Scottish Socialist Voice
Issue 309
5th July 2007
—front page—
UNITED
Against war and terrorism
for peace and justice
The events of 30 June have sent
shock waves through the whole of
The terrorist attack that took place at
The intent of the drivers of the vehicle that ploughed into
the doors of the airport was the incineration of innocent men,
women and children, who were heading off on holiday or just
going about their working day.
The Scottish Socialist Party totally abhors this and any other
act of terrorism which aims to divide
We condemn any attempt to separate us on lines of race or religion.
Acts of terrorism like that at
In the wake of the attempted attack, we must not allow
The Muslim community of Scotland are justifiably angry at the
atrocity, which has the potential to play into the hands of
the racist far-right, damage community relations and heighten
fears in the Muslim and wider communities.
For the first time in generations Scotland has been the target
of terrorism, and there is one major reason - Blair and Brown’s
supporting role in George Bush’s murderous ‘War on Terror’.
When they first blasted their way into
From the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and Afghan
civilians, to young men from Fife meeting a premature and futile
end in
In opposition, the SNP were vocal in their opposition to the
war and their desire to bring the troops home. The SSP calls
on
An independent
We call for the whole of
—page two—
Army offers holidays to tempt new recruits
by Ken Ferguson
“Summer Challenge 2007 will provide a
unique opportunity for young men and women between the ages
of 17 and 43 years of age, to experience challenge, adventure,
outdoor pursuits and personal development - and get paid!
In addition, participants will learn a host of skills, all
of which will be useful in later life and they will certainly
add value to any CV in future.”
The paragraph above is the opening sales pitch for what
the British Army portrays as seven weeks of healthy, outdoor,
paid fun based in the Rothiemurchus Estate at Aviemore alongside
military training in
Two hundred and fifty people between 17 and 43 will, the
army promises, “get to understand the host of career and
personal development opportunities available in the TA.”
Although military training is mentioned and a picture of
a rifleman does appear in the blurb, the stress is on rock
climbing, yachting and other character building events.
The hard sell promises:
“At the end of the seven weeks, participants will have learned
shooting, abseiling, map reading, the basics of first aid
and had some off-road driving instruction, be fitter and
will have had lots of fun.
“During this period, all participants will have their subsistence
and travel provided free of charge and be paid £1,517 for
the seven weeks in fortnightly instalments.”
Absent from this Club 17/43 brochure is mention of roadside
bombs, snipers, inadequate equipment or the fact that the
purpose of the cynical affair is the recruitment of fresh
cannon fodder.
Voice readers are well aware of the imperialist wars in
But if you think that’s bad, perhaps you should take a peek
at what the top thinkers in the Ministry of Defence’s
Earlier this year in a chilling document entitled Global
Strategic Trends 2007-2036 the Orwellianly named Development,
Concepts and Doctrine Centre of the MoD sketched out the
future.
The military gurus highlighted a wide array of potential
dangers over the next 30 years.
Organising their thoughts, they spotlight three “Ring Road
Issues”:
1. Climate change, 2. Globalisation, and 3. Global inequality.
Whatever climate change sceptics may think, the military
planners see global warming and the possibility of abrupt
climate change, together with the end of “the golden age
of cheap energy”, as placing increasing strains on populations
throughout the planet.
Globalisation of the world economy, bringing “particularly
ruthless laws of supply and demand”, is viewed as creating
new interdependencies, contradictions, and conflicts.
However most startling is the view taken on expanding global
inequality which, say the report’s authors, could lead to
“a resurgence of not only anti-capitalist ideologies...
but also to populism and the revival of Marxism”.
The report says:
“The globalisation of labour markets and reducing levels
of national welfare provision and employment could reduce
peoples’ attachment to particular states.
“The growing gap between themselves and a small number of
highly visible super-rich individuals might fuel disillusion
with meritocracy, while the growing urban under-classes
are likely to pose an increasing threat to social order
and stability, as the burden of acquired debt and the failure
of pension provision begins to bite.”
It will therefore be necessary, the report indicates, to
guard not only against enemies from without, including third
world insurgencies, but also against enemies within.
Given its source this is a remarkable analysis which shows
that, as the cosseted commentators in the Metropolitan think
tanks and opinion pages of the ‘heavy’ papers pen another
obituary to Marxist and socialist ideas, their armed wing
plans to take it them on.
Reid to net Parkhead deal?
Questions raised by Celtic boss’ business interests
Lanarkshire hard man and ex-Home Secretary
John Reid has demonstrated some nimble footwork since handing
in the keys of the ministerial limo.
The Airdrie sage, who resigned in sympathy with his boss
Blair, is set to move seamlessly from high office in
Even by Reid’s legendary slippery standards this is a piece
of absolutely classic spin, boosting the old warmonger’s
cleverly crafted ‘man of the people’ image at a stroke.
The audacity of the manoeuvre is breathtaking given that
Reid has built his career in high office as a dyed in the
wool Union Jack waving defence and police minister.
He also specialised in “enforcing” the pro-war, pro-British
agenda on reluctant journalists with his belligerent presentation
and aggressive sound bites across TV and radio.
Indeed he has been the very model of British loyalism as
an ultra-Blairite endorsing the free market and, of course,
militarism and war.
Now - without a blush - he is set to chair a football club
which is, to say the least, a little less well-identified
with British Imperialism.
No doubt the flexible member will deploy his legendary menu
of skills to meet the challenge.
However, students of the normally arcane business pages
of the Daily Telegraph got a hint of a wider agenda underpinning
the Reid move.
According to city correspondent Katherine Griffiths - not
thought to be a regular in the Parkhead press box - Reid
is also wanted by major Celtic shareholder Dermot Desmond.
Desmond has major interests in Daon, a company specialising
in airport security and, according to the Telegraph, “the
financier is keen to get access to Mr Reid’s formidable
contacts book, which includes people such as
Such an involvement would of course require clearance under
the rules for ex-ministers but if that hurdle was cleared,
Reid’s contacts would be invaluable to anybody in the security
business.
No doubt we can expect a media blitz from the tame West
of Scotland press hailing the return of the hero if Reid’s
appointment is announced.
But there are real dangers - if the appointment is seen
as a payoff for door opening for the security business,
it may backfire.
Flood survivors face insurance crisis
A damp start to the summer holidays might
not seem like anything out of the ordinary, but for thousands
of people in
In communities like Toll Bar in Doncaster,
Jobs
Elsewhere in
While insurance companies are expected to foot the bill
for over a billion pounds worth of damage, you can be sure
the cost will be passed back onto the customer through increased
premiums, with fewer providers prepared to cover flood-prone
areas at all - rather than denting the profits of the major
insurance firms.
Loans
Worse still, according to the Observer newspaper,
is that one in four of those affected had no contents insurance
at all, leaving thousands dependent on Social Fund loans
or charity to rebuild their lives.
June 2007 was one of the wettest on record, with temperatures
echoing predictions of a warmer summer as a result of climate
change.
As insurance costs soar, it seems that protection from the
increasingly unpredictable elements is likely to define
the rich-poor divide of the future.
Fast food workers occupy French café
Visitors to
Although based in
It’s a familiar story of work carried out largely by migrant
labour with the usual poor pay and conditions.
However the employers’ regime has come under challenge since
February this year when a popular immigrant Buffalo Grill
worker, who had announced his candidacy for workplace representation
elections, was denounced to the police.
His “irregular” employment status was “anonymously” reported
to the authorities, who then took control of the employment
papers of the chain’s foreign workers, numbering more than
600. Four were sacked and others pressured to resign.
A group of undocumented workers, supported by the Commerce,
Distribution and Services Federation of the CGT union, are
now fighting back by occupying the Buffalo Grill in Viry-Chatillon,
in the South of Paris.
The migrants, mostly of African origin, many with years
of employment at the chain, face expulsion from the France
of Nicolas Sarkozy to their country of origin.
The police have not yet moved to enforce a court order to
seize the premises and, as the Voice went to press, the
occupation continues.
n You can support their struggle by sending a message (in
English or French) in support of these demands to Buffalo
Grill and Colony Capital management. http://www.iuf.org/den4313
—page three—
Softly softly approach masks stop and search concerns over racism
by Ken Ferguson and Jo Harvie
In the potential horror represented
by the failed
This posture chimed with the general condemnation of the attacks,
with Osama Saeed of the Muslim Association of Britain saying:
“These terrorists do not care who they kill. We are seething with
anger about this.
“As a community not only are we just as likely to be victims as
anyone else, but we are also looked to in order to provide direction
and in some respects take responsibility for this.
“We are sick of being defined as a community by terrorism and
having to answer for it. No cause, and certainly no Muslim cause,
is advanced by these senseless attacks - quite the opposite. We
wish this had not happened and hope that there is no more.
“There has not been a peep of extremism in
Certainly amidst the widespread condemnation of the terror attacks
the tone of the new administration was noted, with civil rights
group
After condemning the attacks
“Recent years have demonstrated just how tempting it can be for
democratic leaders to play a dangerous and counter-productive
politics with national security. By contrast, so far at least,
Mr Brown has resisted partisan posturing or a knee-jerk rush to
the statute book.”
However, others were more cautious as all eight Scots police forces
were granted extensive stop and search powers by the Home Office,
bringing them into line with English forces.
Police spokespersons reassured they would use these powers with
“sensitivity” and “across communities” - but that has not been
the case in the past.
The Institute of Race Relations said last year they were concerned
that stop and search powers, in place in London since 2001, had
led to “racial profiling against Asians, Blacks and people of
Middle Eastern appearance - the ethnic groups police officers
would most likely associate with Islam... Blacks and Asians were
both four times more likely than Whites to be stopped under these
powers in 2002/3.”
This results, says the IRR, in the “criminalisation of entire
communities.”
The powers have also been used against legitimate political protestors,
for example on demonstrators outside an arms fair in
Furthermore, the IRR found that the stop and search powers, used
tens of thousands of times each year, have “found no terrorists”.
Detention
First Minister Alex Salmond signalled his opposition
to further moves to bring in 90-day detention, which was previously
rejected by the
Salmond, speaking to Radio
“We have not been persuaded about the necessity for that, as indeed
other parties haven’t,” he said.
“There is nothing in this incident which would affect that at
the present moment, since we have in custody two people who are
suspected of being involved in a terrorist incident.”
The First Minister was commenting as the united front between
Although an Executive spokesman was quoted as saying “no-one is
going to touch these legal matters at a time when police are still
investigating the matter”, the fact that the London based, left-leaning
Guardian chose to portray the issue as a “turf war” will ring
alarm bells among MSPs who believe London either misunderstands
are ignores the separate legal jurisdiction in the two countries.
War
However, welcome as the overall more reasoned line from
This was underlined by his statement calling for business as usual
when he said:
“Irrespective of
Like Blair before him, the “irrespective” was glibly used to dismiss
discussion of the serious issues of war and imperialism and the
thousands of resulting deaths as a result of UK and US foreign
policy.
Not only does the Brown regime have to avoid further assaults
on civil liberties but it needs to end the knee jerk support for
This involves getting troops out of
Vigil for the Vale
by Pam Currie
Members of Dumbarton and Vale of
Leven SSP branch and community health service campaigners held
a six hour vigil outside the Vale of Leven hospital in Dumbartonshire
on Saturday 30 June, with over 200 locals turning up in support
over the six hours.
SSP Councillor Jim Bollan said:
“We got really good support from the public and passing motorists,
and it shows strength of feeling in the community that government
should keep the Vale of Leven hospital open.
“The Health Board last week approved additional cuts at the
“The Scottish Socialist Party started the Save the Vale Hospital
campaign about seven or eight years ago and the branch have been
involved in all of the activities since then.”
Jim explained that the latest cuts come on top of a raft of attacks
by the previous Labour administration, including the loss of Accident
and Emergency provision, lab services, the mortuary, anaesthetics
and care of the elderly.
“We had a consultant-led maternity unit, we lost that, they put
in a midwife-led maternity unit. They’re now proposing to cut
that and send women to Paisley or
“The other big service we lost was A&E, and what they gave
us in its place was a system called the minor injuries unit. The
proposal now is to scrub that as well - that would effectively
mean that we had a full A&E, what they call a ‘blue light’
hospital - with the new service, you could only go for certain
things, limited procedures. If they take that away, we’ll be left
with a glorified clinic with no ‘non-planned admissions’.
“We’re getting stories every week from local people about senior
citizens having to make five or six hour return journeys to
“We’re calling on the new Health Minister Nicola Sturgeon to back
up the SNP’s election promises and make sure that health services
are delivered locally. We also call on her to make sure that these
further cuts are rescinded and a programme of investment put in
place to reinstate the previous cuts.”
SNP Health Minister Nicola Sturgeon is due to visit the Vale of
Leven Hospital on Tuesday 17 July and campaigners plan a further
demonstration that day. For more details contact Jim Bollan on
07803 668766 or email jim.bollan1@btinternet.com.
—page four—
Sickening profits
by Roz Paterson
Novartis, the Swiss pharmaceutical
giant, and one of the biggest such companies in the
world, has filed a lawsuit against the Indian government
over its refusal to grant the corporation a new patent
for its anti-cancer drug Glivec.
If Novartis wins, and at the moment it just seems too
close to call, then millions upon millions of people
in the developing world could ultimately die ugly, premature
deaths as a consequence. Though Novartis will turn a
tidy profit, of course.
Current India law states the government is within its
rights to refuse a patent for an existing drug that
has reached the end of its statutory 20-year patent
period and has been slightly modified, thereby making
it ‘new’.
The inverted commas are necessary, as companies have
no scruples when it comes to this, and will apply for
a new patent simply because they have turned what was
once a capsule form of the drug, for instance, into
a pill form, or a powder into a syrup.
In the
This process is called ‘evergreening’ and is legal,
though not without challenge, and entirely despicable.
Most HIV/AIDS treatment programmes rely on generic antiretroviral
(ARV) drugs manufactured in
Innovative, or patented, medicines, are between 30 to
50 times more expensive than the generic version in
Without the competition from generic drugs, people with
HIV/AIDS would be looking at a per annum cost of upwards
of $10,000 for ARV treatment, compared to $136.
Not surprisingly, the world’s corporations have bared
their teeth at this practice, and
So far,
Novartis is not arguing that its new Glivec variant
is better; it is seeking to maintain its monopoly through
the intellectual property argument, ignoring centuries
of human progress built upon cooperation and intellectual
commons.
Actually, Novartis is even more blatant than that.
While the Indian government insists that only modifications
that make drugs better should be granted patent protection,
Novartis argues that any modification that has commercial
utility should be granted patent protection.
A ruling in its favour could mean that even two different
drugs, if combined, would be eligible for renewed patent
protection.
This is particularly appalling news for those suffering
HIV/AIDS, as ARV drugs are often a combination of already
existing drugs.
Thus, if Novartis succeeds,
“If they hit
“They are going for the jugular.”
MSF alone reaches one quarter of those in sub-Saharan
Monique Wanjala, who has lived with HIV for 13 years,
told a press conference in
“We want this case dropped. If we die because affordable
generic drugs aren’t available, where will they sell
the drug?
“If profits are going to be put before people’s lives,
then we have a serious problem.”
Literally, in the name of profit, millions of desperately
ill people would go untreated for want of safe, affordable
medicines, thanks to the actions of some of the already
most profitable organisations in the world.
It all adds up to a classic illustration of how the
globalised ‘free’ market is in fact a stitch-up engineered
by the world’s multinationals and their collaborators
in the world’s governing institutions, such as the WTO.
Sales of Novartis’ two major cancer drugs, Glivec and
Tasigna, are expected to top $3.5billion, according
to the company’s head of oncology.
The case against the Indian government was due to have
its first hearing on 18 June, before the newly-formed
Intellectual Property Appellate Board in Mumbai.
n Sign the online petition asking Novartis to drop the
case at: https://my.care.org/campaigns/novartis
—page five—
Letters
A valuable Voice in the
I am sorry to hear that the Voice is in financial difficulties.
I value it very much as the only source of a great deal of news.
I was able to share your excellent article in the 31 May issue
about Cuban organic food produce with a few people here as they
do not get any real news about Cuba at all. Keep up the good
work!
With very good wishes,
Ronald Mathieson,
Napa,
Strop over flop of Fopp
I was saddened to hear of the recent closure of Fopp’s
stores pending possible liquidation.
While I use the internet to buy music a lot of the time, I did
like a good browse from time to time as well, something that’s
much harder to do on Amazon.
In particular, I found Fopp and Music Zone, which Fopp bought
last year, to be a great place to find unusual, interesting
and affordable books - a welcome addition to a high street dominated
by fewer and fewer booksellers. What if I want to read something
which isn’t three for two in Waterstones?
With ever fewer second hand bookstores, the loss of Fopp is
not only a massive blow to the 700 staff who worked there, but
to anyone who might think outwith the corporate box.
For now though, we just have another empty shop front, waiting
to be filled by a Subway or a Starbucks - and another independent
retailer joins the casualty list.
Marion Matthews,
Dumbarton
The
In Blair’s closing address from the dispatch box, there is an
intriguing spectacle of a man finally, briefly casting off his
party political facade and speaking directly to other members
of a trade, whose complex mechanisms and unspoken understandings,
make them a closed shop, a kind of secret society, who, despite
all their differences of background, outlook and ideology remain
bonded by a code setting them apart.
This would explain Blair’s summarizing sally, which by his general
defence of politics’ noble cause, he would hope to have himself
excused, but which also more significantly euphemises the many
profound errors, misjudgements and downright deceptions of his
premiership as mere “low skullduggery”.
Nobody can seriously doubt the man’s driving, messianic sense
of purpose. Nor can his humanity be questioned. The unseemly
length of the goodbye tour, the many cloaked acknowledgements
of regret, and an increasingly troubled face are all testimony
to a conscience unsatisfied. In that regard, his new role as
Nevertheless, whilst the lofty intentions of his personal vision
and the sincerity of his invocations to the greater good may
be enough to save his soul, they should not be regarded as an
excuse for the many destructive effects of his decision making
while in power. Nor should his unquestioned pedigree as a politician,
speaker and diplomat be seen, as seems to be the case with most
of his peers, as sufficient in itself to compensate for this.
Consequently, his rapturous send-off from the chamber and the
many fulsome tributes he has received from its members strikes
an especially discordant note in a political symphony which
remains so out of tune with core values of accountability and
integrity.
The worry is that even with a new prime minister of demonstrably
less dissembling than Tony Blair, certain capitulations of principle
and ethical compromise will continue to be seen by our political
leaders, in a world perceived, and therefore treated as increasingly
competitive and dangerous, as integral to the
Jonathan Pullman, by email
NEW IDEAS
Voices from the SSY
James Nesbitt
Faslane nuclear base was recently
the venue for the latest in a historical string of SSY parties.
Around 30 members of the SSP’s youth wing trooped down to the
Clydeside home of
Having decided that we wanted to play a part in the anti-nuke
movement - but also agreeing that we couldn’t be bothered with
the same old songs, the hackneyed chants or pointlessly shrieking
“SHAME” at people going to their work – our next logical step
was to crank up the electro and party hard in the Dunbartonshire
sunshine.
Reluctantly observing Faslane 365 rules of “no alcohol, no
drugs” we got stuck into sweets and juice while providing fresh
meat for the burgeoning midge population (note for future blockades:
bring spray/ nets/ flamethrowers/ anything that will keep the
bloodsucking bastards at bay).
Despite police instruction to the contrary, we went ahead and
pinned our “Get Nookie, Not Nukie” banner to the gates of the
base.
Having decided that we’d better do something more useful than
play musical statues, the hardcore among us decided to disrupt
the base’s traffic flow.
Using the Mighty Sparrow’s carnival hit “Capitalism Gone Mad”
as our cue, myself and comrade Murray Court tried (and failed)
to chain our necks together and block the entrance.
Having been rudely interrupted by the cops, handcuffed and informed
that I was getting done for a Breach, I decided that I may as
well sit on my arse and had a lie-down in the middle of the
road.
In the middle of this, the polis were hit with a second wave:
comrades
Again, the bitter taste of failure! Ach well.
The five of us spent a night in the cells, making us feel like
proper wee revolutionaries.
And lessons were learned too. Fot example, sometimes the attending
officers are prone to a wee bit of fibbing!
We were told at the start that all arrestees would be kept in
until Monday. Not so.
Also, “anyone enterring the road will get done for a breach”.
Porkies once again.
Add to that the 57 different versions of when we were getting
out and what we were getting charged with, by the end of it
all our faith in the boys in blue was well and truly shaken.
See you on the big blockade in October.
Useful links: www.faslane365.org www.banthebomb.org www.ssy.org.uk
—centre pages—
The Blair legacy
He left
Some newspapers may be stuffed with eulogies to a failed pop star
who would be peace envoy to the
Here, Dick Barbor-Might looks back in anger at ten years of bloody
violence and market madness.
This is a good time to reflect upon
Blair’s premiership, in the days that immediately follow his departure
from the British political scene, the occasion marked by a sycophantic
two minutes’ standing ovation in the House of Commons.
The attempted car bombings in
Thus Blair would blink away the warnings from all those sane and sober
analysts who warned, even before the Anglo-American invasion of
Blair’s response was to charge his critics with justifying terrorist
attacks when all that they were doing was explaining that it was his
very own action - his joining with George W Bush in the assault upon
Iraq - that provided al-Qaeda with its most potent and plausible appeal,
namely, that Islam was under attack by the ‘crusader West’.
Indeed, the invasion in March 2003 provided al-Qaeda with what it
never had while Saddam was in power, which was an operational base
in Iraq from which it could propagandise against the ‘crusaders’ under
cover of nationalist resistance to the Anglo-American invaders.
Whatever small and fanatical groups may prove to be the perpetrators,
the bombings and attempted bombings in
Nowadays most deaths in
Meanwhile, in
And there is death after British soldier death - in
Here at home, apart from the risk of terrorist attacks, just a couple
of the consequences of New Labour’s assault on civil liberties in
the name of security are that you could now be extradited to the USA
without evidence of any crime and that you could be imprisoned for
peaceful protest.
This is all part of Blair’s legacy.
People’s princess
The wars apart, there has been something
irredeemably tacky about the Blair years, a compound of celebrity
culture, synthetic emotion and media manipulation.
All three characteristics were prominently displayed just four months
into the Blair premiership. Diana’s death in a
Slightly dishevelled, full of what used to be called manly emotion,
Blair spoke of Diana’s “compassion and her humanity” and renamed her
“the people’s princess”.
Blair and Campbell (himself a former Daily Mirror journalist) had
been proved right - Diana was transformed by her death from a flaky
celeb whom the tabloids loved to pillory and photograph into an instant
icon, ‘Diana the martyr’.
Remember what happened in the week that followed? There was Blair’s
emotional encomium to the dead Diana, televised around the world.
There were the carpets of flowers, the stuffed toys piled against
railings, people caught on camera hysterically weeping and an ugly
mood developing against the “heartless” royals.
Then, several days late (and almost too late), the standard at Buckingham
Palace was suddenly lowered when the Windsors returned to London,
having finally being brought to realise that hunting stags at Balmoral
really wouldn’t cut the mustard when the dead Diana was lying in state.
Then came the Queen’s broadcast ‘tribute’ to the dead princess (
Finally, there was the service in Westminster Abbey. Diana’s brother,
the ninth Earl Spencer, used his pulpit oratory to voice his contempt
for the
The occasion was another success for Blair. He got to read from Corinthians.
Blair’s advisers were well pleased. His approval rating soared to
the hitherto unheard-of level of 93 per cent.
Having so comprehensively upstaged the royals, Blair lavished sycophantic
praise upon the Queen: “I am as proud as proud can be to be your Prime
Minister. You are our Queen. We respect and cherish you. You are simply
the best of British.”
Blair’s decade
Tony Blair has never stood so high
in public esteem as he did in the aftermath of Diana’s death. Since
then his charisma has faded away just as has the cult of Diana the
martyr. Yet in his decade in power Blair has been able to wield Prime
Ministerial power even when personally unpopular. It is only very
recently that this power evaporated and that he returned to stage-managing
a role for himself, this time as the star in the longest goodbye in
British politics.
Blair’s ten years have seen the continuation of the Thatcherite twin
‘revolutions’, of freeing up capital and of increasing state control.
Even more so than with John Major, the privatisation of public services
has remained the name of the game. And, despite much rhetoric about
“choice”, Blair continued with the centralising tendency and took
it further than ever before.
Back at the beginning, soon after the 1997 general election, Blair’s
Chief of Staff Jonathan Powell spoilt any illusions that might have
been harboured by senior civil servants. He told them that they should
expect less Magna Carta but, rather, a change “to a more Napoleonic
system”.
Magna Carta is an ancient English charter of liberties and “Napoleonic
system” is code for a regulating dictatorship.
Jonathan Powell’s appointment in itself was a pointer to the high
degree of continuity between the Thatcher-Major years and the Blair
era, he having modelled himself upon his older brother Charles who,
as a senior civil servant, had been remarkably close to two successive
Tory Prime Ministers, first Thatcher and then Major.
Another reason why Jonathan Powell has been persona grata with New
Labour is that, ever since his days at the
In the world where the political and financial elites do business
with each other, New Labour has presided over the continued flourishing
of Thatcher’s inheritance and of the American connection. A good example
is the oddly named QinetiQ, which is called after the fictional boffin
who supplied James Bond with his gadgetry and which was once part
of the Ministry of Defence.
Since it was floated as a private company in 2001, QinetiQ has linked
up with the global private equity firm, the Carlyle Group, which is
closely associated with both John Major and ex-President George H
Bush. The company has connected with the
Crisis management
The death of David Kelly in an Oxfordshire
wood in July 2003 created a moment of high danger for the Prime Minister
that, after the immediate crisis was over, was eventually resolved
by (amongst others) the chairman of QinetiQ.
Kelly, we may recall, was a highly regarded defence scientist who
had revealed to Andrew Gilligan, a BBC journalist, that he doubted
Blair’s claims in the September 2002 dossier that Saddam Hussein had
an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, some at 45-minutes readiness.
Blair and his acolytes had thrown Kelly to the media wolves to deflect
journalists from the main story, which was whether or not there ever
had been any WMD and whether Blair had lied.
It was a quintessential moment in the Blair premiership. He was fresh
from his triumph at the US Congress where he had received 17 standing
ovations.
Blair was visibly frightened when he was told that Kelly had died.
But help was at hand. It was his old flatmate Lord Falconer who, as
Lord Chancellor, drew up the terms of reference for the inquiry into
Kelly’s death and who singled out Lord Hutton from amongst all the
other law lords to conduct it.
Later it was Hutton - who had been notorious for a series of pro-government
decisions in juryless courts in
And it was Dame Pauline Neville-Jones, a BBC governor, who kept on
pressuring her fellow governors until they agreed to give
Just to close the circle: Neville-Jones, one time Political Director
at the Foreign Office, was chairman of QinetiQ. This was the privatised
company that was so closely linked with the Carlyle Group and with
US armaments companies. Even as Kelly aired his doubts to Gilligan
about Blair’s WMD claim, so these companies were busy supplying weapons
for use in the
Neville-Jones well understood how to use her dual role: as chairman
of QinetiQ to profit from the war and as a BBC governor to punish
those who had dared to tell the public that the war was based upon
a lie.
The Project
Blair’s first victim was the Labour Party itself, once known
as ‘the people’s party’. Under Blair it was reborn as ‘New Labour’.
While disdaining whatever had made the Labour Party worthwhile, Blair
nonetheless appealed to an ill-defined notion of ‘the people’. Right
at the outset of his premiership he told his more than 400 Labour
MPs that, “we are not the masters now. The people are the masters.
We are the servants of the people.”
Truth to tell, this empty populist appeal was cover for the ruthless
ambition of a small clique of politicians who aspired to power, using
the Labour Party as the vehicle for what they liked to call ‘the Project’.
In the process they have moved the Labour Party so far to the right
as to make it unrecognisable even as compared with the
Blair has understood the paltry motives of aspirant members of the
political elite and has played the patronage game to his own greatest
advantage.
Occasional revolts and a very few principled resignations aside, Labour
MPs supported Blair in policies that veered between the banal, the
foolish and the sinister. Blair’s Parliamentary Labour Party is a
tribe dominated by group thinking and populated by MPs nervous of
their privileges.
At a higher level in the hierarchy those who were once - or who are
or who are not yet - ministers yearn for the red boxes, chauffeur
driven cars and deferential civil servants that mark them out from
the common herd.
Cabinet government as such disappeared in favour of what the civil
service mandarin Lord Butler contemptuously termed “sofa government”.
Along the way the authority of the Westminster Parliament has been
greatly diminished - continuing a tendency that was first observed
over 100 years ago.
Potential rebels have had to reckon with the fact that Tony policies
are so like Tory ones that, as like as not, the Conservatives would
bale out the Prime Minister if ever he faced defeat in a House of
Commons vote.
As for the Labour Party, it has lost half its members in the last
ten years and its annual conferences have become choreographed political
rallies.
Every speech or ‘initiative’ is calibrated for its media impact and
dissent is rendered invisible.
Despite frequent disappointments, Labour Party members and ordinary
trade unionists at one time could recognise a semblance of their own
convictions in a Labour government at
It is millionaires who come to the aid of the Party, whether by donations
or ‘loans’, or by sponsoring the essentially Tory policy of city academies
(£2million or so, a lunch with the Prime Minister), or by membership
of numerous ‘task forces’ and ‘reviews’ or by participating in Private
Finance Initiatives (guaranteed 30-year paybacks).
Yet it has not all been plain sailing. An unexpectedly rigorous police
investigation mired Blair in the cash for honours scandal.
Earlier this year it seems that he only narrowly avoided being interviewed
as a suspect and thus being forced into a precipitate resignation.
The players
Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Peter Mandelson, Alastair Campbell
- these four - have been the key players in ‘the Project’.
From early on they attracted support from ambitious lawyers. There
was Blair’s old flatmate and posh Scot Lord (Charlie) Falconer who
so helped him over the Kelly affair.
Lord Goldsmith was indispensable to Blair as Attorney General, providing
him with specially tailored advice that invading
As for Goldsmith, like Falconer his usefulness is expended and he
is leaving the political stage with that Establishment curse word
“controversial” forever attached to his name.
There is a book to be written about the far Left politicos who became
fanatical Blairites. Peter Mandelson himself had been a Young Communist.
There was David Blunkett who once flew the red flag over
There was Alan Milburn who once ran the
Stephen Byers, Milburn’s close associate from the north-east England
Labour Party, was another Blairite. Lying to the House of Commons
finished him off.
Nor should we ever forget Dr John Reid, the ex-Communist Party enforcer
and erstwhile associate of the Bosnian Serb Radovan Karadzic who later
became infamous as a mass killer. As Home Secretary Reid did his best
to make a bonfire of our civil liberties: “sometimes we have to modify
some of our own freedoms - in the short term - in order to prevent
their misuse.” Now he has departed to the backbenches to nurse his
rage against that usurper of the Blairite crown, Gordon Brown.
Meanwhile, thanks to “an enormous push” from the Bush administration,
Blair himself is appointed as special envoy from the ‘Quartet’ (US,
European Union, UN and Russia) to help try and draw the Palestinians
into a settlement with Israel, on Israeli terms.
The appointment is breathtaking in the contempt that it shows to Arab
opinion. Apart from
It is Gordon Brown, despite Blair’s every effort to stop him, who
at last possesses the glittering prize. As for the Blairs, Tony and
Cherie, they can now contemplate their after-life on the American
lecture circuit.
—page eight—
Reidso’s coming home?
by Ken Ferguson
Multi-skilled
Home Secretary John Reid is thought to be heading
for the
The depth of enmity between the two was neatly
illustrated by the Airdrie sage when a top political
journalist asked him what role he expected in
a Brown government. “Making the tea,” replied
Dr Reid.
However, just as the
The suggestion came from the eccentric Ayrshire
Labour MP Brian Donohue who, shocked by Labour’s
Holyrood defeat, floated the novel idea that
bruiser Reid should move North and take on Salmond.
Minor matters such as his non-membership of
the Scottish Parliament could no doubt be dealt
with by his Lanarkshire chums engineering a
by-election in which he would be endorsed by
the supine Daily Record.
That an idea so bizarre can even break cover
neatly illustrates the depth of crisis thrown
up by the breaking of Labour’s 50-year dominance
of Scottish politics - however narrowly - for
the complacent suits on their Holyrood benches.
The mixed electoral system used for the Scottish
Parliament was cooked up between New Labour
and the LibDems with the aim of stopping the
SNP ever gaining power.
The fact that they are now a minority administration
is a political earthquake which cannot be underestimated.
It has certainly shaken New Labour, with stories
springing up about plots against the hapless
McConnell and sharpening of knives for his supporters.
The other losers have been much of
Despite the major setback represented by the
defeat of the SSP and independents, and the
drastic pruning of the media-hyped Greens, the
fact remains that the result opens up new opportunities
for
It is a mixture of fear and visceral hatred
of the SNP which sparks calls for the return
of ‘heavyweight’ Reid to beef-up Labour’s act
and, although highly unlikely, it spotlights
the mood of fear in Labour.
Then again, press reports are telling us that
Dr Reid is seeking a ‘third way’ between our
beloved unarmed bobbies and the US-style SWAT
teams which routinely send in tanks.
He told the Police Federation that he favours
cops carrying the supposedly non-lethal Taser
stun guns, which put 50,000 volts through suspects.
The Home Secretary explained to the cops’
“The police service is facing unprecedented
challenges and this government is committed
to providing them with the tools they need to
meet the demands of modern policing.”
Could he just maybe have that pesky man Salmond
in mind?
MP Hodge outburst shows New Labour running scared of racists
by Ken Ferguson
East London Labour
MP Margaret Hodge has drawn heavy fire with
her outburst demanding that new immigrants should
have less housing rights than established
Hodge has previously sounded the alarm about
the growth of BNP support in her area and her
latest pronouncement smacks of a ‘if you can’t
beat them join them’ approach.
Hodge said that indigenous families’ “legitimate
sense of entitlement” should override the needs
of recent arrivals.
The ultra-Blairite claimed that there is widespread
concern about the changing face of
“Currently, the government prioritises the needs
of an individual migrant family over the entitlement
that others feel they have to resources in the
community.”
Tearing up decades of housing allocations policy
the minister demanded:
“We should also look at drawing up different
rules based on, for instance, length of residence,
citizenship or national insurance contributions
which carry more weight in a transparent points
system used to decide who is entitled to access
social housing.”
However, Hayes and Harlington Labour MP John
McDonnell, who had his bid for the Labour leadership
blocked last week, described her remarks as
a “disgraceful” attack on the most “vulnerable
sections of our community”.
“I’m shocked that it has been uttered from the
mouth of a Labour minister. It will do nothing
more than bolster support for the BNP,” he said.
“I’m calling on Gordon Brown to condemn these
comments.”
Condemnation also came from the Refugee Council,
whose head of international and British policy,
Nancy Kelly, said:
“The way to counter some of the views that are
put forward by the far-right parties is not
by trying to follow their lead...
“People who are recognised as refugees are entitled
to council housing, but on exactly the same
basis as a
Liberal Democrat local government spokesman
Andrew Stunell pointed out that the way to deal
with housing shortages was to build more houses.
“There are 1.5million families on the council
housing waiting list and the Labour government
keeps selling houses off,” he said.
“The first thing to do is start building social
housing again, not to blame immigrants for the
catastrophic government failure to tackle the
issue.”
McDonnell’s lack of support poses questions for unions
by Stan Crooke
“Don’t mourn.
Organise!” said John McDonnell after failing
to win sufficient nominations to force a leadership
contest. McDonnell fell victim to a Labour Party
rule change requiring an MP to win support from
12.5 per cent of the Parliamentary Labour Party
in order to stand for party leader.
Previously, it was 5 per cent - which McDonnell
more than achieved. This rule change is one
of a Blair/Brown series, in a bid to shut down
democracy in the Labour Party.
Other examples include transforming party conference
into little more than a rally, reducing the
trade unions’ share of votes, stripping the
powers of the National Executive Committee (NEC),
and safeguarding sitting MPs from deselection.
McDonnell’s defeat was a defeat not just for
what’s left of the left in the Labour Party
membership, but also for the left in trade unions.
His polices echoed trade union policies against
the renewal of Trident, the anti-union laws,
the Iraq War and PFI/PPP.
But only three small unions - the FBU, RMT and
ASLEF - backed him.
The PCS - whose leader, Mark Serwotka, supported
McDonnell - may have done so, had he not conceded
defeat by the time the motion was due to be
taken at PCS conference.
But other, bigger trade unions, whose General
Secretaries speechify against New Labour and
the Iraq War, such as Amicus’s Derek Simpson,
the TGWU’s Tony Woodley and the CWU’s Billy
Hayes, backed Brown.
At the March meeting of the Labour NEC, not
one trade union representative voted to reduce
the number of MPs’ nominations needed to trigger
a leadership contest. Thus they knowingly backed
a seamless transition to a Brown-led Labour
Party.
With McDonnell on the ballot paper, the left
- inside and outside the Labour Party - could
have challenged the Blair/Brown drive to stifle
the trade unions’ political voice.
And forced the question: why are so many unions
going along with New Labour instead of fighting
for their own policies?
The McDonnell campaign could have worked to
consolidate the anti-New Labour forces in the
trade union movement, and raised the fundamental
question of political representation for organised
workers.
John McDonnell is right: don’t mourn - organise!
Trade unionists should call to account those
General Secretaries who refused to support McDonnell.
Cruddas support disgrace
On 17 May, the
General Executive Committee of the TGWU voted
to support Gordon Brown for Labour Party leader
and Jon Cruddas for deputy leader.
The TGWU and Amicus have already each donated
£15,000 to Cruddas’s campaign, and the TGWU
magazine has lauded him.
Yet Cruddas backed the Iraq War, and foundation
hospitals. He was one of only ten Labour MPs
to vote against equal adoption rights for gays
and lesbians. And he supports reducing the trade
unions’ share of votes at Labour Party conference
from 50 to 33 per cent.
Cruddas originally backed Michael Meacher for
leader.
When Meacher withdrew to give McDonnell a free
run, Cruddas, by all accounts, leaned on his
backers not to transfer their support to McDonnell.
That most unions failed to support McDonnell
was bad enough. That a number of the biggest
unions are now rallying around Cruddas for the
deputy leadership is a disgrace.
—page nine—
cultural resistance
Half of a Yellow
Sun: oil, power and tragedy in 1960s
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche
Scooping this year’s Orange
Prize, Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche became the
first African woman to win a major literary award and her
novel, Half of a Yellow Sun, is the chatter of the review
shows. Rarely, though, is a novel so worth its hype.
Adiche’s story is an epic one of love and war which takes
us through 1960s
In the east of
Given their lack of resources, exacerbated by a devastating
famine created by the war, ultimately all
We see the horror unfold through the eyes of three characters.
Ugwu is a young ‘house boy’, a servant brought from rural
poverty to look after an enigmatic professor.
Olanna is a ‘Big Man’s’ daughter, who chooses love and radical
academia over the privilege and wealth of her family position.
And Richard is an Englishman, an awkward writer, out of
place in the hard-bitten, hard-drinking milieu of post-colonial
expatriates.
The lives of all three intertwine, and then are dragged
apart as events play out. And although there is a depth
of historical and political information, and substantial
comment on colonialism, class and ethnicity, you never feel
lectured as the story is guided by the struggle, reactions
and desires of Adiche’s three protagonists.
At the time, both Western governments and media ignored
the war in
Adiche herself was born a decade after the war, and her
writing gives an eye-opening context to the political strife
that still grips
This Land is Our Land
by Andy Harvey
The Gloag case presents a threat to
The fight for free movement across our own country is a
centuries-old class struggle. Down south, the most radical
land reform ever was by the
Scottish land fell into the hands of an anglicised aristocracy
which cleared the unprofitable peasants off the land, replacing
them with a new cash-cow - well, sheep actually.
Modern Scots imagine an empty
From 1884, legislative attempts to give ordinary folk some
access to mountains were repeatedly foiled by a House of
Lords populated by the landowners themselves.
As seething cities sprawled during the Industrial Revolution,
for common folk the idea of wandering “lonely as a cloud”
to seek spiritual uplift or just to breath fresh air, to
stand “silent with swimming sense” became popular.
The 1930s Depression saw a boom in walking and cycling.
Legions of unemployed workers roamed the sooty streets of
cities like
However, the demand for a share of the countryside met with
fierce resistance from landowners. In the English Peak District,
mountains and valleys were out-of-bounds to walkers from
nearby cities like Sheffield and
Clearly many landowners are willing to work with the new
legislation. However some are trying to claw back their
former privileges under the guise of the right to privacy.
We all have a right to privacy, but the Gloag case begs
the question: the richer you are, the bigger your house,
the more space you need around it to be private? Has Ann
Gloag ever lived in a
A more fundamental issue raised is that of land ownership.
Whilst This Land is Your Land may be a popular tune on football
terraces, it certainly is not your land: 50 per cent of
all private land in
A glance at the double and treble barrelled names among
our native landed elite - the Dingwall-Fordyces, the Ogilvie-Grant-Nicholsons
- shows that this class is a web of inter-marriage bent
on retaining land ownership. It is, as one observer put
it, “a tightly knit network of power and influence extending
into the fields of politics and finance.”
The Executive says it will contest the judgement. It will
be interesting to see whether the governing SNP - bankrolled
by Gloag’s homophobic brother Brian Souter - will have the
bottle to encroach on their paymasters’ lawn. Socialists
should support the defence of the right to roam by legal
means. But history suggests that we may have to act directly
to defend this fundamental freedom.
Addressing the question of land ownership is certainly a
longer-term task for socialists. If divided equally, rural
The Wild Brunch
Keef Tomkinson
Keef casts his eye across life’s more leisurely pursuits in order to put a wee bit of CULTure into our lives.
Two months have passed since
electoral obliteration. History books will record how the
SSP’s MSPs moved from direct political action to stop closures
to direct hygiene action to get another day from greying
undergarments.
But nothing will be written about the Voice’s column, Tuned
In, being axed. Its 500 words of cultural direction, researched
and written in a half hour, helped thousands turn off the
TV set.
But the column is back and revamped. Editor Jo Harvie’s
humiliating u-turn will see this as her last edition as
the Voice’s dictator-in-chief. Goodbye, good luck and may
your lessons be learned.
So what is the column’s remit? “Rant” they said. “Joke”
they said. “Controversialise” they said. “Just make sure
there is a point” they finished.
So I decided to watch proper TV. As I have an interest in
ancient civilisations and their crazy yet visionary ways,
I chose The Last Aztec on Channel 4.
Author DBC Pierre set out to describe the Aztecs’ epic tale
of decline and conquest by Spanish conquistadors. This is
type of thing I would have told you to watch.
It started at 8pm and by 8.16pm I had turned over to watch
Where Eagles Dare. Yeah, you learned the Spanish arrived
at the same time as the Aztecs were expecting a god and
their gifts of treasure probably helped the Spanish to decide
to stay and plunder. However, you had to put up with swirling
camera shots and the posturing of DBC.
Standing unshaven in the blaze of
You would have been better off listening to Neil Young’s,
Cortez the Killer. In seven minutes it crafts the story
of what the Spanish did and the tragedy it represented.
What has happened to documentaries in the 21st Century?
All style and attitude with little room for actual content.
Real life is ridiculously interesting. Everywhere has history.
Everyone knows a story. Each incident is linked by a global
web of causal connections.
It takes some talent to mess up the telling of those stories,
so why do they fail? Is it the presenter? Is it the attitude?
Is it wannabe movie directors getting carried away? It’s
a little of everything. It’s infotainment.
It probably started off as a sincere notion. Rather than
having a dense, hour-long lecture by a dusty academic, forward
thinking types chose to make history more accessible.
Now we are spending more and more on infotainment, but rather
than halt the slide towards ignorance the genre is exacerbating
the dumbing down of television.
David Dimbleby’s How We Built Britain is nearly as pompous
as David Starkey’s Monarchy. And what about Peter and Dan
Snow: 20th Century Battlefields? The presenters get head
billing above the subject!
Don’t even mention headline hunting Channel 4 giving guttural
racist, Richard Littlejohn, a programme about anti-semitism
in
So I won’t watch those. Instead I’ll keep it real. BBC Four’s
Storyville goes inside the closed world of Western corporate
outsourcing in
Does this really matter? Maybe before, but now with the
internet we can access thousands of documentaries - check
out Radio 2’s site or net TV like www.vbs.tv which has quirky
segments on Bolivian cocoa production, Venezuelan gold miners
and the Beastie Boys.
You could also pick up a book, but don’t strain yourself.
—page ten—
international news
Howard presses the racist button
by Jo Harvie
In remote Aboriginal
townships across
They are there, says
Yet few of these dusty hamlets, riven with poverty,
unemployment, ill-health and soaring suicide rates,
have a resident doctor, or access to social services.
Howard’s plan, say Aboriginal groups, is not only
paternalistic and racist, it fails utterly to tackle
what lies beneath.
The problem facing these communities is age-hold,
handed down from father to son and mother to daughter.
Here are 12 year old mothers, and 22 year old grandmothers.
Here is a culture so brutalised, it is literally
drinking itself to death, with one in four deaths
alcohol-related amongst
They have nothing, they are regarded as less than
nothing, and yet again, here comes a white administration
with a stick to beat them.
The new measures brutally overturn the hard-won
democratic and land rights of Aboriginal people,
with the Australian federal state wresting control
of around 60 indigenous communities from Aboriginal
land councils.
Not only have they cranked up the police and military
presence to occupation levels, they have scrapped
the permit system which regulates entry to commonly-held
Aboriginal land in the Northern Territory, and was
intended to tackle racist police harassment.
The announcement of Howard‚s plan came in the immediate
wake of the acquittal of a
Further, the plan includes the ban on alcohol and
pornography, compulsory, and potentially traumatic,
health checks on Aboriginal children, and the ‘quarantining’
of 50 per cent of benefit payments, which will mean
they can only be spent on designated necessities.
Peter Boyle, of Australian socialist newspaper Green
Left Weekly, knows opportunism when he sees it.
“Howard’s record on aboriginal affairs is shocking
in its callousness. He has dismissed appeal after
appeal from these communities in crisis, dismissing
evidence of their lowered life expectancy and upwardly
creeping infant mortality.
“He couldn’t even find the modest $450million requested
by Oxfam and the National Aboriginal Community-controlled
health organisation for Aboriginal health care.
“Now, with elections breathing down his neck, showing
‘concern’ for indigenous communities, by putting
a gun to their heads, is a cheap way to garner redneck
votes.
“Howard’s headline-grabbing, prejudice-tapping ‘emergency
program’ is not designed to address any real social
problem. It’s simply a way to press the racist button
in the coming federal elections.”
The Venezuelan revolution is still being televised
by Ken Ferguson
There has been an
outbreak of hand-wringing over the decision not
to renew RCTV’s license for Channel 2 by the Venezuelan
government.
Liberal commentators, many of whom have cheered
on cruise missiles during recent imperialist crusades
for democracy, claim that
Yet the granting, and non-renewal, of broadcasting
licences is common across the globe, including in
the
Thatcher
Thames TV, for example, which broadcast
for 24 years, had its license revoked during the
Thatcher years.
In a bid to mobilise opposition, the right-wing
boss of RCTV, Marcel Granier, claimed that not only
his but the human rights of the RCTV workers are
being violated.
Yes, the station head of the coup supporting RCTV
transpires to a champion of workers‚ rights!
The government was quick to respond that the concession
is not being denied to the workers, and has actively
encouraged RCTV staff members to organise into a
collective and request the concession be granted
to themselves.
Also wide of the mark are claims that the RCTV decision
amounts to a curb on diversity of opinion and is
a prelude to the monolithic state control of the
media by Chavez.
It’s nonsense. For a start, Channel 2 will continue
to broadcast!
The concession to one private corporation may not
be being renewed, but it will instead be granted
to either another private corporation, a mixed public-private
corporation, a collective of workers, or some other
combination.
RCTV will be free to continue cable and satellite
broadcasts demonstrating that what is at issue is
the private use of a public good - a broadcasting
licence concession - rather than the ‘silencing’
of a media outlet.
Vice President Rodriguez remains unflinching:
“Is the Bolivarian government closing down a television
station? No. The only television station that was
closed during the eight years of this government
was Venezolana de Televisión on that tragic night
of April 11th.”
This last in reference to the actions of the failed
anti-Chavez coup who closed a pro-Chavez TV channel.
Outlets like Venevisión and Globovisión showed no
concern for ‘free speech’ when they supported the
short-lived coup d’etat which immediately closed
down the only media outlet representing the poorest
majority of the population - as well as various
community media outlets, such as Catia-TV.
Revoking the RCTV’s license isn’t about clamping
down on free speech but, as Venezuelan foreign minister
Nicolás Maduro put it, about “revoking the disgusting
privileges of a communications oligarchy allied
with international financiers.”
—page eleven—
international news
Bolivian underground
by Patrick O’Hare
If one place encapsulates
the horrors and hardships which South America’s native peoples
have suffered and continue to suffer at the hands of imperialism
then it is
Distorting the Inca custom of ‘mita’ - a public service
whereby citizens would voluntarily help to build roads,
temples etc - into something akin to slavery, the Spanish
colonisers used
Between 1556 and 1783, around 45,000 tonnes of pure silver
were extracted from Cerro Rico (rich mountain), the huge
peak which dominates
The heavily indebted Spanish empire used the silver wealth
to pay back British and Dutch creditors; the capital subsequently
used to fund the industrialisation of
Murderous regime
Whilst decadence reigned in
With some 8million deaths at its door, Cerro Rico well earned
its macabre nickname, ‘The Mountain That Eats Men’.
When the silver deposits were exhausted in the 1800s, tin
mining followed, enduring as the principal mineral export
until the slump in tin prices in the 1980s.
Mining remains the lifeblood of
A miner’s life
A modern miner’s day begins at around 6am when
he heads to the miner’s market for a hearty breakfast which
has to sustain him during 10-12 hour shifts with no food
breaks.
There, he also purchases his daily bag of coca leafs which,
chewed continuously, act as an artificial hunger suppressant
as well as containing legendary health-giving properties.
Coca, revered by indigenous Bolivians, was once banned by
the Catholic Church as a diabolic substance, but was then
made obligatory for
Coca is a miner’s best friend whilst he is working underground,
along with a small bottle of pure alcohol which he drinks
daily to fight the sadness caused by such a bleak, lonely
existence.
On the way to Cerro Rico, the miner purchases a few sticks
of dynamite which, together with his pickaxe, are his only
means of removing the minerals from the dark heart of the
mountain.
After securing his headlamp and helmet, he heads for the
statue of the Tio which guards every one of the network
of some 200 tunnels cut into Cerro Rico.
Heavily superstitious, the miners believe that since the
mines are underground, they must be the property of the
devil or Tio (uncle), to whom they make a daily offering
of coca and alcohol.
With temperatures often reaching 40 degrees Celsius, comparisons
to hell are hardly surprising.
Once the miner has filled his carts with ore, ‘assistants’
hoist them to the surface using manual lifts, then transport
them out on the mine in wooden carts, pushed along antiquated
wooden rails.
These ‘assistants’ are usually younger members of the miner’s
family, some as young as ten years old. It is physically
demanding labour, for which they are paid considerably less
than a miner.
Life expectancy
There is no protection against the poisonous gases
which pervade the mines, causing illnesses such as silicosis
and asbestos poisoning. Due to these illnesses and accidents
within the mine, the average life expectancy here is around
40 years old, yet little alternative employment exists in
this barren highland landscape.
To gain a state pension, a miner has to have lost at least
50 per cent of his lung capacity, which means he will be
constantly struggling to breathe and likely be near death.
When the mines were nationalised, following the Bolivian
revolution of 1952, there was free healthcare, health insurance,
pensions and basic safety measures.
These have vanished, thanks to neo-liberal reforms in the
1980s and 90s, which forced the closure of most of
Co-ops
When I asked Willy, a former miner now working
in tourism in
“These men are members of the same co-operative”, he said
bitterly.
He explained that when the state moved out of the mines
in the 90s, small groups of ex-miners formed co-operatives
and occupied different parts of Cerro Rico. Each original
co-operative member could then sub-contract other miners
to work in his part of the mine; the sub-contracted miner
is incorporated into the co-operative and is officially
on equal footing with the founder, but in reality he can
only keep 50 per cent of the minerals he extracts. The other
50 per cent goes to the founder of the co-operative.
Thus, there is a huge disparity in earnings, with original
members earning up to ten times more than new integrants.
Status as a co-operative also leads to added labour complications;
miners cannot strike to improve conditions because officially
they have no employer to strike against and trouble-making
workers are forcefully removed.
Nationalisation
Bolivian President Evo Morales came to power last
year promising to nationalise the mining sector, but he
has been met with strong opposition from mining co-operatives.
Ordinary miners, though in favour of the nationalisation,
are scared to speak out for fear of losing their jobs, says
Willy.
But even nationalisation may come too late for
The world has changed greatly since the Spanish arrived
in
Corrupt local officials threaten protestors
On 24 May, in Cochabamba,
Bolivia, activists from the CWI Bolivian section and left-wing
youth organisation Red Tinku were attacked in the city’s
central Plaza by plainclothes thugs hired by the prefecture,
or regional government.
The police did nothing as bystanders were threatened and
a political noticeboard, one of the few sources of alternative
media in a city drowned out by establishment voices, was
forcibly removed.
Days later, police arrested CWI activist Adam Ziekowski
as he distributed leaflets outside the university, threatening
to charge him with incitement to violence and sedition.
A
Yet he engaged in no violence and is here legally, on a
scholarship basis to study Bolivian social movements.
Other activists have also been threatened, followed and
photographed in what seems to be a concerted effort to silence
critics of state governor Manfred Reyes Villa, who stands
accused of corruption and theft of public property, and
is one of several right-wing governors hellbent on undermining
Evo Morales and his programme of change.
In January he sparked huge protests when he threatened to
annul results of a referendum in which
Two people were killed in the ensuing clashes between armed
right-wing gangs, organised campesinos and police.
n Protests against Adam’s arrest and these other blatant
infringements of free speech and assembly can be sent to
Manfred Reyes Villa at: prefectura@prefecturacochabamba.gov.bo
—page twelve—
Royal mail workers demand bosses deliver a fair deal
by Richie Venton
Over 90 per cent of the 24,000
Scottish members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) struck
on 29 June, as part of a resoundingly successful UK-wide 24-hour
stoppage against attacks on pay, jobs, pensions and the entire
postal service.
Royal Mail bosses tried to belittle the impact, claiming most
post offices remained open.
But the Mail Centres which process mail, the Delivery Offices
where posties operate from, and even several Crown Post Offices
were brought to a shuddering halt by the scale of the strike
- with only a skeleton force of scab managers brought in to
drive vans.
Not only was virtually every worker in the giant Springburn
and Edinburgh Mail centres on strike, but they also mounted
the largest picket lines for years, where processing workers
were joined by drivers, engineers, customer service staff and
others who were not even balloted.
Pickets at Delivery Offices saw young, temporary summer season
posties, who had just joined the union, line up alongside veterans
of over 20 years.
A rota system meant not a single scab manager passed through
unnoticed.
At
Delegations visited each others picket lines, passing on information
and adding to the sense of solidarity.
All appreciated the support shown to them by the SSP, the only
political party to step up to the plate.
This, the first national postal workers’ strike since 1996,
was provoked by Royal Mail bosses, who want to impose a cost-cutting
business plan that would massacre 40,000 jobs and slash pay
through below-inflation pay rises, and which threatens the entire
postal service, through wholesale closures of Mail Centres,
Delivery Offices and hundreds of local post offices.
Royal Mail chief executive Adam Crozier this year got a 25 per
cent increase on his base salary, with a total pay package worth
£1.1million.
Yet he and sidekick Allan Leighton had the gall to say posties,
on an average of £323 a week, are “25 per cent overpaid and
40 per cent underworked”.
As
Fellow picket George added, “senior management...would prefer
this Delivery Office to be part-time only.
“We do the city centre business walk first, then domestic deliveries
after, but they would like to cut it back to only part-time
staff.
“And Leighton has wanted to provoke a strike from his first
day in the job.”
Bosses cite unfair competition as the reason they have to cut
costs - by £1.5billion over the next five years.
Says Andy Bell, CWU Area Rep for drivers in
What most of the public don’t understand is the cruel con-trick
behind the entrance of competitors.
Andy explains: “The big loss of revenue for Royal Mail is Downstream
Access Agreements (DSA), which they negotiated with competitors
when they didn’t have to.
“Under that arrangement, TNT pick up bulk mail from businesses,
take it to their machinery for one very basic sorting, then
deliver it to Royal Mail Centres, like Springburn, where Royal
Mail workers re-segregate the mail twice, where it is then driven
to Delivery Offices by Royal Mail drivers, and then delivered
door-to-door by Royal Mail posties.
“Royal Mail used to get 23 pence an item. TNT undercut them
with businesses by charging 21p. And now Royal Mail only get
13p off TNT for sorting and delivering.”
No wonder Royal Mail is facing a financial black hole whilst
profits for private operators rocket - by 69 per cent in the
second half of 2007, compared to the first half.
They are effectively subsidised by the government, Royal Mail
and its workforce, who endure backbreaking walks thanks to the
increased bulk of what they deliver.
Most workers feel that Royal Mail bosses, led by Leighton and
Crozier, are out to smash the union, spending a fortune on DVDs
and videos trying to bamboozle workers into ignoring the strike,
and falsely accusing the CWU of seeking a 27 per cent pay rise.
Strikers had a host of reasons for taking this industrial action
- from paltry pay to terrible job insecurity to the sense that
this 150-year-old service is being run down in a bid to sell
it off in lots to private companies.
Engineers in
After decades of failure to invest, Royal Mail has less than
half the rates of mechanisation of its competitors.
And on the eve of the strike, Postcomm chief executive Sarah
Chambers spoke of how “sympathetic” the regulator - supposedly
set up to protect universal postal services - is to the ideas
of reducing guaranteed daily deliveries from 6 to 5 days a week,
and of ending door-to-door deliveries in blocks of flats.
She said the current set-up is too much of a ‘Rolls Royce service’
compared to that in some European countries.
No mention of the ‘Ford Fiesta’ wages suffered by the Royal
mail workforce compared to much of
Further strikes loom, as the bosses dig their heels in.
CWU members have a proud record of respecting other workers’
picket lines.
They deserve the universal support of fellow-trade unionists,
through collections, solidarity messages and action in support
of their just cause.
All change at the Voice
When Jo Harvie became editor
of the Scottish Socialist Voice in the summer of 2004, no-one
could have predicted the turmoil into which the SSP was about
to be pitched, thanks to the wilful actions of one man.
And it is testament to Jo’s enormous talent, her political judgement
and sensitivity, and enduring commitment to truth and socialism
that the Voice remains today, stronger than ever and maintaining
excellent standards in the face of minimal staffing and resources.
She faced down attacks from Sheridan and his sudden allies,
who tried to torpedo the SSP’s newspaper, as a means of weakening
the SSP itself. Not only that, but her encouragement and kindness
have brought so many new contributors on board the paper, broadening
its base and making it more powerful in its diversity.
Contributors and readers alike will be sorry to see Jo go, as
will the Voice staff, who will miss her humanity and humour,
not to mention her unstinting hard work.
Simon Whittle is also leaving us, much to our dismay.
It is to Simon’s credit that the Voice looks the way it does
today - a modern, dynamic-looking publication that more than
stands out against the wall of grim, black and red, traditional
socialist papers. The Voice’s design reflects its editorial
commitment to accessibility, inclusiveness and optimism, which
in turn mirrors the SSP itself, and its importance cannot be
overstated.
Over the years, Simon’s skills have been expertly honed, and
the Voice has been the beneficiary.
We will miss his technical know-how and considerable talent,
but we will also miss him as a friend and somebody to go for
a fag with.
We wish them both the very best in all their future endeavours.
Remember - the Voice is now fortnightly!
As reported in Issue 308, the Voice is now a fortnightly publication.
We will be taking our annual summer break after this issue -
the Voice will return on 8 August.
If you are interested in writing for the Voice or taking a regular
subscription, get in touch on 0141 221 7333 or drop us a line
at voice.editorial@btconnect.com