Newsletter, June - September 2009

Campsie branch SSP Newsletter, June - September 2009. Click on image below for larger version...

Marion Bernstein - 19th Century Glasgow feminist poet

Marion Bernstein used to publish in the radical newspaper, Forward.

HUMAN RIGHTS

Man holds so exquisitively tight
To everything he deems his right;
If woman wants a share, to fight
She has, and strive with all her might.

But we are nothing like so jealous
As any of you surly fellows;
Give us our rights and we'll not care
To cheat our brothers of their share.

Above such selfish man-like fright,
We'd give fair play, let come what might,
To he or she folk, black or white,
And haste the reign of Human Right.

Manly Sports

How brave is the hunter who nobly will dare
On horseback to follow the small timid hare;
Oh! ye soldiers who fall in defence of your flag,
What are you to the hero who brings down the stag?

Bright eyes glance admiring, soft hearts give their loves
To the knight who shoots best in 'the tourney of doves';
Nothing else with such slaughtering feats can compare,
To win manly applause, or the smiles of the fair.

A cheer for fox-hunting! Come all who can dare
Track this dangerous animal down to its lair;
'Tis first trapped, then set free for the huntsmen to follow
With horses and hounds, and with heartstirring halloo!

The brave knights on the moor when the grouse are a-drive,
Slay so many, you'd think, there'd be none left alive;
Oh! the desperate daring of slaughtering grouse,
Can only be matched in a real slaughterhouse.

The angler finds true Anglo-Saxon delight,
In trapping small fish, who so foolishly bite,
He enjoys the wild terror of creatures so weak,
And what manlier pleasures can any one seek?

Sign the Scottish Government petition - what impact do these closures have?

Sign the Petition:
"Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to conduct a public investigation into the impact the proposed closures of schools and nurseries by local authorities has on education policies, class sizes, childrens health and safety, social inclusion, jobs, and whether the process of consulting with parents and wider communities on the provision of education complies with local authorities statutory duties and democratic principles."

Click on the petition below to go to the online petition:

GLASGOW SAVE OUR SCHOOLS CAMPAIGN CONDEMNS COUNCIL FOR CAUSING CHAOS IN FINAL WEEK OF SCHOOL TERM

Glasgow Save Our Schools Campaign

The Glasgow Save Our Schools Campaign has reacted with rage at the chaos caused to kids, carers, parents and staff in the final week of term in the 22 schools and nurseries facing permanent closure. Glasgow Labour council tried to shut the schools two days prematurely, on Wednesday 24th, and just days before this was due to happen, reversed their plan, throwing people’s lives into turmoil.

Glasgow Save Our Schools Campaign organiser, Richie Venton, today said:

“The Labour council are not only butchers of our kids’ education, but obscene in their haste to bury the schools, and utterly incompetent into the bargain.

“They have been traumatising kids by sending council vans to pick up furniture, smart boards, paperwork and other equipment as the kids spend their final weeks at schools they love.

“Then they unilaterally decided to shut the schools two days earlier than everywhere else in the city, punishing parents and carers who had to disrupt work and holiday plans, forking out money to get their kids cared for at very short notice.

“Now, after our campaign raised hell about this in our meeting with the Scottish government’s Education Minister last week, the council belatedly declare on Friday 19th that they actually never had permission off the government to shut the schools on Wednesday 24th, so they will stay open until Friday 26th! So they are having to draft in supply teachers and other staff to occupy the kids for the final days of term.

“What about parents and carers who had managed to get time off work, or changed their holidays at short notice, or paid out for childcare for the final two days of the school year?

“Will they be compensated by the vindictive, incompetent axe-wielders in the Labour city council, who have treated kids, communities and school staff with utter contempt on every front over the past 6 months in their crazed rush to cut costs?

“If parents withdrew their kids from school without good reason, or chopped and changed when their kids went to school, they’d face fines. That’s the very least the Labour councillors deserve; the sack would be more appropriate punishment!”

For more info contact Richie Venton on 07828 278 093 or at richieventon@hotmail.com

Scottish Socialist Party to stand candidate in Glasgow North East by-election

A well-attended meeting of Scottish Socialist Party members last night voted to stand a candidate in the forthcoming Glasgow North East Westminster by-election, triggered by the resignation of Michael Martin.

SSP Regional Secretary Richie Venton today said:

“The Scottish Socialist Party has consistently fought elections since our formation nearly 11 years ago. We are determined to give the people of Glasgow North East a socialist alternative to all the parties of greed and profiteering.

“With daily bulletins on the stench of greed and corruption rising from Westminster, we will stand a socialist candidate pledged to remain on a skilled worker’s wage, nothing more, to stay in touch with working class people who suffer some of the worst levels of poverty in Europe.

“With New Labour and the Tories competing in an obscene auction of job losses, pay cuts and the slaughter of public services, the SSP will demand a 10 per cent wealth tax on the millionaires to help fund jobs and services.

“We will demand the Scottish government stand up for Scotland, mobilise the Scottish people and defy £500m of Westminster public sector cuts, instead of playing pass-the-blame at the expense of workers’ jobs and community services.

“With Glasgow Labour council ripping the hearts out of several local communities through closure of schools and nurseries, and the SNP government standing silent in the shadows whilst class sizes increase and education worsens, the SSP will demand class sizes of 20 or less for all age-groups, and investment in local community schools, as part of our vision of an independent socialist Scotland that puts kids before cash, people before profit.”

For more information contact Richie Venton on 07828 278 093

richieventon@hotmail.com

Campsie Branch Minutes 13 July 2009

Our strategy breakfast in the Kirkie Puffer was great - really positive and frank.

11 Campsie members came along.



Congratulations and thanks were expressed to Mark for standing in Bishopbriggs South and also to Brian Pollitt for placarding our branch area.

We had a long conversation about the positive aspects of the election. Our focussed campaign meant six people have asked for membership forms.

The branch is going to have a 10th anniversary of Campsie Branch BBQ in Mugdock on Saturday 1st August - all branches and members welcome (and bring friends!).

We also plan a 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution information/celebration morning in Kirkintilloch - and will hopefully have invited speakers etc.

Next Saturday, members of the branch will go along to the CND demo in George Square... the Campsie banner will be raised against Trident.

Also - in October there is a Suffragettes memorial march in Edinburgh and the branch hope to be represented at it.

Our branch AGM will be on Weds 23 September in Milton of Campsie Village Hall.

A Newsletter will be going out next weekend to ex and present members of the Campsie branch on all of the positive things we plan and have been involved in over the past few months.

The Puffer was a great venue for this meeting - it was free and it was quiet and we had a wee nook all to ourselves.

Next meeting Weds 24th June, Milton of Campsie Village Hall.

Neil Scott
Branch Organiser

The Scottish Socialist Party are the only socialist party organising in East Dunbartonshire

GLASGOW SAVE OUR SCHOOLS CAMPAIGN TO MEET WITH SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT

A delegation of parents affected by Glasgow city council’s school closures are meeting with Scottish government Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, Fiona Hyslop.

The meeting will be held in the Scottish parliament on Thursday 11th June at 4pm. We have been invited by Fiona Hyslop, after the Glasgow Save Our Schools Campaign wrote requesting meetings with the Scottish government two months ago.



Glasgow Save Our Schools Campaign organiser, Richie Venton, who is part of the delegation, today said:



“We are pleased to be meeting with the Education Secretary of the Scottish government.

“We requested this meeting in April because we strongly believe the consequences of the Glasgow Labour council’s butchery of primaries and nurseries are of national significance – as well as having a devastating impact in Scotland’s biggest city.

“We have appealed throughout for the Scottish parliament and the Scottish government to shout their opposition to the closures from the rooftops.

“The closures will mean bigger classes and fewer teachers, at a time when two-thirds of newly qualified teachers cannot get permanent full-time posts.

“Glasgow Save Our Schools Campaign has consistently fought for class sizes to be reduced to a maximum of 20. But classes of 25, 26 and more will be commonplace after these closures.

“That flies in the face of the Scottish government’s aim of 18 in P1-3, so we will appeal to the Cabinet Secretary to unreservedly condemn the closures and to ask Glasgow city council to suspend their ill-considered, undemocratic plans.

“We will ask Fiona Hyslop to make a clear public declaration on behalf of the Scottish government condemning the blatant denial of democracy involved in the city council’s sham consultation process; the savage assault on vital community facilities that go far beyond just being a school or nursery in socially deprived areas; the unreasonable and dangerous distances young children will now be expected to travel; and in favour of investment in schools and nurseries within safe walking distance in every community, with cuts to class sizes, not cuts to kids’ education and closures.”

“We look forward to the government of the Scottish people publicly siding with the people of Glasgow against the worst attack on education in years.”





For more info contact Richie Venton on 07828 278 093 or at richieventon@hotmail.com

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