Opinion: Angus Clark

Jo lies down with Coalition Tory Bedfellows- Yet again!

(Published in this weeks Bearsden /Milngavie Herald)

Only weeks ago in their autumn party conference in Glasgow the Lib Dems condemned the’ bedroom tax’ for discriminating against the most vulnerable in our society. I was therefore disappointed but not surprised to discover that local MP and Cabinet Member Jo Swinson gave her backing to the bedroom tax at a recent crucial Parliamentary vote. It confirmed my view that when it comes to the crunch, Jo will lay down to her Tory coalition masters – yet again! She has consistently supported Cameron and Clegg and voted for repressive measures that the Coalition has put in place. However this must rank as her greatest betrayal yet as this was a genuine chance to finish off this dreadful measure once and for all. Her path as a career politician is now secure in that she seems to place more loyalty to this neo- conservative led government than she does to the views of her constituents, many of whom are already affected by this attempt to make the most vulnerable make more sacrifice for the bankers’ crisis. Recent modifications to exclude certain categories of recipients do not address the fundamental regressive nature of the measures and Discretionary Housing Benefit will only assist a few for a very limited period of time.  

The imposition of the bedroom tax is just the latest regressive measure to be given her support in her meteoric rise up the greasy political pole to Cabinet level, and she will no doubt be well rewarded. She also supported hiking University tuition fees up to £9000, a part privatised NHS, the dreadful Welfare Bill, War with Syria the lowering of taxes for billionaires and millionaires and Nuclear Weapons. Does she consider that this record fairly reflects the views of her constituents or the general populace-I think not. Some of her Lib Dem colleagues did indeed keep true to their principles and voted to scrap the bedroom tax and their action should be welcomed. Other MPs including Labour, decided that they had better things to do than turn up for this important vote which is very disappointing as this was a vote which could have been won, although I do not doubt that it would have been close.

Let’s be under no illusion, the bedroom tax is not a ‘single issue’ although it may appear so if directly affected. Governments don’t think that way! It is just one part of a concerted ideological plan to radically scale back the Welfare State [which has no democratic mandate].  Unlike the Poll Tax of the late 80’s which was aimed at the whole populace, the bedroom tax is targeted solely at social tenants drawing benefits both unemployed and in work, and by implication, already on or near the ‘breadline’ who are deemed to have an ‘extra room’. It therefore hits the unemployed and those in poverty wages ‘disproportionately’ leaving them hardly anything left over to live on. So much for the ‘Mansion Tax’ which Jo Swinson and the Lib Dems used to push for! Now it’s OK to penalise those at the foot of society, and join in with the Tories and the ‘Cabinet of Millionaires’ in giving the most vulnerable a ‘good kicking’. Who will be next in line?

                                                             

 We all know there is a better and more equitable way to tackle the nation’s housing shortage and overcrowding problems. The bedroom tax will never be a solution but it will and is leading to misery for thousands of adults and children, including ill health and suicide.

At the next Westminster election I am sure that the constituents of East Dunbartonshire are no mugs and will not be taken in by the Governments ‘fostered illusions’ over this and other matters. They should also cast an eye over Jo Swinson’s voting record before casting their vote.

Tweet like Labour...

Free School Meals: Universality when it suits them

by Campsie SSP member Neil Scott

Nice to see the Tories taking on a SSP policy we faught for for years. Free School meals, albeit only for infant children, is a decent start in making life better for our kids.  Its  pity they want to take other universal benefits away. Universality, as they seem to be admitting here, is the fairest, most effective way to deliver equality.

On the announcement, opportunist Nick Clegg was ironically shown on TV eating fruit with Glaswegian children.  What the news isn't saying is that coalition cuts led to free school meals & free fruit ending in Glasgow two years ago.  A few years ago, the LibDems  after taking control of free school meal pioneering Hull City Council, took away this benefit from families during "boom times". 

So why the change of heart?

Easy- the Tories and yellow Tories want to ensure their privatisation of the NHS and further destruction of workers rights and working class community, education and solidarity continues.

The Labour Party are reneging on a committment to universality- and it seems in doing so they have fallen in to a trap. A Labour Party casting off principle for power is empty, meaningless, useless. The coalition partners know this.

The Labour Party by accepting neo-liberalist/Thatcherite vicious economics have been wrong footed. This policy was off their national radar (even though some Labour councils have already enacted it). Their fear of the tory propaganda machine calling them looney lefties at any hint of support for universalism has paralized them. The right wing of the one time party of the working class have dragged them down a blind alley. 
The Labour Party should be replaced by the class they have let down.  The Scottish working class can do that with a Yes in next years independence referendum and then by voting for the SSP in 2016.

The Libdems and Tories, it is obvious, have a pact to help each other gain another term as a coalition. The Libdem media briefing paper to MPs during their conference blatently said 'talk down Labour, talk up the positivity of a Tory party that has been tamed by us...'  Tories and Libdems can cast aside 'principles' if those principles are sacrificeable for their selfish class interests. A wee concession to make people feel they have gained something, even though we have been robbed blind since 2010. Universality in this can be justified by Tories in order to hide their most vicious attacks on working class people. The cuddly LibDems can announce policies such as this to hide their support for selling off the NHS; charging students £9000 per year for an education Danny Alexander and Jo Swinson had free of charge and the impoverishing Welfare Bill, including the Bedroom Tax.

These free school meals are to be welcomed, but the robbery of the working poor and those without work to give tax breaks and bonuses to the well off, that drives them to despair, food banks, hunger and suicide need to be resisted. The disgusting bedroom tax and attacks on disability allowances, for example, will add worry beyond the benefit of a meal for their child.

Take up of free school meals in primary schools I have worked in has been as much as 100% when tried out in Glasgow schools. The benefits to learning were immediately tangible and the negative effects felt almost immediately when they were taken away again. Free School meals, free fruit and water fountains were casualties of the LibDem and Tory Westminster Government and  Glasgow Labour Council whose Scottish leaders are saying universality must be "rethought."

Free meals needs to be rolled out across all schools and ages.

Free school meals for all children is and always has been, the aim of the SSP- but as part of a raft of policies supporting universal health care, pensions, child benefts and other policies that will ensure no-one is driven from their homes or to starvation, Wonga or exploitative zero hour contracts.

The Politics of Envy...

The Etonian millionaires tell us when we talk about the gap between the rich and poor, that these are the politics of envy. Yet their press- the press they, the rich, own and control, every day talks about "scroungers" " skivers" etc living off the state.

They have used this manipulation of public opinion through their media outlets to lower compassion and in turn justify the stripping of meagre funds that people rely on to feed families through unemployment thrust upon them by the monetarist policies of Governments from Thatcher through to Cameron and Clegg's.

Tell a lie often enough and it becomes truth, the Nazi propagandists taught them.

These policies have ensured those who own medical "providers" profit hugely. Some of these companies were formed before the English NHS was tore apart by the Tories and LibDems but who waited patiently until the legislation was thrust into law and now who are buying up the profitable parts of the NHS and are profiting by charging the tax payer exhorbitant amounts of money. Some were American Companies that in anticipation, many of those who you vote for, bought stock in. Insider dealing?

Your politicians have nothing on the Nick Leeson's of this world.

This Government has pushed millions of children below the poverty line while giving tax breaks - and actual tax money to billionaires.

Their politics of envy have led to despair and desperation - suicides and stress related deaths through their ATOS and bedroom tax programmes.

Research has shown that even during the so called boom years of Blair and Thatcher, there have never been enough jobs for everyone. Yet Cameron and his ministers talk about people languishing on benefit as if it were the fault of the unskilled, poor worker.

As if it were the fault of the poor immigrant asking for asylum from Governments who want them dead.

Or the poor immigrant who comes here to find safe, unionised, reasonably paid work away from the Primark, Walmart etc sweatshops in which they could die, chained to their sewing machine making cheap clothes that gives us the impression we have wealth?

Slave workers who die to clothe our poor or "throw away fashionable?"

So- the politics of envy... by stealing money from the poor- chipping away at the small funds needed to keep people above the breadline; impoverishing people and making this narrative of skivers and scroungers and thieving immigrants a prerequisite of political discourse, could someone explain to me what envy is?

Is it political voices saying the gap between the rich and poor is immoral?

Is it the voices who say no child should live in poverty regardless of how difficult their mother or father are finding it to get work?

Or is it the political voices saying that poor people have it too good? 

Jo welcomes five more years of Tories at Westminster...

Why the EU referendum means Five more years for the Tories... by Neil Scott, SSP Campsie member.

Cameron has just created his NEXT coalition partners for 2015, UKIP. 

He has just shafted the Libdems bigtime. Kicking a referendum into the medium grass (after 2015) means the Tories will get 5 more years and UKIP, winning some seats, will go into coalition creating the most right wing Government the UK has ever known. 

The unquestioning faithfulness of the Liberal Democrats to the Tory programme, and the realisation that they, in the words of Martin Luther King, prefer a "negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice," has destroyed Clegg and Swinson's party.  An increasingly hammered, impoverished working class will see the yellow albatross's off.  A middle class who this week will see their wages reduced on average by £30 a month after capitulation by the LD's on pensions are leaving them in droves.

Cameron does not want to leave the EU, nor does he really care about re-negotiation.  He does care about power in order to impose a dystopian future on the "UK", and this announcement of a referendum will more or less ensure a weaker opposition and a stronger right-wing coalition.

I don't feel sorry for quisling Libdems, but I did warn Jo Swinson she was a patsy (this article has my twitter conversation with her after the Coalition agreement was signed - HERE). 

The patsies have just overseen the death of their party & the re-election of the greedy, lying, vicious Tories. 

Long may the Libdems be in the wilderness for damning England to Tories part two. 

Martin Luther King's words from the same letter written from a Birmingham, Alabama jail, "Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection."  The working class of Scotland understand these words.

I am so glad we can vote to never have a Tory Government come 2014, and kick Jo Swinson and her Liberal Democrats right out of a job near to power.

Iain Duncan Smith- liar?

A blog post about Iain Duncan Smith by Campsie Socialist, Neil Scott HERE

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.

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.”

SSP Election Leaflet - Bearsden North

The Easter Activist

by SSP Campsie member Neil Scott

Christ of Abu Ghraib by Trill Zapatero

The men sat on the hill, looking out over the darkened city.

 “Look. Only you can know this. Tell no-one else. When it is done, you must flee.” He didn’t look at his friend, his face was drawn. His friend was not used to seeing him as he had been in the past few days. Serious, stressed even. Gone were the smiles and the serenity of the campaign. From the day they had arrived in the city, all had changed. The campaign had taken a new turn. Was this the end-game?

 He stood up and faced his friend. If this was the end-game, then it should be on their terms. “The only way we can rid our lands of this dreadful, exploitative system is to make allies and together we can rise up!” 

 His friend shook his head and looked at him. He signalled for him to sit, to calm. “Believe me, what I have planned will mean the power of money will be diminished forever. We have shown through our actions and our activism that the only way for mankind to survive is for us to work together. To be as one. To share.” He clasped his hands and pointed them towards the other man. “ To make sure the weakest and most vulnerable have opportunity and the essentials in life. The Imperialist Occupier's system only brings poverty, greed, envy and betrayal.”

His friend was not for calming. His voice rose to almost a shout, “No! We must take up arms!

read on HERE

The Rich are not being fair

Letter:

Jo Swinson started off to the left of Labour but since going to Westminster has moved steadily to
the right. Charles Gray, a long time Labour supporter, doesn't seem to recognise Labour too has
been corrupted by the same Westminster virus and has ,likewise, moved to the right so now it would
be appropriate to describe New Labour as pink Tories.

At the end of WW2 old Labour, which no longer exists, brought in the welfare state, a glowing
example of social development. Unfortunately most of the millionaires,the rich people and their
party, the Tories, have always been antagonistic to the welfare state and have steadily moved to
undermine and destroy it. Welfare – health, education and the many public services we all need
have to be paid for and this is done by taxat ion It is generally agreed that progressive income tax
is the fairest way to do this.

For many it is now clear that tax dodging is out of control. In the UK alone we have a £120
billion tax gap-- comprising tax avoided through obscure accounting and the use of tax havens,
illegal tax evasion and even uncollected tax. The 3 main parties Tory, Lib Dem and Labour all bear
responsibility for failure to tackle this as the people of Bradford seem to have realised. The rich
don't pay a fair share of tax.

Ron Mackay,
Milton of Campsie.

State monitoring of YOUR emails...

Jo Swinson was on TV last night defending the Governments want to monitor your emails, Facebook, Twitter, web history etc.  This is a complete flip from her stance back in 2009 when she hadn't tasted power.

Please email Jo Swinson and David Cameron and let them know you feel this is an infringement of your civil liberties.

David Cameron's private email - privateoffice@no10.x.gsi.gov.uk


Contact Jo Swinson - http://www.writetothem.com/

Titanic 2 "The ConDemNation"

by Campsie SSP member, Neil Scott

On April 12 1912, the Titanic sank. The "unsinkable sinking" and God's wrath on men getting above their station are held as reasons for the lingering fascination behind this event, but I feel the exposure of the values and the class system that prevented social mobility of Victorian/Edwardian Britain a much more important factor. If there was a message from any God, it must have been the disgust of the vilification and condemnation of a "subspecies" of the poor. The disgusting statistics of Third Class dead and stories of people being kept away from the lifeboats exposed the truth of "our betters." I feel what happened in 1912 serves as a warning as massive inequality seems to be the order of Tory Britain in 2012.

Read the rest of this article on the Huffington Post HERE

Faculty of Public Health Publish Own Risk Register..

Faculty of Public Health Publish Own Risk Register #SaveOurNHS 

http://t.co/fNyzcdFC

Please Tweet!

Vested Interests of the Tories...

"This list represents the dire state of our democracy. The financial and vested interests of our MPs and Lords in private healthcare. Why are these people allowed to be in charge of our NHS, to vote on a bill that they clearly have something to gain from. Who cares that they have put it in the register of interests. This doesn’t excuse their interests, it merely highlights clearly why they should have no part in voting for the privatisation of the NHS. It is privatisation, despite the media’s continued use of the word ‘reforms’. The question must be asked. Are they public servants or corporate servants?"

Important reading on the Social Investigations blog.  Click HERE

FAQ's - NHS Health Bill

Arm yourself.  This is a huge fight.  The NHS is in peril this week.  If this bill is passed, expect to be charged for services you currently pay for through tax.  Your tax money will be going directly to profiteers who will be charging you twice.

Read these FAQ's.  http://abetternhs.wordpress.com/faq/

Local teacher, Neil Scott to stand in Bearsden North in May's council election

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.”

The New NHS!

If you DON'T agree with the NHS Jo Swinson and her Liberal Democrat  party are helping the Tories create, please sign this petition.  We have one week to save the NHS.

TORIES OUT OF SCOTLAND!

No to another lost generation!

By Richie Venton, SSP national workplace organiser

22 February 2012


The Tories are returning to the scene of their many crimes against the working class! Westminster's Butcher-in-Chief, David Cameron, hopes to breeze into Troon on Saturday 24th March to address the Scottish Tory party conference.
Ayrshire has the highest unemployment in jobs-starved Scotland, which makes this Eton boot-boy's visit all the more provocative. Cameron's slaughter of the public sector will add thousands to the queues of misery in this area. And for every civil servant, council worker, NHS worker or teacher who loses their job, at least another private sector worker will be made jobless through the knock-on effect.

Demo against youth unemployment
Ayrshire has already been turned into a desert after numerous multinationals were bribed by grants and government subsidies, only to then 'up sticks' and move to richer pastures and cheaper labour abroad.
Now a whole new generation is being condemned to oblivion by a capitalist system and capitalist government whose only interest is profit, not people.
Scotland is virtually a Tory free zone, and the SSP in Ayrshire and beyond aim to help keep it that way. We are spearheading the buildup of a mass protest against this invasion by an unwanted representative of brutal, red-in-tooth-and-claw capitalism, around the message "Tories out of Scotland - fight the crime of youth unemployment - no to another lost generation".
The STUC has called a demo in Troon against austerity-induced youth unemployment. The SSP is wholeheartedly building this, calling on workers and young people in Ayrshire and Scotland to keep Cameron out, and to demand that everyone over 16 should have the genuine choice of either a decent, well-paid job; proper training with a job at the end; or a living grant to fund further or higher education.

Plague of mass unemployment
Mass unemployment is stalking the country like a plague. Nobody is spared, apart from the capitalist elite who are perpetrating this crime against working class communities.
Over 230,000 Scottish people are officially unemployed, though the true figure is far higher. Of these, an obscene 103,000 are under 24 years old, a terrible indictment of a society with no future.
For everyone directly hit by it, unemployment is a human tragedy. It means eking out an existence on £65 a week, as inflation lets rip, usually spending it all on essentials the first week, begging or borrowing for the second week. If anything worse still, it means a sense of hopelessness and living without purpose, something nobody should be subjected to, whether that be older workers who have contributed to society's productive wealth for decades, or young people stepping out on life's journey.

Free labour in the 'free' marketThe victims of mass unemployment are being used as slave labour by the same government and same capitalist employers whose system creates the jobs wasteland in the first place. Under the coyly-named Mandatory Work Activity, the government's Department for Work & Pension is forcing unemployed people into jobs with multinationals, retail sector giants, and even some 'charitable' employers - but unpaid, apart from their benefits and expenses!
These unemployed people face the choice: work for nothing, or lose your benefits!
The government has so far refused to reveal details for Scotland, but down South the companies exposed for this 21st century slavery include Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's, TK Maxx, Waterstone's, Matalan, Pizza Hut, Poundland, Shelter and Oxfam. The public outrage has forced most of these outfits to withdraw or 'review' their involvement, but there is still a big job to be done, in tandem with unions in retail like USDAW, to oppose this ruthless exploitation, which is also a huge threat to the jobs of the low paid workers these unemployed conscripts could potentially replace.

No excuse for jobs slaughter
And the criminal reality is that there is no excuse for mass unemployment. Plenty of jobs need doing. Kids need smaller classes for a better education, which demands more teachers. Elderly people need expanded care services, which requires trained staff. The burgeoning housing lists cry out for a massive house building programme, to the highest environmental standards, offering the opportunity for thousand of apprenticeships and secure jobs in the construction industry. The SSP's demand for free public transport, to combat poverty, pollution and social isolation, would require thousands of extra jobs as drivers on trains, buses and subways, as well as job expansion in the manufacture of buses, trains, railway networks, ferries. A serious investment programme in publicly owned energy would be another source of sustainable, green jobs that could benefit people and planet alike. And those are just a few illustrations of the much needed, socially useful jobs that could and should be created.

Long hours - and no hours!
In tandem with the jobs that need to be done, there are plenty of potential sources of funding and ways of creating these jobs, if the political will was there, and if we challenged the very foundations of the rotten system of capitalist contradictions.
Whilst 230,000 Scots are officially unemployed, working no hours, 260,000 workers in Scotland are enduring the toil and stress of working over 48 hours a week. And a breathtaking 54,000 Scottish workers are putting in more than 60 hours a week!
Why do workers do such backbreaking hours, with the horrendous consequences to their health, stress levels, family life, health and safety risks at work - and even the damage to the economy that tired and dispirited workers create?
Appallingly low wage levels, clashing with rising prices, are the prime cause of the 'long hours culture'. Added to that is sheer terror at losing your job, having to 'show face' and put in extra hours when it is demanded to suit the business needs of bosses who use the threat of mass unemployment, and the existence of a mass 'reserve army of labour', as a battering ram.
If wages were raised to a decent level, including the national minimum wage being hiked to £9 an hour to match two-thirds of male average earnings, the pressure to work outrageously long hours would be largely eliminated.

Cut hours of work - not jobs or pay!
The fight for a shorter working week is a central demand that the trade unions should champion far more forcefully, in an aggressive a campaign against unemployment, in favour of jobs for all.
But in doing so, why should workers pay for the crisis created by the capitalists, bankers and billionaires? Why should workers suffer even a penny cut in pay with the introduction of a maximum 35 hour working week, as a first step towards the goal of a 4-day week? The unions and their allies should fight around slogans like "cut hours - not jobs or pay", "for a 35 hour week with no loss of pay".
Given the growing trend towards long hours of toil alongside mass unemployment, well over two million full-time jobs could be created by this one measure; around 200,000 in Scotland - enough to eliminate current unemployment.

Jobs, not profit
But of course this flies at the heart of the capitalist system: profit! Demanding shorter hours with no loss of earnings, as a way to share out the work and enhance everyone's life, challenges the whole idea of production for profit for the few, which is why the capitalist exploiters will have to be defeated and replaced with a system of democratic public ownership and control of the major economic sectors.

Unpaid overtime: start being paid on 24 February!
There is also a more naked form of exploitation, mostly caused by bosses using the weapon of mass unemployment as a threat to employed workers - but which adds to that very unemployment: unpaid overtime.
How do you fancy working your full hours, from 1st January to 24th February this year, before you get a penny in pay?!  This is no fantasy nightmare; it is the reality, the average, concrete consequence of the two billion hours of unpaid overtime worked last year.
Over one in five workers across the nation felt bullied and terrified into giving this free labour to their employer, 'donating' £29.2billion worth of free work in 2011. That is an average of £5,300 each lost in wages.
And the two billion hours worked were the equivalent of a million full-time jobs across the UK, about 100,000 in Scotland, which in one fell swoop would mop up all the unemployed young people languishing on Scotland's unemployed registers.

Tax the rich to create jobs
The SSP unashamedly campaigns to tax the rich, as another central means of creating well-paid jobs for all, as well as funding decent public services. To take one simple example: the richest 1,000 fat cats last year enjoyed a combined income of £350billion. A modest 10 per cent wealth tax on their ill-gotten gains would rake in £35bn, enough to fund 1.4 million new jobs with an annual wage of £25,000. Scotland's share of that would be about 140,000 new jobs, with decent pay, and increased spending power that would create even more jobs and boost local communities.

Fight for decent jobs for all
Nobody should believe the dirty lie that there is no alternative to mass unemployment. It is not a divine creation, but the product of a profit-crazed, grotesquely contradictory system known as capitalism - and the result of conscious political decisions by politicians who support and uphold the system of capitalist profiteering.
Join the protest against cuts and youth unemployment in Troon on Saturday 24th March. Keep the Tories out of Scotland. And join the SSP in a campaign for socialist measures that would create millions of secure jobs, give young people a future, and improve the lifestyles and well-being of all workers.

Swinson- increasingly divorced from realities of living in East Dunbartonshire

I have been finding our local LibDem/ConDem/Tory MP, Jo Swinson's "e-consultations" and online presence are becoming less and less about her constituency, and more and more about her want to make an impact with the "federal party" she is part of, and building a CV for the inevitable crash of the Lib Dems.


  Lately, Swinson has replied to me via email to pronounce her support of Nuclear Weapons and "an alternative" to Trident being the imperative - 


"A non-nuclear defence is not currently a viable option and the EDM does not recognise that we continue to live in an uncertain, unpredictable world where proliferation of nuclear weapons is still a priority for some countries. We also cannot assume that current nuclear states will remain stable and pose no threat to our country and its interests. The risk may be low, but so long as a risk exists, we cannot leave ourselves vulnerable and so some minimal deterrent is needed."


I would like to know what this threat she is hinting at is - and why reacting to this threat with a nuclear deterrent is a necessary and positive response.  Would we really attack another country - killing many innocent families, children and workers - if some deranged terrorist or dictator launched an attack on us?  


If you would like a copy of her response to my request for her to sign EDM 1924 regarding the Trident Review, please email me at eastdunbartonshiressp@hotmail.co.uk 


Anyway, her latest e-consultation asks the question, 


"Do you agree that the government should invest in high speed rail between London and the north of England?"

I felt this question was not only far removed from her "localism" campaign to be elected in the past two General Elections, but also shows her as a career politician, making sure of her place in the decimated LibDem Party after the next General Election (which, the way this coalition are going, could be sooner rather than later).  Positioning herself as Vince Cables PPS will, perhaps after the election give her some sort of political position or at least a great entry in her CV.  

Remember - between her and her MP husband, their family income is over £120,000 a year - not bad for two career politicians who have never had to struggle.  The least she could do is fight for working families and poorly paid people in her own constituency.  East Dunbartonshire is a place where we are reliant on public sector jobs - teachers, nurses, doctors and other "civil servants" commute daily to Glasgow and other cities and large towns for a diminishing return thanks to the VAT increases, increase in transport costs, increase in food prices and increases in fuel prices to name a few - alongside frozen wages.  The median wage is £21,000 - far removed from her wage of over £64,700 plus allowances, including travel.  How many East Dunbartonshire working people get transport allowances into Glasgow or Edinburgh or elsewhere?  How many East Dunbartonshire people get their subscription the the Bearsden Milngavie Herald as a work expense?  Or their mobile phone bill paid?  As a teacher, I am in contact with my Head Teacher and other colleagues about work quite a lot - perhaps Jo should fight for ALL workers to have their mobile phone, travel to work and subscription to a local paper paid for through company expenses?

Swinson is increasingly being seen as the well off young person who has never had to work or struggle for her income she is.  And increasingly as someone divorced from the present day hard realities of living in East Dunbartonshire. 

This is my reply to her current anglo-centric consultation:

A fully integrated, updated public transport system is vital to our country - and indeed to East Dunbartonshire, which this question, and more and more of your "consultations" seem to forget about.

As the economy slumps and as more and more of your constituents have less and less money to help the economy grow due to the Lib Dem policy of support for the Tory plans to make the poor and working pay for the crisis of capital created by millionaires and billionaires, a free public transport system for the huge amount of commuters from East Dunbartonshire would be a policy that would not only help poor and working families financially; it would be a boost to the local economy as people would be left with more of a disposable income.  It would also help clear our streets from  the curse of the car (and ensure the predicted one hour travel time from Milngavie to Canniesburn DOES NOT happen post-Kilmardinny development).

Our policy of Free Public Transport - a policy that has been successful in other parts of the world in boosting economies and in creating a cleaner environment, can be found here along with links to articles in the Herald praising this "audacious" plan.  

http://www.scottishsocialistparty.org/transport/index.html

Neil Scott

Organiser, Campsie Socialists.


Open Letter to Swinson HERE
Criticism of her so called feminism HERE