Sunday, 26 December 2010
Saturday, 25 December 2010
Elvin Revolution!
Received from newswires:
Rumblings of revolution in Lapland. --STOP--
Santa issues a statement, "all is well. Totalitarian capitalism prevails. Any elf caught plotting will be deported to Antarctica." --STOP--
Deported elf, Leanon Jetski, has declared commune in workshop 1. --STOP--
Elves make statement,"Santas egotistical reign of terror over impoverished exploited elves is over. Boys and girls around the world will learn that their toys are from the Lapland Collective and also hear of Santas role as an installed dictator by the Coca Cola company. Henceforth Lapland is free of Capitalist marketeers..." --STOP--
Claus is secreted out of Christmas land... --STOP--
America launches attack on new socialist elvin regime. Intense fighting around the 'Bay of Reindeer' --STOP--
Elvin socialist leader Sleigh Guitara takes on US military might. US Coca Cola ousted entirely from Christmas land and reforms initialised --STOP--
Elves declare a socialist state and set about sharing the wealth 365 days a year and no longer differentiating between naughty and nice. --STOP--
Elves say ALL to benefit from Christmas land's wealth and hard work. Christmas declared all year round. --STOP--
-Disgraced Christmas land exleader Santa reportedly living in Saudi Arabia. US announce a blockade saying their children can do without socialist toys. Children of the USA rise up! –MESSAGE ENDS--
Christmas is a Christian festival and most religions have some festival at the end of the old year and the beginning of the new year.
The Scottish Socialist Party has believers and non-believers, we're a broad church and we send seasonal greetings to all.
Our wishes are for peace and an end to war-- all war, Afghanistan and where-ever.
We salute those who struggle against Trident and the even more fiendish weapons being developed at Aldermaston and Porton Down.
In the testing times ahead the S.S.P. will be there to help maintain and develop the health and well-being of the Scottish people and ensure a happy new year!
Rumblings of revolution in Lapland. --STOP--
Santa issues a statement, "all is well. Totalitarian capitalism prevails. Any elf caught plotting will be deported to Antarctica." --STOP--
Deported elf, Leanon Jetski, has declared commune in workshop 1. --STOP--
Elves make statement,"Santas egotistical reign of terror over impoverished exploited elves is over. Boys and girls around the world will learn that their toys are from the Lapland Collective and also hear of Santas role as an installed dictator by the Coca Cola company. Henceforth Lapland is free of Capitalist marketeers..." --STOP--
Claus is secreted out of Christmas land... --STOP--
America launches attack on new socialist elvin regime. Intense fighting around the 'Bay of Reindeer' --STOP--
Elvin socialist leader Sleigh Guitara takes on US military might. US Coca Cola ousted entirely from Christmas land and reforms initialised --STOP--
Elves declare a socialist state and set about sharing the wealth 365 days a year and no longer differentiating between naughty and nice. --STOP--
Elves say ALL to benefit from Christmas land's wealth and hard work. Christmas declared all year round. --STOP--
-Disgraced Christmas land exleader Santa reportedly living in Saudi Arabia. US announce a blockade saying their children can do without socialist toys. Children of the USA rise up! –MESSAGE ENDS--
The Scottish Socialist Party has believers and non-believers, we're a broad church and we send seasonal greetings to all.
Our wishes are for peace and an end to war-- all war, Afghanistan and where-ever.
We salute those who struggle against Trident and the even more fiendish weapons being developed at Aldermaston and Porton Down.
In the testing times ahead the S.S.P. will be there to help maintain and develop the health and well-being of the Scottish people and ensure a happy new year!
SSP Campsie Christmas Podcast:
Thursday, 23 December 2010
SSP Statement on Sheridan Conviction
The Scottish Socialist Party have released a statement on today's news. Read it HERE
Thursday, 16 December 2010
Donation
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Just what ARE Labour's opinions?
LETTER TO THE HERALD:
Ron Mackay,
Milton of Campsie
While I agree with David Whitton's criticism of Jo Swinson's ConDem policies, I wonder what his policies are. Iain McWhirter in the Glasgow Herald says “The S.N.P. Is to be congratulated for sticking to it's guns and reaffirming the Scottish tradition of open access to higher education”. I'm a Socialist, not a member of the S.N.P. But I fully support that position. What are David Whitton's views on this matter? Again will Labour continue to call for the reintroduction of fees, or will it do a hasty U-turn of it's own and back the S.N.P.'s policy? To use David Whitton's phrase “I won't hold my breath."
David Whitton,a typical career politician, rarely misses a photo opportunity, and there he was posing with the post office manager. What are his views on the privatisation of the profitable parts of the post office? And where was he when the local posties went on strike last year?
What are his views on the cuts and the attack on the welfare state ?
Bio-metric Fingerprinting - redux
Back in 2008 SSP Campsie raised concerns about biometric fingerprinting children in our schools. It aseems the EU agree with us. It turns out this is most probably an illegal practise.
Click HERE for report
Click HERE for report
Wednesday, 15 December 2010
Sunny Hundal - 'Trots out to wreck'
A Campsie view
As the campaign gathers speed to oust the existing leadership of the NUS, Sunny Hundal, editor of liberalconspiracy.org is in fear that these calls are an SWP take over of the movement.
Trots under the bed.
He has also insinuated that left unity is the unity of the left and right within the Labour party - a kind of sectarian monopoly of left unity that must incorporate those who believe illegal war was and is justified, through to those cowed by the fear that the press will find out they are lefties so hide behind the latest New Labour/Nouveaux/Newest Labour title.
I'm not entirely sure of Hundal's left claims - he describes himself as "firmly on the left," a rather vague description - I AM sure he is as sectarian as those he has went out to criticise in his newly found hat as a member of the Labour Party.
He has in the past urged non-white voters to back the Tories and at the last election called on people to vote for Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrats.
I am no fan of the SWP - but to label all who are criticising Aaron Porter and the NUS leadership as "Trots" (as he has on his twitter stream) in the way the right wing of the Labour Party bandy the term - and in the way Tories do without a definition of what he is talking about, is misleading - and jumping on a bandwagon that tries to discredit a movement. It seems that any organisation with a left anti-capitalist view outside the Labour Party fits this description (he is also critical of the WRP).
I do agree that the SWP will do their usual silly heavy handed "we are the leaders of this movement" rubbish and get on peoples nerves - and may well be part of the large body of students calling for Porters removal - but the SWP are not respected on the left as perhaps they once were (to say the least) - and are certainly not as strong as they have been in the past due to internecine fighting and resultant splits and bad feeling.
My take? I feel that criticising all who are outside the parenthesis of the Labour Party NUS leadership is not understanding the current student movement - the NUS were irrelevant in the organisation and execution of any of the demos and occupations.
I suggest Hundal reads this superb analysis of where the REAL organisation of student resistance against the cuts is taking place (not in the student union NUS office)
Hundal's article is here
...and this is my comment on his blog.
As the campaign gathers speed to oust the existing leadership of the NUS, Sunny Hundal, editor of liberalconspiracy.org is in fear that these calls are an SWP take over of the movement.
Trots under the bed.
He has also insinuated that left unity is the unity of the left and right within the Labour party - a kind of sectarian monopoly of left unity that must incorporate those who believe illegal war was and is justified, through to those cowed by the fear that the press will find out they are lefties so hide behind the latest New Labour/Nouveaux/Newest Labour title.
I'm not entirely sure of Hundal's left claims - he describes himself as "firmly on the left," a rather vague description - I AM sure he is as sectarian as those he has went out to criticise in his newly found hat as a member of the Labour Party.
He has in the past urged non-white voters to back the Tories and at the last election called on people to vote for Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrats.
I am no fan of the SWP - but to label all who are criticising Aaron Porter and the NUS leadership as "Trots" (as he has on his twitter stream) in the way the right wing of the Labour Party bandy the term - and in the way Tories do without a definition of what he is talking about, is misleading - and jumping on a bandwagon that tries to discredit a movement. It seems that any organisation with a left anti-capitalist view outside the Labour Party fits this description (he is also critical of the WRP).
I do agree that the SWP will do their usual silly heavy handed "we are the leaders of this movement" rubbish and get on peoples nerves - and may well be part of the large body of students calling for Porters removal - but the SWP are not respected on the left as perhaps they once were (to say the least) - and are certainly not as strong as they have been in the past due to internecine fighting and resultant splits and bad feeling.
My take? I feel that criticising all who are outside the parenthesis of the Labour Party NUS leadership is not understanding the current student movement - the NUS were irrelevant in the organisation and execution of any of the demos and occupations.
I suggest Hundal reads this superb analysis of where the REAL organisation of student resistance against the cuts is taking place (not in the student union NUS office)
Hundal's article is here
...and this is my comment on his blog.
Sunny – are you not also sick of the tendency for people to brand others they disagree with as ‘Trots’ if they raise their head above the parapet of a party selling itself as a movement (the Labour Party)? I know I am. In fact most of those I know who are outside the Labour Party and are part of the labour movement are NOT trots – either affiliated to other groupings or none. I would also say that is the case of the students who went beyond the SWP etc and used the technology and tactics they have learned over the past few years to organise (flashmobbing/ using twitter/ texting/ blogs etc etc)- and from school occupations across the country last year.
the current youth movement do not trust the mainstream media nor the ready made SWP type fronts to “guide them.” We would be wise to remember that.
That is not to say that the SWP will not try to highjack parts of this movement – but recent splits / walk outs/ wrecking tactics by the SWP in England and Scotland have weakened them beyond all recognition from even during the G8 demos in 2005.
Porter and the NUS are not representative of students- nor have had much bearing on what the movement has achieved. The NUS is really as this blog says, just a coming together of student Unions – and those who involve themselves in those (http://www.betternation.org/2010/12/perhaps-its-time-for-an-actual-national-union-of-those-studying/ ) – and they are usually young people already involved in either mainstream parties or, and not to put to fine a point on it – those interested in DJing in the union etc.
This movement needs spokespeople – not Aaron Porter pretending to lead from his candle lit front. Young people are wise enough -perhaps beyond the wisdom of their parents etc – NOT to want leaders – just spokespeople.
I vote for Jody McIntyre as a spokesperson – neither a Trot nor a slave to the party as far as I am aware…http://twitter.com/jodymcintyre
Sunday, 12 December 2010
Music for the Student Resistance!
Remember folks - MP Jo Swinson let us down. She let our young people down. She let the families of young people who want to go to University down. She let young people who want to go to college down. She let our Universities down.
Liberal Democrats and Jo Swinson - you are the weakest link... Goodbye (at the next elections...)
Liberal Democrats and Jo Swinson - you are the weakest link... Goodbye (at the next elections...)
Sunday, 5 December 2010
Public Meeting in Kirkie on 11th POSTPONED
due to the weather conditions and the fact we have not been able to do much leafletting for this meeting, we are postponing until the new year. A new date will be arranged and posted here ASAP!
Wednesday, 1 December 2010
#Solidarity with the Students Podcast!
Podcast supporting the students in occupation and against the cuts...
Mentioned in this podcast:
www.ssy.org.uk
@TheeFaction www.theefaction.org
@edinunianticuts edinunianticuts.wordpress.com
@radicalginger @Northernechoes @Labourcat
@efink (free downloads!) HERE and HERE
www.drivebytruckers.com/
Mentioned in this podcast:
www.ssy.org.uk
@TheeFaction www.theefaction.org
@edinunianticuts edinunianticuts.wordpress.com
@radicalginger @Northernechoes @Labourcat
@efink (free downloads!) HERE and HERE
www.drivebytruckers.com/
Thursday, 25 November 2010
RECENT POSTS MENU
SSPCampsie Remembrance Day Podcast HERE
SSPCampsie Podcast featuring Thee Faction - HERE
Review of Thee Faction's "At Ebbw Vale" live album HERE
Students in London have started the fightback for our democracy HERE
SSP CAMPSIE RADIO Special podcast -
SSP Campsie Radio are proud to host Richie Venton who recalls the titanic struggles that took part in the city of Liverpool against the Thatcher Government in the eighties. Richie was part of the Militant Tendency in the Labour Party. HERE
The SSP Contingient at the STUC march in Edinburgh - HERE
What's next for those on the STUC march in Edinburgh? SSP National workplace Organiser, Richie Venton HERE
What's next for those on the STUC march in Edinburgh? SSP National workplace Organiser, Richie Venton HERE
The Sheridan Trial HERE
Great ideas for advancing the BIG society
Bill Newman
I see that the noble traders of Milngavie are doing shift work to operate the town's public toilets themselves in order to save the Council money and to promote, presumably, the "big society". But why stop there? Residents could be volunteered to organise their own refuse collection, unpaid of course, and hard-working voters could be encouraged to maintain the roads in their spare time. No-one could then complain to the Council about the pot holes endangering motorists and discouraging cyclists from venturing out. Perhaps graves could also be dug by grieving mourners.
The main drain on the Council's coffers is our schools, however. There is a simple answer to this problem. Scotland has a huge pool of unemployed teachers and these could be used without pay to gain valuable experience in educating our youth. Should this prove insufficient, then surely there are many retired teachers who would relish the opportunity to renew their joy in front of the eager faces of school students; naturally, there would be no need for monetary compensation. Nor need the size of classes be limited. Academic studies on the merits of small class sizes are ambiguous at best.
Should all this sound too idealistic, readers should bear in mind the great new scheme from Strathclyde Passenger Transport that residents in remoter areas should organise their own bus transport needs.
You may think that the implementation of these imaginative advances towards the "big society" would save the Council sufficient money to reduce Council tax, but it must be remembered that the future cost of the private funding of school construction and refurbishment has to be paid for at great expense into the remote future and we have to continue paying the wages and expenses of our senior executives and our governing Labour-Conservative councillors.
If none of this appeals, then it is surely time that we return to the concept that our Council gives priority to the real needs of our community and endeavours to meet these needs. But this, of course, suggests a socialist alternative where needs take priority over greed and opportunism. This may be unfashionable to our current breed of politicians, but it is a realistic alternative whose time will come again.
I see that the noble traders of Milngavie are doing shift work to operate the town's public toilets themselves in order to save the Council money and to promote, presumably, the "big society". But why stop there? Residents could be volunteered to organise their own refuse collection, unpaid of course, and hard-working voters could be encouraged to maintain the roads in their spare time. No-one could then complain to the Council about the pot holes endangering motorists and discouraging cyclists from venturing out. Perhaps graves could also be dug by grieving mourners.
The main drain on the Council's coffers is our schools, however. There is a simple answer to this problem. Scotland has a huge pool of unemployed teachers and these could be used without pay to gain valuable experience in educating our youth. Should this prove insufficient, then surely there are many retired teachers who would relish the opportunity to renew their joy in front of the eager faces of school students; naturally, there would be no need for monetary compensation. Nor need the size of classes be limited. Academic studies on the merits of small class sizes are ambiguous at best.
Should all this sound too idealistic, readers should bear in mind the great new scheme from Strathclyde Passenger Transport that residents in remoter areas should organise their own bus transport needs.
You may think that the implementation of these imaginative advances towards the "big society" would save the Council sufficient money to reduce Council tax, but it must be remembered that the future cost of the private funding of school construction and refurbishment has to be paid for at great expense into the remote future and we have to continue paying the wages and expenses of our senior executives and our governing Labour-Conservative councillors.
If none of this appeals, then it is surely time that we return to the concept that our Council gives priority to the real needs of our community and endeavours to meet these needs. But this, of course, suggests a socialist alternative where needs take priority over greed and opportunism. This may be unfashionable to our current breed of politicians, but it is a realistic alternative whose time will come again.
animation - The Crisis of Capitalism
This is an animation of a lecture given by David Harvey on the Crisis of Capitalism. Well worth the watch...
thanks to Thee Faction for pointing this out on their site!
thanks to Thee Faction for pointing this out on their site!
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
Podcast - The Thatcher Rant!
Podcast featuring anti-Thatcher, pro-revolution music!
Twitterers mentioned:
@efink http://www.scottishsocialistvoice.net/pages/centrepages.html
@peoplenotprofit www.scottishsocialistparty.org
@bellacaledonia http://bellacaledonia.org.uk
@TheeFaction www.theefaction.org
@RedRector
@thebillyreeves http://nostalgiaofthefuture.podbean.com
Twitterers mentioned:
@efink http://www.scottishsocialistvoice.net/pages/centrepages.html
@peoplenotprofit www.scottishsocialistparty.org
@bellacaledonia http://bellacaledonia.org.uk
@TheeFaction www.theefaction.org
@RedRector
@thebillyreeves http://nostalgiaofthefuture.podbean.com
Monday, 22 November 2010
Thee Faction "At Ebbw Vale" Review
A nod to the eighties - a review of the Thee Faction album, "At Ebbw Vale"
Click on the Zine cover...
Click on the Zine cover...
Thursday, 18 November 2010
Scottish Socialist Party NO TO CUTS! PUBLIC MEETING
CLICK ON LEAFLET PAGE TO ENLARGE.
POSTPONED! NEW DATE TBA
Sunday, 14 November 2010
SSP Campsie Remembrance Podcast
For next year, order a White Poppy
Check out Drive-by Truckers up coming gig dates - HERE
(this podcast is by a member of the Campsie branch)
Check out Drive-by Truckers up coming gig dates - HERE
(this podcast is by a member of the Campsie branch)
Thursday, 11 November 2010
The Students in London started the fightback for our democracy...
this is a transcript of a piece made for this TORY podcast - the piece in isolation can be heard here:
Personally speaking, I am a believer of non-violent confrontation. Having said that, I am no pacifist nor am I Gandhi. Even he understood when under great duress, peoples frustration boiled over into violence. And I totally understand the frustrations vented by young people on the streets of London yesterday. In fact, what I would say is that what happened yesterday was about frustrations over the recent tory coup and undemocratic take over of this country and their insistence on foisting an ideology onto us - one that the majority of voters did not vote for.
This tory minority Government, without the help of the liberal democrats , could not enact this anti-poor, anti-woman, anti young people and anti working people cuts agenda.
People voted for the Lib dems as a vote against the tories - to stop them from carrying out their butchery of our social system and now, in order for the likes of Danny Alexander and Nick clegg to have a bigger salary – and – lets be honest – in order to pay off and protect their parties rich backers, they have done a back flip and are helping the Tories push through their un-necessary cuts.
The students, in my opinion, have actually began the fight back to retake our democracy from this unwanted minority and their failed ideology that saw the original big society quite rightly dismantled after the depression and after the second world war. People are seeing rights and needs their grand parents and parents fight for disappear. People in the past lost weeks and months of pay – and in many cases – their lives, in order to secure for future generations rights such as pension provision, child provision,homes and free education.
To vote for a party who said they stood in the way of the education cuts the Tories proposed, and then to have the same party open the flood gates of tory ideology must be gut wrenching for many voters.
I was glad to see that there were Scottish young people in that crowd. If anything, the Scottish people should be more angry than the rest as 85% of the electorate here voted against the tories. Scottish society is far to the left of the rest of the UK, yet because of the union, our government have no power to raise their own taxes or indeed save our services. The call is going out up here for the Scottish Government to refuse to pass on Westminster’s cuts. Rather, community organisations and activists are calling on the Scottiush Government to set No-Cuts Budgets, Defiance Budgets, and rally masses of workers and communities round a fight for the funds to retain every job, every penny in pay, and every single local service. There are other ways to raise the funds to pay off the richmans debts. The Scottish socialist Party have costed a Scottish service tax which not only would ensure no cuts in services or jobs, but would also raise extra money to invest in these.
Remember the lessons of the past. Remember the un democratic “saviour of Romania” ceaucescu or the people rising up against the right wing cuop in Venezuela. This undemocratically installed Government will have its ceaucescu moment. No-one voted for their ideology and no one voted for their cuts.
It was precisely mass civil disobedience, a refusal to obey Thatcher’s laws and the collection of her government’s hated poll tax, which tossed it (and her) in the dustbin of history.
I say well done to the students who have led the way in retaking our democracy.
Personally speaking, I am a believer of non-violent confrontation. Having said that, I am no pacifist nor am I Gandhi. Even he understood when under great duress, peoples frustration boiled over into violence. And I totally understand the frustrations vented by young people on the streets of London yesterday. In fact, what I would say is that what happened yesterday was about frustrations over the recent tory coup and undemocratic take over of this country and their insistence on foisting an ideology onto us - one that the majority of voters did not vote for.
This tory minority Government, without the help of the liberal democrats , could not enact this anti-poor, anti-woman, anti young people and anti working people cuts agenda.
People voted for the Lib dems as a vote against the tories - to stop them from carrying out their butchery of our social system and now, in order for the likes of Danny Alexander and Nick clegg to have a bigger salary – and – lets be honest – in order to pay off and protect their parties rich backers, they have done a back flip and are helping the Tories push through their un-necessary cuts.
The students, in my opinion, have actually began the fight back to retake our democracy from this unwanted minority and their failed ideology that saw the original big society quite rightly dismantled after the depression and after the second world war. People are seeing rights and needs their grand parents and parents fight for disappear. People in the past lost weeks and months of pay – and in many cases – their lives, in order to secure for future generations rights such as pension provision, child provision,homes and free education.
To vote for a party who said they stood in the way of the education cuts the Tories proposed, and then to have the same party open the flood gates of tory ideology must be gut wrenching for many voters.
I was glad to see that there were Scottish young people in that crowd. If anything, the Scottish people should be more angry than the rest as 85% of the electorate here voted against the tories. Scottish society is far to the left of the rest of the UK, yet because of the union, our government have no power to raise their own taxes or indeed save our services. The call is going out up here for the Scottish Government to refuse to pass on Westminster’s cuts. Rather, community organisations and activists are calling on the Scottiush Government to set No-Cuts Budgets, Defiance Budgets, and rally masses of workers and communities round a fight for the funds to retain every job, every penny in pay, and every single local service. There are other ways to raise the funds to pay off the richmans debts. The Scottish socialist Party have costed a Scottish service tax which not only would ensure no cuts in services or jobs, but would also raise extra money to invest in these.
Remember the lessons of the past. Remember the un democratic “saviour of Romania” ceaucescu or the people rising up against the right wing cuop in Venezuela. This undemocratically installed Government will have its ceaucescu moment. No-one voted for their ideology and no one voted for their cuts.
It was precisely mass civil disobedience, a refusal to obey Thatcher’s laws and the collection of her government’s hated poll tax, which tossed it (and her) in the dustbin of history.
I say well done to the students who have led the way in retaking our democracy.
Tuesday, 9 November 2010
SSP Campsie Podcast - featuring Thee Faction!
Also mentions - @ocicat_bengals, @lisaansell and @joswinson
superb music in this episode from Thee Faction, Manu Chao, the Manics, Paolo Nutini and Gil Scott Heron.
Listen if you dare...
Wednesday, 27 October 2010
The Sheridan Trial
Some people have requested updates on the trial against a former convenor of the SSP, Tommy Sheridan.
The Latest on the trial can be found on the BBC website HERE
or on a blog written by a member of the SWP (a left wing micro group who helped Tommy set up "Solidarity" after it became apparent he would not win back the leadership of the SSP) HERE
The Latest on the trial can be found on the BBC website HERE
or on a blog written by a member of the SWP (a left wing micro group who helped Tommy set up "Solidarity" after it became apparent he would not win back the leadership of the SSP) HERE
Sunday, 24 October 2010
Friday, 22 October 2010
What next for those on the STUC march?
by Richie Venton, SSP national workplace organiser
The Demolition Coalition launched the social and economic equivalent of a nuclear attack on workers and communities on Axe Wednesday.
The thousands marching on the STUC demo have a critical part to play in building mass resistance to the slaughter of jobs, services, pay, benefits and pensions. Every marcher can help build united action through their trade union, community, pensioners’ or students’ organizations – and by building local anti-cuts alliances.
Demand No Cuts budgets in Holyrood and local Councils – Defiance budgets that refuse to pass on Westminster’s butchery.
In the wake of Osborne’s declaration of war, the hour has struck for SNP, Labour and other politicians who claim to oppose the Twin Tories’ cuts to take action louder than words.
When Swinney, Salmond et al set Scotland’s budget in a few weeks, they face a stark choice: put up genuine resistance by defying Westminster’s £1.3bn slashing of the block grant to Scotland, or shut up their talk of being ‘Scotland’s champions’, of being anti-cuts. If they are serious about defending Scotland, instead of talking about a 3-year pay freeze for all public sector workers and cuts to so-called ‘back-office’ jobs, the SNP government should set a budget with not a penny cut in pay or services, not a single job loss, and demand the missing £1.3bn back off the Westminster thieves who have stolen it to bail out the bankers and billionaires.
That would act as a clarion call to action by workers and communities in support of their defiance, with rallies, demonstrations, peaceful civil disobedience and industrial action. A nation in rebellion on the scale of the anti-poll tax struggle could be built, to win back the £1.3bn for next year’s Scottish spending plans.
Build a mass lobby of Scottish parliament
Given the record of the SNP so far, they are unlikely to show the spine to do this unless they face a rebellion from below. The STUC should use the Edinburgh demo to call a mass lobby of the Scottish parliament before tartan butchery is carried out next month. If they fail to do so, the public sector unions should take the lead and call it.
Make councillors fight
Councils face the same stark choice: defy or destroy. Union members and community groups should bombard councillors with demands for No Cuts budgets; not as a folded-arms gesture, but as a lever to building massive local resistance, combining councillors, council workers and service users in united action. It’s been done before – successfully – in Poplar and Vale of Leven in the 1920s, Clay Cross in the 1970s, Liverpool in 1984. They should mount a mass campaign to demand the stolen millions back off Holyrood to balance the books, with no cuts.
This stance has already been pushed within West Dunbartonshire council by SSP councilor Jim Bollan. It has been backed by at least two UNISON branches already: North Ayrshire and Glasgow city. More unions should follow suit.
Tax the rich – axe the Council Tax
Alongside such demands, marchers should take up the call for the Scottish parliament to introduce an emergency Bill to scrap the hated, regressive Council Tax, and replace it with an income-based, progressive Scottish Service Tax, which could virtually double the funds currently raised through Council Tax, by making the rich pay. £1.6bn extra raised through this measure alone would negate the savage impact of the £1.3bn cut to Scotland’s budget.
One-day public sector strike
No form of cuts is acceptable – or necessary; neither Coalition cuts, nor lesser, slower cuts by Labour or SNP. To force back the Scottish butchers, united strike action before the council budgets are set in stone could rock and rattle them into retreat. The STUC march is a golden moment for the STUC to call for a united one-day strike of the entire public sector (over 600,000 workers) in early 2011. Failing that, the more left-leaning public sector unions should make the call, name the day, and build the rebellion in the workplaces that would embolden communities too.
Socialism, the ultimate answer
Marchers need to express their political voice too; for taxation of the rich and big business; full and democratic public ownership of the banks’ £850bn assets; an end to Trident, war and other capitalist waste; for an independent socialist Scotland, free of the Westminster butchers. Join like-minded socialists – join the SSP.
The Demolition Coalition launched the social and economic equivalent of a nuclear attack on workers and communities on Axe Wednesday.
The thousands marching on the STUC demo have a critical part to play in building mass resistance to the slaughter of jobs, services, pay, benefits and pensions. Every marcher can help build united action through their trade union, community, pensioners’ or students’ organizations – and by building local anti-cuts alliances.
Demand No Cuts budgets in Holyrood and local Councils – Defiance budgets that refuse to pass on Westminster’s butchery.
In the wake of Osborne’s declaration of war, the hour has struck for SNP, Labour and other politicians who claim to oppose the Twin Tories’ cuts to take action louder than words.
When Swinney, Salmond et al set Scotland’s budget in a few weeks, they face a stark choice: put up genuine resistance by defying Westminster’s £1.3bn slashing of the block grant to Scotland, or shut up their talk of being ‘Scotland’s champions’, of being anti-cuts. If they are serious about defending Scotland, instead of talking about a 3-year pay freeze for all public sector workers and cuts to so-called ‘back-office’ jobs, the SNP government should set a budget with not a penny cut in pay or services, not a single job loss, and demand the missing £1.3bn back off the Westminster thieves who have stolen it to bail out the bankers and billionaires.
That would act as a clarion call to action by workers and communities in support of their defiance, with rallies, demonstrations, peaceful civil disobedience and industrial action. A nation in rebellion on the scale of the anti-poll tax struggle could be built, to win back the £1.3bn for next year’s Scottish spending plans.
Build a mass lobby of Scottish parliament
Given the record of the SNP so far, they are unlikely to show the spine to do this unless they face a rebellion from below. The STUC should use the Edinburgh demo to call a mass lobby of the Scottish parliament before tartan butchery is carried out next month. If they fail to do so, the public sector unions should take the lead and call it.
Make councillors fight
Councils face the same stark choice: defy or destroy. Union members and community groups should bombard councillors with demands for No Cuts budgets; not as a folded-arms gesture, but as a lever to building massive local resistance, combining councillors, council workers and service users in united action. It’s been done before – successfully – in Poplar and Vale of Leven in the 1920s, Clay Cross in the 1970s, Liverpool in 1984. They should mount a mass campaign to demand the stolen millions back off Holyrood to balance the books, with no cuts.
This stance has already been pushed within West Dunbartonshire council by SSP councilor Jim Bollan. It has been backed by at least two UNISON branches already: North Ayrshire and Glasgow city. More unions should follow suit.
Tax the rich – axe the Council Tax
Alongside such demands, marchers should take up the call for the Scottish parliament to introduce an emergency Bill to scrap the hated, regressive Council Tax, and replace it with an income-based, progressive Scottish Service Tax, which could virtually double the funds currently raised through Council Tax, by making the rich pay. £1.6bn extra raised through this measure alone would negate the savage impact of the £1.3bn cut to Scotland’s budget.
One-day public sector strike
No form of cuts is acceptable – or necessary; neither Coalition cuts, nor lesser, slower cuts by Labour or SNP. To force back the Scottish butchers, united strike action before the council budgets are set in stone could rock and rattle them into retreat. The STUC march is a golden moment for the STUC to call for a united one-day strike of the entire public sector (over 600,000 workers) in early 2011. Failing that, the more left-leaning public sector unions should make the call, name the day, and build the rebellion in the workplaces that would embolden communities too.
Socialism, the ultimate answer
Marchers need to express their political voice too; for taxation of the rich and big business; full and democratic public ownership of the banks’ £850bn assets; an end to Trident, war and other capitalist waste; for an independent socialist Scotland, free of the Westminster butchers. Join like-minded socialists – join the SSP.
Thursday, 21 October 2010
Open Letter to Jo Swinson
After discussion on twitter with our local MP, Jo Swinson, an exasperated Yorkshire mum, Lisa Ansell, has sent a letter to her via our blog.
Dear Ms.Swinson,
We were having a conversation on twitter about the treatment of single parents by the Coalition government- and the only answer you had to my questions was that ''fathers should pay child support''.
As a single parent with one child I am now very worried. I have gone through every possibility, and your government have removed the ability to have work meet my basic living costs, unless I am earning way over the national average.
I don't know whether you are aware of what children are. They are people. Once they are born, you are responsible for them 24 hours per day. The hours you spend away from them have to be paid for, and in order to work you need arrange care for them. The average cost of this care where I live, is £110 per week. In Scotland it is nearer to £170 per week.
These are the outgoings I would have as a full time social - they are modest. I will not include food-as you really don’t need to know my eating habits.
Rent £500 per month
Childcare £5-600 per month
Electricity - £50
Gas £60
Council Tax - £80
Water Rates - £ 15
Internet £15
Travel to work £100
Student loan £80
£1500 per month.
Under the Labour government, my income including tax credits, housing benefit and a salary as a 30 hour a week qualified social worker- was £1600 per month. This was after I opted out of my pension.
As you can see this were not easy numbers. £100 per month for food, clothes for an adult and a child, and any other expenses, repairs that arose through day to day life.
Now, I wasn't complaining. Life is tough. At least with the state help I was grateful for, I could work. If you examine your housing benefit figures- you will find that single parents are over represented in housing benefit claims. They continue to work for quite a long time, even though there is little material gain. Working for its own sake is the reason most single parents with young children work, there is little financial gain to be made. If you do not do this, you become quite unattractive to employers. Gaps in employment, out of date skills- mean you earn much less when you do work.
Childcare is an expense that lone parents have to pay out in order to work. I bring this to your attention as it is a fact which is missing from Centre for Social Justice research, your social policy is based on.
Low salaries are generally expected by lone parents, because they have to balance work with responsibility for a child who exists 24 hours per day, 7 days a week. This is clearly evidenced pretty much everywhere.... There is a concentration of mothers in the bottom two tiers of the public sector- mainly because it is low paid but usually manageable around caring responsibilities.
When your government came in- you capped housing benefit to a third of the local average rents. This one move in itself removed the link between working and being able to pay basic living costs for many women. Ironic that the thing which allows women to work, was described by your government as a 'benefit trap'.
Yesterdays spending review placed further caps on council tax benefit, you have reduced the amount payable for childcare through tax credits, you are raising rail fares and bus fares, and increasing VAT. On my income level, as a social worker, I would be unable to continue to work.
In order to live on that salary, I had to spend a great deal of time on the phone to utility providers, given I couldn't afford to pay all of them EVERY month AND feed myself and my daughter. Living at a constant deficit is a very time consuming exercise. It is quite stressful, and takes a great deal of being nice to people, begging people, and generally playing a plate spinning game with your basic living costs. There is a great deal of research which shows that mothers act as ‘shock absorbers’ of poverty- I might suggest starting your reading with the evidence collected by your own government departments. If you can’t find any of the vast amount of evidence of this- I suggest going to an organization like the Joseph Rowntree Foundation or any of our Universities. There is no absence of evidence of this.
(links- www.wbg.org.uk/documents/WBGWomensandchildrenspoverty.pdf
www.cpag.org.uk/info/Povertyarticles/Poverty121/links.htm
www.chronicpoverty.org/uploads/publication_files/Opinon1-Espey.pdf
The link that was created between working and being able to pay my bills has now been completely broken. I now have no way of working and feeding my child. So has the link between being able to survive when you can’t work, or find work.
In order to earn enough money to have £100 per week disposable income to spend on food, clothes, or the repairs of the things that have broken and stayed broken- I would have to earn £22800 net per annum.
By which time my tax credits would be stopped because I earned more than £25k gross, and I would be sunk way back under that income level.
If I managed to get to the holy grail of £44k a year, I would be considered one of the richest women in the country and have my child benefit withdrawn.
If unemployed, my income would be £127 per week. Housing benefit which would only ever have covered £400 of my £500 rent, was reduced substantially in the June Budget- when the level at which it was calculated dropped to the bottom third of market rents. I would have already had to find this £100 per month out of that level of income- that has now increased by another £60.
If am unemployed for more than 12 months, and my daughter turns 5, I will be turned onto Jobseekers allowance- and if I have not found employment after 12 months, housing benefit would be further reduced by 10%.
Social Housing rents are to be brought up to market rents, so there is no chance that I would be able to get a council house with a more affordable rent.
I do have options.
Options:
a) get a job which pays far above the national average. In order to do that, I would have to move to an area where rents were much much higher. The town I live in is about to experience a massive spike in unemployment as we are heavily dependent on the public sector. I would have to retrain, presumably to graduate level- but I lucked out and used my first degree to become a social worker so more education is not an option open to me.
b) get married. Absence of available candidates is a bit of an issue there. Am 32, with a child, and quite frankly my experience of marriage is not overly positive. I had never considered I would have to fuck my way out of poverty.
c) have more children. Increase the level of state support I can receive.
d) (Which is my current preferred option) Set up a company which can employ me, and many others in family friendly work. This is the option I have taken, but as banks are not lending, my credit rating has been severely impacted by two years of living at a deficit- chances of success are not high- although I am meeting possible investors next week.
If this fails I am back to a)-c).
From your tweet I understand that government policy is that I should be getting support from an ex partner.
I appreciate that my ex should support his child. Like many men he, he is a good father. Out of a social worker's salary, he keeps a house fit for his daughter, is fully involved in her care- and buys her clothes. He doesn't have the capability to financially support me, even if he wanted to.
He is also facing unemployment as a result of the cuts your government is making to Childrens Services. Massive cuts.
I have always considered myself lucky that my ex is a good dad. Many of my friends have had to take restraining orders out to deal with theirs, or have been completely abandoned. I think it would be fair to call them deadbeat, and imply they have not met their responsibilities- I am concerned about the effect on my ex of finding out that he is also considered a deadbeat dad. I am concerned that their financial survival is dependent on the men they had the courage to leave. Some of them, very dangerous.
I appreciate this is a rambling letter- but I have a few specific questions for you:
Which social policy research suggests that women benefit from having their financial survival be solely dependent on a man, regardless of circumstances? Have you consulted with Domestic Violence charities about the implications of this?
What economic benefit is there to deliberately removing the ability of lone parents to remain in the labour market? Are these benefits long term, or short term? Are they benefits for the economy? Social benefits?
As the rhetoric used to justify these policies is about ‘scroungers’ and ‘deadbeat’ dads- could you qualify what a scrounger actually is? How long does a woman have to work for nothing to escape being described as such?
Have you read any research about the effects of poverty- what are the social benefits of ensuring that a woman has no way of supporting herself and her child by working?
What effect does ensuring that a woman has no ability to work to support her family have on gender equality?
One additional piece of social policy brought in- is the ‘fairness’ premium. Apparently because my daughter is only likely to hear 600 words a day, the state needs to ensure she has access to someone who will raise her aspirations- and in order for that to happen she needs to go to childcare outside the home.
Can I ask why you are deliberately placing so many women into abject poverty, and then introducing ‘fairness’ measures on the premise that they are inadequate parents? (’Children from poor homes hear 616 words spoken an hour, on average, compared to 2,153 words an hour in richer homes. By the age of three, that amounts to a cumulative gap of 30 million words.’’- Nick Clegg- 15th October 2010).
I would appreciate answers to these questions. I hope you don’t mind it being an open letter on a website in your constituency. I assumed that some of your constituents were women. Mothers- and that some of them might are single. They might want answers too.
Kind Regards
Lisa Ansell
Dear Ms.Swinson,
We were having a conversation on twitter about the treatment of single parents by the Coalition government- and the only answer you had to my questions was that ''fathers should pay child support''.
As a single parent with one child I am now very worried. I have gone through every possibility, and your government have removed the ability to have work meet my basic living costs, unless I am earning way over the national average.
I don't know whether you are aware of what children are. They are people. Once they are born, you are responsible for them 24 hours per day. The hours you spend away from them have to be paid for, and in order to work you need arrange care for them. The average cost of this care where I live, is £110 per week. In Scotland it is nearer to £170 per week.
These are the outgoings I would have as a full time social - they are modest. I will not include food-as you really don’t need to know my eating habits.
Rent £500 per month
Childcare £5-600 per month
Electricity - £50
Gas £60
Council Tax - £80
Water Rates - £ 15
Internet £15
Travel to work £100
Student loan £80
£1500 per month.
Under the Labour government, my income including tax credits, housing benefit and a salary as a 30 hour a week qualified social worker- was £1600 per month. This was after I opted out of my pension.
As you can see this were not easy numbers. £100 per month for food, clothes for an adult and a child, and any other expenses, repairs that arose through day to day life.
Now, I wasn't complaining. Life is tough. At least with the state help I was grateful for, I could work. If you examine your housing benefit figures- you will find that single parents are over represented in housing benefit claims. They continue to work for quite a long time, even though there is little material gain. Working for its own sake is the reason most single parents with young children work, there is little financial gain to be made. If you do not do this, you become quite unattractive to employers. Gaps in employment, out of date skills- mean you earn much less when you do work.
Childcare is an expense that lone parents have to pay out in order to work. I bring this to your attention as it is a fact which is missing from Centre for Social Justice research, your social policy is based on.
Low salaries are generally expected by lone parents, because they have to balance work with responsibility for a child who exists 24 hours per day, 7 days a week. This is clearly evidenced pretty much everywhere.... There is a concentration of mothers in the bottom two tiers of the public sector- mainly because it is low paid but usually manageable around caring responsibilities.
When your government came in- you capped housing benefit to a third of the local average rents. This one move in itself removed the link between working and being able to pay basic living costs for many women. Ironic that the thing which allows women to work, was described by your government as a 'benefit trap'.
Yesterdays spending review placed further caps on council tax benefit, you have reduced the amount payable for childcare through tax credits, you are raising rail fares and bus fares, and increasing VAT. On my income level, as a social worker, I would be unable to continue to work.
In order to live on that salary, I had to spend a great deal of time on the phone to utility providers, given I couldn't afford to pay all of them EVERY month AND feed myself and my daughter. Living at a constant deficit is a very time consuming exercise. It is quite stressful, and takes a great deal of being nice to people, begging people, and generally playing a plate spinning game with your basic living costs. There is a great deal of research which shows that mothers act as ‘shock absorbers’ of poverty- I might suggest starting your reading with the evidence collected by your own government departments. If you can’t find any of the vast amount of evidence of this- I suggest going to an organization like the Joseph Rowntree Foundation or any of our Universities. There is no absence of evidence of this.
(links- www.wbg.org.uk/documents/WBGWomensandchildrenspoverty.pdf
www.cpag.org.uk/info/Povertyarticles/Poverty121/links.htm
www.chronicpoverty.org/uploads/publication_files/Opinon1-Espey.pdf
The link that was created between working and being able to pay my bills has now been completely broken. I now have no way of working and feeding my child. So has the link between being able to survive when you can’t work, or find work.
In order to earn enough money to have £100 per week disposable income to spend on food, clothes, or the repairs of the things that have broken and stayed broken- I would have to earn £22800 net per annum.
By which time my tax credits would be stopped because I earned more than £25k gross, and I would be sunk way back under that income level.
If I managed to get to the holy grail of £44k a year, I would be considered one of the richest women in the country and have my child benefit withdrawn.
If unemployed, my income would be £127 per week. Housing benefit which would only ever have covered £400 of my £500 rent, was reduced substantially in the June Budget- when the level at which it was calculated dropped to the bottom third of market rents. I would have already had to find this £100 per month out of that level of income- that has now increased by another £60.
If am unemployed for more than 12 months, and my daughter turns 5, I will be turned onto Jobseekers allowance- and if I have not found employment after 12 months, housing benefit would be further reduced by 10%.
Social Housing rents are to be brought up to market rents, so there is no chance that I would be able to get a council house with a more affordable rent.
I do have options.
Options:
a) get a job which pays far above the national average. In order to do that, I would have to move to an area where rents were much much higher. The town I live in is about to experience a massive spike in unemployment as we are heavily dependent on the public sector. I would have to retrain, presumably to graduate level- but I lucked out and used my first degree to become a social worker so more education is not an option open to me.
b) get married. Absence of available candidates is a bit of an issue there. Am 32, with a child, and quite frankly my experience of marriage is not overly positive. I had never considered I would have to fuck my way out of poverty.
c) have more children. Increase the level of state support I can receive.
d) (Which is my current preferred option) Set up a company which can employ me, and many others in family friendly work. This is the option I have taken, but as banks are not lending, my credit rating has been severely impacted by two years of living at a deficit- chances of success are not high- although I am meeting possible investors next week.
If this fails I am back to a)-c).
From your tweet I understand that government policy is that I should be getting support from an ex partner.
I appreciate that my ex should support his child. Like many men he, he is a good father. Out of a social worker's salary, he keeps a house fit for his daughter, is fully involved in her care- and buys her clothes. He doesn't have the capability to financially support me, even if he wanted to.
He is also facing unemployment as a result of the cuts your government is making to Childrens Services. Massive cuts.
I have always considered myself lucky that my ex is a good dad. Many of my friends have had to take restraining orders out to deal with theirs, or have been completely abandoned. I think it would be fair to call them deadbeat, and imply they have not met their responsibilities- I am concerned about the effect on my ex of finding out that he is also considered a deadbeat dad. I am concerned that their financial survival is dependent on the men they had the courage to leave. Some of them, very dangerous.
I appreciate this is a rambling letter- but I have a few specific questions for you:
Which social policy research suggests that women benefit from having their financial survival be solely dependent on a man, regardless of circumstances? Have you consulted with Domestic Violence charities about the implications of this?
What economic benefit is there to deliberately removing the ability of lone parents to remain in the labour market? Are these benefits long term, or short term? Are they benefits for the economy? Social benefits?
As the rhetoric used to justify these policies is about ‘scroungers’ and ‘deadbeat’ dads- could you qualify what a scrounger actually is? How long does a woman have to work for nothing to escape being described as such?
Have you read any research about the effects of poverty- what are the social benefits of ensuring that a woman has no way of supporting herself and her child by working?
What effect does ensuring that a woman has no ability to work to support her family have on gender equality?
One additional piece of social policy brought in- is the ‘fairness’ premium. Apparently because my daughter is only likely to hear 600 words a day, the state needs to ensure she has access to someone who will raise her aspirations- and in order for that to happen she needs to go to childcare outside the home.
Can I ask why you are deliberately placing so many women into abject poverty, and then introducing ‘fairness’ measures on the premise that they are inadequate parents? (’Children from poor homes hear 616 words spoken an hour, on average, compared to 2,153 words an hour in richer homes. By the age of three, that amounts to a cumulative gap of 30 million words.’’- Nick Clegg- 15th October 2010).
I would appreciate answers to these questions. I hope you don’t mind it being an open letter on a website in your constituency. I assumed that some of your constituents were women. Mothers- and that some of them might are single. They might want answers too.
Kind Regards
Lisa Ansell
Wednesday, 20 October 2010
Demonstrate against the cuts and this vicious Tory and Liberal Democrat government!
FIGHT THE CUTS !
DEMONSTRATE IN EDINBURGH, SATURDAY OCTOBER 23RD!
Called by the Scottish Trades
Union Congress
11.00 am: Assemble East Market
Street Edinburgh
11.30am: March off
12.30 pm: Rally Ross Bandstand
READ RAPHIE DE SANTOS (LEFTBANKER) on George Osborne's "spending Review" HERE
Monday, 18 October 2010
SSP Campsie Radio Special Podcast
Richie Venton on Defiant Liverpool
SSP Campsie Radio are proud to host Richie Venton who recalls the titanic struggles that took part in the city of Liverpool against the Thatcher Government in the eighties. Richie was part of the Militant Tendency in the Labour Party.
This is a valuable firsthand account of a struggle that can inform today’s battle against an uncaring Tory/ Liberal Democrat coalition.
Podcast in three parts -
Part 1 -
Parts 2 and 3 HERE
Thursday, 14 October 2010
Hugo Blanco - events in Scotland this week
A Word About Hugo Blanco
Hugo Blanco is a historic leader of the Peruvian peasant movement who
has been politically active since the 1950s. In the 1960s he played a
central part in the ‘Land or Death’ peasant uprising in the southern
highlands of Peru. He was captured, and sentenced to 25 years. He
wrote the book “Land or Death: the peasant struggle in Peru” during
one of his many periods in prison. In 1976 he was released and
deported to Sweden. On returning to Peru in 1978, he was elected to
parliament. He was a member of the Peruvian Senate until 1992, when he
was forced to seek political asylum in Mexico following Alberto
Fujimori’s “self-coup”.
Hugo Blanco has been at the forefront of a huge struggle in the
Peruvian Amazon where the government has sold off the rain forests to
the oil corporations and the indigenous people are resisting the
devastation this brings. He is working on the newspaper “Lucha
Indigena” (Indigenous Struggle). The struggle in Latin America today
is an international beacon of hope for all socialists including Eco
socialists.
The people’s summit in Cochabamba, Bolivia in 2010 showed an
alternative to the total failure of the world’s governments –
especially those of the US and the European Union – to meet the
challenge of climate change. In a world where profit is the motor
force rather than human need, it has been an inspiration that social
movements in Latin America have won important victories. Indigenous
peoples have been key to the strength and success of those movements.
Hugo argues that indigenous peoples across the planet are in the
forefront of fighting climate change and conserving the local
environment. This is true of those struggling to preserve the lungs of
the world in the Amazon, to defend the rainforests in Borneo or
against the uranium mine in the Grand Canyon.
This weekend gives you a unique opportunity to hear directly from Hugo
- do not miss the chance!
Public Meeting
HUGO BLANCO
Historic Leader of the Peruvian Peasant Movement
Partick Burgh Halls
Glasgow
Friday 15TH October
7.30PM
Organised by the Scottish Socialist Party.
Edinburgh University Socialist Society Presents:
Latin America
The Eco Socialist Alternative
With
Hugo Blanco
...&
Speakers and Workshops from:
Scottish Socialist Party
Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity Group
Green Left (England & Wales)
Venezuelan Solidarity Campaign
Cuban Solidarity Campaign
Scottish Socialist Youth
Saturday 16th October 2010
10:30 – 13:00
The Dining Room Teviot House
Bristo Square
Hugo Blanco is a historic leader of the Peruvian peasant movement who
has been politically active since the 1950s. In the 1960s he played a
central part in the ‘Land or Death’ peasant uprising in the southern
highlands of Peru. He was captured, and sentenced to 25 years. He
wrote the book “Land or Death: the peasant struggle in Peru” during
one of his many periods in prison. In 1976 he was released and
deported to Sweden. On returning to Peru in 1978, he was elected to
parliament. He was a member of the Peruvian Senate until 1992, when he
was forced to seek political asylum in Mexico following Alberto
Fujimori’s “self-coup”.
Hugo Blanco has been at the forefront of a huge struggle in the
Peruvian Amazon where the government has sold off the rain forests to
the oil corporations and the indigenous people are resisting the
devastation this brings. He is working on the newspaper “Lucha
Indigena” (Indigenous Struggle). The struggle in Latin America today
is an international beacon of hope for all socialists including Eco
socialists.
The people’s summit in Cochabamba, Bolivia in 2010 showed an
alternative to the total failure of the world’s governments –
especially those of the US and the European Union – to meet the
challenge of climate change. In a world where profit is the motor
force rather than human need, it has been an inspiration that social
movements in Latin America have won important victories. Indigenous
peoples have been key to the strength and success of those movements.
Hugo argues that indigenous peoples across the planet are in the
forefront of fighting climate change and conserving the local
environment. This is true of those struggling to preserve the lungs of
the world in the Amazon, to defend the rainforests in Borneo or
against the uranium mine in the Grand Canyon.
This weekend gives you a unique opportunity to hear directly from Hugo
- do not miss the chance!
Public Meeting
HUGO BLANCO
Historic Leader of the Peruvian Peasant Movement
Partick Burgh Halls
Glasgow
Friday 15TH October
7.30PM
Organised by the Scottish Socialist Party.
Edinburgh University Socialist Society Presents:
Latin America
The Eco Socialist Alternative
With
Hugo Blanco
...&
Speakers and Workshops from:
Scottish Socialist Party
Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity Group
Green Left (England & Wales)
Venezuelan Solidarity Campaign
Cuban Solidarity Campaign
Scottish Socialist Youth
Saturday 16th October 2010
10:30 – 13:00
The Dining Room Teviot House
Bristo Square
Wednesday, 13 October 2010
New Banner?
We are currently updating the look of the Campsie blog. We want your suggestions as to how to change the banner/ background etc!
A comrade from the SSY has created this banner as an example of what we could do. If you have any suggestions/ advice, please email us on eastdunbartonshiressp@hotmail.co.uk
A comrade from the SSY has created this banner as an example of what we could do. If you have any suggestions/ advice, please email us on eastdunbartonshiressp@hotmail.co.uk
Wednesday, 29 September 2010
Monday, 27 September 2010
Invitation:
Edinburgh University Socialist Society Presents
Latin America
The Eco Socialist Alternative
The Eco Socialist Alternative
With
Hugo Blanco
Hugo Blanco
Speakers and Workshops from
Scottish Socialist Party
Green Left (England & Wales)
Venezuelan Solidarity Campaign
Cuban Solidarity Campaign
Scottish Socialist Youth
Saturday 16th October 2010
Saturday 16th October 2010
10:30 – 13:00
The Dining Room
Teviot House
Bristo Square
A Word About Hugo Blanco
Hugo Blanco is a historic leader of the Peruvian peasant movement who has been politically active since the 1950s. In the 1960s he played a central part in the ‘Land or Death’ peasant uprising in the southern highlands of Peru. He was captured, and sentenced to 25 years. He wrote the book “Land or Death: the peasant struggle in Peru” during one of his many periods in prison. In 1976 he was released and deported to Sweden. On returning to Peru in 1978, he was elected to parliament. He was a member of the Peruvian Senate until 1992, when he was forced to seek political asylum in Mexico following Alberto Fujimori’s “self-coup”.
Hugo Blanco has been at the forefront of a huge struggle in the Peruvian Amazon where the government has sold off the rain forests to the oil corporations and the indigenous people are resisting the devastation this brings. He is working on the newspaper “Lucha Indigena” (Indigenous Struggle). The struggle in Latin America today is an international beacon of hope for all socialists including Eco socialists.
The people’s summit in Cochabamba, Bolivia in 2010 showed an alternative to the total failure of the world’s governments – especially those of the US and the European Union – to meet the challenge of climate change. In a world where profit is the motor force rather than human need, it has been an inspiration that social movements in Latin America have won important victories. Indigenous peoples have been key to the strength and success of those movements. Hugo argues that indigenous peoples across the planet are in the forefront of fighting climate change and conserving the local environment. This is true of those struggling to preserve the lungs of the world in the Amazon, to defend the rainforests in Borneo or against the uranium mine in the Grand Canyon.
Schedule for the Day
10:45 Introduction to the day’s events from Cat Grant
10:50 Opening address from Hugo Blanco
11:10 Workshops Round One
11:50 Workshops Round Two
12:30 Report back from workshops
12:50 Closing address and summary from Hugo Blanco
Workshops Round One: The Bolivarian Revolutionary Process - Ewan Robertson (SSP); Young People and the Climate Camp - Jack Ferguson (SSY); Saving Our Land in Scotland - Cat Grant (SSP); and Eco Socialism or Barbarism - Liam Young (SSP).
Workshops Round Two: Building Solidarity with Venezuela - Venezuelan Solidarity Campaign
Building Social Forums in Latin America and Britain - Keith Baker (Green Left England & Wales); Cuba: The Green Island – Brian Pollitt (Cuban Solidarity Campaign) and Uruguay: After the Dictatorship - Patrick O'Hare (SSY).
Building Social Forums in Latin America and Britain - Keith Baker (Green Left England & Wales); Cuba: The Green Island – Brian Pollitt (Cuban Solidarity Campaign) and Uruguay: After the Dictatorship - Patrick O'Hare (SSY).
For more information: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=146635088705507 or email thefiinscotland@live.co.uk.
Sunday, 26 September 2010
Leftbanker - Do We Need the Rich?
by Raphie de Santos
However, the top 7.7% of earners take home 26% of the total wage pot. Would increasing their taxes make them all leave the country? This is very doubtful as there would not be sufficient jobs, there are 193,000 of them, which pay this level of these wages in other countries. These people have family and cultural ties that would make them not want to leave Scotland on this scale. The other interesting thing about this table is that the top 20,000 of earners take home about £4 billion before tax a year. Yet the richest 100 Scots have a personal wealth of over £16 billion.
The cry that goes out whenever a fair tax redistribution system is suggested that if one was implemented the rich would leave the country in droves. The implication being that we either could not function without them and that our economy and our society would crumble. Is this really the case? The facts would point to a completely different picture.
Figures derived from the HM Revenues & Customs report show that the majority earn most of the wages in Scotland.
Income Earners | % total Earners | % total Income | No of earners |
|---|---|---|---|
£5k – £20k | 52.3% | 26% | 1,312,000 |
£20k – £30k | 22.5% | 22% | 568,000 |
£30k – £50k | 17.4% | 26% | 439,000 |
£50k – £70k | 4.1% | 9% | 103,000 |
More than £70k | 3.6% | 17% | 91,000 |
However, the top 7.7% of earners take home 26% of the total wage pot. Would increasing their taxes make them all leave the country? This is very doubtful as there would not be sufficient jobs, there are 193,000 of them, which pay this level of these wages in other countries. These people have family and cultural ties that would make them not want to leave Scotland on this scale. The other interesting thing about this table is that the top 20,000 of earners take home about £4 billion before tax a year. Yet the richest 100 Scots have a personal wealth of over £16 billion.
This rich elite are contributing very little to the country through earnings and taxation. It would be them that had the financial ability and incentive to up sticks and leave but losing them would be no real financial loss to the country. But we would want to hit them with a one off 10% tax on their wealth before they could scarper. They have benefited from a massive redistribution of wealth over the last thirty years that has seen the liquid wealth of the bottom 50% of society fall from 12% to 1% while the top 0.01% have seen their incomes go up by 500% in the same period. This income inequality goes much deeper with the top 20% of households earning 15 times the bottom 20% of households (£73,800 to £5,000). The rise of credit over the last three decades that resulted in the great credit bubble is largely down to this redistribution of wealth. How else could we pay for anything?
But where would our industry be without the investment of the very rich? Figures published by the office of national statistics show a very different picture. Most of the investment in UK companies comes about to provide working people in the UK and overseas with their retirement and to protect them against future unknown risks through their pension and insurance funds. 68% of the ownership of UK shares in the hands of UK and overseas and pensions and insurance funds. Only 10% of UK shares is held by private individuals. The bulk of this 10% has not come from the rich ploughing money into companies but from companies giving shares as part of a bonus package to their senior personnel within these companies. It is part of the transmission belt of the redistribution of wealth we have seen over the last thirty years.
Finally, we are faced with a public debt of £935 billion, £305 billion has to be renewed in the next five years, which the government is forecasting will grow by £535 billion over the next five years despite the cuts and on top of that interest repayments of £250bn over the same period. How are we going to pay for this? Is it the rich who have benefited from the credit bubble economy or the majority of us?Well it will be largely us. UK pension funds own 33% of UK public debt while the Bank of England (BOE) holds another25% and foreign central banks hold 28%. The BOE of is owned by people of the UK and acts as its’ central bank by being the UK government’s bank. No rich individuals are stumping up any sizeable chunks of their money to pay for the public debt. Debt that was and is largely being run up by the financial crisis and the resultant recession which the rich had a big hand in causing.
Do we need the rich?
The answer is no but they clearly need us!
The answer is no but they clearly need us!
Wednesday, 22 September 2010
Perpetual War - Impoverished People
The following letter appeared in the Glasgow Herald ( 16/9/10 ) and for those who missed it we regard it as meriting a wider circulation.
“The UK ranks fourth in the list of countries with the highest defence expenditure ( 3.8% of world total expenditure), outranked by France (4.2%), China (6.6%)and the United States with 43% of world expenditure on defence. We spend about 2.5% of our GDP on defence.
In contrast most of our neighbour s spend much less – Germany 1.3%, Italy 1.7%, Spain 1.2% Netherlands 1.4%, Norway 1.3%, Sweden 1.3%, Belgium1.2%, Denmark1.4%, Portugal2.0%, Ireland 0.6%
. The UK, however, is right up there with the paranoid nations, where Eisenhower's forecast of the domination of the military/industrial complex has become a nightmare reality. We had not yet reached the dizzy heights of the US or Israel (7.0%), but were on our way until the financial crisis forced us to realise that we could not persist in faded dreams of empire and the UK as a world power any more.
Any society committed to a state of perpetual war as the operating principle of the state is fated to ultimately impoverish the ordinary people while enriching the minority. A commitment to the production of weapons of war and mass destruction as a job creation scheme and economic driver of the economy of a state can only be sustained by the creation of external threats to frighten the population into supporting such a strategy, allied to the pretty blatant threat/bribe offered to those employed by the armaments industry.
It also ignores the fact that this is not true productive economic activity – it has to be financed by a levy on the people, and at the sacrifice of the standard of living and them benefits of the many, while enriching a few.
Scotland, freed of the commitment of the defence needs of the UK delusional foreign policy would also be free to redirect effort and money into more life-enhancing and economically beneficial activities. The militarist state, with war as it's central policy, leads inevitably to fascism, even though it may last for many years under the cloak of democracy.
But politics is self-interest writ large, and the pressing task for real democrats is to show the electorate how they are being manipulated by powerful interest groups. We live in interesting times and, as we move into autumn and winter, they are set to become more interesting still. The trades unions with members in the defence industries are, unfortunately, caught up in a terrible paradox in pursuing their members interests.” Peter Curran.
As a postscript let me add, exactly one week before the above letter appeared, a motion was set before the Westminster Parliament calling for support for the deployment of UK troops in Afghanistan. Of the 310 M.P.'s ( less than half) who turned up, only 16 voted against of whom 2 were the Scottish Labour M.P.s -Katy Clark and Mark Lazarowicz.
Ron Mackay SSP Campsie Branch
“The UK ranks fourth in the list of countries with the highest defence expenditure ( 3.8% of world total expenditure), outranked by France (4.2%), China (6.6%)and the United States with 43% of world expenditure on defence. We spend about 2.5% of our GDP on defence.
In contrast most of our neighbour s spend much less – Germany 1.3%, Italy 1.7%, Spain 1.2% Netherlands 1.4%, Norway 1.3%, Sweden 1.3%, Belgium1.2%, Denmark1.4%, Portugal2.0%, Ireland 0.6%
. The UK, however, is right up there with the paranoid nations, where Eisenhower's forecast of the domination of the military/industrial complex has become a nightmare reality. We had not yet reached the dizzy heights of the US or Israel (7.0%), but were on our way until the financial crisis forced us to realise that we could not persist in faded dreams of empire and the UK as a world power any more.
Any society committed to a state of perpetual war as the operating principle of the state is fated to ultimately impoverish the ordinary people while enriching the minority. A commitment to the production of weapons of war and mass destruction as a job creation scheme and economic driver of the economy of a state can only be sustained by the creation of external threats to frighten the population into supporting such a strategy, allied to the pretty blatant threat/bribe offered to those employed by the armaments industry.
It also ignores the fact that this is not true productive economic activity – it has to be financed by a levy on the people, and at the sacrifice of the standard of living and them benefits of the many, while enriching a few.
Scotland, freed of the commitment of the defence needs of the UK delusional foreign policy would also be free to redirect effort and money into more life-enhancing and economically beneficial activities. The militarist state, with war as it's central policy, leads inevitably to fascism, even though it may last for many years under the cloak of democracy.
But politics is self-interest writ large, and the pressing task for real democrats is to show the electorate how they are being manipulated by powerful interest groups. We live in interesting times and, as we move into autumn and winter, they are set to become more interesting still. The trades unions with members in the defence industries are, unfortunately, caught up in a terrible paradox in pursuing their members interests.” Peter Curran.
As a postscript let me add, exactly one week before the above letter appeared, a motion was set before the Westminster Parliament calling for support for the deployment of UK troops in Afghanistan. Of the 310 M.P.'s ( less than half) who turned up, only 16 voted against of whom 2 were the Scottish Labour M.P.s -Katy Clark and Mark Lazarowicz.
Ron Mackay SSP Campsie Branch
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