PEOPLE NOT PROFIT!
Bring Our Troops Home from Afghanistan!
Bring Our Troops Home from Afghanistan!
Click on leaflet for larger version:
Wednesday, 31 March 2010
Monday, 29 March 2010
Public Meeting in Lennoxtown Wednesday
Scottish Socialist Party Public meeting this Wednesday 31st March in Campsie Memorial Hall, 7.30pm. Details click HERE
Sunday, 28 March 2010
SSP Conference
This weekend was the Annual General Meeting of the Scottish Socialist Party. Over 100 delegates from all over Scotland met in the Victoria Halls in Dunblane.
The Party re-iterated it's conviction to fighting the Parties of war and capitalism, and we were unanimous in supporting a fightback against cuts and the mainstream parties who are making the poor and working class pay for an economic crisis caused by the rich.
Willie Telfer, Campsie Branch, speaks to conference about why we need to fight the cuts and the neo-liberal Labour, Tory, SNP and Liberal Democrat Partys.
Allan Armstrong introduces the new "John Maclean Society" - a new society set up for non-domiciled supporters of the Scottish Socialist Party.
The Party re-iterated it's conviction to fighting the Parties of war and capitalism, and we were unanimous in supporting a fightback against cuts and the mainstream parties who are making the poor and working class pay for an economic crisis caused by the rich.
Willie Telfer, Campsie Branch, speaks to conference about why we need to fight the cuts and the neo-liberal Labour, Tory, SNP and Liberal Democrat Partys.
Allan Armstrong introduces the new "John Maclean Society" - a new society set up for non-domiciled supporters of the Scottish Socialist Party.
Saturday, 27 March 2010
SSP Conference TODAY!
Scottish Socialist Party - 2010 Conference.
Saturday 27th March 10.30 am .– 5.00 pm.
Victoria Hall Dunblane.
SSP – General Election 2010 Policy & Campaigning
10.30am – Registration. Saturday £5 & £3, Saturday & Sunday £9 & £5.
Morning session 11am - 1pm .
Introduction – Frances Curran SSP Co Spokesperson.
Discussion Groups.
1. Afganestan .End the occupation bring the troops home – Colin Fox.
2. Scottish Independence – Alan Mc Combes.
3. Fighting Racism & Fascism – Liam Turbett.
4. Capitalism in Crisis – Raphie De Santos.
5.The Environment – Johanna Dind.
Report back & recommendations from discussion groups.
1-2 Lunch.
Afternoon session 2pm - 5pm.
Introduction – Colin Fox SSP Co Spokesperson.
Discussion Groups
1. SSP & Using the Media – Ken Ferguson.
2. SSP – The internet, social networking & electronic media –Eddie
Trueman.
3. The election campaign, public work, campaign material and
canvassing – Kevin McVey.
4. Finance & Membership, funding the campaigns, how we raise funds,
where the money goes & recruiting new members – Jim McVicar.
Report back & recommendations from discussion groups
Saturday 27th March 10.30 am .– 5.00 pm.
Victoria Hall Dunblane.
SSP – General Election 2010 Policy & Campaigning
10.30am – Registration. Saturday £5 & £3, Saturday & Sunday £9 & £5.
Morning session 11am - 1pm .
Introduction – Frances Curran SSP Co Spokesperson.
Discussion Groups.
1. Afganestan .End the occupation bring the troops home – Colin Fox.
2. Scottish Independence – Alan Mc Combes.
3. Fighting Racism & Fascism – Liam Turbett.
4. Capitalism in Crisis – Raphie De Santos.
5.The Environment – Johanna Dind.
Report back & recommendations from discussion groups.
1-2 Lunch.
Afternoon session 2pm - 5pm.
Introduction – Colin Fox SSP Co Spokesperson.
Discussion Groups
1. SSP & Using the Media – Ken Ferguson.
2. SSP – The internet, social networking & electronic media –Eddie
Trueman.
3. The election campaign, public work, campaign material and
canvassing – Kevin McVey.
4. Finance & Membership, funding the campaigns, how we raise funds,
where the money goes & recruiting new members – Jim McVicar.
Report back & recommendations from discussion groups
Tuesday, 23 March 2010
PCS BUDGET DAY STRIKE
Below - PCS Voice and details about tomorrows PCS strike. Also, a link to the new Scottish Socialist Voice - now available FREE online!
PCS plans....
Edinburgh
Gather at the Mound from 10.30 am - head for the PCS banner
Alternative Budget declaration - don't cut civil and public services, and a noisy protest (whistles and other noisy items will be provided!)
Public leafleting
Speaker - PCS national president Janice Godrich
Glasgow
Gather in the Iron Horse, 115 West Nile Street from 10.15
March to Labour Party HQ and hand in a letter to Ian Gray
Public leafleting
Speaker - Scotland Committee Chair Derek Thomson
ARTICLE BY SSP WORKPLACE ORGANISER, Richie Venton, ABOUT STRIKE HERE
CLICK ON THE LEAFLET TO READ A BIGGER VERSION:
CLICK ON THE FRONT PAGE OF THE VOICE TO GET INSIDE!
PCS plans....
Edinburgh
Gather at the Mound from 10.30 am - head for the PCS banner
Alternative Budget declaration - don't cut civil and public services, and a noisy protest (whistles and other noisy items will be provided!)
Public leafleting
Speaker - PCS national president Janice Godrich
Glasgow
Gather in the Iron Horse, 115 West Nile Street from 10.15
March to Labour Party HQ and hand in a letter to Ian Gray
Public leafleting
Speaker - Scotland Committee Chair Derek Thomson
ARTICLE BY SSP WORKPLACE ORGANISER, Richie Venton, ABOUT STRIKE HERE
CLICK ON THE LEAFLET TO READ A BIGGER VERSION:
CLICK ON THE FRONT PAGE OF THE VOICE TO GET INSIDE!
Sunday, 21 March 2010
No to War! No to Cuts!
Bill and Willie, two of the leafletting team today.1800 leaflets advertising the Public Meetings were delivered to households in Lennoxtown.
(see leaflet HERE)
PRESS RELEASE FROM CAMPSIE BRANCH SCOTTISH SOCIALIST PARTY
Public Meetings in Lennoxtown and Kirkintilloch
The Campsie Branch of the Scottish Socialist Party is holding two public meetings to highlight the futility of the war in Afghanistan and in opposition to the local and national cuts planned by all the major political parties.
The first meeting will be in Campsie Memorial Lesser Hall in Lennoxtown on Wednesday, 31 March at 7.30. Speakers will include Colin Fox (spokesperson for the Scottish Socialist Party and a former MSP), a member of the Afghan community in Scotland and local Party members. This will be followed by a further meeting in the Kirkintilloch Leisure Centre at 7.30 on 21 April. The SSP believes that neither the truth about our economic crisis nor the real reason for the conflict in Afghanistan is being told and the meetings will encourage discussion on these crucial issues.
Colin Fox said, “After 8 years of occupying Afghanistan, 50,000 civilian and 270 British deaths, it is time to support our troops and bring them home. Our politicians at Westminster ignore the polls showing 70% of Britons want our soldiers brought back home and have themselves shown, just as they did whilst they were fiddling their expenses, that they are completely out of touch with public opinion in this country.”
Thursday, 18 March 2010
Monday, 15 March 2010
SSP conference
Just a wee reminder that SSP Conference is taking place on Saturday 27
and Sunday 28 March at the Victoria Halls, Dunblane.
Friday, 12 March 2010
No more scapegoating asylum seekers!
The Scottish Socialist Party shares the grief and anger of local people at the tragic
death of the Serykh family - apparently driven to suicide after being refused asylum.
We demand a full public inquiry into the circumstances -including whether the
government’s Borders Agency enforcers were in the area, and if they had been banging on the family’s door just before they died - as neighbours claim.
This human tragedy highlights the inhumane treatment handed out by government authorities to people genuinely fleeing persecution, torture, poverty in their native countries.
Asylum seekers are dumped in the worst housing stock; Red Rd flats are so dilapidated that they face demolition.
They are banned from working, expecte to live on £35 a week - after the Labour government slashed their pittance from £42 a week.
They live in fear of dawn raids, dragged into Dungavel detention centre, deported to certain death in the countries they fled. Sections of the press, egged on by the Tories and New Labour, have tried to whip up divisions between asylum seekers, refugees and long-term residents. They try to play on the anger of communities deprived of decent housing, jobs and incomes - scapegoating asylum seekers for mass poverty and unemployment.
The vast majority of Glasgow people don’t fall for these lies.
They know there was appalling housing provided by slum landlords and the council
long before the asylum seekers arrived.
They know these people - many of them highly trained professional workers - are
not even allowed to work, let alone “take away our jobs”.
They know that many families in Glasgow are descendants of previous waves of
refugees and “asylum seekers” - who fled famine, persecution, war and poverty in
Ireland, the Scottish Highlands, Italy, etc.
The SSP has a proud record of defending human rights for asylum seekers and refugees. Our MSP Rosie Kane dealt with hundreds of cases in 2003-7, fighting
evictions, destitution and deportations.
We condemn and oppose the barbarism of the Asylum System - which chucks young
children into prisons, lifts them out of school into flights to countries they never
knew - where their families face violence and sometimes death.
The SSP campaigns for unity in the community - to fight together for better
housing and services.
Unity is our strength!
Attend the public meeting - mourn the deaths of victims of the government agencies’ terror.
Unite against deportations, poverty and racism.
Join the SSP for a Scotland that offers the hand of friendship - not the fist of fury.
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
BUILD A MASS, UNITED PUBLIC SECTOR DEMO ON 10th APRIL
Make the rich pay – bail out all public services, not bankers’ and billionaires’ profits
By Richie Venton – SSP national workplace organiser
9th March 2010
Photos: John Lanigan
Two major trade union events in the space of 48 hours demonstrate the seething anger at public sector cuts, the potential for a united resistance across the trade unions, and the potency, increasing popularity and urgent necessity of the Scottish Socialist Party’s alternatives to this assault on jobs, services and conditions.
EIS 10,000 march
On Saturday 6th March, 10,000 teachers, lecturers, nursery staff, parents, pupils and other trade unionists poured out of Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Park, snaking their way round a mammoth route to the EIS union’s rally in the SECC.
This was the first national demo called by the EIS in decades. The overwhelming majority of the marchers had never been on a demo before. The age profile was a whole cross-section, from toddlers in buggies and primary kids, through trainee and newly qualified teachers, to bearded veterans of the profession – united in their fury at education budget cuts, whilst bankers’ bailouts, renewal of Trident weapons and bloody war cost the public a fortune.
Anger at that obscene contrast was reflected in speeches by the EIS president and others at the rally. They denounced the governments of Westminster and Holyrood for regarding these expenditures as more important than the education of our children, who represent the future, and lambasted the SNP government for now confronting children with the choice of either free school meals or smaller classes, when they had promised both and children deserve both.
SSP on the march
The EIS march is part of a campaign they have entitled “Why must our children pay?”
The SSP was the only party with a leaflet that directly dealt with the issues of the march, demanding “make the rich pay – not our kids; bail out education and all services – not bankers’ profits; 20’s plenty in any class – give our kids a chance.”
People snapped up the leaflets, smiled and murmured their agreement with the headlines, turned and quoted it to their friends as they assembled to march off.
The lively SSP contingent was joined by parents and children who fought the heroic Save Our Schools Campaign in Glasgow last year. As we marched we led the chant “Twenty’s plenty in any class – give our kids a chance”, which caught on with the crowd marching and bystanders on the pavements.
As the 10,000 trod towards the end of their marathon march to the SECC rally, we improvised an SSP “street meeting” on the pavement as they passed us! We belted out our message on a very loud PA system: “The SSP demands that the government tax the rich, to bail out education, not bankers’ profits and bankers’ bonuses.” Several sections of the march shouted back their agreement with us as they marched past, and even more contingents applauded us as they marched past. A sign of how profoundly the bankers’ bailout has changed people’s consciousness, including their open-ness to the SSP’s unashamed socialist demands.
The EIS leadership promised in speeches that this mass demo is just the start of the campaign, which is to be welcomed, and which EIS union activists and members will make sure is the case.
It is absolutely right that as the union representing 60,000 members in education they should take up the cudgels in defence of that service. But what would be tragic, and totally divisive and counter-productive, is if the EIS leadership argued for cuts in other services to save education; unity of opposition to all service cuts, combining the power and scale of members of all public sector unions and the communities they service is what is urgently needed to stop the slaughter.
Biggest civil service strike since 1987
It was therefore encouraging that an EIS representative (as well as speakers from the FBU, UNISON and STUC) addressed the 8th March strike rally in Glasgow, called during the 48-hour stoppage by all civil service workers, members of PCS.
This was the biggest civil service strike since 1987. Across the UK, over 250,000 workers brought services to a halt in tax and customs offices; Job Centres; driving centres; the Courts; the MoD; passport offices; the Scottish parliament (for the first time ever); Westminster … to name but some. 30,000 of these strikers were in Scotland.
They are overwhelmingly low-paid workers, whose partial compensation for low pay has been a modest average pension of £6,500 and a reasonable redundancy scheme – which is now under assault. The government has set in motion the legislation to slash the Civil Service Compensation Scheme, cutting the package that most workers would get on being made redundant by up to one-third, tens of thousands of pounds each. A sure sign that the Labour government (backed up quite openly by the Tories on this) want to slaughter tens of thousands of jobs on the cheap – in addition to the 100,000 already shed in the past 5 years – and usher in privatisation by making the prospect more attractive to the privateers.
The response to the 48-hour strike was absolutely overwhelming – forcing management to stoop to tricks like jetting in a handful of scab managers from Newcastle to open the Glasgow DVLA office.
Socialism in the civil service
Again, not only did SSP members in PCS play an instrumental part in building the strike, but our policies were more widely and eagerly embraced than for a long time: on the picket lines, at the PCS strike rallies in Glasgow and Dundee, and at the SSP public meeting in Glasgow after the union rally. This was a really large meeting, with over half those present attending their first ever SSP meeting. And strikers were enthusiastic in their support for our socialist aims – many commenting wryly that if only we could get a fair hearing in the media, imagine how popular our case would be – as well as our proposals on how to build public sector unity against all cuts in the immediate future.
Unity against the carnage - build 10th April Demo
Alongside a rolling programme of further industrial action by the PCS, railway workers are striking (Scotrail) and balloting for pre-General Election strikes (Network Rail). Numerous anti-cuts campaigns, involving council workers’ unions and communities, are campaigning against the brutal council cuts that loom. Already 5,000 council jobs face the chop, with hair-raising predictions of 32,000 jobs (one in every eight!) being butchered by 2014. And community centres face closure up and down Scotland.
So an immediate opportunity to tie all these strands of struggle into a rope to restrain the axe-wielders presents itself on Saturday 10th April. Scottish UNISON is calling a mass, national demonstration in Glasgow that day, in defence of public services.
SSP members in all the various trade unions – alongside other union members – need to move heaven and earth to make this an almighty display of the power of a united working class on the march, by calling on their unions to mobilise members into an event that dwarfs even the brilliant 10,000 on the EIS march.
As Labour, Tory, Lib Dem and SNP politicians sharpen their knives in a grisly pre-election competition for whose cuts are the deepest, the SSP in contrast will stand up for public sector workers and the communities that depend on public services.
We will build for a united march for public services – not private profit, demanding the governments tax the rich and bail out all public services - not bankers’ and billionaires’ profits.
We will campaign inside the unions for measures that would fund these services, protect and create jobs, and begin to re-distribute wealth from the millionaires to the millions.
Measures such as a 10% tax on every millionaire (to fund 80,000 new jobs in Scotland alone, on £25,000 a year for 3 years!); restoration of income tax on the rich to pre-Thatcher levels (83%) and likewise Corporation Tax on big companies, from the current paltry 28% to the 52% it was at before Thatcher and then New Labour made this country a tax haven for the tax-dodging rich.
A sea-change has begun in the outlook of workers in the frontline of public sector carnage by the parties that back big business and the profit system. Socialist measures – including full-blown public ownership of the entire banking sector, natural wealth, services and big industries, but with democratic control – are increasingly convincing to people whose future is under threat.
The time is ripe for the potential power of a united trade union movement to be mobilised – starting with 10th April – and for socialist demands to be boldly advanced amongst an increasingly receptive crowd of angry workers. The SSP will do its part, emboldened by the events of the past 48 hours.
By Richie Venton – SSP national workplace organiser
9th March 2010
Photos: John Lanigan
Two major trade union events in the space of 48 hours demonstrate the seething anger at public sector cuts, the potential for a united resistance across the trade unions, and the potency, increasing popularity and urgent necessity of the Scottish Socialist Party’s alternatives to this assault on jobs, services and conditions.
EIS 10,000 march
On Saturday 6th March, 10,000 teachers, lecturers, nursery staff, parents, pupils and other trade unionists poured out of Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Park, snaking their way round a mammoth route to the EIS union’s rally in the SECC.
This was the first national demo called by the EIS in decades. The overwhelming majority of the marchers had never been on a demo before. The age profile was a whole cross-section, from toddlers in buggies and primary kids, through trainee and newly qualified teachers, to bearded veterans of the profession – united in their fury at education budget cuts, whilst bankers’ bailouts, renewal of Trident weapons and bloody war cost the public a fortune.
Anger at that obscene contrast was reflected in speeches by the EIS president and others at the rally. They denounced the governments of Westminster and Holyrood for regarding these expenditures as more important than the education of our children, who represent the future, and lambasted the SNP government for now confronting children with the choice of either free school meals or smaller classes, when they had promised both and children deserve both.
SSP on the march
The EIS march is part of a campaign they have entitled “Why must our children pay?”
The SSP was the only party with a leaflet that directly dealt with the issues of the march, demanding “make the rich pay – not our kids; bail out education and all services – not bankers’ profits; 20’s plenty in any class – give our kids a chance.”
People snapped up the leaflets, smiled and murmured their agreement with the headlines, turned and quoted it to their friends as they assembled to march off.
The lively SSP contingent was joined by parents and children who fought the heroic Save Our Schools Campaign in Glasgow last year. As we marched we led the chant “Twenty’s plenty in any class – give our kids a chance”, which caught on with the crowd marching and bystanders on the pavements.
As the 10,000 trod towards the end of their marathon march to the SECC rally, we improvised an SSP “street meeting” on the pavement as they passed us! We belted out our message on a very loud PA system: “The SSP demands that the government tax the rich, to bail out education, not bankers’ profits and bankers’ bonuses.” Several sections of the march shouted back their agreement with us as they marched past, and even more contingents applauded us as they marched past. A sign of how profoundly the bankers’ bailout has changed people’s consciousness, including their open-ness to the SSP’s unashamed socialist demands.
The EIS leadership promised in speeches that this mass demo is just the start of the campaign, which is to be welcomed, and which EIS union activists and members will make sure is the case.
It is absolutely right that as the union representing 60,000 members in education they should take up the cudgels in defence of that service. But what would be tragic, and totally divisive and counter-productive, is if the EIS leadership argued for cuts in other services to save education; unity of opposition to all service cuts, combining the power and scale of members of all public sector unions and the communities they service is what is urgently needed to stop the slaughter.
Biggest civil service strike since 1987
It was therefore encouraging that an EIS representative (as well as speakers from the FBU, UNISON and STUC) addressed the 8th March strike rally in Glasgow, called during the 48-hour stoppage by all civil service workers, members of PCS.
This was the biggest civil service strike since 1987. Across the UK, over 250,000 workers brought services to a halt in tax and customs offices; Job Centres; driving centres; the Courts; the MoD; passport offices; the Scottish parliament (for the first time ever); Westminster … to name but some. 30,000 of these strikers were in Scotland.
They are overwhelmingly low-paid workers, whose partial compensation for low pay has been a modest average pension of £6,500 and a reasonable redundancy scheme – which is now under assault. The government has set in motion the legislation to slash the Civil Service Compensation Scheme, cutting the package that most workers would get on being made redundant by up to one-third, tens of thousands of pounds each. A sure sign that the Labour government (backed up quite openly by the Tories on this) want to slaughter tens of thousands of jobs on the cheap – in addition to the 100,000 already shed in the past 5 years – and usher in privatisation by making the prospect more attractive to the privateers.
The response to the 48-hour strike was absolutely overwhelming – forcing management to stoop to tricks like jetting in a handful of scab managers from Newcastle to open the Glasgow DVLA office.
Socialism in the civil service
Again, not only did SSP members in PCS play an instrumental part in building the strike, but our policies were more widely and eagerly embraced than for a long time: on the picket lines, at the PCS strike rallies in Glasgow and Dundee, and at the SSP public meeting in Glasgow after the union rally. This was a really large meeting, with over half those present attending their first ever SSP meeting. And strikers were enthusiastic in their support for our socialist aims – many commenting wryly that if only we could get a fair hearing in the media, imagine how popular our case would be – as well as our proposals on how to build public sector unity against all cuts in the immediate future.
Unity against the carnage - build 10th April Demo
Alongside a rolling programme of further industrial action by the PCS, railway workers are striking (Scotrail) and balloting for pre-General Election strikes (Network Rail). Numerous anti-cuts campaigns, involving council workers’ unions and communities, are campaigning against the brutal council cuts that loom. Already 5,000 council jobs face the chop, with hair-raising predictions of 32,000 jobs (one in every eight!) being butchered by 2014. And community centres face closure up and down Scotland.
So an immediate opportunity to tie all these strands of struggle into a rope to restrain the axe-wielders presents itself on Saturday 10th April. Scottish UNISON is calling a mass, national demonstration in Glasgow that day, in defence of public services.
SSP members in all the various trade unions – alongside other union members – need to move heaven and earth to make this an almighty display of the power of a united working class on the march, by calling on their unions to mobilise members into an event that dwarfs even the brilliant 10,000 on the EIS march.
As Labour, Tory, Lib Dem and SNP politicians sharpen their knives in a grisly pre-election competition for whose cuts are the deepest, the SSP in contrast will stand up for public sector workers and the communities that depend on public services.
We will build for a united march for public services – not private profit, demanding the governments tax the rich and bail out all public services - not bankers’ and billionaires’ profits.
We will campaign inside the unions for measures that would fund these services, protect and create jobs, and begin to re-distribute wealth from the millionaires to the millions.
Measures such as a 10% tax on every millionaire (to fund 80,000 new jobs in Scotland alone, on £25,000 a year for 3 years!); restoration of income tax on the rich to pre-Thatcher levels (83%) and likewise Corporation Tax on big companies, from the current paltry 28% to the 52% it was at before Thatcher and then New Labour made this country a tax haven for the tax-dodging rich.
A sea-change has begun in the outlook of workers in the frontline of public sector carnage by the parties that back big business and the profit system. Socialist measures – including full-blown public ownership of the entire banking sector, natural wealth, services and big industries, but with democratic control – are increasingly convincing to people whose future is under threat.
The time is ripe for the potential power of a united trade union movement to be mobilised – starting with 10th April – and for socialist demands to be boldly advanced amongst an increasingly receptive crowd of angry workers. The SSP will do its part, emboldened by the events of the past 48 hours.
Sunday, 7 March 2010
Demo at Cornton Vale
The SSP Womens Network had their annual demonstration outside Corntonvale Women's prison in Stirling in solidarity with women who are imprisoned for economic "crimes" and with women who are abused by our system daily. This demonstration takes place every year on the weekend nearest International Womens Day (tomorrow, March 8th).
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