty
Tried and tested
Free public transport has been
a roaring success in the Belgian city of
Rather than hammering motorists with tolls and taxes, free public transport is a fairer and more effective way to cut car usage, congestion and carbon emissions
This is a radical solution to
the biggest problem facing us in the 21st century - global warming.
Free public transport - an idea whose time has come
—page two—
Referendum vigil: 15th anniversary
Last Tuesday, 10 April, marked
the 15th anniversary of the founding of the vigil for a referendum
on devolution for
An overwhelming 75 per cent of voters in
“The permanent vigil was set up outside the Scottish Office, which
was the symbol of the
“The vigil was non-party political, and involved people from across
the spectrum, most of whom were pro-independence.”
The vigil’s place on Calton Hill continued the site’s long association
with campaigns for greater democracy. In 1979, the old
The vigil ran until 1997, when the portacabin closed its doors
the day after the referendum delivered the historic vote for the
Scottish Parliament, thus fulfilling the vigil’s reason for existence.
“Marking the birthday of the vigil is especially symbolic this
year,” continues Pam.
“People who were the forerunners of the Scottish Socialist Party
were then campaigning for a referendum on devolution - now we’re
on the verge of a historic election, and calling for a referendum
on full independence.”
Tensions are far from over in Gulf
The British hostages are free,
but does this mean a US-led attack on
Last summer a story was going the rounds that Tony Blair had sacked
Jack Straw as Foreign Secretary at the urging of
If this story is to be believed, a British Foreign Secretary has
bitten the dust because he got in the way of Bush’s war plans.
Straw knew, as did the whole of the Foreign Office, that the March
2003 attack upon
Straw could hardly say so in public since he shared so much of
the blame for the invasion.
But this is not to say that he would have gone along with a second
US attack against another member of what Bush had dubbed the “axis
of evil” - in this case, Iran.
Straw’s offence was that, in April 2006, he publicly described
as “nuts” the notion that the Bush administration was drawing
up secret contingency plans to attack
In fact, Bush’s advisers were doing just that.
Straw may have known - or guessed - this but either way, he was
making trouble for the
Just consider it from the Americans’ point of view; they would
have known they would need Blair’s PR and diplomatic support.
But how could Blair and his spin doctors be expected to deliver
this when the British Foreign Secretary himself had already characterised
the very idea of an attack upon
From the perspective of the neo-cons, Straw had become a loose
cannon, and would have to go.
In May 2006, a month after Straw’s dismissal of an attack on
Straw thus suffered at Blair’s hands the very same demotion to
being merely Leader of the House of Commons as had Robin Cook
before him.
There is collateral for this story.
A couple of months after Straw was demoted, Irwin Stelzer revealed,
in the London-based Conservative weekly The Spectator, that Washington
had come to a negative conclusion about Straw’s fitness to be
Foreign Secretary.
This was then “passed on” - presumably to Blair.
Stelzer was certainly in a position to know what had happened
and even to do some passing on of his own.
He has been described as Rupert Murdoch’s emissary to both Blair
and Brown and has been observed quietly slipping in and out of
Number 10 Downing Street.
Stelzer is also a leading neo-con and luminary of such right-wing
He was, and is, a close colleague of Richard Perle, one of the
most vindictive of the neo-cons and also a member of both these
institutes.
Straw had offended Perle by speaking contemptuously of him as
“an unreliable reporter” for saying that a nuclear attack upon
Now Straw was gone and Stelzer had revealed why in the pages of
The Spectator. For what is power if you can’t let people know
that you are powerful?
Soon Blair demonstrated once again just how useful he still could
be to the cause of the neo-cons.
With Straw replaced as Foreign Secretary by the inexperienced
Margaret Beckett, Blair was free to cooperate diplomatically with
the Americans in delaying a ceasefire in the conflict in
Thus the killings continued on both sides from July into August
2006, and time was allowed for Israeli firepower to wreck much
of
Fast forward to January 2007, when Bush’s Secretary of State,
Condoleeza Rice, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that
the Bush Administration would be pursuing “a new strategic alignment
in the
The main focus of attack would no longer be Sunni Muslims - Sunni
states were declared to be ‘centres of moderation’ - but upon
the ‘Shia crescent’, stretching from Hezbullah in southern
The prime justification for this shift in American policy is that
A second supposed justification is that ‘elements in the Iranian
regime’ are allegedly providing Shia militants in
Meanwhile, Seymour Hersh and other investigative reporters have
revealed that, as part of its divide and rule strategy, the US
is sponsoring separatist groups inside Iran that use bombings
and assassinations to achieve their aims.
These operations are funded from covert CIA programmes, but neo-cons
such as John Bolton are speaking openly of the desirability of
‘regime change’ in
Following the release of the 15 sailors and marines from HMS Cornwall,
Blair and his spin doctors disdained this dubiously motivated
but gracious act and did their best to demonise the Iranians.
And, despite outrage from the families of British soldiers killed
in Iraq, Rupert Murdoch’s Sun newspaper is paying Leading Seaman
Turney to play the part of instant celebrity and tell of her ‘ordeal’
as a captive of the Revolutionary Guards.
Whatever Blair might wish for, the Foreign Office seems to prefer
diplomatic solutions in dealing with
The frustrated neo-cons are venting their spleen at the supine
Brits.
However, the game is not over.
No less a figure than the former US National Security Adviser,
Zbigniew Brzezinski, has warned the Senate of the “Manichean delusions”
of the Bush White House, of a “head-on conflict with Iran” and
of a “deepening quagmire eventually ranging across Iraq, Iran,
Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
But Bush is not listening.
Ominously, a third US carrier group will soon be joining the other
two in the Persian Gulf and for some time yet Blair will remain
as Prime Minister, Bush’s proxy in our affairs.
—page three—
SSP campaign kicks off in style
The SSP’s People Not Profit Scottish
Parliament election manifesto was launched on Tuesday 10 April at Hampden
Stadium, Glasgow.
As the Voice went to press, the substantial document, which provides
a detailed socialist response to the challenges facing Scottish people
and communities, from poverty to war to climate change, was already
attracting widespread interest, not least because of our groundbreaking
free public transport policy, easily the most radical, anti-poverty,
pro-environment pledge from any party this election.
There are six flagship policies, headlined by the case for free public
transport.
Costing us in the billions of pounds lost to the economy every year
through congestion, in the escalating incidence of asthma and other
pollution-related respiratory diseases, in road accidents and road maintenance,
in lowered quality of life and fear of injury, and in rising fuel emissions
which in turn fuel deadly global warming.
Piecemeal initiatives like congestion charging and road tolls will do
little to combat the tide of traffic, which rises year on year as the
cost of motoring decreases compared to the cost of using an increasingly
fractured and stressed public transport system.
Plus, these kinds of flat taxation impact disproportionately on the
poor and encourage a ‘pay to pollute’ mentality that gets us nowhere
fast.
The key to cutting car usage is to offer a viable alternative, as set
out in the SSP manifesto - a fully comprehensive, fully integrated public
transport system, that enables everyone to
get mobile, from anywhere to everywhere.
Universal
To maximise uptake, we would make the system free. If this
sounds like largesse, it isn’t.
Universal free provision is a policy proven to increase uptake, as demonstrated
by the free school meals policy in Finland, and free public transport
policy in Hasselt, in Belgium, where passenger numbers have risen by
over 1000 per cent since its introduction in the late 90s, while car
usage has plummeted, freeing up road-space for cycle lanes and pavements,
and city spaces for people to live and breathe in. It’s not an expensive
policy, by any means.
In fact, it was introduced into
We have costed it at £1billion per year, a hefty sum to be sure, but
pretty small beer when compared to the cost of Trident (£76billion),
for instance, and half the amount of cash the SNP propose to dish out
to fatcats as a result of their Corporation Tax cuts.
And by cancelling monstrously expensive white elephants such as the
£500million M74 extension in
It’s ambitious, but not as ambitious as establishing a National Health
Service following six years of ruinous war, and it is proven to work.
It is an idea whose time has come, and more and more Scots are getting
on board.
Referendum
Another of our key campaigns is for a referendum on Scottish
independence within a year of the election.
Why? Not because we believe independence will turn
We believe the Scots should have the final say over deportations and
dawn raids, nuclear weapons and war. Just as English people should have
the final say over foundation hospitals, not a handful of Scottish Labour
MPs toadying to Tony Blair.
The momentum towards independence is gathering, and we are calling time
on 300 years of a Union which has benefited only the empire-builders
and the warmongers, while marginalising the people through the monopolising
of power by
Our other flagship polices include building 100,000 new council houses;
a desperately needed initiative in this era of dwindling social housing
stock and outlandish house prices.
Affordable housing is essential if we are to end the practise of dumping
homeless families in B&B accommodation, if we are to keep services
alive in remote communities where, at present, essential workers like
firefighters and teachers are priced out the housing market, to enable
young people to leave home and perhaps start their own families, and
to unchain people from the millstone of ruinous mortgages, a sport only
the high street usurers, the banks, can enjoy.
We also seek to introduce free school meals, to tackle
Like free public transport, this is a tried and tested idea, in
Though our bill has been defeated twice by a cynical parliament determined
to stamp out radical parties, our free school meals campaign has reaped
rich rewards, in the guise of free breakfasts in primary schools and
free fruit and water initiatives, not to mention the recent advances
in banning junk food from schools.
Our bid to abolish prescription charges
being another case in point. While charges escalate across the
We are also committed to axing the Council
Tax, the miserable son of the Poll Tax, which beggars the low-paid while
barely tickling the wealthy, multiple home-owning elite.
Our Scottish Service Tax idea is a just, well thought-out and fully
costed alternative that would do much to alleviate the stress of being
poor in modern-day
We also propose a system of carbon rationing, as a means of reducing
our carbon footprint without resort to crippling price rises that would
leave the less well-off out in the cold, to cancel PFI/PPP schemes and
kick the profiteers out the public sector, to make the police more accountable
and prison, that hothouse for offenders, a last resort, to make childcare
affordable and to give families, of all shapes and sizes, real support,
to provide education for education’s sake and make war a memory, to
bring the troops home and Scotland to its senses.
People Not Profit is a big read, bursting with energy and ideas. But
hey, we are the Scottish Socialists, and we wrote the book.
SSP’s broadcast is a matchbox classic
The Scottish Socialist Party’s first
election TV broadcast hit the airwaves on Tuesday this week, to a rapturous
reception. It was put together by a team of celebrated young filmmakers,
including award winning director Alice Nelson, from
The SSP’s second broadcast, made by the same team, will be screened
in two weeks’ time on Tuesday, 24 April.
—page four—
Sold down the river
The world’s rivers are uner threat by pollution and the greed of big business
The
So says the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), whose new report identifies
the top ten world rivers most in peril
from pollution, over-development, over-fishing, over-extraction
and climate change.
The
Without it, this area would be dust.
Unfortunately, dust may be its destiny, as the Rio Grande is dying
of thirst - so much so, it sometimes even fails to reach the sea
at the Gulf of Mexico - thanks to careless and badly co-ordinated
over-extraction.
The WWF is working to have certain, biologically diverse areas
granted national park status and to establish irrigation systems
that keep farms supplied but don’t bleed the river dry.
Bad planning, and a lack of cross-border cooperation, is the root
cause. In an age of climate change, such negligence is dangerous
and could threaten many millions of people’s very existence.
But over-extraction is not the only villain.
Dams and channelisation are an increasing hazard, cutting rivers
off from their floodplains - which renders both systems less able
to regulate themselves, increasing the risk of flood and drought,
and upsetting the fine, age-old balance upon which life depends.
The Salween, which flows through
All this is under threat because of
China plans to build 13 massive hydropower dams which will turn
the last international free-flowing river into a series of channels
and reservoirs which will not only displace the tens of thousands
whose home valleys are destined to be flooded, and devastate regions
downstream whose water supply will be severely compromised, but
also kill off wildlife by the score, through disrupting spawning
areas and migration routes and holding water in deep basins when
it should be free-flowing.
The WWF is negotiating with the Chinese authorities in a bid to
convince them to build smaller-scale hydropower dams in river
tributaries instead, and to regard the
This crisis points up to the fact that industrialising nations
need no-strings aid, and fast, to develop clean technologies to
meet their energy needs, rather than the rich world’s hypocritical
condemnation.
The
Already, 80 per cent of its forests, floodplains and wetlands
are destroyed and plans for a Trans-European Network for Transport
a pan-European series of canals and shipping lanes - will only
make matters worse.
La Plata, in
The fall-out from industrialisation is not just a local matter,
as the crises affecting the Indus and the
Man-made climate change, the product of 150 years of industrial
excess in the West, has depleted the glaciers that feed and regulate
the Indus, resulting in water shortages and, ironically, flooding,
in
In 1995, the river was providing less water per person than the
UN’s recommended minimum. By 2025, it is predicted that water
will be considerably scarcer.
Loss of forest, another cause and effect of climate change, will
render the river and its environs even less stable, prone to flooding
and landslips.
The
These are prime examples of poor nations paying the price for
rich country’s profligacy.
Invasive species - that is, alien species introduced which then
threaten native species and communities - are increasingly a hazard
in the Murray-Darling river, in Australia, where indigenous species
are now at 10 per cent of the levels they were before the advent
of European settlement.
The European Carp and Plague Minnow, this latter introduced to
eat mosquitoes though instead it simply feasts on local wildlife,
are thriving here while nine out of 35 natives are threatened,
and two are critically endangered.
As myxomatosis, the hideously contagious disease unleashed by
the introduction of rabbits - for sport - to
Another man-made problem is that of over-fishing, which is causing
untold concern along the banks of the Mekong, in
Work to clarify fishing rights and stamp out illegal fishing is
underway and urgently needed to preserve fish stocks and a future
for fishermen
Pollution, which affects almost every world river, is punishing
the Yangtze in
Nitrogen from agricultural run-off competes with cadmium from
industry for the upper hand, and the people who depend on this
water are being felled by escalating rates of E.Coli, Hepatitis
A and Dysentery, as well as such long-term horrors as cancer.
The Three Gorges dam, which uprooted tens of thousands of people
and devastated eco-systems for thousands of miles, exacerbates
this problem, through disrupting the river’s normal free-flow,
a natural mechanism for cleansing the water.
The situation for these rivers, and for humanity, is dire.
We have come to this pass through bad governance and wanton waste,
through putting profit before people at every turn, through a
development model that never factors in the human cost.
We need fast and effective planning, based on political and economic
international cooperation. Without it, we’re sunk.
—page five—
letters
The abuse of Angelika
Even in death, murdered woman Angelika Kluk can’t avoid having
her sexual history made public and used against her.
The lawyers defending the man accused of her brutal rape and murder
are seeking to cast doubt on her reputation by discussing sexual relationships
she had in her short life.
As if the fact that Angelika had sexual relationships somehow makes
her rape and murder less of a crime.
Women still have to endure the stress and horror of having their sexual
history paraded for all to discuss if they are to achieve justice
in rape trials.
This abuse of women must stop.
Only when the crime of rape is viewed by society as an act of violence
rather than sex will this juducial abuse end.
It would appear that throughout her life, Angelika was abused by people
who were in positions of trust and who abused their power. And even
after her violent death, the abuse continues in the media.
I suppose the best that can be said about priest Gerry Nugent is that,
unlike some other men in positions of power, he did not deny his relationship when questioned in
court.
Barbara Scott
Edinburgh
Heavy fuel for heavy rockers
Voice reader Yiannis Kokosalikis has a host of recipes for
those who rock - but are also easily followed by anyone who enjoys
a spot of Perry Como.
Feast of Perun
Ingredients:
1.5 kg organic new potatoes (diced)
5 (or more) organic carrots (chopped)
400g organic button mushrooms (diced)
4-5 (or more, never less) garlic cloves (diced)
1 organic onion (finely chopped)
1 organic apple
1 lemon’s juice
salt, black Pepper, smoked Paprika, dried chives and oregano to your heart’s
content and lots of olive oil
Mix all (not the apple) in a large baking tray. Add a bit of water. Peel apple and grate over the over the food. Mix again. If you’ve added the right amount of paprika, the oil/water should be of a semi transparent red colour. Put tray in a preheated (180 C) oven. In about 20 mins check if more water is needed. Bake for another 45 mins or so stirring every 15. Raise temperature to 220-230 and bake for another 15. Serve with feta cheese or something similar - not that there is anything similar to the mighty Feta.
SEEKING REFUGE
Wullie McGartland
Desperately fleeing
Intolerable” and “unacceptable” - with
these words, Tony Blair described the current situation in the Darfur
region of
Luckily the Court of Appeal thought otherwise, deeming
The ruling came after three Darfurian men challenged a deportation
order. The
However, the Court of Appeal ruled that conditions in these camps
were appalling, one of the judges, Lord Justice Buxton, saying that
reports on conditions in the camps made “frightening reading”.
In fact, many of the camps surrounding
The Law Lords however rejected the claim that the men would face torture
if returned to
A judgement shown to be wrong after evidence emerged revealing how
the Sudanese government really treats its returning refugees.
Sadiq Adam Osma had been in
He managed to escape to a secret location elsewhere in
The Aegis Trust, an organisation dedicated to eliminating genocide,
organised a meeting between Guardian journalist, Inigo Gilmore, and
Mr Osma, where he described the horrific violence he endured.
Three people had “beat me everywhere”, he said, producing photographs
showing extensive scarring and injuries to his body
“My whole body was numb; so I couldn’t feel anything anymore. I was
bleeding everywhere. I was completely soaked in blood, and the room
was covered with my faeces and urine. I was expecting to die. I never
thought I would be alive now. My torturers were saying to each other:
‘Let’s just kill him.’”
Mr Osma had come to the
The Home Office said it did not “routinely monitor the treatment of
individuals once removed from the
This callous disregard for those it returns to
Mr Osma’s asylum case is expected to go through British courts once
again.
But this time there will be evidence that torture has taken place,
thanks to the
The
“We learn from history that we shouldn’t show genocidal regimes how
little we care for their victims.
“In July 1938, 32 governments decided at the Evian Conference that
they did not have room for Jews fleeing persecution in
—centre pages—
—page eight—
Supporters go wild for SSP in the West
Scottish Socialist Party
members in the West of Scotland region headed for the
seaside, lochside and hillside in a staggeringly successful
campaigning Easter week.
A host of SSP stalls - in Saltcoats, Largs, Clydebank,
Greenock, Dumbarton, Balloch, Paisley, Kirkintilloch and
Lennoxtown - have been matched with a huge effort to get
tens of thousands of Scottish Socialist Party bulletins
out through doors in towns and villages across the region.
“We’ve had a fantastic reception wherever we’ve been,”
regional organiser Davy Landels told the Voice.
“We’ve got thousands of signatures on our petition to
scrap the Council Tax and replace it with a fairer alternative,
based on income.
“We’ve been in areas which none of the other parties are
targeting, and we’re campaigning on issues that really
touch the heart of the problems people face in their lives
everyday.
“People are absolutely sick of the Council Tax - and when
you point out that other parties had a chance to support
the SSP’s bill to scrap it in the last parliament, but
didn’t, then they’re even more appalled.
“Folk aren’t stupid, and they recognise the rank opportunism
of the SNP and LibDems who are dragging this issue out,
now it’s election time.”
One indicator of the enthusiasm for the SSP’s message
in the West of Scotland is a surge in sales of the Voice,
which is going down a storm - with 47 copies sold in one
sunny day in Saltcoats, and 30 in Largs, being just a
couple of examples.
In
The top of the regional list candidate, Pamela Page, a
modern studies teacher from Kirkintilloch, has been right
round the region campaigning - including a stop in
John Miller, the SSP council candidate for the Paisley
South ward, told the Voice:
“Many people were surprised to find that they were in
agreement with so many of the party’s policies that it
was more akin to a discovery than a conversion.
If the success of our campaigning can be carried through
to the ballot box, then the mainstream parties will get
a bit of a fright!”
As well as the regional list for the parliament, the Scottish
Socialist Party is standing council candidates across
the West - in all of the wards in Renfrewshire and West
Dunbartonshire, as well as a significant number of council
wards in East Dunbartonshire, Inverclyde and North Ayrshire.
(See issue 302 for a feature on Ardrossan and
In
He has represented
“The success we had in the campaign to save Leven Cottage
care home, the SSP being at the forefront of the campaigns
to save two primaries, Christie Park and Renton Primary,
and the fact that we convinced the council to hand back
Renton CE Centre to the community rather than sell it
off - all of these things are registering with people.
“The Scottish Socialist Party has a really high profile
here, people are talking about
the party.
“We have got involved at the grassroots of community campaigns
and people warm to that.
“They see we’re a party of action, unlike the other parties
who are just all talk, and we really can get things done.”
How to vote Scottish Socialist on 3 may
On 3 May, take 15 minutes
to go to your local polling station.
Get your voting papers at the desk and mark an X beside
Scottish Socialist Party on the left side of the Scottish
Parliament ballot - on the peach-coloured side under the
heading ‘Regional Members’.
Spread the word - vote on the LEFT side for the LEFT-wing
Scottish Socialist Party.
And as well as your Scottish Parliament ballot paper,
you’ll also collect your council ballot too.
SSP convenor Colin Fox says:
“The new ‘STV’ voting system means that there is a real
possibility of numbers of SSP councillors joining those
we already have in Glasgow and West Dunbartonshire and
that, like them, they will prove effective fighters for
their communities.”
Voting for council candidates is different to your parliamentary
vote. Mark a preference number, not an ‘X’, to vote for
a candidate.
To cast your first vote for an SSP council candidate,
mark their box with a number 1. And if we’re not getting
your first vote, please give the SSP your second (2),
or third (3).
—page nine—
cultural resistance
MIXED MESSAGES
Histrionics. An exhibition by Roderick Buchanan, at the Gallery
of Modern Art,
Born and raised in
There are several pieces in the exhibition, ranging from photographs
of footballers to information on figures such as Thomas Muir and
an exploration of the family trees of the artist and his wife, in
their own ‘mixed marriage’.
In the middle of the gallery is ‘Here I Am’, a massive red triangular
theatre showing two films of flute bands, one Loyalist, one Republican.
Buchanan had intended to film the two bands together, an idea which
was met with laughter from the bands themselves, so they were filmed
separately instead.
The end result is spectacular. Both bands play, neither band’s music
interrupts each other, and the pendulum edit means both get an equal
crack at representation.
Following on from Sanctuary and Rule Of Thumb, Blind Faith is the
third in GoMA’s successful biennial series where the power of contemporary
art has been proved to raise awareness and challenge attitudes to
difficult social issues. Blind Faith will focus on identity, neighbourhood
and nation, bringing in the issue of sectarianism - a priority for
n Histrionics talks at the GoMA: Roderick Buchanan, Gallery 1, GoMA, Thursday 3 May, from 6.30pm to 7.30pm.
Roderick Buchanan talks about his work and about the new work he created for this exhibition. Free, no need to book. Des Dillon, The Studio, GoMA, Thursday 3 May, from 2pm to 3pm. Author Des Dillon reads from his recent play ‘Singin I’m No A Billy, He’s A Tim’. Free, no need to book.
Save our pool - united we will swim
The
The concert will feature Fotheringay Players: conductor David Bruce,
Anne and Jim Binnie on pianos, Bharati Bundhoo on tantura, and June
Binnie on percussion. Music includes Saint-Saens’s Carnival Of
The Animals.
Please come along and support the campaign to raise funds to re-open
the Govanhill Baths as a much needed sporting and well-being centre
for the whole community.
n Tickets are £5 from McCalls newsagent,
Tuned in
Keef Tomkinson
Saturday 14 April
Face of
Why do we look like we do? Do we share common bumps and dents? Is
it cause of the
Falklands 25: A Soldier’s Story, ITV4, 8.40pm
Documentary following a Falklands veteran back to the Malvinas,
as
Sunday 15 April
Brief Encounter, Film4, 3.20pm
Yeah, yeah. This story may be about two posh people, speaking in posh tongue but
it really is tragically tender. Based on a Noel Coward play, Celia
Johnson and Trevor Howard are the terribly nice couple who meet
in a railway café and then fight the desires that burn between them.
Lost In Translation, Channel4, 9pm
In what is one of the loveliest and hippest films in recent years,
Bill Murray is the aging actor who meets bored newly wed Scarlett
Johansson in
Monday 16 April
Blue Suede Jew, BBC2, 11.30pm
The King of the Jews meets The King of Rock n Roll. Not quite. Gilles
Elmalih is ‘The Elvis from
Tuesday 17 April
Mr Miss World, Channel4, 10pm
Miss World? Bad, ok. What if it’s for transsexuals?
And what if this doc is following a contestant from
Friday 20 April
Mr Smith Goes to Washington, Film4,
4.35pm
Jimmy Stewart is the idealist Senator who, unbeknownst to him, is
being sent to
All Week
Election Coverage, various channels, various times
Don’t bother. They all lie. Just vote SSP cause they care about ending poverty. And poverty is bad.
—page ten—
international news
Teacher killed
in
Workers strike in protest as colleague is slain by police
Mass demonstrations of
striking teachers brought
Tens of thousands took to the streets of
The chemistry teacher was participating in a roadblock
as part of a demonstration over teachers’ pay when he
was hit and killed by a cannister of tear gas, fired by
the police at close range. Governor Sobisch had ordered
police to break up the road block.
On Monday’s demos, teachers were joined by supporters
from other trade unions and human rights organisations.
With support from the country’s two main trade union federations,
schools remained closed, public transport halted and banks
and many offices shut for a couple of hours. The autonomous
Confederation of Argentine Workers, CTA, declared a 24
hour strike while the government-aligned General Confederation
of Workers, CGT, called a one-hour work stoppage.
Around 25,000 people marched in Neuquen, where demonstrators
painted the facade and doors of Government House black
and blocked the main routes leading to the capital of
the Patagonian province. Governor Sobisch withdrew all
police forces from the city.
Buenos Aires
Meanwhile the union which represents teachers in Neuquen
announced that no pay talks will take place until the
‘officials responsible for the killing’ of Fuentealba
resign their posts.
Charter for democracy
Charter 77 was founded
in
In 1976, the arrest and prosecution of the psychedelic
band The Plastic People of the Universe inspired clamours
for greater freedom in
A group of intellectuals drafted and signed a document
that began a movement that was perhaps the most influential
move against the Soviet-style regime in the country.
Charter 77 formed 30 years ago, not as an anti-communist
resistance group, but as a human rights body. The aim
was to pressure the ‘neo-Stalinist’ government into complying
with the
The
Sculptor and musician, Jiri Pliestih, remembers the absurd
restrictions on personal freedom that were a normal part
of life in
“(To perform as a musician) you had to go through the
examination of the ideological board where you should
prove that you are able to play music, you should prove
you are able to sing folk songs, and you should prove
you are able to know something about the communist movement.”
If one accepted these limitations then one could live
a claustrophobic life, within the enclosed space defined
by Soviet ideology.
“We couldn’t do that, and we sent other musicians to prove
in our names that we were able. We got this permission
to play, but very soon we were not allowed to play everywhere.”
It was in the face of such Kafkaesque repression that
Charter 77 came to life.
The declaration the Charter dissidents produced in January
1977 stated the signatories’ will to live a life not dictated
by the Party. The choice of the three original spokespersons
manifested this opposition.
Jiri Hajek was an ex-government minister and one of the
‘reform-communists’ of 1968. At this time the government
had sought to democratise the Soviet system. This ‘socialism
with a human face’ was crushed by the Soviet Warsaw-Pact
invasion of
Vaclav Havel was to become the most recognisable of the
spokespersons. His work as a playwright and essayist,
criticising what he called ‘post-totalitarianism’, and
subsequent terms as president of the Czechoslovak and
Philosopher Jan Patocka was arrested and interrogated
by the State Security service following the publication
of Charter 77. He died of a heart attack in the days following.
It was Patocka’s phenomenological philosophy that provided
the foundation for Charter 77. “In a nutshell,” writes
philosopher Aviezer Tucker, “Patocka held that human authenticity
is ‘life in truth’, the uniquely human potential to witness
the grand presence of truth.”
What this means is that for an individual to live a genuinely
human life, they must reject any lies and actively seek
truth and knowledge. For one to be able to undertake this
philosophical task, one must have access to freedom of
speech and thought.
In
A diverse collection of individuals from various spheres
of society, Charter 77 defined itself as being passionately
apolitical. Havel emphasised this character at last week’s
conference on the movement, held in
The people involved were not interested in ideology or
politics. It was composed of people who wanted to live
in freedom; a meeting of reform-communists and non-communists
in complete equality.
When Pliestih decided to sign Charter 77 in 1988, his
motivation was similar. “To try to publish your work as
an artist was impossible almost. I wasn’t that politically
motivated but I was just pissed off at the situation and
the regime.”
The then spokesperson of the group told him he shouldn’t
sign, but that he should “live in the intention of Charter
77”. This ‘living in truth’ was the most important thing
for the dissidents. As
There were those, however, who saw a potential in Charter
77 for something greater and more concrete.
Petr Uhl, a journalist and Czech Commissioner for Human
Rights from 1998 to 2001, describes himself as a “Trotskyist
and revolutionary Marxist”. As one of the founding signatories
of Charter 77, he recognised it as “a step in the direction
of political revolution”. The human rights orientation
of the movement provided a base for this.
Patocka’s and Havel’s philosophical writings cut a path
through Soviet ideology towards “the emancipation of the
individual, the transformation of object into subject,
not just on the economic but also on the political level”.
However, the Charter 77 dissidents’ strict apolitical
attitude led to this potential being wasted. Following
the Velvet Revolution in
The ‘civil society’ that Charter 77 sought, where human
rights are respected and the moral character of the individuals
ensures the moral character of the state, failed to materialise.
This lack of direction allowed the Communist Party elite
to retain influence and profit from the plunge into neo-Liberalism
at the hands of the first post-Communist Prime Minister,
Vaclav Klaus.
Charter 77’s greatest success was, perhaps, when foreign
diplomats, beginning with Dutch Foreign Minister Max van
der Stoel, opened relations with the dissidents rather
than the Soviet governments. The emphasis on gaining political
freedom was now put squarely on the people, and not the
state.
Charter 77 showed that human rights, and socialism, as
Uhl argues, can only be achieved from below, from the
self-organisation of the people.
—page eleven—
international news
Following Portugal’s ‘yes’ vote in
the recent abortion referendum, Brazil’s newly-appointed minister
of health, Jose Gomes Temporao, has called for a new debate on abortion.
He told a reporter from the newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo that he
sought to make the issue a health, rather than religious or moral
issue, predictably provoking angry cries from the Roman Catholic
church.
On Good Friday, for instance, the archbishop of
That, said Temporao, is exactly what’s wrong with the current state
of the debate here; moral hysteria is to the fore and health considerations
are marginalised.
No wonder, he says, 65 per cent of Brazilians cleave to the current
law, which allows abortion only in cases of rape, or where the mother’s
life is at stake.
Yet 200,000 women suffer from complications following abortions
in
A 2005 study, published in medical journal The Lancet, conducted
by
The Institute drew on data from countries including
Marge Bercer, editor of the journal Reproductive Health Matters,
wrote in The Lancet:
“When legal restrictions on abortion are reduced, the rate of deaths
and morbidity decreases greatly.”
Tongue-Thai’d
In
Indeed, last month, a Swiss man was sentenced to ten years in prison
for vandalising portraits of the aforementioned monarch.
Thus, when a video clip appeared on the YouTube website last week,
taking the rip out the said royal, there was going to be trouble
for sure.
The controversial clip comprised pictures of King Bhumibol Adulyadej,
spliced with images of feet and scrawled graffiti. Feet are considered
dirty in
Alerted to the horror, the Thai government - a military junta which
seized power last year - immediately blocked the site.
Enter YouTube, recently and controversially acquired by Google Inc.,
who have agreed to help the junta keep
a lid on video clip-related dissent.
“While we will not take down videos that do not violate our policies,
and will not assist in implementing censorship, we have offered
to educate the Thai ministry about YouTube and how it works,” said
YouTube’s PR person, of the company’s plan to assist the Thai government
in implementing censorship.
She argued that this was better, surely, than having the Thai government
block the site completely.
But many in
The first video has now been withdrawn, but a host of others have
popped up in its place, including messages saying the Thai junta
is “evil and hates free speech” and clips simply featuring Thai
people discussing censorship.
Thai’s leaders say they are not evil and in fact love free speech,
but cannot tolerate rudeness to the king.
Only Google Inc, who previously censored itself in line with demands
from
Others cannot help but observe that the Thai leaders have been clamping
down on free speech since they took power, whether it involved rudeness
to the king or not.
—page twelve—
The fourth anniversary of the fall of
Instead, over a million angry people surged through the streets of Najaf,
one of the nation’s holiest shrines, to demand the withdrawal of foreign
troops.
The peaceful protest, a
Moqtada al-Sadr was not in attendance. He has been lying low, possibly
in
But the radical Shia cleric’s support is nonetheless strong, both in
parliament, where his party has six ministers and 32 lawmakers, and
at a grassroots level, particularly amongst young Iraqi men.
Sadr’s supporters at the rally said unity against the occupation was
the theme of the day, and orders had been given not to display pictures
or flags that could inflame religious tensions.
As far as many Iraqis are concerned, foreign troop withdrawal is the
essential prerequisite for returning
Occupation and peace just cannot co-exist.
Though the march was certainly peaceful, al-Sadr used the event to amplify
his call for Iraqi police and soldiers to join the armed struggle against
the ‘arch-enemy’, the Americans and British.
In
Not to facilitate spontaneous celebrations, but in the hope of preventing
any major attacks.
Thus Iraqis marked the fourth anniversary of their ‘liberation’ by staying
barricaded behind their front doors, watching the scenes in Najaf on
TV, assuming they were lucky enough to have any electricity supply.
And while demonstrators stamped on US and Israeli flags, drawn on the
pavements, and shouted “Down with Bush, down with
Most Iraqis see things otherwise. Their country has been atomised by
the invasion and its seemingly endless aftermath.
Take the three days beginning 27 March, when a truck bomb in Tal Afar
killed 152 people.
On 28 March, off-duty Shia policemen killed 45 men, mostly through shots
to the head.
And on 29 March, three simultaneous attacks in the city of
Call this freedom? Call this democracy? Not unless you have a very sick
sense of humour.
Blair - losing the war, at home and abroad
While
Perhaps even more shocking than the running total of 140 British dead
since March 2003, are the ages of those killed, ranging from just 18
to 28.
The Basra ambush occurred last Thursday morning, when a Warrior armed
personnel carrier came under fire from a ‘rogue militia’ and then ran
over a bomb which killed the four soldiers, and their Kuwaiti interpreter,
instantly.
The
If this strikes you as familiar, then you’re not alone.
Some four years ago, Blair and his buddy George W Bush were voicing
similar certainties regarding Saddam Hussein’s sponsorship of terrorism.
Vice President Dick Cheney’s still at it, this week insisting a link
between the toppled dictator and al-Qaeda did exist, despite all evidence
to the contrary.
The latest evidence being intelligence documents declassified following
intense pressure from the now Democrat-controlled Congress, which detail
an investigation into whether intelligence was manipulated by White
House hawks to show such a link.
It was.
Blair may implicate
Support for the war is faltering, an ICM survey, commissioned by BBC
Scotland, finding 66 per cent favouring an immediate withdrawal of UK
troops from Iraq.
Meanwhile, in the
The Senate has 31 March 2008 pencilled in its diary, the House of Representatives
is looking at 31 August 2008, and the President is looking to veto both.
Denying funding, therefore, is plan B, designed to force the President’s
hand.
Cheney, using the language of a small boy playing Commandos in his back
yard, says such a move will lead to US failure in
Reid’s plan is likely to fail this time around, but he’s unperturbed.
Each time such a move is presented, it garners more and more support.
That said, if he thinks his party are reflecting the mood of the American
people, he’s wrong.
The American people are far more radical.
On 30 March, the Strategic Vision polling group asked 600 Iowa Republicans
- yes, Republicans - if they favoured
Fifty two per cent said yes, and only 39 per cent said no.
The
It’s more than time the troops came home.