Opinion: Kevin Hattie

 "School Days - the best days of your life." Really..?

To speak of our education system today, is to speak of a multiverse where the experience of attending school can vastly differ from person to person, even among those who attended the same one. This isn’t totally surprising as people experience many of the same things in different ways. Take for example a work of art, one person may fail to see past the denotation of such a thing but for someone else a world of endless possibilities may be opened up. Unfortunately I don’t buy the idea that the differing experiences of people in education is in anyway related to perception and someone’s own unique way of looking at the world. After some deep thought about my own experiences of school, and discussion with a couple of people who had similar experiences, I have come to wonder if there is a common feature among those who find the experience pleasant and those who perhaps dreaded a weekday for thirteen odd years.

‘School is the best time of your life’. This is a phrase that justifies other phrases such as ‘if I had a penny for every time….’ Due to the sheer number of times a child will probably hear this phrase uttered by a parent or older person trying to encourage them to enjoy the experience. I have no doubt the feeling is genuine among the older generation who remember their school days fondly, perhaps not because they truly enjoyed it at the time, but because they didn’t have the weight of responsibility that adult life has brought them, and also the fact that the whole world lay ahead of them. I for one never accepted this opinion, and have come to place it alongside other myths such as; if you are bad Santa Claus won’t come to you and the Tories favourite: ‘We’re in this together’. It is suffice to say that I consider school to be something rather different from those who romanticise it. 

For me the classroom was not so much a place of learning, but a place of suppression. Maybe I have the wrong idea of what education should be like but I like to think that the school should fit around the pupils and not the other way about. I believe that to give the impression that authoritative figures deserve ‘natural respect’ as opposed to earning it, is a convenient way to teach young people that our politicians deserve the same free ticket to gaining obedience. Maybe again I have the wrong idea but should information given by these authority figures be accepted without questioning out in wider society? No, so why should pupils be expected to accept what a teacher says without questioning them? To challenge a teacher on something was to cross the line in my school. We got the whole ‘I have a degree in this subject’ lecture as if that was enough to squash any possibility of the person being wrong.

Critical thinking and questioning things is for me the most important part of learning. We as people have to be able to make our own minds up about things and to always be true to our values as individuals and as a collective humanity. We can’t allow for the media to have us so indoctrinated with a particular way of thinking that for them it is almost effortless to influence public opinion and to get people to go along with a particular agenda. If you stand back and look at what capitalism has created in this world, you soon realise it is something so unnatural that it has to stop or else we will cease to be. Boris Johnson and David Cameron might celebrate the culture of greed and wish for it to be weaved into the school curriculum somewhere, but if you truly believe that possessions are the defining aspect of a human being then you clearly have sold your soul for short term vices.

‘Work hard and you’ll get a well-paid job’.  Another myth perhaps, given that this so called meritocracy that we live in see’s investment bankers on seven figure salaries while someone genuinely useful, like a nurse or an engineer will be worrying about the rising prices of fuel and food. But put this aside and look at another reason why this phrase should be discouraged. ‘Well paid’, why is this the most important aspect of a career? The government have been quick to encourage people to leave behind the more creative subjects and to look at something which contributes more directly to the economy. Well firstly the creative industries bring a lot of money into to this country, and secondly people should be encouraged to find fulfilment on a spiritual level before they have to worry about ‘keeping up with the Jones’s’.  

School and universities should be places where society develops its thought and its collective consciousness. Not somewhere to go so you become more ‘employable’.  Why should working class people be told to make themselves more useful to the policy makers of society? Education seems to be just that, a place where the workers go to be taught how to be workers. A lack of decision making in the classroom leads to a lack of decision making in the workplace. I would encourage people to study what interests them and to question what they learn. I would encourage people to believe in the power they have in their hands to bring about change in society. It seems however the education system would encourage people to passively accept certain norms and values and to learn through repetition and retention of meaningless information which has not been questioned. It is a sad fact today that the education system of our country encourages a heteronomous society and promotes homogeneity over diversity of the individual, the reasons for this may lie somewhere in the fact that those who have their hands on the levers of power require things to remain as they are and for true human nature and freedom to be oppressed as this is the only way to maintain this pathological ideology of capitalism. If you step outside the rules created to maintain the status quo you will be marginalised and the ‘best time of your life’ may not quite live up to its billing. This is why some of us hated school, not because we are lazy, stupid, hard to motivate or mentally ill, but because we refuse to get in line and conform to the values that would see us willingly participate in a criminal ideology. 

Campsie SSP Branch AGM

Saturday 26th October 

Special guest speaker TBA.

For details please email eastdunbartonshiressp@hotmail.co.uk

This is our review/planning meeting for year ahead.  

If you are interested in helping/joining/becoming more involved - please come.  This meeting will also help us plan our engagement in the YES campaign locally as well as our own SSP independence campaigning.  

The SSP, like any union and organisation of the working class, only works with your involvement - we are not an organisation like the Labour Party/ Tories/ Lib Dems with huge resources at our disposal.  We can't afford to as these parties do, pay for huge media campaigns; PR firms or leafleting/canvassing teams.  The SSP is Your party - and needs you to commit to something - no matter how small - to ensure our message of fairness and socialism is heard.

At the meeting we will also be looking at how we engage in local issues as well as wider campaigns such as the bedroom tax etc. 

The SSP are one of the three parties who set up Yes Scotland - we are key to the campaign.  

To read our arguments for an independent Socialist Scotland - please buy our new pamphlet which clearly sets out our case. HERE 

And let the world know about us by buying a badge/ poster! - HERE

Yes Scotland: a 16 year old writes...

Saying Yes to Scottish Independence: An opportunity for social justice.

16 year old Michael Scott, who will vote in next year's Independence referendum, writes about why he will vote YES.

Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation - Alasdair Gray[1]

Do you want the chance to create a better Scotland? In the 2014 referendum on independence you’ll get that opportunity. Given the choice, I for one will be saying yes. Too many important matters are still controlled, and I would argue controlled badly, by Westminster. The democratic deficit and the ever-growing chasm between the values of the MPs in London and the people of Scotland are now impossible to ignore. Independence offers the possibility of a different political road; the case for change is strong.

First and foremost there is a lack of democracy for Scottish voters within the current political union. Over the last 30 years we have been governed, more often than not, by a political party which the majority of people didn’t vote for. In the most recent general election, only 11% of those eligible to vote in Scotland voted for the Conservative Party and only 23% voted for the Conservatives and Liberals combined[2]. The House of Commons’ report, on the 2010 general election results, notes the “complete detachment”2(p14) of Scotland from political trends in England and Wales. This political detachment is both determined by and reflected in the different socioeconomic values displayed by Westminster and Holyrood.

A number of important matters of government are already devolved including education and health and where we have had the power to make our own decisions we have chosen radically different policies. A good example of this is the difference between the management of the NHS in Scotland compared with what is happening to the NHS in England following the introduction of the new Health and Social Care Act. While the former Scottish Secretary of State for Health has categorically stated her opposition to private sector involvement in healthcare[3], the new English health act has sown the seeds of privatisation within the NHS in England[4]. Similarly in education there is a distinct difference in attitudes towards undergraduate tuition fees between the two governments. On the one hand, First Minister Alex Salmond has been unequivocal in his opposition to fees stating “The rocks will melt with the sun before I allow tuition fees to be imposed on Scottish students”[5] while on the other hand the Coalition government has allowed universities in the rest of the UK to charge fees of up to £9000 a year.[6]

Unfortunately however, under devolution a number of significant matters are still controlled by Westminster including the economy, welfare, and defence. Although Scotland has a traditional commitment to centre left political parties2, lack of control over these important areas means that substantial parts of our society can be determined by policies that the majority of the population are unlikely to agree with. For example, it is hard to imagine the combination of swingeing cuts to the welfare budget affecting the most vulnerable in our society[7] and reduction of the top rate of tax for high earners[8] being popular with the majority of Scottish voters. Similarly it has been estimated that 73% of Scots are opposed to government plans to renew Trident. And yet, these decisions and other important matters are imposed on us by a government which less than a quarter of the eligible Scottish electorate has voted for.


Finally, I would like to allay some of the main fears surrounding independence. The three main arguments against Scottish Independence seem to consist of us being too small, too stupid and too poor to stand on our own two feet.[9] Let me tackle each of these in turn. First, as to being too small, we don’t have to look too far afield to see many small countries prospering. A prime example of this would be Norway, which, like Scotland, has a population of about 5 million and off shore oil. However, unlike Scotland, Norway has complete control of the revenue of its oil resource and as a result has been able to use the accumulated surplus (approx £368bn) as a pension fund.[10] Another example of a small economy thriving is that of Iceland, which, with a population of just over 300,000, is bucking the European trend in terms of economic recovery from the financial crisis.[11]

 Secondly with respect to being too inexperienced to run our own affairs I’d argue that we already run many important national matters from Holyrood successfully including health, education and justice.

 Thirdly, as to us being too poor, a recent New Statesman article stated “not only does Scotland more than pay its way in the Union, but its overall fiscal position would actually be stronger as a fully sovereign nation”[12] The author of this article goes on to point out that although Scots represent just 8.4% of the UK’s total population they contribute 9.4% to its tax revenues which is equivalent to an extra £1000 for every person in Scotland relative to the contribution of others in the UK.

 An argument against Scottish Independence with which I do have sympathy is that it will ultimately decrease the chance of achieving a more socially democratic society on a UK wide basis. In the short-term I appreciate that the loss of Scottish voters may result in an increased proportion of right wing political representatives in the UK parliament. However, in the longer term I hope that having a neighbouring, flourishing, social democratic society may more powerfully change political attitudes across the rest of the UK than we have been able to do in recent years.

In conclusion, I would argue that fear of change is the only thing holding us back. Some change however, is good; and if we work as if we are in the early days of a better nation then this change will be for the good and the opportunity to create a more socially just society will be realised.




REFERENCES

[1] Gray A. Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation. Herald Scotland. May 5 2007. http://www.heraldscotland.com/work-as-if-you-live-in-the-early-days-of-a-better-nation-1.827519 (accessed 15 September 2012).


[2] Electoral Reform Society. The UK General Election 2010: In depth. House of Commons. 2010.


[3] Torrance D. Scottish Health Secretary: England will end NHS as we know it. The Guardian. March 22 2012 http://www.guardian.co.uk/healthcare-network/2011/mar/22/scottish-health-secretary-england-ending-nhs (accessed 15 September 2012)


[4] Campbell D. BMA's new leader: 'There's no evidence that a part-privatised NHS runs better'. The Guardian. August 31 2012. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/aug/31/bma-leader-nhs-privatisation (accessed 15 September 2012)


[5] BBC News. SNP Conference: Salmond in free education pledge. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-12711509 (accessed 15 September 2012)


[6] BBC News. Students face tuition fees rising to £9000. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11677862 (accessed 15 September 2012)


[7] UN urged to monitor welfare cuts. The HeraldScotland. September 21 2012. http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/un-urged-to-monitor-welfare-cuts.18934095 (accessed 21 September 2012)


[8] Stewart H. Budget 2012: 50p tax rate scrapped and allowance raised. The Guardian. March 21 2012 http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/mar/21/budget-2012-50p-tax-rate-scrapped-allowances (accessed 15 September 2012)


[9]Scottish Independence: It’ll Cost You. The Economist. http://www.economist.com/node/21552564 (accessed 21 September 2012)


[10]Wikipedia. The Government Pension Fund of Norway. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Government_Pension_Fund_of_Norway (accessed 21 September 2012)


[11] Lyall S. A Bruised Iceland Heals Amid Europe’s Malaise. New York Times. July 12 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/08/world/europe/icelands-economy-is-mending-amid-europes-malaise.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 (accessed 21 September 2012).


[12] Maxwell J. Enough of The Scottish subsidy myth. The New Statesman. November 06 2011. http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2011/11/scotland-12288-union-public (accessed 21 September 2012).

Coalition in crisis: kick them out!

By Richie Venton, SSP national workplace organiser

photo:  John Lanigan

 
As the council election caravan moves on, working class people continue to face appalling cuts to their living standards; they are left with no option but to 'struggle or starve'.

The chief architects of the cuts to pensions, wages, benefits and community facilities were hammered in the council elections. The Tories lost over 400 councillors, in a tidal wave of revulsion at their cuts and their sleaze.
Their junior partners in crime fared even worse at the hands of a furious population, many of whom feel cheated and betrayed by the LibDems. The carnage included the loss of 80 out of 151 LibDem councillors in Scotland.

Despite the SSP vote suffering from the crushing squeeze between the two tribes of Labour and SNP going to war, enhanced by the brutal, self-fulfilling media lie that this was a two-horse race, we beat the LibDem party of government in many of the seats we contested! Mind you, so did an Edinburgh 'penguin'!

No mandate to rule and ruin
The millionaires' Coalition has even less of a mandate for their eye-watering butchery to jobs, services and incomes than they had before May 3rd. That applies with special force in Scotland, where they have plummeted to the status of fringe parties, mostly isolated to a few rural pockets in the Borders and South Ayrshire in the case of the Tories. 

The Westminster butchers are in deep disarray, drowning in a sea of sleaze around the Murdoch scandal and the descent of the economy into a 'double-dip' recession for the first time since 1975 - and the longest economic depression in decades.

With that background, Cameron, Clegg & Co are all the more ruthless in their desire to make working class people pay for the crisis, whilst those who perpetrated some of the worst cuts are wallowing in wealth. 
But they are weak, vulnerable and divided, with right-wing Tories decrying the presence of the LibDems, and even a Tory MP publicly sneering at Cameron and Clegg as "two posh boys who don't know the price of milk" - an assessment that finds massive resonance amongst those at the receiving end of their upper-class callousness.

Slasher Hutton on £100,000 a day!
Millions of public sector workers have had their first taste of increased chunks of their wages being deducted as pension contributions last month - with a lot worse to come next year and the year after unless the government is defeated by united action.

Meantime, Labour Lord John Hutton - 'Slasher' Hutton to those suffering the assault on six million public sector workers' pensions that he was chief author of under the previous Labour government - has landed a £100,000 a day job as chair of the part-privatised civil service outfit, MyCSP.

68 is too late!
Opinion polls confirm massive opposition to the later retirement age being pushed through, which means every female worker under 36 faces an extra 8 years in work before she can get a state pension, and every male worker in that age-group an extra 3 years. 

Whilst over one third (36 per cent) of families currently rely on grandparents for child-minding, and councils jack up the cost of council nursery places as part of the cuts agenda, the government wants to force millions to work longer, denying them a healthy retirement and robbing them of time with their grandchildren. 

A child born today will have to work well into their late 70s if Coalition plans are not derailed by strikes, protests and civil disobedience.

Even Tory voters are rebelling against this abomination of a plan! A recent YouGov poll found 53 per cent of Tory voters against raising the retirement age, with 35 per cent of them criticising the fact it will lead to even fewer job opportunities for young people. 

Across the board, 62 per cent of people oppose making workers work longer for less on retirement - despite an incredible 38 per cent of those polled not even being aware of the planned delay in retirement!

This country is poised to have the latest state retirement age in Europe, as well as some of the lowest wages, longest working week and poorest holiday entitlements.

The moneyed class and their governments try to drag us out of recession by preaching the gospel "shop 'til you drop" - whilst slashing workers' spending power! 

Now they want us to literally "work 'til you drop" - to ensure the CEOs of big private businesses can continue to wallow in their current average pensions of £175,000 a year.

M10 strike rekindles the fires of resistance
The strike of up to half a million public sector workers on 10 May - including PCS, UNITE, UCU and RMT members in the civil service, health, MoD and education - should be the flame to re-ignite the fires of resistance that too many trade union leaders have tried to dampen since the magnificent strike of two million on 30 November. 

These unions plan further coordinated action in late June. PCS is also taking industrial action in specific departments and sectors, alongside a generalised overtime ban from now until late June. And they have raised the call for a united demo against the cuts this side of the summer.

Demand an immediate mass demo
One of the trade union 'leaders' who did most to stall the momentum after N30 is UNISON's Dave Prentis. Now, in an attempt to save face amongst members increasingly angry at being 'sold a pup' by Prentis, he has called for a mass trade union-led demo in the autumn. 

Why wait that long? Active members of every union should argue for a huge Saturday demo over the next couple of months, demanding that either the STUC call it in Scotland or a 'coalition of the willing trade unions' do so. 

Not instead of a broader, bigger strike in June, but in addition to it, as a means of reaching out to workers in local government, education and the private sector who are not part of the M10 strike. Not just on pensions, but on other cuts and attacks on rights, jobs and benefits.

Coalition can be beaten
The recent council elections saw hundreds of thousands voting either SNP or Labour as a means of punishing the Westminster cuts Coalition. They won votes primarily because they are not the Coalition! 

The electoral decimation of the chief architects of cuts should be the green light for the trade unions to unite with community groups and socialists in decisive, early action to drive the crisis-ridden Coalition back further. They can be beaten. They can be driven out of office.

The response on the streets to the SSP's central message 'no cuts, tax the rich' was infinitely larger than the votes cast for our uncompromising socialist case, partly because people were browbeaten with the media message of a 'two-horse race', partly because Labour and the SNP lied through their teeth with talk of creating jobs, and people often gave one of the 'big two' their first two votes, giving the SSP third or fourth preference. 

Pound new councils with demands to reverse the cuts
In several councils, the biggest party has changed from one to the other, so the trade union movement and community organisations should join with socialists in pounding these councillors with demands to reverse the cuts of their predecessors - or stand exposed as fakers gaining votes under false pretences, engaged in a cynical exercise of shuffling deckchairs on the Titanic. Now is the time to besiege them with such demands, fresh on the heels of them taking office.

Capitalism doesn't work
The battle against cuts, both at local council level and nationally on the pensions issue, is critical in the broader resistance to the systematic dismantling of workers' rights, benefits and frontline services gained by past generations through struggle. 

Plans to usher in regional pay; slash the right to challenge unfair dismissal from work; curtail the right to have functioning union shop stewards to stand up for members; and the core aim of rampant privatisation of what remains of public property - all these and more are the inevitable product of a capitalist system that is based on exploitation for profit, that simply doesn't work, that condemns a whole generation to permanent mass unemployment, and that seeks to slaughter working class conditions in defence of profit margins and privileges for the obscenely rich minority.

Capitalism means cuts, mass unemployment and mounting poverty from the cradle to the grave. 
Socialism - based on taxation of the rich, wealth redistribution and democratic public ownership - is the only means of escaping 'eternal austerity'. 

Those who strike back in May have an important part to play in building a future worthy of the name - a socialist future based on people, not profit.

SSP Election Leaflet - Bearsden North

Thee Faction - 366

Music to kick Condem ass to.

SSP Campsie Radio!

SSP Campsie Radio!

Click on the link to go to our test podcast! This is also available on itunes...

This is the first foray into podcasting by SSP Campsie. Please leave comments/suggestions below; by email eastdunbartonshiressp@hotmail.co.uk; by Twitter - @sspcampsie or by text - 07541392522

Be kind!

Our job as socialists...

Neil Scott, Campsie Branch, gives his view on the coming battles with the right:

The main parties will be vying for places in the Parliament and in councils to defend the neo-liberal capitalist machine in their varying ways. Markets have failed - and it should be the job of socialists to help people understand this. The current economic situation is capitalisms "Berlin Wall" - this is really and truly the end of capitalism. And it is not just the left that are saying this - this is being realised by academics across the world in medicine/ health/education/economics/ecologists etc.

We can allow the existing parties to drag this end of market economies, painfully out, to the detriment of the working class - or we can show people that there are alternatives - viable ones. An economic system is supposed to ensure goods etc are divided out... not a method of squeezing the blood from the poor to support our rich "betters" and "wealth makers" etc. - stuff we know - and stuff we need to get across to people in the simplest, most dynamic, active, interactive, positive, relevant ways.

One thing I have learned from this General Election campaign/ the crisis etc is that people DO want change - they do want an alternative, and our dynamic working class are searching through those. Fascism seems to be being looked at and dropped after people realise exactly what it is. The alternative of the Lib Dems is being seen to be what it always was - no alternative at all... and people are sick of swinging back and forth from the Tories who will quickly shaft us, to Labour who do it a little more slowly...

It is our job to show people we are the alternative to the mainstream parties who have let Scotland and in fact the world, down.

If the Tories get in through whatever mechanisms they make up in the coming hours/days, then there is a real possibility there will be more battles of Orgreave in the coming years. People need alternatives to blind rage - they need solutions - political ones... and we have them!

East Dunbartonshire Candidates

In East Dunbartonshire, we donot have an SSP candidate. Some of us have to make a choice between parties we would not normally vote for. The SSP do not have a “line” on who to ask you to vote, but would say that you should consider your vote very carefully. With this in mind, I asked all of the candidates the same question, “Why should Scottish Socialist Party members give their vote to you?”

Three parties responded. These responses are below.

One SSP Campsie member has written an article saying how he will vote. This can be found on his blog HERE.

2005 results HERE

Jo Swinson, Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats are fighting for fairness. Wealth inequality has risen under Labour. Lib Dems would raise the income tax threshold to £10,000, helping those on low and ordinary incomes with £700 a year. This would be paid for by a mansion tax on properties above £2million, taxing capital gains in the same way as income, and clamping down on tax avoidance. We would invest an additional £2.5billion in early years education, targeted at the poorest children. We will clean up our rotten political system, and introduce fair votes. We will break up the banks to separate the high-risk casino banking from tightly-regulated high-street banking, with a cap on bankers’ bonuses of £2500. Locally, I have been an approachable and active MP. If you think I have done a good job, and you like the Lib Dems’ message of fairness, please vote for me on Thursday.

Mary Galbraith, Labour
Thanks for giving me the chance to respond in this way to your members, some of whom I met in Kirkintilloch on Saturday.

Your web-site highlights three aspects of your credo: “Socialism”, “Independence” and “Internationalism”, displayed prominently on the home page. I believe that the Labour party is more – much more – interested these issues than any of the other parties standing in East Dunbartonshire. Let me give you a couple of examples for each:

Socialism
• We have an excellent record in taking families, particularly those with children, out of poverty.
• Our manifesto commitment is to protect assistance for families, such as Working Families Tax Credits, and help our elder citizens by re-establishing the link between earnings and pensions.
• Following the introduction of the mimimum wage some years ago - resisted by all the other parties standing in the seat - we seek to strenghten its operation, and increase its value.
• We plan to cut less, and tax more, than other parties.

Independence
• After many years and failed attempts to deliver devolution, the Labour Party put in place the Scottish Parliament.
• The next Labour Government would give the Scottish Parliament increased tax raising powers.

Internationalism
• The Labour Party has displayed leadership on the international stage in fighting climate change and world poverty
• We will spend 0.7% of national income on aid by 2014

I cannot speak for any of the other parties, but I do not think that any of them can come close to matching the Labour Party’s achievements and ambitions on your three priorities. I would therefore encourage members of the Scottish Socialist Party to vote for the Labour Party in this constituency, and in those other seats where the SSP does not have a candidate of its own.

Iain R White, SNP
The reasons why your members, and indeed anyone, should vote for the SNP, is that we are the only party to stand up for Scotland. If you read the literature of the other parties, none even mention Scotland as they are all written in London and the candidates name added locally.

The SNP (myself included) believe in supporting those less well off in society. We believe in supporting business, particularly small businesses, which generate the money to pay for these benefits. I believe that pensions are far too low and welcome the SNP commitment to indexing to earnings.

I will be happy to discuss any other issues in as much detail as you want (or I can manage), but hope that his will suffice for now.

It was the Son wot Lost it?

Is the Media Mickey Mouse Degree tide turning?

One thing has been made obvious by the welcome knock-back of the “sure winners” the Tories. The media has been exposed. The journalists who have vested interests in pleasing Murdoch daily with even more rancid headlines have been outed.

I know this is the case for one primary reason. In the way miners used to bring birds down the mines to let them know that gas was present, I talk politics to my parents. This can be painful for a Socialist – my parents are Daily Mail/ Sun reading pensioners who worked hard all of their lives. They come from a generation who grumbled about politicians and in fact had no illusions (they live in Northern Ireland) – but every year were fooled by the scare politics of the unionist hegemony in the province. This year, in Northern Ireland is a little different. Unionism is shattering and a beleaguered UUP is being bolstered by a desperate Tory Party.
But it isn’t Northern Ireland politics that my parents have noticed is rotten – they knew that many years ago. No – it is that their usual Daily Mail and Sun line has slightly changed. They still say unreasonable things straight from the pages- but last night, when I spoke to them on the phone, both said to me, more or less in the same words, “the papers told lies about Nick Clegg.”

Let me expose my partisanship – I am a socialist. I want a fair society. I just don’t want you to get the wrong impression… but…

Last night Ann Leslie appeared on BBC Question Time. This experienced old tory hack was also a miners bird (not literally – she did her very best back during the Thatcher years to destroy that industry and those peoples lives). Leslie started her usual less than subtle Tory diatribes with the sentence, “As someone who votes tory, but is not a member of the tory party – I don’t hold with journalists belonging to political parties…” - an unprecendented admission on a populous political programme. With most of her points there was a knowing audience titter and certainly on Twitter as her name, surprisingly trended, the twitter-atti were certainly not fooled by her.

Murdoch Mess

This morning on asking Gordon Brown a question about honesty, a Sun reporter was openly laughed at by the press and Gordon Brown, Harriet Harman and Mandelson joined in the laughter, Brown saying, “That’s rich from the Sun, the sun should give people more credit,[and be honest] and allow people to make their own minds up.”

Yesterday the Independent Newspaper was confronted by James Murdoch (Rupert’s son who advised his dad to back the Tories) openly at a press do. His objections were because the Independent dared to say, “Rupert Murdoch won’t decide this election, you will,” in a promotional ad. This shows the flakiness and panic setting into the Murdoch empire as they are feeling the pressure of the fact they have pumped millions of pounds behind a Tory campaign that seems to have ran off the rails. If the Tories fail, that would be millions of pounds wasted on both sides of the Atlantic as President Cain and Vice President Palin failed to reap the Fox News dividend. Murdoch had also met with the Daily Mail pre-the attacks on Nick Clegg – exposing that short lived and transparent joint strategy. The Murdoch’s are under pressure because of the seeming imminent failure of their support for the Tories and their want to place online news print media behind a paywall. Is an empire unravelling?

Press owned by self interested billionaires

Johann Hari sums it up in an article today saying, “The British media is overwhelmingly owned by right-wing billionaires who order their newspapers to build up the politicians who serve their interests, and marginalise or rubbish the politicians who serve the public interest. …Only a tiny spectrum of opinion was permitted [by the Murdoch’s according to ex-editor of the Sun, David Yelland]. Everyone to the left of Tony Blair (not hard) had to be rubbished – even when their policies spoke for a majority of British people.” (full article HERE )

Hari believes the TV debates have been one of the biggest factors in the changing of the public’s ability to be fooled. I nearly agree. I would say it ruins slightly deeper. Thatcher’s nightmare has come about. She used to attack Media Studies as a Mickey Mouse course – but those educated into how the media works seem to have spread the word. Not only that, the ability to blog, twitter, youtube etc has brought different views to people – showing there is more of a view than through the Murdoch/ Rothermere looking glass. The internet has shown people they can make a difference in controversial issues (Trafagura/ Iran/ Haiti etc) and also make little changes to what is accepted will happen (Rage Against the Machine as the very festive number one instead of Simon Cowell’s latest singing cash cow). The people have been educated, and perhaps slowly (a move to the Liberal Democrats is hardly revolutionary!) consciousness is creeping into elections – and these are going to be more than an X-Factor glamour contest.

I predict it will be less of a “It was the Sun wot won it,” than the trending Twitter hashtag this morning of “#itwastheSONwotlostit”.

After the upset this election promises, watch out for an even more colourful Scottish Parliament in 2011.

Be part of the party that represents YOU!

Big Parties like the Labour Party, Tories and Lib Dems are funded by big business and millionaires, so they in turn serve the rich.

Our campaign to get Mark elected in Bishopbriggs South - and our Euro Election campaign, as in all of our campaigns, are funded by ordinary people - you and me, so the Scottish Socialist Party is a true party of the people.

Any elected representatives of the SSP, as when we had six MSP's, vow to take only the average workers wage - around £24,000 a year - not the £64,000 + £000's of expenses the main party representatives have chosen to take from our taxes.

If you would like to have a representative who is truly answerable to you - AND NOT BIG BUSINESS OR MILLIONAIRES - vote SSP next Thursday.

To pledge support/ money to help the party, please text "How can I donate/help?" along with your name to -07810205747





For more details on our Euro Campaign, click on the MAKE GREED HISTORY campaign banner:

From Recession to Depression: the U K Experience

Facilitated by the SSP co-convenor,
Frances Curran
Speakers—Raphie de Santos, Bill Newman.

ARTICLE BY BILL NEWMAN

It is at last dawning on even the most deluded of our MPs and MSPs that the recession (two quarters of negative growth) is not a temporary phenomenon and respected media commentators are not just crying wolf when they talk of years of economic pain. We are just at the commencement of a long depression (a recession lasting years) and it is apparent that governments have no cohesive plan for dealing with this, nor even an understanding that this is a crisis in the very nature of capitalism which requires radical socialist solutions. Indeed, the vacuous dialogues at the Davos forum meeting this year confirmed a global lack of meaningful policies.

The crisis was initiated by those bankers who thought that they could avoid the laws of capitalist economics and procede for ever to enrich themselves at everyone else's expense, and the tacit endorsement of politicians too ignorant, lazy or complacent to control this arrogant greed. It's worth recapping in overall terms the culpable stupidity of senior bankers in recent years:

- The naked greed of bank traders, bank executives and bank boards. This greed rewarded short-term speculative gains with obscene cash rewards. Bank risk analysts, where they had the courage to point out dangers, were ignored or even shown the door. Traders, often with little technical understanding of the instruments with which they were trading, could afford to ignore long-term problems given the massive short-term payments they were receiving. Likewise, chief executives and board chairmen were blinkered enough to believe that they could ignore longer-term risks. It is worth recalling that none of the former chairmen and chief executives of Royal Bank of Scotland and HBoS hauled before the UK Parliamentary Treasury Committeee on 10 February had any banking qualifications. Established politicians overtly claimed that 'greed is good', a mantra now castigated by the media without an acknowledgement that greed is an essential ingredient of capitalism.

-Profligate lending. The progressive loosening of prudential controls on the granting of credit led to the ludicrous self certification of borrowers whereby the word of borrowers as to their financial status was accepted without checks. This was compounded, for example, by the granting of mortgages in excess of 100% of the value of the property in question, presumably on the incredible belief that property prices would rise for ever and interest rates remain at historically low levels.

-Bankers as salespersons. All bank customers know that staff at their local branches were there to sell their products rather than cater for their mundane banking needs. Indeed, as every bank clerk knows, performance assessment and the rewards arising there from depended heavily on their ability to sell products and extend credit to bank customers.

- Weak banking regulation. Tight supervision of banks through inspection and financial parameters has been steadily eroded, through the deliberate embrace of the extension of the free market, an embrace, despite evidence to the contrary, that still controls the philosophy of the UK government. It is instructive that where bank regulation has remained tighter, as in Spain, bank crises have been lesser.

-The extension of derivative trading. Derivatives are in essence merely contracts whose values depend on something else. These can be useful and in their simpler form have been around almost as long as banking. The example which used to be used in basic banking instruction was that of the farmer who sold his crop in advance of harvest to a miller at a fixed price for future delivery, removing the element of future financial uncertainty to farmer and miller. In the last two decades or so different types of derivatives have become much more complex and varied. Many, such as credit derivative contracts, although they look like insurance contracts, provide considerable scope for profit when they are traded, not least when the value of contracts is leveraged. They also provide vast opportunities for loss when economic circumstances deteriorate. An indication of the scale of derivative trading and the overhang of contracts in the market is shown by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) which valued derivatives outstanding on the market in June 2008 at $684 trillion. It is clear that senior executives seem not to have either understood the nature of the complex derivatives which their banks were trading, nor the risks involved.

-The crazy belief that as a result of the miracle-working Gordon Brown there would be no more boom and bust. Such a belief defies all economic laws. You haven't got to understand Karl Marx (though it helps!) to understand the cyclical nature of capitalism. If Gordon Brown had never read Marx, he should at least have known a little of Maynard Keynes, or even Adam Smith.

It is certainly true that the whole world is involved in what is indeed a global recession, compounded by the onward rush towards economic globalisation, but the recession is due to bite harded in the U K than elsewhere. Thus the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has forecast that the U K economy will shrink by 2.8% this year, compared with a deline of 2.0% in the Eurozone and 1.6% in the USA (see appended table 8). Why is the U K performing worse than other developed nations? There is a myth, which seemed to gain credibility in the media and even among opposition MPs that Prudence Brown was a sound, pragmatic chancellor. In practice, he was far from prudent as even a cursory look at his economic stewardeship shows.

Astonishingly, very few in the Westminster Parliament or the media seemed willing or able to expose Brown and the dangerous overheating of the U K economy, though, to be fair, Vince Cable did raise some warnings. Indeed, it seems to have been deemed to be unpatriotic to disclose the deterioration in economic performance.

Just look at performance of the U K's payments balance with the rest of the world (table 1). The U K's trade in goods has moved from a deficet of £12.5 billion in 1995 to a colossal £93.2 billion last year. In the company of astonished European MPs I heard a Goverment economic advisor claim many years ago that the reduction in British goods production and exports was of no consequence as what the U K was good at was the overseas sale of financial services. Well, at the very least, as Table 1 shows, our earnings balance on services by no means compensated for the growing goods trade deficit. And should we expect overseas financial earnings to be sustained this year? How, then, has the U K's growing current account payments deficit been financed? Net investment in the U K has shrunk and in 2007 recorded a substantial net outflow (Table 2) with valatile short-term borrowing meeting the gap.

Moreover, the gains from North Sea oil production have been frittered away and Britain's trade in oil has now moved from a solid surplus a decade ago to a deficit (Table 3). To compound this reverse, coal production, which could have helped meet energy needs, has been deliberately destroyed, first by the Tories, but, as Table 4 shows, New Labour has tamely followed the Tories policy so that the U K now imports more than twice as much coal as it produces, the largest supplier being Russia.

Nor can Gordon Brown claim prudence in managing Government finances. In the early years of New Labour, debt did indeed shrink, but, as Table 7 shows, Government deficits have emerged and grown to pump up economic growth, limiting the Government's room for manoeuvre in the current recession.

It is clear, then, that Gordon Brown's stewardship was far from prudent and was rather associated with a steady deterioration in the U K's economic performance. Nor can it be said that, despite the grandiloquent bluster, that he has shown a grasp of the depth of the financial and economic catastophies facing the U K. Measures such as the pointless reduction in VAT and the reliance on inadequate and inappropriate support for the banking sector hardly augur well for the radical restructuring required. Both he and his tame chancellor, Alastair Darling, seem terrified lest they are accused taking of socialist measures. Even with banks now owned by the state, there is still a reluctance to declare banks nationalised and to take control. It has been explicitly stated that the banks are best left in the hands of those with the necessary expertise, quite regardless of the fact that it is these overpaid "experts" who carry a large amount of the responsibility for getting us into this fine mess.

A totally new and socialist response is urgently needed and none of our established parties will provide this in Scotland or elsewhere. It is more important than ever that people are made aware that capitalism has failed and a different world is possible, and that world must no longer rely on capitalist "solutions".


Click on table for bigger image:

Branch meeting - in Holland...

Thomas Swann on his recent move of branches from Campsie... to Nijmegen in Holland.

As the film began, I was reminded of the cold and wet Saturday mornings spent in Kirkintilloch leisure centre with other members of Campsie Branch probably watching a John Pilger documentary or something else as part of our educational activities. The five minutes into the film it stopped and someone had to monkey around with the laptop before it would start up. Again, I was reminded of the regular Campsie Branch film mornings. This was my first real experience of the Dutch Socialist Party.

The film was 'Turtles Can Fly', the first film to come out of Iraq since the US/UK invasion. I'd been meaning to get in touch with the local branch of the Socialist Party before I moved to the Netherlands and was encouraged by the warm welcome I received from the local organiser and the other members who were present at the screening. The Socialist Party began as a small left-wing grouping but through a process of community engagement and activism has grown from having one member of parliament in the early 90s to twenty-five today, plus a large number of elected local government officials. It's been held up as the success story of the Left in Europe, and it is largely thanks to its work in communities, on the ground, as it were, that this level of support has been achieved.

Focusing on a few areas, including Nijmegen, where I am now living (you might recognise the name from 'A Bridge to Far'), the party organised projects as ambitious as offering free medical care to members of the community, and now claims a number of 'strongholds' where it has a base of local support. In a number of areas, again including Nijmegen, the Socialist Party participates in the local government along with other Left parties such as the Green-Left.

In this blog, which will appear most likely irregularly on the campsiesocialists.com website, I will attempt to relate my experience of Left-wing politics and activism in the Netherlands, and specifically in Nijmegen, to similar situations in Scotland, as well as comparing the general social, political and economic contexts in which these are taking place. But my research and reporting will not be confined to the Socialist Party, though as an organised political party which stands in national and local elections this will obviously have a large relevance to a member of the SSP as I am. Nijmegen is also one of the centres of Anarchist activism in the Netherlands and has a number of collectively owned bars and cafés which have developed from squated buildings to legitimate enterprises supported through low rent conditions by the Left-wing council of the town.

So, hopefully my next entry in this blog will have something more concrete than a simple introduction and will perhaps provide information which will prove useful to Socialist and Anarchist activists in Scotland, and particularly in the Campsie/East Dunbartonshire area.

Local campaigning - Irvine

Campsie Comrades spent Wednesday helping the Ayrshire Scottish Socialist Party with streetwork on Fuel prices and Free Public Transport.

Full article here
Angry Irvine residents mob the SSP stall. For most of the time during the stall the Irvine comrades were swamped with people three deep, clamouring to tell their stories of fuel hardship imposed by the profiteers and to sign the petition.



Denise Morton from Irvine mans the stall.


The streetwork and stall were extremely successful - the Campsie members had a wonderful reception from the Ayrshire comrades and the Irvine people. A day to remember!


It was difficult forPhotographer, Rikki Reid to get a shot of the table as it was constantly busy from the moment it was set up, to the time we decided to call it a day! As Denise says in the press release on the SSP main site, “Irvine has definitely rejected the policies of the New Labour project.”

Glasgow East By-Election

CLICK ON PHOTO FOR MORE IMAGES FROM THE SSP GLASGOW EAST CAMPAIGN

Ritchie Venton on the outcome:

"Thousands of Labour voters simply stayed at home in disgust with their record on food and fuel prices; failure to tackle poverty and inequality; assaults on the sick and disabled, and their wholesale neglect of the working class. Others did a straight swap to the SNP, as punishment for New Labour in an area they have treated with decades of contempt, stepping on people’s heads en route to grossly overpaid political careers."

MORE HERE

Glasgow East campaign begins

Ritchie Venton speaks on Newsnight (7/7/08)
here

Three parties launch (including the SSP) here
Battle of the Currans (I know which one is the most principled!) here
Battle of the Currans in "The Times" here

When in Glasgow, visit THE WEE RED BOOKSHOP

137 London Road, Glasgow

Open Thursday, Friday, Saturday

Books, t-shirts, ideas to change the world

Donations accepted.

Contact - 0141 221 7470

Shop Stewards Network

Scottish Conference
12 April, 11am - 3pm, UNISON Offices, Albion St., Trongate, Glasgow
Speakers include: Phil McGarry (RMT Scottish organiser), Sam McCartney (UNISON convenor),Dave Chapple (CWU branch chair), Pauline Bradley (UNISON steward), a Glasgow Day Care striker
Download and print the leaflet advertising the conference

http://www.shopstewards.net/

Industrial Workers of the World, Scottish Assembly, March 2008

Report by Thomas Swann

Held on the 23^rd of March, the Industrial Workers of the World's (IWW) summer assembly highlighted the role the organisation has played and continues to play throughout the world. Described as one big union for all workers, the IWW remains one of the most militant unions in the world. While the union has shrunk since being able to boast 100,000 members in the US in the 1920s, recent growth in Britain suggests that it is not a thing of the past, and while its place in the history books has been guaranteed, it will be on the front line of social struggle for some time to come. In the last year alone, the IWW's membership in the UK has grown by over 400%. It was noted of the recent meeting that it constituted the largest gathering of members and interested individuals in a long time.

The Scottish Assembly focused on a number of issues that comrades have been involved in as well as ongoing battles such as the National Blood Service Campaign, aimed at challenging the extreme centralisation of blood storage centres, reducing emergency access to such services for many in outlying rural areas. This particular campaign has succeeded in securing the existence of a centre in Newcastle, as well as many functions at one in Sheffield. In addition to this, workshops looked at ways of getting the message out about what the IWW stands for and how to encourage participation in workplace organising, and strategies for dealing with specific problems encountered on the shop floor.

One particular example brought up by a member underlined the effects of partial privatisation in public services. In the recent strike action carried out at the Department of Work and Pensions by the PCS union, the office mail delivery service, run by a private company, continued to operate, resulting in around 75% of mail being delivered as normal. This lessened the effectiveness of striking as the workplaces were not brought to the standstill that such action sought. Furthermore, it was demanded of employees of this service that they cross the PCS picket lines.

The success of the Scottish Assembly was attested to by one delegate. Andy Bowden, an IWW and SSP member, said that 'it was good to be with a fighting union that punches well above its weight and is more interested in struggle than excuses.' It was clear from the meeting that the IWW is an oranisation on the move, and it will no doubt play crucial roles in current struggles the same way it has done in the past, and will continue to do in the future.

Corntonvale Prison Demo

by SSP member James Nesbitt

(for some photos see here)

Last Sunday (11/03/2008), to mark International Women's Day 2008, members of the Scottish Socialist Party joined with fellow social justice activists to form a demonstration of solidarity at Cornton Vale women's prison, near Stirling. Supporters of the SSP and Socialist Women's Network have gathered annually for the last few years to express their opposition to conditions at the prison and show support for the women inside. This year we were joined by activists from the newly-formed Edinburgh and Glasgow Feminists Networks.

It was the first time I've been along to Cornton Vale and the experience will stay with me for a long time. I've been to other prisons visiting people in the past but this one has a particular sense of grimness hanging over it. We were able to make some contact with a number of the inmates but I personally could not find the words to converse with them - what do you say to someone locked up in a place like that? Other people seemed to feel the same. It got easier when we sang. Prisoners' anthem 'Please Release Me' demonstrates the humour and defiance of the convicts.

What was clear is that the women are trying to survive in desperate conditions. Overcrowding means that few of them are able to speak confidentially with their solicitors. One of the people inside told us "we need to meet them in the visiting area". Of course, these areas are supervised by prison officers. How are you supposed to complain about the staff or the conditions when there's a screw standing over you?

Politicians and right-wingers love the idea that prisoners have no rights, but I don't see how they can justify the work and pay situation in Cornton Vale. One of the women told us that they have to work full-time hours for the weekly wage of... wait for it... £10! This is a form of modern-day slavery (and obviously a boon to the companies who get their products manufactured on the cheap). A tenner on the inside goes about as far as it does outside, i.e. not very. Toiletries, tobacco, phone cards, sanitary products and extra food all need to be paid for out of this measly sum. And do not underestimate how important the chocolate bars and pot noodles are: the food situation is desperate as well.

"The meals are the absolute basic. We're starving all the time" - it really got me in the guts to hear this. None of us expect prison canteens to get a Michelin star, but it is unacceptable that cost-cutting and draconian policies are causing people to be in a state of permanent hunger. Surely one of the most basic human rights is to have food in your belly.

Inadequate food forces many inmates to consumer more fatty, sugary snacks. Obviously, this isn't great for your health, or your teeth. One of our new friends was able to tell us that they have to wait 2 weeks for a doctor, 2 months for a dentist. What if someone is in pain and needs a tooth out? Or needs medicine for a serious ailment? Despite their strength and determination, some of them are obviously struggling to cope.

It doesn't get any easier when you're looking after a wean. My heart goes out to the mothers and children incarcerated in such a miserable place. Nor is it any easier for the large numbers of prisoners who have been victims of abuse, who are trapped in drug addiction or whose crime is poverty - no other prison in Scotland has such a high proportion of people convicted for unpaid fines, shoplifting and similar offences.

Throughout the day I kept finding myself turning away. I just didn't want to look at it. Scotland is shamed by Cornton Vale and being there, seeing it, I felt very ashamed too. You can judge the level of civilisation in a society by how they treat those who need help. This society locks them up.

At the end of the day, we belted out a rendition of the old workers' anthem, the Internationale. A big thank you must go out to the accompanying saxophonist, who brightened our mood and helped disguise some of the comrades' hoarseness. Never before has the line 'arise, ye prisoners of want' seemed so profound.

http://www.againstprisonslavery.org/caps_news.html