PAMELA'S DIARY - With a week to go, the hardest working candidate in the West of Scotland is still going strong! Is their no end to her energy?
Wednesday 18th
Kirkintilloch Rotary hustings.
I invited myself along to this event and was the only list candidate on the
platform. It was well attended with about 50-60 people there. The majority
of questions were from small business people in the audience who were
complaining about the threat to local shops in the area due to transport
issues and the fact that the two big supermarkets in the area have sucked
the lifeblood out of the town.
As the only person on the platform to live in the main street I was only too
well aware of how many boarded up shops we have in Kirky and our policies
against big out of town developments went down surprisingly well as did our
free public transport policy. The Tory candidate did say at one point that
everyone on the panel would agree that we had to cut corporation tax though
- to which I had to put her right!
People Not profit! Community shops and farmers markets with good transport
links was the order of the day. They did lay on good cakes right enough!
Thursday 19th
Chamber of Commerce hustings in Dumbarton.
Pam kindly drove me to this event as it would have been impossible to get
there for 6 after work otherwise. Roll on a fully integrated Free Public
Transport system!
It wasn't as well attended as the previous night (about 25
folk) with a couple of other list candidates also invited onto the platform.
Again I put forward our People Not Profit agenda. Questions of note were again transport links, Dumbarton high street losing shops. There was a question about the Vale of Leven hospital and I was able to counter Jackie Ballie's argument that new labour have pumped millions into the NHS with the fact this money has been siphoned off by PFI extortionists, which went down well. I was also well received when I was able to be critical of West Dumbarton council and the whole issue of quangos and lack of transparency/ unaccountability in local decision making.
Pamela and I had an apparation the other night - a strange statue, almost religious in look, appeared to us just outside Faifley, on the back road to Bearsden! We went past last night and she is still there, guiding weary motorists. She isn't as good as sat nav though, she took us to Milngavie which was the wrong way altogether. Though she did seem to be saying something...
We also saw a statue which appears to be Gengis Khan's head on a plinth, at the other end of Clydebank near McGonagle's prize winning floating chippy (floating chippy of the year 1994).
It's just typical that all of these photo opportunities occur when you leave the camera at home. We will be back, although I'm not sure Genghis sends out the right message.
We then went to Neil's to drop off placards in Bearsden.
Saturday 21st
Campsie Branch party
The comrades had been out placarding which really put a spring in my step
before the party. It was great to see so many friends and comrades and we
had a great night. Thanks to everyone who made the effort to give us a wee
boost before the election and a chance to relax from all the hard work we've
been putting in.
SEE THE PHOTOS OF THE DO BELOW!
Click on "March" on the right hand side of your screen to read about the council candidates in East Dunbartonshire - scroll down to read about Pamela Page, your SSP list candidate for the West of Scotland!
4 comments:
Neither London Nor Edinburgh - but World Socialism
Nationalism is anathema to socialists. Wage and salary workers have no country. We have more in common with people like ourselves in other countries than with the privileged owning class of the country where we happen to live and work. The world-wide working class has a common interest, to end its exploitation and solve its problems, to join together to establish a world without frontiers in which the resources of the planet will have become the heritage of all, so that there can be production to meet needs and not for profit. One world, one people,where cultural differences will still be celebrated, but where we'll all be citizens of the world.
http://socialist-courier.blogspot.com/2007/04/nats-whae-hae.html
Absolutely. But of course, Scottish Independence brings democracy that little bit closer to the people.
And also bring the rule of the indigenous capitalist class closer , too , or have you forgotten what Marx says about the role of the State being the executive committee of the ruling class ?
Nothing much will change , democratic control of the means of production will still be out of reach for the Scottish working class and Scottish governments will reflect the interests of the Scottish capitalist class .
ajohnstone, I dont think you fully understand. We are not in a revolution situation - in fact we are far off it. So what do we do? Sit and let the rich walk over us - or doe we fight for concessions? Your interpretation of Marx would mean that old people dying for lack of a pension, or children working down the mines would still be acceptable - because according to you, any effort in squeezing out concessions from the "owners" of the resources of the world is futile. Taking your view means we sit around and hope the working class rise up, while you philosophise. I'm afraid the SSP are doers - they have interpreted the world and they are now acting.
And I don't here many calls for any of the countries who seceeded from the British Empire to rejoin. Show me the movement in Ireland who say, "Feck - we made a mistake!" or anyone in India saying the same?
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