Dundee SSP

Main parts of our leaflet for EIS conference at the Caird Hall in Dundee.

The election of the Tories – the Twin Tories, with the treacherous Lib Dems joining forces with the Tory Butchers – marks a new threat to education workers, education services and communities. We all face a level of carnage to jobs, conditions and services not experienced since Thatcher at her most rampant.

Cameron and Clegg have lost no time in pronouncing their top priority is to cut public spending.

These upper class butchers want to wield the axe to jobs, pay, pensions, benefits, public services – to enrich their own class even further.

Cameron’s claims that we all face pain for years to come is false to the core.

The bankers who enjoyed a bountiful handout from public funds don’t face ‘pain’ – for instance, 100 of them at the RBS recently awarded themselves a £1m bonus each!

The richest 1,000 fat-cats whose incomes rocketed by 30% last year, to £353billion! – do not face ‘hard choices’ or ‘painful decisions’.

It’s Scotland’s 630,000 public sector workers, alongside workers in the private sector, our families, our communities, who face a massacre – unless a united, determined, militant campaign of resistance is built, starting now!

In resisting the cuts, EIS and other unions need two central guiding principles: unity in action is our best defence – and a convincing set of policies to explode the myth that cuts are unavoidable.

Teachers, civil servants, council and NHS workers have marched and taken strike action against cuts.

It would be fatal if these fights were kept separate and apart, or if any union adopted the notion that cuts are inevitable – but ‘not in our service’. That would weaken the resistance and guarantee cuts to all services.

So SSP members in the EIS (and in all other unions) strongly advocate united action – across all public sector unions and alongside community groups, anti-cuts campaigns, Save Our Schools campaigns…

EIS and other unions should build a united public rally on Saturday 26th June, after new levels of carnage are announced in the 22nd June Butchers’ Budget – as a springboard for building a mass march in the autumn, when even more cuts will be announced in the government’s Spending Review.

Such events would help build the fighting morale of tens of thousands who right now are terrified of what the future holds.

Equally important in building a rebellion against cuts from a government that has no mandate in Scotland – with 85% voting against the Tories – is a convincing set of policies that exposes the lie that cuts are necessary and unavoidable – a monstrous lie peddled not only by the Tories and Lib Dems, but also New Labour and the SNP! Otherwise many people will fall for the argument that there’s not enough money to defend jobs and services, that cuts are a necessary evil – and then fall out amongst themselves over where the cuts should occur.

That divide-and-conquer trickery lies behind the Tory plan to consult people over what to cut! There is no need for any cuts! There are oceans of wealth swilling around – but in the hands of the bankers. billionaires and boardrooms of oil companies – not in the hands of the public.

The SSP fights for alternatives that would create jobs, improve services, protect conditions. Commit EIS to action against the cuts – alongside other unions – and argue for socialist policies that would fund the expansion of jobs and services. And join the SSP – for an independent socialist Scotland.

Twenty’s Plenty in a class

The Scottish Socialist Party has an unrivalled track record of standing up for kids, communities and education. We have consistently fought school closures that lead to larger classes, job losses, increased stress for staff, worse education.

We have led several Save Our Schools campaigns, uniting parents, communities and trade unionists – demanding smaller classes and investment in community-based schools within easy, safe reach of children’s homes.

We led the mass opposition to Labour’s school closures in Glasgow last year. During that campaign we popularised the slogan Twenty’s Plenty in any class, and lobbied the SNP government to pass legislation to limit classes to 20 for all age groups.

At the recent STUC Congress, SSP members pushed this policy and won the backing of the conference for a campaign for classes of 20 maximum for all.

In East Dunbartonshire, when the Labour-Tory Coalition announced closure of 8 primaries last week,the SSP called a protest demo and public meeting to set up a Save Our Schools campaign.

150 local people joined the demo, the councillors took fright, and shelved their butchery – for now!

EIS shares the SSP’s policy of 20 max in a class. The time is rotten-ripe for the EIS leadership to lead action in support of this policy – including industrial action.

During the election we did a partial mailout in the Dundee East constituency. Unfortunately a number of people who live within the postcode areas we had leaflets delivered to have reported that they received none of ours.

If you live in Dundee East can you let us know if you did or did not receive an SSP leaflet delivered by Royal Mail. This would greatly help us in tracking where they were/were not delivered.

Another is formed. The misnamed Liberal Democrats appear to be propping up the Tories. Given that Nick Clegg recently praised Thatcher it should come as no surprise. No doubt the 4 key policies of the Lib Dems will be abandoned for a few ministerial seats.

The initial David Cameron speech made it plain that any Lib Dem/Tory pact would be like the old Spitting Image sketch.

We share these policies so come and support us in implementing them (paraphrasing)

Who we should feel sorry for are those tens of thousands of people who believed the media hyped Cleggmania and thought they were voting for a radical liberal alternative to the two main Tory parties.

There is a radical liberal alternative to these three parties, it’s called the SSP. Join us and help make a difference.

Today Angela Gorrie, SSP Candidate for Dundee East, joined former MP and MSP for the area John McAllion and a number of other SSP members to call for an axe to bankers’ bonuses, not public services. They started the day outside RBS in the city centre and will travel to other areas in the constituency, including Carnoustie and Broughty Ferry, later this afternoon.

Angela said: Despite being told by all the major parties that after the election we must prepare for savage cuts in public services, one group not affected is the greedy bankers, who continue to award themselves large bonuses. A fact made all the more galling because the banks had to be bailed out by the ordinary tax payer.

The Scottish Socialist Party calls for an end to the bonus culture and for all banks to be nationalised under workers’ control.

We also oppose the cuts which are being promised and believe that there is no need for any cuts to public services if the rich were forced to pay their fair share of taxes.

It was the rich who paid for this crisis, make them pay for it!

To track Rod the Robber’s progress throughout the day please see www.twitter.com/dundeessp. Photos will be posted as it happens at http://tinyurl.com/ssp0405

Taken from the SSP Site

For an independent socialist Scotland

No cuts, no wars, for an end to corruption

On May 6th voters will be offered a dismal choice of cuts, sackings and wars by politicians tainted by corruption, duck houses and other expenses fiddling.

All three Westminster parties are in a race to see who can make the deepest cuts while the SNP wring their hands and blame London.

They all recommend cuts to vital public services which will hit the most vulnerable hardest and directly threaten the jobs of 100,000 Scottish workers.

In contrast the unequivocal message from the Scottish Socialist Party is that there is an alternative which avoids cuts and insists instead that the greedy pay for the disaster they created, that also ends our involvement in the Afghan war and offers jobs and justice not misery and war.

This belief is reflected in our programme for a Scotland which aims to meet peoples’ needs, not pander to the rich, for people not profit.

100,000 jobs are directly threatened by the cuts promised by the Westminster parties and vital services for our most vulnerable citizens will go.

We say that faced with such a threat words are not enough – action is needed. Scotland needs nothing less than a resistance movement of mass peaceful protest on the scale of that which defeated the poll tax. We will bring all the experience of the SSP to build such a movement.

Jobs for youth

The spectre of mass unemployment has returned twenty years after Margaret Thatcher was ejected from office. Many communities in Scotland are still suffering from the legacy of the 1980s with the poverty, heroin addiction, alcohol abuse and crime that goes with this chronic joblessness.

Today the SSP says: ‘Mass unemployment No More’. Instead of slashing Scotland’s budget, the SSP will fight for emergency funding to protect our young people from becoming another wasted generation.

Let’s Get Out of Afghanistan

This is a senseless military occupation which damages Britain’s international reputation and does nothing to make the world a safer place. We are occupying a country that doesn’t want us to be there. More than 50,000 innocent Afghan civilians have been killed. Some 280 British soldiers have also died. All the polling evidence suggests that 70% of the population here want our armed services withdrawn. The Scottish Socialist Party gives voice to that majority.

Clean up the Westminster ‘midden’

In just 12 months Westminster has gone from ‘the mother of parliaments’ to ‘the mother of all corruption’.

The public has watched open mouthed as MPs attempt to justify obscene expenses claims which would get an ordinary worker sacked. MPs have repeatedly shown how they are all out of touch with the people they pretend to represent.

For the SSP the answer is simple and it is to end the circumstances where becoming an MP brings a huge salary and expenses. We have long argued that MP’s should live on the wage of those they represent. Our MSPs did just that at Holyrood thus keeping them in touch with the real lives of voters.

For a Green, Socialist Republic

The Scottish Socialist Party is a pro-independence party – no ifs, buts or maybes. We say Yes to an independence referendum and Yes to independence.

We will work with other pro-independence parties to deliver a resounding referendum yes vote.

Beyond that, we stand for an independent socialist republic where the wealth is fairly distributed; where protection of the environment is paramount.

Such a republic would prioritise the needs of people over profit and our environment over the greed of profiteers.

The development of our colossal natural resources would be publicly owned to ensure the skilled jobs required are based in Scotland and the profits generated used to provide services not multinational profit.

All citizens would be equal irrespective of gender, race, religion or sexuality in a country where the economy is no longer driven by greed and profit.

The excellent new branch in Aberdeen have made a video for the election. Ewan Robertson, their candidate in Aberdeen North has written a song especially for the election.

SSP Public Meeting – No Cuts: Tax the Rich! at Monday 19th April, 6pm in The Pillars, 9 Crichton Street, Dundee

Speakers:

• John McAllion Former MP/MSP
• Angela Gorrie SSP Candidate for Dundee East
• Peter Murray President of Journalists’ union
• John Jamieson Civil Service Union
• Richie Venton SSP National Trade Union Organiser)

The Scottish Socialist Party condemns the obscene poverty and inequality in Scotland  - and the disgusting priorities of ALL the mainstream parties on how public funds are spent.

We are the only party demanding that the rich pay for the crisis THEY created – instead of barbaric cuts to jobs and services.

• Labour bailed out the bankers – cheered on by the SNP – to the tune of £1,300 billion. But these greedy upper-class gamblers still rake in massive profits and outrageous bonuses.
• At least £25 billion has been squandered on bloody, futile wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – for oil and empire – leading to the slaughter of over 50,000 innocent Afghan civilians and nearly 300 young soldiers recruited from the most deprived areas of Scotland, such as Dundee.
• £100 billion is to be wasted on son-of-Trident nuclear weapons
• £130 billion in taxes on the very rich and big corporations went unpaid last year.

Alongside this massive spending spree on bankers’ and billionaires’ profits, on war and slaughter, Labour, SNP, Tories and Lib Dems ALL threaten the wholesale destruction of jobs, pay, schools, public services and community facilities.

They are conducting a grisly auction of whose cuts will be the deepest. Economists warn that under 100,000 Scottish jobs are under threat – regardless of which of the big four parties become the next government.

Both Labour in Westminster and the SNP in Holyrood are planning to assault public sector jobs, wages and services. All because they want to tax the rich LESS and help big business and banks make even bigger profits.

The Scottish Socialist Party is entirely different from other parties.

• We want to make the rich pay, to bail out jobs, schools, services – not bankers’ and billionaires’ profits.
• We demand a 10% wealth tax on every millionaire – which could fund 80,000 new jobs, on £25,000 a year, for 3 years.
• We want Corporation Tax and income tax on the rich restored to the levels before Thatcher and then New Labour made this country a haven for the tax-dodging rich.
• We want the troops home NOW – and Trident scrapped.
• We fight for an independent, clean, green socialist Scotland – for people not for profit.
• Our MPs will live on a worker’s wage – not the obscene £65,737 salary others take!

Join the SSP – vote SSP – help build a clean, green, peaceful, independent socialist Scotland.

With the election campaign up and running you can follow what the SSP and the Dundee SSP branches have been up to in a few places.

On Twitter

Dundee SSP on Twitter
SSP on Twitter

On Facebook

Dundee SSP on Facebook
Friends of the SSP on Facebook
SSP Election campaign on Facebook

The 2010 General Election will see the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) contest the seats of Chancellor Alistair Darling in Edinburgh South West, Overseas Development Secretary Douglas Alexander in Paisley and Renfrewshire South, one SNP front bencher, Stewart Hosie, in Dundee East alongside the Livingston seat previously held by suspended Labour MP Jim Devine, in a campaign covering 10 constituencies across Scotland.

In contrast to the discredited expenses system which has so revolted the public all our SSP candidates will be standing on a platform of only accepting a skilled worker’s wage not the lottery winners lifestyle of current MPs.

These contests mean that the SSP will challenge two key figures involved in Labour’s cuts and war policies–Chancellor Darling in Edinburgh and Overseas Development Secretary Douglas Alexander in Paisley.

Our challenge to SNP Westminster finance spokesman Stewart Hosie will increase the pressure on the SNP to tell voters how they will translate words against the cuts into action to defend jobs, services and communities.

On May 6th voters will be offered a dismal choice of cuts, sackings and war by politicians polluted by the duck houses and mortgage expenses scandal.

All three Westminster parties are in race to see who can cut deepest while the SNP wring their hands but will cut services while blaming London.

These cuts will decimate vital services and directly threaten the jobs of 100,000 Scottish workers.

In contrast the clear message from the Scottish Socialist Party is that there is an alternative which insists that the greedy rich pay for the disaster they created, ends our involvement in the Afghan war and offers jobs and justice not misery and war.

Colin Fox, SSP challenger on Edinburgh South West said:

The key message from the SSP in this election is that there is an alternative to the cuts sackings and war on offer from the other parties. We will demand that tax dodging by the rich which costs a massive £135 billion a year is ended and troops are pulled out of Afghanistan.

In the choice between the greed of the rich and the needs of the people we stand for jobs and services and making the rich pay for the economic mess they have created.

I look forward to debating these ideas with Chancellor Darling who has shovelled billions to bankers while supporting cuts in services.

Frances Curran, who is to contest Glasgow East said :

This election is the opening shot it what will be a battle to protect and expand jobs and services opposing cuts and sackings to bailout the super rich.

The message the SSP will take in our campaign from Aberdeen to Paisley is that lack of money is not the problem, it is that it is held by a tiny greedy minority. Working people did not cause the banking crisis and should not pay for it with their jobs and services

10 seat SSP challenge

Aberdeen North – Ewan Robertson
Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintiloch East – Willie O’Neil
Dundee East – Angela Gorrie
Edinburgh South West – Colin Fox
Glasgow Central – James Nesbitt
Glasgow East – Frances Curran
Glasgow North East – Kevin McVey
Livingston – Ally Hendry
Paisley and Renfrewshire North – Chris Rollo
Paisley and Renfrewshire South – Jimmy Kerr

The indispensable WIkiLeaks has released a video showing the pilots of two US gunships murdering reporters and children in cold blood.

To usual form they claimed that it was only Iraqi Insurgents killed etc etc.