Wednesday 31 July 2013

Hiroshima Day Invitation from CND...

@scraptrident

(Campsie Branch SSP will be there with our YES banner - supporting the CND policy that a YES vote is desirable as this is our chance to rid the UK of Nuclear Weapons).

I write to invite you to attend our Hiroshima Day Commemoration on Tuesday 6th August. It is 68 years since the first atom bombs were dropped on two Japanese cities with devastating loss of life. At a time when our own government is planning a new generation of nuclear weapons and 2,000 of these weapons across the world remain on hair trigger alert, the danger of nuclear holocaust by accident or design is still with us.

This year we are planning to meet at the gates of Botanic Gardens (Queen Margaret Drive) at 6.30pm, visit the peace tree in that park, then walk on the pavement with peace flags to the peace tree in Kelvingrove Park (grounds of Art Galleries) for a short meeting and a song. Please note the new starting time of 6.30pm is later than previously advertised.

Invited speakers include Sandra White MSP, Councillor Bill Butler and Councillor Martha Wardrop.

I look forward to seeing you there.

In Peace
Alan Mackinnon - Glasgow CND


Tuesday 30 July 2013

Protest in support of Bradley Manning - Glasgow, this Saturday 3rd August

From a supporter:

I am organizing a demo in support of Bradley Manning the American soldier who exposed
corruption in the USA goverment by disclosing the Afghan war logs, the collateral damage video
 and other  vital document in the interest of the people of the world to wikileak .org

I would be hope you can come alone & support this very important cause. 
please circulate this email to all your friends and associates who care about human rights and freedom of press, speech & expression.

BRADLEY MANNING IS FACING LIFE IMPRISONMENT BECAUSE HE EXPOSED TRUTH ABOUT
THE TERRIBLE THINGS GOVERNMENT IS DOING THAT AFFECTS US ALL & THEY DON'T WANT US
TO KNOW ABOUT. PLEASE STAND WITH BRADLEY BY SHOWING YOUR SUPPORT.

demo/protest 4 BRADLEY MANNING 

SAT 3RD AUGUST 2013
GEORGES SQUARE GLASGOW
1PM

http://youtu.be/UFFkcCh-pCc


THANKS,
June MacKendrick

Saturday 27 July 2013

Campsie Socialist dates for your diary

Campsie Socialists met today and organised dates for people to add to their diaries - some especially pertinent if you are in the Kirkintilloch area.

Most importantly, the group are screening the Ken Loach film,  "The Spirit of 45" on 5 October - venue and time to be confirmed.

We will also be running two stalls to gather signatures for a petition against the dreadful bedroom tax (more HERE from Richie Venton) - both in Kirkintilloch - 31st August and 14th September at 11am outside The Regents' Centre.  We will also have YES declarations - your chance to sign up to show you will be voting YES in the independence referendum next year!

We will also be leafleting invitations throughout Kirkintilloch - delivering them to houses - in the leadup to the screening of the film - so please - if you would like to help, email us eastdunbartonshiressp@hotmail.co.uk or contact @the_ssp_ on twitter or contact us via Facebook - SSP mainpage or Campsie Socialists on Facebook.

We also spoke about the rally for Scottish Independence in Edinburgh on 21st September and a number of Campsie members will be travelling through with our banners!


You can join the SSP HERE

recent SSP anti-Bedroom Tax public meeting





Friday 26 July 2013

Tory Policy...

I recently received a recording of a speech made by a recently adopted Conservative candidate to his constituency association and I thought a transcript might be of interest to whose who do not necessarily share his views:

 Friends,

First of all, let me say how grateful I am to have been adopted as your candidate.  I know, having talked to many of you, that we share common aims in achieving a truly Conservative nation.  I also know I can speak frankly to you, and if what I say is not yet publicly stated Conservative policy, let me assure you that my views are shared by our leaders and many MPs, even if they cannot be expressed as openly as yet. Our general aim, of course, is to dismantle the welfare state. 

We are well on the way to ridding ourselves of the so-called National Health Service, itself a socialist product of the post-War Labour Government.  The privatisation of key elements of the Health Service is proceeding well, but we have much further to go.  Let me be clear.  There should be no reliance on the state to provide medical services.  It is up to individuals to look after their own health needs, for which private insurance is readily available.  Doctors and hospitals should be normal businesses, making profit to provide health care.  This would improve efficiency.  It has already been suggested that doctors should charge for appointments and I see no reason why hospitals should not also charge for the services which they provide. As I'm sure you know, the health service was not the only section of the economy nationalised by the post-War Socialist Government as part of a conspiracy to turn the United Kingdom into a Socialist Republic. 

We have already returned most of the commanding heights of the economy into private hands and the privatisation of the Post Office will continue our efforts.  As far as education is concerned, we are making progress in dismantling State and local authority control by encouraging private ownership of schools and this will continue with appropriate incentives given for companies, churches and charities to take over school education.  Nor should we dictate what is taught in schools beyond basic literacy and numeracy.  Speaking personally, I see no reason why the State should insist on education beyond the age of 15 or even 14.  Those who leave school and do not find work should be made to work on some of the country's expanding infrastructural projects.  Our transport system, for example, still needs cheap manual labour.  And before socialists bleat that this is morally wrong, let me point out that even in Communist Albania, school children had the responsibility for laying the track for the country's railways.  Hard physical labour will develop fitness and encourage the work ethic.As you will know, we are reducing the enormous, ridiculous burden of welfare benefits and I confidently expect much further progress in  shrinking the role of the State in welfare as a whole.  Indeed, no-one should expect State hand-outs with nothing in return.  Everyone should make provision for ill-health, periods of unemployment and old age.  I know some may feel this harsh, but for those who have made little or no personal provision for the future, then I am very much in favour of a Victorian solution; namely,the workhouse.  I would remind you that no-one was forced into a workhouse, but those who felt they had no alternative could apply to be accommodated. 

Naturally, for those who are able , directed work would be a pre-requisite for entry.  I would hope that charities would help to finance and run these institutions, but a minimum of state aid would, I accept, have to be provided. I have been asked whether the above policies should be enforced on Scotland and I would argue that, assuming a positive vote for the Union in the forthcoming referendum, the Scotch should abide by the same regulations applicable to England.  A vote for the Union should imply the abolition of an independent judiciary, no separate education system or separate health service, and so on.  The Scotch could surely make do with Holyrood merely having an administrative function. 

After all, Scotch MPs are present in Westminster to make their views known. Some have mentioned that the Labour Party leader, Ed Millipede, and his colleagues have endorsed some of our radical policies to roll back socialism and eliminate the residual power of trade unions.  This may seem to be so, and it does reflect the desire of the electorate for our policies.  But I would remind you that Ed and David's father, Ralph Millipede,was a Communist and there is no evidence that his sinister beliefs have ever been disavowed by his sons. The population wants a reduced tax burden, more choice in education and health and a continued attack on sloth and fecklessness.  We should make sure we represent and lead these attitudes, and I believe the press will be behind us.  Some of you may know the tract issued by the author of Gulliver's Travels, Jonathon Swift, in 1729.  This was a time of great famine in Ireland and the tract, A Modest Proposal,suggested that the solution to the famine was to eat the surplus Irish children of that benighted nation. 

Now, naturally, I would not recommend such a radical solution to the problems of poverty,but Swift's tract does illustrate the blue-sky thinking in which we should indulge to eliminate the curse of socialism which has benighted us for so long. 

Finally, thank you for allowing me to express my views to you.  When I become your MP, rest assured that I will make every effort to effect the policies which I have laid before you. 

At which the candidate, Winston Algernon Norris Ker, sat down to enthusiastic and prolonged applause.

Monday 15 July 2013

SSP Competition

New SSP competition! - DEADLINE- 10TH AUGUST! tweet us a pic of you fighting back against the right wing hegemony.

Flags, growing your own, community action...  

...basically anything that is either something that would be welcome in a new society or at the very least something that helps in the fightback against the Tory/Liberal Democrat government. 

Mark it #sspfight on twitter- our account is @The_SSP_ - best fightback pic wins a copy of Thee Faction's ( http://theefaction.wordpress.com/ - @TheeFaction on twitter) new Album "Good Politics!"

An album of solution, not just protest!

Better than Wages by Thee faction HERE 

Saturday 13 July 2013

The Peace Camp 31st Birthday...

Below is video of the celebrations at the Peace Camp at the end of June. As well as testament and drama, there was comedy and music. SSP Campsie member, Ron Mackay's very powerful testament can be found HERE and Acting Strange's comedy "news" programme with Prick Knobinson can be found HERE




Maggi Sale, one of the original Peace Campers, share's her 70th birthday with the camp...


Pauline Bradley, singer songwriter, performs at Faslane Peace Camp


Monday 8 July 2013

Campsie Socialists mark 31 years of the Peace Camp

Last week local socialists teamed up with a theatre group to mark the 31st anniversary of protests against trident Nuclear weapons based on the Clyde. The group invited members and members of the public, and ran a mini-bus from East Dunbartonshire, to a “cabaret” at Faslane Peace Camp.

Acting Strange Theatre Group, a radical theatre group based in East Dunbartonshire, staged drama, comedy and music, ranging from satirical sketches through to poignant stories of casualties of war. Joining them this year were Rosie Kane, who performed an excerpt from her very funny one woman show; Pauline Bradley, who sang a number of folk and protest songs and singer song writers, Andy McGarvey and “Citizen Smart.”
Ron Mackay and Maggi Sale at the Gates of Faslane.  Photos Maggi Sale

Campsie Socialists protest outside the North Gate alongside Acting Strange theatre Company and original Peace Camper and author, Maggi Sale.
The highlight of the day were the testaments given by Maggie Sale, one of the women involved in setting up the original camp, who shared her 70th birthday with the “celebrations” and East Dunbartonshire resident, Ron Mackay who, in his 90th year, expressed his disgust at the weapons of war stationed just thirty miles down the road from Glasgow.

Ron said, “My father was jailed as a socialist conscientious objector during World War One. I was jailed in 1962 as an objector to the Polaris nuclear weapon system imposed on Scotland by the Americans. I thought after seeing action in World War 2 that we would end all wars, but the militaristic Westminster system has proved in the many interventions it has sanctioned since 1945, including the recent interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan that war is too profitable for the rich for them to give up sacrificing our young men and women. In my 91st year next year, I want to see these dreadful machines of death sailing out of the Gareloch for good.”

Author Maggie Sale said, “It has been amazing to share my birthday with so many committed peace activists at the Peace Camp I helped set up over thirty years ago. From 4 years to 90...and me, a mere stripling,..... and approaching my Prime!

I am mindful that 31 years after the establishment of Faslane Peace Camp, the Powers-that-be, of all political colours, still hide behind the delusion that the possession of Nuclear Weapons will somehow save us from 'enemy' attack and dissuade others from instigating a Third World War for fear of instant annihilation.
That 'WAR' has already started for every person on the Planet who is deprived of clean water and sustainable living as a result of Billions being spent on the design, production and maintenance of Weapons of Mass Destruction that we have found, to our cost, to have no defensive purpose what-so-ever.
That 'WAR' has already started for every victim of ideological war, fought largely to control the world's diminishing fossil resources, in the absence of appropriate Funds to address the underlying causes of international conflict.
That 'WAR' has already started for each of my nine grandchildren as they scrabble for diminishing Educational funding into alternative Research and Development that would create new ways of co-operative living, producing, consuming and ethically-sharing in a finite and fragile Planet.

We can see how infantile these 'games' are, when played out by a volatile North Korean who is systematically depriving his own people. But we are blinded by the myopic rhetoric and vested interests of our own policy-makers. The results are the same… and the 'enemy' can sit back and watch as we bleed from within.

When we first came here and occupied this piece of land for peace, we hoped the world would see sense and get rid of these dreadful weapons. We were wrong. They are still there – all 200 of them. People do not need these weapons of death. We are a family that stretches across the world, we have no need to kill. We're a' Jock Tampson's Bairns.... if we but knew it!”

Campsie Scottish Socialist Party organizer, Neil Scott said, “Hopefully next year’s anniversary of the peace camp will be a focus for the anti-war sentiment that should build around the anniversary of the first industrialized killing fields of the first Word War – and hopefully next years anniversary of the Peace Camp is it’s last as the nuclear weapons are disposed off after a Yes vote in the referendum next year.”