Ron Mackay speaks at Faslane Peace Camp

On 28th June 2013, in his 90th year, Ron Mackay joined activists from the Scottish Socialist Party, Acting Strange Theatre Company and other peace organisations at Faslane Peace Camp to celebrate the camp's 31st birthday. The day was marked with music, comedy and testament. The most interesting testament came from the Elders - Ron Mackay and Maggi Sale.

Important Facebook pages...

Campsie Socialists on Facebook... HERE

Scottish Socialist Party on Facebook... HERE

Yes Bearsden...  HERE

Yes Milngavie... HERE

Yes Westerton... HERE

Satirical Invitation!

Frank Boyle is a cartoonist who has drawn some hard hitting satirical comment for the Scottish Socialist Voice.  He has invited you to come along to Kirkintilloch to an exhibition of his work...

A response to welfare reform - a poem

by SSP Campsie member "Socialist Anon"

Scotland 2013

We were forged in the fire of hardship,

Within which we are melted into one another

From which we emerge stronger, flexible, able to withstand

It is no longer clear where you begin and I end

We are forever linked arm in arm - a never ending chain

“We are responsible for one another”

That is why if you should be harmed,

though you are far from me,

though I do not know your name

or even see your face

I will stand up for you.

I am prepared to stand in front of you

For we are forever connected and I shall forever feel your pain.

Fight the tories... this Saturday.

Yes to independence =no to Westminster's further impoverishment of the poor. Anti-bedroom tax rally in George Square this Saturday. Gather George Square at 11am.

A Mi Partido

by Pablo Neruda

You have given me brotherhood towards the man I do not know.
You have given me the added strength of all those living.
You have given my country back to me, as though new in birth.
You have given me the freedom that the lone man lacks.
You taught me to kindle kindness, like fire.
You gave me the straightness which a tree requires.
You taught me to see the unity and yet diversity of men.
You showed me how one person’s pain could die in the victory of all.You taught me to sleep in the hard bed of my brethren.
You made me build upon reality, as on a rock.
You made me an enemy to the evil-doer, a rampart for the frenzied.
You have made me see the world’s clarity and the possibility of joy.
You have made me indestructible, for I no longer end in myself.

The Fight for a Better Left

Essential piece of reading for the left in Scotland -

"The SSP & The Fight for a Better Left in Scotland" by Colin Fox Here

talk to Colin on Twitter... @colinfoxssp

Yes to Independence! Yes to a nuclear free Scotland!

Visit Faslane  Peace Camp

The Trident nuclear weapons system is based at Faslane on the Clyde.

This June sees the 31st anniversary of the Faslane Peace Camp.

The SSP locally are organising a solidarity trip to the Peace Camp on 28 June. Get in touch via our website or email address(eastdunbartonshiressp@hotmail.co.uk) if you would like to come along—all welcome!
Entertainment from Acting Strange Theatre company, Rosie Kane, Citizen Smart and others!
Marie Collins will play at the camp again this year - this was her performance last year...

Trident is the UK nuclear weapons system

There are 4 nuclear submarines

Each sub has 8 missiles

Each missile can have 5 nuclear warheads (bombs)

Each bomb is 8 times as destructive as the Hiroshima bomb

In 1945, at Hiroshima, more than 140,000 civilians were killed

Nuclear weapons are immoral

Over the next 30 years, the UK Government wants to spend around £100 billion on a new Trident system

An independent Scotland would be nuclear free!

The setting up of a Scottish Parliament was a small step forward. But the big decisions that affect Scotland are still taken elsewhere.

Our elected parliament is powerless to stop young Scottish soldiers dying in the killing fields of Afghanistan.

It cannot tackle pensioner poverty or increase the pitifully low minimum wage. It has no control over the monstrous nuclear weapons of mass destruction stationed on the Clyde.

Our aim is to transform Scotland into an outward-looking, 21st century socialist democracy that puts people before profit.

Scotland is a wealthy country with a skilled, educated workforce and natural resources in abundance. 

Yet we live in a country that is scarred by poverty, low pay, decaying public services, sub-standard housing, ill health, crime, alcohol and hard drug abuse.

That’s because we have no real control over our own resources. Our land is owned by aristocratic lairds and absentee landlords.

Our oil, gas, electricity and transport are owned by business tycoons. Our financial institutions are controlled by millionaire bankers.

The SSP wants to build a new, socialist Scotland - a Scotland based on the principles of equality, peace, freedom, direct democracy, diversity, social ownership and wealth redistribution.

What are you doing on 21st September?

#indyref #yesscot

TV and Bulls...

by Kevin Hattie (@blaugranabhoy)

I recently watched a program on the National Geographic channel called; ‘The 80′s: The Decade That Made Us’.

I wasn’t born until the early 90′s and I missed out on the decade, so watching this program was basically a history lesson for me.

I learned of how the walkman became a craze sweeping America and how the game Tetris was an obsession much like the Fifa’s and Call of Duties of today. Despite all the technological advancements and trends sweeping the developed world, I couldn’t help but notice the political changes that occurred during the decade and how they allegedly came about.

I despite being a supporter of the left politcally have never been a fan of the Soviet Union or any of its leaders. I don’t have a huge knowledge of the era itself but I rarely hear positive things about it, however I struggled to really take in what the program percieved to be the driving force in making people desire a new way of life. American TV.

The program told of how people in Romania and Bulgaria would watch American TV shows and then question why they never had fast sports cars or other material goods shown on the TV. This would make them question there governments and look for a way out to live their own American dream.

I understand why people wanted out of the Soviet Union but they would be sadly dissapointed thinking America was going to give them what they seen on the TV. The ‘American Dream’ is probably one of the biggest lies ever told, it is utter nonsense and any one who believes it has fallen for the trap. America is one of the most unequal societies around, the wealth is very narrowly concentrated and the Rich are in control. Ronald Reagan who was the man the Nat Geo program heralded as a hero, was infact a mere puppet to the corporations and the banks. Reagan was a script man, something that came naturally to him as a former actor. During his time as President, Latin America suffered at the hands of brutal despots his government supported and armed. He backed the terror campaign against the Sandinista government of Nicaragua and furthermore he played a huge role in criminalising the black community within the United States itself.

Ronald Reagan backed genocide in Guatemala among other places in the world and just recently, when General Rios Montt of the Guatemalan Army of the 80′s has been charged with crimes against humanity, Reagans comments stating that General Montt was a man of great integrity and a believer in social justice, come back to reveal what kind of people Reagan thought good.

Capitalism in the 80′s grew as did violence across Central America and poverty in the United States. People around the world were shown how Capitalism was great through the TV shows that portrayed America as a sunny all action society where beautiful women and fast cars made up the normal street scene. What the TV didn’t show them was the Ghetto’s and the drug problems. It failed to talk about the unemployment and the plight of the vulnerable section of society. Take the television cameras a few blocks away from Hollywood and you have a different image of Los Angeles, that would put one off ever visiting. High crime rates and a drug war that ravaged poor communities across the country. Prisons overflowing with people, mainly black, due to the so called ‘War on Drugs’.

Capitalisms strongest weapon was the television. Through the TV it could pull the wool over the eyes of the public and it covered up the cracks which appeared on its image from day one. Inequality and poverty had no place among the David Hasslehoffs and there was no such thing as greed. The US military had apparently lost the faith of the public in America so the answer to this problem was bring out a film in which Sylvester Stallone would bring down flying tanks with a bow and arrow and a personal vendetta. The sensationalism of such films got people believing again, USA, USA, USA!! chanted in the cinemas, the country was unstoppable.

With the Rambo films fuelling the bloodthirst America was ready for the war on terror, the war on drugs and the war on communism. One war which it has never been ready for funnily enough, despite having the weapons at its disposal, was the war on poverty.

Throughout Latin America, it could easily be argued that America was supporting governments which inflicted poverty more than trying to stop it. The Sandinista government for example made great strides to creating a more equal society, but the Reagan Administration would openly support the terrorist contra campaign to try and de-stabilise the Nicaraguan government. This was nothing new in the region, yet no mention of it in the 80′s program.

When the program finished without having mentioned any of the crimes which came from Capitalist governments, I felt like the propaganda of the 80′s was still present on todays television.

I am fortunate enough to have read about US involvement in Latin America, but had I not, I would have believed they were the hereos of the decade. I would have held the belief that the war criminal and terrorist Ronald Reagan was a political saint. So with the 80′s bringing us undoubted blessings in the form of new techonology etc, it seems it also brought with it a culture of lies. Capitalism was undoubtedly strengthened throughout the decade but that is no reason to celebrate. For me, a 90′s baby who watched a brief history of the decade on the TV, I have to say the 80′s was most certainly the decade that made us, but what it made us was not necessarily a good thing.