East Dunbartonshire against Fracking

Last nights packed anti-fracking meeting in Bishopbriggs

"The Scottish Socialist Party welcomes the setting up of "Frack Off" anti-fracking groups across East Dunbartonshire that will work together as part of the wider, national campaign. We are happy to have been invited by local activists to be part of the formation of the local Bearsden Milngavie Frack Off group as we believe this is an issue on which people from all parties, including our partners in the Yes campaign The Scottish Greens and the Scottish National Party, can work closely together on. 

East Dunbartonshire Green Organiser, Ross Greer; Anti-fracking campaigner, Ron Mackay and Strathkelvin SSP Organiser, Willie Telfer,

Although the Westminster Tory/Liberal Democrat Coalition claims to be the greenest government in history, like all of their pledges and claims, this has to be heard by a cynical ear as funding and governmental help has benefitted the energy companies wanting to turn a quick profit, rather than those wanting to develop energy solutions that have little or no negative environmental impact on East Dunbartonshire, Scotland and indeed, the world. 

Evidence coming to light in countries such as the USA and Australia is very worrying, and these Fracking Companies and their Westminster Parliament shareholders seem to care more for their pockets rather than the safety of ordinary people. 

The local and national SSP will endeavour to support the anti-fracking campaign and support clean energy alternatives. 

Neil Scott Organiser, East Dunbartonshire SSP"

Sillars and Fox in Kirkintilloch

Socialist case for Independence

#indyref

ST JOSEPH’S PRIMARY SCHOOL @KeepStJoes NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT

Please join our protest at Oakburn Park in Milngavie, 1130am on

Saturday April 26th


Parents and pupils at St Joseph’s Primary School, in Milngavie, are
involved in a fight and we need your help.

East Dunbartonshire Council is currently considering the results of a
formal consultation on proposals to close our school and send the
children to a new build in Bearsden. Instead of a local school, they
are offering a bus pass.

Unsurprisingly, the plan has provoked outrage across the community.
You can get a sense of how strongly people feel just by walking
through the town centre.

Colpi’s Ice Cream shop is displaying a huge banner with our pink hand
logo and campaign slogan ‘Keep St Joseph’s in Milngavie’.

St Joseph’s central location, just a few hundred yards from the town
centre, means that many of the children walk to school. On sunny days,
the playground quickly fills up with bikes and scooters.

This generates increased footfall for local businesses. Shopkeepers
say that the school run is the busiest time of their day.

Schools are also vital community assets. St Joseph’s is the site of
Milngavie’s only volunteer nursery and it is well used in the evenings
by local groups, from the Karate Club to the Tuesday Club, which
provides support to adults with learning difficulties. They could also
be forced to shut their doors if the school is closed.

Parents have responded in the best possible way – by getting organised.

One mother remarked in the playground that she had been on more
demonstrations in the past few months than in a lifetime of living in
Belfast.

In October, when the consultation concluded, Milngavie saw its biggest
protest in living memory. The police estimated that over 500 people
marched through the town centre.

A noisy crowd of parents, grandparents, friends and parishioners
banged bongo drums and blew whistles, while children sang at the top
of their voices, “Please don’t make us cry, keep St Joseph’s in
Milngavie.”

We believe this campaign has national implications because it has
highlighted a democratic deficit in Scottish education.

East Dunbartonshire Council will meet to take a final decision in the
next few weeks. They could still save the situation by bringing
forward new proposals, such as a shared campus with a
non-denominational school in Milngavie.

However, the fact that closure is still on the table shows that even
small local authorities can be remote, unresponsive and out of touch.

The primary objective of our campaign is to save our school. But we
also need to start a discussion about how parents and communities can
have a bigger say in education across Scotland.

So please, join us at our protest in Milngavie on Saturday 26th. Help
us to make our voice heard and add your own.

Find out more about our campaign at www.keepstjosephsinmilngavie.com
or follow us on Twitter @KeepStJoes

Save Our Schools!

Keep St. Joseph's in Milngavie...

Opinion: ANGUS CLARK

COUNCIL NEEDS TO MAKE A STAND AGAINST AUSTERITY

All over Scotland this April Councils are beginning the process of closing more libraries, cutting back on social care, closing schools, increasing class sizes, locking the doors on leisure facilities, and making more staff redundant. The worst of these austerity driven cuts are still to come. So far only 40% have been carried out but the rate of implementation will now increase sharply. Since 2008 most of the cuts have been on organisational structures and voluntary jobs losses, but soon it will become impossible to avoid the complete withdrawal of important services to many people, including the vulnerable elderly and disadvantaged.

One example of how this austerity has squeezed Councils is in our own East Dunbartonshire. The ruling Coalition is about to implement £ 54.1 million in service cuts for 2014/15. The reductions will become more difficult to achieve with £20 million being required over the next 3 years. The measures for the coming year will include increased class sizes from 18 to 25 pupils, a decrease in classroom assistants and an increase in school meals charges. The Council’s policy is simply to ‘try to make the best of it’ and hold off the worst cuts for as long as possible, but accepting that damage will be done to the community.

So what are Councils such as East Dunbartonshire to do, and do they have any alternative options? They are in a sense exposed for what they are; carrying out the Con Dem Governments ‘dirty work’. Councils would respond that they are the unwilling participants in the Con Dem Governments implementation of its neo liberal agenda and roll back of the State. However there is simply no convincing argument for austerity as there are hundreds of billions of pounds available for illegal wars in the Middle East and North Africa, for being part of an immoral nuclear arms race and for bailing out a corrupt and degenerated financial system. We are fundamentally a rich country but an exceptionally unequal and divided one!

 The opposing argument is that if Councils don’t implement the cuts or set a ‘no cuts budget’ then this will be illegal and the Government will impose unelected ‘Commissioners’. In other words they should give way to blackmail. The flaw in this argument is, firstly, that it will be the Councils which will be blamed for the cuts and not the Government, with the likelihood that the electors will vote them out at the next election. Secondly, there are alternatives which although having no guarantee of success, are politically achievable given a coherent strategy and strong political leadership.

 All ‘anti Austerity’ Councils need to unite together, regionally or nationally, with a view to preparing a united strategy on how they are going to oppose the austerity measures with the backing of local government trade unions, community organisations, and other like-minded ‘progressive ‘ groups. It should take the form of a mass Campaign along the lines of the successful ‘anti poll tax’ but even bigger and it needs to involve the whole community. Also, make no mistake, even if there is a ‘Yes Vote’ for Independence in 6 months’ time, the austerity drive will continue apace due to the global nature of the economic forces driving this economic crisis.

A possible mechanism to put pressure on Councils would be the recently formed ‘The Peoples Assembly’, a political grouping which recently had its Glasgow launch. The aim would be to reach a situation where the community would have confidence to back their Councils in defiance of the cuts agenda and against the Government.  

  Confidence should be high from the success of the ‘bedroom tax campaign’ however even more determination is needed to increase the pressure on Councils. The strength of expression of the community will dictate whether Councils take notice and whether the Government would be unwise enough to attempt to take action against them. This is how social progress works, by challenging the system. Councillors need to play their part; after all they didn’t become involved in local government in order to decimate public services, or did they?

Open Letter to local Labour Party activists

from Willie Telfer, SSP Campsie Strathkelvin Organiser

Many groupings look to their elders for sage advice on the future. This should be the case in relation to local labour activists approaching the independence referendum next year.

Willie Telfer (left) "Labour Party activists would do well to listen to Canavan and Charlie Gray - stalwarts of long standing commitment to true 'Labour' values."

Look at the position of the once giants of the local Labour party, Dennis Canavan and Charlie Gray. Names from the local past when a labour party branch was an integral part of the life of every town and village in Strathkelvin, where the pursuit through representation of social justice provoked large numbers of ordinary folk to become active to ensure their election to Westminster and to the Strathclyde region.

With their experience and their long standing commitment to true Labour values surely the modern day Labour activist would be well advised to listen to them on independence. Denis is of course a national co-chair for a Yes vote and is proving a powerful advocate who is respected by all in Scottish politics, he links independence  with the opportunity to build a progressive society which could show the way for other progressive forces in UK . Gray would agree with that opportunity,though his recent declaration for independence is perhaps more targeted at the heart and soul of Scottish Labour and those activists that still carry the torch for socialism in an organization embarrassed by the very word.

The fact is that the Labour party in an independent Scotland would and should go back to being the mass party of the people,of the working class. It would be free of the shackles of chasing the minds of middle England, placating the Sun, the Mail and the Express, Old Scottish labour values for Scottish people, I believe they would see a regeneration of activism as they rediscover the cause.

The recent white paper on independence shows at present that amongst the larger parties the SNP have at least a decent idea of politics for a cause and in coalition with the SSP, the Greens and other forces on the left, the message of a fairer more just Scotland will gain the day.

I say the only place for a true socialist to be,no matter which party banner they fly, is in the yes camp. Don't take my word for it comrades, Canavan and Gray are calling you again to build a better country and to save the soul of the Scottish Labour party itself.

Campsie SSP back on Twitter!

We have re-opened our SSP Campsie twitter account. Follow @sspcampsie HERE

Follow @the_ssp_ main account HERE

Swinson's swan song...

It comes as no surprise that Jo Swinson is going to lose her East Dunbartonsire constituency seat.

According to her, she has worked hard as a constituency MP. And, yes, she does whizz from photo op to photo op around East Dunbartonshire. She also claims local campaign after campaign "hers" and if won, "her victory," from the locally hard fought campaign for a youth cafe in Milngavie BEFORE she was an MP to the recent climb down by Tescos over a new superstore in the village. 

Even local Liberal Democrats are saying she is over stepping her own ego. 

After she sent out leaflets  congratulating herself over the Youth Cafe, a local youth worker I know who had worked on the project with local people for years, vowed never to vote Lib Dem again.

At the recent "victory rally" of the local anti Tescos group, she managed to alienate more local people- including a number of lifelong members of her own local party committee who left the celebrations in disgust- and obvious distress- after her now typical "praise me" speech to a disbelieving audience.

Add to this the various clubs hitherto having had no interest from her into which she parachutes for a photo, and hops in the car to meet the next deadline of a local paper's photographer and you have a huge population of people in East Dunbartonshire who know what her "hard work" adds up to- publicity and self congratulation.

Swinson is a "big hitter" in the cabinet not because she is a big ideas person, or even someone who has built anything of notable value in her constituency, but as someone who has entered the right wing world of Nick Clegg without question for careerist opportunity.  The people of her constituency did not vote for any of the Tory policies she has supported,like University fees, a privatised NHS and Royal Mail (in fact her election materials made big of the "fact" she would protect RM- we knew better when she publically condemned posties striking to save their jobs and conditions of work a few years ago), the dreadful welfare bill that impoverishes the vulnerable further (including the vicious bedroom tax) and her recent support for war and nuclear weapons. 

As well as "banking" lots of political dissatisfaction through her obvious self publicity, she has lost the support of the mainstay centre left East Dunbartonshire voter.

She is "a big hitter" in the dreadful double talk of the LibDem- "Everyone knows the Conservatives can't win in East Dunbartonshire," she says. Well yes, we do know that. ED has never come near to voting Tory- but she knows she has lost the Labour voters who had turned to her as a protest against their support for Iraq and Afghanistan invasions and dissatisfaction with what had happened to the economy post 2008 - so its time for her to court the nasty right wing tory anti-working class /anti-public sector worker/anti NHS poor baiting Westminster Etonian old boy network supporters and cap doffers.

Thank the stars East Dunbartonshire has few of those.

Regarding her support for war in Syria, we have sent her this FOI Request.

"In her blogpiece on the liberal democrat website, titled Syria Debate, Posted on August 30, 2013 Jo Swinson states "Parliament was recalled todebate and vote on the UK’s response to the use of chemical weapons in Syria, a serious and sombre issue that I know from my email inbox many of my constituents have been taking a keen interest in.  Here I set outhow I approached the issue and why I decided to support the motion." 

I would like the Minister and her office to send to me the total number of emails from constituents she had recieved prior to the debate on 29 August in Westminster on the topic of the Syria conflict. 

I would like this figure broken down into the total number of constituents emails that expressed the view that they were againstmilitary action in Syria / or asked her to vote against motion and the total number of constituent emails that expressed the view that theywere for military action in Syria/or asked her to vote for the motion."

Swinson's Rung

Article on the Government's Syrian war defeat and its implications for Jo Swinson by SSP Campsie member Neil Scott.

The Libdems who voted for war seem to have changed their minds about capital punishment-or does it not count if the criminals are arabs?

'Kill the bad arabs, but reduced jail sentences for those who have family who might vote for us.'

Another principle floated down the Swannee for another rung up the sleazy, greasy pole for some of the right wing cabal who planned and instigated the coup against the "left" social democrats who had boosted their party through the 90's and 2000's and turned it into a viable force.

Read more of the article here...

SSP campaigning in Kirkintilloch against #bedroomtax today...

"Are you'se handing out fivers?"-the observation of a passer by to the amazing, sometimes six deep at the table, response to our #‎bedroomtax stall in Kirkintilloch today.

We filled 8 petition sheets and had to use a couple of blank sheets hastily hand made into petitions by a comrade!

Kirkintilloch is definately against this dreadful robbery of the most vulnerable of our society.

Tories/Labour and Libdems in the council please note...

SSP Campsie plea to Minister

SSP Campsie members Neil Scott and Angus Clark delivering a letter on behalf of local Socialists urging  Jo Swinson MP and Tory/Liberal Democrat coalition Minister to vote against murderous military intervention that is being promoted by Tory Prime Minister David Cameron. The letter can be read here

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.”

Acting Strange's blog - http://actingstrangetheatreco.blogspot.co.uk

Local man, 90 year old RonaldMackay’s testament at the camp on youtube

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...

Yes Torrance!

Below are some photos of last nights well attended Yes Torrance meeting where SSP Campsie members Dr Sonya Scott and Bill Newman were speakers alongside Neil Scott and SNP MSP Fiona Mcleod. The meeting and Yes conversation with the villagers, ended with a stirring and emotional contribution from 90 year old Ron Mackay, who spoke about his 50 year struggle against Nuclear Weapons, and his wish to see an Independent Scotland banishing these indiscrimminate, unsafe, evil weapons from our shores.
27 new Scottish citizens signed the declaration; some of them asking to become part of the ever growing East Dunbartonshire Yes Scotland campaign team!

Neil wrote an article for the Huffington Post following the meeting. ARTICLE HERE

Milton of Campsie Yes Scotland public meeting...

Yes Scotland held a public meeting today in Milton of Campsie Village Hall. The conversation with local people was kicked off by speakers Fiona Mcleod SNP MSP; Dr Sonya Scott (SSP -speaking on the Westminster Liberal Democrat/Tory Welfare cuts and economic attacks on the working, the working poor, those without work and our vulnerable poor and disabled) and Gordon MacIntyre (economist).

The meeting was lively and positive and all of those who attended, after expressing concerns and asking questions, signed the Yes declaration.

The next meetings are in Milngavie Fraser Centre next Saturday between 2 and 4 pm and in Twechar on Sunday between 12 noon and 2pm. There will also be a Yes Scotland Public meeting in Bearsden Public Hall on Wednesday 20th March from 8pm - 10pm.

See you all there!

The democratic deficit. Remember, our MP was one of those who voted "yes."

East Dunbartonshire Thatcherite

Please use these as you see fit.

From Coalition of Resistance:

Vote tomorrow

Reject coalition austerity policies (for East Dunbartonshire Socialist Candidates, see post below)

Bullingdon Boys: They are all in it together 

People will go to the polls across Britain today. It is vital that these elections show the strongest possible rejection of the coalition government's brutal and unfair austerity policies.

The savage cuts that are being inflicted on us are neither necessary nor effective to meet the economic crisis facing Britain, Europe and much of the world.

They are cuts inflicted in the interests of the ruling class - the tiny minority whose interests are represented by the government. Their policies mean the rich get richer and the rest of us get poorer: jobs are lost, people lose their homes and livelihoods.

Use your vote today to show your rejection of these criminal policies - and the racist and far-right attitudes that they breed - whether in local or mayoral elections. Let's have the biggest swing possible against candidates representing government policies.

Elect a socialist in East Dunbartonshire...

place a number 1 beside the socialist candidate!

(click on leaflet for larger version)

Kirkintilloch East and Twechar  Willie Telfer:

The “mainstream” political parties are draining Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire, Scotland and the UK in general of taxes that should be going towards helping people.  In England, the Tories and Liberal Democrats have overseen the selloff of the NHS to the likes of SERCO, a company who are involved in military and nuclear weapons contracts, detention centres and prisons. This hardly fits with the Doctor mantra, "Do no harm..."  Our local council – ran by an unholy alliance of Tories and New Labour, (and still suffering from the neglect of the previous Liberal Democrat led administration) have overseen the paying off of vital council staff from classroom assistants through to librarians, yet pour millions of our Council Tax into paying interest to corporations who are profiteering from schools and hospital builds.  The council is the first line of defence from the profiteers who are trying to turn our services into “for profit organisations,” rather than “care, education and fairness.”  An SSP councillor will fight to ensure your taxes are spent on vital services rather than servicing profits.

Scottish Socialist Party councillors will always put first the interests of local people and; communities; Scottish Socialist Party councillors will demand and will present balanced ‘No Cuts’ budgets and unlike other parties, SSP councillors are prepared to do whatever it takes to deliver a better deal for local people through protected and enhanced services and public sector jobs.

Bishopbriggs South   Mark Callaghan:

I am 46, involved in both the Healthy Living Program and my local Town Hall

As a socialist, I believe in a system that help people not one that is about a minority of people making extortionate profits by keeping people poor.  If elected, I will always put first the interests of local people and communities and will present a balanced ‘No Cuts’ budget – budgets for the people, not the bankers.

Unlike other parties, all SSP councillors are prepared to campaign to deliver a better deal for local people through protected and enhanced services and public sector jobs.

SSP Councillors will stand beside communities being attacked and will defend them in a practical way both inside the council Chamber and outside.

Neil Scott, Bearsden North.

A local teacher, Neil Scott, is standing in the May elections against what he sees as the mismanagement of Council money and unnecessary cuts.  He said in a statement, “East Dunbartonshire has, in recent years, had the misfortune of having had a Liberal Democrat Council followed by a coalition of Labour and Tories.  The mishandling of the council by these three versions of the same thing has seen an attempt to close schools in the past two years; terrible deals with corporations that have meant millions of pounds of our Council Tax money being given over to massive PPP/PFI “Guaranteed returns on investment” for minimum outlay; a decimation of our local services from Libraries through to schools, and more.  If any of these parties gain the council in May, there will be more of the same, and in fact the deferred closure of East Dunbartonshire Schools will go ahead.

As a father and a teacher I have a different vision for East Dunbartonshire services.  Our area is a well off council area, one in which money could be invested in our services rather than further job-losses and cuts.  I see a clear need to renegotiate PPP/PFI deals.  Some of these venture capitalists are making millions of pounds of our tax money with investments of a few hundred pounds.  I see East Dunbartonshire being a place of opportunity for all; a place where our money is invested in real jobs and services which will help stimulate the Scottish economy.  The real drivers of any economy are people.  The profits creamed off by corporations from our Council tax should be reclaimed and invested in real jobs and in our people.”

When is an e-consultation not an e-consultation?

...when Jo Swinson holds one on Independence!

From News Net Scotland - HERE