Wednesday, 19 October 2011
Gypsy Travellers face racist collusion
SSP statement on eviction of Dale Farm Travellers site (from the main SSP site)
The Scottish Socialist Party unconditionally condemns the eviction of the residents at Dale Farm Gypsy Travellers Site in Essex.
We view this action as a consequence of collusion between the coalition government, courts, police and local authority, cheered on by racist elements in society.
We do not accept that this was about 'planning' issues or the 'rule of law'.
We stand four square in support of Gypsy Travellers in defence of their human right to pursue their culture and way of life.
We note that many local authorities now take advantage of the removal of legal obligation to provide sites, by adopting a policy of making their localities no-go areas for Travellers who wish to pursue a traditional lifestyle.
Despite gains in legal protection in Scotland and elsewhere in the UK in recent years, we note that racist attitudes prevail and are now proven to be institutional.
We call upon progressive elements in Scottish society to join with us in condemnation of the Dale Farm eviction, and pledge to ensure that similar actions do not blight the creation of a tolerant society in Scotland.
We especially condemn the violent reaction of the police against residents and their supporters, and their use of tazer weapons; these are said to have been designed for the protection of police officers facing individual aggression, and not to control crowds.
We are concerned that this sets a dangerous and potentially lethal precedent for the control of future demonstrations of citizens rightly angry with a right wing government whose policies favour only the rich and privileged.
19th October 2011
Tuesday, 11 October 2011
Upper Clyde Shipyard Hero passes away
SSP Campsie would like to pass on condolences to the family and friends of Sammy Gilmore, a true hero of the Upper Clyde Shipyard work-in, 40 years ago, and a hero for working people defending their right to work across the world.
Herald Report - HERE
Herald Report - HERE
Sunday, 9 October 2011
UCS Work-in Anniversary podcast!
Featuring Pat Kane, Thee Faction, Primal Scream, Simone Welsh, The Mighty Wah!, Funboy Three and Michael Franti.
PART 1 PART 2
PART 1 PART 2
Sunday, 2 October 2011
Tony Benn's speech at the UCS Work-in 40th Anniversary
 |
| Photo by Janine Kellett |
Shop Stewards who were part of the UCS Work-In in the shipyards of Glasgow and Clydebank organised a concert to mark the 40th anniversary of the famous industrial dispute, in the Mitchell Theatre, Glasgow. The Gala Concert on Sat 1 October in the Mitchell Theatre featured Tony Benn as Guest of Honour. He was the Labour Minister who created the UCS consortium in 1968 and a prominent supporter of the Work-In when in opposition. This is the speech he delivered that night.
Elaine C Smith reads the famous "Rat Race" speech by Jimmy Reid
This is the famous "rat-race" speech that Jimmy Reid gave at his installation as Rector of Glasgow University. This recording was made on October 1st in the Mitchell Theatre in Glasgow, when people came together to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Upper Clyde Shipyard work-in, led by Reid and others. It was read by the wonderful Glasgow based actor, Elaine C Smith. The New York Times printed the speech in full and described it as "the greatest speech since President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address".
A PDF of the speech can be found HERE
This is reproduced in good faith - if anyone featured within the audio would like it censored in some way, please contact plottracer@googlemail.com. By reproducing this audio, I have no rights to copyright and ownership. I have no intention of breaching copyright law by reproducing this audio file, which is purely for entertainment purposes only.
This is reproduced in good faith - if anyone featured within the audio would like it censored in some way, please contact plottracer@googlemail.com. By reproducing this audio, I have no rights to copyright and ownership. I have no intention of breaching copyright law by reproducing this audio file, which is purely for entertainment purposes only.
Saturday, 1 October 2011
Thousands demonstrate against cuts in Glasgow despite the downpour!
Thousands of anti-cuts and anti-ConDem Government protesters took to the streets of Glasgow today, despite the massive flooding that hit the city.
Friday, 23 September 2011
Tuesday, 20 September 2011
How we treat our children...
UNICEF report - An Overview of Child Well-being in Rich Countries -
UK children are WAY down the list in all of the indicators. full report HERE
Click on Table below for summary...
Wednesday, 14 September 2011
Attacking Teachers Professionalism...
A teacher's response to McCormac's review of Scottish Education...
Prior to the findings of the McCormac review I feared the worst. The reality is somewhat different; the 35 hour week survives (in theory) and the need for preparation time is acknowledged. However, to accept McCormac on a superficial level, and regard it as an innocuous document, would be naïve. The cynic in me says that it is both a monstrous perversion of the English language and a pernicious attack upon our conditions.
My fears stem from the sheer number of contradictions contained in the report. The document claims to advance teacher professionalism. Introducing unqualified staff does not advance professionalism; it is the very opposite. Introducing a convoluted system of calculating class contact time will not be “flexible”- it will be exploitative. On the one hand it claims to want an end to hour counting; on the other, having to calculate their contact time on an annual basis will leave teachers with the choice of counting or being exploited. You can only fear the worse when they claim that they want teachers to be more “mobile”. What does that mean? Greater employment instability? More short-term contracts? In an attempt to simultaneously attack conditions yet be inoffensive to teachers, McCormac has ended up as a report that in many instances simply doesn’t make sense.
There is a saying that ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’. Industrial relations in teaching have enjoyed a harmonious period during the last ten years. The report even acknowledges this. It states that Scotland has “a well-qualified and committed teaching profession that provides a positive and stimulating environment for young people's learning”. Nonetheless, the authors have launched a sustained attack on teachers, their conditions and, the corollary of attacking either of these two, the welfare of young people.
The McCormac Review’s official title is Advancing Professionalism in Teaching. The irony is that by scrapping the Chartered Teacher Scheme, and introducing non-qualified staff, the report is in fact eroding professionalism in teaching. From the outset the report exudes an arrogant assumption that only management control – as opposed to teacher autonomy – can offer greater professionalism. The proposed end of the right for staff to work off-site is indicative of this; the implication being that we are not professional enough to work outwith the guise of management.
54% of responses to the McCormac review felt that Annex E should not be revised. By this, the report acknowledges that a majority of respondents do not feel that teachers should be carrying out any of the duties in Annex E. So, in what must considered a wholly disproportionate act, McCormac has recommended axing Annex E altogether.
There are a handful of positives that can be taken. The introduction of a national system for annual review will be a relief to those of us who have had to negotiate the dissimilar ways in which respective local authorities handle these matters. CPD requirements will be linked to this system. However, it is not clear what the report’s proposed changes to CPD will look like in practice.
Probationers will remain on the same contact time but it is calculated over a four week period. This potentially opens the way for probationers being taken for cover. This forces the probationer to hour count, keep a log of when they are taken for cover, so as to prevent management from exploiting them. Once again we face hour counting.
Unqualified staff are to be allowed to work with classes on their own given the assent of the Headteacher. The GTCS are to approve which unqualified individuals are allowed to do this, but by using the money that we pay them each year. In other words, we are paying for a move that could potentially lead to our own job losses. In another of the report’s wonderful contradictions, it is interesting to note that unqualified staff are to be allowed to look after children unsupervised, but experienced classroom teachers will not even be allowed off-site to complete their marking!
Advancing Professionalism in Teaching, is a misnamed, misguided and for the most part unnecessary document. It has been composed to ensure that Scotland’s local authorities fall into line with David Cameron’s sustained assault upon the public sector. The changes to working hours will allow authorities to hire fewer staff. As with all decisions in the public sector nowadays, its recommendations are driven by cost; the welfare of young people is afforded only lip service. However, in a rather perverse way, we are lucky. While London governs in a dictatorial fashion, in Scotland the authorities have to proceed with caution. McCormac is not as detrimental as it could have been, but it is far from an encouraging development for the teaching profession in Scotland.
Prior to the findings of the McCormac review I feared the worst. The reality is somewhat different; the 35 hour week survives (in theory) and the need for preparation time is acknowledged. However, to accept McCormac on a superficial level, and regard it as an innocuous document, would be naïve. The cynic in me says that it is both a monstrous perversion of the English language and a pernicious attack upon our conditions.
My fears stem from the sheer number of contradictions contained in the report. The document claims to advance teacher professionalism. Introducing unqualified staff does not advance professionalism; it is the very opposite. Introducing a convoluted system of calculating class contact time will not be “flexible”- it will be exploitative. On the one hand it claims to want an end to hour counting; on the other, having to calculate their contact time on an annual basis will leave teachers with the choice of counting or being exploited. You can only fear the worse when they claim that they want teachers to be more “mobile”. What does that mean? Greater employment instability? More short-term contracts? In an attempt to simultaneously attack conditions yet be inoffensive to teachers, McCormac has ended up as a report that in many instances simply doesn’t make sense.
There is a saying that ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’. Industrial relations in teaching have enjoyed a harmonious period during the last ten years. The report even acknowledges this. It states that Scotland has “a well-qualified and committed teaching profession that provides a positive and stimulating environment for young people's learning”. Nonetheless, the authors have launched a sustained attack on teachers, their conditions and, the corollary of attacking either of these two, the welfare of young people.
The McCormac Review’s official title is Advancing Professionalism in Teaching. The irony is that by scrapping the Chartered Teacher Scheme, and introducing non-qualified staff, the report is in fact eroding professionalism in teaching. From the outset the report exudes an arrogant assumption that only management control – as opposed to teacher autonomy – can offer greater professionalism. The proposed end of the right for staff to work off-site is indicative of this; the implication being that we are not professional enough to work outwith the guise of management.
54% of responses to the McCormac review felt that Annex E should not be revised. By this, the report acknowledges that a majority of respondents do not feel that teachers should be carrying out any of the duties in Annex E. So, in what must considered a wholly disproportionate act, McCormac has recommended axing Annex E altogether.
There are a handful of positives that can be taken. The introduction of a national system for annual review will be a relief to those of us who have had to negotiate the dissimilar ways in which respective local authorities handle these matters. CPD requirements will be linked to this system. However, it is not clear what the report’s proposed changes to CPD will look like in practice.
Probationers will remain on the same contact time but it is calculated over a four week period. This potentially opens the way for probationers being taken for cover. This forces the probationer to hour count, keep a log of when they are taken for cover, so as to prevent management from exploiting them. Once again we face hour counting.
Unqualified staff are to be allowed to work with classes on their own given the assent of the Headteacher. The GTCS are to approve which unqualified individuals are allowed to do this, but by using the money that we pay them each year. In other words, we are paying for a move that could potentially lead to our own job losses. In another of the report’s wonderful contradictions, it is interesting to note that unqualified staff are to be allowed to look after children unsupervised, but experienced classroom teachers will not even be allowed off-site to complete their marking!
Advancing Professionalism in Teaching, is a misnamed, misguided and for the most part unnecessary document. It has been composed to ensure that Scotland’s local authorities fall into line with David Cameron’s sustained assault upon the public sector. The changes to working hours will allow authorities to hire fewer staff. As with all decisions in the public sector nowadays, its recommendations are driven by cost; the welfare of young people is afforded only lip service. However, in a rather perverse way, we are lucky. While London governs in a dictatorial fashion, in Scotland the authorities have to proceed with caution. McCormac is not as detrimental as it could have been, but it is far from an encouraging development for the teaching profession in Scotland.
Saturday, 10 September 2011
Liberating the NHS: source and destination of the Lansley reform
INTRO (the entire body of this document has been placed HERE)
This important document was written by
Dr Lucy Reynolds (a), Dr John Lister (b), Dr Alex Scott-Samuel (c) & Professor Martin
McKee (a)
a London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
b Coventry University
c University of Liverpool
A narrative for this reform, far more transparent than the double-speak of the White Paper, can indeed be located. It is described in the following pages. It maps a move away from the tax-funded NHS based on the principles of contribution according to ability to pay, and use according to medical need. It takes the NHS towards a US style arrangement of individual health insurance with access to care based on payment of health insurers at a level based on the insuree’s state of health. In other words it removes the pooling of risk which underlies the post-war social solidarity compact, involving subsidy of health care for poorer and less healthy citizens by richer and healthier compatriots. A plan for the end-state system to be jointly funded by the state and the individual solves the perplexing riddle of how the new systemcould generate £20 billion of savings, given that it involves more providers, fragmented procurement, more complex administration, the marketing costs involved in market competition, and multiple layers of profit extraction from the NHS budget,. Cost reductions will be achieved through de-skilling and poorer employment terms for medical professionals as the NHS hospitals which employ them are shifted into the private sector.
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